Consumer VC

My guest today is Steve Hughes, founder of Sunrise Strategic Partners. Sunrise Strategic Partners provides growth capital and expertise to emerging brands in the healthy, active and sustainable living space. Some of their investments include Cali’flour foods, Kodiak Cakes, and Maple Hill Creamery. We discuss the current SPAC market, the history of the natural foods movement, and transitioning from a digitally native brand to becoming an omnichannel brand. Here are the questions I ask him: What was your initial attraction to the food industry? Why did you decide to focus on natural / organic foods? How did you start Boulder Brands? Did a SPAC in 2005, Boulder Brands How do you view SPAC market today? Why did you want to start Strategic Sunrise your own private equity shop? Diligence process - What is brand authenticity to you? What is your sweet spot when it comes to sales? Has to be a big category How do you think about strategics? Is there a particular sector your not bullish on that other investors are bullish on? What's the current landscape for strategics? How has the tide shifted in the past few years? Where do you fall with profitability vs. growth? How do assess a company that is built for digital and hasn't gone into store yet? What were some of your learnings through COVID? What's one thing you would change about venture capital? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?

Thank you Deb Benton for introducing me to our guest today Nisha Dua , co-founder and General Partner at BBG Ventures . BBG Ventures is an early-stage fund backing big ideas that will reshape the way we live. One of the first episodes of this podcast was with Susan Lyne, who is the other co-founder of BBG and Susan graciously accepted to come on the show without knowing who I was when the podcast hadn't even been released yet so I am VERY grateful to the BBG. Some of their investments include Zola, Blueland, Real, and Zero Grocery. Nisha and I discuss the opportunities within health and wellness, climate friendly consumption, and solving problems for the 99%. Some of the questions I ask her: What was your initial attraction to venture capital? How did you meet Susan Lyne? How did BBG Ventures come together? What are some of your themes or areas of focus? How do you evaluate founders and teams? What are characteristics about consumers that might be nuanced or not everyone understands? What are the proof points? How do you think about price in this current market? How do you think about your role as an investor? Has COVID changed any of your thoughts on your investment themes? How do you think about price in the market Consumption change FOMO timelines and price What's one thing you would change about venture capital? I know there are no silver What has been your lowest moment in your journey and how did you get out of it? What's one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally? What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?

My guest today is Ben Sun, co-founder and general partner at Primary Venture Partners. Primary focuses on investing in companies at seed that were founded in New York and has the largest seed stage portfolio impact team. Some of his investment include Jet.com, Coupang, K Health and Mirror. Previously he co-founded community connect, which was one of the first social networking companies. We discuss the evolution of social, why he's so bullish of companies coming out of New York, being anti thesis and a macro analysis of the current seed market. Questions I ask Ben: What was your initial attraction to entrepreneurship? How did you go about founding Community Connect? What made you decide to become a VC? How did Primary come together? What was your reaction then to Facebook starting off in high school I understand you invest in New York companies, which we will get to, but how did you end up investing in Coupang? Why the focus on New York? How has Silicon Alley transformed in the past 15 years? Why seed investing? New York City Summit? Process to figure out if a person could be the right founder? How do you approach this current market when it comes to price? It seems like lots of VCs are building out services and a platform for portfolio founders. How do you think about Primary's advantage when it comes to your own platform? Are you finding that many investors that traditionally invest in Series A or when a company has PMF are coming down to seed? I know you are an anti-thesis investor, would you mind unpacking that? How do you process and analyze when founders pitch ideas to you? Has any of your processes changed when it came to COVID? What's one thing you would change about VC? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? What's one piece of advice for founders?

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort   Our guest today is Brett Thomas co-founder of CAVU Venture Partners. CAVU Venture Partners builds brands for a healthier world. Some of their investments include WHOOP, Poppi, and Once Upon a Farm. We chat about his transition from hedge funds and the public markets to early stage companies, how his introduction helping companies was getting on billboards and the impact of that channel and how he came to found CAVU. Without further ado, here's Brett. In this episode you will learn: What was your initial attraction to consumer brands? How did you end up at Scout Capital? How did CAVU come together? What's the differentiation at CAVU? When do you typically get involved in startups? Should startups pay more attention to offline What were you learnings from COVID When does it make sense to go to retailHow do you find where the consumer is going How do you get to conviction within a company? How do you think about brand? What makes a compelling brand? What's the main reason why you pass? How do you think about product differentiation? When does it make sense for companies to start omnichannel from the beginning? How should a company think about their channel marketing mix? What's a successful marketing campaign to you? What's one thing you would change about venture capital within consumer? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? Steven Schwartzman - What It Takes What's one piece of advice for founders?

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a recap episode of my conversation with Sarah LaFleur, Founder & CEO of M.M. LaFleur.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight episode of my conversation with Madeline Haydon, founder & CEO of nut pods.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight from my conversation with Jeremy Cai, Founder & CEO of Italic

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This is a highlight of my conversation with Denise Woodard, Founder & CEO of Partake Foods.

Mark Gainey, Founder of Strava, shares his journey of starting a business, the challenges of B2B and B2C companies, targetting the cycling market, Strava's commitment to software, and reflections on sports and entrepreneurship.

Presenter: Burkland Associates helps you build the right systems that can keep up with your growth and can handle all the finance, accounting, tax and hiring services that consumer startups need to scale. For more information head to burklandassociates.com Presenter: Skillful runs online, immersive programs that help people launch and accelerate their careers in business roles in tech - Strategy & Ops, Product, Strategic Finance and Growth. Early bird applications for the Core Sprint are now open - use the exclusive code EARLYBIRD2021 if you apply before Dec 1 Click Here to Apply to the Next Cohort This episode is a highlight from my conversation with Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos.