51. Dan Graham (Springdale Ventures) - How He Scaled buildasign.com to over $100 million, The Opportunity He Saw Investing in CPG in Austin, and the Differences Analyzing DTC and Retail Brands

I'd like to thank Adelle Archer ( https://theconsumervc.com/2020/05/11/adelle-archer/ ) for introducing me to today's guest Dan Graham ( https://springdaleventures.com/team-bios.html ) , one of the co-founders and General partners of Springdale Ventures ( https://springdaleventures.com/ ). Some of their investments include Eterneva, Literati, and Beatbox beverages. Previously, Dan co-founded BuildASign.com ( http://buildasign.com/ ) in 2005 and grew it to an over $100 million dollar CPG, Ecommerce business that was purchased by Cimpress (VistaPrint) in 2018 for $280M. This episode we talk all things Austin and CPG - the opportunity he saw to form Spingdale, why he didn't need to fundraise when building Buildasign.com ( http://buildasign.com ) and how he thinks about brand in relation to ecommerce and retail. If you’re enjoying the show, if you could leave a review on the apple podcast app as that helps other folks find it, that would be really helpful. If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM me and follow me on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc. For all episodes, please visit theconsumervc.com ( http://theconsumervc.com/ ). Thanks again for listening. A couple of books Dan recommends are Give and Take ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143124986?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0143124986&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) by Adam Grant and Never Split the Difference ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062407805?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0062407805&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) by Chris Voss. Some of the questions I asked Dan - * What attracted you to entrepreneurship and what was the opportunity that you saw when founding BuildaSign? * Why did you choose not to fundraise for BuildaSign and bootstrap? * Talk to me about what attracted you to investing? * Why did you switch from being an angel investor to actually raising your own fund and building Springdale Ventures? * Naturely * What was the opportunity that you saw in Austin? * What makes Austin so compelling as a startup hub? How is it different from New York and the bay area? * Talk to me about your due diligence and decision making process and how do you establish conviction that the brands you invest in will break through the noise? * Are there specific metrics that you pay most attention to? * How do you judge brand authenticity? * Growth marketing - organic vs. paid * What are some qualities you like to see in founders? * How do you think about first mover advantage when it comes to consumer brands? * Has COVID changed how you invest? * Have you shifted your focus from/to any particular verticals? * What categories have been disrupted most? * Are you spending more time with portfolio companies as opposed to making new investments? * What are some consumer trends that you are paying attention to? * What’s one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital? * What’s one piece of advice for founders of B2C companies? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands