Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands | Technology – Details, episodes & analysis

Mathew Focht is the Founding Managing Partner of EMERGING, a $100M growth capital fund investing in the future of restaurant-tech and entertainment.

In this episode of The Consumer VC, Mathew breaks down how EMERGING helps scale innovative hospitality concepts like F1® Arcade, BatBox, Puttshack, and more. We explore why the intersection of restaurants, entertainment, and technology is such a powerful space for venture capital, how they evaluate scalable concepts, and what makes EMERGING different from traditional investors.

You’ll learn:

• Why eatertainment is booming post-COVID

• What metrics EMERGING looks at before writing $2–8M checks

• How restaurant-tech is evolving for both consumers and operators

• What makes a concept scalable, profitable, and defensible

• Why EMERGING focuses on experience + IP, not just margins

If you're curious about how tech is transforming food and entertainment, and what it takes to build the next big concept, this episode is a must-listen.

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#venturecapital #restauranttech #consumerinnovation #mathewfocht #emergingfund #hospitalitytech #consumervc

#consumervc #venturecapital #aicontentcreation Join host Mike Gelb on The Consumer VC as he talks with Ishan Sinha, Partner at Point72 Ventures.In this episode, Ishan shares insights into the evolving role of AI in consumer startups, the challenges of AI-driven media, and the future of monetization for creators. He discusses the impact of AI on intellectual property, whether VCs are still underestimating consumer AI, and how AI-powered businesses can scale effectively. Ishan also breaks down venture capital trends, investment strategies, and lessons from past market cycles. For an insightful conversation at the intersection of AI, venture capital, and consumer innovation, check out the full episode!📩 Get Exclusive Insights & Deals 👉 [Insert Newsletter Link] 00:00 Introduction & Podcast Overview 00:45 Why Did Point72 Start a VC Fund? 03:10 From Public Market Investing to Venture Capital 06:05 Are VCs Underestimating Consumer AI? 09:50 AI in Media & Content Creation 12:30 AI vs. The Music Industry 16:20 Lessons from Napster to Spotify 19:15 How AI Can Benefit Artists & Creators 22:40 The Future of AI in Publishing & Journalism 25:30 How AI is Reshaping Consumer Tech 28:45 Investing in AI Startups: What VCs Look For 32:05 The Role of AI in Business Models & Monetization 35:00 Will the Next Big AI Innovation Look Like a Toy? 38:15 Lightning Round: Biggest Consumer Trends, Myths About VC & More 41:30 Final Takeaways & Where to Follow Ishan Sinha................Subscribe to Our Newsletter:https://www.theconsumervc.com/Subscribe on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4Hjm74Z...Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...Follow on Twitter: / mikegelb Follow on Instagram: / mikegelb Follow on TikTok: / consumervc

Today, we're diving into the secrets of successful early-stage investments in North American consumer brands with Marcel Bens, CEO of Emil Capital. In this episode, Marcel shares the unique strategy of Emil Capital’s hybrid venture firm, with its sharp focus on 'better-for-you' products and how it bridges the critical investment gap between angel investors and larger private equity firms. We’ll explore how they strategically deploy $1-5 million checks, backed by the rich history of the Tangleman Group, to drive growth and diversification across regions.

Thank you to our Partner –– Propeller Industries https://www.propellerindustries.com/

Propeller Industries is the leading strategic finance and accounting partner for venture-stage companies.

0:00:28 - Why Do Consumers Pay a Premium for High-Quality Products?

0:07:04 - How Is the Investment Deployment Strategy Structured?

0:13:14 - What Are the Opportunities in Better-for-You Products?

0:19:01 - What Are the Market Strategies for Premium Products?

0:25:47 - How to Decode Nutrition Labels for Better Choices?

0:30:37 - How to Select the Right Brands at Conventions?

0:34:48 - How to Identify Niche Emerging Categories?

0:38:37 - How to Invest in Consumer Brands and Tech?

0:48:49 - What Is the Approach to Building a Company Brick by Brick?

Subscribe to Our Newsletter:

https://www.theconsumervc.com/

Subscribe on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4Hjm74Z...

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

Follow on Twitter:

 / mikegelb  

Follow on Instagram:

 / mikegelb  

Follow on TikTok:

 / consumervc  

Our guest today is Ben Jones, CEO of Haus Labs by Lady Gaga. Haus Labs by Lady Gaga is Lady Gaga’s clean artistry makeup brand powered by innovation.

Here's some of the questions I ask:

1. How did you meet Lady Gaga and what was your first impression? and can you tell me about the founding story of what was originally Haus Laboratories? What was the reason she wanted to start a makeup brand?
2. Lady Gaga is one of the busiest celebrities in the world, touring the world, acting, and engaging in a number of activities. How does she engage and interact with the brand and team? What role does she play in the company?
3. There have been so many celebrity beauty launches in the last few years. Some may argue that the consumer could be a bit fatigued and incredulous of these types of brands. How does Haus Labs break the mold and cut through the celebrity brand launch noise?
4. Why did you decide to launch originally on Amazon? Why wasn’t that successful, what did you learn? Do you think you can build a brand on Amazon? Haus Labs originally decided to launch with Amazon and did not achieve the growth and success originally planned. This was a bold move at the time. (FYI Amazon is a great place to leverage brand awareness and scale but not the best to create it or brand build).
5. Do you thnk you’re original thesis about beauty correct?
6. Haus Labs quickly pivoted distribution to Sephora (now almost in 500 doors) and executed a full brand and product relaunch.
7. What did you learn from Sephora?
8. What are the lessons learned since the original launch and what is the future for Haus Labs 2.0?
9. Why did you change the name from Haus Laboratories to Haus Labs by Lady Gaga.
10. Why did you rebrand to be “clean”? What does that mean to you?
11. What are the challenges building an ecommerce brand?
12. Makeup has seen a major resurgence post Covid. How do you see the beauty industry continue to evolve? What trends and categories are most exciting to you?
13. Building community is so crucial to creating a successful beauty brand. How does Haus Labs leverage Lady Gaga’s existing community to drive product sales and build strong consumer loyalty in this category?
14. In a very challenging DTC environment, how is the company thinking about omni-channel growth? What is the role of DTC, if any, vs wholesale (Sephora, etc)?
15. What changed in their product or marketing as a result of learning from their users
16. What tech do they experiment with as a brand?
17. What are their role models when it comes to product and customer experience?
18. What’s one book that’s inspired you personally and a book that has inspired you professionally?
    1. Shoe Dog
    2. Save the Cat - storytelling
19. What’s one piece of advice for founders?
    1. Don’t underestimate experience and pattern recognition

Our guest today is Katlin Smith, founder and CEO of Simple Mills. Simple Mills are Clean, nutritious foods for a better life - it’s that simple. I’m a big fan of their products. We discuss the insight and inspiration behind founding Simple Mills, her approach to raising capital and picking the right investors, how consumer preferences have evolved since she first got started, her approach to nutrition and thinking about better-for-you products in general.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What was the inspiration behind starting Simple Mills?
2. You built a large company without raising too much outside capital. What was your strategy and for someone starting a consumer brand today, what suggestions would you give them?
3. You’ve been able to grow your company to incredible heights. How have you thought about the shift in the number of brands that are focused on better-for-you products and people that have dietary restrictitions or sensitivities?
4. How has Simple Mills evolved to focus not just on people’s health, but also the planet’s health?
5. How has consumer preference evolved since you started?
6. How Simple Mills has evolved not just people’s health, but also planet’s health?
   1. How do you think about your own process for creating your products and what are some of the changes you’ve had to make?
   2. Conscious capitalism
   3. How do you think about ingredient choice and sustainability?
   4. How has your mission evolved?
7. As a consumer, how have your preferences changed when eating or deciding new products to try?
8. With conventional and natural grocery blurring, how do you approach your retail strategy?
9. There are lots of narratives when it comes to nutrition and what is and what isn’t good for you. What’s one aspect that you think might be overlooked or misunderstood that’s your belief?
10. What were some lessons that you learned throughout your journey in the tough moments?
11. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that has inspired you professionally?
    1. All we can save - truth, courage
    2. The Art of Possibility
12. What’s one piece of advice for founders?
13. What’s the best piece of advice that you received?

Our guest today is Eze Vidra, Managing Partner of Remagine Ventures. Remagine, focuses on a cluster of these interconnected sectors, specifically media, entertainment, sports, commerce and data. We discuss consumer tech investing in Israel, VR & AR, and different use cases when it comes to the metaverse. Without further ado, here’s Eze.

We discuss:

1. I know you’re very focused on Israel. Why has Israel thrived as an entrepreneurship center?
2. Since it is a small market, how do companies approach expansion? Do you see it more spreading into europe or U.S. or east?
3. What was your initial attraction to technology and entrepreneurship?
4. At what point did you become a venture capitalist and why did you no longer want to be an operator?
5. Why did you leave Google Ventures to start Reimagine?
6. Walk me through your due diligence process.
   1. How do you evaluate opportunities?
   2. Do you think of your selves more thematic or opportunistic?
7. What are some of the areas/categories that get you excited?
8. What are the biggest opportunities that are overlooked?
9. What is the current state of the creator economy?

Our guest today is Abe Shafi, co-founder and CEO of IRL. IRL is Your group messaging app where you can Chat, create polls, post photos, and coordinate plans with your friends. We discuss: The founding story of IRL and the original thesis, growth, how they had to pivot their strategy during COVID, the approach to fundraising and where the company is currently at. Without further ado, here’s Abe.

