Haley Kwait Zollo
Sure, yeah. So it’s a marketplace for celebrities, and different influencers and personalities to give personalized shoutouts to fans and to consumers. So it’s here in Chicago, and it just had a crazy explosive trajectory. And this was early 2019. When we, you know, we reconnected Ezra and I, and they had just raised the seed round that Starting Line lead. And the team was like, 15 people, I think they were still like working out of the merge mark. And, you know, really, the growth has exploded, right? They hit this kind of lightning in a bottle moment. So what they, what he was trying to pitch me on was building out their analytics team. So that’s what I had built when I was at Trunk Club, and then had done it back at Mac and Mia. So I love data, I can geek out on that all day long. And it was very flattering, right? That he was looking to me as as someone who can potentially lead that within Cameo. So that’s what he pitched me on at the time. What
Jeremy Weisz
if you were to go into Cameo at that? What would you do to start? So building out the analytics? What does that mean to like a lay person like me?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, so it’s, um, you know, starting to pay attention to the different data points that the business is starting to spit out, you know, when you’re just getting going, you’re kind of in this like, executional mode, and you’re just like moving really quickly and making things happen. You’re not necessarily analyzing the business or the data and thinking through strategy. But you hit a point when that becomes really important, right, there has to be some kind of holistic view in terms of how is the business performing? What are our KPIs? How are the different business functions like thinking about data and their decision making? So yeah, you know, you can kind of hack it together and excel and Google Spreadsheets for a while, but then you hit a point where you kind of need to build some infrastructure. So you know, what I had done in my prior world was starting to build that out. So working really closely with data engineers and building out data warehouses and thinking through a data visualization platform, there’s Tableau, there’s Looker, there’s a lot of different other tools out there. So that’s kind of my wheelhouse, right is how do you create datasets? How do you start, you know, running charts and reports and just paying attention to what the trends are, and making sure that the business is just optimizing for growth and everything else?
Jeremy Weisz
Now, what the companies do, they often turn to you for these, you know, companies to help them with that. So they got the best of many worlds by having you on. And I was like, cool. Now you just helped with Cameo you can help with, you know, all these other companies Schoolhouse Mavley. Is that what’s your role? I guess?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, no, thank you that that is a lot of what we kind of pitch is that we’re pretty hands on investors, right? We like to be strategic and feel like an extension of the team. So absolutely. That’s something that we sell when we’re trying to win the deal. And then when we actually get these companies in our portfolio, love going deep into their data sets and helping them kind of stand up some of these these processes and infrastructure. So yes, that’s, that’s definitely something that we’re doing all the time. So he’s still
Jeremy Weisz
got you for Cameo. No, I’m just kidding.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Me, right. When I started, yeah, I was I was hanging out with them all the time and kind of advising in that capacity. So they’ve come a long way.
Jeremy Weisz
What are some of the key metrics that when you’re talking to Cameo they should be looking at?
Haley Kwait Zollo
For that business specific? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s honestly, so many ways to think about it, you know, one of the big things in that business, you know, it’s a marketplace. So it’s thinking through the, there’s the supply and the demand, and there’s a lot of different dynamics that you have to think about when building up both sides of that. So on the supply side, what’s really interesting is that they have this really unique situation where the supply is actually helping create a lot of the demand, right? Because they are already these influencers, they have a ton of following. So you know, each Cameo is kind of like a walking billboard for the next. So in the analytics, it’s it’s actually understanding, you know, who’s driving on the supply side? A lot of their, their Cameo sales, right? So thinking through is there certain trends within the supply within different categories, you know, like reality TV stars do really well. And so there’s different ways to dissect that. And then on the consumer side, it’s understanding Okay, well, where, where are the top customers coming from? How do you think about different acquisition channels? And just being more thoughtful around, you know, how you’re deploying marketing spend and stuff like that?
Jeremy Weisz
Who are some of the popular Cameos? Haley,
Haley Kwait Zollo
I think The Real Housewives are like really top people? Yeah. And I’m a really big Real Housewives of New York fan. And Bethenny Frankel is like, my girl. So she, yeah, it’s been really cool to see her like rep Cameo and be one of the top, the top, you know, people on the platform.
