Taylor Wallace

Ibotta, Inc., a platform that helps CPG brands deliver promotions to millions of consumers went public today, and you probably didn't hear about it. My guess as to why? It hasn't raised money from any big-name VC firms with big marketing teams. Ibotta was started 12 years ago after Bryan Leach saw someone take a photo of a receipt for an expense report and realized there were tons of interesting data contained in that picture that was going to waste. Fast forward 13 years and Ibotta is a profitable, fast-growing business helping over 2,400 of the most notable brands like Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and Unilever. They touch over 91% of US households... Ibotta offers shoppers cash-back on in-store purchases funded by its advertisers, while also collecting all sorts of valuable data like cart makeup and much much more. They've paid out over $1.8B to consumers over the course of the company Quick 2023 Numbers: Revenue: $320M (+52%) Gross Margin: 86% (best in class despite not being traditional "SaaS") Net Income Margin: 12% (a quick turn around from a $50m loss in 2022) Adjusted EBIDTA Margin: 26% In 2022, they inked a MASSIVE partnership with Walmart that made up for a huge amount of 2023 growth via 3rd Party revenue. As a part of that deal, Walmart also owns a significant amount of the company There are some fun case studies in the S1 showing off some hot up-and-coming brands as well including poppi and Chomps. When you dig deeper, one of the more concerning parts of the business is the revenue concentration inside of Walmart, but with their significant ownership %, it's unlikely they go anywhere. Seed investors paid $0.74.share and it's going public at $88/share so that's a pretty good day at the office. Excited to see how this trades!

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At this week's Fancy Food Show, I had the chance to sneak away from the booth and spend an hour with Alison Cayne for her amazing In The Sauce podcast and it was my favorite hour of the week ☺️ There were laughs, there were tears (!) as we talked all things Lentiful and what it takes to launch a CPG brand today. It was a pretty lively conversation that covered lots of ground, including: - Tips for finding your first copacker - How not to lose your shirt spending $250k+ on Facebook ads - The surprising moment I realized we had a very different consumer base than I first imagined - The reasons behind launching into Whole Foods AND Walmart this summer and why I think we'll succeed in both! - Taking performance enhancing drugs to win pitch slam competitions - Bootstrapping tactics and the best $9 I spend each month - Why I think low sodium is the next big megatrend and why the natural food industry is sleeping on it - Why now is the best time to launch a food business (hint: because of generous people like Ali) - And so much more... Hope this helps some fellow early stage entrepreneurs out there!

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** ASKING FOR FEEDBACK ** The first couple years of a startup are rigorously focused on product discovery, testing, feedback, and most of all redefining what “product” even means. With the new launch of native GPT’s we have taken the time to develop a native private event search system entirely inside of ChatGPT. Now is when I need my whole LinkedIn network to test it, break it, send me feedback, and more. Ready to try it? Comment below and I’ll send you the unique private invite link!

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Cannabis Industry, why are you putting the primary revenue-generating system to a third party? It's baffling. Instead of relying on external platforms prone to frequent breakdowns, consider the immense value of an in-house solution. Let's collaborate to craft a robust system tailored to your specific needs, ensuring seamless operations even on landmark days like 420. Initially, the appeal might have been compliance and connectivity, but that convenience came at a big cost, both in effectiveness and expense. Today, the market offers a myriad of compliant options, including the opportunity to internalize your critical revenue infrastructure with our expertise. Demonstrate the professionalism this industry demands. Let's not settle for amateur-hour solutions. Let's do better. Give us a call, and together, we'll build a solution that empowers your business for the long haul. https://kief.studio/metrc

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💥 Big News! We've secured $1.5M in growth capital from CreativeCo, fueling our plans for 2024 and beyond! 🚀 What This Investment Means: Product Development: We'll be adding new features, analytics, machine learning enhancements, and much more to make our software even more effective. Team Expansion: We're doubling our staff to better support our customers and enhance our services. Smart Growth: We'll continue to grow thoughtfully, making decisions that keep our operations focused and capital efficient. Why Fundraise? We operate on a 'default alive' principle, meaning we strive to be self-sufficient and not dependent on continual funding to operate. Since founding Churnkey, we've prioritized profitability, and we only seek additional capital when essential to capitalize on new opportunities—and always just the amount necessary. Why CreativeCo? Their philosophy perfectly aligns with ours: support for capital-efficient, rapidly growing B2B software companies. This partnership marks a pivotal moment for us, aligning with current market opportunities and our ambitious company vision. 👏 A big thank you to our team and supporters. We're eager to push the boundaries of retention automation in the years ahead, driving healthier relationships between subscription businesses and their customers.

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Every business has finite resources, but enjoy different levels of resources and so different tactics and strategies are available to them...the same is true of creators and newsletter operators. My analysis of ConvertKit's 2024 State of the Creator Economy report in last week's Newsletter Business highlighted that the number of creators making more than $100k is growing, but 25% of all creators are struggling to make any money. Since that same report highlighted that newsletters are the favored channel among creators, this week's issue of Newsletter Business focuses on how to make smart use of your newsletter money, whether that's using a low cost tech stack, investing in paid growth, or acquiring a newsletter. #newsletter #emailmarketing #creators #entrepreneurs #onlinebusiness https://lnkd.in/g7FDza2w

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Wei D. (Founder and CEO of unicorn Clipboard Health) dropped some major 💎 gems of wisdom during her fireside chat with PearX founders at Pear VC SF Studio yesterday. These really resonated: 💎 PMF isn't something you achieve once - staying relevant to your market is an ongoing pursuit 💯 (Wei shared that to date she still LOVES talking with customers and - even at 1000+ employees and with all the success already achieved - she continues to chase unlocks for the business and recently obtained her nursing assistant certification in order to stay close to users and unlock new insights with them 🥇) 💎 If you're scared of sales, don't think of it as sales -- you're just talking to someone who you're trying to help. Approach your customers with care and listen to them as you would a friend. The moment it's an actual conversation with a friend, that's probably where you're going to get your first sale. If it feels "salesy" you're probably not doing it the right way. 🤝 💎 Do whatever it takes to get in front of your customers! (For Wei this meant driving around at 8 months pregnant and walking up to DMs at nursing homes!) 🚗 💎 The users you speak with in your market will give you the key jargon you need to use to speak back to your market. Listen intently and adopt their language! 🗣 💎 There is little you decide that can't be undone. Be smart, make calculated decisions, but don't overthink things --- err on the side of action and quick decision making. 🏃‍♀️ 💎 Iterate until your users feel passionately about what you're doing (ie. they get angry when the product is down or doesn't work). You want your users to care A LOT about the problem you're solving. 😡 Wei's resilience, grit and work ethic are off the charts. What an inspiration! 👏 #femalefounders #inspiration #techfounder #unicornfounder #hero

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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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If you are a CPG founder interested in learning more about community rounds, this is a good 101 overview. Thanks to Daniel Scharff and the team at Startup CPG for hosting, and James Reina for sharing his personal experience of running a Wefunder community round for Jibby Coffee. Without question, the best slide of the deck screenshotted below. https://lnkd.in/gHyxFuDa

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As people navigate the world of venture studios, I thought it'd be interesting to interview those with experience. Recently I caught up with Brian Bemiller, Innovation Engine Leader at 1848 Ventures, backed by Westfield. 1848 Ventures is a corporate venture studio building new B2B SaaS businesses targeting SMBs. They're specifically not building insurance companies, despite their parent, Westfield, being an insurance company. It's an interesting and proactive strategy. Brian was 1848 Ventures first employee, who previously worked at Westfield. He's seen a lot as the studio has built and launched several ventures, iterated on its validation process, hired a bunch of people (they're hiring today!) and more. Here are some highlights from that interview: Q: Why did Westfield decide to launch 1848 Ventures? There are two long term outcomes we target: (1) direct financial value from the income generated from ventures that we launch; and, (2) the indirect financial value that we generate for our parent company, Westfield, via access to new customers and data. Two examples of ventures we’ve launched, which we’re now scaling are TakeUp and Vandra. Q: Can you describe how your process works for creating new ventures? There are two distinct parts of our organization. The first is the early stage venture creation “engine” that starts with market exploration in one of our core industries of focus (retail, restaurants, hotels, real estate and construction) and progresses through customer discovery and business model ideation and de-risking through hypothesis driven, in-market testing. Throughout these phases, many alternative problem spaces and business model ideas are explored and tested. Many of these are ultimately shut down or significantly pivoted. For those that progress through the initial hypothesis driven, in-market testing, the venture is transitioned to an experienced B2B SaaS leader to carry the momentum forward into early customer acquisition, product launch/go to market, and the original team heads back to the beginning to restart in a new space. For those ventures that experience early indicators of future success (initial customer acquisition, customer feedback, market understanding, etc.), a Seed investment is made to drive additional customer growth and progression on the journey towards product market fit and scale. Once that investment is made, funds are leveraged to build a team around that specific venture and execute a Seed investment plan, iterating along the way informed by learnings from customers and the market. Q: Why do people join 1848 Ventures? For many, a corporate venture studio represents an opportunity to do the kind of work they're passionate about without the challenges and time commitment of raising capital. So many individuals on the team have come from other venture studios or the VC-backed startup world & enjoy operating and continuing to grow their skills via new and diverse experiences.

