Consumer VC

Adelle Archer is the founder of Eterneva, which celebrates remarkable lives by making diamonds from Ashes. Eterneva was featured on Shark Tank, in which Mark Cuban joined other incredible angels and VCs as an investor. This episode focuses in the end of life space.You can follow Adelle on Twitter @adellearcher. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb and for episode annoucements, you can follow @consumervc.A couple books that inspired Adelle are Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss and Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. A book that inspired her personally is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.In this episode you will learn -How she started Eterneva? How consumer attitudes and cultural traditions around death changed over time and what opportunity did she see in this market? What is it about the work she's doing is disruptive? How is she changing the deathcare space? Where does she envision Eterneva being in five years?How does she market such a sensitive topic? What's been the most surprising and unexpected insight / learning she's had in building Eterneva so far? What is experience innovation? In the very beginning she bootstrapped to $1 million. What was your launch strategy and how was she able to find product-market fit? How did she think about her target demographic? Fundraising strategy?What led her to going on Shark Tank? What was her strategy for Shark Tank? How did she think about value add when it comes to investors, were there particular investors she was targeting?How she is thinking about growth today? Has she been able to expand into different demographics? How is she thinking about channel diversity & distribution? How is she thinking about customer acquisition today?Is she focused on top line growth or profitability? What are some ways or strategies that she implements in order to get a pulse on your customer? How does she constantly monitor the customers' preferences and needs? How has she approached COVID and what is her focus during this pandemic? What’s one piece of advice that she has for founders who are fundraising?Full transcriptMike Gelb 0:00 Hello and welcome to the consumer VC. I am your host Mike Gelb, and on this show we talk about the role of venture capital and consumer facing startups. Our guest today is Adele Archer, founder of a turnover, which celebrates remarkable lives by making diamonds from ashes. A turnover was featured on Shark Tank in which Mark Cuban joined other incredible angels and VCs as an investor, Adele story and why she chose to found a company in the end of life space, I think it's just fascinating. To be honest, it's not a space that really came to mind before meeting Adele. So lots of learnings and takeaways from mine. So without further ado, here's Adele. Thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?Adelle Archer 0:49 I'm good. How are you? I'mMike Gelb 0:51 Tell me a little bit about how you started your innovative venture.Adelle Archer 0:58 We celebrate remarkable people and pets when they pass away by making diamonds from ashes or hair. And now as you can imagine, that's probably not something that you would ever expect getting into a 10 year old Adele and say, What do you want to be when you grow up? But you know, I think it just more than anything, you know, when you look back on your life, sometimes there there is a common thread that connects at all. And so, you know, for me, I have my MBA and entrepreneurship, you know, knew I was going to be starting my own company and I worked in tech for a couple of years. And originally the company that I was working on was a lab grown diamond company. Just thought that was really interesting technology. And as we were starting this company, though, I had a really close friend and my business mentor actually get diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she passed away. So total, like personal side of my life was trying to figure out how to honor Tracy and you know, just I think when you lose some Someone really remarkable, you know, you go on a quest, you're like, what, like, what can I do that is really deserving of her. So probably five months of research did not find anything, and was just blown away by just what felt like a total lack of options and lack of innovation. And, you know, it's just shocking to me how little has been done in this space, you know, for something that affects all of us. So, it was really over dinner one night with a diamond scientist, that he even mentioned, that this could be done, there was one company that was doing it at the time, I went to go start the process completely as a customer, and, you know, just in my experience, you know, kind of connecting with them. And, you know, it was just it was very transactional. It was not, you know, the experience I kind of wanted with somebody with that was going to be the guardian of my ashes and, or my loved ones ashes. So that was really the point that we kind of looked at this and go, gosh, you know, this is a space that really, really needs just a better experience for people and this feels like an amazing option. Why don't we focus here, so try You was the first time and we made and we refocus everything to be you know completely about celebrating someone's lifeMike Gelb 3:07 that's amazing and really inspirational how you took a really close friend's death and made it you know, an experience for you that that you know, you can remember and cherish for years to come in creating a diamond out of out of her ashes. I also didn't know that lab diamonds were were a thing whatsoever. So talk to me a little bit about how you think about consumer attitudes and cultural traditions around debt has changed a bit over time. And what what opportunity Did you see in this market,Adelle Archer 3:38 a lot of great