Jeremy Weisz
That’s a top category. What’s one that’s unexpected that you saw that maybe category or person that was unexpectedly popular?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Well, I think what’s kind of fascinating this year within COVID, is that there’s this whole like, streaming phenomenon happening right with Netflix, where everyone’s starting to jump on the bandwagon of all of these different shows. Right, the second they come out, so looking back earlier this year, like Tiger King, that was like, right, such a rage, and immediately that all of the characters were on Cameo like within weeks of that blowing up. And you know, those those were all actually very, very top performers. Same thing like cheer, which was like a docu series or documentary. They all did very well on the platform, too. So it’s been, it’s been fun to kind of see like the pop culture moments within some of these reality TV shows that people are binge watching. You know, they were, no one knew who these people were. And then instantly they become pretty, pretty famous. And now have cambio de monetize that.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. I love to hear what the Reach out is like. But if you go on Cameo, check it out. I mean, there’s featured there’s sports, there’s, I mean, there’s the the who’s who of any of these arenas are on there. There’s comedians, there’s creators, like, if you want, if you’re an Andrew Dice Clay fan, or Chris Tucker fan, you could literally get a shout out to one of your friends or family members. By going in there. I mean, pro wrestlers political, it’s it goes on and on. What’s the Reach out? I imagine, like the the breakdown of people coming to you to them, I guess, and then them having to reach out?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, I mean, I think at the beginning, you know, they didn’t have a ton of the top names on the platform. So it was a lot of, you know, dming on Instagram, and just trying to get, you know, into these people’s inboxes and sell them, you know, on the platform. And I think over time as they become, you know, more of this household name, and they have bigger personalities and the platform, it’s been easier to get them to refer people in their networks. And it kind of spread that way. We’ve also seen a ton of success with and you know, some of the top a list people going on for a limited time to donate to charity. So Cameo came out with an org around like Cameo cares where they can actually donate all the proceeds to charities of their choice. So it’s been cool. I think like Mandy Moore, Sarah, Jessica Parker, Kristen Bell, you know, some of those really big names have gone on for a limited time for that purpose.
Jeremy Weisz
Very cool. So fascinating. You know, and I want you know, I was talking to Leslee Cohen, and she was like, You need to have Haley on she’s super impressive. And one of the things she said of the things you did with Trunk Club. So talk about your journey, what, you know, with trunk club a little bit.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I came to trunk club after spending, like two and a half years at KPMG out of school. So my background was in Accounting and Finance, I got my CPA. You know, I love what I was doing at KPMG. I was I was learning a ton in terms of getting in the weeds of businesses and doing crazy analyses. But I got, you know, kind of burnt out, right. And I was thinking through the startup ecosystem in Chicago, and at the time, I literally stumbled upon the trunk club opportunity on indeed.com. And it’s kind of you know, crazy thinking back to like that moment. But I came in, you know, their offices downtown in Chicago, they had an amazing, just like, Cool office, right, there was a big bar, and part of the experience, we did the trunks that were digital, and, but we also had these club houses, right, where you can come in and work with a stylist. So our office was like also this really cool clubhouse. So I came in, I was like, enamored by the organization and the culture. And I was like, I just have to work here. So I came on as like the seventh hire on the whole finance team. So I was able to immediately leverage, you know, everything I had, you know, done and learned at KPMG within like the financial lens, but quickly, we spun out into a strategy and data analytics team. So kind of circling back to what I talked about before with building up, you know, data infrastructure. That was a really big part of what we were doing, you know, the business was growing so quickly. And we were doing everything in house right the way that ecommerce has evolved, you know, the modern b2c brands today, they can outsource a lot of things, right. There’s three PL there’s Shopify, there’s a lot of ways to plug and play into this ecosystem, but that didn’t exist, you know, 10 plus years ago, when One Trunk Club initially launched. So one of the first projects I worked on was our warehouse analytics. So it’s crazy. But the initial warehouse was also our office in the river north. headquarter. You
Jeremy Weisz
can see it the, you can see it off of
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s where the original warehouse was. So I remember I first day walk in and like, get a tour. And it’s like aisles and like jeans. And you know, the button downs, and everything was like, organized by category and size. But we outgrew that so quickly. So we had to go into a new fulfillment center. And we actually built a lot of technology around that. Because the the processes that we built were rather unique to us at the time, right? The whole model was try before you buy. So about 90% of what went out the door actually came back. And we had to know what the customer kept in order to charge them. So there
Jeremy Weisz
