Consumer VC Hayden Williams (BrandProject) - Empathy, Investing in Smoothies, and the Fickle Consumer
Hayden Williams is a Partner of Investments at Brand Project, a venture capital fund that focuses on consumer investments at the early stage. Brand Project is hyper-focused on adding their operational value to founders as the team collectively has launched 100 new products and services for some of the most iconic companies.
Hayden joined Brand Project this year and previously was an investor at BBG Ventures as well as has experience as a founder of Treatings, the business networking app. You can follow Hayden on Twitter here. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter.
In this episode, you will learn -
- Learnings and takeaways Hayden had as a founder that has influenced him as an investor. The advantages in having a smaller portfolio as well as Brand Project’s thesis
- When a founder should look to raise from one investor rather than a syndicate in a round? How Hayden thinks about investing in D2C brands.
- Trends he’s excited about in consumer? What makes consumer investing difficult? His investing due diligence and establishing trust amongst founders?
- Why a company might not be able to raise a round? How do you establish founder-market fit? One company that he’s particularly excited to work with? One company that he had a second chance to invest in?
A book that has inspired Hayden both professionally and personally is “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” by Steve Martin
“The Consumer VC” is a podcast hosted by Mike Gelb devoted to interviewing early-stage consumer-focused venture capitalists and founders of b2c businesses to educate and learn about the inner workings of consumer startup investing.
A new episode will be released every Tuesday at 3:00 AM EST / 12:00 AM PST.
If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram.