Modern Investing with Sidepocket: Matthew Lowe, Creator Economy VC Shares Perspective on Success in Business and in Investing

In this enlightening podcast interview with Matthew Lowe, a venture capitalist at Miroma Ventures and Director of the Lowe & Hermes Family Office, Matthew shares insights into the world of venture capital and entrepreneurship. He discusses Miroma Ventures' unique model of trading marketing services for equity and its success in the ever-evolving media industry.

Matthew emphasizes the importance of being a value-add investor, helping early-stage technology companies beyond just writing checks. He also delves into the creator economy, discussing what sets successful creators apart and the impact of AI technology on entertainment. Matthew concludes by sharing his perspective on the macroeconomic landscape and opportunities in various regions.

A key takeaway from the interview is Matthew's philosophy of never saying no to entrepreneurs and always being of service, essential qualities for a successful venture capitalist. If you're interested in the world of venture capital, entrepreneurship, and staying financially ahead of the curve, this podcast provides valuable insights and advice.

As Matthew puts it, "be smart, careful who you trust, and consider the content and passion of the platform, like Sidepocket, before making investment decisions."

About Matthew Lowe

Matthew Lowe is a dynamic venture capitalist based in Los Angeles, known for his exceptional insights and contributions to the world of finance and entrepreneurship. With a background in law and history, Matthew brings a unique perspective to his role as a partner at Miroma Ventures. His passion for helping passionate individuals achieve their dreams led him to focus on supporting early-stage technology companies and entrepreneurs.

Matthew's dedication to being a value-add investor sets him apart, and he believes in the power of education and financial acumen to empower individuals. Outside the world of finance, Matthew is a fearless outdoors enthusiast, often found on boats, fishing, spearfishing, and camping. His commitment to both his work and his personal pursuits reflects his desire to make a lasting impact and be remembered as someone who gave their all to what they were passionate about.

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About Sidepocket:

If you don't have the time to professionally trade and are tired of being at the whim of the market's ups and downs, consider using Sidepocket to automate investing.

Sidepocket monitors the markets 24/7 and automatically rebalances your holdings each month. To maximize returns while protecting against loss.

That's why Sidepocket applies sophisticated quantitative methods, including tactical asset allocation to systematically minimize these drawdowns and consistently protect and grow your hard earned savings.

To learn more, visit www.sidepocket.com

Transcript

Welcome to the modern investing with sidepocket podcast, where we find some of the brightest minds in investing, entrepreneurship, real estate, tech, and more, and ask them, how do you stay financially ahead of the curve in the dynamic world we live in? But before we start a quick disclaimer, the content we are discussing through this channel should not be understood Or construed as financial advice, regardless of anything to the contrary, nothing available on or through this channel should be understood as a recommendation to buy or sell securities or constitute financial advice without the way let's get started.

Today, we have the privilege of hearing from Matthew Lowe, an LA based venture capitalist with Meroma Ventures, whose focus on the media industry has led him to remarkable investments in FinTech, the creator economy, sustainable foods, and more, Matt, welcome to the show. Thank you guys. As we're finally getting to connect and do this, I know Daniel and I've been talking about this for a while.

And I figured as a proud investor in SidePocket and a friend of Daniel's and an evangelist about being financially sound, timing made sense. Great to have you here. Let's just dive right in. Yeah. I have been now with Maroma Ventures for almost coming up on three years. The team has expanded. We've done a lot of great investments, one of which is Side Pocket.

And the Maroma Ventures model is a little different. Maroma Ventures essentially trades marketing services for equity. There's not many other people that do that. We're one of the largest independent marketing groups globally, 29 different agencies under the umbrella. Now, I believe do everything from influencer out of home, UX, UI, full stack, web dev, AR, VR, in housing performance, you name it, we do it.

And our model at the Ventures arm is we take the world's best marketing teams and plug them into early stage technology companies. And as well as smaller angel checks, and it's been a really great model. And I think it's a hard sell at first sometimes, but when you really dig down and see the benefits that it brings, it makes a lot of sense.

