Our guest today is Dario, Founder and CEO of Tacombi and Vista Hermosa. Tacombi is a tacqueria chain that is one of the fastest growing restaurants in the U.S. and is bringing 100% authentic Mexican food and flavors to the U.S. Vista Hermosa is their CPG brand, that produces tortilla chips and tortillas. We discuss why Dario got a VW Kombi van in the first place, why he thought New York City was the right city to start a restaurant in the U.S., how he approached expansion to different cities and some of the lessons he learned from one of his investors, Danny Meyer. Without further ado, here’s Dario.

Some of the questions I ask Dario:

1. So you purchased this Voltzwagon kombi van, why did you decide to start selling tacos in this way?
2. What took you to Playa Del Carmen?
3. Transient, tourism spot
4. What’s your approach to cooking tacos? What were you doing that was different to other taco shops/trucks?
5. Observing mexican cuisine
6. Understand what the differences were made
7. Difference to Mexican hospitality to american hospitality?
8. Taqueria’s different
9. How did you approach scaling and what brought you to the States?
10. At what point did you think about raising money?
11. What was your approach?
12. How did you build your network?
13. What led you to Danny Meyer?
14. What do investors look for when thinking about new restaurants or food companies?
15. Did you find you had to change some of your ingredients/flavor profiles to appeal to the United States audience?
16. Where was your first shop in the U.S.? Why did you decide on that location?
17. What demographic are you appealing to? How did you approach price point?
18. How do you think about design for your restaurants?
19. How do you approach new locations?
20. What was missing in the U.S. market in your mind regarding Mexican cuisine and taquerias specifically?
21. What is real mexican
22. How did Vista Hermosa start? Why did you want to build a CPG business? Why did you build both congruently?
23. What’s one part about the restaurant business that you still don’t think is obvious or known to outsiders?
24. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
25. Professionally – Biography of Ben Franklin – An American Life
26. Personally – Pedro Paramo
27. What’s one piece of advice for any restaurant or CPG entrepreneur?

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Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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This was recorded live in Austin, during SXSW. Allison and Stephen Ellsworth are the founders of Poppi, the fun(ctional) prebiotic soda for all.

We discuss:

– Their introduction to prebiotics

– How they went on SharkTank

– Rebranding from Mother to Poppi

– Launching during COVID

– Expanding to new markets

– Their approach to content & more

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aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Our guest today is David Friedberg, Founder of The Production Board and Bestie on the All-In podcast. The Production Board is a holding company that builds and invests in businesses that transform global systems of production and distribution across: Agriculture, Life Sciences, Energy and Manufacturing. On the consumer facing side, some of their investments and/or companies they’ve built include Supergut, The Every Company, Cana, and Soylent. The All-In podcast is one the top podcasts in the world. I try to focus this conversation on the consumer side to The Production Board’s business and how David thinks about brand building in the future. You’ll also here how he founded his previous company, The Climate Corporation and origin story to The Production Board, his investment philosophy and at the end a little chat about the All-In podcast.

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aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Hey friends,

Our guest today is Mike Fata, Founder of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, which sells hemp-based foods, oils, and supplements. The company was acquired for 9 figures by Tilray in 2019. Now he’s an investor, coach, writer and author of “Grow: 12 Unconventional Lessons for Becoming an Unstoppable Entrepreneur”, which will be released on March 29th 2023. Highly recommend pre-ordering your copy.

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If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Thank you Deb Benton for introducing me to Carle Stenmark, General Partner at VMG. VMG, short for Velocity Made Good, is one of the premier consumer private equity funds known for their investments in KIND, Quest Nutrition, Sun Bum, and Justin’s. However, Carle leads VMG’s technology practice and recently the firm went through a bit of a rebrand, which we will discuss. This conversation is around why and what types of technology companies VMG invests in. Without further ado, here’s Carle.

