Marc Fournier

💥 Celebrating five years, 100 startups, and the future of food! We've had the privilege of supporting the incredible journey of the 100+ food-tech founders at the ProVeg Incubator since we launched back in 2018. 💡 For a sector that's so fundamental to our survival, it is quite underfunded. Reports estimate that food system transformation needs between $300-350 billion each year. This is a massive 15x financing gap from where we are now. As the sector evolves, we're taking this moment to reflect on our learnings over the last five years. The report also captures our views, and those of our alumni, mentors, and partners, on the state of the market, key trends, and what the future holds. 🤝 A heartfelt thank you to all our founders, partners, and investors who shared their insights for the report and their continued support. Your dedication and passion are truly inspiring! 📊 You can read the report at: https://lnkd.in/eyPmPAts #foodtech #startups #innovation #futureoffood

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Only 4% of EU VC's have previous startup experience... versus 60% in US  In CVC in EU it will even be worse... (educated guess)  There are some more interesting insights on the low level of support by VC's, the needs from startups, .... in the article below  This confirms also the need for more VC Platform roles in the EU #vcplatform (see my previous post on VC Platform roles)  #venturecapital 

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There is no one-size-fits-all option for last mile delivery. There is a clear need and place for alternatives outside the major global players. proChain Ventures is working hard to support better, faster, cheaper, greener, startups that are providing flexibility, optionality, and resiliency in logistics and mobility. Delivering on the customer promise is the key to success! #supplychain #logistics #transportation #lastmiledelivery #procurement #EV #decarbonization "Drawing insights from a survey of 161 retail and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands across North America, the study reveals a consensus on the importance of offering diverse and flexible last-mile delivery solutions. Notably, 77% of brands emphasize the necessity of a wide range of delivery options for growth, with 81% identifying two-day delivery as critical to satisfying customer expectations." https://lnkd.in/dZ9yV2Cd

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EU still has lot to do, in particular when it comes to the flow of money. This capital markets union just might be the last chance to fix it... #eu #moneyflow #singlemarket #economy #investment #startup #financing #risktaking #innovation #scaleup #growthfunding #growthcapital #investors #investmentstrategies

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When in Rome… write a blog Since changing the side of the table from entrepreneurship to VC I long resisted the established practice of content generation. After a year and sharing similar stories and tips with dozens of start-ups time to scale the approach   Time for Barbarians at the (Golden) Gate blog. This is a practical guide of scaling to the US by companies rooted in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe). Loosely inspired by Booksy experience and discussion with leaders from other companies who are scaling successfully from the CEE    I start with structural advantages of CEE start-ups that make conquering global tech markets possible. Next episodes go through the lists of hoops and traps (in most of which you fill find my footprints 😱 ) – I will do my best to warn and give my $0.02 on these.   Many thanks for those of you have contributed to this (often unknowingly 😉 ) by sharing your experiences, thoughts, comments or reviewed early drafts. The list clearly includes Booksy mafia (Stefan Batory, Konrad Howard Dorota Machaj), those who built even bigger tech businesses out of CEE (Peter Bialo), those who will soon make it (Agata Mroczkowska, Wojtek Rokosz, Dhruv Agrawal), and shepherds of other cohorts of global challengers out of CEE (Andris K. Berzins).   Episode 1 here. The only rosy episode in the season. Enjoy responsibly, comment, disagree, trash or encourage

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A good dataroom makes a great impression, but is not that obvious what that looks like and what consumer VCs are looking for! Having gone through hundreds of these at dmg ventures and seen the good, the bad and the ugly we want to help entrepreneurs putting their best foot forward. So Taos Edmondson, CFA wrote a great piece on how B2C founders can build data rooms that investors will love. Have a read!