was a logistical nightmare.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, totally. And a lot of data right around like, Okay, how do we make these processes more efficient? I think before we started thinking through or, you know, assessing what was going on, it was taking, like, 1520 minutes to pack one trunk, which doesn’t really scale, right? When you’re growing like 1000s a day, right? So that was a big thing we kind of thought about, it’s like, Okay, how do you put technology into place? How do you reduce that I think we had reduced the time down to like, five, six minutes. And, you know, from there, we kind of just evolved into almost like these internal consultants throughout the company. So once people got wind of like, the, you know, the ability to help scale on the warehouse side of things, every other team was like, Oh, my gosh, like, we need analytics help, like, Come help us out. So did a really big project for our customer service team, you know, again, business was scaling. And we were getting all these customer service cases, like where’s my trunk, and I need to book an appointment, you know, you name it. So helps really figure out you know, how do you make those processes more efficient? How do we start, you know, staffing, according to when these cases were coming in. And then we got acquired by Nordstrom about a year after I joined. So that was a whirlwind kind of a dream, I grew up, like, obsessed with Nordstrom. And it was just so fun to be able to partner, you know, with such a renowned brand. And a big project I worked on for about a year was launching women’s, so Trunk Club started for just men. And we got acquired, and Nordstrom was like, hey, like, women’s is like 80% of our business. And at the time, you know, Stitch Fix was kind of just getting started. And they started for women. So clearly, you know, they were proving out that there was certainly a big market for the category and service. So we started that, you know, out of a Google Doc, we were kind of just like, figuring out, okay, like, we have all these guys, do they have wives Do they have partners, they have girlfriends, and quickly, you know, spun that out into a whole new, you know, part of the business. So that was really, really fun.
Jeremy Weisz
big undertaking.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, and I can’t take all the credit, but it was kind of just like small, like cross functional Tiger team, you know, kind of felt like a startup in the startup. So work, you know, with cross sales across product across engineering is really hacky at first, to be honest, because, you know, we were leveraging Nordstrom inventory, but we had to, you know, turn it around and put it in a trunk club box. And the systems weren’t integrated yet. So learned a lot about behind the scenes around, you know, integration and inventory seeking and it was just really, really fun.
Jeremy Weisz
I feel like you know, it’s the non sexy stuff that makes businesses run which is like, once you analyze, you can create efficiencies in all of these departments. And it’s pretty amazing. The results. You talked about, I love to hear some of the KPIs you were looking at at Trunk Club, obviously, you know, if you’re not even measuring it, you can improve it right. So saying, okay, we’re packing these trunk is taking 15 minutes, how do we and you, you know, decrease it to four or five minutes. It’s amazing what were some of the other KPIs that were important that you were measuring and then creating efficiencies around?
Haley Kwait Zollo
What Absolutely. So I can go into so many ways to geek out on this got a big one was honestly like the stylist productivity so you know, when I joined we probably had like 100 stylist and then over time you know we grew that to 500 plus and actually across multiple offices. So the first office we are clubhouse we open was in Dallas, we had one in LA we had York we had Boston we had I think Charlotte and there were a lot of you know analytics around okay well based on where these stylists are how are they? How does their productivity change and we also had three different business lines so you can send out trunks with clothing in a box. You can do an in house appointment and have you know the customer come in on site or you can do custom we trained our stylists to do Custom clothing. So that was a really big way that we analyzed the business was breaking it down into, you know, the segment, right, and then the location. And then three days, you can go even deeper, right and see what is the average transaction value. A big metric, or big KPI for the box, or the trunk business was called the keep rate. So out of a total box of items that went out 10 items, what percent of them actually got kept by the customer. And that was a really big KPI that we would focus on. Because, you know, the stylists had a lot of discretion in terms of what they were putting into their trunks. But we also had a lot of kind of augmented technology on the back end around recommendation engines. So the keep rate was a really big one that we focused on to make sure that, you know, the recommendation and algorithms that we were building were actually working. And, you know, the customer was keeping what we were recommending we should send them.
Jeremy Weisz
I mean, ultimately, that’s, you know, you could probably rank the best stylist by the keep rate, I imagine, sir.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And there was a lot of, you know, training that we built around that, right, we built a very strong in house training team around best practices, you know, when you onboard a new stylist, like, what was there? What was their training guide? Right? How do we train them on the brands, right, that was a really big focus. When we were just on the men’s side, we were buying all of the inventory and house, we were going out, and we were curating these these emerging brands. And then we got acquired by Nordstrom, we then had, like so many more brands at our fingertips. So the brand education was a really big part. And then ultimately, you know, styling them, how do you actually put the outfits together? How do you storytel around these brands and communicate all of that to the consumer?
