Events

Building a Direct-to-Consumer Startup

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups have revolutionized e-commerce and disintermediated and redefined retail. From startups to growth-stage companies, the D2C business model has become increasingly popular.

With the rise of social media, and online tools like Shopify and Stripe, entrepreneurs have never had an easier time creating an online shop and selling their product. These entrepreneurs get a direct relationship to their customer, and, by cutting out the middleman, they increase their own margins – which can also benefit consumers.

But, while the technology has empowered entreprenreurs, launching, sustaining and growing a D2C startup is by no means easy. To succeed, entrepreneurs must nail product development, as well as the logistics of inventory. They have to differentiate themselves and manage the economics of customer acquisition in some very crowded and noisy verticals.

NYC is filled with promising D2C startups, and we’re looking forward to a conversation that will be rich with insights and tools to help these entrepreneurs succeed. So please join us on October 2nd for a founder/CEO discussion on what it takes to build and grow a D2C startup! We’ll discuss

• Designing your product
• Managing inventory operations
• Acquiring customers
• Understanding channel strategy and options
• Standing out in a crowd

About the panelists

• Lisa Barnett, Co-founder & CEO of Little Spoon – Lisa Barnett is the Co-Founder of Little Spoon, a fresh, direct-to-consumer baby food and early childhood nutrition company reinventing the modern parent’s experience of keeping their child happy and healthy. Prior to Little Spoon, Lisa spent 7 years as an investor in, and operator at some of the world’s top consumer brands. Her venture experience included time spent as a Partner at Sherpa Foundry and, before that, an investor at VC firms Maveron & Dorm Room Fund. Before becoming an investor, Lisa ran Estee Lauder Companies’ multichannel growth strategy, responsible for taking their traditionally offline, department store brands and building out the first direct-to-consumer channels for customer acquisition and engagement. Over the years, Lisa and her company have been recognized for a variety of achievements including Forbes 30 under 30 – Venture Capital, 2017, 2018 Women Changing the Food Industry’ by Well + Good, Time’s Best Invention of the Year, 2018, CircleUp Most Innovative Consumer and Retail Brand of 2017.
• Adam Tishman, Co-founder & CEO of Helix – Adam is the CEO & Co-Founder at Helix, a leading sleep brand aiming to change the way people sleep by bringing customization to the sleep category through individually personalized, custom-made product for you, based on how you sleep. Helix products have been named best mattress of 2019 in GQ, Wired, and CNN and the company is Series A funded. Prior to Helix, Adam worked at a brand incubator that specialized in B2C start-up brand building advising companies on strategy and marketing. He graduated undergrad from Princeton University and earned his MBA from Wharton, where Helix was born with his two co-founders. Adam currently lives in New York with his wife and child. He’s 6’2”, sleeps on his back, sweats buckets at night, and prefers a medium-firm mattress.
• Steve Gutentag, Co-founder of Thirty Madison – Steven Gutentag is the co-founder of Thirty Madison, the human-first health company bringing specialized care and treatment to everyone, and parent company of Keeps, Cove and Evens. Steven started his career working as a management consultant at BCG. He then co-founded Get Maid, an on-demand home cleaning service, which sold to Homejoy. Via a Homejoy acqui-hire, Steven then worked at Google on the Search Ads Product Management team, responsible for launching a new type of ad unit for the local services industry, which sits on the search results page today. He holds a B.S. in Marketing and Finance from NYU Stern School of Business.
• Nik Sharma, The DTC Guy – Widely known as “The DTC Guy” on the internet, a Forbes 30 Under 30 member, and a resource brands and investors turn to for growth, Nik is a 23-year old DTC operator who has both assisted and led revenue growth at multiple organizations, including hint water and VaynerMedia. Prior to entering the DTC world, Nik worked on social media campaigns for Pitbull, Priyanka Chopra, MAGIC!, and other celebrity figures. Today, Nik words alongside brands and publishers to execute ROI campaigns through creative digital strategies using paid, earned, and owned media properties. Today Nik is an investor, advisor and an operator with brands such as: Twice Toothpaste, The Pill Club, Cha Cha Matcha, Hint Water, VOX Media, Catalina Crunch, Thesis Testing, and many more.

Schedule

6:30 – 6:50: Drinks & Networking
6:50 – 7:50: Panel
7:50 – 8:15: Audience Q&A
8:15 – 9:00: More Drinks & Networking

How do you compensate early employees? For early-stage startups, even well-funded startups, it can be intimidating to arrive at the right comp. You want to hire the best people, but you’re resource-constrained and you have to be savvy about the non-cash components of a comp package, like title, equity, stock options, commission, profit sharing, benefits, etc.

