FaB San Francisco. The VCs’ advice for 2023.
Fab San Francisco meeting, the takeaway. Questions from the founders.
Rima Reddy Commerce ventures
Vincent Diallo Interlace ventures
Claire Chang IgniteXL (and Fab chapter leader Seoul)
Anarghya Vardhana Maveron VC
Our host: Ludovic Ulrich, Microsoft, thank you for the beautiful venue in San Francisco!
Short introduction by the Venture Capitalist about their focus:
They are all based in San Francisco, or Palo Alto.
Anarghya @ Maveron: “We lead rounds, and have 5 to 8 investments a year. We usually take a Board seat. We back the founders from the early days to what’s next, we are here for the long run …We invest in Fintech, social apps, health tech, ed tech, consumer at the center what are the products and services they would need.
Rima @ Commerce ventures. “We invest in commerce enablers, Fintech, retail tech, supply chain, in store analytics… We don’t invest in brands.”
Vincent @ Interlace Ventures. “We invest in B2B retail tech and commerce technology, and new shopping experience and shopping innovation where tech comes first.”
Claire @ IgniteXL. “Our focus is Beauty and Wellness, broadly defined, including education.”
The Questions from the Founders, and Fab chapter leaders.
Alessandra Zonari, founder of OneSkinTech (and Fab chapter leader Brazil), Anastasia Bezrukova Minori Beauty (Fab San Francisco), and Odile Roujol, Founder of the global Fab Fashion and beautytech community (and Fab Ventures, seed stage, based in L.A.).
- Advice to founders in the room now they have cut expenses, what is the most important for 2023? (Odile)
Anarghya @ Maveron
“Cut expenses is our advice to all founders. It will be hard to raise money. Preserve cash. Extend your runaway.
Think smaller Team. In in Series A and B, reduce your scope. Launch new markets or new products. We say: Let’s do one or two things well instead of five. Instead of 80%, let’s do 40% growth Let’s get cash flow positive. Let’s focus on the Ebitda. And when the market will be ready for IPO again, we’ll be in good shape.”
“Flat rounds and down rounds will happen. Q3 Q4 could be more optimistic. If you look at the cost of capital now, and the inflation rate, we don’t know yet…”
“Now it’s harder, and it will be bring out the real survivors.”
“There is a shift. Some excecutives had to be let go. They were not understanding the cut in their budget.”
Rima @ Commerce ventures:
“The good news is: The VCs spend a lot more time on what’s going on in the world on trends.”
“We look a lot at the supply chain. Blockchain enabled, rewarding customers: organic, social user generated content.”
2) Vincent, Rima, you focus on retail tech and new commerce. Any emerging trend, or innovation that all founders should keep in mind now? (Anastasia)
Vincent @ Interlace:
“A lot of attention is paid to retail enablers, and supply chain. The covid period and logistic crisis, as shown the need to improve in that space.”
“There is a lot of money to be invested. Many VCs will just wait for the months to come.”
3) We all now work in remotely, AI is everywhere, Will SF and the Bay area keep a specificity and still lead tech trends and build VC-backed data-driven companies? Is it worth staying here (Alessandra)
Rima @ Commerce Ventures
“After living in NYC and LA, I’m now in San Francisco. Here, investors are former entrepreneurs, operators. LA may be more celebrity oriented (as LPs or founders). In NYC, VCs have all financial backgrounds. I believe something is unique in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.”
Claire Chang @ IgniteXL
“It’s not only the universities of Berkeley and Stanford that makes it unique. But also the skills. The number of platforms, tech ones, new commerce one. AI and data driven. I travel a lot, including in Asia, and San Francisco will always be a special place for founders building companies.”
Thank you all!
Fab friends, If you want to attend next meetings in Los Angeles, Dubai, Miami… and in our 19 chapters in America, Europe, and Asia, follow us on social media, with Linked in local pages, and the global group, now nearly (2000 followers, all founders and VCs within the fashion and beauty space).
And subscribe to the quarterly newsletter! It’s free. We are grateful for our guest speakers and partners, and of course Fab chapter leaders, without who we couldn’t host meetings. Join the conversation!
