Media Capital - Where Consumer Investing Meets Media Innovation | Consumer Brands | Fundraising

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Denielle Finkelstein and Thyme Sullivan, Co-CEOs and Co-Founders of UNICORN in EVERY stall, the company redefining bathroom equity. Cousins and co-CEOs Danielle and Thyme left decades in fashion and consumer goods to create UNICORN. Their sleek dispensers put organic tampons and pads in every stall, just like toilet paper, at companies like JPMorgan Chase, American...

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Elle Lanning, President of Investments at Camino Partners. At Camino, Elle leads investment strategy and execution across asset classes, with a focus on the firm’s direct investment platform. A former KIND executive who helped scale the brand from $20 million to over $1 billion in sales, Elle brings an operator’s lens to investing. Under her leadership, Camino has...

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Keith Teare and Rob Hodgkinson. Keith is CEO of SignalRank and publisher of That Was The Week on Substack. Previously he was the Co-Founder of TechCrunch and a founder of European ISP EasyNet. Rob is the Co-founder and Head of Investing at SignalRank, previously an investor at Beringea. In this episode, we talk about what signals really matter in the early-stage ve...

Today are happy to welcome Singari Seshadri. Singari is an investor, operator and entrepreneur with deep experience launching and scaling consumer businesses. She incubated Cumulus Media, now the second largest radio operator in the US. Led innovation at Nike, taught entrepreneurship at Stanford and invested across media, health and wellness. She's now focused on women's sports where she brings a...

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome James Cummings, Vice President, Business Development at London & Partners. The organisation has a mission to create economic growth that is resilient, sustainable, and inclusive, and to tell London's story brilliantly to an international audience in partnership with organisations and people who have a stake in London's promotion. James is based in Los Angeles a...

Today’s guest is Cathy White, the founder and CEO of CEW Communications—a leading European PR agency. Since launching in 2016, Cathy and her team have helped early-stage and growth-stage startups, as well as venture capital firms tell their stories and gain media attention across Europe. Some of their past clients include: Mondu, Sleepwave as well as funds such as Aldea Ventures and Unlock VC.Befo...

Today, we’re joined by Simone Kendle, CEO of Wove, the custom jewelry brand that’s redefining what luxury means. Wove blends deep personalization, craftsmanship, and trust in a way the traditional jewelry industry has never done. Under Simone’s leadership, Wove is quickly becoming a cultural force — most recently capturing headlines when Taylor Swift was seen wearing their bracelets. On this episo...

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Evan Shapiro, Emmy-winning producer, professor, media strategist, and founder of ESHAP.ESHAP is a “change agency” known for making sense of chaos in media. If you’ve ever seen the famous Media Universe Map, you’ve seen Evan’s work—he’s the self-proclaimed Media Cartographer, charting how platforms, creators, and culture collide. With a media career spanning iconic...

We’re thrilled to welcome Amit Khosla, Executive Director at AYA Capital Inc. – 3rd generation alternative investment vehicle of one of the founding families of Grupo Modelo, Latin Americas largest vertically integrated brewing businesses. The Private Office, while keeping a low public profile, is known in the right circles for its Blockchain, E-Gaming, B2B SaaS and Direct Consumer investments. Th...

Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Pedro Schmidt, CEO and Founder of KA-EX, the world’s first fast-acting cortisol stress reducer. KA-EX is built on a science-backed foundation, with three clinical trials and thousands of professional athletes across Europe using it daily - from top European football clubs, such as Paris-Saint Germain and the Swiss National Football Team, to TUDOR Pro Cycling, and n...

Today, we are excited to welcome Eline van der Velden—Founder and CEO of Particle6, an award-winning AI production company known for creating viral, social and AI content. Eline's background in physics drives Particle6’s unique methodology, which combines scientific creativity with advanced technology and AI, making content that resonates and reduces production costs by 60%.With a decade of experi...

Reed Dickens, founder of LA Golf and former Marucci Sports CEO, shares how he built two challenger brands, lessons from the White House, and why message discipline, athlete investors, and premium innovation are his unfair advantages in disrupting legacy industries. 00:00:00 -Welcome 00:00:52 - Intro 00:05:19 - Deep Dive 00:19:37 - Shout Out 00:24:59 - Lightning Round

Today, we are thrilled to welcome Federico Cucchi, VP of Commercial Strategy and Analytics for EMEA at Monster Energy. Federico has spent years navigating the intersection of brand strategy, media, and corporate strategy for some of the largest consumer brands, including L’Oréal and Pentland Brands. Beyond the corporate world, he’s also a founder, having launched three startups, and an investor, a...