Some of the questions I ask Carle:

1. What attracted you to consumer investing?
2. How did you end up working at VMG?
3. What’s VMG Philosophy
4. When I think about VMG I think KIND Bars, Quest, Sun Bum, Natural Balance, Drunk Elephant, brands that have to work in retail where you make your money shipping pallets and not individual orders like to do online. Why create VMG Catalyst What was the original thesis?
5. How has VMG evolved? Why do a rebrand?
6. Did you have to present this rebrand for LPs? Does it change how your funds get deployed?
7. How do you approach tech investing and how is it different from consumer investing?
8. What’s the added value from VMG? What’s the way you’re able to make introductions?
9. The evolution That was the rebrand 
10. What’s your typical check size and range of investing on the technology side?
11. We’ve seen tech investor 
12. How will your day to day change?
13. What types of questions do you ask yourself?
14. Do you think it’s different from what it takes to grow a technology business vs a consumer business?
15. Do you think a technology business can be started from anywhere?
16. Purpose built for one vertical
17. Mirror ecommerce with online
18. Inventory management systems
19. Innovation within consumer journeys and data

1. Is there synergy with VMG growth and VMG Catalyst?
2. How is it different from VMG growth?
3. How do you think about returns and portfolio expectation from VMG Growth to VMG Catalyst?
4. How do you balance the number of investments in commerce infrastructure plays like Shogun and Swell with ecommerce / consumer facing brands selling physical goods?
5. How do you analyze founders? When do you feel is the right time to get involved in a company?
6. Recently closed $400 million. How are you thinking about capital deployment in this market?
7. Online grocery is really tough to nail. What stuck out when you made the investment in Wee!!!?
8. How are you thinking about these macro economic times? I’ve heard it’s become very tricky pricing growth rounds.
9. How do you analyze consumer pain points that could develop into big opportunities?
10. What would you like to see changed when it comes to products within ecommerce infrastructure?
11. What’s one thing he would change about venture capital?
12. What’s one book that inspired him personally? What’s one book that inspired him professionally?
13. Shoedog
14. Unbroken
15. What’s one piece of advice?

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If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Thank you Alex Pattis for the intro to our guest today, Kyle Cooke, Founder & CEO of Loverboy. Loverboy is a better for you alcohol beverage brand that produces sparkling hard teas, spritzes, and RTD cocktails brand. Kyle is one of the stars on the reality show “Summerhouse”, which I must admit is how I found out about the brand and now they’ve sold over $38 million worth of product. We discuss Kyle’s entrepreneurial journey and how he founded several businesses, why Loverboy worked, and how he was able to leverage Summerhouse the show, how he got into retail and approached new flavors and much much more. Without further ado, here’s Kyle.

1. What was your attraction to entrepreneurship?
2. Seems like your past experiences were founding tech companies. What was the opportunity you saw in beverage?
3. What was the overall thesis? What did you see in sparkling tea? What was your first product?
4. How did you think about testing
5. Alcohol investors call it the mob
6. Did you think about retail first? How did you get into retail?
7. What was it like founding a business and working with Amanda, your girlfriend at the time and now wife?
8. Has Summerhouse and Winterhouse helped with distribution? How do you think of those programs as marketing channels?
9. How did you think about retail footprint on a national scale? What did you learn about the craft brewery scene when it came to scaling?
10. What was hard about raising capital?
11. What ways did you leverage social to drive sales?
12. How do you approach new flavers?
13. Why did you launch cosmos?
14. How are you thinking about your business in this market? When I’ve chatted with investors many say optimize for profitability, others believe this is the perfect time for growth expansion, getting to scale to improve your gross margin profile. What’s your plan?
15. What’s one book that’s inspired you personally and professionally?
16. The Challenger Sale - flips the traditional selling
17. David Goggins - Can’t Hurt Me - the audio book

