Our guest today is Alex French, founder and CEO of Bizzy Coffee, the #1 seller of cold brew coffee on Amazon. We discuss Alex's initial approach to entrepreneurship, how they've been able to maintain #1 Best Seller on Amazon, how he approached fundraising and was able to raise, and COVID's effects on Bizzy. Without further ado, here's Alex
A couple books that inspired Alex are The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris and How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Here are some of the questions that I asked Alex -
- What initially attracted you to entrepreneurship and your early entrepreneurial efforts?
- What were some of your learnings when you were at General Mills?
- Why did you decide to focus on Coffee?
- What was the problem that you saw that you wanted to address or the particular insight?
- It seems like you wanted to be an entrepreneur, but didn’t have or know what product to launch. There is no right or wrong way to approach entrepreneurship but I wanted to know if you have thoughts around how you thought about it?
- How were you able to validate ideas?
- How did you approach your supply chain? What was the hardest part?
- How did you approach fundraising? DNVBs have been out of favor with investors, did you get that sense when you were fundraising?
- You’ve raised both from VCs and Family Offices, what has been some of the differences when seeking investment from these two groups?
- How were you able to grow to become #1 on Amazon?
- What are some of the benefits to Amazon and some of the limitations?
- In the beginning, how did you think about brand and your differentiation when you were evaluating the market?
- How has COVID affected Bizzy?
- How are you thinking about post-COVID and the changes in consumer behavior?
- What is one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally?
- What’s one piece of advice that you have for founders?
You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.