Our guest today is Harpreet Singh Rai , the CEO of Oura . Oura is a smart ring that tracks your sleep and links how you sleep to your energy levels through the day. I have one, I love it. I have a bullet journal where I track all my habits and how I'm feeling throughout the day and what I learned is one of the biggest indicators to how I feel and how productive I am is directly tied to how I slept the night before. In this episode we discuss how underated sleep is, how Harpreet became the CEO of...
Aug 05, 2021•44 min
Our guest today is Bri Kimmel , Founder of Worklife Ventures . Worklife is the first fund designed for builders, creators & individual contributors. Some of her investments include Clubhouse, Hopin and Italic. We focus this conversation on how having fun is serious business, the ins and outs of the creator economy and evaluating companies where a celebrity is a cofounder. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS...
Aug 03, 2021•39 min
Thank you Brian Reilly for the introduction to Haley Rosen , Founder of Just Women's Sports . Just Women's Sports is the first media company solely focused on bringing Women Sports directly to you. Haley is also an athlete. She was one of the top soccer recruits coming out of high school and played on the Stanford team as well as having a professional career. In this episode you'll learn how Haley's decides what type of content to produce, the opportunity she saw and how she views the relationsh...
Jul 29, 2021•34 min
Thank you Ben Zises for the introduction to our guest today is Jordan Nathan . Jordan is the Founder and CEO of Caraway . Caraway crafts well-designed non-Toxic Ceramic Cookware Thoughtfully Designed For Any Type Of Home. On this episode, we discuss why he decided to start a cookware brand when the market seemed saturated, his approach to growth, what it was like raising his first round of fundraising and much much more. Without further ado, here's Jordan. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you...
Jul 27, 2021•30 min
Thank you Tyler Mincey for the introduction to our guest today's guest Ben West. Ben is the founder of Spark Grills , which is precision charcoal grilling meaning it's the best of both worlds. You get the amazing flavor since you're cooking on charcoal, but the ease and temperature precision that's typically associated with gas grills. Previously, Ben founded EcoZoom, which brought efficient cookstoves to areas of the developing world plagued with indoor air pollution. We discuss some of the dif...
Jul 22, 2021•34 min
Thank you Marc Nathan for the intro to our guest today Max Niederhofer . Max is a Partner at Heartcore Capital . Heartcore Capital is europe's consumer tech VC focusing on investing in happiness investing in seed and Series A. Some of his investments include Italic, LastFM, and One Fine Stay. Previously Max was an investor at Accel and founded MyBlog. In this episode, we focus on investing in communities, the meaning of consumer, and some of the differences when investing in Europe vs. U.S. With...
Jul 20, 2021•47 min
Our guest today is Tige Savage , co-founder and managing partner of Revolution Ventures . Revolution a venture capital fund based in Washington, D.C. Some of their investments include RunKeeper, Homesnap, Framebridge, and LivingSocial. This episode really hit home for me. I'm originally from the DC area and love the area. It's probably bad form it's taken me this long to have an investor that's based there on the show. In this conversation you'll learn how Revolution invests in companies that ar...
Jul 15, 2021•39 min
Our guest today is Ernesto Schmitt , Co-Founder and Arch Craftor of The Craftory , a $375 million global investment fund that invests exclusively in CPG brands. Some of their investments include TomboyX, Hippeas, and Edgard & Cooper. Previously, Ernesto was a serial technology entrepreneur who has had successful exits to Twitter, Snap and Intel. You'll learn why Ernesto believes digitally native brands are heading into retail too early, expectations at the series A and B, and his approach to...
Jul 13, 2021•45 min
My guest today is John Sherwin , the founder and CEO of Hydrant . Hydrant hydrates you faster and more efficiently than water alone.In this episode you'll learn about a part of health and wellness that has been overlooked: dehydration and that we're living in a dehydrated economy, why it's underserved, how he grew digitally and why he decided to go into both Walmart and Whole Foods. Without further ado, here's John. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your co...
Jul 08, 2021•44 min
My guest today is Heather Hartnett , CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures . Human Ventures is an early-stage venture studio and venture fund in NYC that backs and builds consumer technology companies. Some of their portfolio companies include Tiny Organics, Toucan, and On Deck. In this episode we discuss their Humans in the Wild program for founders, what is the human needs economy and how companies are building community. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines...
