Elly Truesdell (New Fare Partners) - How she started a cat food brand with Bobby Flay, Going from Whole Foods to launching VC fund, When brands should vertically integrate

Our guest today is Elly Truesdell, Founder & Managing Partner at New Fare Ventures. a venture capital fund centered on the modern eater and evolving American palate. Some of the investments include Made By Nacho, Mid-Day Squares, Foxtrot and Tacombi. We discuss her time at Whole Foods, how she ended up meeting Bobby Flay and founding Made by Nacho, why she wanted to start a fund and how she thinks about investing in food and retail.Some of the questions I ask her:Were you always into nutrition and buying food from natural channels? What was your role at Whole Foods? What is the global director of local brands and product innovation?What has to go right for a brand to get into Whole Foods?Why did you decide to leave to become the CEO of Canopy Foods?What attracted you to investing?Co-packers is the #1 issue - can’t scale because they don’t have What led you founding Made by Nacho?How did you meet Bobby Flay?What was it like working with an iron chef who is used to restaurants and creating these incredible dishes vs. starting a CPG brand?Why did you found New Fare? What’s the origin story? What attracted you to venture capital?Why is there room in consumer investing and CPG? Is there a statistic that you keep coming back to?What causes a trend to have it’s moment?Upcycled ingredientsEasy to entry - what’s it like fundraisingHow do you think about portfolio construction?What are some of the trends in consumer that you’re really excited about?How do you approach portfolio construction?How do you think about vertical integration?***Sponsor*** Introducing aVenture - venture capital for everyoneWith aVenture everyone can now invest directly into venture capital funds through our platform while also benefiting from periodic liquidity options.If you agree, sign-up for their waitlist at aventure.vc. aVenture is a San Francisco, California-based financial technology company that permits users to launch, manage and invest in venture funds on its platform, http://aventure.vc. aVenture operates independently of any investment advisors on its platform. Certain funds listed on the aVenture platform are provided by independent fund managers and may be registered as investment advisors in the U.S., or qualify for exempt reporting status. Mike is a paid spokesperson for aVenture and is compensated $6,000. Want to keep up to date with The Consumer VC? Subscribe to my newsletter Here.

Om Podcasten

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.