Bilal Zuberi (Lux Capital) - Why investing in technological innovation is overlooked by most VCs, how to invest in at the intersection of deep tech x consumer

Our guest today is Bilal Zuberi, Partner at Lux Capital. Lux Capital Investing in people inventing the future. Some of their investments include Happiest Baby, Citizen, Carbon Health and Duck Duck Go. Bilal also founded GEO2 Technologies and comes from an extensive technical and science background. What we explore on today’s episode is how to invest at the intersection of deep tech and consumer. Some of the questions I ask him: One of your focuses is investing in Deep Tech. We haven’t covered Deep Tech yet on the podcast, what is deep tech?Business model innovation vs technological innovation Mission-oriented go to market chops When you think about consumer deep tech companies, what do you think about? What are the use cases where consumers could benefit from deep tech? Betting on teams that own the problem, not just the solution How is investing in deep tech different to other types of categories when you think about return timeline?How flexible are you with the length? Even if you do have an incredible consumer tech product with a clear competitive advantage or compelling value prop, how do you analyze the marketing and branding?Would you invest in a company that has compelling technology, but you don’t understand the branding or how it would work? Can brand be a sustainable competitive advantage? How do you analyze deep tech products? What’s your diligence process? What’s tends to be the reason why you pass on a consumer-focused company? Why did you join Lux and how do you describe Lux’s investment philosophy? How are you thinking about today’s market when it comes to price? What’s one thing you would change about venture capital? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? Professionally - High Growth Handbook Personally - Engineering Marvels of the World What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received? What’s one piece of advice you have for founders?

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The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.