Consumer VC Eamonn Carey (Techstars) - Consumer Trends in Europe, Expanding to New Markets, and The Three Most Important Words in the English Language
Eamonn Carey is the Managing Director at Techstars London. Techstars is a global seed accelerator and worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed and is currently in over 150 countries worldwide. Some of their alumni include Classpass, Pillpack, and Contently.He was previously MD at Techstars Connection in partnership with AB InBev in New York, and has been a long term mentor, advisor and angel investor in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US.
In the past, Eamonn started, succeeded and failed with several startups in Europe and the Middle East - including Farmvillain - an app which some described as the 'South Park of Facebook'.
A book that impacted Eamonn professionally is The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande and one that impacted him personally is A Third Plate by Dan Barber.
In this episode, you will learn -
- What attracted Eamonn to startups, entrepreneurship and then move to the other side of the table to investing? What are the advantages for startups being part of Techstars London? How is London’s ecosystem is different from New York and the bay area? What is his due diligence process like, what are some of the qualities that you look for in founders and determining founder-market fit?
- What are some metrics that he pays attention in the diligence process and how do you determine if you’ve found product market fit? What is different about London’s ecosystem compared to maybe The bay area or New York? He also sources deals for Zeroth which is a Hong Kong based accelerator. What trends are looking at since you’re quite global? What is his view of remote working?
- How he thinks about consumer trends in different markets and how consumer companies are expanding to different markets? Consumer verticals that he is excited about or focused on for expansion in Asian markets? What are some of the difficulties when investing in consumers? Has today’s landscape with round sizes booming changed how he invests?
- He wrote about how raising too much money can kill you, how does he think about good growth vs. bad growth in a startup? What is something that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is one company that is part of his most recent cohort and why did you invest? What is one company that he had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t, and in retrospect wish you did? What is one piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?