YouSaid · the spoken record

Rachel Blumenthal

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33
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2018-07-13
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2018-07-13
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1
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  1. “Learning and development, so you can innovate faster, but don't take my word for this. Take the word of a Ventbright former 20 VC guest Hymns, dial pad, all customers and lovers of Terminal, and you can find out more today at terminal.io. Finally, a major pillar of any successful business is communication. And that's the role of Hi-Fi. Hi-Five simplifies business collaboration with a conferencing platform that builds connected cultures. It's this incredible all-in-one solution, including intuitive cloud software and purpose-built meeting room hardware. Plus, it's a high quality experience with industry-leading audio-powered by Dolby Voice, and it's so easy to use that there's no pin codes or app downloads. Just click a link in your browser and you're in the meeting, growing fast with customers in over 100 countries. Hi5 is already trusted by the likes of Harry's, Rula La, Expansify, the Atlantic, and betterment, just to name a few, and to learn more and start simplifying your team's video and audio conferencing, visit hi5.com forward slash 20 VC. That's high-five.com.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Starting your own small business or getting serious about making your small business more efficient, you need to invite fresh books to the table. Fresh boots makes cloud accounting software that's so ridiculously easy to use, trust me even I use it, and you'll quickly understand why over 10 million people use it to radically streamline how they deal with their admin and paperwork. Oh, and fresh boots can handle a lot more than accounting related tasks. Using fresh books is kind of like having your own admin assistant who's got your back 24-7 and to claim your 30-day unrestricted free trial, go to freshbooks.com forward slash VC and enter 20 minute VC in the How Did You Hear About Us section and who doesn't love a fun fact so fun fact did you know that for 83% of the software developer talent is international and that's where terminal come in terminal help you create world-class technical teams through remote operations as a service What does that mean? Well it means a complete solution that delivers push button recruiting operations workspace development human resources plus professional”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Thank you for having me. Racial enough for giving up the time to be on the show there, and I'm thrilled to hear that I'm not the only one who struggles for time on reading, but I would love to see you behind the scenes here at the 20-minute VC. You can find us on Instagram at h stebbings 1996 with 2Bs. It'd be great to see you there. But before we leave you today,”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Gonna dominate a children's apparel. We are going to be the number one place that both parents and kids want to shop. And the reason I really stress that both the parents and the kids is that we have two very distinct constituents and customers. And that has very much been forgotten in any of the incumbents. And it's critical in the success of this category that we understand the demands and the needs and the psychology of both of those constituents to be able to deliver what I believe will be the future of shopping for kids.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Special in the universe, but it was a moment where I still very, very into this day believe in the vision that we were building a cricket circle, but I knew that there was a bigger and greater opportunity in what we could build for Rockets of Awesome. And it was definitely a development opportunity for me. And realizing that I had the maturity to be able to make decisions that were best for other people besides myself.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Probably pivoting the business from Cricket Circle to Rockets of Awesome was a tremendous inflection point for me and probably one of the first moments where I could really recognize what people meant when they said that you will make decisions that are for other people other than yourself. And what I mean by that is that in that moment where we decided to shift focus from content around babies and baby gear to a much broader category of kids and apparel, that was a moment where it was all about the other constituents that I was responsible for being my employees and my investors. It wasn't about me. Of course, it had to be something that I believed in, that I was passionate about, that I believed that I had a unique point of view on that I could create something really.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I think that I actually really thrive in those shithit the fan moments where I kind of just go into crisis mode and it's all about the solution. I don't spend a lot of time saying, shoulda, woulda, coulda, or why did this happen? I go very much into solution mode. And then once the problem is solved, then I will go back and assess why did it happen.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “And the entrepreneurial community to raise women in both respects so that we can innovate all these categories that deserve to be innovated. So, favorite book and why? What must I be reading on my next flight to New York? I'm a mom and I'm running a company and I do not have time to read books as my answer to you. So anything on my iPhone is what I read, whether it is news links and Twitter or sort of the deliveries of the best publications that come into my inbox every morning. So I'm reading TechCrunch in Business Insider, Fast Company, Inc., New York Times. My guilty pleasure is the Daily Mail that I read on Snapchat. So anything that I can read on my phone is what I read. Do you know what I've had about a thousand guests recommend me terribly in intellectual books? And I always pretend”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I think it's just more. I think it's more of everything. I think it's more female investors. I think it's more female entrepreneurs. You know, what I realize is that there are categories that will never be innovative if we don't have female entrepreneurs and female investors, right? So, you know, take Lola, a Tampon company, for instance. I can't imagine that a man was ever going to innovate the tampon, right? Because they don't, for the life of them, understand how it works or what it does or the nuances of how you can make it better. And on the flip side, if you didn't have female entrepreneurs who again really intimately understood and actually cared about the tampon, then you would never have innovation in a category that probably hasn't been innovated in 50 to 100 years. So I think it's incumbent upon both the investors.