Consumer VC

*Please note this episode was recorded back in January before the global pandemic.*Natalie Dillon is a Principal at Maveron. Maveron is a premier consumer focused fund that invests in seed and Series A companies that empower consumers to live on their terms. Some of their investments include eBay, Everlane, and AllbirdsPrior to Maveron, Natalie was at Susa Ventures, a premier seed-stage fund in San Francisco. At Susa, Natalie worked with the team to source and help diligence several investments, largely in the consumer space. Before Susa, Natalie was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs and a research associate at Silicon Valley Bank.I would like to thank Sumeet Shah for the introduction!A book that inspired Natalie professionally is Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. A book that inspired her personally is Why We Sleep by Matthew WalkerYou can follow Natalie on Twitter @ntdillon. 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 on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.What attracted Natalie to venture capital and consumer investing? Walk us through Maveron’s due diligence process and founder checklist? What are specific attributes that you think are non-negotiable and what founders need to have? What subculture trends she is focused on? What makes Natalie interested in consumer vs. enterprise?How she thinks about the future of social applications and what are you noticing about Gen Z? What is her most recent investment? What is one thing that she would change when it came to venture capital?What is one company you had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t and in retrospect wish you did? What is one piece of advice for B2C founders?For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com.

*This episode features two conversations I’ve had with Kiva*Kiva Dickinson is the managing partner at Selva Ventures. Selva Ventures invests in emerging brands that make their consumers’ lives better. Some of their portfolio includes Haus, Mud Water, and Three Wishes.Prior to founding Selva Ventures Kiva was a Partner at CircleUp, where he joined during the launch of the Company’s first discretionary equity fund CircleUp Growth Partners. While at CircleUp Kiva led Series B investments in Nutpods and Liquid I.V., working closely with both companies following investment.You can follow Kiva on Twitter @kivadickinson. 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 the host @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.One book that inspired Kiva personally is How Will You Measure Your Life by Clay Christensen. One book that inspired him professionally is Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.On this episode, you will learn - What attracted Kiva to VC? How Selva came together? His due diligence process. How he thinks about competitive vs. non-competitive categories? How does he think about the future of retail and O2O strategy for companies? How has DTC changed retail?How does he think about portfolio management and construction when it comes to return on investment? How does he think about geography when it comes to starting a brand and investing and why did he choose the bay area to set up shop? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital?What’s one company that is in his anti-portfolio - you had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t and in retrospect wish you did? What’s your most recent investment and what makes him excited about it? What is one piece of advice he has for founders of consumer companies?His reaction to coronavirusIs 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?Is he having to adjust to new work protocols (remote working, etc) and if so, is that having an impact?

*Please note that this episode was recorded before the coronavirus global pandemic*Madeline Keulen is Vice President at Victress Capital. Victress Capital is an early stage venture capital firm that provides visionary and diverse founding teams in the consumer space with capital and resources for growth. Victress has backed 21 innovative companies led by tenacious founders including Alyce, Daily Harvest, Harper Wilde, Rae, and Summersalt. Prior to Victress, Madeline developed her consumer expertise as an operator, experiencing first-hand the importance of customer-centric values while working at Apple and The Walt Disney Company. She then moved to Oliver Wyman, where she focused on partnering with leading consumer product and services businesses on strategic growth initiatives, operational improvement, and post-merger integrations.You can follow Madeline on Twitter @mkeulen and check out her blog mkeulen.com To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc.One book that inspired her professionally and personally is How Will You Measure Your Life? By Clay Christensen. A couple other books that inspired her professionally are Sam Walton’s Made in America and Phil Knight’s Shoedog.On this episode you will learn - What attracted Madeline to startups and venture capital in the first place? How was she able to break into venture? A bit about Victress Capital? What she looks for at the seed stage? Her diligence process?Boston’s startup ecosystem. What is the value of a brand? How to think about competitive advantage and moat? How she thinks about contrasting trends? Is this the hardest period to build a brand in today’s climate since it seems so easy to launch a brand?How the DTC channel has changed? Why she is so bullish on consumer? What she would change about venture capital? Advice for founders in secondary and tertiary markets. The importance of knowing your why.

