FirstLook

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

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1:44Brian Folmer:and let them know I sent you. Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I have Brian Fulmer. He is the founder and CEO of First Look, which is a very creative way for brands to get in front of the right investors. So Brian, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You're so welcome. First look is so cool. Like I've been following you on social. I've been seeing what you're curating, some deals and brands that you've worked with in the past that I noticed.

2:24Coconut Cult, Oathouse, Cure Hydration, Good Wipes, who's coming on the podcast. Cura has been on the podcast, Home Court. These are very buzzy, cool CPG brands. And I'm really excited to see and hear, learn more about how First Look works with brands. So before we dive into your background, can you walk us through what exactly First Look is?

2:50Brian Folmer:Yeah, certainly. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. First Look's a private investor group that's focused on investing in early stage consumer brands. And so we have angels, VCs, and family offices that are part of the group. And the twist, or I guess what makes us one-on-one, is each month I review all these brands, try to figure out who I think the top six are from an investment standpoint, take all their samples, put them in a box, and send those boxes out to everyone in the group. And so they get to experience everything. I create data rooms so they can learn about the brands. And then afterwards, the investors let me know who they want to connect with.

3:28Brian Folmer:I loop everyone together in email and let them take it away from there. So some people kind of describe it as a shark tank in a box. I've heard it described as that too, which I thought was really clever. Yeah. I always say a good analogy is necessary for brands because it gets right to the point. Absolutely. But yeah, so there's the box part and then there's the community side of things. And so every year in all the major cities, I host lunches, coffee meetups, happy hours for all the investors based on where they're at. And we have a group chat that everybody's in and really just trying to build out the community side of things so that folks can meet each other, build relationships, get into deals maybe they would have otherwise missed, work on things outside of CPG that they stay busy with.

4:15Brian Folmer:Otherwise, yeah, the boxes in the community are essentially what First Look is all about. So cool. What was your background prior to starting First Look? My career has been kind of funny. After college, I worked at a startup accelerator in Cleveland and then submitted an idea that I'd been working on on the side. And this was between my first and second year of law school and ended up getting into the program and took an investment from the accelerator. And so I dropped out of law school, started working I went from like employee to founder overnight. And then I worked at my first company. Unfortunately, didn't have the legs to go the distance, but great experience.

4:58Brian Folmer:And yeah, working in the accelerator was the first time in my life where I was like excited every day to get up and go to work. Just the environment was so contagious. But yeah, unfortunately, that first startup didn't work. Joined the corporate retail world, worked at Abercrombie's home office, and then worked at Victoria's Secret's home office. made my way out to New York City and then joined XRC Ventures, which is an accelerator. And I think they have a growth fund now, but they invest in consumer brands, marketplaces, health tech, retail tech. And then while I was at XRC Ventures, I came up with the idea for starting First Look and then eventually took the plunge and went full-time on it.

5:39Well, you definitely have the entrepreneurial spirit yourself of dropping out of law school, going all in starting, you know, your first business that is like such a quintessential blueprint of just being an entrepreneur and willing to take risks. So I think it's really cool how you've poured that into first look because you're also connecting with people who are taking that leap too, which I'm sure they like connecting with you because you get it. you understand where they're at. Yeah.

6:12Brian Folmer:I mean, I would say for anyone, after my first company that failed, I knew I wanted to do something again, didn't know what I wanted to do. And so, but I wanted to be in the startup world. And I recommend everyone, if you have the opportunity to join an accelerator, just because you're surrounded by all these other founders that are building something unique and you get to see all their, you know, go to market strategies and what does the supply chain look like and operation everything. And so you kind of just learn by seeing everyone else doing it. And then it helps you when the moment comes and that, you know, idea strikes you, you're like, all right, this is doable because I have seen variations of this or this, you know, doesn't work or could work.

6:52Brian Folmer:And so, yeah, I would recommend if you want to be a founder, but you don't know what you want to start, at least just try to join either an accelerator or a VC firm just to see how everyone else is building things. That's a great piece of advice and something that I often hear from almost every single founder I've interviewed clients is that it does feel very lonely while they build, which is totally understandable. So I think just emphasizing an accelerator or joining something like that could be really beneficial. So you're not building alone in a silo. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be certainly joining them if you already have the company idea.

7:31Brian Folmer:They're great. They do help. They do accelerate exactly what they are labeled as. But if you don't have the idea, at least join the staff so then you can be around that environment. No, that's a great piece of advice. How did you get into investing and fundraising in this particular niche in consumer goods?

7:52Brian Folmer:i guess it started i mean when i was at xrc ventures uh we used to always get samples delivered to our office and it's like before covid started and uh half the time it was from brands we weren't even talking to they just blindly sent us samples and so kind of just hit me one day i'm like all right they're sending us samples they're probably doing the same thing to any other investor out there whose address they can find and then i was just like all right like there should like this is that's expensive to ship individually ship samples all the like to all these different investors uh blindly and so um yeah it just kind of hit me one day i was bike riding around battery park in new york city and i was like there should just be a box that curates the best brands each month and turns that grind of trying to find investors and then individually shipping them samples turn it into like a one-to-many type scenario and so uh that's kind of how it all got kicked off.

8:46Brian Folmer:And then since then, yeah, First Look has evolved and grown. We now also have First Look Ventures in the mix that takes up some of my time. And so, but really it all started with just getting great brands in the boxes and putting them in the hands of our investor members. Something that you mentioned earlier was you are choosing the top six to go in that box. What are some things that you're looking for or stands out to you as memorable or just honestly making a brand stand out that you're like, okay, this belongs in this box because I feel like this has some traction. This has some legs to this idea.

9:30Brian Folmer:Yeah, no, that's a great question. I guess, I don't know if there's like a hacking order per se of things that I kind of like a checklist. But first and foremost, if their valuation is way out of whack compared to like where they are in traction or how big the market is that they're playing in, that's a pretty quick no for me. I find that, yeah, there's quite a few founders out there who show up with these valuations that are just too high for where they're at. Or if they're playing in like a very niche market, there's just not enough meat left on the bone where if you do everything perfectly and you do have an exit, the size of your potential exit and the entry point that investors are getting in at, you know, the whatever multiple differences, we'll say 10, 20, 30 X multiple compared to the risk that investors are taking.

10:23Brian Folmer:It's just not worth it for so many folks. And so, yeah, valuation is probably number one. And then I would say the why now, which is basically you're sharing your vision of like, here's what I think the world is going to look like two, five, 10 years down the road. And here's how my product fits into that world. Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's a storytelling exercise within itself. And that's probably, this is probably where I could see founders getting the most frustrated because investors have an idea of where the world's going. The founders have their own idea. When they do mesh perfectly, great.

11:02Brian Folmer:Usually that investor is very excited to go deeper on things. But if an investor thinks that's not where I see the world going, they'll usually quickly pass there. And some companies, yeah, they have great arguments. Not all of them, I believe, but - Could you give an example of something like that? Of like a why now that - Yeah. Or something like a why now, really broad strokes you don't call out anyone but uh but but that also didn't align with maybe how an investor was seeing the why now just to give someone context because so many early stage founders listen to this podcast i mean i always think the most like fun recent example is like poppy and allie pop okay because i imagine i wasn't in those rooms back then but like back in 2017 or so when they started, you know, they were making the argument, gut health is going to be a really big deal.

11:58Brian Folmer:And we have a product for that. And here's why we think gut health is going to be, you know, something that consumers are going to care about for the next 10, 20 years or more. And honestly, kind of a tough sell. I mean, I'm not even sure I would have believed it back then. Right. And so I'm sure the founders, you know, got a lot of no's starting out and even throughout their rounds. And so, yeah, that's one of those ones where I'm sure they had their argument of like, yeah, our food chain and our food system is failing us. Our gut microbiome is just getting crushed and depleted. And that's why our soda is going to make sense.

12:37Brian Folmer:And well, it turns out they were right. And so, and right in a big way. And so that's where like, yeah. And so that's where it's like, founders have their idea. Investors have their idea of what the world's going to look like. Sometimes they match, sometimes they don't. And usually that's a point where founders and investors kind of split and it doesn't work out. Is there any train of thought or tips or strategy around helping align how a founder sees it and how an investor would see it, or just helping a founder communicate better to an investor of the why now? one strategy i've seen is breaking the argument down into three parts there is a societal element uh an economic element and then this is more for like on the tech side but like a technological element or like an ip element that now exists and so from a societal standpoint this is really you just describing this is what the people want this is where the world's going this is what people are asking for um that one's relatively easy to describe the economic argument is pretty interesting because it can cover a lot of different things whether it's things that the government is doing as far as different laws they're changing you know for example the uh just yesterday i think the was it congress like took out the hemp thc yes and so yes i've been following that yeah absolutely nuts but but yeah it could be like economic laws we're like i don't know we're changing we're getting rid of tariffs that's why it's going to make it so much easier to import a certain ingredient and everyone's going to want it um it could be things where it's just happening society where we'll say, you know, women are staying in their careers longer and working, you know, staying, moving their way up the corporate ladder.

