Mike Gelb

The Consumer VC

A podcast serving founders and investors that want to learn how some of the top venture capitalists that invest in B2C businesses make investing decisions.

Past guests include:
Mark Gainey, Founder of Strava
Andy Dunn, Founder of Bonobos
Ariel Kaye, Founder of Parachute
Denise Woodard, Founder of Partake Foods
Nagraj Kashyap, Managing Partner at Softbank Investment Advisors' Vision Fund
Wayne Wu, General Partner at VMG
Mike Duda, Managing Partner at Bullish
Brendan Rogers, Co-founder of Wag! and 2am
Madeline Haydon, Founder of nut pods
Matteo Franceschetti, Founder of Eight Sleep
Bret Thomas, Founder of CAVU Venture Partners
Carter Reum, Founder of M13
Soraya Darabi, Founder of TMV
Elizabeth Yin, Founder of Hustle Fund
Ariana Thacker, Founding Partner of Conscience VC
Henri Pierre-Jacques, Founder of Harlem Capital
Greg Bettinelli, Partner at Upfront Ventures
Daniel Gluck, General Partner at Powerplant Ventures
Kiva Dickinson, Founder of Selva Ventures
Adelle Archer, Founder of Eterneva
Kanyi Maqubela, Founder of Kindred Ventures
Steve Hughes, Founder of Sunrise Strategic Partners
Seth Goldman, Founder of Honest Tea, Eat the Change and PLNT Burger
Spike Mendelsohn, Celebrity Chef & Founder of Eat the Change, PLNT Burger
Jesse Draper, Founder of Halogen Ventures
Nick Saltarelli, Founder of Mid-Day Squares
Charles Hudson, Founder of Precursor Ventures
Rick Desai, General Partner at Listen Ventures
Michele Romanow, Founder of Clearco
Mac the VC, Founder of Rarebreed
Michael Ronen, Founder of Branded
Jason Karp, Founder of Humanco, Hu Kitchen and Hu Chocolate
Jackie Fast, Founder of Sandbox Studios
Joe Kudla, Founder of Vouri
John Foraker, Founder of Once Upon a Farm
Kate Beardsley, Founder of Hannah Grey
Mike Ghaffary, General Partner at Canvas
Nisha Dua, Founder of BBG Ventures
Ben Sun, Founder of Primary Ventures
+ more

Ranked by Listen Notes as one of the top 1% most popular shows globally.

To learn more, head over to www.theconsumervc.com

Founder & Host

Grishin Robotics

Venture Scout

Clearco

Venture Partnerships

Team Shift 

Venture Development Analyst

University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business

•	Conducted due diligence and interviewed social media startup that has currently raised $500k; presented findings and recommendation to head of venture capital fund.
•	Developed processes for LP management, sourcing and portfolio company management.

Venture Analyst

•	Led sessions tutoring operations and supply chain material to International Business Education and Research (IBEAR) students

Teacher Assistant

Sunset Canyon Group

I co-founded an ecommerce private label company that sourced, marketed and sold consumer products on Amazon as well as our own brand sites. The company sold chair hammocks, laybags and mason jar soap dispensers.

•	Researched and analyzed niche-markets. Founded and launched e-commerce businesses selling retail consumer products, growing business to $25k in monthly sales
•	Negotiated product sourcing with American and Chinese manufacturers.
•	Sold direct to consumer products on Amazon.com and analyzed key search terms in order to improve return on ad spend.

Business Development Strategist

Smart eStrategy

Smart eStrategy is a digital marketing service that specializes in Social Media and Website Optimiation for ecommerce and service products. Their main clientele are startups that already have operations processes in place to which they're in a position to scale exponentially. 

•	Managed non-profit’s Facebook marketing business and grew business over 2,000%, by using data analytics to analyze consumer segments and building a sales funnel.
•	Lead sales calls with prospective clients and grew business revenue by $80k / year.
•	Audited prospective clients Facebook Business, Website, and Google Analytics accounts and recommended sales strategies.

Ads Strategist

William Morris Endeavor

William Morris Endeavor is one of the largest entertainment agencies in the world. Fortune lists them as top 25 private companies. From critically acclaimed television and film to bestselling novels and sold-out concerts, they influence an unparalleled amount of compelling experiences created around the world each day.

•	Managed contracts for $30M+ in gross earnings and 400 shows per in the north-east of the United States, including Foo Fighters, Florence and the Machine, Sam Smith, Peter Frampton, Morrissey.
•	Coordinated day to day operations for artists such as Tool, Puscifer, Godsmack, The Cult, Failure.
•	Negotiated deal points and contract language with major and independent promoters including Live Nation, AEG, C3 Presents, SLP Presents, Kirschner Concerts.

Music Assistant

•	Proposed and pitched the premier “Spartan Cruise” to Senior Management (The first fitness obstacle course cruise by Spartan Race and by WME and the first cruise with a major brand in the obstacle race industry.)
•	Managed bookings of artists for music cruises and celebrities for comic-con appearances, including Whoopi Goldberg, among others.

•	Managed offices in the music department when staff were absent.
•	Managed ticket counts from promoters for entire company roster.

Music Floater

Howard Benson

•	Studio Caretaker during Rascal Flatts recordings. Documented signal flow.
•	Interim manager of band “Broadway Bullies”. Handled all social media.

Assistant/Runner

BOK Music Publishing

•	Reviewed and organized company catalog for performance rights organizations.

Intern

I produce content that teaches you how the top consumer VCs invest in the most exciting brands and B2C technology. 

