Check out my interview of consumer sector guru and investor Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners and learn where we’re headed as consumer of today’s online world!
As we kick start the holiday shopping season with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, I thought it would be opportune to cover the latest on investing in the consumer space. The consumer market is 3x the size of tech and this year alone, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached $2.3 trillion, a 24.8 percent increase over the previous year. To learn more, we interviewed Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Ventures who shares with us how she views the world of the consumer, her top consumer investment sub-categories and the best way to work together with the Lightspeed team.
1. Why did you decide to become a venture investor?
The combination of an entrepreneurial father and a curious mother meant that I knew from a young age I wanted to do something in this world. I studied math in school so naturally went into finance afterwards, but it was during my time at Morgan Stanley that I developed an interest and knowledge in eCommerce, retail and consumer brands. I was doing angel investing throughout this time and realized that’s what I was much more passionate about. I then moved to a fintech startup focused on marketing and raising their Series B, which allowed me to see VC from the entrepreneurs’ perspective. These combined experiences led to my decision that VC was what I ultimately wanted to do.
2. Given that the funnel of companies you see are fairly large, how do you effectively manage your pipeline and at what point during the diligence process do you bring the partnership in?
This depends hugely on the company. There have been examples, such as GirlBoss, where we had a call with the founder, Sophia Amoruso. The next day I flew to LA to meet her in person and then called her that night to say we’d like to invest. Deals do not all happen that fast! Usually, we have a couple of meetings with one, two or three partners and then after a lot of diligence, we bring the founders in for a partnership meeting.
3. How should founders think about the role of a venture capitalist pre-, during, and post investment? When a deal is done, what’s the best way for the founder to leverage the entire team they work with (partner and pre-partner team members)?
We usually have one or two partners who are the go-to for the founder and their board member. In addition, we tell all our portfolio companies that they have access to the whole Lightspeed team. I very much believe in one team, one dream. When we invest I will sit down with the founder and ask about specific needs. Based on that conversation, I tailor how our plan for how we will help that the founder. We have a strong hiring team and a great partner of PR and marketing that I like to introduce our founders to. In addition, our partners have very different and deep knowledge in certain areas, so we will bring in one another to assist as needed.
4. What are 2–3 traits that are critical and you look for in a founding team?
- Mutual like and respect for one another in the team.
- The founder thinks big, takes risks. A strong vision of the product and marketing strategy is important.
- That the whole founder team has real grit and determination to make the deal a success.
5. What areas of investment within the consumer space are you excited at the moment and why?
Spaces I am excited about: startups catering to baby boomers & seniors (several large markets here that will be disrupted), eCommerce (both retail and brands), the influencer economy, health & wellness, marketplaces more broadly and the future of cities
We’re excited about what’s in store for us, Nicole — thank you for sharing your consumer insights!
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Nicole’s Bio
Whether it’s discovering tomorrow’s platforms, marketplaces, media or ecommerce companies, the founder insight and company brand are core in Nicole’s mind. She began working with brands in the mid 2000s, specializing in consumer behavior; the retail landscape, both in the US and Europe; and taking brands to the public market.
When she previously worked on branding and marketing at Nutmeg, a London-based fintech startup focused on online wealth management for millennials, Nicole experienced the importance of grit and focus for the founding team.
“Hard work, determination, and grit set apart the good from the great,” she says. “I want to work with founders who are willing to run through walls.”
Nicole was introduced to this mindset at an early age, by helping her father build an online pharmacy startup in the ’90s. It was here that she first learned how hard startups can be.
When she’s not working one-on-one with founders, she’s researching potential investments, even if they take her on road trips to the middle of the country to meet the customer. “I don’t want to just invest in the bubble of Silicon Valley,” she says. “I want to listen to the core customer, and keep my eyes and ears open to new ideas.”
It’s one of the reasons she became involved in Planet of the Apps, the Apple-produced series that gives app developers a chance to receive funding from Lightspeed. “Getting into the mindset of the 99% is so important,” she says.
After earning a BSc in math and economics from York University, in England, and an MBA from Stanford, Nicole spent eight years on the equity sales and research side of Morgan Stanley. There, she worked on the IPOs for companies like Facebook, Groupon, and Pandora, which inspired her to become an angel investor and, later, a startup cofounder herself.
“All of this gave me an understanding of what exceptional founders look and act like,” she says. “They’re on a journey and I want to provide the support (in good and bad times), insight, empathy, and peripheral vision along that path.” Nicole is happiest when helping others realize their full potential and then amplifying it when needed.