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Dominated industry Maybe that you have with two prior businesses a first time female Well, you know, my motto is fake it till you make it. That is because no matter any executive, any entrepreneur, anyone that you speak to who has had success that you look up to that you say, God, like they are the epitome of success, the reality is that we all have imposter syndrome, right? We all think that we're not good enough or we're not there yet, but the ones that succeed are the ones that fake it. We just fake it every single day and we put on the air of confidence, whether we're confident or not. People believe that air of confidence. And I think that the ability to fake it and the ability to have the conviction and be focused and to, you know, if it's faking confidence, if it's real confidence, the ability to do that enables us to do things that we never could have imagined were possible.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “My mom didn't work, and my dad worked, and I grew up in an environment where I really only knew men that worked, but for some reason, it never occurred to me that I couldn't do anything that I ever wanted to do and that I ever had a hurdle in front of me of being a woman. And I can't tell you why that is the case. But because of that, I think I've always had a naivete around not being able to do something because I'm a woman. And so I've always looked at every problem in front of me as there's a problem or an opportunity in front of me and I'm going to go solve it. And you better get the hell out of my way because I'm going to knock down everything in front of me to make that happen. That has always been my instinct and always been my MO from a very early age. And I think it has probably been one of the ways that I've been able to disregard or ignore the fact that I'm a woman and a”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Sort of start to get themselves into an awkward situation where they'll say, Well, you know, your husband is a successful entrepreneur, and then they start to backpedal a little bit. And they'll say, well, you know, you're a mom. And they'll say, yeah, I'm a mom, but that doesn't mean that I can't have a career and I can't be passionate about something and I can't balance my career and my personal life just like my husband does. And so, you know, when I'm asked, well, how do you balance it? I look them dead in the eye and I say exactly the way my husband does. And that's sort of one of those really awkward moments where I hope they hear what I'm saying, which is like, seriously, F you. Like I can't believe that you have the audacity to be asking me that and sort of the lack of sophistication to be asking me a question like that. But I also think that that's representative of who I am as a person. I grew up”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “That has had success. And that to every investor says, why is she here? And like, what is her goal? She doesn't really need to be here. That is sort of their natural instinct. And then their instinct as well, like it must be a hobby or sort of like a side project, right? And so the questions that I've received, I've fundraised. I've always been a single founder. And so I fundraised as a female single founder. I've fundraised pregnant and I fundraised as a mom. And I've received various questions along the lines of, so how much time do you spend on this? Or how do you balance it? You know, for which I know exactly what they're asking me. And I know exactly what they're getting at. And I know where their mindset is. And I really turn it back on them because I so want them to hear themselves ask that question. And so I'll say, well, what do you mean?”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Know before I get into that personally, I think that it is there's statistically significant data in research that will tell you that when male founders are meeting with investors, whether they're male or female investors, they are asked the question of what is the greatest opportunity that you have ahead of you? And women entrepreneurs are asked, what is the greatest risk? So I think even that probably sets the stage for there really still being a difference between being a male and female entrepreneur. For me, you know, I've probably had, you know, like I mentioned, I've experienced every stereotype you can imagine. I would say probably the most telling to me has been being a female entrepreneur that's also a mom and a female entrepreneur that's a mom with a husband in the space.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Mean, I think it probably goes back again to why I would equate fundraising to dating in that I often find that there's generally not much conviction across the board and that there's a lot of follower type behavior where everybody wants to get in on a deal, a business, an opportunity that everybody else wants to be in on. It creates this follower mentality where you often find that there isn't as much conviction as you would like to see and it goes back again to really finding the investors who have deep passion for the category and the industry for which you are creating a solution.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Wanting to unpack it with you as a founder and as operators of a business to take what she understands about market dynamics and apply it to her passion of really understanding the consumer to be able to add value to your business. And she's a great example of a tremendous success story of an investor that was never an operator.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “That are uniquely interested and passionate about the category that you're building a business around, right? Because if they're not passionate, if they're not interested, there's going to be much less of an instinct to be able to really provide value. Where I have had the greatest success is in one of my longest time investors being Kirsten Green from Forerunner, in that Kirsten loves consumers. She loves retail. She intimately understands the consumer and understands the dynamic between consumers and different retail businesses and what makes her such a tremendous investor to founders that are building businesses in the consumer space is that she has a passion for it. She's not just looking at the numbers on the paper. She has a passion around the consumer and the consumer dynamics.