The one area of investment focus that fully spans both our funds is consumer goods. We think these are the categories of products with the greatest emotional power in 2019.
Wellness Revolution on Main Street: The Biotanica
Within a few years, we will see the emergence of an entirely new kind of Main Street facility. I call it “the Biotanica”: the combination of biology and science with the spiritual, herbal and community aspects of traditional Hispanic botanicas.
What Will Happen to Main Street? Wellness!
Walk down the main streets of any major city and retail dysfunction radiates from the blank and butcher-papered windows of empty storefronts. In Manhattan, fully one-third of retail locations are vacant. In San Francisco, iconic retailers like the quixotic Gump’s have vanished into memory.
How To Compensate Your Sales Team
Now that you have great salespeople to work for your company, how should you compensate them?
How To Recruit Great Sales People
My last post covered tips for recruiting great sales leaders. This time, let’s look at how to recruit the best sales team members. Distill your key sales needs Before you can build the right sales team, you have to understand what your product does, who its buyers are, how they buy, and what benefits it […]
How to Recruit Great Sales Leaders
One of the questions we get asked most frequently by our portfolio company CEOs is: How can I recruit great sales talent? Twice a year, we host teaching sessions for our companies on the fundamentals of startup sales management. At those sessions, we offer this advice on recruiting world-class revenuers: The biggest predictor of success […]
Our 3 Flavors of Investment
We recently had our mid-year internal review of our funds. In going through our many investments, one factor that emerged was that we have three fundamental “flavors” of investments. We found that we actually use slightly different language when we discuss each of these investment flavors, because our perspective and expectations of the companies are distinctly different.
Where We Are Investing Now: Immersive Storytelling
Content, and the marketing tools and analytics that support its business models was one of our earliest areas of investment focus. That seemed natural. We had domain expertise, great contacts, and strong reputations. But, perversely, our deep involvement actually led to quick, radical shifts in our views here.
New Vertical SaaS Investment Areas: Dirty but Good
Our funds adjust their investment theses as we analyze changes in the world around us. One of the emerging areas where we see promise is Vertical SaaS. We feel that, among companies, software hasn’t actually eaten the world, it has simply grabbed the most obvious dishes from the biggest tables. Huge opportunities remain largely untouched […]
The Short and Unhappy Reign of Subscription Boxes
If you looked at internet commerce ten years ago, you might well have imagined that the future belonged to the box. Specialized goods subscriptions boxes suddenly popped up everywhere, like mushrooms after a strong rain.
Entrepreneurism and Your Cat Pan: A Horror Story?
I have often said that entrepreneurism is a socially acceptable form of mania. By that, I meant that entrepreneurs, by definition, see themselves as standing apart from the crowd. They take on risks that cause other to quail, drive themselves and their teams to peak levels of performance, and sometimes over believe in themselves and […]