101 - You Must Do Things That Don't Scale To Get Learnings And Build Your Engine (Andrew Bluestein, Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures)

A request I've gotten from listeners is to bring on a VC firm to talk through “the view from the VC side” so here we go (again)!

I invited Andrew Bluestein, Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures, to join me on the show and talk about the future of food, how the pandemic has affected food startups, what they're looking for before they decide to invest in a startup, and so much more.

I know Andrew from our days at Kellogg! And we recently saw each other at Kellogg's 10-year reunion.

More about Bluestein Ventures:

• investing in the future of food
• founded in 2014
• based out of Chicago
• early stage investments typically Seed and Series A
• portfolio companies include Crafty, FoxTrot and Factor_ (acquired)

Here's what we hit on:

Why the focus on the future of food, what's so cool about food;

How the pandemic has impacted the food industry;

What VCs want to see before they decide to invest in an early stage startup (HINT: an innovative GTM strategy);

What marketing and growth opportunities can B2B learn from B2C;

What do you look at to confirm if there's product/market fit (HINT: things are still happening despite all the shortcomings);

What are those unique ways that startups can reach customers (HINT: post COVID, we need to go offline again);

On building brands and acquiring customers, what seems to work really well;

Which 1-2 portfolio companies are you personally really excited about and why.

You can reach Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbluestein/

Check out Bluestein Ventures: https://www.bluesteinventures.com/

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You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!