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “The customer and how that customer and the psychograph of the customer impacts those levers, that's when you get investor that can really add value. So I would say my greatest bit of advice or my greatest request would be that investors really take the time to not just say, how can I be helpful or I really want to be healthy, but to be helpful, it means that you actually have to spend time with the business, spend time with the operator, spend time with the founders to really understand the nuances of the business. It's not that you're going to be able to be helpful across the entire business, but pick an area of the business that you feel most informed about, most interested in to then be able to be helpful. And I think that that probably goes to the best investors for your business will evolve over the stage and the lifetime of your business, but particularly in the beginning, the best investors are going to be those.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I think more than anything, and you know, I also have empathy for investors in that they have a lot of demands, right? And so not only you're not the only portfolio company that they have to worry about. Combined with the fact that in many ways investors have to be doing what founders do, which is fundraise, right? And so in many ways, they have a sensitivity around the fundraise process, but investors have a lot of demands. And so, you know, while often I find that they're not as connected or not as immersed into my business as I would like for them to actually be able to add value, I also have an appreciation of why they can't always be. But I would say that the investors that take the time to really understand the business that they're invested in, to really understand the nuances of that business, the drivers of the business, and not just on paper, but really”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Investor who has never been an operator is that for good or for bad, they have pattern recognition, right? And so they've seen similar patterns across a multitude of businesses. And I think that that can be an advantage in that there is recognition of those patterns that can be attributable to different businesses. At the same time, there can be the negative instinct of pattern recognition where they sort of lump you in with every other business that may or may not be applicable to yours. And it's, well, you know, this is what it is in e-commerce. This is what it is in subscription. And in many ways, it's like a vast generalization. And sometimes I feel like there's a lot of jargon being spoken versus very on the ground tactical advice that you get with a former operator.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “I think first and foremost, an investor that was an operator, which I have to say is really hard to find, but an investor that was an operator, I'd say first and foremost really understands how hard it is to be a founder, how hard it is to be an operating team. And so there's a sensitivity or an empathy there. The second is that they really appreciate that there's a million things that you want to be doing at any period of time and you desperately have to prioritize. And so, you know, what you can sometimes see with investors is that they throw a million ideas at you and they can't figure out why you can't move fast enough and why you can't do all of them at the same time. And an investor who's a former operator really understands the nuance of having to pick and choose and prioritize. I think that with an investor, you know, the beauty of an institution”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “We can pull that will give us flexibility in pulling back and spend if we don't see the growth that we're anticipating and whether that is on future hires, whether that is on extraneous kind of spend, whether it came outings or even snacks within the building. Sometimes those things can give you a little more flexibility, but typically it really is the overhead that gives you the most, and that is harder to be flexible on. So another way to think about it is do you actually bring in contractors or”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “You know, I think that as you scale, it becomes harder as you become a later stage of business, it becomes harder. I think in the beginning when you have smaller teams, smaller growth expectations, it's much easier to grow with baby steps and to grow in a more efficient manner. Generally, overhead tends to be one of the larger drivers of capital in a business. And as you start to build your team, that is a flexible and isn't as responsive to how you are growing as a business, right? And so often, you know, you're never trying to, you never want to be hiring too far ahead, but you never also want to get into a position where you're unable to grow because you don't have the people in place. And so I think it's a constant balance. For us, we're always looking at what are the levers.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “You know, whether you're an experienced founder or a first time founder, you don't always know how long it's going to take you. You can have a thesis on it, but you're not always going to know. And so people tend to say that 18 months of runway is the comfortable amount of time to give yourself to unlock or prove out the next stage of your thesis. But inevitably things happen throughout the business that might shift your course, might shift how impactful you think a tactic is going to be. So there's a lot of unknowns along the way. And I think that best that you can do is always have a plan B and a plan C and always be really comfortable course correcting along the way.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “I think that everybody, myself included, likes to give advice to entrepreneurs, which is, you know, raise money when you don't need it. That's all well and good, and it's great in theory, but I would say it's pretty rare in execution, particularly in the early stages, because what you have is you essentially are setting thresholds for which you believe in support of either investors that you have or advisors that you have that really understand market dynamics and investor mentality or setting thresholds for which you have to hit certain goals to then really deserve or have proven out a thesis to raise the next round of funding. And in theory, you're going to do that with tons of runway in front of you, but it can take longer than expected to sort of hit those thresholds. And I think that”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Yeah, so I think it is as much as maybe not immediately responding to an email that arises in your inbox, maybe not being able to schedule the meeting or the call tomorrow, but next week or the following. It's also getting your network to work for you. So getting other friends that are in the investing environment to be talking about you so that people feel like everybody's talking about this deal, everybody's seeing this deal, and why can't I get to it, right? So I think it's as much how you act as leveraging your network to be able to act on your behalf.