*Please note that this episode was recorded before the coronavirus global pandemic*Logan Langberg is a Principal at Imaginary Ventures. Imaginary is a Venture Capital Fund that invests in early–stage opportunities at the intersection of retail and technology in Europe and the US. Some of their investments include Everlane, Glossier, and Daily Harvest.Logan was previously an investor at Alliance Consumer Growth, a leading consumer growth equity fund, where he invested in and supported Harry’s, LOLA, Honest Kitchen among other innovative consumer companies. It was a blast talking with Logan about food and bev, future of retail and much more.You can follow Logan on Twitter @LangbergLogan. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc.A book that impacted Logan personally is Boris Johnson’s The Churchill Factor. One book that impacted Logan professionally is Brad Feld’s Venture Deals.In this episode you will learn - Why did Logan come down from growth equity to venture capital? What interested him in consumer? How does he think about good growth vs. bad growth? How does he think about optimizing for growth vs. profitability? What is his investment criteria for companies? What’s his due diligence process? How important is market expertise? How does he think about price in this current investment landscape? What is the reason that PE firms have come down stream? Do founders need to be concerned with over raising? What are some metrics that he focuses on the most? How does he think about portfolio construction and returns for each investment? How Logan thinks about the future of retail? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is his most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? What is one piece of advice for consumer entrepreneurs?

Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. Precursor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Some of their investments include The Athletic, Goodr and Co-Star. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC and Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. He also was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business (acq. Zynga) and Director of Business Development at Gaia Interactive. You can follow Charles on Twitter @chudson. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc. A couple books that impacted Charles professionally are The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Maretti and Who Gets What and Why by Alvin Roth . A book that impacted him personally is The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. On this episode you will learn - How did Charles make his way into Venture Capital? How did Precursor come together? How does Charles think about the early investment landscape? His due diligence and decision making process. How he thinks about domain expertise. Why are there two different seed markets with radically different round sizes and valuations and what does seed look like today? What are some of the differences in the diligence process when investing in consumer vs. enterprise startups? How he thinks about pivoting in the early stages? How he thinks about portfolio composition?  Advice for founders that are in tertiary or secondary markets or have a network of VCs when fundraising? What consumer trends is he most focused on? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is one piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?

I reached out to all past investors that came on the show and future investors that will be coming on and asked them the following questions pertaining to the impact of corona: * Are you shifting strategy away/towards companies/verticals? No. We're long term, early stage investors so we look at companies with a 5-10+ year time horizon. While we take the health, economic, and societal impacts of COVID-19 very seriously, especially in the next few months and quarters, our expectation is that over the long run the broad societal and economic impact will be modest. I wouldn’t say we’re changing our strategy [yet?]. One thing we have been developing a thesis on, even prior to coronavirus, is curation in the consumer environment given how fragmented the various sectors have become with abundance of brand choices. That being said, we’re looking for opportunities that de-risk the exposure to a particular brand, but opportunities to play a broader category based on consumer preferences and behaviors. We continue to look for disruptors in the market that change age-old behaviors, come up with a better mousetrap, are vertically integrated creating strong supply chains or have a lifestyle component (among other attributes). We love businesses that touch 2 of 3 categories – DTC, B2B, retail/wholesale. Not really. As seed investors, we take a long-term approach. And while there will be some behavioral shifts that come from this, at some point I believe we’ll get pretty close to ‘normal’. That being said, we are leaning more into companies that are ‘building’ v ‘selling’ immediately. * Are you pausing investments in a particular space? No. We're long term, early stage investors so we look at companies with a 5-10+ year time horizon. We have some exposure to the travel industry. We do believe that this industry will be the last to recover, much like after 9/11, so we’re monitoring it closely and will probably sit on the sidelines in the near-term for this sector. If there was a business that showed some resiliency and was at an attractive value, we’d certainly look at it. Depending on the slowdown and how long things play out, discretionary purchases are likely to decrease so we like to be positioned with necessity purchases. * Are you concerned about some current portfolio companies' ability to raise? Yes to some extent. We haven't seen early-mid stage investors change their activity levels at this juncture, but obviously the concerns and work environment (more remote, less F2F) mean we'd anticipate some slowdown or lengthened deal processes. Early-mid stage investors may also look to allocate incremental capital to existing investments rather than new investments in this environment. For late stage companies that may be raising from "cross-over" type investors, we anticipate the decline and volatility of public market portfolios may reduce some investors appetite for late stage private companies. Yes. I think all startups will have a difficult time later this year raising.  Not right now, but my prediction is to give the market another 2-4 months. My advice here would be to raise some money now if you know you need to be in the fundraising market in the next year. * Are you having to adjust to new work protocols (remote working, etc) and if so, is that having an impact? We already had a flexible work culture – not a huge hurdle for us So far, so good. Some great tools out there, and many companies are moving fully or partially distributed/remote anyways, so it’s good to eat our own dogfood.