14:37Brian Folmer:And so because of that, they're having maybe children a little bit later in life than they used to, but they have more money to spend because they have these higher paying jobs because they've been in their career longer. And so what does that mean? It means, you know, older women care about certain things that maybe a young woman who's trying to have a kid thinks differently about, they have more money to spend. And so now premium products may have a better chance of doing well at this point in time. And so, yeah, there's a lot of ways you can craft the economic argument. We have to be really well read on that, that part, because it is sometimes too tough to craft that.

15:15Brian Folmer:And then the third element is like the technological element, which obviously not a lot of consumer brands have like a tech element, But I would just argue is the like uniqueness of the product, whether it was the R &D or the IP you put into. Ultimately, you want to kind of craft the story where like we invented something that has never existed before. And because it now exists, we have this potential to really blow this thing up. Got it. So, yeah, societal, economic and then like IP tech, like R &D kind of element to it. Thank you for breaking that down. That was super helpful. And I was taking notes when you were saying that.

15:52And I'm sure many people listening to just pause the podcast to write those down. So that was super helpful of the why now. Anything else that you look at while vetting the products that go into the boxes? I like it when founders are like well buttoned up.

16:12Brian Folmer:First impressions are so important for so many investors, which whether good or bad thing. but having like a great deck, which I know Ben's, I sees, uh, super angel is always making the argument and I fully agree with him. Uh, but yeah, usually like your deck is your first moment where you're having a connection with the investor and they're judging you. They're judging you how you tell your story, judging you how you present and like, yeah, craft everything. Obviously this is consumer. This is the consumer world where appearance does make an impact on how well a brand does. And so, um, and then kind of in that vein, you know, the content itself, the way they're describing things, like, do they understand the nuances of the consumer world?

16:54Brian Folmer:Which don't get me wrong. I'm not saying if you're a first time founder, you're SOL here, but, um, there's enough podcasts out there like this amazing podcast year where you can learn and understand what investors are looking for, what they care about, uh, what didn't work for other brands and things to avoid. And so, uh, yeah, being really buttoned up and just like understanding this is relatively speaking how a brand is built from start to finish uh is super important because some founders come in and they have these like crazy grandiose plans like we're gonna roll out in like 7 000 stores in the next year well do you know how much capital that's gonna cost you like all slotting fees and like right you know all that spend it's like you're not raising enough to hit those numbers and so that tells me you're there's a miss here of how much you understand of like what it takes to build a brand that's a really great point of also being realistic and coming in with that confidence of we understand how much we need to raise to hit these goals and what we're going to be doing now and in the future and also showing i think if the word is restraint but the the the discipline maybe that's a better word of, of knowing the stages and what it actually takes and what you would need to raise in order to hit that.

18:14So that's a great point too, because I think we did, we're wrapping up the era of these huge grandiose numbers just to have a wow moment, but there's nothing really behind it. I think we all learned that lesson. Yeah. Doesn't usually pan out. Anything else that you're looking for?

18:38Brian Folmer:um that's kind of the one way i describe it is like is this startup like directionally correct or like does this feel like this is a product that is going yeah in the right way which is kind of in the why now uh question um after that though it's kind of i mean you have to have a great product that's right this is very important because at the end of the day taste you know it's food brand for say or a beverage brand like taste really does make or break a brand long term you can only throw so many dollars at marketing until people are just like yeah i'm one and done on this product a thousand percent and i work primarily with better for you brands in the cpg food and beverage space when they're pre-launched so they're just in the r &d stage but i always say like the taste that deliciousness this is the first step this is yes this is the first step that's not the thing that's going to differentiate so we have to make sure that's that's the lowest bar now we build from there right but the the days are gone even because i worked in the vegan food space for a long time just because it was vegan it's it stood out and people there was demand around it, those days are gone.

19:52You really have to have a delicious product. So thank you for saying that because I love when I capture these moments from experts so I can share to my clients as well. And those were important reminders of what to be thinking about and what really makes a brand stand out.

20:10Brian Folmer:Yeah, you need that to win long term. Absolutely. So as far as first look in the brands that you are now putting in front of the right investors, what does that process also entail? So they are getting their products in front of the right people. The investors are able to experience it, possibly invest. Any other pieces of that experience a brand should be aware of or just start thinking about to see if this is a good next step for them in fundraising? yeah i mean i guess to put some numbers behind it um well first and foremost first looks totally free for brands um you know i want to make it easy and which is incredible yeah i know i try to support them um and i know some people are on tighter budgets and so uh but yeah it's totally free for brands and i guess the only maybe cost cost per se is uh we have about a little over 80 investors getting boxes now and so i guess shipping the product to me does have a cost but I promise everyone, or at least I try my absolute best to make sure they're getting as much value out of they can out of this, which I always kind of explain to founders.