Comp is important beyond simply being competitive in the job marketplace. Comp is an incentive contract and how you structure comp should be reflective of your expectations of employees. If you’re not an HR expert, how do you structure comp to drive the outcomes both you and each employee are aiming for?

Comp can also be a cultural bellwether for a company. How do you ensure that your comp packages have parity across gender and race? How do you monitor that? And how do you find out if you might be falling short?

Join us as we discuss all this and answer questions like

• What do you offer new hires across different roles and experience?
• What are compensation strategies to consider when I’m resource-constrained and have to compete with larger organizations?
• How to balance cash, equity, and benefits?
• How do you handle counter-offers and negotiations?

About the panelists

• Michael Rangel, Founder & CEO of Bank Novo – Michael is the Co-founder and CEO of Novo, a no-fee digital banking platform focused on providing easy-to-use banking products to startups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. Michael completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Miami Business School in 2009 and chose to pursue launching Novo over an MBA at Columbia Business School. He’s been working in finance since the age of 19, when he became one of the youngest individuals in history to attain his Series 7 certification while working at Smith Barney (now a part of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management). He later joined Fairholme Capital Management in 2008, where he led the trading and operations team responsible for managing over $20 Billion at its height. Despite their AUM, Fairholme was a small team of only 20 employees and gave Michael his first exposure to the reality of operating as a small business. Witnessing the shortcomings of small business banking, he set out to empower customers with their financial data and provide the most compelling banking experience possible.
• Madan Nagaldinne, Chief People Officer at Blink Health – Nagaldinne joins Blink Health from Compass where he served as Chief People Officer. In that role, Nagaldinne grew the company’s workforce from 200 employees to more than 2,000 and oversaw the recruitment of top executives including the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, drawn from leading companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Spotify, Google and more. Prior to his tenure at Compass, Nagaldinne spent over twenty years developing workforces at some of the most notable companies in the world, including Facebook and Amazon. At Facebook, Nagaldinne held several roles, including head of human resources for the Asia-Pacific region, head of HR for the company’s global sales organization and head of HR for Facebook New York. At Amazon, Nagaldinne is credited with leading a 100+ person HR team that helped increase the e-commerce giant’s footprint from 200 employees to more than 5,000 across Asia. Prior to Amazon, Madan spent a decade in the Bay Area in senior HR leadership roles in the semiconductor and technology companies.
• Erin Dertouzos, VP, People at Jetty – Erin is the VP, People at Jetty, a new financial services company for renters, where she oversees functions including recruiting, facilities and all things people operations. Before joining Jetty, Erin was Chief People Officer at Quartet Health, where she rebuilt the HR and Recruitment teams. Prior, Erin spent10 years at Meetup, during which employee headcount grew from 45 people to almost 200. Outside of Jetty, she spends time with her husband split between Brooklyn and Monticello, New York. Erin graduated from Hartwick College with a degree in psychology and anthropology.

Schedule

6:30 – 6:50: Networking
6:50 – 7:50: Panel
7:50 – 8:15: Audience Q&A
8:15 – 9:00: Networking

Startups in the beauty industry have been crushing e-commerce and direct-to-consumer sales in recent years. Beauty has been one of the most innovative and fastest growing industries in recent years; since 2012, there’s been a 70% growth in the number of venture-funded beauty startups. And a unicorn has even emerged – Glossier, which recently surpassed the $1 billion valuation.

VCs and entrepreneurs are all taking note and looking to build the next beauty startup that will enamor consumers.

However, building a product in the beauty space is challenging. Physical products can be a barrel of complicated logistics around manufacturing, packaging and shelf-life. Regulatory concerns can arise, especially for products in the naturals space. You also need to be intentional about distribution channels, understanding the economic impact and marketing opportunity of purusing d2c vs. online retail vs. brick & mortar retail vs. amazon vs. a combination thereof.

Perhaps most challenging is standing out. Customer acquisition is expensive; the beauty market is exciting, but it’s crowded. So it can be a herculean effort for even the most truly differentiated products to get consumer’s attention.

Join us on October 17th, as we discuss what it takes to launch and grow a beauty startup, some of the opportunities and challenges unique to this industry, and

• Designing & prototyping products
• Competing in a crowded space
• Distributing your product online and retail
• Marketing and getting early press
• Fundraising for your beauty product