Laura Chau is a Principal at Canaan. Canaan is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas. Some of her current investments include Coterie, Curtsy, and Jumpcut. At Canaan, she focuses on consumer technology. She previously worked in Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations practice. She has also worked in sales and marketing functions within Kabam (acq. by Netmarble), Branch Metrics and Greenhouse, as well as working closely with Marie Kondo to launch the author’s product business. Thank you Caitlin Strandberg for the introduction! In this episode, we focus on Laura’s chapter in Finding Genius by Kunal Mehta. Here is a link to excerpts of her contribution to the book. Worked at Kabam In this episode you will learn - What attracted Laura to work in startups and technology? What were some of the learnings while she worked at Kabam that influenced her as an investor and what attracted her to venture capital, specifically early stage investing? In the early stages, when there isn’t much data, what are some of the qualities that she looks for in founders? What’s her due diligence process? What makes consumer investing challenging compared to enterprise? What is some advice for founders that might live in secondary or tertiary markets? A recap of the five pillars of social media in her “Finding Genius” chapter. At what stage does social media hit saturation? How she thinks about privacy? The future and opportunity in social media? Consumer trends that she is most excited about? What is one thing that she would change about venture capital? What is one book that inspired her personally and one book that inspired her professionally? What is her most recent investment and what makes her excited about it? What is one piece of advice that you have for founders of consumer companies?

Ethan Austin is the Managing Director of Techstars Western Union Accelerator. Techstars Western Union Accelerator is the premier program for global startups shaping the future of money movement.  Companies participating in the program gain direct access to the world's best fintech execs, founders and investors covering everything from customer development, global go-to-market strategy, access to capital and biz dev opportunities. You can currently apply Here to be part of their summer cohort. The application deadline is April 5th, 2020. Previously, Ethan co-founded Giveforward, the world's first medical crowdfunding platform which was acquired by gofundme, and Deal Gooder, an E-commerce site where proceeds benefitted local non-profits and schools. You can follow Ethan on Twitter @ethanaustin. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc. One book that inspired Ethan professionally is Hug Your Customers by Jack Mitchell. One book that inspired Ethan personally is Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle. In this episode you will learn - What attracted Ethan to entrepreneurship? Why he is mission-driven. How going through Techstars changed his life? How to analyze teams? The importance of distribution. The requirements of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator. Some trends that Ethan is focused on in fintech? What is one company in your most recent cohort that you are excited about? What is one thing that you would change about venture capital? What is one piece of advice that he has for founders?

Lee Hower is the Co-Founder and Partner of NextView Ventures. NextView is a high-conviction hands on seed-stage VC firm that invests in founders who are redesigning the everyday economy. Some of their investments include Grove Collaborative, Skillz, Plastiq, Attentive, LetGo and TapCommerce. Previously, Lee was an early employee at Paypal and served as the Director of Financial Services. He then went on to co-found LinkedIn and serve as a Principal and Venture Partner at PJC. Thank you Gautam Gupta for introducing me to Lee! One of Lee’s blog posts that we discuss on the show is Denouement. All of Lee’s and NextView’s blog posts are available here. One book that inspired Lee professionally is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins. One book that inspired Lee personally is Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordoff If you would like to keep up to date with Lee, you can follow him on Twitter @leehower. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc. In this episode you will learn - What attracted Lee to work in technology and what was it like working with the Paypal Mafia? What were some of the learnings from those moments and what led him to co-founding LinkedIn? Is operational experience important to an investor? What are some of the qualities in a founder that he focuses on and look for? His due diligence process? How does he think about portfolio construction at the seed level? What are data points when it comes to consumer companies that you most focus on in the early stages? What he means by the everyday economy? How he thinks about today’s venture capital era and why he refers to it as the denouement era? How does he think about the future of venture capital in the new decade? What are some consumer trends that he is most excited about? What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is his most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? What’s one piece of advice for early stage B2C founders?

Matt Hirst is the Managing Partner at West. West is a venture studio, a team of market and brand experts with investor discipline. Since 2011, West has partnered with some of the world’s most innovative companies and founders to maximize their opportunity and make impact including Impossible Burger, GofundMe, Square and Twitter. Matt joined West 4 years ago after serving as the Global Head of Brand Experience at Google. Prior to Google, Matt spent 10 yrs at Red Bull as head of Sports, Events and Culture and the Director of Culture Marketing. One book that inspired Matt personally and professionally is Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. In this episode you will learn - Some of the differences working for Red Bull vs. Google. How he thinks about the differences between brand strategy vs. growth marketing. How he thinks about data vs. trusting your gut when it comes to brand and marketing? What are questions founders should ask when building a brand identity? The differences in skill set that founders should be aware of if they are hiring a brand management professional from a large company vs. someone with startup experience to join their team? When an entrepreneur is thinking about brand for his or her startup, the types of questions should they be asking themselves? Why does he feel that brand is still undervalued asset? Why is building a brand the most expensive assets you can build and the hardest? How he thinks about the brand agency ecosystem and if a startup is looking to hire an agency, what are some questions should they be asking? Is this best time or worst time to build a CPG Brand? His due diligence process at West. One thing he would change when it came to the perception of brand? One piece of advice for founders when it comes to brand? To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow @mikegelb and @consumervc.