Jul 07, 2021•41 min
My guest today is Megan Bent , Managing Partner at Harbinger Ventures . Harbinger Ventures is a leading growth-equity investment firm focused on identifying and scaling high-growth companies in the consumer sector. Some of their investments include Once Upon a Farm, Cora and Vinebox. Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all ...
Jul 01, 2021•49 min
Thank you Kate McAndrew for the introduction to my guest today Tyler Mincey , Partner of Bolt VC. Bolt invests at the intersection of the digital and physical world. Tyler started his career on the ipod team at Apple, focusing on the shuffle, classic, nano and touch. I don't know when I last heard those product lines to be honest. What I loved about our conversation and what you'll learn is Tyler's deep love and appreciation for hardware / tech enabled products. Alot of VCs want to focus on soft...
Jun 29, 2021•34 min
Our guest today is Rachel ten Brink , who is an investor, Founder, CMO, and Board member. She was one of the founders and the CMO of Scentbird, which is a beauty subscription services that let's you choose from over 700 top rated perfumes each month. She also was a Partner at Five Four Ventures. In this episode you'll learn about personal care trends that Rachel is paying attention to, how working in big CPG led her to become an entrepreneur, and what it was like going through Y-Combinator. You ...
Jun 24, 2021•46 min
My guest today is Brian Reilly , founder of Will Ventures . Will Ventures is a venture capital fund that focused exclusively on leveraging the power of sport to shape the future. In this episode (as you can imagine) you'll learn about sports technology, health and wellness innovation and what's next in Media and content and how his upbringing helped shape him as an investor. Without further ado, here's Brian. And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Brian, you can catch him on Twit...
Jun 22, 2021•46 min
My guest today is Sandy Gibson , founder of Better Place Forests . Better Place Forests is America's first conservation memorial forests. Instead of graves and tombstones, families choose a private, protected family tree to return their ashes to the earth together. In this episode, we talk building a business that focuses on the end of life, burial traditions and cemeteries. Sandy is one of the most unique founders I've had on the show on this and his story is very inspiring. Some of the questio...
Jun 17, 2021•43 min
My guest today is John Gannon , founder of GoingVC . GoingVC is a VC Career accelerator. GoingVC is designed to help you break into venture capital by directly connecting motivated VC job seekers with VC firms. GoingVC also has its own investment arm. We discuss how to enter VC, the rise of cohort based learning, and what the consumerization of enterprise really means. You can also follow him on Twitter @johnmgannon Here are some questions I ask John: What was your attraction to venture capital?...
Jun 15, 2021•38 min
My guest today is Ben Zises , founder of SuperAngel.fund . SuperAngel Fund is an early stage rolling fund investing in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work companies. Some of the companies he's invested in are quip, Caraway and Arber. Ben is usually the first check in on the investments that he makes and in our conversation we touch on what's it's like investing in companies pre-product-market fit, learning the mechanics of a rolling fund vs. a traditional venture capital fund. Head over to S...
Jun 10, 2021•53 min
My guest today is Justin Kolbeck , CEO and co-founder of Wild Type . Wild Type is on a mission to create the cleanest most sustainable seafood on the planet, starting with salmon. This is the first founder of a cell based food company I've had on the show and as someone who didn't know much about cell base food or commercial fishing, this was quite eye opening for me. We talk about the current state of the ocean, the supply chain for fish, the process for producing cell based food and their appr...
Jun 08, 2021•41 min
Our guest today is Steven Sashen , one of the founders and CEO of Xero Shoes . Xero Shoes produces lightweight minimalist footwear designed for walking, running, and athletics. Here are some of the questions I ask Steven: How did you discover minimalism shoes and what led you to founding Zero Shoes? Bring us up to speed. What's wrong with cushioned shoes? What has been consumer reaction? Do you find there was already a market of consumers who knew about the detriments of cushioning in shoes or d...
Jun 03, 2021•55 min
Our guest today is Ariel Kaye , founder of Parachute. Parachute is a home essentials brand that is designed in Los Angeles and manufactured by expert craftspeople across the globe including Portugal, Turkey and the U.S. In this episode you'll learn how Ariel saw the opportunity to create a brand in bedding, approached an omni-channel strategy, managing her stores and business during COVID. You can follow Ariel on Twitter @arielkaye Some of the questions I ask Ariel: What attracted you to consume...
