Mini Episode: Founders and Funders Roadshow

0:25This podcast features Daniel Scharff. VCs really investing in the pre-seed to seed to Series A range. We have done all that work for you. We've lined up these incredible VCs who are going to be coming to these events,

0:40Daniel Scharff:and you can get a ticket and attend. I'm really highlighting here the importance of getting your ticket as soon as possible. So I hope you enjoy listening to this episode. I'm going to talk all about what's happening at these events, who should think about going, tips for brands that decide to go. So enjoy this one, and I will see you at a Founders and Funders Roadshow in 2026. All right, here we go.

1:30Daniel Scharff:nature of it, though, is it is capped. So we can't have every brand there. It's a selective event. We had about 25 % of the brands who applied that were admitted. But we really want to give everybody access to these incredible VCs. And the way that we're doing that this year is a series of events called The Roadshow. Any brand can get a ticket to these events. It's really accessibly priced, and we are bringing the very active VCs. It's going to hit four cities this year, 2026. And I want to tell you a little bit about what's going to go on, who's going to be at these events, so that you can make a really good decision around it.

2:03Daniel Scharff:So in general, founders and funders, the roadshow, it'll be similar to the big event we do in December with a couple changes. So here's how it works. Every brand that decides to go will purchase a ticket and then they'll be able to fill out a one pager. This is a template that we've designed that is just one page in Canva and it gives them the essential details about your business, sort of like a sell sheet, but for fundraising. And it's going to say, what is your mission? What are the products that you have? What's the SRP? What's your distribution? What traction points do you have? What is your fundraising history?

2:38Daniel Scharff:And it's okay if you are pre-revenue or if you're just getting started, they understand that they're going to be brands at different stages here. And you may not have a ton of traction points already, and that's okay. You're going to do your best on this. And even if you're not actively fundraising, but you're thinking maybe towards the end of the year or early next year, it's still a great thing to do to start building your relationship with them. Definitely do put out your best one pager because you only get that first impression once, right? That's why it's a first impression. But I wouldn't avoid going just because you're not exactly ready to raise because this event, the roadshow will only come around once a year.

3:17Daniel Scharff:And so otherwise you'll be just kind of twiddling your thumbs until it comes back around next year. And you can also put that and be clear like, hey, I'm not actually fundraising now. I do want to build a relationship with funders out there and understand who could potentially be a good fit. I think that's a really mature way to have early conversations with them. So you will fill out the one pager. We send it to all of the great VCs attending the event and say, who would you like to meet with? Tell us. And then we set up 10 minute meetings for you with them at the beginning of the event. So the flow of the event, typically the events are going to be four hours.

3:50Daniel Scharff:We're going to have for the first hour or two, they're just going to be the one on one meetings that'll happen. So if you walked in there, you would see 20 different tables happening, all of these one-on-one meetings happening at the same time, us ringing a cowbell every 10 minutes and letting the new brands come in to sit at the tables with the VCs and have the meetings. Then after that's over, we will have a quick panel or two led by the amazing Hannah Dittman from our team, who was our lead VC fundraising and ops correspondent. And we will have a couple of the awesome VCs on that panel, giving you some really good information.

4:23Daniel Scharff:And we always try to make the panels hard hitting. And so it'll be things like really good practical advice around fundraising, deal terms, that kind of stuff. At the end of the event, then there will just be open networking. That's a really important time also because, you know, we can't make the VCs pick you for the meeting. We hope that everybody is going to get good opportunities, but at the end of the day, the VCs are going to go through the one pagers and pick who they would like for the meetings. We have a lot of them coming, So there's a really good chance that you'll get to meet with a bunch that you're interested in.

4:53Daniel Scharff:But even if you don't, they're there for the networking and we'll make it really obvious who they are. You'll know and then you can network with them. And again, it's just a great chance to, especially because a lot of them are local to the area, to get a first conversation with them. Even if you're not local, just the strength of the VCs at these events, I recommend going in town for the event if you're anywhere nearby, if you are really putting a lot of importance on meeting these VCs. They're hard to find. Outside of our December event, I don't know where you find all these VCs in one place.

5:24Daniel Scharff:Maybe a lot of them go to Expo, but like, how would you ever even run into all of them there? So I view these events as just a highly concentrated way to get in front of the most active VCs out there. I'm telling you, our startup CBG team spends so much time out there just researching who is really active, having conversations with them and pulling them into our community and ecosystem to give everybody the chance to get to meet them. We really care about pulling in the people who are actually writing checks, not just saying they're writing checks and then probably trying to sell you something.