Today we're thrilled to welcome Tim Fung, founder of and CEO of Airtasker, a marketplace for local services that connects people who need work done with trusted and skilled locals who want to work and earn extra cash. In this episode we'll talk about Airtasker's journey from launching in Australia in 2012 to expanding into the UK in 2018, and most recently the US. Some of the learnings from buildi...

The media and advertising landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace. As traditional revenue streams decline and consumer brands face tougher fundraising conditions, media capital is emerging as a powerful tool for both media owners and high-growth startups. The MFG 2025 Report presents the most comprehensive analysis of media capital to date. Drawing on insights from the first-ever Media Capi...

In this episode, we sit down with Samantha Skey, CEO of SheMedia, to explore the evolving landscape of media and the lessons she’s learned from a career spent at the intersection of content, community, and commerce. Samantha shares how she’s navigated the shifting tides of digital publishing, the importance of resilience in leadership, and why embracing failure as a learning tool is critical for l...

In this episode, we sit down with Erez Bousso, founder of HolidayHeroes, to explore the challenges of building trust in the travel industry. Erez shares how he turned his passion for France into a thriving business, the importance of focus in brand positioning, and why traditional performance marketing isn’t enough to scale a consumer travel brand. He explains how television became a game-changer...

In this episode, Jenny shares how her adventures—including a 700-mile solo expedition to the South Pole—shaped her resilience. She reflects on how motherhood changed her perspective and why she founded Ovum to bring a more compassionate, empowering approach to fertility care. We discuss the parallels between extreme expeditions and the emotional endurance needed for reproductive challenges, the ga...

Consumer investing is evolving, and brand advertising is back at the heart of growth. In this new season, we dive deeper into the intersection of media, funding, and consumer brands, bringing you insider stories from founders, media leaders, and venture investors shaping the landscape. 🎙 Hosted by Diana Florescu, each episode uncovers the strategies behind scaling consumer businesses, raising capi...

There’s a reason strongly-spirited frozen cocktails didn’t exist. Xīn and Voltaire was born to challenge the capabilities of alcohol and ice and push the boundaries of how cocktails can be savoured. We spoke to Grace, CEO & Founder about the story behind the brand and how they worked to allow the icy cold temperatures of sorbet to be maintained when adding the heat of an alcoholic cocktail mix...

In this episode, I caught up with André, CEO and Co-Founder of Tryp. A super travel platform that makes multi-destination bookings easy. André is one of the eight founders who participated in the MFG Fundraising Programme in 2023 - a free programme for early-stage founders to raise capital solutions to fund marketing costs. We talked about how their media and fundraising strategy evolved since the...

It’s the start of a new year. This means drawing a line and analysing what happened in the media capital sector in 2023, and what founders and investors should expect in 2024. Join us for this live debrief with Niko Marcel Waesche, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at GMPVC German Media Pool and Ian Whittaker, CEO at Liberty Sky Advisors, moderated by Diana Florescu, CEO & Founder at mediaforgro...

As media companies strive to succeed in the digital realm, they are progressively turning to the promising domain of start-ups and ventures. However, given the substantial resources required and considering that success hinges on both entrepreneurial spirit and solid backing, how can established businesses identify, invest in, and nurture the digital giants of the future? Featuring senior media le...

Any founder will tell you that raising funds right now is tough. For consumer startups, it's even tougher. Do you cut down on marketing to save money? Or take another loan? And what's coming up next year? Join us as we explore PitPat’s story 🐾. They amplified brand awareness and tripled their revenue by getting media capital from UKTV and ITV multiple times. Andrew Nowell, the CEO, and Co-Founder...

In this episode, we sat down with Callum Taylor, Head of ITV AdVentures Ignite, ITV’s startup incubator supporting young brands to start their journey into TV. We talked about: The changes impacting the media industry and how digital startups can turn challenges into opportunities. Debunking the myths of offline media and why founders should diversify their marketing mix to amplify reach. Key thin...