Hello and welcome to The Consumer VC. I am your host Mike Gelb and on this show we talk about the world of venture capital and consumer facing startups. Thank you very much Natalie Dillon for the intro to today's guests, Jessica Rolph and Rod Morris , the co-founders of Lovevery , Staged-based play essentials designed by experts, built for babies and toddlers up to age 3. Previously, Jessica co-founded and served as COO of Happy Family, an extremely successful organic baby food company. Rod prev...
Jun 18, 2020•45 min
I'd like to thank Fernando Gentil for introducing me to today's guest, George Milton , co-founder and CEO of Yellowbird Sauce , Spicy condiments crafted to take you on a fiery–fresh food adventure. This is a conversation all about things hot sauce, which I really enjoyed. George takes us through his journey from playing music gigs to becoming known as the hot sauce guy in Austin Texas and eventually scaling his condiment business nationally. You can follow George on Twitter at @geemilton . You c...
Jun 15, 2020•1 hr 1 min
I'd like to thank Natalie Dillon for introducing me to today's guest Tyler Handley , co-founder and CEO of Inkbox , the tattoos for now. These are temporary tattoos that last for 1-2 weeks and fade as your skin naturally regenerates. We talk about the state of the tattoo market - both temporary and permanent, opportunity he saw at the early stages, how he was able to fundraise and scale. I'll be honest, before our conversation, I knew nothing about the tattoo market before this conversation, so ...
Jun 11, 2020•54 min
We have a few Office Hours / AMAs coming up -> https://theconsumervc.com/events/ Kanyi Maqubela is a Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures . Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund, whose mission is to back visionary and dedicated founders who want to solve the most important problems and vastly improve people’s lives around the world. Some of their investments include Uber, Poshmark, Otis and Blue Bottle Coffee. Prior to Kindred, Kanyi was a Partner at Collaborative Fund and co-...
Jun 08, 2020•53 min
Our guest today is Catharine Dockery founder of Vice Ventures. Vice Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund conquering stigmas and striving towards superior returns by investing in good companies operating in "bad" industries. Investments include early stage startups from non-traditional verticals including, cannabis, alcohol, CBD, e-sports, addiction recovery, sextech, and others. Some of her investments include Recess, Lucy and Player's Lounge. It was great chatting with Catharine about ...
Jun 04, 2020•24 min
This is my first compilation episode. I typically ask every guest what is one piece of advice he/she may have for B2C founders? I've pulled together a few that hopefully can be helpful to folks that are founders or are looking to found. Below are the investors featured and the minute marks on the episode when they share their thoughts if you'd like to jump around. Kiva Dickinson - 1:45 Gautam Gupta - 4:10 Nicole Quinn - 4:47 Rishi Garg - 5:44 David Wu - 6:28 Charles Hudson - 9:03 Caitlin Strandb...
Jun 03, 2020•21 min
Our guest today is Nadine Habayeb , CoFounder & CEO Bohana . Bohana is a popped water lily seed snack brand that believes in a free-spirited snacking. Thank you Madeline Keulen for the introduction! You can follow Nadine on Twitter @Nadinodxb . You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb . You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc . For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com On book that inspired her personally is Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Dist...
May 28, 2020•45 min
Our guest today is Daniel Gulati . Daniel has spent the last 6 years at Comcast Ventures , a financially-focused venture capital firm with a 20 year history investing in consumer, enterprise, and frontier technology companies. He joined as Entrepreneur in Residence, and worked his way up the ranks to Principal, Partner and Managing Director at the firm. His seed stage portfolio includes D2C company Away (now worth $1.4B), sports media company The Athletic (reportedly worth over $500M) and digita...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 34 min
Thank you again Courtney Nelson for introducing me to our guest today, Byron Ling . Byron is a partner at Canaan . Canaan is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas. Byron invests in consumer companies that are reinventing the way we shop, entertain and educate ourselves. Some of his investments include Roman, Papa, and Bravo Sierra. He was previously an investor at Primary Venture Partners and, prior to the venture world, was an early operator a...
May 21, 2020•35 min
Our guest today is Claire Fauquier a Principal at Highland Capital Partners . Highland Capital Partners is one of the oldest venture capital funds that invests primarily at Series A and focuses on the early growth stage. Some of their investments include Harry's, Rent the Runway, and Clearbanc. In this episode we explore some of the differences and milestones companies typically have at the seed and series A stages. explore the milestones at Series A for technology startups and the purchase beha...