5:57Daniel Scharff:These are very active institutional investors. So I'll give you a taste for it. In LA, so the LA event, which is coming up pretty soon now. So the investors that we have for that one include OpenSky Ventures, Willow Growth Partners, Entrepreneur Ventures, Providence, Selva Ventures, Kavu Consumer Partners, Family Fund, Wellness Growth Ventures, BAM Ventures, Science, Rich Product Ventures, City Capital, and many more. And these VCs are actually coming in town for the event in some cases because they've just heard how good it is and they want to make sure that they're actually getting cracks at all of the best brands in the region.

6:38Daniel Scharff:So that LA one, it's April 27th. That means you should get a ticket now because to be part of that one pager process, the deadline is almost arrived already. You cannot last minute this thing and actually get in on the one-on-one meetings because we need the one pagers filled out. We need to send them to the VCs with plenty of time for them to review them, pick the meetings for us to coordinate the meetings. So I know especially LA loves to be last minute on events. I get it. I used to live there. You know, it's a big, complicated city. We love to just wait and see if we're free that day, which you can do but then you will not be part of the one-on-one matching opportunity which to me is actually the main value or the biggest value anyways that happens at this roadshow so really encourage everybody to get their tickets as early as possible the second one that we're throwing is going to be new york on may 12th so pretty soon after that one some of the vcs that we have coming include habitat partners rocana ventures melitas ventures coefficient capital imaginary ventures super angel paperboy ventures rcv city capital carp riley l catterton vhs ventures great circle 531 capital sidekick partners lucinda capital we have so many people coming for that event i'm super pumped about that one again even if you're not in new york but it feels like if you look through the full list of who's attending which you can do via our event right and we'll link all of these events in the show notes here so you can see the full list which is also still growing it's going to be a great event.

8:05Daniel Scharff:The only really difference I would say, which I mentioned before between this and the big founders and funders we do in December is it's not curated, which means any brand gets the chance to attend this and network with these VCs. The reason that we have to do that in December is because there is a space of city limitation. And so we can only have a certain number of brands. We do really want to keep the VCs finding stuff that they can invest in. so we do have to actually go through an application process for that which you are all welcome to apply for we really encourage you to and that'll open up later in the year for the main kind of December one the other roadshow events I would love to have on your radar Austin June 9th San Francisco August 17th these will come up fast we are still hard at work getting all of the great VCs lined up for those we already have a great number of them they're going to be such great events.

8:56Daniel Scharff:So overall, my message for you is if you are fundraising or thinking about fundraising, I would grab your ticket as soon as possible because it wouldn't make so much sense to go to this event and miss the opportunity to do the one-pagers and get lined up for the one-on-one meetings. The feedback from founders and funders, which you can hear if you go back a few episodes and listen to our friends from Leisure was just overwhelmingly positive. Brands loved getting those meetings, getting a dedicated time to sit with the VCs, know who the VCs are ahead of time, get to research them a little bit. And you can also hear tips for how to make the most of that 10-minute meeting.

9:36Daniel Scharff:And I think the Leisure team does an especially good job of figuring out how to really make the conversation almost a two-way interview because you have to make sure the VC is the right fit for you And there are some smart questions that you can ask them that I think can show a lot of maturity and that you understand what you're trying to do and who could be the right kind of fit to have along that journey with you. So don't delay. Check out these amazing events. They're in the show notes. And I really believe that these are the most impactful fundraising events that happen in our ecosystem. There are not a lot of them.

10:13Daniel Scharff:This is the reason that we wanted to do this at Startup CPG is because we looked overall at the ecosystem and saw there are no fundraising events dedicated to pre-seed, to seed, maybe to Series A brands. We wanted to provide that opportunity for you, and we are so fortunate that all of the most active VCs out there lined up for it. And their appetite is not quenched just by our one main event. They want to participate in these roadshow events as well, and this is your chance to get in front of them. So I hope to see you at one of our upcoming roadshow events. Our team will be out there in force.

10:48Daniel Scharff:See you all there. Well, my friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in CPG. As you may know, we're not just a podcast. We're a community of brands and experts, and you should join. You can sign up at StartupCPG.com. You'll then get an invite to our online Slack community. You're going to hear about amazing events near you, all of our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands, and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I will see you there or on our next episode.

11:24Bye-bye.

11:38Thank you.