Jeremy Weisz
It’s pretty amazing. Do you remember any? So any of the other efficiencies that were created in the kind of logistical piece when you are fulfilling? So one, obviously, was the kind of the packing piece? What were some of the other efficiencies that you remember why we, you know, went from 15 minutes to five? What were some other ones?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, a big one actually was funny when we like discovered it was just like the time in between packing. So one big, like, initiative that we did was we instituted a pic by address system. So the whole warehouse is organized into like, aisles of racks with letters and numbers and a coding system. So when a trunk was ready to get picked, it actually had this optimized, like pick path to figure out, you know, where should you find all the different items on the shelves, and then when you actually dropped it off to then get packed, I think we had initially had like, pick up the new one to get started all the way in the back of the warehouse, which took like two to three minutes just to like walk back to. So we like flipped that and then save, you know, a couple of minutes just by kind of reversing the pick path for the, for the subsequent one. And that was a big one. And then on the return side, you know, it was really interesting, like I alluded to, you know, 90% of the items actually are a trunk came back right with at least one thing in it. So there was a lot that you had to do to actually inspect the items on the way back in before you put them back on the shelf. So there was, you know, it’s kind of in house little like refurbishing section, right where you can, you know, fix any scuffs on the shoes, and we had a dry cleaner, we had a steamer, there was a lot you had to do. So over time, you know, we kind of figured out how do you even optimize that? Because that doesn’t scale, right when you’re trying to do that for every single item. So we had a lot of different ways of kind of testing different processes, number of people per station, what tech they needed, and started just continuing to trim those times down to
Jeremy Weisz
I feel like Haley, if if trunk obligated that literally, they could do anything. I mean, that’s like every e commerce business who’s taking in returns, I don’t care who you are, should probably look at what you’re doing at Trunk Club, because that’s it’s almost no one’s gonna keep 100% most likely of what you send them. So there’s always going to be guaranteed a return which in a normal business, you hope they return nothing, right. And most of the time there is a low return rate because of the business model. But what were some things that you decided, Okay, we need to stop doing this. Because of the metrics, like you mentioned, cost, you know, there’s a couple ways we will get style, they can get set in a trunk, they can get come in, they can get custom. Was there anything in the business, you’re like, Okay, you need to stop doing this. This is not good for the business in general. Not only we can’t even make this more efficient, we just should stop doing it. What were some things on that realm?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, a good example of that is so, you know, early days, the customer was getting a totally blind box, right? They didn’t know what we were sending them until they physically opened it up. And we started learning that okay, by previewing Something ahead of time, we could actually increase our keep rate, because they would have the option to like approve or deny certain items before it went out the door, you know, things like I already have that, or I hate the color green, I hate polka dots, whatever it sounds
Jeremy Weisz
like, you would never know that it was the
Haley Kwait Zollo
exactly right. So we rolled out something called trunk preview where the customer could physically see every single item in the box or in the trunk before went out. And, you know, acts out certain ones that we shouldn’t send them, I think there was something that we had done, where there was like an expiration date or time window that you had to, like, interact with it, I think it was like 48 hours. And if you didn’t interact with it, we just sent it to you. And I think that with that, you know, people like forgot that it was coming, or they were like, I don’t want any of this. And we’re like, wait, why are we still sending it, we should just cancel it if they’re not interacting with it. So that was something that we recognized, you know, we can kind of flip the, the logic around that and then kind of eliminate that because totally your point, like the returns that came back, we called it a full return, right? They send everything back. And that’s pretty costly, right, because we’re paying for the shipping on both sides
Jeremy Weisz
very costly.
Haley Kwait Zollo
We also learn, you know, there’s something called like a carrying cost, right of the inventory. You know, for the days that it’s in the field, and on average, our cycle time was like 14 days, you know, of those items out before they came back to be sellable again. So we we quickly learned, you know, different ways to reduce that.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, I mean, you already paid people the packet, then you have to pay people to unpack it. And it’s a lot of labor involved in that. What are I’m curious, you know, we talked before we hit record about, you know, the the final deal and fun one, closing, fun to talk about the final deal in fun one.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, so it’s not announced yet. So I can’t actually call it out data. But it’s really cool on something in the audio and social network space. Okay. All right.