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “To get in on the deal as there is on being able to build the relationship on either side. And so, you know, the minute I realized that if you were totally available, if any investor could get in on any deal, nobody would want the deal. And so how do you create the dynamic where you're building a rapport, you're building a relationship with a potential investor, you're getting to know each other. But at the same time, there's a piece of it that has a semblance of being unavailable.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Yeah, I mean, the minute I realized that you had to play what I call the game, which, you know, I feel like I was an expert at when dating. And I'm grateful that I don't have to play or I felt like I was grateful that those years were behind me and the game was behind me. When I realized that you had to play the game with investors, it became sort of this aha moment for me. And what I mean by that is that nobody, whether it's an investment or it's a cookie as it relates to kids or it's a car when you go and buy your car, nobody wants something that they can easily get, right? Everybody wants a challenge. And so when fundraising, it's really important to play the game and that you're not completely available to investors. There's a semblance that other people want what they want. Other people want what you have. And there's as much of a sort of competition.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “And as we built that business and as we navigated different monetization strategies, what I learned was that we had really unlocked how to build a brand for the next generation of consumers, specifically moms. And we had really figured out how you build trust and loyalty to that consumer and really serve them. But we had also uncovered is that once you sort of got over that period of making those initial buying decisions of the car seat and stroller, which feel monumental at the time, you feel like your kid is not going to go to college if you make the wrong decision once you get over those decisions, you have more confidence as a parent. And ongoing, what becomes the pain point is that your kids are growing so rapidly. And every two to three months at that period of time, they're outgrowing their clothes and keeping that dresser stocked with”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “On the brand and the marketing strategy. And more importantly, I would follow them every single tech conference they would go to and really just a sponge of trying to understand the lingo and the terminology and how this industry really sought and functioned. And that was really exciting to me. And what came out of that was my next business, which was a content business called Cricket Circle with really the idea that as a new parent, we had just had a baby and I couldn't believe how hard it was to figure out what to buy when you have a baby. I'd received probably 40 Excel spreadsheets from friends on the stroller, the car seat, and so forth. And it was the type of research that HBS students do. And I thought that's crazy. The regular consumer shouldn't be doing this. And could there be a smarter and better way? And so I ultimately launched a cliff notes for what to buy when you have a baby.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “What comes with raising that money in the constituents involved in that process and creating a plan and executing upon that plan so that I can build something that's representative of what I promised all those constituents. Post Rachel Lee, which was the jewelry business, we were in 500 retailers worldwide. We did private label for American Eagle, Target J. Crew. We were in stores such as Shopop and Bergdorf Goodman. And I licensed that brand probably about seven years ago really because I felt like I wasn't learning anymore. I felt like I needed a new challenge and it was one of those moments and a timing where my husband was building the business that he runs today, Warby Parker, with his co-founders. And it was the first time where I really felt like I was being stimulated again. I was working closely with them.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “You know, I was my boss, and I was building a business with my vision and learning along the way. And the greatest learnings that I can take away from that experience is that I've always built businesses that are aligned with the stage that I am in my career. And so what I mean by that is that that phase of my business was very much a baby steps business. I never raised money. I never knew that you could raise money. I thought that people that got money from investors meant that you were bankrupt. I mean, that is how sort of unsophisticated and naive I was at the time. But it was a really great moment for me because it really forced me to build a very healthy and sustainable business from day one. Whereas fast forward, God, how many years, 15 years. And, you know, now I'm much more familiar and comfortable with raising money from investors coming, you know, really being responsible for”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Sure. Well, going back just a bit, I think that I've probably had a pretty unusual career in that. I launched my first business when I was 23. And I had no idea what I was doing. I was working in fashion, in luxury fashion and really fell into becoming a jewelry designer. And so 23 years old, having really no professional skills whatsoever other than a vision and a hunger to make something happen. And I launched that business and built that fashion jewelry brand over the course of eight years. And it was such an interesting phase of my life where I again had no training, didn't know anybody that was building their own business. There was no semblance of sort of the very familiar terms of startup and founder that we find today. And it was a very lonely period, but a very exciting and fun period in that.”

    2018-07-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source