Jun 01, 2021•30 min
Our guest today is Lindsay Kaplan , Co-founder of Chief . Chief is a private network focused on connecting and supporting women leaders. Previously, she was part of Casper’s founding team to lead communications and brand engagement. In thie episode you'll learn about the inner workings of professional networks, the opportunity she saw, why she decided to structure Chief as a for-profit scalable entity, and her approach to brand. You can follow Lindsay on Twitter @lindsaykap Some of the questions...
May 27, 2021•32 min
Our guest today is Kate Shillo Beardsley , Partner at Hannah Grey . Hannah Grey is a first check venture fund investing in founders reimagining everyday experiences to improve work and life. In this chat we went down alot of fun rabbit holes like what we could all learn from Martha Stewart, what New York was like in the late 2000s/early 2010s as VC startups were coming into the picture, the creator economy, investing in secondary and tertiary markets. Without further ado here's Kate. You can fol...
May 25, 2021•52 min
Thank you Mike Ghaffary for the introduction to our guest today, Mark Gainey , the founder of Strava . Strava is the #1 app for runners and bikers and is the destination to record any activity. In this conversation we talk about how Mark's passion for sports compelled him to Strava, what focus really means as a founder and Mark has some amazing examples of that, we also talk about scaling and his approach to building community. Without further ado here's Mark. Some of the questions I ask Mark Th...
May 20, 2021•43 min
Our guest today is Matteo Franceschetti , founder and CEO of Eight Sleep , The #1 Smart Mattress, designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. In this episode, you'll learn about how Matteo thinks about sleep, why we should optimize it, habits that help us get to sleep and where eight sleep comes into play. We also talk about his vision about being more than a sleep company. Without further ado, here's Matteo. Check out Eight Sleep and you can follow him on Twitter @m_franceschetti ....
May 18, 2021•27 min
Thank you Mereces Bent to the intro to our guest today, Amir Nathoo. Amir Nathoo , is the founder of Outschool . Outschool is an education marketplace/platform that offers a variety of engaging, small-group classes online that gives kids the unique opportunity to explore their interests in-depth. They were also one of the fastest growing tech companies during COVID. It was great chatting with Amir as we explored topics that we haven't covered often on this show like the effects COVID had on trad...
May 13, 2021•43 min
Thank you Alison Ryu for the introduction to our guest today, Madeline Haydon . Madeline is Founder and CEO of nutpods . nut pods is a dairy-free half and half alternative made from almonds and MCT-rich coconuts in a convenient, easy to use coffee creamer. What I most appreciated from this conversation was how open Madeline was about the beginning days of nut pods, starting the company without any food and bev experience, taking on alot of risk and now leading the business to incredible heights....
May 11, 2021•47 min
My guest today is Elizabeth Galbut , one of the founding partners of SoGal Ventures . SoGal Ventures is the is the first female-led, next generation venture capital firm. In this episode we discuss how Elizabeth's interests led to thinking about consumer innovation, how she started a fund, the biggest arbitrage opportunity of her lifetime, and managing a two person global fund. Without further ado, here's Elizabeth. Some of the questions I ask Elizabeth: You were originally in healthcare. What p...
May 06, 2021•57 min
My guest today is Ryan Gnesin , founder of Elevate Brands . Elevate Brands buys consumer-leading Amazon FBA brands and elevate them to their full potential. This is a little bit of a different episode as the focus is creating and scaling brands on Amazon and how you can leverage Amazon across other channels. And there you have it, it was awesome having Ryan on Twitter at @ryangnesin Here's some questions I ask Ryan: Looking at your resume, you were in life insurance and commodities trading. What...
May 04, 2021•34 min
My guest today is Dan Reich , who is a serial entrepreneur. Some of the companies he founded are Spinback, TULA and Troops.ai . TULA started as a digitally native health and beauty brand where Dan served as CEO from inception to over $1mm in sales in less than one year. Troops is a B2B technology company that is building a mobile-first, intelligent CRM. Since Dan has extensive backgrounds in both B2B and B2C, in this episode we focus on some of the differences when building a B2C company vs. B2B...
Apr 29, 2021•42 min
My guest today is Robin Li , Principal at GGV Capital . GGV is a global venture capital fund that invests in seed to growth stage companies. Some of their companies include Airbnb, Poshmark, Alibaba, and Peloton. We discuss how GGV makes decisions on a global scale, what opportunities in consumer internet Robin is most focused on, and bringing small businesses online. You can follow Robin on Twitter @robin_p_li Some of the questions I ask Robin - What attracted you to venture capital and how did...
Apr 27, 2021•36 min