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If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Our guest today is Marc Washington, Founder & CEO of Supergut. Supergut is the world's only clinically validated food that nourishes the gut microbiome and delivers meaningful results across gut health, blood sugar levels, wellbeing, sleep, weight management and other categories of overall health. I’ve personally been very impressed with their products. We discuss Marc’s gut health journey and the founding of Supergut, how the microbiome affects gut health, how he thought about creating real IP and product differentiation, his approach to marketing, positioning, sales channels and who the intended consumer of Supergut’s products is, and much more.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What got you interested in gut health and can you describe why it’s important to have a healthy gut and how to improve it? Why are microbiomes so important and why was that your focus area?
2. How does the gut microbiome affect gut health, blood sugar levels, wellbeing, weight management, and your overall health?
3. Can you provide us with deeper insight into the science behind Supergut and the DNA sequencing?
4. What was the insight and science that led to Supergut? What was missing from the market? What did consumers not understand?
5. How did you think about formulation. Why did you decide to do both bars and powders/shakes? Which came first?
6. Once you had these products, how did you approach distribution and finding your early adopters? Consumer education?
7. What was your sales channel strategy?
8. How did you think about fundraising and finding the right partner?
9. How did you raise your seed round and what has it been like working with The Production Board? What’s it like with only one investor?
10. How do you think about differentiated brand building online? How do you position yourself against other gut health / microbiome focused products and better for you products in general? There’s lots of excitement for the better for you movement and lots of products out there, but probably only a few that are going to become household names. Seems like there’s a lot of buzz about these types of products that better serve you better.
11. It’s really hard to do DTC subscription well. Is the idea to become a large DTC focused subscription company like an Athletic Greens and hope to educate and develop new habits for consumers or is it to become a wholesale brand and cross over into Walmarts and Targets?

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If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

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Our guest today is Steve Berg, one of the founders and Partners at Stride Consumer Partners. Stride Consumer is a private equity firm that specializes in partnering with talented and dynamic founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders to build the next generation of great consumer brands. Some of their investments include Chomps, Jeni’s Ice Cream, DryBar and TRX. We discuss how Stride Consumer Partners came together, his investment philosophy with CPG brands, signs a retail outlet is working, and his 2023 outlook.

Some of the questions I ask Steve:

1. From my understanding, you’ve worked with consumer facing businesses throughout your career. Why consumer and retail?
2. How did you end up founding Stride Consumer Partners and why did you end up leaving Castanea Partners?
3. What did you learn 
4. What is your overall thesis at Stride Consumer Partners? What’s the typical revenue a company needs to be?
5. When you partner with a company, what are the elements of the business that you have to like or be true?
6. What is your due diligence process?
7. Last year you closed $420m debut fund, which congrats. How are you thinking about the market during these times and investing in consumer during these times?
8. How do you think about portfolio construction?
9. What’s been the biggest challenge to completing deals in 2022?
10. How will 2023 shape out in the consumer deal making world?
11. How do you think about down rounds and bridge rounds during these times?
12. We’ve seen the growth at all costs playbook play out time and time again in consumer. Do you believe in growth at all costs for a consumer brand?
13. What is a competitive advantage in consumer?
14. What consumer data points do you track when you think about macro trends
15. How are you thinking investing in consumer during these times?
16. What’s one book that has inspired you personally and one book that has inspired you professionally?
17. Shackleton, Endurance
18. Boys in the Boat

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If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Thank you Yuriy Dovzhansky for the introduction to our guests today Joey Guerra and Alex Dashefsky, founders of Airsign. Airsign makes tools for the modern living, starting with their award winning HEPA vacuum. We discuss innovation within vacuum cleaners, why they were in R&D the whole time and wanted to start their own brand instead of white labeling, how they’ve approached marketing, positioning and fundraising and much much more. Without further ado, here’s Joey and Alex.

Some of the questions I ask them:

1. I want to start with you Joey. Before you founded Airsign you had your own industrial design shop and building products for other brands. When did you think and realize you wanted to start your own brand and why focus on the vacuum?
2. What was missing about the vacuum
3. What do you think Dyson 
4. They don’t last
5. Airsign
6. John from Lakehouse ventures
7. 
   
8. How did you approach Alex, how did Alex become part of what became Airsign?
9. Was entrepreneurship ever something that you both could see yourself doing some day?
10. Why did you both feel the partnership could work and how do you each think about your skillsets?
11. What is wrong with other vacuum cleaners? What makes them non-sustainable or not as effectiveWhat was the design process like? How long did it take for you to get to the version we have today?
12. What is HEPA filtration? How did you approach
13. How do you think about the LTV
14. When did you decide to raise capital?
15. What was that process like?
16. How are you thinking about your growth strategy? I know 
17. Alex, you were running your own industrial design 
18. What are other products that you don’t think have been perfected or designed well quite yet?