And entrepreneurs are very happy, but I won't speak for the entrepreneurs and I can let Daniel speak if he's happy or not with me. Here to chime in on that, Daniel. Yeah, I think Matt, the degree you've helped us even to this point, just speaks to your, your commitment to being a VC, I think. There's been a paradigm shift in venture capital where it's not good enough, just writing checks anymore.

You have to have some sort of value add. And I think you've taken that part of your role very seriously with helping us across numerous milestones. Attract other highly qualified investors, opening various doors for us. So we're very thankful for that. Thank you. I mean, yeah, it's one of those things where I totally agree that if this was 20, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, you could just be a BC and be value add in terms of here's a list of engineers.

I know here's a list of investors I know, and here's my experience. And that was enough. I now think the space is very crowded as we've all seen money's everywhere. Yeah. And VCs are a dime a dozen. So you really do need to be able to stand out. And for me, like you said, it's that value add of with Maroma.

We literally have value add in terms of we are a marketing agency and we plug in with that. And if that doesn't make sense for you, then there's tons of other VCs out there that are probably better positioned. And meanwhile, like obviously there's deals that I would love to win and I'm sure I can convince anyone that there's some marketing plugin that we could do with them.

And I think that beyond just the marketing side of things, I also still can bring the other traditional things to the table where it's, you know, who do I know that I can introduce you to? Uh, what great hire can I help you with? What PR can I help you with? Who's just a good person for you to come and meet?

I think that that's just a prerequisite of anyone wanting to enter this business is just having that ability. So a lot of what you've done is in the entertainment. Could you share how you've seen entertainment evolve over the years and what that's looking like today? Yeah, so from just a pure entertainment angle, I mean, obviously we all grew up in the age of linear television where we were all young at one point, we don't remember a Netflix.

We don't remember any streaming services. So I think for me, the only thing that ever even came close to that growing up was a TiVo where I could go back and watch things when I wanted to watch them. But that speaks to the ever increasing cycle of people wanting. A lot of different options and not wanting to be told when to view it.

And where to view it and that then led to the proliferation of streamers, which now I think that it's a good thing and a bad thing you don't have so many of these major epics, but you get very interesting niche content for smaller audiences to really enjoy it. I'm a fan of that. And then also, I think that we live through kind of a in the past couple years.

I would say like a little bit of a doldrum in entertainment innovation, where you haven't seen any major players coming out. There hasn't been like, I consider Twitter an entertainment player. I consider, you know, Netflix, all those guys, we haven't seen any real innovation like that. And we're starting to actually see a lot of that with the advent of some of this AI technology, with the way that more people are getting involved in entertainment.

Just the expansion of audiences and the expansion of content that is being put out there. Yeah, did you see the the AI powered Joe Rogan experience? Yeah, wild. I was just talking to a company the other day who started as an AI music platform. They're like, yeah, we just developed this software that essentially you can make AI voices for anyone.

And then have it say anything and we don't know what to do with it yet. And I'm like, well, I think that a, there will be regulations put in place soon enough to tell you what to do with it, but yeah, like, I mean, just how easy it is to create things like that, trust me, there's a reason why the writers and the actors are striking and a little bit afraid of AI.

Yeah. No, I heard there's all the extras having lifetime, uh, to their likeliness and all that. Yeah. And look, I think that there is certainly no one side of this is correct yet. Like the entertainers can't be the old man yelling in a cloud and like saying hey innovation can't come in like AI is here to stay whether you like it or not it's here.

So it's how do we make it fair for both sides, which. I think they are 100 percent right that, you know, look, if you're going to use an AI generated image of myself after I've come in for one day, then I need to receive fees for that. I need to receive a licensing whenever it's syndicated out because if the argument is that you're taking work away.

Well, in reality, if they can just go and make this thing of you based off of one time you showed up, you're actually creating less work for you and you're getting paid for it. Now, the counterbalance of that is, well, are we taking away jobs from the logistics people and the services industries based around that?

I don't know that. I'd have to consult with well.

I could also see a company popping up out of nowhere that helps you license your likeliness and then build a database of all these different people. Yeah. I mean, look at, look at all these great innovations, the internet, the iPhone with the internet, you saw all the great software companies be created out of that.