Jeremy Weisz
By the time it goes live, who knows? Maybe would have announced it. Yeah. And then you were saying how deals are very competitive right now? Why is that?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, I mean, I think in the past year, what we’ve learned is with, you know, this whole pandemic is we’re doing deals completely virtually right, the walls are totally broken down. And, you know, founders can line up so many meetings today with investors across the country. And I think the market just looks pretty different than it did prior to this where, you know, we were hopping on planes, they’re hopping on planes, and you just physically couldn’t like, have as many conversations as you could now. So I think, with that, there’s just been just a lot new, a lot of new opportunities, right to just like, have as many conversations as possible. And with that, I think the the market is getting more competitive, because it doesn’t matter where you’re located. And if anything, I think it’s like democratizing access, right, which is very true to our thesis, it’s Starting Line within the 99%. But I think that there’s just a lot more access to connect with investors in a way that wasn’t available before. And with that, it’s getting a lot more competitive. Another piece, I think, is just by the category, that we’re seeing competition, because there are certain categories that have had headwinds or tailwinds, you know, with the with the pandemic. So there are certain categories, you know, like education and tech, that are completely exploding right now, because there’s just this complete, like need state that is, is very relevant right now. So I think you see this kind of unbalanced within the supply and demand of certain categories where the investors are all high conviction high thesis in these categories. And there aren’t as many, you know, earlier stage companies building into that at that moment. So it gets just hyper competitive in those situations, where everyone’s trying to fight over, you know, the the best deal in the category at that time.
Jeremy Weisz
I want to highlight some of the companies Haley, but first, so what do you look for in when you’re investing in a company?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, a lot of different things, I think, first, that we really prioritize is like the team, especially at the early stage. So we really specialize in the seed round. So typically, the company has maybe raised a pre seed or a small friends and family round, and then we come in and, and typically lead or like to lead, like a two to 3 million seed round, and write a pretty large check into that round. So we look for, I think, first and foremost, you know, why is this team position to build the winner in this category, what makes them special in terms of their unique insights or whatever Did they do before it is that has really primed them to, to build this company. So we care a lot about team a lot about people. And that’s been something we have to get comfortable with is like building those relationships totally virtually. So, you know, great that we have Zoom that is just completely opened those doors. But and that’s a really big piece. I think. Second is we get really excited about completely new categories that are getting created. And I think thinking about them in terms of the timing around like, Why now? Right. I think that the especially I focus a lot within e commerce and what’s happening within the retail ecosystem. And there’s just a complete acceleration to e commerce right now. Right, I think we’ve all probably seen the same charts around what has happened in the past 10 months that, you know, typically it taken 10 years to get that same kind of penetration. So we think a lot about timing and, and market and thinking through like, you know, why? Why is this one, the one that’s gonna win, right? I think if they’re complete pioneers in the category that gives them a head start to be the first mover, but we also think about the kind of competitive landscape or tangential landscape, right with other kind of like minded companies that could creep into this space. So the competitive landscape is something we also pay a ton of attention to, when we go through diligence, you know, scouring, what else is out there? And, you know, just making sure that we’re not having any blind spots.
Jeremy Weisz
And then you’re the you’re the data analyzation metrics person. So what do you look out for? Because if it’s a new company, they may not have as many of the metrics that you’d like or even know them? What are you looking for, as far as metrics go for that company?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah. So it’s a great question. And something that, you know, I had to get comfortable with comfortable with, because, yes, in my prior world, you know, we had, like, overwhelming amounts of data, right. So we had endless ways to kind of slice and dice the business. And in very few cases at the stage that we invest in, is that the case, right, sometimes the business hasn’t even launched yet, sometimes. It’s been around for a month, it’s been around for a week. And so, you know, we don’t pay too much attention to the metrics, to be honest, I think
Jeremy Weisz
you’re cringing inside because of that. You’re like, forget this company, they don’t even know what they know, you know, you watch one of our Shark Tank or something. And, yeah, that people when know their numbers, right, and, and so that I can’t, I can just see cringing inside with.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, but I think the way that we kind of like spin it. And what we typically asked for is still wanting to see a financial model, right? still wanting to think through, you know, can I do a pro forma. And ultimately, it’s not even about like what those numbers look like, right? You can put millions of dollars of growth in a spreadsheet all day long. But what we’re thinking through is actually does the founder, does the team actually understand the lovers of their business? Do they know what their KPIs are? And do they understand like the sensitivity of those, right, if it’s a direct to consumer business, and they’re forecasting, their acquisition cost is going to get very cheap over time. That’s kind of a red flag, right? Because what we know very well is that the acquisition cost typically goes up over time, and it gets more competitive, and it gets harder to find the early adopters. And, you know, that can actually dramatically change that look of a business based on how much you’re actually willing to put into marketing. So we love actually businesses that have a very strong organic strategy in terms of how are you going to acquire customers? How are they going to be word of mouth advocates for your brand? And, you know, not rely on paid acquisition?
