Upstream Events, Cookie Dough & Cocktails
Hi There,
I'm thrilled to welcome you to The Consumer Weekly - The Consumer VC’s Weekly Newsletter. This will be a centralized place that will feature -
Upstream community event and summit announcements.
Recaps and my learnings from podcast episodes.
Links to articles I found useful and helpful.
Blogposts about innovation in consumer technology or consumer products
If you're receiving this email, you either signed up as a subscriber via The Consumer VC's site or are part of The Consumer VC group on Upstream.
Today's Upstream Event
If you're around today (3/11) at 4pm ET / 1pm PT I am thrilled to welcome Anne Lee Skates, Investment Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, as our speaker for our Investor / Founder meetup on Upstream!
For those that haven't been before, it's a 25-30 minute event total (10-15 minute chat with Anne + 15-20 minute of three 1on1 video matches with other attendees). It's really fun.
The Next Summit
Marc and I are excited to announce our next summit which will focus on categories that have faced stigma and judgement in the past. Subjects including mental health, femtech, cannabis, CBD, sexual wellness, end of life, addiction, among others. We're calling it The Stigma Summit, and are looking forward to welcoming you May 25-27. This will be three full days of talks, panels and networking events.
Marc and I are currently working on confirming participants and the panels. If this sounds interesting, we're offering a 50% discount to purchase your ticket for the month of March.
Click Here to Purchase Your Ticket
Enter EARLYBIRD at checkout to claim your discount
This Week on The Consumer VC
Kelsey Moreira, Founder & Co-CEO of Doughp
Click Here to Listen to the Episode
Company: Doughp is a company that not only has a mission of serving the world's best edible & bakeable cookie dough, but also reducing stigmas around mental health and addiction recovery to make the world a little sweeter along the way.
My takeaways: Thanks to her journey to sobriety, Kelsey rediscovered her passions for baking. Instead of standing still / taking a vacation during her 10 week sabbatical from Intel, she decided to follow her sweet tooth to use that time to see if there was enough differentiation and demand for her product to turn it into a full business. What impressed me most about Kelsey was her ability to get sober, and while in the process turn a passion into a business. Also, being very methodical and risk averse when launching. The story as well of how she had to pivot very abruptly and quickly during the early days of COVID was also fascinating to hear.
Kelsey's Advice for Founders: “Hire for what you suck out. As you get started, and as you start to grow, learn what those areas are that you're going to add unique value, where you're really going to move the needle.. and then hire for all other areas as it becomes financially available… It’s critical that you start to figure out where you're going to move the needle and where you should have an employee or an agency or consultant, you know, taking over another arm. Another one that’s helped me succeed so far is operating as if success is inevitable.”
Brandon Schwartz & Lawrence Cisneros, Co-Founders of DRNXMYTH
Click Here to Listen to the Episode
Company: DRNXMYTH delivers premium cocktails with fresh ingredients with their amazing bottle.
My Takeaways: When Brandon and Lawrence thought about how to create better tasting cocktails, they focused on how ready to drink cocktails were currently consumed. Their innovation, which they spent years testing and developing IP around, was their pressurized bottle that kept the alcohol and the juice/mixer separate. Only once you are ready to drink the cocktail, do you twist, which blends the pairs, and shake. As a result, DRNXMYTH cocktails taste as though you made the cocktail from scratch. I really enjoyed listening to how they approach partnerships with bartenders, decision making process creating new cocktails and developing DRNXMYTH into a marketplace that connects consumers and brands.
Their Piece of Advice to Founders: “Focus on your product, a lot of people get caught up in trying to make a cool brand or becoming obsessed with some particular marketing tactic. And you're relying on marketing and brand building that cost a ton of money, and a lot of It's much better when you spend all your upfront time on the product or service that you're trying to sell and making that thing sell itself.”
Good Reads
Burger King’s New Logo Reveals Why Brands Are Obsessed With ‘Flat Design’ by Stephen Moore
Survey: A Year Into COVID-19, Shoppers Say They Need Better Shipping Updates by
Lego sales soared in 2020, but don’t just credit stay-at-home trends, it’s gaining fans in China by Sarah Witten
The Consumer Fortnight
I also run a private newsletter called The Consumer Fortnight, where I share a bit of deal flow to investors in my network.
Are you a founder currently fundraising?
Click Here to apply to be featured.
Are you an investor in early stage B2C businesses?
Click Here to apply to join the distribution list
Thanks for reading! Will have more for you next week.
Mike
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