With the iPhone, you saw service providers. You saw the app store where everyone was making apps for all these great technological innovations, breed more businesses to build off of their backs. So it's. It's all, it is very good for the economy, very good for entrepreneurs. And I think we're going to start to see that with the AI space if we aren't already.

Yeah, for sure. Could you share a little bit about some of the key factors that you consider when you're evaluating investment opportunities from Roma Ventures? Where are you focused right now? What industries, etc? Yeah, I mean, so I'd say it's kind of twofold. One, the earlier we go, and this is true for any VC, the earlier you go, the less data you really have.

So it's really a play on, do I like this founder? Is he the right person at the right time? Yeah. To fix the problem that he says he wants to fix he or she I should say and then is this something that if they were not being paid and they were never going to make a dime is this issue still means so much to them that they would go and solve it anyway.

Those are the type of entrepreneurs I look for. And then beyond just the entrepreneur, it's okay, the classics of how big is the white space? Is it there? Who's the competitor to it? How good is the technology? How proprietary is it? And I feel like a lot of a lot of those. Kind of flags have been overlooked in the past couple of years because of how Hot deals were getting and I was like, oh, well, so and so's already interested You'd get a term sheet just by saying so and so was interested because no one wanted to lose out on deals So i'm actually happy the way things are going back and diligence time is expanding I can really dig down on things and I think that plays a little bit more on the later stage stuff where there is actual data room and I can pour through financial statements.

I can talk to some of the customers I can talk to. Other investors. I can even find someone on the board and talk with them. I mean, look, those are kind of my criteria that I go through, but at the end of the day, there's only so much data that you can use to influence your decision. And then it's essentially a gut check at that point.

As far as the creator economy goes, what sets successful creators apart from others right now? I think what sets. Successful creators apart from others is learning to be independent and not dependent on certain platforms. For example, look at someone like Mr. Beast. I think that he is the premier creator alive today.

I think that what he does is so smart. Where he figured out, okay, I'm the most successful person on YouTube. I make all this money from my videos, but he's getting to a point where, you know, a sponsorship deal is for some of these brands, their entire marketing budget for the year, fortune 500 companies, their entire marketing budget for the year would be a sponsorship of one, Mr.

Beast video. So he's like, okay, well, how do I expand on this? And he's doing the smart thing, which is building brands around himself and his content and implementing them within the storyline of his content and him as a person. He has Beastables. He has Mr. Beast Burger. He's doing a couple other projects that are under the radar right now.

Um, but yeah, that's what it's all about is. Building brand equity for yourself outside of your main quote unquote day job. Got it. And in your overall portfolio, though, is there a notable company right now that's really blown away your expectations? And could you share a little more about what's driving that in terms of what actually contributes to their growth and profitability?

In the creator economy space or overall? Overall in your portfolio. Well, I would say. Because a because I'm biased with I'm and I'm with you guys, you guys are doing in the in the financial sector. I think I have not really been able to find many others doing something akin to it with your level of talent and with, you know, the earnest effort that you guys put in of being a trusted source and.

You know, doing things by the book, which I really like and appreciate as a former attorney, I think that so often in venture people, you know, everyone's on the, my own, you need to grow faster. And while that's good, we've seen the flame outs of that recently with all these companies across the board, growing too fast, misrepresenting things to investors, skirting regulations, and it comes back to haunt them.

So. I, as an investor, would rather see slower, steadier growth, and things done the right way. And you guys have been incredibly, incredibly upfront about that, and so good with that. And that's why I'm still here as a supporter with you guys, and Evangelical, and Rays After Rays. But, besides you guys, surprisingly, this is gonna sound ridiculous.

Uh, I was at this convention, Expo West, which is like the biggest CPG convention. I guess in the U. S. like see people was Expo West and East and I randomly ran into someone that I knew from a past job and we were sitting in front of this booth and she's like, you got to meet this guy. So she introduced me to this guy, Jason, and I looked down like, so what's your product?

And he goes, well, I have a potato chip that's made out of chicken breast. It was like, excuse me? Yeah, yeah, he's from, I believe, Tennessee or something like that. So he's got the accent. I'm not going to embarrass him and do the accent. Um, I tried it. And I fell in love with it. It sounds so weird, but they have a flavor that's chicken and waffle flavor.