Jeremy Weisz
Haley, who are some of the companies that you’ve worked really closely with at Starting Line.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, so Cameo is one Made in Cookware is another big one. We love them. They’re down in Austin. They’re a direct to consumer Cookware brands, and they have actually had, you know, a pretty fantastic year because of the way that the category has, has changed, right? Yeah, everyone’s cooking at home. So yeah, they’ve been a really fun one, just to kind of start getting in the weeds of their metrics and working with them. You know, a lot of what we do is we make strategic introductions, we we try to help recruit, you know, different candidates. And, you know, just advise in different capacities. You know, I’ve worked very closely with their head of operations, you know, as they’re thinking through their growth and their scale and their supply chain, just given everything that I was doing a Trunk Club and kind of spoke to. Another one I worked pretty closely with over the summer was our investment in School House, which is a micro school marketplace. And that was, you know, very timely, we were actually High conviction and micro schools well before COVID but just given everything that happened over the past year, I know you mentioned your children have done remote learning, we we saw firsthand, right that there has to be, you know, an alternative and there was a lot of craving both on the teacher side to be, you know, facilitating and in persons micro school, but also on the the parent and the children side of things. So, the business launched, you know, in over the summer, and really was capitalizing on a lot of that, some of that, but it was such an early company, right? Nothing had processes yet, there was just so much to do. So I was getting very in the weeds, you know, in the slack channels, you know, figuring out who to introduce them to on the acquisition side of things and building out, you know, some of the processes with them. So that was a really fun one.
Jeremy Weisz
What a SchoolHouse do what,
Haley Kwait Zollo
it’s a micro school marketplace, so they connect teachers to run in, in home or in house micro schools, for students typically about kindergarten through I think fifth grade is kind of our sweet spot. And the typically about like eight students per per micro school.
Jeremy Weisz
That’s like the ideal business to start before pandemic who would have known,
Haley Kwait Zollo
right? Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz
So schoolhouse What’s another one?
Haley Kwait Zollo
I think you mentioned worked with her. Yeah. Mavely, mayfly Okay, yeah, yeah. Mavely is another Chicago company. And we found them about a little over a year ago, actually had read an article about them, I think in glossy, which is a retail focus newsletter that I’m kind of obsessed with. And immediately we’re like, we need to meet this team, who are they This is so cool. And move very quickly, you know, to be partners with them. But they have built a marketplace, you know, of different direct to consumer brands, something that, you know, fortunately Shopify has created is just, there are so many brands within e commerce to see everything right. And I think there is a lot of fragmentation. And there’s a lot of discovery that the customer is still looking for, in terms of what brands, you know, should I be looking into. And one of their underlying theses is that the best referrals of new brands and new products come from people within your own network. So what they built as a way to actually incentivize people to share and talk about products and brands that they love with their friends and their family and people who follow them. So it’s been a really fun one, to be a part of phenomenal brands on the platform. And, yeah, it’s going really well.