Some of the content I produce:

🎧  Podcast - Learn from some of the top VCs on your time by tuning in twice a week. 
Check it out 👉 theconsumervc.com

🏔 Live events - Come and interact with investors and founders. Last one was with Ty Haney, Founder of Outdoor Voices in Austin on 10/13

✍️ The Consumer Fortnight Newsletter - I share a bit of deal flow to help founders fundraise.
If you're an investor, apply to be added here 👉 https://forms.gle/v2u7wEvwodrNxaQt9

Thank you for reading!

There are more people trying to become VCs than there are jobs.

Here are 5 tips to help you get in the door 👇

P.S. Want more content about VCs and startups? Join 2,900+ investors and founders and subscribe to The Consumer VC newsletter here https://lnkd.in/eMtpxGhU

#venturecapital #startups #newsletter #consumervc 

Garrett McNamara is a pro surfer who surfs 100 ft+ waves.

A couple of days ago, my wife Molly and I listened to his episode on Rich Roll's podcast while driving back from San Diego.

We were both so inspired by his story and started watching his HBO series 100-foot Wave – which is awesome.

Garrett surfed all his life, but in his mid-thirties, he left surfing to open a surf shop.

He hated it.

But felt he had to in order to support his family.

But he really wanted to be surfing every day and wanted to get into big wave surfing.

He made a blueprint and plan on how surfing would support his family.

And after winning a couple of big surfing competitions, he got there.

////////

As someone who went through a career pivot a few years ago, I can relate to this story.

It took me a long time to realize what my goals and dreams are professionally.

But I'm so happy I stuck with it and believed.

It's never too late.

Why does the vacuum need a remodel?




On the latest episode of The Consumer VC I chat with Joseph Guerra and Alex Dashefsky founders of Airsign 

Airsign makes tools for modern living, starting with their award-winning HEPA vacuum.

We discuss:
• How Joey got into industrial design
• Why he wanted to start his own brand vs. of building products for others
• Why Alex joined
• Approach to building out their supply chain
• How they scaled organically
• Pricing strategies & brand positioning
& much more

Listen to the full episode & join 2,800+ subscribers here https://lnkd.in/gfHwKVwa

Thank you Yuriy Dovzhansky for the introduction

////

This episode is brought to you by aVenture 

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through their platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

For fund managers, aVenture can help streamline your operations while providing the infrastructure to raise from accredited & non-accredited investors.

Sign up for their waiting list & be part of the future

https://aventure.vc/


#podcast #venturecapital #startups 

On tomorrow's episode of The Consumer VC , I chat with Steven Berg, Co-Founder & Partner at Stride Consumer Partners

Investors in Drybar, Chomps, TRX, Jeni's Ice Cream

Join 2,800+ others and get the episode directly in your inbox by signing up below

www.theconsumervc.com

What’s an example of a food or beverage brand that was bootstrapped and grew REALLY big?

#startups #food #beverage

Why does getting healthy start with your gut?





It was awesome chatting with Marc Washington, Founder & CEO of Supergut 

Supergut is the world's only clinically validated food that nourishes the gut microbiome and delivers meaningful results across gut health, blood sugar levels, well-being, sleep, weight management, and other categories of overall health.

We discuss:
• Marc’s health journey
• How Dave Friedberg pushed him to think deeper about the microbiome
• How the microbiome affects gut health
• What is DNA sequencing?
• What is real product innovation within CPG

https://lnkd.in/gwe9wJ3e

//////

This episode is brought to you by aVenture 

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through their platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

For fund managers, aVenture can help streamline your operations while providing the infrastructure to raise from accredited & non-accredited investors.

Sign up for their waiting list & be part of the future

https://aventure.vc/

#podcast #consumervc #startups #venturecapital 

Want to make sure you don't miss the latest deals in consumer?

Join 2,890+ VCs and founders and subscribe to The Consumer VC Roundup which features everything from the past week

Here's the latest edition (that just went out) 👇

https://lnkd.in/g4TKpR3F

#venturecapital #consumerproducts #startups #consumervc 

It's difficult to know if you should pivot your business to another product.

But some of the most successful companies today came from a pivot, here are a few 👇


P.S. Want more content about startups? Join 2,900+ investors and founders and subscribe here https://lnkd.in/eMtpxGhU

#startups #entrepreneur #business 

Coming your way in April 2023. Signup to get the first issue here: https://campfire.scot

Open article: Campfire: The voice of Scotland's Startup Founders by campfire.scot

He's a reality TV star that decided to start a $38m alcohol brand

New The Consumer VC podcast

It was great chatting with Kyle Cooke, Founder & CEO of Loverboy Inc.

Loverboy is a BFY alcohol brand that produces sparkling hard teas, spritzes, and ready to drink cocktails.

He's also one of the stars on Bravo's "Summerhouse" and "Winterhouse"

We discuss:
The origin story of the show “Summerhouse”
• Kyle’s journey before Loverboy
• Why Loverboy worked
• How he leveraged his reality TV show audiences
• Product formulation and releasing new SKUs
• Why alcohol doesn’t have labels

Join 2,900+ others and subscribe to listen to the full episode https://lnkd.in/g2xBp6J9

////

This episode is brought to you by aVenture

With aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through their platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.

For fund managers, aVenture can help streamline your operations while providing the infrastructure to raise from accredited & non-accredited investors.

Sign up for their waiting list & be part of the future

aventure.vc

Taplio

Mike Gelb's Linkedin Analytics

Mike Gelb

What is Mike talking about?

Who is engaging with Mike

Mike Gelb's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Mike Gelb's Linkedin Analytics

Mike Gelb

What is Mike talking about?

Who is engaging with Mike

Mike Gelb's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Mike Gelb's Linkedin Analytics

Mike Gelb's Best Posts (last 30 days)