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January FirstLook Brands
Highlights From Our January Box, Founder Pro Tips, and more.
FirstLook
April 23, 2023
Welcome to our 31 new subscribers since our newsletter. I'll try my best to keep this fun, light, and informative. I'm glad you're here.
S̄wạs̄dī! ("Hi" in Thai)
Things have been COOKIN' at FirstLook. Ponto Shoes, a brand in the February 2023 FirstLook box, turned into a lovely success story after raising $143K total from 3 investors. Congrats to co-founders Aaron and Joey. Big win!
With the investments in Ponto, FirstLook is now at $7.65M raised for brands! That said, if you have a friend who's raising, please forward this email over to them. I'm now lining up the right brands for the June, July, and August boxes now.
I'm going to stop my usual ramble here and let the remainder of this newsletter cover exciting updates on the real heroes behind FirstLook- the founders of the brands we've worked with.
Alumni Brands Making Moves
Congrats to Cure Hydration on the recent $5.6M raise! Fun Fact: Cure was in the very FIRST ever FirstLook box back in 2020.
American Provenance has launched in 400 Walmart stores throughout the US!
Chasin' Dreams Farm launches new line of snacks, Crunchy Ancient Grain Puffs
Scent Lab lands a glowing feature in Rolling Stone- "AI to generate a scent for you"
NextDay launches distribution in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina
4AM Skincare is launching in Urban Outfitters this summer, and will be a featured brand in Thirteen Lune's first brick and mortar store in Larchmont, CA opening in May
WOO more play launches the Disco Stick G-Spot Vibrator and Shag Juice Water-Based Lubricant. Their Coconut Love Oil was named a Best Flavored category winner in Cosmopolitan's 2023 Lube Awards
Anact will launch on Verishop in collaboration with Buzzfeed, Plain Tiger, Earth Hero and Target.com in Q2 '23
GoNanas will launch globally next month with Whole Foods + Target this fall which equates to 1000+ doors in a 100 day span!
Jibby brings on key advisors from Angie's Boom Chikka Pop and Mars to help develop non-CBD powdered lattes. They're wrapping up a seed round now, email [email protected] for deck
HVMN's Ketone-IQ launches nationwide in Sprouts
Esker Beauty recently had their first national TV spot on the Today Show (start video at 2:53).
Pink Moon's Rose Quartz Gua Sha tool and Over the Moon Gua Sha Facial Oil were selected by Reese Witherspoon's media company's Hello Sunshine and Reese's Book Club for Mother's Day Gift Guide and "Favorite Finds".
Craftmix rolls out internationally on all JetBlue flights starting July 1st 2023 + a national roll out into all Amazon Fresh stores Sept 2023
Baozza is now in 4600 locations nationwide including Walmart, Kroger, Target, Schnuck’s, Meijer, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, and Sprouts
Buoy Hydration brings on NBA Superstar Chris Paul as an investor + Steven Vigilante (Director of Growth and Talent at Olipop) and Robert Bennett (CEO of Current Foods) as board members
Mobot is now carried in 1 Hotels, Pure Bare, Yoga Six, Gold Gyms, and will be featured at Lightning In A Bottle Festival!
Sacheu Beauty went viral (again) with its new 3-in-1 lipliner launch which generated 30M impressions across Tiktok and IG and drove $450K+ in DTC sales in March alone!
Juna's Detox Drops just won a 2023 New Beauty award for best de-bloat product
ettitude just launched the world's first VEGAN cashmere, 100% plant based, it saves 82% of CO2, 80% of water, 97% of eutrophication (toxic chemicals) and 18% of fossil fuels vs. cashmere.
Mmmly has launched nationally in Sprouts, and now has a new Peanut Butter flavor!
Ful Foods launches FulWater in the U.S.!
Founder Pro Tip of the Month 💡
Far too often pitch deck cover slides are BORING. It's a borderline waste to just put your brands logo and "Pitch Deck" on a blank slide.
Instead, add a photo of your brand's product(s), or a picture of the vibes and customers your brand represents. This will help put investors quickly understand what they'll be diving into over the next 12-15 slides, and or the persona of your brand.
Having a useful cover slide sets the tone, and perks investors up to what comes next.
Did a friend forward you this email, and now you want to join?
January Box Brands 🚀
Investors: 38 → Apply Here | Brands: 9 → Apply Here | Intros: 56
Are you an investor who'd like to meet any of the below brands? Email [email protected]
GreenHouse Foods
Founded by Ryan Brothers & Hassan Alan Safieddine | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 Dallas
What made them stand out: Greenhouse is a really strong company all around, and their numbers prove it. In 2022 they grew from 104 to 785 stores, have already eclipsed 1000 stores this year, and are on pace to be in 1400 by mid-Q3! Safe to say retailers love them because consumers keep buying their delicious mini donuts which are way healthier and cleaner than regular donuts (10g of protein per serving!). To further help distinguish Greenhouse is that their donuts are found in the cooler section of stores. This can be prime real estate for brands as it alerts customers of freshness and ingredient quality, AND brands here aren't competing with all the shelf stable competitors elsewhere in the store.