businesses are built when you are the customer to start out, you know, you're just so intimately aware with what the pain points are that you're solving. But it was just really remarkable to me, I think there has been such a shift in how we think about death. You know, and wanting things that are more personal and more meaningful, you know, we're not as traditional anymore with you know, just how kind of the the different traditions you're seeing a huge shift from burial or cremation, for example, in 1980 were like 10% cremation, and we're approaching 70% in the United States, like, that's how fast is the thing. And I think as more people are, you know, potentially more spiritual versus, you know, religious, they also are just kind of like, you know, allowing themselves to be more open minded to what are my other options and what feels like personal and special and meaningful to honor my loved one versus what's just always been done. And so I think as people are asking that the industry hasn't adapted or responded or you know, really created things that you know, kind of meet that need. So, I think there's a lot of opportunity to give people better products and give people better experiences in this space.Mike Gelb 4:49 How are you thinking about different religions folks that might be more in tuned are more interested in in in these types of products for honoring loved ones that have passed away,Adelle Archer 5:00 we needed to really learn, you know, when we first launched, we weren't sure how much religion was really going to factor in or not. And we've been surprised that it really hasn't factored in as much as we expected. You know, I think there, there are a few faiths that still tend to prefer burial to cremation. And, and if you face that, you know, if you're really kind of following the book, then you're burying, you know, but we saw the Catholic Church actually, you know, say give cremation, its blessing. And that was a huge cultural shift. You know, we see families of the Jewish faith tend to bury their loved ones, but they cremate their pets and so they come to us to do a diamond for their pet, for example. So I think we're just at this total, you know, kind of crossing point where there's just a lot of change that's happening and and I think it's going to look radically different even in the next five years is, you know, people are more willing and open to do cremations when maybe their entire family in the past buried forMike Gelb 5:57 one of the kind of like the main areas that you're kind of focus on that you think that in terms of differentiation and changing the actual death care space?Adelle Archer 6:05 Well, and by the way, one thing that I wrote, I really should know as well is that we can do this from the, from the carbon in someone's hair as well. So somebody that is being buried, they can still do this process. You don't necessarily need to have ashes to do it. When you look across the entire death care space, and you pull really anybody that's kind of gone through it, a lot of the time, it's a certain kind of tone. And it's the experience that you have with, you know, different service providers or you know, different just kind of at every touchpoint across that experience, that it can be dark and overwhelming. And you know, in some cases depressing and I think a turn of A is really a massive departure from all of that we're very bright, or positive or celebratory, you know, we're never tone deaf. But I think there is always some levity to be had we talk about, you know, we're unafraid to Talk about somebody that passed away, but really focus on how to celebrate their life. And oftentimes, when our customer, you know, first talks to us about this process, we're not telling them about diamonds to start, we're saying like, hey, like, tell us about your loved one and what made them extraordinary. And that's like, the first time they've been asked that question, which is crazy. And so I think that there's just something really special that we're doing from everything from kind of the customer experience and service side all the way through to the brand side. You know, we have this kind of vibrant conversation that's happening on our social media, we're getting higher engagement rates, then Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift on a topic that's supposed to be really hard to talk about. So I think it really is kind of opening up that conversation and changing a culture around death, grief and remembrance, you know, from a brand side and this is a community you want to be a part of. And then on the experience side, it's really giving people you know, kind of a very special experience around the diamond that you know, will parallel process with their grief of it.Mike Gelb 7:57 You You alluded to a little bit but you No, even though what you're doing is extremely positive. It's still obviously a very sensitive topic and wanted to know, you know, how are you thinking about weight, especially at the early stages? How do you think about marketing?Adelle Archer 8:13 You know, this is certainly a huge part, I think of what has been a successful as we figured this out, you know, early on, one of our first investments we ever made was actually in our brand identity. This was back when we were like bootstrapping, and every dollar like really, really counted where we put that money. And I remember that was like, the first major investment we ever made was developing a brand book, but I think that's really important to be very to know what your identity is, as a company and what you know, you're really here to do. And for us, you know, starting out, we talked about remembering remarkable people, because that behind every diamond is an extraordinary person that you know, you're coming to us because they earned that diamond in some amazing way. So everything that we