Jeremy Weisz
Haley. Did you remember, you know, because you’re giving a lot of advice to different founders. An example where one of them, you know, you probably give a lot of advice to people, but that one came back implemented, and it was just a huge win for them based on something you had advised them on. It could have been a checking, specific KPI and they came back, Haley. Yeah, like, we’re actually tracking these numbers now, or what do you remember getting feedback that your advice really, really helped?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, that’s a good question. I’m trying to reflect. And I mean, going back to what I said before, around how we really get excited about organic acquisition, I think that’s something that we’re constantly kind of sharing is guidance to all of our portfolio companies, is that the best customers are always going to come word of mouth. So that’s something that we’re really always advising on, because it is such an unlock, and we think that’s a way to have, you know, like nonlinear growth, right, the paid acquisition game is, you know, it’s, it’s a slippery slope of right, just dumping money into these paid channels. And like, not knowing what’s gonna happen to acquisition costs, especially over the past year, it’s been so volatile, right, the election comes in and changes it, the, you know, big players like pull out, they pull back in, there’s just a ton of noise. So we’re constantly figuring out, you know, and advising to test new platforms, right Tic Tok is one that has kind of been, like wildly successful. So for some of these brands, is to figure out how to hack that platform. You don’t even have to pay for some of these sponsors. You just figure out how to tap into your customers, and have them do a video or do something really interactive and the way that that platform works, it just starts scaling getting eyeballs really, really quickly. So I’d say that’s probably one of the best examples of that is just figuring out, you know, alternative, creative ways to acquire and grow customers.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah, you mentioned ecommerce, new categories. Looking at new categories. What are some of the examples, just so someone can visualize what you mean by like new categories and maybe some of the ones That, you know, Starting Line has won’t be considered kind of like a new category. Because by the time people hear about it, sometimes it’s not a new category anymore, like the early adopters like, oh, I’ve never heard of this, but most people probably hear about it. And then they’re thinking, Oh, yeah, it’s not a new category, you’re seeing truly new categories being created.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, there’s kind of two big themes, macro themes, I guess, that I’ve kind of been thinking through and ultimately think these are gonna distill down into probably like sub categories. But a big one, I think, is just kind of the bundling of the big social networks into these verticalized communities. So we recently made an investment in a company called Aavia, that is a smart birth control case that helps you track and take birth control the same time every day, but also has an app that you can, you know, track different things and has this whole community around it, that’s really powerful, you know, with very young Gen Z women that aren’t really getting this content anywhere else, or haven’t had, you know, access to education. So that was something I was, you know, very bullish on. And it’s a theme that we’re continuing to see across our categories, right, where you take, you know, subreddits, or you take these communities and groups within Facebook, and there’s whole businesses being built around them, that are social communities. And I think they’re only accelerating in this virtual world right now, right, where you can start getting, you know, really building like meaningful relationships in a purely virtual world. We haven’t invested in this company, but I’m really good friends with the founder, it’s a really cool social network called Upstream. That is building a community for really like, you know, building a more serendipitous way to do networking digitally. So there’s constantly new hosts, and there’s new speakers and panels, but you go in, and they have these 20 minute events, and you just get to speed FaceTime with with I think, five, five different people for a couple of minutes each. And I’ve made so many amazing connections to that platform. And I think that’s just one example of the way that networking and socialization is changing. So I’d say it’s a pretty big category, but I start to see like different silos right around, maybe it’s professional networking, maybe it’s like, you know, healthcare, maybe it’s fashion, maybe it’s skincare, you name it, they’re going to start getting a lot more verticalized. Another big trend I’m seeing is mainly was, I think, a pioneer in the space, but the whole pandemic has just really shifted the the needs even more is that there are so many of these direct to consumer brands, and ultimately, the new distribution, right? It’s very competitive for them to figure out how to acquire independent users to their, like, native website. So I think that my thesis is that there’s going to be an emergence of these digital marketplaces where these retailers, it’s kind of like the modern wholesale model, right? department stores are kind of no longer a thing, you know, except for a few of them. So instead of brands, you know, selling wholesale to department stores, there’s now going to be these direct to consumer, vertically native brands that are, you know, rev sharing, or sharing their product across different digital marketplaces. So that’s a big category that I’m paying attention to. I
Jeremy Weisz
love that. Yeah, I mean, you think about it, that’s kind of modern retail. Right? Go and discover what’s on the showroom floor. And that’s not happening now. A lot with COVID. And I love what you said about the kind of the vertical marketplace. Do you see that with Peloton, right? I mean, there’s communities, I got like an aura ring. I know people are getting these sweet bands. And then now there’s this whole education but like this network of people around sleep hygiene or whatever, right. So this is happening across many different product. So I yeah, I totally can see that. Yeah. So Haley, first of all, I want to thank you I’ve two last questions. But I want to point people towards everyone should check out StartingLine.vc check out what you have going on in the company. You have some amazing companies under Starting Line. And are there any other places we should point people towards online to to learn more about your companies? Are you?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that. Absolutely. Check out our site. We have actually a whole kind of open source GitHub with a lot of transparency and writings that we like to be very upfront about. And then follow us on Twitter. I’m at Haley Kwait Zollo and there’s Ezra and he’s @EzraMoGee Ade, our venture partner, we also have a venture partner, Scott Holloway. So the team is awesome. You should just get to know us and and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, any of the big platforms we’re on.