Jiant
Founded by Aaron Tlech & Larry Haertel Jr. | Site + TikTok | 📍 LA
What made them stand out: Jiant is another brand that is solid across the board. This starts with the founders. Aaron previously incubated food & beverage companies as VP of Strategy for Factorymade Ventures, while Larry was one of the first employees at Eater where he helped scale the brand nationally all the way to an acquisition by Vox Media in 2013. Jiant so far has proven to be a multi-category leader in growth, rate of sale, and innovation, and will be a Top 5 brand in both Hard Tea and Hard Kombucha in 2023. Alcohol distribution can be difficult, but when you land a strong partnership with a distributor, it's much easier to introduce new products since the relationship is already established. This is one strategy (of many) Jiant is leveraging to their advantage.
MOSH
Founded by Maria Shriver & Patrick Schwarzenegger | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 LA
What made them stand out: Who doesn't love a well-known mom & son co-founder combo to build a brand?! That's what we have here as Maria Shriver and Patrick Schwarzenegger have come together to build MOSH. As we all know, we currently live in the attention economy. Simply getting someone to look at your brand is challenging. Not for MOSH though given the large audiences Maria and Patrick bring to the table. Exposure and customer acquisition advantages aside, MOSH bars are so so tasty. I've tried so many bars over the years. Most are ehhh. MOSH, however, is actually great. As is the consistency. Maria and Patrick have put a lot of time into making them healthy as well. There are A LOT of great things going for this team. I'm excited to watch them grow.
New Matter
Founded by Michael Kliskai & David Moore | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 Miami
What made them stand out: David and Michael are probably two of the smartest founders I've met in terms of understanding their category. Both were part of the core team at Joe Grooming where David was CMO and Michael was CEO at one point. This gave them deep, real world insights into what works (and doesn't work) in building an elevated men's hair and skincare products business. A conversations with Michael on this space is akin to a TED Talk on the realities of building a business in this space. New Matter went in the box because David and Michael are in the Top 1% of operators which at early-stages is the most important ingredient in a successful investment.
Nutr
Founded by Alicia Long & Dane Turk | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 Columbus, OH
What made them stand out: As you know, I have a soft spot for Ohio founders. That aside, Nutr is incredible. Hardware is quite difficult to launch considering the complexities of the product + supply chain, and capital needed to get going. When they do work out though, they can be HUGE. Think Keurig for example. Lucky for us, Alicia and Dane has cracked that nut (so punny) with Nutr, a beautiful home appliance that allows you to create your own personalized nut-based milks at home. As with any successful hardware play, there needs to be a recurring revenue component. For Nutr, it's their Nutr Blends which are powder packets loaded with minerals and nutrients users can add to their nut milks. Investors are usually more skittish with hardware startups given the difficulty. However, the risk can very well be worth the reward in the end.
Perfy
Founded by Vasa Martinez | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 LA
The Founder, Vasa, with Dr. Perfy
What made them stand out: The cat's meow the last few years has been gut-healthy sodas. What about brain health though? Meet Perfy, a better-for-you soda focused on making sure our minds stay sharp (so we can do all the things our minds let us do...which is basically everything). Vasa is one of the most talented and genuine founders I've ever met. He brings nearly a decade of CPG experience working with and consulting for some of America's fastest-growing companies which helped him launch his own agency, growthbuster. Perfy tastes great (contains 20% juice!), has only 20-30 calories, and is Ketogenic certified/blood sugar friendly. Vasa and Perfy are going places. Mark my words.
Rupee Beer
Founded by Vanit Sharma & Sumit Sharma | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 NYC
What made them stand out: There is a lot to love about Rupee Beer. The name is beautiful, and Van and Sumit have locked down that name via trademarks in multiple countries. Next, the beer is tasty and has been specially brewed to have a slightly lower carbonation, so it pairs well with Indian cuisines. All this combined with the massive and rapidly growing Indian population, both domestically and abroad, that spends more on beer than you realize. To bring this full circle, and why I think they will become a homerun- there are 5K+ Indian restaurants in the US, and 10K+ in the UK. That, coupled with the 80K U.S. convenience stores (50% of which are Asian-American owned) provides a perfect conduit for Rupee to grow fast.
Tonic Health
Founded by Sunna van Kampen | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 Austin
What made them stand out: To put this simply, Tonic is dominating in the U.K. where they were originally launched. They're now entering the U.S. market where I think they'll continue to have success. This is a crowded category which makes things harder. However, Tonic is exceptional at leveraging TikTok and Instagram content to educate consumers. Being your 'most healthy self' is very in right now, and will continue to be, which puts Tonic in a great spot. They've built a really strong community that provides consistent sales and exposure. I really like their form factor as well.
Tonic is currently closing out their round. Email [email protected] for their deck.
Zesty Z
Founded by Alexander Harik & Lorraine George-Harik | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍 NYC
Lorraine and Alexander, Mom/Son Cofounders of Zesty Z
What made them stand out: Another mother-son founder combo! This time it's Alex and Lorraine who are bringing their Lebanese heritage and Mediterranean diet to the masses. They originally started in spices which has turned into a strong product line. Recently they've introduced a new air-popped popcorn line which is hands down the best tasting popcorn I've ever had. It's way healthier than traditional popcorn too. I think as Americans continue to wake up to healthy eating, and with the Mediterranean diet having a reputation as one of the best, Zesty Z could go far.
And that's a wrap. The February box is next. Keep on building my friends.
If you're a brand, sign up here to jump in our boxes. If you're an investor, sign up here to get a box!
This email was proofread by my lovely fiancé, Michele. Please buy her stuff :)