📈 Venture Archives · Page 2 of 2

Growing Happy

A food fight in America rages on. Sugar blames fat. Fat calls out gluten. The government and lobbyists enable it all. And the loser? The consumer – left confused by…

Closing the Pleasure Gap

For the past two years, Listen has developed a thesis called “Better You,” which focuses on the factors that drive personal health and wellness — mental, sleep, nutrition, activity, livelihood,…

Voice of the consumer

Startup: “We’re maniacally focused on the consumer.” VC: “Great, how many consumers did you talk to before launching your brand?” Startup: “Oh, we don’t do research. I mean…

Theraplay

Coming out of our 2018 thematic jammer, we made “therapy” a focus area for new investments. The belief was (and still is) that the concept of exercising your mind was…

What capital can’t do

In July of 2018, Brandless raised $240M from Softbank’s Vision Fund. The funding event would have caused a stir in the Listen office given our questions on their anti-branding approach.…

Lighten up to wind down

First there were Marlboro Lights, then Miller Light, now here comes Bud Light — or better yet, “Lite Bud”. Let’s face it, the weed you can get…