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September 2023 FirstLook Brands
Highlights from our September box, Founder Pro Tips, and more...
FirstLook
January 14, 2024
Welcome to our 41 new subscribers since our last newsletter. I'll do my best to keep this fun, light, and informative. Glad you're here, and if you find this enjoyable, please forward to a friend.
Bula! (“Hi” in Fijian)
Happy 2024! Welcome back to another consistently inconsistent newsletter. Lots of fun stuff to cover here so let’s swan dive in.
Recent Funding News 🤑
Congrats to the Chia Smash team on landing $55K from two FirstLook Investors in December. This one was unique as the intros came from investors reviewing Chia Smash in our Alumni Brands Fundraising Portal.
Alumni Brands Portal? It’s a portal I created where FirstLook Alumni brands can add their new fundraising round info. Investors look through and request intros. Cool, right? FirstLook: the gift that keeps on giving. The last newsletter covered this theme too.
2023 Year in Review 👀
FirstLook ended the year slightly over $1.35M raised for brands! I'm proud considering many called this, "The most difficult year to fundraise in over a decade." It's a testament to the value we provide, and our ability to weather a tough macro environment. We now sit at $9.1M raised for brands since inception. Congrats to all these brands who landed a check in 2023 via FirstLook:
😋 Food & Bev: Mosh, Tally, Flings, Peaceful Fruits, Flings, AWSM Sauce (intro from 2022) and Chia Smash (intro from Alumni Brands portal).
👟 Apparel: Ponto Footwear
🥰 Wellness: Feel Goods Co
✨ Personal Care: Margin, Good Light
Instead of expounding on all my learnings like every other founder (borrrring), I’ll instead share a unique, fun story that came from one of our intros in 2023:
This past May I intro’d Sahar Rohani, founder of SOSHE Beauty, to BOLD Ventures, an investing arm of L'Oréal. They didn’t sling a check, but instead invited Sahar to Paris to speak at L’Oréal’s Global Summit on behalf of SOSHE for their Refillable Beauty panel with the Global Head of Sustainability at Sephora and the Global Head of Sustainability at L’Oréal Luxury Division.
I’ve been doing this startup stuff long enough to realize this: Reaching the top requires being in the right place at the right time, where out of the blue a massive door opens and your startup grows in leaps and bounds.
Moral of the story: if you don’t put yourself out there, lucky breaks won’t happen. Lucky for Sahar, she jumped in FirstLook and off to Paris she went!
I’ll save the ‘2024 Game Plan’ news for the next newsletter. In the meantime, please follow myself and FirstLook on X/Twitter. And lastly, here is Mark Cuban’s favorite scoreboard:
Founder Pro Tip of the Month 💡
I came across this clip about 2 years ago, and it hit me hard. Some may find it cheesy, but I think there is a lot of wisdom in it. My dream with FirstLook isn’t to become a millionaire, though that would certainly be nice. Instead, it’s to rise to the challenge of building a business that can organically generate a million in revenue while standing the test of time.
I still have a LONG way to go to break a million in revenue. But this year I’m really leaning into embracing becoming a person who is operating at the 1% level. I hope you can do the same, and ultimately reach your dreams.
Did a friend forward you this and now you want to join?
September Box Brands 🚀
Investors: 45 → Apply Here | Brands: 6 → Apply Here | Intros: 45
Investors Interested in brands below, email [email protected] for decks.
Cantrip
Founded by Adam Terry + Dylan Lowery | Site + IG | 📍Boston
What made them stand out: I liked Cantrip for two reasons. First, the cannabis space is growing quick. It’s a pity some investors are still shy here, but I get it. Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done on the regulations side, but it’s happening nonetheless, which provides a great window for winners to be crowned in an emerging category. Second, I appreciated Adam’s dream to create the Coca-Cola of the cannabis beverage world. Tall order, but someone has to do it. I’ll always favor founders with big dreams. That’s literally the entire point of VC.
👀 If you invest in cannabis, and would like me to send you deal flow for brands in this space, email me - [email protected]
Matriark
Founded by Anna Hammond + Joyce Huang | Site + IG + Video | 📍NYC
What made them stand out: “In the United States, people waste 80 million tons of food every year, which equals 149 billion meals. They throw away over $444 billion worth of food annually. Shockingly, they waste 38% of all the food in America.” - feedingamerica.org. I have a soft spot for brands tackling this issue which is what Matriark does. They upcycle farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, low sodium vegetable products for schools, hospitals, food banks, and other foodservice. Their sauces taste great, and I pray they continue to grow into a massive brand. America, and our planet, need it.
Nantucket Crisps
Founded by Sara Jemison + Hayden Arnot | Site + IG | 📍Nantucket / Boston
What made them stand out: These chips are SO damn good because NC leverages a unique slow-frying process to create a less oily chip that’s a hybrid between a kettle cooked chip and flat chip, as well as being allergen free, dairy free, and gluten free. Too many brands create products that simply don’t taste good. Fail here and you have no chance at becoming a winner. NC nailed the taste, and I love how they share their Nantucket roots with consumers. I also love their flavors which to date totals 8, with another 6 in the pipeline.
Rif Care
Founded by Val Emanuel + Rebecca Caputo | Site + IG + TikTok | 📍LA
What made them stand out: I liked Rif because the brand and mission make sense. Period care is big business. And with all big business, incumbents cut corners and use shit materials to maximize profit. Rif is the opposite. They’re the first to market hemp fiber period care brand that uses safe, clean materials - so women can feel good about themselves and their health. Rif is early, but signs look promising. They’re already the #1 selling product in category in Erewhon Market!
Sundays
Founded by Jody Polishchuk | Site + IG | 📍Victoria, BC
📸 Credit: snaxshot
What made them stand out: This one was pretty simple. Oreo is the #1 selling cookie brand in the world and in America. You take a chunk out of their sales and you have a pretty damn big business. That’s what Sundays is doing, but with a cookie that boasts zero sugar, 5 grams of protein per serving, and only 1-net carb. Consumers watching their sugar intake can now rejoice as what was probably their favorite cookie in the past is now available again. Sundays has a solid moat to as it took Jody 2+ years of R&D and hundreds of thousands of dollars to create it.
Tip Top Cocktails
Founded by Yoni Reisman + Neal Cohen | Site + IG | 📍ATL
What made them stand out: I liked this brand for three reasons. First, those are the cutest cans I’ve ever seen. Second, Yoni is one hell of a founder who knows how to build something big. He’s founded Gov Ball NYC which is an annual, massive music festival attracting over 150,000 music lovers to see the biggest acts in the world. And third, Tip Top is the drink of choice for Delta Airline flights. This partnership is huge, both from a revenue standpoint, and it’s ability to introduce so many people (going in so many directions) to the brand. Tip Top has a lot of the makings for a brand who can go far.
👀 If you invest in alcohol, and would like me to send you deal flow for brands in this space, email me - [email protected]
And that's a wrap. The October box is next. Keep on building my friends.