May 18, 2020•36 min
Anna Whiteman , Vice President at Coefficient Capital . Coefficient Capital is a new venture capital fund that leads early growth investments in fast-moving consumer goods, typically investing in Series A and B rounds. So far they've invested in Just Spices, NomNom, Hydrant and Personal Care. Anna also founded Rad Ladies, a private network of female founders. Previously Anna worked at VMG on investments including Health Warrior and Vermont Smoke and Cure, and also at Tribeca Venture Partners and...
May 14, 2020•53 min
Adelle Archer is the founder of Eterneva , which celebrates remarkable lives by making diamonds from Ashes. Eterneva was featured on Shark Tank , in which Mark Cuban joined other incredible angels and VCs as an investor. This episode focuses in the end of life space. You can follow Adelle on Twitter @adellearcher . You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb and for episode annoucements, you can follow @consumervc . A couple books that inspired Adelle are Never Split The Difference...
May 11, 2020•42 min
Sasha Strauss is the founder and Managing Partner of Innovation Protocol, a full-service strategic brand consulting and design firm based in Los Angeles, with a presence in San Francisco and New York. Some of his clients include Google, Doordash, Nestle, Paypal, and Concur Endurance Group. Sasha also teaches Brand Strategy to MBAs at UCLA, USC and UC Irvine. Highly recommend Sasha's TED Talk if you are looking for more resources about the power of brand and want to be inspired. One book that ins...
May 07, 2020•45 min
Michael Duda is the Founder and one of the Managing Partners at Bullish . Bullish is a creative agency and a pre-seed fund, investing in early stage consumer companies. Some of their investments include Warby Parker, Peloton, Casper and Birchbox. Prior to founding Bullish, Mike spent 13 years at Deutsch Inc., where he became the youngest Partner in the company’s 35-year history overseeing business development, marketing and corporate strategy. You can follow Michael on Twitter @mikeduda You can ...
May 04, 2020•53 min
Joe Tonnos is a Principal at Mistral Equity Partners and a Co-Founder of Ketch Ventures . He invests across the consumer spectrum from seed/pre-series investments at Ketch to growth equity, private equity buyouts and even some public market investments at Mistral Equity Partners. Joe is also a Venture Partner at Natureza – a newly formed consumer VC focused on Series A investments. Some of his investments include Los Sundays, byCHLOE, and Oros. In this episode we discuss - What attracted him to ...
Apr 30, 2020•42 min
Arie Abecassis , is the founder and partner of ICONYC Labs and was the chairman of the board at SeatGeek . ICONYC labs is a business and funding acceleration platform customized for early-stage Israeli tech startups looking to accelerate growth and cut time to market. SeatGeek is the largest internet event ticket search engine. Arie also is a venture partner / mentor at DreamIt Ventures and has over twenty years of experience in building technology companies as an operator, advisor and venture c...
Apr 27, 2020•38 min
Kate McAndrew (Bolt) - Distributed Teams, Fundraising Outside the Major Hubs, and Impact of COVID
Apr 23, 2020•47 min
Brian is an executive coach and owner of Dashing Leadership . He helps early-stage founders grow into more effective leaders. Previously he started and ran Fitocracy , one of the largest fitness social networks of its time, and sold it in 2015. Afterwards, he joined 500 Startups as a venture partner and later led major product initiatives at Credit Karma and Eaze. If you’re interested in learning more about how coaching can help you perform better as a leader, please schedule an introduction cal...
Apr 20, 2020•47 min
This episode explores the Paycheck Protection Program as it relates to venture backed small businesses. Zac Dearing is a J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School and Venture Fellow at AlleyCorp. Zac has a deep appreciation for start-ups and small businesses starting when he was 12 when he founded and ran his own computer assembling business. He has gone on to have quite the career in consulting, finance, and technology. Here is a link to Zac’s tool for companies to understand how much government ass...
Apr 16, 2020•25 min
Rishi Garg is a partner at Mayfield . Mayfield global venture capital firm with a people-first philosophy of investing. Mayfield invests primarily in early-stage technology companies in the enterprise and consumer sectors. Some of Rishi’s investments include Grove Collaborative, Oliver Space and Projector. Rishi backs consumer focused entrepreneurs and has been a longtime executive and entrepreneur at some of the world’s most innovative companies. He’s held senior positions at Twitter, Square, G...
