Our guest today is Jessica Peltz-Zatulove, co-founder and General Partner at Hannah Grey. Hannah Grey is a first check venture fund investing in founders reimagining everyday experiences to improve work and life which she co-founded with Kate Beardley, who also came on the show. We ask the question what are community driven brands, identity driven brands and how brands are engaging with Web3 and how to scale brands sustainably. Without further ado, Here’s Jessica.
Questions I ask Jessica:
What was your introduction to venture capital and your initial attraction to it?
What was the transition like from corporate VC, specializing in investing in advertising technology startups to starting your own fund?
Is New York the center for consumer investing?
Where do you see the opportunity with consumer brands? What are some of the trends your paying close attention to?
Investing in consumer brands is hard because a successful exit typically looks very different to a successful exit in technology. When you speak to entrepreneurs building consumer brands, how do you know that brand is actually venture backable vs. a lifestyle business?What are some of the characteristics?What do you want to see in the founder?Is it harder investing in a consumer business if you are not the target customer?
Since you come from an advertising background, given you no longer have the arbitrage opportunities on FB and Google to scale, what are some of the creative ways you've seen companies scale that is sustainable?
I know we're in the early innings of the metaverse and there's lots of excitement over different aspects to it. How do you map out the different parts to the metaverse and when investing where is the opportunity for venture like returns?How are you seeing the metaverse evolve over the next few years?What are some of the consumer behavior changes you are currently thinking about?
As we come out of this COVID period, are you shifting your focus to any new verticals?
What's one thing you would change about venture capital?
What's one book that inspired you virtually and one book that inspired you professionally?
What's one piece of advice for entrepreneurs?
What's the best piece of advice you've received?