Thanks, 2023!
Thanks, 2023!
Some things we’re grateful for from the year
As we usher in a new year, we find ourselves reflecting on 2023. You likely need little reminding of how interesting (read: unexpected and occasionally challenging) last year was for firms, LPs, founders, companies, and consumers alike (anyone remember that the Silicon Valley Bank run was just last spring?). That said, we’re proud of what we were able to achieve, and the foundation we’ve laid for a strong 2024.
VMG has developed a reputation for building visionary consumer brands in partnership with extraordinary founders for nearly 20 years. But don’t let our decades long reputation suggest that we’re old school, or as some say, “playing yesterday’s playbook.” At VMG there is no playbook. There is only experience, which we bring to every deal and founder interaction. Together with visionary founders, we’ve built an ecosystem of operational talent, retailers, manufacturers, and bankers that founders need.
So, when we decided to expand our investment focus to include technology in 2019, it made sense to do so in a way that capitalized on this understanding of what ecosystems make thriving consumer companies, and to introduce a technology fund that could help create and scale the infrastructure modern consumer businesses need to succeed.
That approach is core to our goal of creating additional value for both of our funds by connecting our technology investments to our network of consumer portfolio companies. It’s been exciting to watch that approach reach maturity. In 2023 alone, we made 50+ introductions across both funds, resulting in partnerships that remain in place today.
Our ability to deliver value to our employees, founders, and investors relies on our cultivation of good relationships with great people. We take a lot of pride in being people-focused. Whether it’s the founders we invest in, the partners we work with, or the employees we grow, investing in good people powers everything that we do. All that we’ve accomplished in 2023 wouldn’t be possible without the team behind VMG Partners, our LPs, founders, strategic partners, and many more.
So, we’re celebrating the people that make VMG great as we take on a new year.
Meet our 2023 hires
We welcomed eight new faces to the team across consumer, technology, and firm operations. You can learn more about our newest additions on our Team page.
Congratulations!
We often hear from founders that VMG’s investment teams are more than simply investors and analysts. They’re friends, trusted advisors, and when things get tough: their biggest cheerleaders. We’re grateful for our entire team’s efforts and are proud to extend a special congrats to those who received a promotion last year.
Portfolio news
Last year our technology and consumer teams invested in three new businesses: Rinsed, Undefeated Tribe, and Ghetto Gastro. These companies' leadership and customer obsession within their respective categories, we believe, will enable strong growth in the years ahead.
[Technology Fund] The car wash industry has long been ripe for disruption, and Rinsed is on the forefront of applying technology to help car wash operators understand their customers and better meet their expectations. As the “OS for car washes” — a deep vertical software solution that powers every customer interaction (email, SMS, web, in-person), we believe Rinsed will enable strong economics and cash flow, becoming an essential component to digitize the car wash industry.
[Consumer Fund] Undefeated Tribe, one of the fastest growing Crunch Fitness franchisees, is on track to open 50 additional locations by 2025. VMG Investment Partner McConnell Smith has known Undefeated Tribe’s Tony Hartl for several years, where he’s had a front row seat watching Tony assemble a top-tier team and thriving business. In the words of our friends at Crunch, we’re eager to help “make serious exercise fun” alongside Tony and team.
[Consumer Fund] Food is a tool that brings people together, and few brands know that better than Ghetto Gastro. As part of our continued effort to invest in BIPOC-founded brands, we teamed up with Ghetto Gastro last year to accelerate their efforts to merge the cooking traditions of Black, brown, and Asian communities. 2023 was a big year for the Ghetto Gastro team with their launch into retail giant Target!
We also saw a lot of great news coming out of our existing investment portfolio. A few headlines that caught our attention:
GHOST® Energy Named Official Energy Drink Partner of the Phoenix Suns
Allure Magazine ‘Best of Beauty’ Awards: VMG Portfolio Companies Danessa Myricks Beauty, Drunk Elephant, K18, Kosas, Necessaire, and Shani Darden Skin Care Among the Winners
Finding (and placing) top talent
Building highly effective leadership teams is core to VMG’s investing philosophy. Anyone can have a great idea or product, but actually achieving success is determined by the quality of your leadership. This year our talent team landed:
47 Executive Placements (32 women & BIPOC)
1 Board of Director Placement (woman)
When we invest in any business, our talent team – comprised of Brianna Rizzo, Emily Gratch, Ali Fisher, and Leigh Bonner-Levine – is one of the first our founders and/or CEOs meet. Collectively they have placed 500+ executives over their decade long careers.
Always on the go
General Partner Wayne Wu's (in)famous VMG conference pants were OUT last year, and they weren't the only ones.... we also:
Attended more than 25 industry conferences across food and beverage, beauty, wellness, pet, restaurant, and technology.
Hosted over 10 events, including Hispanic Founders Dinner, Future of Frozen with Walmart, Pet Expo Dinner, NOSH Live Winter Dinner, and more.
Facilitated more than 10 informational virtual events for VMG portfolio companies, digging into everything from: Sales Workshops, Navigating Generational Differences in the Workplace, and a Fireside Chat with Axios Reporter Eleanor Hawkins.
If you’re interested in attending or co-hosting a future VMG event, shoot us a note (contact@vmgpartners.com).
Giving back to our communities
We’re passionate about giving back to the communities we call home. Many people on our team commit time outside of work to causes they’re passionate about, and as a company, we host service days in San Francisco and New York City.
In San Francisco we partnered with the San Francisco Food Bank where we packaged 392 boxes filled with over 2,000 pounds of food that went to seniors and families to supplement their weekly groceries.
In New York City we partnered with God's Love We Deliver (GLWD) doing bakery prep and packaging. GLWD prepares and delivers delicious, balanced, flavorful meals to folks living with critical illnesses in NYC's five boroughs.
What to expect from VMG this year
A few things you’ll see from us:
Continued passion for founders. We’ve always been a founder-focused firm, and we plan to maintain that as we have for nearly 20 years. We are so grateful for the bravery and hard work of founders, and we can’t wait to introduce you to more of them in the new year.
Workin’ the conference circuit. It’s important to get face time with our partners and founders, and to keep up with the latest category trends. Keep tabs on our whereabouts via LinkedIn, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re on the ground and want to meet up with a VMG investor.
Curated events like this one for founders, CEOs, retailers, and more.
Supporting our communities on annual volunteer days, and in-kind support.
How we invest
We seek to partner with entrepreneurial founders and management teams that, we believe, are building the next big thing in branded consumer products, services, and technologies. We’re focused on the food & beverage, beauty & personal care, pet, and health & wellness sectors and businesses that enable commerce and deliver new marketplace solutions. Since 2005, we’ve refined our decades of investment expertise to support the most transformative people and brands. We achieve this by striving to:
Identify, invest in, and grow branded consumer products and services, and the technologies that power them.
Support an evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem by hearing every pitch and providing our honest assessment of future growth prospects. This approach allows us to support emerging brands and businesses by sharing our view on the strategic and financial imperatives for success, no matter how a potential partner chooses to define it.
Be all in, in all ways. For us, that means appropriately resourcing all of our partner businesses and teams regardless of check size or investment horizon.
Invest in brands and technologies that have demonstrated proof-of-concept that we can help scale sustainably and responsibly.
Make investments ranging from $10M- $200M. We prioritize partnership dynamics over check-size and seek to identify and endorse the most efficient path to success.
Deliver hard truths, even if that means saying we aren’t the right investment partner.
Here’s to a great 2024!