Consumer VC

Caitlin Strandberg is a Principal at Lerer Hippeau, the most active early-stage venture capital fund in New York. The firm has more than 250 active portfolio companies with investments in leading consumer and enterprise companies, including Allbirds, Casper, Guideline, and K Health. Lerer Hippeau invests across all sectors, backing founders with product vision, customer insight, and a keen instinct for brand building. Previously, Caitlin was an early employee at LearnVest (acquired by Northwestern Mutual) and Behance (acquired by Adobe), as well as served as Vice President of FirstMark Capital. You can follow Caitlin on Twitter Here, where she posts lots of great content on startups. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter. Two books that Caitlin would like to recommend are The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon by Brad Stone and Ready Player One by Earnest Cline. In this episode, you will learn – What attracted Caitlin to startups and venture capital? The learnings and takeaways from being an operator at early-stage startups to venture capital? The challenges when investing in consumer startups at the early stages? How she evaluates opportunities and identifies if a startup is solving a real consumer pain point? Is the DTC area the golden age of brand? How she thinks about margin in relation to DTC? How much do consumers care about sustainable, eco-friendly products in relation to price? After investment, the cadence of communication among founders. What makes New York special? How she thinks about online customer acquisition today. What is one company that she is excited about investing in? What is one company she wishes she invested in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies? If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram

Ajay Kamat is a Partner at Pear, one of the premier early stage venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Prior to Pear, Ajay founded Wedding Party, which was acquired by Instacart. Pear was founded by Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad, who were early investors in Dropbox, Lending Club, Zoosk, Addepar, Path and many others. Some of Pear's notable investments include DoorDash, Philz Coffee, Instaread, and Memebox. You can follow Ajay on Twitter Here.  If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow @mikegelb  and the show @ConsumerVC In this episode you will learn: Ajay's journey from biomedical engineering to founding Wedding Party. Some of the lessons Ajay learned from being a founder and how it has influenced him as a venture capitalist. The importance of grit when founding a company. The importance of complementary skills and vetting co-founders. The reason why he switched from being a founder to a venture capitalist. What qualities Ajay looks for from founders at the pre-seed and seed level? How he evaluates startups building products in markets that don't exist yet? The advantages of being in Silicon Valley. How he thinks about customer acquisition costs in today's age. What industry consumer verticals he's excited about the most? One company that he is excited to be an investor in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies? If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram

Amit Mukherjee is a Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the premier and global venture capital firms that invests in all stages. Amit focuses on investing in consumer technology. He is a Board Observer for Casper, MasterClass, Brandless, and The Players’ Tribune, and was previously a Board Observer for Jet.com. Amit has led a number of seed stage investments for NEA, including Aquabyte, Holloway, Yumi and PumpUp. You can follow Amit on Twitter Here, where he posts a ton of great thought-provoking content about consumer and venture capital. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter. In this episode you will learn - How Amit made his way into venture capital and what attracted him to consumer investing. In the pitch and his due diligence process, how he determines if there is a real pain point? How to evaluate two companies in the same space when there isn't much data? Difference when evaluating startups when it's a serial entrepreneur vs. first time founder? How he thinks about the investment landscapes today? Cold/No introduction vs. warm introduction - how should founders reach out to VCs? How he deals with time allocation across his portfolio? One thing he would change about venture capital? How he thinks about the D2C landscape today? Trends in consumer that he is most excited about. The Gen Z consumer and characteristics he focuses on? One company that he worked on or invested in that he's proud of? One company that in retrospect wish he did invest in? A business book that Amit would like to recommend is The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike A book that helped shaped him personally is 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found a Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris.

Nicole Quinn is a partner and investor at Lightspeed Venture Capital, a venture capital firm that is engaged in the consumer, enterprise, technology, and cleantech markets. Some of Nicole's investments include Calm, Goop, Rothy’s, Cameo, Brandable, Girlboss, Illumix, Zola, Daily Harvest & Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs. You can follow Nicole Here on Twitter. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter. In this episode, you will learn - What attracted Nicole to early-stage investing from Morgan Stanley? Why she shifted from angel investing to joining Lightspeed? Her personal mission of venture capital becoming more inclusive to women founders. How she thinks about the successful qualities of a founder and how she assesses founder-market fit? How you know when a company has found product-market fit? In the due diligence process, how do you assess if the product is solving a real problem? The challenges and metrics she pays attention to when evaluating consumer startups? The major turn offs or deal-breakers from startups when they pitch their business to Nicole? Her thoughts about the future of media and the transition from an advertising model to a subscription model? What trends in media and consumer that she is most focused on? How she thinks about price in the diligence process? Some of the changes that need to happen in venture capital? Consumer trends that she’s focused on? What is one company that she should have invested in but didn’t? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?

Hayden Williams is a Partner of Investments at Brand Project, a venture capital fund that focuses on consumer investments at the early stage. Brand Project is hyper-focused on adding their operational value to founders as the team collectively has launched 100 new products and services for some of the most iconic companies. Hayden joined Brand Project this year and previously was an investor at BBG Ventures as well as has experience as a founder of Treatings, the business networking app. You can follow Hayden on Twitter here. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter. In this episode, you will learn - Learnings and takeaways Hayden had as a founder that has influenced him as an investor. The advantages in having a smaller portfolio as well as Brand Project’s thesis When a founder should look to raise from one investor rather than a syndicate in a round? How Hayden thinks about investing in D2C brands. Trends he’s excited about in consumer? What makes consumer investing difficult? His investing due diligence and establishing trust amongst founders? Why a company might not be able to raise a round? How do you establish founder-market fit? One company that he’s particularly excited to work with? One company that he had a second chance to invest in? A book that has inspired Hayden both professionally and personally is “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” by Steve Martin “The Consumer VC” is a podcast hosted by Mike Gelb devoted to interviewing early-stage consumer-focused venture capitalists and founders of b2c businesses to educate and learn about the inner workings of consumer startup investing. A new episode will be released every Tuesday at 3:00 AM EST / 12:00 AM PST. If you would like to follow along you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. You are also to see all episodes here and learn more at www.theconsumervc.com and follow Mike on Twitter or Instagram.

Jay is a Principal at Launch Capital, one of the pioneers of seed-stage investing firms. They often write the check to startups that they invest in. Some of their big consumer wins include Spotify and Snap. Jay has worked at Launch since 2018 and also has experience working in corporate VC and Techstars. He's written some great articles and thought-provoking Twitter updates on venture capital and startups. You can follow him @jaykapoornyc and on Medium. In this episode, you will learn the following -  1. Jay's background and how he became passionate about early investing? The challenges when it comes to conducting due diligence on consumer-facing businesses. A day in the life working with founders at Techstars.  2. How he approaches decision-making processes and establishing trust amongst founders in their decision-making abilities. 3. How investor attitudes towards D2C companies changed over the past few years? How successful founders are adapting to increasing online marketing customer acquisition costs and continue to scale?  4. What are some of the reasons why a company in an accelerator is not able to raise a seed round or progress to the next phase of fundraising? A specific metric that is insightful that other investors might gloss over when evaluating startups? 5. One company that he either invested in or worked with that he's proud of? One company that he wished he invested in? A book that has impacted Jay both professionally and personally is Daniel Pink's "To Sell Is Human".

This is an introductory episode explaining what will be covered and the goals for this podcast "The Consumer VC". For this episode, I recruited my brother Rob Gelb to interview yours truly about the podcast, the range of topics I hope to cover in the coming interview episodes in this podcast. For more information about this podcast, please check out our site or follow on Twitter.