We discuss:

1. Why entrepreneurship?
2. Why did you want to create a consumer company?
3. What was the insight that led you to found IRL?
4. What were people using at the time?
5. What was the pain point you were initially trying to solve?
6. What was your approach to UI and organizing communities on your product?
7. How did you approach growth? What did success look like/what did you want a user to accomplish when they visited IRL?
8. During COVID, how did you have to pivot?
9. Despite the pivot, why do you think you became a unicorn in 2021 and raise money from Softbank?
10. What happened from that moment to now where you had to lay off 25% of your staff?
11. What’s this change in market conditions been like for your company?
12. With all of these transitions, what does community mean to you?
13. How do you build community and what’s different between a community and an audience?
14. Seems like community has become one of the main themes of Web3. How do you position IRL in a Web3 world that has this promise for different revenue streams for creators?
15. What is the future of rented platforms i.e. social media channels and channels you own i.e. email? Will these come together? How do you think about your own position at IRL?
16. How do you think about this transition from Web2 to Web3?
17. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
    1. Thích Nhất Hạnh
       1. No such thing as stability
    2. Hard Things About Things
    3. Netflix “No Rules
18. The biggest piece of advice?

Our guest today is Ashleigh Hinde, Founder and CEO of Waldo. Waldo makes daily contact lenses without the hassle or price tag. We discuss how she’s building a brand with a product that you can’t see, how she approaches e-commerce and retail, and why she founded a contact lens company in the first place.

Some of the questions I ask:

1. What was the insight or pain point you went through that led you to founding Waldo?
2. Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?
3. How much do contacts usually sell for? How did you think about pricing strategy?
4. How did you approach your supply chain/manufacturing?
5. On the price point / margin side
6. Efficient customer acquisition
7. So you think about sustainability and
8. It seems similar to what you are doing in contact lenses - making them more affordable, building a digitally native brand - it sounds similar to what Warby Parker did with eye glasses. What are some of the differences selling contacts vs. glasses?
9. How important is having buy-in from eye doctors for customer acquisition? Does their recommendation have a big effect on the customer on which contacts they should buy from? How do you approach partnerships?
10. How did you come to strike a big partnership with Walmart? Why?
11. What does the customer journey look like?
12. How do you build a brand with a product that you can’t see?
13. What was the geographical distribution strategy? Why did you start in the UK then come to the US and how do you think about the contact lens market from a global perspective?
14. How do you think about impact?
15. How do you think you’ve grown since founding Waldo?
16. What is the stickiness part of your business or how do you think about competitive advantages
17. How did you approach fundraising? What was the biggest reason why an investor would pass or make the investment? What was the bet?
18. What is one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
    1. Professionally: The Hard Things About Hard Things
    2. Personally: Designing Your Life
19. What’s the best piece of advice for founders?

Our guest today is Mike Hirshland, co-founder of Resolute Ventures. Resolute Ventures is a lead seed and “pre-seed” investor focused on backing and connecting a community of Founders who share an entrepreneurial spirit and energy. Some of their investments include Bark Box, Clutter, and Lumen. We discuss what pre-seed and seed investing is today, the opportunity within Web3, and how he builds conviction within founders. Without further ado, here’s Mike.

Some of the questions I ask

1. How did you enter venture capital?
2. What were some of the learnings from that
3. How did Resolute come together?
4. What got you interested in the seed stage?
   1. How do you describe seed today?
   2. 10 financing in a year
5. How do you think about risk in this market?
6. Henrik Werdelin of BARK recently told Mike his "superpower is authenticity" which is what founders need now. What does that mean? Why is authenticity so important?
7. One of your big themes is community. What’s your approach to building community, why is it so important and why did you create the Resolute DAO?
8. How do you think about the opportunity within Web3? What are use cases that get you excited?
9. Emotionally support
10. Can we imagine a world where solving a problem
11. What parts of Web3 is investible?
12. How do you think about the current market/landscape?
13. What’s you diligence process?
14. What’s one thing you would change about venture capital?
15. What’s one book that inspired you professionally and one book that inspired you personally?
    1. As It Is

Our guest today is Mike Senackerib, CEO of Dewey’s Bakery. Dewey’s Bakery was founded in 1930 in Winston-Salem and was famous regionally for their baked goods. Fairly recently they opened a CPG line with lots of treats. Their cookies are incredibly delicious, not just saying that because Mike came on the show. We discuss the history of Dewey’s, why they decided to start a CPG line, approach to baking and manufacturing, brand positioning and how Mike became the CEO.

Some of the questions I ask –

1. Why did a bake shop decide to create a CPG brand? What’s the history of Dewey’s?
2. Why did you decide to join Dewey’s and let your brand be acquired by the company?
3. What did you think was missing within the cookie and biscuits category?
4. What are some of the challenges taking a bake shop and building out a line of packaged goods products?
5. What are some of the benefits being vertically intergrated? Were you able to not have as much disruption due to the supply chain crunch?
6. How do you also think about the positioning of Dewey’s and sales channels? Given Walmart and Target are featuring more premium products, do you see yourselves as a brand for conventional grocery?
7. There’s been lots of better for you products within cookies and the dessert/snack space. How do you think about what consumers want in a modern cookie company?
8. What did you learn from COVID?
9. What has been your biggest lessons learned about ecommerce?
10. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?
11. What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received?