The Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands

Glimpse is the all‑in‑one, AI‑powered deductions management platform for CPG brands—automating deduction capture, classification, disputes, and accounting. Recover more revenue while saving time – ⁠https://www.tryglimpse.com/

EisnerAmper provides financial advisory services tailored to the specific needs of consumer product companies. Looking for a strategic CFO partner? Learn more – https://www.eisneramper.com/

Clayton Christopher and Brian Goldberg are two legends in the CPG space—between them, they’ve built and scaled brands like Sweet Leaf Tea, Waterloo Sparkling Water, Austin Eastciders, and SkinnyPop. Now, they’ve teamed up to launch Astro Consumer Partners, a $400M+ growth-stage investment firm focused on scaling consumer brands.

In this episode, recorded live at Austin’s Consumer Week, Clayton and Brian share what they’ve learned as both operators and investors—and what it really takes to build a brand that lasts:

✅ The biggest differences between early-stage and growth-stage investing

✅ How to know when you’re ready to raise capital—and why profitable brands still choose to do it

✅ The distribution trap: when to go deep vs. wide with retail

✅ DTC vs. retail: which to prioritize and why

✅ What “eliminating strategic risk” looks like in practice

✅ Real talk on CPG categories: why some brands crush DTC but flop in stores

✅ What actual value-add looks like from an investor

✅ Why profitability and leverage matter more than ever

👉 Whether you're scaling past $5M in revenue or wondering how investors really evaluate CPG brands—this conversation is packed with wisdom from two of the best in the game.

Timestamps-

00:00 Intro

01:10 Meet Astro Consumer Partners: $400M Growth-Stage CPG Fund

05:30 What They Look For in Brands: People, Margins, & Category Leadership

08:00 When Should a CPG Brand Be Profitable?

10:35 Why Profitable Founders Still Raise Capital

13:30 Avoiding the Strategic Risk Trap

16:45 When to Go Deep vs. Wide in Retail

20:00 DTC Brands Going to Retail: What Works, What Doesn’t

24:00 Launching in Natural vs. Mass Retail

28:00 Building Retail Leverage Through Velocity and Data

31:00 Positive Leverage: Retail, Manufacturing & Celebrities

34:00 What “Value-Add” from Investors Actually Means

38:00 Advice for Early-Stage Founders

41:00 The Emotional Journey of Entrepreneurship

45:00 Live Audience Q&A

📬 Subscribe for more founder stories & scaling insights: 👉 The Consumer VC Newsletter -https://www.theconsumervc.com/

Follow Mike Gelb:Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

Glimpse is the all‑in‑one, AI‑powered deductions management platform for CPG brands, automating deduction capture, classification, disputes, and accounting—recover more revenue while saving time – https://www.tryglimpse.com

Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali started Chomps with nothing but a simple idea, some grassroots hustle, and their first month bringing in… just $500 in revenue.

Fast forward, Chomps is now an $80M+ powerhouse sold in Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Whole Foods—all built before taking a single VC check.

In this episode, Pete and Rashid share how they turned a $500 side hustle into a national brand:

✅ Why starting small gave them the discipline to stay profitable

✅ The scrappy marketing tactics that turned $500 into their first $5,000

✅ How a Trader Joe’s deal transformed their growth overnight

✅ Why they ignored the “raise early” startup playbook and bootstrapped instead

✅ How their opposite personalities created the perfect founder duo

✅ The systems and strategy that took them from a side hustle to shelves nationwide

👉 If you’re building a business from scratch—or wondering if you really need VC money—this episode is proof that you can start lean, grow smart, and win big.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:10 How a $500 Side Hustle Became Chomps

03:25 Pivoting From Frozen Meat to Beef Sticks

06:20 Early Influencer Hacks That Fueled Growth

10:45 The Trader Joe’s Breakthrough

14:10 Staying Profitable Through Scale

18:30 The Founder Dynamic That Made It Work

22:00 Why They Waited Until $80M to Raise

26:30 Building a Brand Customers Love

30:00 The Next Chapter for Chomps

34:20 Building Systems and Teams for Scale

37:00 Staying Profitable While Competing with Legacy Brands

40:10 Why They Raised Only After $80M in Revenue

44:00 Becoming a B‑Corp and Setting Higher Standards 48:10 Their Take on the Protein Trend and What’s Next for Chomps

51:30 Book Picks: Rocket Fuel & Die With Zero

📬 Subscribe for more founder stories & scaling insights: 👉 The Consumer VC Newsletter

Follow Mike Gelb: Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

Larry Cheng is the Managing Partner at Volition Capital, a $1.7B growth equity firm behind breakout brands like Chewy, Chamberlain Coffee, BURST, and Grove Collaborative. Volition’s unique approach? No early VC checks. No burn-at-all-costs playbooks. Just capital-efficient businesses with traction—and a partner who’s okay being the first check in.