Alex

• How to not F-up your startup
• Harry Potter

Joey

• The Steve Jobs
• He was really a hardware guy

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aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Mateo Marietti, founder and CEO of CookUnity. CookUnity is reinventing the food delivery experience and making it easy for busy people to eat well at home by curating a marketplace of great chefs and unique crafters. We discuss how he founded Cooking Unity, how he developed relationships with some of the top chefs in the world, how he addressed the cold start problem, the response to the pandemic, when they will hit profitability and much more.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What got you into cooking?
2. Why did you start CookUnity?
3. Employed the cooks, delivery
4. 1,000 employees
5. Traditional
6. Fine dining
7. Everything is vertically integrated
8. The chef cooking for others, but not the most attractive option
9. Best chefs cook everyday
10. How did you attract the best chefs in the world?
11. How do you manage the supply side? Kitchen space, finding chefs, quality control, etc.?
12. How did you start?
13. Pandemic
14. Why do people want a meal from a private chef instead of a meal kit company?
15. How do you add more chefs? What’s the chef profile?
16. What’s the business model?
17. What was it like raising capital? What was the response from investors?
18. Cooking class
19. Books –
20. Danny Meyer – Setting the Table
21. Patagonia – Let My People Go Surfing

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With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Anthony Zhang, founder of Vinovest. Vinovest allows you to invest in Wine Globally Without Leaving Home and Without Storing It Yourself. He also previously founded EnjoyNow and Know your VC. We discuss his introduction to entrepreneurship, what it was like coming back from a spinal injury to guide EnjoyNow to a successful exit, why he started Vinovest, how people were investing in wine previously, and much much more.

We discuss:

1. When was the first moment you were entrepreneurial?
2. You founded EnvoyNow, Know Your VC and now Vinovest. What do you feel like is the thread that combines each of those experiences.
3. In 2016 you suffered a huge accident and became paralyzed. This was while you were CEO of EnvoyNow and had to take a step back. You realized that your co-founders wanted to leave and the company wasn’t doing well. Walk me through what it was like coming back to your company day to day and still want EnvoyNow to be successful even though it was falling apart?
4. Why Vinovest? Why wine as an asset class? Were you always into wine?
5. How were people investing in wine previously?
6. What were your first steps when founding? How did you build the market?
7. How profitable is wine as an alternative investment?
8. How does it work?
9. What’s the level of demand for a platform like Vinovest? When did you feel like there was a significant demand for this product?
10. The wine is eventually is going to go bad / there’s an expiry date. How do you deal with this?
11. Who are they finally selling to?
12. When did you start Whiskey Vest?
13. Are you worried about the non-alc craze?
14. How do wine producers benefit?
15. Are their alternative assets that you don’t think make sense?
16. How did you raise capital?
17. What’s one book that’s inspired you personally and professionally
18. Six Types of Working Geniuses
19. 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

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With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is James Currier, Founder & General Partner of NFX. VC firm investing in pre-seed and seed stage startups. Some of their investments include DoorDash, Lyft and Outdoorsy. We focus this conversation on maybe the biggest tech trend in 2022 – A.I. How much opportunity is there for startups vs. the Googles and Microsoft’s of the world, which layer of A.I. provides the most value and much much more. Please note we do discuss OpenAI but this conversation was recorded prior to their $10 billion deal with Microsoft. Without further ado, here’s James.

1. What’s the difference between how AI has been viewed in the past / analytical AI and generative AI?
2. What’s the history of generative AI?
3. Why is it a goldrush and receiving lots of hype? Why now in this moment in time?
4. How does generative tech change the internet?
5. Will generative AI change how we think about search and finding an answer? Will it replace Google?
6. How do you build an enduring business based on API on GPT-3 or other AI language models?
7. What will it effects be on the creator economy and artists?
8. Do you see generative tech replacing jobs or devalue jobs?
9. How do you think writing coaches
10. What’s the biggest surprising categories or use case you’re excited about?
11. What’s the advantages of building your own applications off open AI models vs. proprietary? What’s the use case for either?
12. What are the biggest reasons why an generative AI company will succeed vs. fail?
13. How do you analyze companies building using generative tech?
14. What will generative tech do for entrepreneurship?
15. Do you think building an generative 
16. What are the various applications to generative AI that haven’t been explored yet that you’re interested in?
17. What’s your recommendation to founders who want to be part of this wave?
18. Since there’s lots of hype of generative tech, what are use cases that you’ve found that doesn’t make sense?
19. How fast are the AI models improving and becoming more accurate?
20. What’s on book that’s inspired you personally and one book that’s inspired you professionally?
21. Acid Dream - history of psychedelic drugs
22. How to Change Your Mind - Nue Life Health
23. Scale by Jeffory West
24. What’s one piece of advice for founders?