It's called wild w i l d e. It's so good. So it's like nine grams of protein and like super low carb. It's great for you. So it's in the protein space, better for you. And I just fell in love with the product because of the taste. And I ended up being able to work out a deal from aroma to come in and completely rebuild their web presence.

I'm doing investment. And since then, that was. Almost two years ago now or a year and a half ago, they've just been flying. Like since then, Carp Riley, Pepsi came in tons of different people. And you know, it's one of those things. I'm not a CPG guy by trade. My partner on the ventures, Will Schmidt is Mr.

CPG. He is one of the smartest people in that space that I know. And so when I got his blessing on it, when I took it to him, I was like, I love the founder. I love the story. The space makes sense and it tastes great. When he dove into everything, he's like, yep, no, it works out this ingredient, that ingredient, this ingredient, that ingredient, it's all there.

And the ones that we don't want to see are not there. So yeah, shout out to wild one of the wackier investments. And I always laugh when I tell people. Yeah, that's wow, like chips out of chicken breasts. Yeah, after this you guys will have to get me your addresses and I'll have it sent to you. But yeah, it's everywhere now.

It's in like Target, uh, Costco, Ralphs, it's everywhere. But yeah, I'll have some sent to you guys. It's really good. And if you're a fan of like buffalo or hot sauce, they have like a Nashville hot flavor and a buffalo that's pretty good too. I'll keep on the lookout for sure. And so as far as your role as an investor, how do you balance out the desire for great returns with the importance of social impact and sustainability in the companies that you choose to support?

Yeah. I mean, I'll caveat this whole thing by saying that we're not an ESG fund. We don't have a mission statement of any supporting one specific category of people. So with that being said, I try and just see everyone as who they are as an entrepreneur. And. Is there more weight given to someone who's a Stanford grad versus not?

I try to not think that there is for me, obviously sometimes that is, but for me, the more that I can do for someone, the more that my. Investment alarm is set off because at the end of the day, like I said before, money is cheap out there. You can have anyone on your cap table. So why me? That's kind of like, I know that it's usually us getting sold, but I like to see like, okay, well, why, why did you guys want me on the cap table?

Like, you know what I do? You know what Maroma does? Like why us? So. And in that being said, I think the thing that I try and do the most to expand and support is expand out the Maroma thesis to be able to fit things under that umbrella of our fund that could qualify as like, you know, can I expand it so we can do an ESG sustainability investment and I expand it because.

This is a pure, like, B2B Sass play, but I really like this female founder from Canada who is underrepresented and just crushing it. Like, if I can expand our thesis out to fit that narrative, then I will, but it still has to make financial sense. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Definitely. And as far as in the macroeconomic space, what kind of risks and opportunities you see on horizon that you are paying attention to and you think other investors and entrepreneurs should be paying attention to as well?

Um, look, I mean, I'm, I'm no, uh, economist, but I'll just say what I think that like I've been looking at, for example, I am cognizant of how quickly we're accelerating. Head first into the AI sector what that's going to mean for hardware. Uh, a lot of these companies are all built on the same processors that everyone needs.

So looking at stuff like that. Looking at different regulations around the tech sector in the US and versus the almost zero regulation of tech in China and places like that and how that's going to be as well as other macro factors, you know, we have a war in Ukraine still, it kind of seems a little out of sight out of mind until you see something from a newsreel or hear that we're sending X amount of arms over there or something like that and amount of defense spending.

Um, and then, Uh, I also am still looking, for example, I think there's a lot of opportunities to be had in Southeast Asia, in Africa, in some of the less sexy European destinations for tech and South America, like South America is one of the last places for the Maroma group that we're trying to expand and have a real big marketing presence.

I'm looking at a lot of stuff like that for just, you know, informing my decisions. Do you have a lot of investments in foreign countries and how much your portfolio is there? So a lot of our preexisting portfolio is actually European based because Meroma is based out of London. Uh, with the implementation of Will and myself coming on to Meroma Ventures, a lot of it expanded over to the U S where I still think that God bless the great U S of A, we're still the home of tech and especially Silicon Valley, where you guys hail from.