In this episode, Larry breaks down:

• How Chewy went from a “low-margin pet food startup” to the largest e-commerce acquisition in history
  

• Why Volition bets on unsexy markets and skips the Valley hype
  

• How Chamberlain Coffee learned the hard way that virality cuts both ways
  

• Why most VCs misunderstand capital efficiency—and how it actually creates alpha
  

• What makes a founder irresistible without raising a single VC dollar
  

If you’re building or backing brands in today’s cautious market—this is a masterclass in discipline, scaling smart, and going big without losing your company.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro 01:10 Why Larry Left Traditional VC to Start Volition 03:25 The Two Types of Founders Who Bootstrap to $5M+ 06:20 How Volition Approaches Valuations 07:55 Why They Backed Chewy When No One Else Would 10:45 Investing in Physical Products vs. SaaS 12:30 The Truth About Virality and Bad Product Experience 14:10 How They Evaluate Customer Acquisition Channels 16:30 Defining Capital Efficiency (Pre and Post Investment) 19:00 Why Most of Their Portfolio Never Raises a Series B 22:00 What Changed Post-ZIRP: Founder Power vs. Investor Power 24:45 The Secret Sauce to Surviving the Hype Cycles 26:30 The “Unsexy Markets” That Became Home Runs 29:45 Why AI Might Be SaaS 10 Years Ago—But Riskier 33:00 Lessons From Grove Collaborative’s Public Struggles 36:50 Chewy’s Secret Weapon: Negative Working Capital 38:40 Existing vs. New Market Creation (And Why Larry Prefers Existing) 41:10 Knowing When to Exit—and What That Conversation Looks Like 44:10 Fund Horizon, Exit Timing, and Founder Alignment 45:40 Larry’s Book Picks: The Bible and 5 Types of Wealth 46:30 The Biggest Consumer Red Flag Today: “Made in China” 48:40 Favorite Innovation: Teslas Driving His In-Laws Around 49:50 The Biggest Venture Lesson: Power Law Is Real 51:20 Why Volition Intentionally Concentrates Their Bets 52:10 Pattern Matching: Useful Signal or Dangerous Bias? 53:25 The Biggest Myth About VCs (Hint: They’re Not All Sharks)

—

📬 Subscribe to The Consumer VC newsletter for weekly insights: 👉 https://www.theconsumervc.com/

🎧 Listen on: Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4Hjm74Z... Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

Follow Mike Gelb: Twitter / IG / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.

Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands – https://www.highbeam.co/capital?partn...

Katie Wilson is the CEO and co-founder of BelliWelli, a gut health brand that went from home kitchen experiments to the shelves of Walmart and Target—with zero paid ads and no CPG background.

Before BelliWelli, Katie was a celebrity matchmaker who helped founders, actors, and CEOs find love. But a personal gut health crisis after food poisoning sent her down a new path—one that exposed a massive gap in the wellness market.

If you’re building a consumer brand, struggling with growth, or tired of DTC hype—this episode is a masterclass in scrappiness, community, and execution.

She explains:

 ▫️How she built a viral brand by buying Facebook groups ▫️Why IBS became her billion-dollar insight ▫️The bizarre story of how she raised $200K from a Clorox exec on LinkedIn ▫️Why she pitched Walmart before launching a DTC site ▫️How BelliWelli beat legacy brands without a marketing budget ▫️What most startups get wrong about retail and virality

