Michael Ronen (Branded) - Why He's Building a Portfolio of Amazon Brands, The Aggregation Opportunity within eCommerce and Why He Left SoftBank Investment Partners

Our guest today is Michael Ronen, co-founder and President of Branded. Branded acquires and partners with top performing Amazon sellers. So as you can imagine, we’re going to be talking about creating brands on Amazon. Previously, Michael was one of the Managing Partner’s at SoftBank Investment Partner’s historic Vision Fund 1. We discuss the opportunity within eCommerce while at SoftBank vs. Branded, building brands on Amazon vs. off Amazon. What was your initial attraction to invest in early and growth-stage companies? How did you end up at Softbank? Why did you leave Softbank to start Branded? What was your initial attraction to the Amazon ecosystem? Was there anything you thought some of the earlier aggregators were missing that lead you to want to jump in? What are synergies amongst your portfolio? What categories are attractive? What’s the goal of a brand? What’s a successful revenue goal? Modern foreign thinking brand focused on personal care Brands that have patent or design - how is Amazon as a partner? One company is building an incredible infrastructure - AWS You have the intent to buy How do you build a brand based off of a listing? How do you build a brand on Amazon where you are just another listing? What’s the strategy at Branded? How do you think about differentiation from others? Why the focus on consumables? How do you think about synergy amongst your brands? How did you go about building your team? What’s your approach to retaining founders? What was your approach to fundraising? How many companies do you look to buy? How do you think about the best categories? Do you get nervous about Amazon private labels? How is Amazon a great partner? What are your criteria for acquisition? What are the advantages of acquiring Amazon brands vs. Shopify / DTC brands? Does there have to be a retail / brick-and-mortar strategy in order for you to be interested in the brand? What’s one book that inspired you personally? One book that inspired you professionally? Lea Coca - CEO of Chrysler - Autobiography Swim with the sharks without being alive - Harvey MacKay “Play Nice But Win” - Michael Dell What’s one piece of advice for founders?

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The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.