I think that. That's still the hotbed of technology, but if you really want to talk about under the radar innovations and great companies, yeah, you got to expand across borders and, and the places I said are areas that I'm actively looking, but I will say this that I know, I know when I'm smart enough about something and when I'm not, I definitely am not smart enough to go into those foreign markets and really understand and be boots on the ground there.

So I find really incredible fund managers or entrepreneurs that I trust within the space to consult back and forth. Who know that area well, because you can lose money so fast in foreign markets. If you don't understand the culture, you don't understand the space. You don't understand the nitty gritty day in, day out that a lot of investors will overlook.

Definitely that specialized knowledge is key. Like I've heard of even marketing campaigns, just translating your language to another country. And then it turns out that's actually offensive to them because of the word used. Yeah, exactly. You don't know if you're not aware of what their media is, what their average consumer is, what their religious beliefs are, what deeply held traditions culturally, you're not going to do well in that market.

You can't take your American thinking over there. As someone that has a background in law and history, how have those disciplines influenced your approach to investing? Yeah, I actually think that my law degree. And being an, I should caveat that by saying I actually have my license active still. I am not practicing, but I am still active.

Um, I think that it's both a detriment. And a really great asset. It's a detriment in terms of, I'm always the first one to ask, okay, well, what's the defensibility of this patent? Okay, what are the regulations behind this? Like, I always have that, like, lawyer's brain still plugged on, which will save you.

But also can bog you down and get really down into the nitty gritty. And when time is of the essence, sometimes that's not a great thing. The asset that I think that it gave me was really giving me an understanding of macro environments. How things work both in within the legal system and just on an interpersonal level When you're dealing with someone for example, like when I was at my time in court rooms You're usually dealing with people on their worst days So there ain't no better way to really hone your people skills when going through depositions And you know in the courtroom, so I I credited a lot with that and also with Critical thinking and reading, which is just the heart and cornerstone of law school experience, has made me a far better venture capitalist with being able to dig down and get through contracts, really understand them without having to consult attorneys.

And also it helps when I can also draft term sheets and side letters. Got it. At the end of your life, what do you want to be remembered for? Who do you want to be remembered as in everything that you do? I would love to be remembered as someone who gave their all to what they were passionate about, both work wise and non work wise, and I, what I keep coming back to is this kind of theory of, okay, well, what am I passionate about?

If I was really passionate about an idea. Would quit my day job and go pursue that as an entrepreneur, I haven't had that moment yet. And so therefore, I had this realization, a couple years ago of well. I guess my passion is being the person that can help those passionate people build the things that they are passionate about.

And therefore I am a small part of that journey and helping them achieve their end goal. So when I had that realization, I really was like, okay, well, maybe I am doing what I'm passionate about. And hopefully I'm known for that is just helping, you know, the dreamers and the people who are building the future that I want.

Achieve their dreams and also someone who was fearless in their free time and their pursuit of the outdoors. What do you do in the outdoors? Oh, gosh. Uh, I mean, every chance I get, I'm on a boat somewhere fishing, spearfishing, camping, anything like that, like this past weekend, I ran a trip for a friend of mine on his boat out of San Diego and we went for two days and caught big bluefin tuna out behind Catalina Island and, you know, I'm just as happy in a data room as I am on a boat.

Awesome. And like, having been working with us here at SidePocket, what initially grabbed your attention about what we're creating and how do you see it impacting the wealth management and investing space? So what initially grabbed me was when the first time I met Daniel A, I'm like, you checked all the boxes.

He's a smart guy, serial entrepreneur, tons of experience in the space that he wants to build in. The idea made sense where you were like, I want to take this thing that has kind of been kept in the dark and used by the best people in the world to make money and hasn't been generally accessible to a public audience.

I want to democratize it and I want to be a trusted source for the poorest of the poor and the wealthy to manage and make money. And save money for the next generation. And then I, I fell in love with that motto and the actual platform itself. I was like, okay, well, I had access to something like that as someone who, you know, had to teach themselves about public markets and everything like that.