did you know, from us PR standpoint, from a social media, you know, advertising standpoint, was really telling the hero story of these remarkable people. It's not talking about ourselves, it's not talking about ashes to diamonds. You know, that's interesting. But I think, you know, what's more powerful is, is kind of humanizing these people. And that's something that people can really lean into, and they can find their loved one story, you know, in someone else's story. And we just found that those stories started catching fire, you know, and that became kind of our flywheel on social media is, you know, you put a video out there, and then it would just go and get shared like crazy, you know, across these tribes of people that, you know, say, Oh my gosh, my dad was just like that, you know, I are, so and so's dad was just like that she should do this, you know, for her dad who just passed. So I think authenticity is very key. And, you know, kind of anchoring yourself around what is the you know, bigger purpose that you're doing is a brand because that resonates with people and they'll talk about it.Mike Gelb 9:57 That makes sense. And it seems like that was probably Part of the missing factor that you were seeing when you first tried to do this, it's talking a little bit about what's been the most like surprising and unexpected insight, or learning that you've that you've had an ability it turned out so far.Adelle Archer 10:12 I mean, I definitely like we learned so much from our customers we very much are a company in a brand that's built on being incredibly close to our customer, and just always looking for ways we can add value and innovate based off of what we know. And, you know, one of the things that really blew us away early on, like this is a very intricate process. On average, our diamonds take about seven months to create. It's completely, you know, a custom made diamond

Sasha Strauss is the founder and Managing Partner of Innovation Protocol, a full-service strategic brand consulting and design firm based in Los Angeles, with a presence in San Francisco and New York. Some of his clients include Google, Doordash, Nestle, Paypal, and Concur Endurance Group. Sasha also teaches Brand Strategy to MBAs at UCLA, USC and UC Irvine.Highly recommend Sasha's TED Talk if you are looking for more resources about the power of brand and want to be inspired.One book that inspired Sasha professionally is Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Ries. and one book that inspired Sasha personally is XXXX by Joseph Campbell.You can also follow Sasha on Twitter @sashastrauss. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.On this episode we discuss -What is brand? What led him to starting Innovation Protocol? When an entrepreneur is thinking about brand for their startup, what types of questions should they be asking themselves? If you were starting a B2C brand, what would be his starting point? Importance of positioning/competitive analysisIs building a brand the most expensive asset one can build and the hardest? How does he think about brand today? Consumers have more choice and can have more of a connection with a brand than ever before because of the various ways they can interact with brands (social media, D2C ecommerce channel). Does he think that this is the golden age of brands and consumers will pay a much larger premium than ever before just because of the brand or does he see due to competition and the fewer barriers to entry to start a D2C business online, that it’s going to be harder than ever for a brand to charge a premium?How does he think about brands that have a social missions or are eco friendly, because if brand is an emotion and if the consumer has a deeper connection to brands that have a social or environmental initiative, would consumers be willing to pay larger premiums for those brands? How does he measure the impact of brand on a consumer’s purchase decision?What is one thing he would change when it came to the perception of brand? What is one piece of advice for founders when it comes to brand?Here's the full transcriptMike Gelb 0:00Sasha, thank you so much for joining me today. Especially during these difficult times how are you and your family doingSasha Strauss 1:10 glad to connect and my family's doing okay, everyone's huddled down and hunkered down I guess is the right word but huddled together as a family and indeed be making it through staying busy keeping our minds active all the things you need to do to make it you know,Mike Gelb 1:25 absolutely it's that's really good to hear your brand strategist,Sasha Strauss 1:28 what is brand brand is a relationship. It's the simplest way to understand its purpose, but it's a relationship which means that for spur human to have a have a connection to something, there has to be some dialogue or experience or understanding your interface and just like people knowing people, you you know someone by name, a product or a service also needs that same kind of identity. So a brand is just a mechanism that you use to bridge a relationship between a product or Service and the audienceMike Gelb 2:01 got it. brand is not only external, it's also internal. Right? Right.Sasha Strauss 2:05 So that's what when I say that a brand is you know, relationship between a product and service and its audience, the audience may be internal, it may be the the builders, it may be the salespeople, and maybe the HR department, it doesn't matter. Again, you work, let's say you work for a big company that manufactures products. If you don't have a dynamic relationship with that product, if you don't feel emotionally connected to it, you're just a transactional talent, you're just kind of doing the job. Whereas if you feel again, connected, inspired, informed, you start to care deeply. And that helps you perform at a higher level. It