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Rachel Drori

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24
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2018-03-30
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2018-03-30
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1
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  1. “Yeah, so we have so much more to do. We've barely scratched the surface. But when you think about our big mission, which is solving this modern eating dilemma, the desire to eat real, clean food without the time to actually make it through frozen, there's just so much to do. So not only are we planning to expand categories, but we've got a lot of interesting and exciting things that we're going to be doing in the coming year and the coming five years.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “It was definitely starting daily harvest. I was, you know, as I said, I was very pregnant when I started daily harvest and raised money and kind of went through the whole thing. And not knowing what that world was going to be like, you know, the one of being a mother, but also kind of diving in and starting a business, which is something I had not done before either, you know, not having an income for quite some time. It was definitely a risk, but one that was calculated, one that my husband and I talked a lot about and one that I'm so glad that I took.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Absolutely. There is no balance. There's just not. But I think it's an important thing to kind of realize and respect and then move forward with.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I mean, it changed so much of it. But one of the things that it changed is definitely my view on reality. I think before I had kids, there was this idea that you can have it all at some point. And I've realized that that is just, it's not possible, you know, and I think that it's an idealized vision that a lot of people have. Like, oh, you know, I'll be able to do everything and it'll be wonderful. But I think that it's causing this tension where people become really hard on themselves. And I think it's okay to say, you can't have it all and you have to make choices. There are trade-offs, but the trade-offs are worth it. And your kids will be fine without you helicoptering around them.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Yeah, so there's actually a nutrition book that has informed a lot of how I've built daily harvest. It's called Deep Nutrition. It's fascinating, but the one second synopsis of it is basically if your great-grandparents didn't eat it, you shouldn't either. And, you know, it's basically the idea that there's a deep, deep nutrition, that modern society is just missing. And it's about how to get all of the vitamins and minerals that you need to not only survive but thrive through just traditional eating.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Better than you do since I am part of our target demographic. And I'm going to stick with this one. So I was definitely given a hard talking to about going outside of smoothies. And guess what? I did it anyway.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, so that's funny. With the, I don't know if you've ever done any of those personality tests. Yeah, well, there are a few different ones, but I always come out as kind of the outlaw. It's just like time after time on the outlaw. And, you know, I think a lot of that goes back to this idea of asking forgiveness and not permission. So, you know, I would say one of the moments that stands out is, you know, when I was pitching daily harvest and when I had the original idea for the business, it was always about reinventing frozen to solve a modern eating dilemma. And when I started getting traction with our first collection, which was just smoothies, I had some investors who were really, really hesitant for me to go outside of smoothies. They're like, you know what? This is working. You can build a great business on smoothies. Why don't you just stick with them? And I was like, no, absolutely not. That is not something that I want to do. It wasn't part of the original vision. And I think that, you know, I understand the target demographic a little bit.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, I mean, I would say during fundraising, I know we've spoken a lot about fundraising, but that really is for me the time when you really, like if you've never done it before, you have to pretend that you know exactly what you're doing because you really don't earn points for being a rookie. So, you know, people are looking to invest in people who have a proven track record. Well, guess what? If you don't have a proven track record, you've got to pretend like you do and you've got to act like you do. And I would say that that's really one of those moments where faking it till I made it was definitely the rule that I live by.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I would absolutely agree. So, you know, if you rewind to my story about raising my ceremony seed, it was not easy. It's really hard to find people at such an early stage that will invest in a concept or an idea. I really had to go beyond that. I had to bootstrap the business. You know, I was in a position where I wasn't actually able to fly. I was very pregnant. And I only had the New York City community. So I had to make it work. But I was able to find really wonderful investors who ultimately believed in what I was doing and great partners growing the business.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yeah, so for me, you know, so Alex delights being and Carl from BMG are both on my board. And I have such a wonderful relationship with them. And the main reason why I kind of went through this whole courtship process and then decided that they were going to be part of this final round was definitely because we had an incredible relationship kind of forming. And I knew that when it came time for board conversations, but also when it came time for just a one-off, that I would have their ear. I would have that empathy, but I would also have them as a sounding board, both Alex and Carl be the type of people that can call. I can be a little vulnerable with. We'll get that empathy, but they're also just wonderful sounding boards. I find that if I just call Alex or call Carl and have one of those conversations that I usually come up with a really wonderful solution for anything.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “To me, it was to find investors that were value aligned, but also I'm a single founder. So for me, my board and my investors are a little bit more important than I think if you have a co-founder. So it was really important to me to meet the right people. And then when I actually went out for the round, I only went out to six VCs and I'd already had relationships. I already knew that I wanted to work with them and I ran a true process, but in such a short period of time, first instead of that six week that the other two rounds had taken to meet everybody, this was like two weeks done.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “So I would actually say that throughout Series C, Series A, there were a lot of learnings from me, and I deployed those learnings in my series B. So what I would say is my Series B, I think, was my most flawlessly executed round. And I would give the advice to do it this way. So this way is really what I did is I did a lot of quote unquote dating before I set out to raise. So I met with VCs, anybody who wanted a meeting I took, I went out to a few that I've heard great things about and I just got to know them. It was probably a little untraditional for me not to share anything about the business. I didn't share one number. I just kind of shared the big picture. And I was very explicit that my plan was to raise in the fall and that at that point I would go forward with a few suitors that I felt were the best matches for me. One of the things that was super”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “It worked with some and it wasn't for others. There were some funds who were used to taking down entire rounds. I actually decided that I didn't want just one fund. So I capped the amount that each fund could take. And it was because once you have a true lead investor in around, then it becomes difficult to have your own term sheet because they have certain ways that they want to work. And so I actually capped the amount that each investor could own. And that's what really allowed me to put out the term sheet that I wanted to see.