Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands | Technology

Bruce Smith (Hydrow) - Why He Believes Rowers Could Overtake Bikes, The State of Connected Fitness, and How Kevin Hart Became Their Creative Director

Our guest today is Bruce Smith, CEO and Founder of Hydrow. Hydrow is a connected home rowing machine that offers live and pre-recorded fitness content on demand, where the instructors are outside rowing on the water.We discuss:The origin story of founding a rowing-connected fitness companyPrototyping & finding the right manufacturerWhy it was important to have the instructors on the water rowingThe ratio between treadmills, bikes and rowers at gymsHow he met Kevin Hart & became Creative DirectorThe current headwinds in connected fitness & much more****Sponsor****This issue is brought to you by Vauban from Carta. Vauban from Carta is the easiest way to launch & run your venture investing. They offer SPVs, and fund vehicles for GPs at all stages of the journey - from your first syndicate to operating a multi-million dollar venture fund. Their end-to-end platform automates your back-office and manual workflows so you can focus on what matters: finding the next unicorn & building investor relationships.Click Here to Get Started

Ken Sadowsky (Verlinvest) - What He Saw In VIta Coco and Vitamin Water Early, Beverage Trends He's Bearish On and How to Evaluate Entrepreneurs

Thank you Clement for the introduction to our guest today, Ken Sadowsky, or, as Forbes dubbed him “The Beverage Whisperer”. Ken grew up in the beverage business. His grandfather started the beverage distributor Atlas Distributing and he was the first to distribute Vita Coco and also was the Director of Energy Brands Inc., makers of Vitamin Water, Smart Water and Fruit Water, which they eventually sold to Coca Cola for $4.1 Billion. Now he’s a Beverage Advisor to Verlinest, which is Anheuser-Busch InBev’s investment arm. We discuss his story, what are the opportunities within beverage today, if there’s a trend that he’s not sold on and how to identify great entrepreneurs.****Sponsor****This issue is brought to you by Vauban from Carta. Vauban from Carta is the easiest way to launch & run your venture investing. They offer SPVs, and fund vehicles for GPs at all stages of the journey - from your first syndicate to operating a multi-million dollar venture fund. Their end-to-end platform automates your back-office and manual workflows so you can focus on what matters: finding the next unicorn & building investor relationships.Click Here to Get Started

Deepak Shahdadpuri (DSG Consumer Partners) - Why India is Ripe for Premium Consumer Brands, How to Localize Brands, and Trends In India and South East Asia

Our guest today is Deepak Shahdadpuri, Founder and Managing Director of DSG Consumer Partners. DSG Consumer Partners is India & Southeast Asia's leading consumer-only venture capital fund. Some of their investments are Veeba, Piccolo Organic, and The Golden Duck. We focus this conversation on what makes India an exciting and different consumer market than the U.S., why Indian premium brands are ripe for growth, and he went from growth stage / later stage investing to earlier stage investing. This issue is brought to you by Vauban from Carta. Vauban from Carta is the easiest way to launch & run your venture investing. They offer SPVs, and fund vehicles for GPs at all stages of the journey - from your first syndicate to operating a multi-million dollar venture fund. Their end-to-end platform automates your back-office and manual workflows so you can focus on what matters: finding the next unicorn & building investor relationships.Click Here to Get Started

Will Nitze (IQ Bar) - How He Leveraged Harvard and Growth Hacked Indie Gogo, Why He Entered Conventional Grocery Over the Natural Channel, and Brain Food Explained

Thank you Caroline McMorrow for the intro to our guest today Will Nitze, Founder & CEO of IQ Bar. IQ Bar is a plant-based protein bar company for your brain and body! We discuss how Will got turned on to brain food and the origin story of IQ Bar, how he growth hacked his Indie Gogo campaign which I had never heard of anything like he did before, getting into retail, why they went conventional first, which is unusual and why they aren’t in Whole Foods currently. Without further ado, here’s Will.Some of the questions I ask Will:What were you doing before IQ Bar?What was the genesis behind the brand?What is brain food?Why a bar? What was still left to be conquered in bars?How did you get into retail?How did you approach formulation?How do you think about your branding a copy and being accessible but also very serious about nutrition?Did you first do DTC?Why did you do a Kickstarter campaign?***Sponsor*** Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyoneWith 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.

Mark Samuel (IWON Organics) - Why His Entrepreneurial Journey Led Him to CPG, What’s Difficult About Scaling a Health Brand, Approach To New Sales Channels and Media

Our guest today is Mark Samuel, Founder & CEO of IWON Organics. IWON Organics snacks are delicious, high-protein, Non-GMO, gluten-free, plant-based snacks made from purely organic ingredients. This was a treat for me as I’ve been following Mark on LinkedIn for a long time and it was great to finally connect with him. We discussed his health journey and entrepreneur journey, why his road eventually led to CPG, what he thought about building a brand vs. what he knows now, how he thinks about new sales channels and growth and more.We discuss:When did you get serious about your health?What attracted you to entrepreneurship?How do you found IWON organics? What’s the problem that you’re attempting to solve?What was your approach to creating the product?How did you approach creating the supply chain?How did you get into your first retail accounts?What are the future areas of expansion, and what is the end game for them?When did you start posting on LinkedIn and starting a podcast/Youtube channel?How has your role evolved?How do you think about how much capital to raiseWhat were some of the early mistakes you made in CPG?How is CPG different to some of the other businesses you’ve founded?How are you approaching today’s market?What’s one book that has inspired you personally and one ***Sponsor*** Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyoneWith 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.