helps you if you're an HR, it helps you recruit with fervor, you know, you're like, oh, come work for this organization. Because we do these things and we make this stuff and it affects these people. And so brand is that it's kind of crazy wrapper that takes all of the aspects of an organization and its outputs and and humanizes them In a way that can build connection, got it. TellMike Gelb 3:02 me a little bit about your background. I mean, we're also gonna put the link into your TED Talk, as well in the show notes. That was, to me really inspiring. I actually teared up during when I first watched it really powerful. What interested you in having a career in brand, also a little bit about what a brand strategist is what led you to starting innovation protocol.Sasha Strauss 3:21 I've never met anybody in my life who was a brand strategist. And in fact, when I was young, there wasn't such thing as one. So it was a it wasn't the kind of thing where it was passed down from an uncle or I read about it in a book while I was a student. It was honestly a physiological psychological response. It was a defense mechanism on my part, I'll make it really simple like this. anyone listening will remember when they were 10. And they saw a TV commercial or they heard a radio commercial or they saw a billboard. And there are those people who are like, oh, okay, fine stimulation. And then there were those people were like, Oh my gosh, I need that hamburger. Oh my gosh. Oh, I want to buy that car. My gosh, I want to play that sport. And I was one of the people who was wired to have the oh my gosh, I want that thing. I want to experience that thing. I want to believe that thing. And so my, my childhood experience was one of being pulled by all of these communications, it didn't matter if it was from a religion or a car company. I was pulled by it. And until I was sort of, I don't know, awoken when I was 1718 years old, and started to realize, like, wait a minute, I don't I don't actually need that thing. Or I don't really like that kind of car. Why am I called to desire it? And that was because someone communicated to me or to people like me in such a particular way and in such an engaging and relevant way that it was hard for me to look away. So the short answer to how did I become a brand strategist was I needed to protect myself from all of the communications that were encroaching on my consciousness, and the only way I got to be able to do that was to figure out how they were made. So after turning 18 from that day forward, I only Worked for advertising firms, marketing firms, public relations firms, you name it just constantly while I was in school, after school, etc. And then inevitably, you graduate and you work hard, and I worked very, very hard. I absolutely worked seven days a week for a decade. And what it enabled me to do is become, quote, an expert, you know, someone who's had enough exposure and enough time on the topic to, to be good enough to basically hang up my own shingle. And that's what I did in 2006. With innovation protocol, it was just simply me saying, alright, I've practiced this enough, I've been around it enough, I've worked it enough. Let's see if people will pay me directly then that's what started the business.Mike Gelb 5:38 That's awesome. That's awesome. So tell me tell me a little bit as well about what is a brand strategist like the actual role when a company like hires you on as a consultant.Sasha Strauss 5:47 So if I was describing earlier that in my youth I was highly impacted by the communications of organizations. And then as I aged up, I found ways to understand those communications and and defend myself against them as a professional, what I've been able to figure out is how to actually create those connections. And I don't mean create those connections in a distorted way where I'm trying to get you to buy something you don't need. But what a brand strategist does is it figures out individual figures out who the audience is what they are experiencing, and then tries to meet them in the middle with with language and ideas and explanations that fit within their lifestyle. So here you are doing a podcast. Imagine that whoever's marketing to you a microphone or cables or audio editing or headphones, they come at it with a very technical spec driven motive, you know, like, okay, here, buy this microphone because it has the specs. But the fact is, is that you're not a microphone expert. You may be able to do some research and collect some details, but you're not a microphone expert. And so, what the microphone company has an obligation to do is not only tell you what it technically can do, but also connect to you based on how you might use it like produce the best part Cast Do you ever could or, or maybe you'll podcast more because this thing works so well or it makes it easy for you to podcast. And you see that those are explanations expressions beyond the functional capability of the device. And that's what a brand strategist does. Whether you're selling airplanes or bubblegum, the responsibility is the same, it's to sort of contextualize the capability of the product in a way that the audience can relate to and connect to.Mike Gelb 7:26 I know you've worked with a ton of Fortune 500 companies, some of the biggest companies in the world. But I mean, this podcast is mostly focused on startups. And how do you think about or should an entrepreneur approach brand from the very, very beginning?Sasha Strauss 7:42 I actually really appreciate the question because believe it or not, whether it's b2b or b2c, or startup or fortune 100. The actual approaches remain very, very similar. So my, I'm in a lot of entrepreneurs, societies, and I get that question. You know, someone comes up to me and they say, I don't have these fortune 100 budgets. Come on. You know, what can I