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With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Adam Ross, Founder & CEO of Heyday. Heyday is a skincare establishment that is overhauling the facial experience. We discuss how he got interested in skincare, why he only wanted to focus on facials, how he thought about expanding foot print with a combination of corporate and franchise stores and much much more.

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 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Ryan Woodbury, co-founder of Needed. Needed is on a mission to empower every woman with the fundamental nutrition information, products, and community they need to be optimally nourished before, during, and after pregnancy. We discuss how she got involved / started in nutrition, why she decided to create a prenatal supplement company, why she took 3 years in R&D, how she thinks about the DTC channel and LTV of her customers and much much more.

Some of the questions I ask Ryan:

1. What was your introduction to entrepreneurship?
2. How did you end up founding Needed?
3. What were the first steps?
4. How do you think about the lifetime value of the customer?
5. When does a person use prenatal vitamins?
6. Distribution play as opposed to an 
7. Pulvis Ventures
8. How did you think about financing the business?
9. CAC
10. Challenges
11. What have you learned from your customers
12. Consumers want a two a day
13. How did Needed different? What’s the bare minimum?
14. How do you think about product development?
15. Why did you decide DTC?
16. Nutrients 
17. How do you think about customer acquisition in today?
18. How do you think about retention and customer experience?
19. How did you approach raising venture capital?
20. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
21. Professionally - Let my people go surfing; No Rules, Rules by Reed Hastings
22. Personally - The Sense of Wonder

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Lydia Jett, Managing Partner and Head of eCommerce / Consumer Internet at SoftBank Investment Advisors. Some of her investments include Coupang, Fanatics, and Misfits Market. We get into quite a few topics all centered about investing and the future of ecommerce. how she approaches investing at a global scale, particularly in emerging markets, the current outlook for ecommerce, how she thinks about capital deployment in this climate and much much more. Without further ado, here’s Lydia.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What got you curious about ecommerce investing and what was your path that led you to Softbank?
2. In 2015 what was the opportunity you saw in ecommerce?
3. What has changed since you started working at Softbank up until now in ecommerce when it comes to your investment themes?
4. How do you identify opportunities that can scale to the ability that is needed to generate a return but also the business can be a profitable business?
5. How do you think about the rate of capital deployment?
6. This is a difficult time for ecommerce – penetration levels have reverted back to where it’s estimated we would be if the pandemic never happened. Has this period changed any of your perception about ecommerce? What’s your outlook?
7. One of the hardest hitting parts in ecommerce were ecommerce aggregators, with the decline in ecommerce penetration, global supply chain crisis, pending recession, and increased inflation. Has this also taught you how consumer shop and what they pay attention to whether it’s just a product or a brand?
8. Will live streaming make it’s way to the west what new customer acquitition?
9. We saw that Softbank lost $23 billion in Q2 this year. What have you learned from this year? Has this changed at all how you invest?
10. What’s one piece of advice you have for founders?

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Thank you Taylor Foxman for the introduction to our guest today Aimy Steadman. Aimy is is the COO of BeatBox Beverages. the World's Tastiest Portable Party Punch.

Some of the questions I ask Aimy:

1. How did you found Beatbox?
2. What was the reason why you founded it? You were early with the RTD trend?
3. What’s the difference between wine and spirits vs. beer?
4. How did you think about the category you were creating and the product that you originally set out to create? How did you think about the right alcohol?
5. How did you approach distribution? Was there a moment you realized you were on to something? What was the first retailer you entered and how did you do it?
6. Why did you switch from working with wine distributors to beer distributors? How did you make the transition?
7. What was it like going from a box to tetra paks? Why did you make the jump?
8. What was it like going on SharkTank and what was the bump?
9. Were there time when growth flatlined? How did you handle that? What were the reason?
10. What does that mean community oriented?
11. How did Brizzy and Corkless Wine come about?
12. How do you leverage or build community around BeatBox Beverage? How did you incorporate music?
13. How did Future Proof come about?
14. What was your process for fundraising? Why did you only raise $15 million on a $200 million valuation?
15. Where do you believe Beatbox should be? What are the right retail chains and on-prem locations?
16. What are you doing now with events and music festivals since events are coming back?
17. What’s one book that has inspired you personally and one book that has inspired you professionally?
18. Dan Seigal Mindsight
19. Traction - EOS Entrepreneur’s Operator System

