Haley Kwait Zollo_E26: Every Day Sustainability [4/15/2021]
EPISODE26: Every Day Sustainability
https://anchor.fm/posi2ive/episodes/Haley-Kwait-Zollo_E26-Every-Day-Sustainability-4-15-2021-ev03bs
Haley Kwait Zollo, Principle at Starting Line Ventures in Chicago [4/15/2021]
Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.
INTRO:
1:00 Talks about entry into KPMG, and working in M&A diligence with Private Equity funds. Shares family story with Grubhub, and realizing that startups were more interesting. Shares her experience at TrunkClub — with her background in fashion. Talks about early days in strategy and analytics. Shares Mac & Mia experience, with another exit and a few years later started in VC with Starting Line Ventures.
SECTION1: Network in Venture
8:26 Haley admits she didn’t have a Twitter account day one of Venture! We talk about developing relationships in venture. She realized how powerful relationships are, and how they tie into the arena. Cultivating relationships across verticals — e.g., VC-to-VCs, Founders-to-VCs (with communities / accelerators / networks), overall startup ecosystem.
11:30 Shares the All Raise virtual cohort she’s currently part of. Haley and I talk about the aspect of pay-it-forward. Discusses the opacity of venture when first entering, and how she consciously tries to answer questions and provide access to new Founders. We talk about the operating system for venture they share openly (see links below).
14:30 We go over their geo-focus, mental health, and investment decision making process — and her fund encourages other funds to use a similar approach to transparency. She discusses logistical emphasis, and how the connections and relationships are critical. We discuss the aspect of advice, and how to help guide Founders — giving tactical and constructive feedback that’s specific. Discusses diligence focus, transparency and how to give quality feedback to startups that they engage with. Talks about fluidity and partnering with teams. Shares experience with Board versus Observer roles, and how these roles can help in hiring, roles, and budgeting.
SECTION2: Sustainable Products
21:00 Discusses entry into fashion space, and points to her Inside Out blog post (see notes below to link). Highlights her first memory of walking into a Nordstrom’s store as a child, and her family’s passion for shopping. Her marrying of skills to fashion gave her a tremendous motivation.
22:30 Breaks out into consumer trends in retail during pandemic, and e-commerce — with a 2x+ in 6–9 months. Talks about how she’s paying attention to product discovery, and fashion’s fashions. Discusses data aspect of personalization in fashion. Discusses food & bev opportunities for personalization, and food delivery. Talks about the personalization of health and sustainability in the next wave of e-commerce. She’s bullish on next-gen e-commerce, where individuals don’t need to self-guide, pointing to easier and faster and more sustainable.
31:30 Talks about fashion house and antiquated supply chains, in the age of TikTok and influencers as brands moving into sustainability. Talks about brands being wasteful, because of fabric design. And how real time collaboration with customers can lead to shorter cycles, along with customer demand driving efficiencies. We discuss the overseas component with a shift to consumer demand driven last-mile delivery and potentially less seasonal fast fashion. Talks about sourcing demands and metrics in this new wave of fashion.
SECTION3: The 99%
37:00 Talks about the Consumer VC for the 99% — as who is the end consumer. How do you make access, affordability, and democratization. Discusses Supply and Demand of talent, and how new creators can be famous but not rich — and how Cameo allowed for creators to monetize in a brand new way.
40:00 Shares investment in MadeIn Cookware, and how it was a very overlooked category at the time. Also shares the story of Zorro credit card startup for Gen Z — to lower interest rates and use more cash, which is helping people build credit scores without credit risk. Clover is another in the portfolio for people living paycheck to paycheck.
43:00 We talk about the emerging market opportunities with Community. We discuss safety and privacy consideration and opportunities in vertically integrated communities. We talk about her fund’s new thesis ‘Direct-to-worker’ or end consumer at higher leadership levels, changing experience of everyday employee — not just everyday consumer.
SOURCES:
-Haley Kwait Zollo [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-kwait-zollo-69a22950/
-Haley Kwait Zollo [Twittter]: https://twitter.com/HaleyKwaitZollo
-Starting Line Ventures: https://www.startingline.vc/
-All Raise [Virtual Cohort of Angels]: https://www.allraise.org/
-Starting Line Venture [OS open source]: https://github.com/startinglinevc/Overview
-Starting Line’s Official Policy on Mental Health: https://github.com/startinglinevc/Overview/blob/master/Mental%20Health.md
-Inside Out [Haley’s Fashion post]: https://www.startingline.vc/blog/2019/9/23/inside-out-from-building-startups-to-funding-them
-The Attention Factory [book]: https://www.amazon.com/Attention-Factory-TikTok-Chinas-ByteDance-ebook/dp/B08L1578B6
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Song Credit: The Croft — By Joakim Karud
[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