do here? And my reaction is the same. My reaction is, Well, okay, are you going to be communicating? Do you know, people don't buy what they don't know exists? So you've got this direct to consumer offering. I don't know what exists, so you're going to have to talk to me. Okay. Well, are you talking to me the same way that an alternate product is talking to me? Or the product that I already use to do that activity? Are you speaking in the same words with the same tone, because if you are, I'm gonna have a really hard time telling the difference between the two of you. So the key factor for a startup is go about it as if you were building it with intention that you're not just trying to get quarterly revenue. You're trying to build annual revenue trying to build multi year connection with your audience. And that means that you have to do the things that big commercial brands do too. For example, commercial brands, always, excuse me, big larger brands always consider their competition. They're, they're following their tweets. They're walking by them at trade shows they're buying their products. And what that what that does for you is it really helps ensure that you don't sound the same. So that's one quick action that I would take as a start up. And the second quick action that I would take as a start up is, well, who is your audience? Who is your buyer? And how are they thinking, behaving, learning, getting informed, etc. Because again, no matter how powerful your capabilities, if one, you don't communicate them, then your audience is not going to receive them. But two, if you don't communicate them in a way that's contextually relevant to that audience, it doesn't matter how innovative your solution, it's not going to break through and change their life. And so my ask is, not only consider who your competition is, but consider who that consumer is, consider what situation they might be in, consider what language they use to describe that situation. And that will help even the smallest of startup get their brand, right.Mike Gelb 9:48 I really appreciate that. I mean, it seems like a lot of what you said is really about looking at the actual competitive analysis and, you know, how are you communicating versus the versus the rest of the competition and how you can actually differentiate yourself on that front.Sasha Strauss 10:02 Yeah, exactly like I see a lot of I see a lot of really inspired entrepreneurs, they come out with a blast, you know, they're tweeting and instagramming. They're building their web page. They're so excited about what they're releasing. And then what they realized is, for example, they might be using non industry terminology, you know, there entrepreneur who's moved between categories. And so they're using non specific language to describe their capabilities. And when you're a technical buyer, or you're a consumer who's trying to decide whether to give this to your child, like if it doesn't fit within your psyche, within the space of your consciousness as you're going about your purchase, then you're, then it feels a little weird, it feels like something strange. And so that's why this is such an imperative. And by the way, in the internet era, most of this is free. For example, when it comes to evaluating competition, you can surf the internet to the enth degree and you will find a lot about what your competition is doing. Same thing with your consumers. You can do social listening, you can join social media channels and pay deep attention to what consumers are saying within those channels. So these are not beyond the grasp of a startup with, you know, low income if you're a startup buildingMike Gelb 11:12 How do you think about first mover advantage when it comes to brand?Sasha Strauss 11:18 It's a really interesting question. Because first mover advantage before the internet was gold, because if a consumer didn't necessarily know that a solution existed, and you were the first to introduce it to them, you got this kind of first in line, you know, priority. It's i

Michael Duda is the Founder and one of the Managing Partners at Bullish.Bullish is a creative agency and a pre-seed fund, investing in early stage consumer companies. Some of their investments include Warby Parker, Peloton, Casper and Birchbox. Prior to founding Bullish, Mike spent 13 years at Deutsch Inc., where he became the youngest Partner in the company’s 35-year history overseeing business development, marketing and corporate strategy.You can follow Michael on Twitter @mikeduda You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.What compelled him to start a fund? His stage, due diligence process, milestones founders had to achieve in order for him to consider? It’s natural for VCs to promote themselves as contrarian investors. How does he think about VC behavior, is it actually more of a herd like mentality? What were some of his early investing mistakes? Why is he bullish (pun intended) about DNVB brands and the DTC channel when you no longer have this advertising arbitrage that you had in the early 2010s?How does he think about the power of brand in today’s environment, especially for Gen Z and Millenials? Does brand have more meaning? Contrasting trends: sustainability and fast fashion. Has coronavirus changed how he is seeing new opportunities? Where is he currently spending most of his time? An example of competitive advantages that modern brands might have when there isn’t technological innovation in the product?One thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What’s one company on his anti-portfolio? What’s his most recent investment and what makes him excited about it? What’s one book that inspired him professionally and one book that inspired him personally? Investing in secondary and tertiary markets. What’s one piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?