21:25Brian Folmer:I'll be the first to tell them is, first look's not a silver bullet. I can't make the investors write checks. I can't change the fundraising environment. But best case scenario is you do have an investor who falls in love and they write you a check and you're on your way. Worst case scenario is if you have a great product, you'll probably convert a lot of those investors into just customers. So yeah, I would say those is as far as like, that's the starting point is do you have to have enough samples to jump in the boxes? And generally, either already have a race kicked off or you're going to probably raise in the next month or two.

21:58Got it. Okay. No, that's a great benchmark to look for. From the investor side, what is the feedback you're hearing of the brands that they are now able to experience and get in front of? Is this a fun way for them to try new things or has it made their process easier too because you're vetting out what they're receiving?

22:25Brian Folmer:This is actually a very loaded question. Just because I've been doing this for over, yeah, five and a half years at this point. So there's quite a few different investor profiles. There's the new investor who just kind of became an angel recently or wants to get their feet wet. and so they're very much learning what you know a good brand or maybe a naya's great brand looks like uh and so um there's like that group there's the like vcs we'll say where or just these kind of super angels where they see a lot already they're pretty picky but they want to make sure they're turning over every rock uh and then kind of everyone in between and so it's funny though because every time I send a box out, you know, there's always a brand there.

23:11Brian Folmer:I'm like, all right, this brand's the most, in my opinion, the most interesting. And sometimes they do. Sometimes my prediction's right where they probably did the best on intros. But a lot of times there's always like a dark horse of a brand that does way better than I thought would do, which is, I don't know, sometimes, you know, you got to pull out the signal from the noise and signs. I'm like, all right, is this, is this brand just having a moment right now and there's enough investors that thought it was interesting or am I missing something and there's more that I should be diving into here.

23:46Brian Folmer:And then maybe like the third bucket is sometimes some investors are, they just go off of like, I don't want to say vibes, but it was like, I just love this product and I want to meet the founder and like support them and I love their story of how they got here And I just, you know, I want to pay it forward because I was a founder myself before this. And so, yeah, it's kind of interesting. The obvious great brands, the dark horses, and then some products just strike a chord with a certain investor and it works out. Totally. Or they see a use case for it or, or my kid was looking for something like this and I could totally see myself buying it right when you could have those personal connections too.

24:29That is a great way to stand out. any other piece of advice you would share with a founder who's really early on like i said i work with all pre-launch brands many of them listen to the podcast and i know a lot of emerging brand founders listen to this podcast anything to just put on their periphery of those next stages of when you would need to be fundraising

24:53Brian Folmer:i would say the number one piece of advice i can give is always be trying to meet investors because I've seen so many stories over the years. I mean, just countless times where like there'll be an investor on a cap table and I'm like, you know, how'd you meet that person? Like, Oh, it was so random. Like I met this person, like when I was standing in line for lunch one day and then they connected me to so-and-so and then that person connected me and they jumped in this round and it was so random. Like all those little crazy stories happen all the time. Yeah. And so one, you have to be putting yourself out there all the time.

25:29Brian Folmer:And two, it's like the, I don't know if it was Henry Ford who had this quote, the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. And it's one of those things where, yeah, you want to put yourself out there. You always want to be meeting investors because you never know when one combo leads to another. And that's the funny thing about investors. There's a lot of trust where if someone says, hey, this is a really great brand, you should talk to them. every investor kind of has their first ring of connections or friends. And when they say, hey guys, this is good. We should look at this. Everyone's like, yeah, absolutely.

26:05Brian Folmer:I trust your judgment. And so you want to try to, yeah, meet as many folks because it just becomes this kind of jumping off point to meet other people. Even when you're not fundraising, you should be doing that because you want to have those connections ready to go where, all right, we're kicking off our next round. You have a laundry list of investors that you've met between the rounds that you can just say, hey, good news. We're fundraising now. We'd love to catch up. Right. And so, yeah, I would say always be trying to meet investors as much as you can because you never know who's going to lead to what intro.

26:37Brian Folmer:And you always want to have a lot of people ready to go for when the round does start. You can kind of hit the ground running. That is a great piece of advice. Thank you so much again for breaking that down and making it feel very actionable and And taking off the pressure in the sense that it doesn't always have to be this super formal intro, especially for people who've never been in CPG or don't have those connections yet. But what I'm also hearing you say of being ready to share your story and you never know who you're talking to that could help connect and just getting into building that muscle of telling your story and sharing it because those random quote unquote random situations where you can meet that right investor, you just never know where that could happen.

27:25So keeping that muscle really building. Yeah. So much of, I mean, we talked in many startups.