The Retail X Series Podcast
Are you an early stage founder revolutionizing the future of retail? Then you’re in the right place. My name is Sapna Shah and I’m an angel investor investing at the preseed stage in retail tech, ecommerce, marketplaces and consumer. I’m also the founder of Retail X Series, an ecosystem to help early-stage founders in the retail sector. Retail X Series includes events, a YouTube channel, a Slack community, resources for founders, and this podcast. In this podcast, I interview founders, investors and experts in the retail space, and we dig deep into the tactics around key topics that early-stage founders want to hear about. Welcome to the Retail X podcast.
The Retail X Series Podcast
Building a Brand without VC Dollars Featuring Sarah Kauss of S’well and Amanda Herson of Founder Collective
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Sapna Shah
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Episode 39
How do you build a successful large consumer brand without raising any VC dollars? Is VC the best fit for consumer brands? This episode features Sarah Kauss of iconic water bottle brand S’well and Amanda Herson, General Partner at Founder Collective – a founder and investor both talking about when VC is right for consumer brands, and when it isn’t.
Topics:
- How Sarah started her brand S’well and how Amanda become a VC
- Why Sarah didn’t raise VC funding for her company – and how she thinks about that now
- What Sarah had to do since she had no VC dollars (spoiler – she had to get to profitability)
- All the ways in which Sarah had to be scrappy
- How Sarah got into retail accounts early on
- Why Amanda and Founder Collective say that VC can be dangerous and is a “VC is a hell of a drug”
- When VC is a good fit for a consumer brand in the early days
- What needs to change in the ecosystem to change the current investor hesitation around consumer businesses
- Great advice from Sarah and Amanda on other options if VC doesn’t work for your consumer company
- Why picking the right partners is so important – in venture and other areas
Music by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com
Learn more at Retail X Series and follow @retailxseries on Twitter and Instagram.
To submit a pitch or to find out more about Sapna Shah, check out Red Giraffe Advisors.