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “This is how it's going to be. And I sent back the term sheet and I said, Do you want to participate or not? And I got three wonderful VCs to participate.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Picked a good six weeks to raise money. You know, you kind of have once you've got some data under belt, you kind of can understand the seasonality of a business. So it wasn't a total accident, but I didn't expect it to be quite at that magnitude. So, you know, what had happened is I originally was going out for a bit more cash on the Series A. And when our run rate had doubled, I kind of took a step back and I was like, oh my gosh, I promise all of these VCs, but I was looking for a certain valuation or not promised, but we had kind of been discussing a certain valuation. I was getting term sheets. I was in such a great position, but it didn't feel good anymore because our run rate had doubled and the valuation felt like a little silly to me. So I actually decided to blow up the entire round and basically wrote my own term sheet and sent it back to everybody. And I said, hey guys, a little untraditional here, but”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “So, you know, it took six weeks to meet with everybody. And what we saw was this incredible growth over that six weeks. What happened was the run rate that I originally deemed like the one to raise the Series A at had doubled in that six weeks, which is insane.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “So we actually had a kind of an interesting fundraising story. I'm sure you heard some of it from Rebec and Alex. So for our series A, I went out when we were at the run rate that I had pre-decided was going to be the right one to raise our series A at. And what happened is, you know, it took about six weeks to kind of go through all the motions and to meet with everybody. And by the time you coordinate everybody's schedules, it's just always six weeks. It just is.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Yeah, so it was a little bit different for me, but not too far off. So with Series C, I had actually bootstrapped the business for about eight months. And the reason why is because I had started speaking to people early on and I found that they just didn't get the business. It was mostly middle-aged men who I was talking to and they would taste one of our first collections, which was smoothies, and they'd be like, it doesn't taste like jamba juice. That's what I think a smoothie should taste like. I'm not sure that this is a thing. Frozen food, what are you doing? They just didn't get it. Like when I kind of shared the big vision, they thought I was a dreamer. But, you know, I had a lot of convictions. So I decided to bootstrap for the first eight months. And I proved our series C with numbers, not a large amount of numbers, just enough to kind of show the traction. And then Series A, we were actually pretty robust with our reporting.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yeah, so it was actually all very deliberately orchestrated where Series C, Series A, I wanted to be really capital efficient. We had a lot of things to prove. And I wanted to make sure that when it came time for the Series B that we're going to be able to raise the amount of money that I knew we needed to really do all the things that I envisioned when starting the business. And in order to do that, you have to prove the business. You can't just raise $43 million because you want to. So by being really lean in the beginning and being really disciplined, we were able to do it.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Yeah, well, when it happened the first time, it was due to the fact that we were on a nonproprietary site and it just wasn't meant for the scale that we had reached. So it's one of those moments where sheer panic ensues them. You're trying to figure out like, okay, I have a very basic business problem that I need to solve right now. How do I charge people for what they're buying or what they're getting? And for me, the thing that I always go back to is stoicism or stoic philosophy. And I always ask myself, what's the absolute worst thing that can happen? So, you know, in that moment, I said, okay, well, worst case scenario, people don't get charged. It's one week. Like, what does that really mean? And something that I could live with because the total number was something that it was a high number, but it wasn't catastrophic. We ended up manually charging everybody. But the worst case scenario was one that I could live with. And that's usually how I look at these scenarios and I kind of go to one total extreme.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah, so I would say we prioritized everything that we've done has been ordered. And I'd say executed in that order. So things like team growth to be able to build our own proprietary site. You know, that's something that we didn't prioritize. We knew we could use kind of an out-of-the-box solution, which was very not out of the box by the time we were done with it. But an out-of-the-box solution to start and then got to a point where we were breaking it and then built our own sites. And one of the downsides to that was there were a few features that we really wanted our customers to have that we couldn't ship to them for some time.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yeah, so I think that capital efficiency is something that can be part of the core values of a company or not. And for me, coming from guilt and also believing that it is possible to do more with less wanted that to be part of our core culture, but also before we were ready to really open the floodgates and do all of the things that we initially set out to do, I'm a very big believer in kind of testing and learning and being really disciplined. So being capital light allowed us, or not only allowed us, it forced us to kind of be very selective with things that we went after and to be methodical about how we did it.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “So, Guilt Group was a very interesting organism, and there's just so much entrepreneurship and innovation that's come out of there. And I think the reason why is because Gilt Group really was such a pioneer in e-commerce 1.0 almost. And there are definitely a few takeaways that if you've got a bunch of former guilt folks around a table, everybody would probably have in common. And it's very much informed how the group has built their own startups. And for me in particular, it's informed how I've deployed capital, how I look at growth, how I look at team building. And it's nothing against Gilt, as I said, was absolutely a pioneer. But as I've built daily harvest, I've really looked at building it very capital efficient, not hiring six months ahead of growth and just some learnings from the record speed growth that Gilt did see and then hit a peak and went down from there.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yeah, so I started my career at Four Seasons Hotels, then went to business school, actually, then moved over to American Express, so very corporate. And my most recent stop of my career train, I guess, was at Guilt Group before I started daily harvest.”

    2018-03-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Tearing Up Term Sheets and Writing Your Own, Why Founders Must Do "VC Dating" Pre-Fundraise & The Benefits of Capital Constraints in The Early Days with Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO @ Daily Harvest · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source