Joe Tonnos is a Principal at Mistral Equity Partners and a Co-Founder of Ketch Ventures. He invests across the consumer spectrum from seed/pre-series investments at Ketch to growth equity, private equity buyouts and even some public market investments at Mistral Equity Partners. Joe is also a Venture Partner at Natureza – a newly formed consumer VC focused on Series A investments. Some of his investments include Los Sundays, byCHLOE, and Oros.In this episode we discuss -What attracted him to investing and venture capital? What attracted him specifically to consumer How does he think about portfolio construction? How did he start Ketch? At the early stages when there isn’t much traction, what's his due diligence process? What qualities does he like to see in founders?How he's thinking about coronavirus as it relates to consumer investing? Is he shifting strategy away/towards companies/verticals? Is he pausing investments in a particular space? Is he concerned about some current portfolio companies' ability to raise? How he'sadjusting to new work protocols (remote working, etc) and if so, is that having an impact?What are some consumer trends that he is excited about? What is one thing that he would change about venture capital? What is one company that is in his anti-portfolio? What did he learn from that experience? What’s one piece of advice for founders of consumer startups?This episode is brought to you by WeStock. WeStock streamlines the product request process and helps your brand get on retail shelves faster. Learn more at WeStock.io and when scheduling a demo, use promo code ConsumerVC for 25% off for your first year.You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Arie Abecassis, is the founder and partner of ICONYC Labs and was the chairman of the board at SeatGeek. ICONYC labs is a business and funding acceleration platform customized for early-stage Israeli tech startups looking to accelerate growth and cut time to market. SeatGeek is the largest internet event ticket search engine. Arie also is a venture partner / mentor at DreamIt Ventures and has over twenty years of experience in building technology companies as an operator, advisor and venture capital investor.A book that inspired Arie personally and professionally is Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull.*You can check out Arie's article at Entrepreneur here. You can also follow him on Twitter @arieabec If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM and follow your host on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc. For all episodes, please visit theconsumervc.com.*In this episode we discuss -What attracted Arie to technology and startups?What led him to founding ICONYC labs? What does it mean to be an advisor? What is the role of a board member and how should one think about the value a board member will add to a company? What should founders think about when finding their lead investor? How should founders think about structuring their board of directors? Why have a board?Examples of good governance vs. bad governance, founder friendly vs. non founder friendly. For first time founders, what has he seen them struggle with the most when it comes to board meetings? At what point do companies need to think about having a board of directors? What’s typically the structure in a board?How should founders put their board of directors to work? What’s one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital? What’s one piece of advice that you have for founders?

Kate McAndrew (Bolt) - Distributed Teams, Fundraising Outside the Major Hubs, and Impact of COVID

Brian is an executive coach and owner of Dashing Leadership. He helps early-stage founders grow into more effective leaders. Previously he started and ran Fitocracy, one of the largest fitness social networks of its time, and sold it in 2015. Afterwards, he joined 500 Startups as a venture partner and later led major product initiatives at Credit Karma and Eaze.If you’re interested in learning more about how coaching can help you perform better as a leader, please schedule an introduction call at www.dashingleadership.com If you want to keep up to date on Brian you can follow him on Twitter @brianmwang. If you are a founder and working on something innovative,, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM me and follow Mike on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.One of Brian’s favorite author’s is Haruki Murakami. A book that inspired Brian personally is Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. A book that inspired Brian professionally is Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson.On this episode you will learn - What attracted him to entrepreneurship and founding Fitocracy? What were some of the learnings from his experience as a founder? What is coaching and what attracted you to it? How is coaching different to advising and mentoring?What are some of the ways that you help founders? How is the impact different to advising and mentoring? What’s typically the cadence?What are some typical or common areas that founders might need help in that you think about?How do you think about effective leadership?What is one piece of advice that you would have for all founders?