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The 15th edition of Athletico Ventures's newsletter is out. A selection of celebrity investments and venture capital contents published over the last few months. > #Nadal jumps into startup world; Nico Rosberg and Ryan Reynolds are killing it > Podcast recommendation: "Startup Europe - The Sifted Podcast" by Sifted editor Amy Lewin (esp. the episode with Roxanne VARZA and Sriram Krishnan) Links in comment.  #athleteinvestors #startupfunding #venturecapital

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Fascinating read - Investor Tassos Stassopoulos of #Trinetra has been using #ethnographies to inform his investment strategy. These global in-home exploratories have been a part of Consumer Eyes innovation work since our founding over 30 years ago and we still find them supremely insightful. For a number of days, I rose before the sun in #Jakarta Indonesia to participate in breakfast preparation and eating which took place after morning prayers. This was coupled with similar research outings in #KualaLumpur, #MexicoCDMX and #NYC. The consumer understanding we gained had a significant impact on creating a global breakfast strategy and offerings. Glad to see at least one investor understands the value of real-world, in-situation #humaninsight mining. #innovation #consumerinsights #qualitativeresearch

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I'm speaking at SuperVenture 2024 on the 5th of June in Berlin. The topic of the panel is emerging VC managers: time to shine or out of their depth? Are LPs fleeing to established names and those that cut their teeth during previous cycles? Or is now the time for emerging managers to bring something different to the table? Is volatility leading to true innovation and disruption? We’re on track to see approximately 44% of the total LP capital committed to US VC funds since the start of the year go to just two large established VC platforms, according to PitchBook data. While many established VCs maintain their allure, there is a subset of LPs who are making a deliberate choice to increase their allocations to specialist emerging VC managers - managers who have spun out from established funds and have an attributable track record, founders with deep operational experience turned funders or academics with deep domain expertise. There is non-trivial added complexity when it comes to emerging VC selection – given the large number of funds needed to be screened and the more complicated referencing and DD process. Data highlights how important it is for GPs to identify & back ‘big winners’ early on to drive fund returns. Typically, ~5% of invested capital in a few winners drives most of the return (>50%). The VC model is built around investing in early-stage companies each with the potential to more than return the whole fund. Who has the right to win? Who will the best founders (and LPs) decide to partner with? #SuperVenture #VC SuperReturn

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Interesting read from Kellogg Insight from last October. We live in a time of quick and constant #paradigm shifts, and although we’ve seen a lot of (relative) progress for marginalized groups such as #POC, the #LGBT+ community, and . However, even if these groups have gained a little more social #acceptance, there is still a lot of #progress to be made. Prejudice is still a factor in our everyday lives. So, as perception of marginalized voices have changed, how have social #stereotypes? In simple terms, #language has evolved but outdated biases. For example, the perception that women are “hysterical” can often be replaced with “emotional’ —  a different word, but still perpetuating as misogynstic stereotype about women being fragile. Words can change, but deep down the social hierarchies that have existed forever are still festering and can often let these toxic beliefs continue in subtle ways, and that’s why we should try our best to recognize these biases in the workplace and call them out. If it sounds like it may be inappropriate, it most likely is. Let’s continue to hold each other accountable for our actions in the workplace. Remember that criticism isn’t always an attack, and there are so many types of life experiences outside of our own.

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Shopping as an experience is the hottest trend in retail. The Drum breaks down 4 big reasons why: 1️⃣ Technology has hit its stride, enabling innovative retail experiences. 2️⃣ People like socializing IRL and real life experience. The Drum highlights a report stating that 6/10 people place a high value on how retail makes them feel. 3️⃣ The blurring lines of what and where retail starts and ends. Retail is virtually everywhere and is expanding. 4️⃣ e-commerce is stagnating. It’s not an exciting experience—it is highly functional and efficient, but not exciting.

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Europe's tech market has some catching up to do. #eu #techmarket #technology #techcompanies #marketvalue #financing #growthcapital #scaleups #commercialisation

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Amongst the most successful VCs in consumer in the past decade has been Kirsten Green at Forerunner So I asked her all about how startups can navigate the 70% reduction in consumer investing & why now might be the best time for VCs to look harder at the category. I loved this discussion. I always learn something from Kirsten. Click below to watch / listen https://lnkd.in/g3kiMPD5