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In this week's episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with notable X personality Trung Phan about the evolving social media landscape, and how to tame the mayhem and pandemonium of X. https://lnkd.in/dVHMzbui

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The quality of consumer founders out fundraising right now is really impressive. Very smart folks coming out of big companies offering less-than-great consumer experiences are seeking to build better solutions, in everything from fintech to consumer social to digital health. If there's one thing I've learned since joining Bullish it's that there are plenty of opportunities to do better by consumers and met their needs with new or reimagined solutions. It's exciting to see this generation of builders take what's worked from previous-wave consumer companies and develop fixes for what was broken and build more sustainably. Very cool things ahead! #consumer

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Looking for a unique business opportunity? Automating the buying and selling of niche collectibles could be your next big venture. By leveraging data scraping, machine learning, and API integration, you can streamline the process of trading valuable items like rare stamps, vintage toys, and limited-edition sneakers. Imagine having a system that automatically tracks market trends, identifies undervalued items, and handles transactions for you. This approach not only saves you countless hours but also increases the accuracy of your buying decisions and maximizes your profits. Unlike traditional selling, where manual effort and time constraints limit your scalability, automation allows you to expand your operations effortlessly and efficiently. With an automated system, you can monitor multiple marketplaces simultaneously [...]

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Many seed stage companies funded in 2020/2021 most likely won't make it to Series A these days. Over the last few months I watched two seed stage founders I invested in find buyers for their companies and successfully return cash to investors. In both cases the situations were dire and in both cases their existing lead investors were totally MIA. The reality for most VCs is that their best performing companies typically need their help the *the least* and the struggling ones are where it's essential to step up. For VC's, word travels fast when you aren't there to help. And for founders, working with investors who will be there when the chips are down is more important than ever.

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This is a must listen to for anyone B2B founder. How to figure out Product Market Fit. One of best frameworks I've seen in a while. https://lnkd.in/ghSmhVNB

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リアルテックホールディングスはUntroDに名称変更します。 この社名変更に込めた意味は、未踏の資本主義の実現です。 従来の資本主義では投資対象とならなかった、だが価値があると我々が信じる（情緒的に価値があると皆さんが感じてはいる）領域にまで資金を呼び込む、その呼び水としての開拓者という決意の表明でもあります。 理想の実現に歩みを止めず、進み続けたいと思います。 Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. has relaunched as "UntroD," a company pioneering uncharted territories in capitalism. As of June 3, 2024, Real Tech Holdings Co., Ltd. has changed its name to "UntroD Capital Japan Co., Ltd.". We are also pleased to announce that we have redesigned our website to embody our company mission. UntroD, which means "未踏 untrodden," will continue to be the first to step into uncharted territories of capitalism, where there is a societal need but no established mechanism for capital flow, such as the deep tech domain. By investing and proving economic viability, UntroD will continue to create a flow of capital and human resources. https://untrod.inc/

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The #VentureStudio community is thriving and when two leaders from different studios get together it is always going to be a great conversation. This podcast is huge as two brilliant Venture Studio leaders Barry O'Reilly from Nobody Studios and Ben Yoskovitz from Highline Beta join to unpack the innovative world of venture studios and uncover the strategies that make startups thrive. In this episode, you will learn: 📈 The fundamentals of creating and scaling a venture studio 🛠️ Strategies for innovating with accelerators, incubators, and venture capital 💡 How to apply Lean Startup principles to build products people actually want 🤝 The importance of collaboration between founders, corporate partners, and investors 🔄 Insights into the specialization and future trends of venture studios Take a listen and learn from two masters.

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As we’ve begun building Oversubscribed Ventures, we’ve learned that the world of venture capital is way too mysterious and insular. We wanted to crack it wide open and make it accessible to everyone. So, we launched a new podcast, with Phil Schwarz. Some of you may already listen to our World’s First Podcast (and if you do, thank you!). The Oversubscribed Podcast takes a lot of what makes World’s First Podcast great and focuses on the business world. This is a business podcast for anyone and everyone who is curious about stories of success, failure, recovering from rejection, pivoting, and more. Why launch a new podcast? - The lessons that come out of talking to founders, executives, etc can apply to everyone, whether they’re starting a company or not; - We could add something to the (way too few but super impressive) female voices in the startup and venture world; and - We could inject our own personality and - admittedly - often inappropriate humor into the conversations (iykyk). We hope our Oversubscribed Podcast does all of this and more. Link below, and of course you can find it anywhere you can listen to podcasts. More to come! Link: https://lnkd.in/e2E6kynn

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