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Wyatt Taubman, Founder of Vive Organic. Vive Organic is fresh pressed wellness shots from organic superfoods.

Some of the questions I ask Wyatt:

1. What led to the founding of Vive Organic?
2. How did you approach your supply chain?
3. How did you envision the brand?
4. How did you think about distribution channels?
5. How did you think about product expansion
6. How did you approach fundraising?
7. Why did you sell to Suja?

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Thank you CJ Fowler for the introduction to our guest today, Yanni Hufnagel, Founder & CEO of Lemon Perfect. Lemon Perfect is a super-refreshing, full-flavored, hydrating lemon water with no sugar, artificial flavors, or sweeteners.

Some of the questions I ask Yanni:

1. Why did you become a coach?
2. Why did you leave college basketball to found Lemon Perfect? What was the insight that led you?
3. How did you think about the hydration category?
4. What was your first steps when you started Lemon Perfect?
5. How did you think about testing?
6. Curious as to how their omnichannel strategy started, evolved(lessons learned), and what next steps are
7. How Beyonce drinking their product has helped them grow, did it help get into retailers?
8. And more generally, his thoughts on working and taking money from celebrities.
9. How did you get into retail?
10. Moving forward what will be the best avenues to pursue for sampling ?
11. What’s the biggest change from your role going from early stage to growth stage
12. What was the most surprising part in CPG since you were an outsider?
13. How has college basketball helped shape you?
14. How did you approach raising capital? How big do you want to go?
15. Why did you go to recycled plastic? How do you think about margins?

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Elly Truesdell, Founder & Managing Partner at New Fare Ventures. a venture capital fund centered on the modern eater and evolving American palate. Some of the investments include Made By Nacho, Mid-Day Squares, Foxtrot and Tacombi. We discuss her time at Whole Foods, how she ended up meeting Bobby Flay and founding Made by Nacho, why she wanted to start a fund and how she thinks about investing in food and retail.

Some of the questions I ask her:

1. Were you always into nutrition and buying food from natural channels? 
2. What was your role at Whole Foods? What is the global director of local brands and product innovation?
3. What has to go right for a brand to get into Whole Foods?
4. Why did you decide to leave to become the CEO of Canopy Foods?
5. What attracted you to investing?
6. Co-packers is the #1 issue - can’t scale because they don’t have 
7. What led you founding Made by Nacho?
8. How did you meet Bobby Flay?
9. What was it like working with an iron chef who is used to restaurants and creating these incredible dishes vs. starting a CPG brand?
10. Why did you found New Fare? What’s the origin story? What attracted you to venture capital?
11. Why is there room in consumer investing and CPG? Is there a statistic that you keep coming back to?
12. What causes a trend to have it’s moment?
13. Upcycled ingredients
14. Easy to entry - what’s it like fundraising
15. How do you think about portfolio construction?
16. What are some of the trends in consumer that you’re really excited about?
17. How do you approach portfolio construction?
18. How do you think about vertical integration?

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Our guest today is Annie Kadavy, Managing Director at RedPoint Ventures. Redpoint partners with exceptional entrepreneurs starting at the earliest stages of the climb some of her investments include Tend, Shash, and SIlk & Sonder. We discuss her introduction to entrepreneurship building in her garage, tiptoeing the line throughout her career between operator and investor, the business models she’s intrigued by and investible in her opinion. Without further ado, here’s Annie.

We discuss:

• Building products in her garage
• How she founded BetterSitter
• Becoming a GP at CRV Ventures
• How she invested ClassPass, DoorDash, Patreon
• What it was like working at Uber
• Why she joined RedPoint Ventures

***Sponsor***

 Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyone

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc.

aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status.

Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000.

Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.