Apr 13, 2020•48 min
**This episode is brought to you by WeStock.io . WeStock streamlines the product request process and helps your brand get on retail shelves faster. Learn more at WeStock.io and when scheduling a demo, use promo code ConsumerVC for 25% off for your first year.** David Goldberg is a General Partner at Corigin Ventures . Corigin Ventures is a New York based venture capital firm leading seed stage investments in the founders defining the future of daily living. Some of their investments include Perc...
Apr 09, 2020•33 min
*Please note this episode was recorded back in January before the global pandemic.* Natalie Dillon is a Principal at Maveron . Maveron is a premier consumer focused fund that invests in seed and Series A companies that empower consumers to live on their terms. Some of their investments include eBay, Everlane, and Allbirds Prior to Maveron, Natalie was at Susa Ventures, a premier seed-stage fund in San Francisco. At Susa, Natalie worked with the team to source and help diligence several investmen...
Apr 06, 2020•37 min
*This episode features two conversations I’ve had with Kiva* Kiva Dickinson is the managing partner at Selva Ventures . Selva Ventures invests in emerging brands that make their consumers’ lives better. Some of their portfolio includes Haus, Mud Water, and Three Wishes. Prior to founding Selva Ventures Kiva was a Partner at CircleUp, where he joined during the launch of the Company’s first discretionary equity fund CircleUp Growth Partners. While at CircleUp Kiva led Series B investments in Nutp...
Apr 02, 2020•1 hr 21 min
*Please note that this episode was recorded before the coronavirus global pandemic* Madeline Keulen is Vice President at Victress Capital . Victress Capital is an early stage venture capital firm that provides visionary and diverse founding teams in the consumer space with capital and resources for growth. Victress has backed 21 innovative companies led by tenacious founders including Alyce, Daily Harvest, Harper Wilde, Rae, and Summersalt. Prior to Victress, Madeline developed her consumer expe...
Mar 30, 2020•31 min
*Please note that this episode was recorded before the coronavirus global pandemic* Logan Langberg is a Principal at Imaginary Ventures . Imaginary is a Venture Capital Fund that invests in early–stage opportunities at the intersection of retail and technology in Europe and the US. Some of their investments include Everlane, Glossier, and Daily Harvest. Logan was previously an investor at Alliance Consumer Growth, a leading consumer growth equity fund, where he invested in and supported Harry’s,...
Mar 26, 2020•45 min
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures . Precursor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Some of their investments include The Athletic, Goodr and Co-Star. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC and Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. He also was th...
Mar 23, 2020•41 min
I reached out to all past investors that came on the show and future investors that will be coming on and asked them the following questions pertaining to the impact of corona: * Are you shifting strategy away/towards companies/verticals? No. We're long term, early stage investors so we look at companies with a 5-10+ year time horizon. While we take the health, economic, and societal impacts of COVID-19 very seriously, especially in the next few months and quarters, our expectation is that over ...
Mar 20, 2020•30 min
Laura Chau is a Principal at Canaan . Canaan is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas. Some of her current investments include Coterie, Curtsy, and Jumpcut. At Canaan, she focuses on consumer technology. She previously worked in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations practice. She has also worked in sales and marketing functions within Kabam (acq. by Netmarble), Branch Metrics and Greenhouse, as well as working closely with Marie Kondo to launch th...
Mar 16, 2020•28 min
Ethan Austin is the Managing Director of Techstars Western Union Accelerator . Techstars Western Union Accelerator is the premier program for global startups shaping the future of money movement. Companies participating in the program gain direct access to the world's best fintech execs, founders and investors covering everything from customer development, global go-to-market strategy, access to capital and biz dev opportunities. You can currently apply Here to be part of their summer cohort. Th...
Mar 05, 2020•49 min
Lee Hower is the Co-Founder and Partner of NextView Ventures . NextView is a high-conviction hands on seed-stage VC firm that invests in founders who are redesigning the everyday economy. Some of their investments include Grove Collaborative, Skillz, Plastiq, Attentive, LetGo and TapCommerce. Previously, Lee was an early employee at Paypal and served as the Director of Financial Services. He then went on to co-found LinkedIn and serve as a Principal and Venture Partner at PJC. Thank you Gautam G...
Mar 02, 2020•53 min
