El Family Fund & Founder Community, known as F3C, has announced $25 million in new capital commitments and its goal to become the largest community of founders co-investing in the late seed and Series A phases of consumer brands.
General partners Kurt Seidensticker, founder of Vital Proteins; Sean Kelly, founder of SnackNation and Caroo; and Josh Wand, founder of Forcebrands, have already assembled a community of over 50 founders and CEOs, including Supergoop's Amanda Baldwin, SuperCoffee's Tyler Ricks, MVMT's Jake Kassan and HOP WTR's Jordan Bass.
With the new venture fund, they will back and mentor up-and-coming founders leading consumer and consumer technology brands. We've recently seen another consumer brand founder do the same: Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snacks, plans to invest $350 million in consumer brands through his new venture capital firm, Camino Partners.
Kelly explained that The Family Fund's "secret sauce" is that they are all operators and therefore intimately familiar with the startup journey and what it takes to build a successful business.
He remembers meeting people who helped shape Caroo's strategy, not just those who invested, but those who were successful founders and operators first. In fact, they helped him see when he needed to pivot his business, he said. Kelly added that if early-stage founders can have that kind of network early on, it will help them a lot.
And while some venture capital firms are limited to injecting funding, The Family Fund is more focused on mentoring and expanding its network of partners and vendors, or anything else that can help a company's operations, marketing, and logistics. company.
"It was important to me to create a community of experienced founders who could offer support and advice to entrepreneurs throughout their journey", explains Kurt Seidensticker by email. “Having these kinds of advisors to deliver first-hand insights and learnings not only helps founders execute quickly, but gives them the right strategy to accelerate growth and build category-leading brands.”
The Family Fund looks for companies to invest in that have a durable value proposition that can achieve profitability as a result of positive unit economics and good repeat performance, Kelly said.
To date, the new fund has made nine core investments, including Flossy, a pay-as-you-go dental services company; Elemind Technologies, which develops a new type of wearable that modulates brain waves using ultrasound to adjust behavior and even help you sleep better; Hopwater, a non-alcoholic drink; and Ghost, an energy drink and supplement company.
“We believe that the consumer ecosystem is really enduring”, says Wand in an interview. “If you look at our active network of founders, everything we do supports the entire consumer ecosystem, not just brands. We just want to do it really well."