This episode explores the Paycheck Protection Program as it relates to venture backed small businesses. Zac Dearing is a J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School and Venture Fellow at AlleyCorp. Zac has a deep appreciation for start-ups and small businesses starting when he was 12 when he founded and ran his own computer assembling business. He has gone on to have quite the career in consulting, finance, and technology.Here is a link to Zac’s tool for companies to understand how much government assistance they could expect to receive from PPP.You are also welcome to follow Zac on Twitter @zacdearing.In this episode we discuss -What is the PPP / SBA Loans program? How did Zac become interested in learning about PPP? Who is the program intended for? What types of businesses should apply?What makes a company eligible for PPP? What’s the affiliate rule? How can companies change their governance terms with VCs in order to become eligible? Does the affiliate rule only concern those that own a certain percentage of the business?What has been VCs response to the affiliate rule? Are venture backed companies eligible? Does he see any potential change regarding PPP eligibility regarding the affiliate rule? Will a business need to repay the loan? What’s the forgiveness factor?What does the good faith certification of necessity mean? Where does one apply? Are all payroll costs eligible?

Rishi Garg is a partner at Mayfield. Mayfield global venture capital firm with a people-first philosophy of investing. Mayfield invests primarily in early-stage technology companies in the enterprise and consumer sectors. Some of Rishi’s investments include Grove Collaborative, Oliver Space and Projector.Rishi backs consumer focused entrepreneurs and has been a longtime executive and entrepreneur at some of the world’s most innovative companies. He’s held senior positions at Twitter, Square, Google, MTV, co-founded FanSnap,a leading venture-backed live event ticket search company acquired by Nextag, Inc. It was great speaking with Rishi about the future of social, consumer distrust in legacy brands, and curation. It was a really fascinating conversation, so without further ado here is Rishi.Thank you Gautam Gupta for the introduction!You can follow Rishi @rishigarg. You can also read his latest article Why Trusted Commerce Platforms Will Redefine Key Categories in the Next Ten Years. If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM him and follow on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.A book that inspired Rishi both personally and professionally is Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.In this episode you will learn - What fascinated him working in technology then becoming a founder? What made him interested in venture capital? When a B2C startup doesn’t have alot of traction, what are some qualities he looks for in founders? His due diligence process?How does he think about commerce and retail in today’s landscape? What are some solutions that he gets excited about in retail that is solving some of these issues? What are changes in consumer behavior is he most focused on?I’ve heard some folks say it’s a contrarian time to be investing in consumer. Why is that and does he believe it? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is one book that inspired him personally and one book that inspired him professionally? What is his most recent investment and what makes him excited about it? What’s one piece of advice for B2C founders?

**This episode is brought to you by WeStock.io. WeStock streamlines the product request process and helps your brand get on retail shelves faster. Learn more at WeStock.io and when scheduling a demo, use promo code ConsumerVC for 25% off for your first year.**David Goldberg is a General Partner at Corigin Ventures. Corigin Ventures is a New York based venture capital firm leading seed stage investments in the founders defining the future of daily living. Some of their investments include Perch Interactive, The Inside, Classpass and Imperfect Foods. Previously, David Founder/CEO of FreshNeck, an online, subscription-based, men's neckwear exchange service. He also was the Assistant District Attorney, representing the people of Brooklyn, New York and then worked at Merrill Lynch and Jefferies & Co.You can follow David on Twitter @davidrgoldberg. If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM him and follow me on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.A book that inspired David professionally is Measure What Matters by John Doerr. A book that inspired David personally is Reboot by Jerry Colonna.In this episode you will learn - How did David go from a criminal defense attorney to finance to founding freshneck.com? What compelled him to shift to angel investing and transition to venture capital and how did some of your prior experiences help him as an investor? How Corigin came together? At the seed stage, what is he looking for? A walk through his diligence process.When personalization and customization are you differentiators, how do you scale? How is the sharing economy going to evolve? How he thinks about the consumerization of software. What he thinks about the future of venture capital? What’s one thing you would change about venture capital?What is his most recent investment and what makes him excited about it? What is one piece of advice that he has for founders of consumer companies?