Ernesto Schmitt (The Craftory) - Why digitally native brands should wait to head into retail, and investing globally at the Series A

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 analyzing founders globally.

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 tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.

Click Here to sign up.

Some of the questions I ask Ernesto:

1. What was your initial attraction to technology?
2. What made you want to become an entrepreneur?
3. How did Peoplesound come together? Did you plan on heading into the music world?
4. After being a founder all these years, why did you decide to become an investor and raise a fund?
5. How did The Craftory come together?
6. Why did you only focus on CPG where it seems like most of your experience dealt with technology?
7. How do you evaluate founders and brands?
8. What's your due diligence process like?
9. Do you look at American brands differently than European brands? Are there macro consumer trends in CPG that are different in Europe vs. USA?
10. Has Brexit changed the way you invest or look at companies?
11. When do you think it makes sense for DNVBs to hit the shelves and go into retail?
12. What are opportunities that you are seeing in CPG?
13. What's an example of an investment conflict in CPG?
14. What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
15. What's the best piece of advice that you've received?
16. What's one piece of advice you have for founders?