I would use it. You know, I'm always the person to jump on these technologies and I'm like, yeah, that's something where I would use and that's kind of my ultimate test as a consumer is what I use it and what I not just use it once and forget about it. What I keep coming back and especially that's especially deep when you're dealing with something as personal may not be anything more personal than your life savings.

What do you think sets apart what we do versus other platforms out there? I, I feel like what set, what set you guys apart and continues to set you guys apart is your, what we're doing here right now. Your passion for education and educating people on, you know, how do you save money? Who's in the space that's going to help you looking out for scams?

And just general knowledge that I think one of the great downfalls of American society as of recent has been the lack of financial education acumen amongst youth in higher education, and just learning in general, like. You hear stories of our parents going to school and like they learned how to balance a checkbook and all that jazz like now, I don't think you really need to learn, you should learn how to balance a checkbook, but it's becoming less and less important with the advent of cards and all that jazz, but you absolutely should learn about tax brackets, you should learn about, you know, how to do your taxes, you should learn about all the different available options for making money out there.

I was so surprised the other day when I read how many employees are not contributing. To their 401k where they have matching from their companies. Like you're losing out on free money. What are you guys doing? You know, so it's little things like that, that you guys help educate a general public about.

Thank you for that. And what kind of advice would you give someone considering using side pocket? I'd say this always look, be smart and don't just go trusting people willy nilly. I mean, you're going to end up in an FTX situation, but I think If you are even considering in the slightest side pocket. All you have to do is go listen to the founder story and see the content that you guys are putting out there to know that you are to be trusted and are really trying to innovate and build in the sector.

So, I guess that kind of boils just down to be smart and careful who you trust but I, I've trusted you guys and it continues to pay off for me. Appreciate the vote of confidence Matt. Yeah. One final question to kind of wrap things up here. So a lot of our audience is a variety of different kinds of investors and entrepreneurs and even some probably are interested in getting into VC.

What advice would you offer someone that's interested in going that route with their career and breaking into venture capital? So if you're not going to go the traditional route, which I certainly did not, it's, it's one of two things. One is my philosophy. And I learned this from a very young age when I was in finance from one of my mentors was I asked him how he got to be the CEO of a fortune 500 company.

Eventually became a billionaire. I said, well, how did it all start? And he went to law school. Like I did. He said, I was the guy who showed up before everyone else left before everything else, and I never said no. So my whole thing is I never say no to an entrepreneur. I go through my LinkedIn messages, and I respond to them.

Mind you, it may happen once every two weeks, but anyone who reaches out to me on LinkedIn, I respond to them, I take every meeting, I don't ever turn down meetings, because you never know who is going to be that person who with the next special idea, who was just born in the wrong area and doesn't have the connections that you have.

So, I never say no, which is one of my superpowers. And then, as well, I would say, just be of service. That's the main thing about being a VC is yes, you need to know the space. You need to have a good eye for investment, but you need to also be of service because anyone can learn, you know, all these different, you know, you can learn what CAC is, you can learn TAM, you can go and be an investment banker, but can you introduce someone to the right person and know that they're going to get along or they may be beneficial to one another?

Do you see an investor update and say, I know someone who would fill that position that that person really needs. And then beyond that, are you going to be the person, if you're not the person that a founder can pick up the phone and call at any time, then you're not really value add in venture. Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Matthew, I really appreciate you hopping on and coming on this podcast and, uh, sharing your insights and your background. Hope to have you on here again on a future episode. Yeah. Looking forward to it. This podcast is sponsored by SidePocket, the only automated robo advisor on the market that combines multiple tactical asset allocation investment strategies to generate returns.

If you don't have the time to professionally trade and you're tired of being at the whim of the markets ups and downs. Consider using SidePocket to automate your investing. SidePocket monitors the markets and automatically rebalances your holdings each month for you to maximize returns while protecting against loss.

Losses are not a one to one relationship. When you lose 50 percent of your portfolio in a bad quarter, it requires 100 percent return the next just to break even. That's why SidePocket applies sophisticated, quantitative methods, including tactical asset allocation, to systematically minimize these drawdowns and consistently protect and grow your hard earned savings.

To learn more, visit sidepocket.com.