About the panelists

• Mariya Nurislamova, Co-founder & CEO of Scentbird – Mariya Nurislamova is a CEO and co-founder of Scentbird – a beauty e-tailer and subscription service that started in 2014 with a focus on fragrance. Scentbird pioneered the concept of fragrance rental by offering its customers a monthly supply of any designer fragrance for $14.95. Additionally, Scentbird currently operates two beauty brands – Deck of Scarlet (makeup) and Confessions of a Rebel (fragrance).
• Charlotte Cho, Co-founder of Soko Glam, and Founder of Then I Met You – Charlotte Cho is an esthetician, author, co-founder of K-Beauty destination Soko Glam and skincare content site The Klog, and now the founder of Then I Met You, a premium direct-to-consumer skincare line focused on a meaningful experience and quality ingredients. As an expat living in Seoul, she discovered the world of Korean beauty and skincare. After using the products and applying the Korean “skin-first” philosophy, she saw her skin and confidence transform, so in 2012 she made it her mission to share her skincare expertise and a curated selection of Korean beauty products in the US. Despite the many industry doubters that anyone would care about unfamiliar online Korean beauty brands, Charlotte stayed course and co-founded Soko Glam in 2012. As a result of this commitment, K-beauty grew into a $13.1 billion phenomenon that continues to thrive across the globe. Additionally, Cho is the author of The Little Book of Skincare (HarperCollins) and is currently working on her second book, which will focus on the Korean concept of jeong (an inspiration for Then I Met You) and our current need for richer connections in today’s hurried world. In 2019, Charlotte was named Adweek’s Trailblazer of the Year, WWD 40 under 40, and has been featured in media outlets such as Entrepreneur, The New York Times, Allure, Harper’s Bazaar, and Fast Company.
• Paul Michaux, Co-founder & Vice President of Product at Prose – Paul Michaux is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Product at Prose, the direct-to-consumer beauty brand delivering custom hair care products that are made-to-order and address the specific needs and goals of each individual’s hair and scalp. As Co-Founder and Vice President, Michaux is responsible for leading digital product innovation and expansion. Prior to his role as Co-Founder and VP of Product, Michaux served as Special Projects Manager at L’Oreal in New York City, where he was responsible for leading the implementation of strategic digital marketing projects. Before L’Oreal, he held brand manager positions at companies including, Christian Dior and Procter & Gamble. In 2018, Michaux was recognized as one of the winners of Forbes 30 Under 30 List. He graduated with two Bachelor’s degrees from HEC Paris and University La Sorbonne. Michaux also holds a Master’s Degree from HEC Paris and Telecom ParisTech.
• Meghan Maupin, Co-founder & CEO of Atolla – Meghan has a graduate degree in Engineering and Management from MIT, and previously worked in design roles at Patagonia, The MIT Design Lab, and Formlabs. With an expertise in integrating new technology into user experience, her work includes designing an AI-powered personal assistant, and launching multiple products for mass customization in 3D printing. Meghan used this experience to launch Atolla in 2019 – a revolutionary customizable skincare company. The Atolla Skin Health System leverages machine learning algorithms and precision skin data (captured through physical skin testing tools) to create personalized and adaptable serums.

Mark Brinker’s latest Marketing Tech Landscape listed over 7,000 marketing tools across advertising, content, social media, data, management, and sales. But he admitted even that number was understated.

It pays to be savvy about the tools on the market. Even more so, it pays to be savvy about capabilities, functionality and enhacements that you might not be aware of yet. With the myriad choices out there, choosing the right marketing tools and creating a “stack” of the best and most comprehensive solutions can be critical, if not catalyzing, your startup growth.

Join us on October 23rd as we learn about different marketing tools for startups! You’ll find valuable and scalable tech that will set the foundation for your growth.

Interested in showcasing your startup? Contact [email protected]

Presenting Companies

Ceros is a cloud-based experiential content creation platform that empowers marketers and designers to create rich interactive content without code or traditional web development. The Ceros Studio is the only platform of its kind with the ability to produce creative content experiences at scale. Founded in 2013, Ceros has offices in New York and London and is used by many of the world’s top brands.

DojoMojo is a brand network and partnerships marketplace. We empower marketers of all sizes to connect and build sponsored content and giveaway campaigns to grow their audiences at a fraction of the cost of traditional paid channels. We’ve also taken on an entirely new way for advertisers and publishers to work together, and leveraging scores of data points to ensure that every brand is working with partners who will turn their new audience into buyers and readers.

With nearly ten thousand brands in the DojoMojo network, we’re trusted by brands like General Assembly, theSkimm, Conde Nast and Hearst and have helped our customers add close to 200 million new potential readers and customers to their email lists.

Paloma helps businesses turn Facebook Messenger into a sales channel. Working with top marketers from brands like Bombas, Andie, LOLA, The RealReal, and more, their platform powers automated, personalized sales conversations that convert at 2–3x higher than site experiences.

Segment is a single platform that collects, stores, and routes your user data to hundreds of tools with the flick of a switch.We take care of the messy analytics installation process for you, so you can spend more time using your data and less time tracking it down.

Schedule

6:30 – 7:00: Drinks & Networking
7:00 – 8:15: Demos
8:15 – 9:00: More Drinks & Networking