Patient capital: Taking the slow road

In this Natural Products Expo East 2018 discussion moderated by New Hope Network’s Carlotta Mast, Bias & Blind Spots’ Douglas Raggio and The FRESHGLOW Co.’s Kavita Shukla share their insights into an alternative approach for funding long-lasting iconic brands.

New Hope Network staff

January 7, 2019

2 Min Read
EE18-patient-capital-funding-computer-getty_0.png

“As a founder, get to know what you want as a company…if you want to have some longevity—I call it integrity of ‘people, product and community’—it’s going to take longer than five years to do something meaningful.”

— Douglas Raggio, Bias & Blind Spots

Part 1: Introduction and backgrounds

Highlights:

  • Doug: I believe we should have independent food companies.

  • Doug: There are thousands of founders who don’t want to sell their businesses in 3-5 years.

  • Kavita: I feel like an accidental entrepreneur who had a lifelong obsession with spices and botanicals.

  • Kavita: We lose more than one-third of our world’s entire food supply to spoilage.

-----

Part 2: Doug—Family offices and equity lines

Highlights:

  • Every investor is looking at risk and return, and they all look at it differently.

  • Private equity and venture capital are playing a portfolio strategy; family offices have a different strategy: no exit required.

  • It’s shocking how little track record is needed to get the tide to turn.

  • A family will look at things like a bank.

-----

Part 3: Kavita—the funding journey and end goal

Highlights:

  • We’ve been fortunate to have tremendous grassroots traction; we’re still 100% privately owned.

  • We relied heavily on retail partners to help us out; the market right now is really conducive to that, everyone wants innovation.

  • The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool for raising cash really quickly (Shopify example).

  • It’s not immediately a barrier if you can’t raise tons of funding.

-----

Part 4: Q&A

Highlights:

  • How to bring on a co-founder and share your vision.

  • Questions to ask potential funders.

  • Advice for types of multiples.

This session—The Funding Forum: Growing a Healthy Brand - Funding Alternatives That Create Iconic, Independent Brands —was recorded at Natural Products Expo East 2018.

Subscribe and receive the latest updates on trends, data, events and more.
Join 57,000+ members of the natural products community.

You May Also Like