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“When you have any signs of early demand pull, you have to follow it and work as hard as it takes to just make it happen.” This early company building advice from Filip Kaliszan is spot on, and it’s the Verkada founding team’s ethos in a nutshell. I’ve been able to see this up close by partnering with Filip over the years, but I’m so glad he generously shared his hard-earned lessons more publicly with other builders in this series for First Round Capital's PMF Method. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways: 🚧  𝗦𝗺𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗠𝗩𝗣: “The very first version looked very funny. It was a Raspberry Pi based camera. We just hacked it together from different parts — the supply chain was Amazon.com. We built maybe 100 of these little cameras and we gave them to friends and businesses we knew. That was never going to fit in a commercial environment, but man, it was so valuable to build it, because we could evaluate different streaming technologies and learn about the challenges of local storage. All these problems that we later encountered, we had already started solving. By the time the real product started selling, we had fewer bugs and ideas on how to navigate them. It just smoothed the road." 👷‍♂️ 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿): “I remember flying to L.A. to install cameras at the Beverly Hills Equinox, one of our early customers. The gym closed at midnight, and we had until 5:00 AM to get the cameras installed. So next thing I know I'm buying some drills, getting up on a ladder and pulling cables myself. That client kept growing with us over the years because of the attention to detail we showed from day one. I've worked in the consumer space before. My perception of enterprise is that if you're willing to do the work, have the customer conversations, get on the plane and get out of your bubble to see how customers are using different solutions and build a picture of what will work for them, it's more of a well-defined process than it is a guessing game." ⚙️ 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗮𝘁: “One of the mistakes that I see is sometimes folks listen to the customer for what they want as the solution, as opposed to listening to find out what the problem is. If you talked to our customers, on the surface I think what you might get back is that they want a sum of their favorite features from all of the competitors. But if you took the best features from all of our competitors and put it into one product, you'd build a bloated product with a bunch of not so great features. But if you dive a little deeper in that conversation, and you try to understand why they want these features, if you go to the customer and have them show you their workflow, and take notes about the things that are broken, that's when you start identifying the problems.”

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The future of venture is about direct partnerships between founders and private investors. This leads to more flexibility in business model and timeline, opening the doors to innovation. This new paradigm requires new financing channels that understand the unique needs of private investors. Their theses, incentives, and strategies are not as standardized as those of VC. The key driver of founder-investor partnerships is trust and authentic relationships, which naturally lead to collaboration and partnership. This can not be achieved through digital marketplaces or fundraising platforms alone. It requires eye contact and hand shakes (and ideally hugs). This is why SVRN is fostering a venture building environment through the format of a social club. We know that when we get a vetted network of founders and investors into consistent, curated social experiences, friendships are formed, and over time, companies are built and investments are made. Check out the article for more on how SVRN is connecting founders, angels, and family offices to drive the new paradigm in venture building. https://lnkd.in/gJRUinMK

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After graduating from the Half the World Global Fund, which supports women-centric products and companies, I’ve been actively mentoring two innovative femtech/AI startups: -Summer Wine Lingerie: This pioneering company aims to create the world's first PFAS-free period underwear designed to prevent UTIs and yeast infections. They are collaborating with esteemed scientists from Israel and Japan to develop their initial prototype. Geraldine Ong - Lushair Technologies: Offering a portable AI scalp and hair analyzer that provides personalized product recommendations, Lushair AI has partnered with the National Skincare Center, Hangzhou First Hospital, and 200 salons in China to advance their cutting-edge technology. Fiona Bao This mentorship comes after my work with Half the World Global, which led to two significant investments: - Passionflix: Founded by Tosca Musk, Elon Musk's sister, this content streaming service targets women audiences, focusing primarily on the romance genre. Passionflix has successfully carved out a niche, providing much-needed representation and content that resonates with female viewers. - Half the World Holdings Global Literati: This initiative launched a US$50,000 award for literary works featuring strong female protagonists. The award attracted 200,000 impressions and over 3,000 sign-ups within six months in 2016, highlighting the demand for female-driven narratives. Throughout this journey, I’ve learned that women remain underrepresented in the VC and startup sectors, often due to the inherent stress and unpredictability these fields entail. The high-pressure environment, combined with societal expectations and responsibilities, can be particularly challenging. Additionally, the venture capital landscape tends to favor companies led by repeat founders, many of whom are men. This creates a cycle where male-led startups receive more funding and opportunities, while female entrepreneurs face greater hurdles in securing the same level of support. This underrepresentation is not due to a lack of capability or innovative ideas among women but is rather a result of systemic biases and structural challenges within the industry. So here's to all the incredible women who have been with me on this rollercoaster VC and startup journey over the last 10 years! May we live long, prosper, and seize every opportunity to elevate the profile of women in the industry. Together, we can break barriers, drive innovation, and create a more inclusive future. #women #womeninVC #femaleentrepreneurs #femalefounders #femaleVC #femalePE #PE #VC #PEVC #halftheworld

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