Jeremy Weisz
I want to hear Haley what’s been a challenging point. Maybe One of the companies career rise, whatever it is, and then a high point. But I also I want to throw in there. You said your husband as a company, what’s his company? So people can check that out? Oh, yeah,
Haley Kwait Zollo
please. So he is to actually right now one’s kind of a side project. But first one is Collaborata. It’s a market research marketplace for brands to share in the cost of market and consumer data projects with each other. So it’s just a Collaborata.com.
Jeremy Weisz
Got it,
Haley Kwait Zollo
then he recently launched a new venture called Joe and Bella, JoeandBella.com. And what he’s building is a way to give essentials to those at assisted living facilities. But something that was very close to our family over the past year with his grandma who was in a home, and it was very hard, you know, to pay attention to what she needed and what she was running out of. So what Joe and Bella does is we actually used to always joke when I was at Trunk Club, why isn’t trunk club for seniors exists. And there really has been such a lack of innovation in the category, you know, of technology for for seniors. So he’s building a way for these brands to have access to the platform. And then caregivers can go in and buy essentials, and get them on a subscription to go directly to their loved ones at assisted living homes.
Jeremy Weisz
I love it. Everyone, check
it out. Thank you. So what’s been especially challenging time in the career? Because if you look at you know, your career, just this upward trajectory? I’m sure there’s challenging points along the way, what’s something you had to push through? That was a challenge? Yeah.
Haley Kwait Zollo
I mean, I think in the past year, it’s been, I guess, a learning curve to figure out how to actually build and cultivate these relationships, purely digitally. You know, it’s something Ezra kind of always talks to me about, and he reflects back on, you know, what he thinks propelled him early on in his venture career, and a lot of it is networking, and it’s these serendipitous moments, right, where you go to a conference, or you meet someone at an airport, and you just been up a conversation. And that can’t really happen right now. So I think the challenge has been, how do you kind of figure out alternative ways like the the company Upstream, I mentioned, has been a great resource for me during this time where it has allowed for these serendipitous connections to be made. But it certainly is a challenge. And it also, you know, on the one hand, it, it opens the doors, right, because you can send a cold email, you can reach out to someone, you can grab virtual coffee. But I think everyone is a little bit zoomed critique right now. So it’s easy to get lost, I think in the noise of that. So you really have to go above and beyond to to really make those meaningful relationships.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. And then what about on the flip side? What’s been maybe a high point of your career are something that sticks out is a proud moment? Yeah, I
Haley Kwait Zollo
mean, I like to think that I’m never, I’m never settling right for reaching that. But I think in the past year, it’s really just been getting to feel a little bit more comfortable and what this role is right, I was very, you know, comfortable in the box, business world, between trunk club, and macadamia, that was five and a half years of operating and in the startup, and speaking the KPIs inside and out and getting so familiar with those business models, and venture, you know, has been a totally new learning curve. For me, there’s, like, no rules, right? In this world, there’s so many ways that you can spend your time and we’re very lean team, you know, it’s just as Ezra and I did today. So there’s so many ways that I can be spending my time. So I think a high has just been figuring out, you know, what my styles like? What are the categories? And I’m getting the most excited about? How do I go deeper into those? How do I start getting more comfortable sending these cold emails, and, you know, reaching out to a founder that is a total stranger, and getting them excited about partnering with us and what we’re building. And I think that’s been a high I think I’m constantly learning and I’m not totally want to believe I’m ever gonna reach that completely. But I’m getting a lot more comfortable doing that. So I think that’s been a high for this year.
Jeremy Weisz
Haley, everyone should check out StartingLine.vc and what companies should be reaching out right now. To you?
Haley Kwait Zollo
Ooh, yeah. A couple of big themes that I’m super excited about one as has been a big read, I think, right. This is anything and next generation e-commerce. So anything in that space, new business models, new marketplaces, new platforms, and through the lens of personalization and sustainability. I’m very, very passionate about sustainability specifically within retail. So anything anyone is building in that space would love to meet them. And same with personalization you know, learn this world inside it out with Trunk Club and Macedonia, but I’m very bullish on personalization within a lot of different categories. So those are the big ones.
Jeremy Weisz
Awesome. Thanks, Haley.
Haley Kwait Zollo
Thanks, Jeremy. It was a lot of fun. appreciate you bringing me on.