00:00 Intro 02:41 How She Became a Celebrity Matchmaker 06:17 What Founders Are Like as Dating Clients 10:03 Getting Hired by Match.com 13:11 The Gut Health Breakdown That Sparked Everything 16:59 Her Husband’s Role in Creating the First Bar 18:08 The Secret Power of Facebook Groups 19:01 How She Bought 20+ Groups to Launch the Brand 21:24 Scaling From Kitchen Bars to 500K+ Customers 24:34 How She Met Her First Investor Through Matchmaking 25:47 What Made an Exec Wire Her $200K 27:12 From “IB Simple” to Rebranding as BelliWelli 31:01 Why Retailers Told Her the Original Brand Would Fail 33:19 Getting Into Sprouts, Then Target 36:40 Why the Protein Bar Aisle Isn’t Ready for Fiber 40:51 The Genius Move to Launch Fiber Powders at Walmart 44:12 How a Gluten-Free Café Introduced Her to Walmart’s Buyer 46:04 Why Walmart Called to Say “What Did You Do?” 47:04 Her Secret Edge as CEO 48:58 Going Viral at Walmart—With No Ad Spend 50:41 Filming Hundreds of Organic Videos in Store 51:08 Driving 1 Billion Walmart Impressions in 7 Months 53:39 What Most Founders Misunderstand About Community 55:33 Why She’s Still in Walmart Every Night

—

📬 Subscribe to The Consumer VC newsletter for startup trends:

https://www.theconsumervc.com/

🎧 Listen on:

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

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Follow Mike:

Twitter / Instagram / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.

Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands – https://www.highbeam.co/capital?partn...

Richard Laver isn't your typical founder.

At age 12, he survived a plane crash that killed 137 people—including his father. Years later, he built Kate Farms to save his daughter's life, scaling it to hospitals nationwide and raising $75M. Then he walked away from it all.

Now, he’s back with Lucky Energy—a clean, purpose-driven energy drink brand that just raised $14M.

In this powerful episode, Richard shares:

• The personal tragedy that shaped his mission

• How he scaled a life-saving formula into a national brand

• Why he believes the energy drink industry is broken

• The strategy behind launching Lucky Energy in a saturated market

• How to build trust, win retail, and raise capital in 2024

If you're in CPG, startup land, or just love founder stories with real heart and hustle—this is the one.

To

pics:

• Surviving tragedy and finding purpose

• Building Kate Farms from kitchen to $75M Series C

• What makes energy drinks so hard to win in

• Why most brands fail at retail (and how to fix it)

• Richard’s $14M raise and plans for Lucky Energy

🎧 Subscribe & Listen:

 🌐 Website & Newsletter → https://www.theconsumervc.com/

 🎧 Youtube→ https://www.youtube.com/@consumervc 

 🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

📱 Follow Mike Gelb

 Instagram → @mikegelb

 TikTok → @consumervc

 Twitter → @mikegelb

#richardlaver #energydrinkstartup #founderstory #consumerbrands #katFarms #luckyenergy #cleanenergy #startuplife #venturecapital #founderjourney #consumervc

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.

Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands – https://www.highbeam.co/capital?partn… 

Join host Mike Gelb as he chats with Shamin Walsh, Managing Director at BAM Ventures — the early-stage VC firm behind Thrive Market, Honey, and Cotopaxi.

Shamin breaks down how BAM spots winning startups early, why fund size shapes strategy, and what it really takes to build sticky consumer brands — without chasing unicorn hype.

From AI buzz to price discipline and founder fit, this episode is packed with practical insights for anyone building or backing a consumer company.

🕒 Timestamps

00:00 What Makes AI Actually Valuable

01:22 Intro – Who is Shamin Walsh & BAM Ventures?

03:44 Why She Joined BAM & What Makes the Firm Different

07:00 Is Consumer Still Sexy? (Hint: Yes, If You Do It Right)

10:07 Power Law Returns in CPG & Brand Exits

13:21 Why Fund Size Dictates Strategy

16:10 Balancing Brand, Commerce Infra & Consumer Tech

17:30 What BAM Looks for in Founders

20:15 Case Study: How Thrive Market Nailed Consumer Behavior

23:15 The Danger of False Signals in Consumer Startups

26:00 How BAM Thinks About Reserves & Follow-Ons

28:20 Staying Price Disciplined (Even in the 2021 Hype Cycle)

30:00 Why Founders Pick BAM Over Bigger Funds

32:00 Capital Efficiency ≠ Always Bootstrapping

35:09 Fundraising Strategy & How to Navigate Future Rounds

37:00 What Early Traction Signals Actually Matter

39:10 How BAM Measures Stickiness vs. Trendiness

44:00 Could a New Social Platform Still Win?

46:00 BAM’s View on AI: Not a Strategy, Just a Tool

48:00 ⚡ Rapid Fire Round: Trends, Products, Books

52:00 Why “The Little Prince” Still Inspires Shamin

📬 Subscribe to The Consumer VC newsletter for startup trends:

https://www.theconsumervc.com/ 

🎧 Listen on:

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4Hjm74Z… 

Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast… 

Youtube →https://www.youtube.com/@consumervc

Follow Mike:

Twitter / Instagram / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.

Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands – https://www.highbeam.co/capital?partnerId=consumervc

In this episode of The Consumer VC, Mike Gelb sits down with Chris Kirby, founder of Ithaca Hummus, to uncover how he turned a local farmer’s market stand into a $50M+ premium food brand — without traditional VC funding.

Chris shares:

Why he left fine dining to build a CPG brand

How Ithaca Hummus was born at a student farmer’s market

Selling without brokers & scaling through scrappy growth

Why they said NO to VCs and focused on unit economics & velocity

How packaging and taste-first branding drove national expansion

Strategic partnerships that led to explosive revenue jumps

🔥 If you're a CPG founder, emerging brand, or curious about bootstrapping a premium product, don’t miss this.

🕒 Timestamps

00:00 - Opening Quote: The Magic of Farmer’s Markets

03:24 - From Fine Dining to Culinary Burnout

06:36 - Discovering a Gap in Ithaca’s Food Scene

10:46 - Launching Ithaca Hummus from a Camp Kitchen

13:54 - The Addictive Energy of Farmer’s Markets

19:15 - No Brokers: Selling to Co-ops Door-to-Door

24:33 - Sampling, Promotions & Retailer Education

28:10 - $1M to $3.5M: Strategic Investment from Co-Man

33:50 - Saying No to VCs: Building Without External Pressure

37:17 - What Strategic Actually Means in CPG

41:50 - Branding, Packaging & the Power of “Owning Taste”

45:33 - Creating Viral Flavors (e.g. French Onion Hummus)

47:59 - Graza x Ithaca: Strategic Co-Branded Launch

50:00 - Long-Term Vision: Legacy, Not Liquidity

53:50 - Lightning Round: Books, Beliefs & Brands

#venturecapital #consumervc #vcfunding 

—

📬 Subscribe to The Consumer VC newsletter for startup trends:

https://www.theconsumervc.com/

🎧 Listen on:

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

Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

📲Follow Mike:

Twitter / Instagram / TikTok → @mikegelb / @consumervc

#venturecapital #consumervc  

Join host Mike Gelb on The Consumer VC as he talks with Sid Banthiya — investor, advisor, and former CSO at Milk Bar. In this episode, Sid dives deep into consumer startup dynamics, term sheet red flags, and how founders can scale smarter (not louder).

Learn why many startups fall into the trap of "venture validation," when bootstrapping is better, and how to navigate hot markets without losing your edge. Sid also reveals why understanding liquidation preferences is critical for founders and shares trends in CPG, e-commerce, and supplements.

This episode is brought to you by Highbeam.

Highbeam is the all-in-one banking and cash management platform built for consumer brands. Apply Here for Flexible Capital

Whether you're raising capital, launching a product, or scaling a DTC brand, this is a masterclass on thoughtful company-building and founder alignment.

👇 Timestamps

00:00 Intro & Podcast Overview

00:47 Why Sid Wrote “Avoiding the Road to Mediocrity” 03:12 The Venture Trap: Chasing Capital vs. Solving Problems 06:00 Is VC the Right Path for Every Founder?

08:31 Fundraising Focus vs. Revenue Focus

10:00 The Rise of Too Much Capital in VC

13:10 Can Founders Course-Correct Their Mission?

16:00 Case Study: Hungryroot’s Strategic Pivot

18:25 How to Decide if You Should Start a Company

20:00 Bootstrap vs. Venture: When and Why

22:50 Go Slow or Scale Fast? What Founders Should Know 26:00 Investing in Hot Markets: Supplements, Protein & More

29:00 Valuation vs. Exit Reality: Why Price Discipline Matters 32:00 Waterfalls, Liquidation Preferences & Founder Equity 37:00 The Case for a “Better Business Bureau” for Investors 41:00 What Makes a VC Truly Valuable

44:00 Rapid Fire: Consumer Trends, Favorite Products, VC Myths

52:00 Sid’s Book Recommendations

Subscribe for more VC insights and startup strategies:

📰 Newsletter → https://www.theconsumervc.com/

🎧 Apple → Apple Podcasts

🎧 Spotify → Spotify

📲 IG / TikTok / Twitter → @mikegelb

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.

Join our weekly newsletter : ⁠theconsumervc.com⁠

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