Ryan Gnesin (Elevate Brands) - Investing and Scaling Amazon Brands

My guest today is Ryan Gnesin, founder of Elevate Brands. Elevate Brands buys consumer-leading Amazon FBA brands and elevate them to their full potential. This is a little bit of a different episode as the focus is creating and scaling brands on Amazon and how you can leverage Amazon across other channels.And there you have it, it was awesome having Ryan on Twitter at @ryangnesinHere's some questions I ask Ryan:Looking at your resume, you were in life insurance and commodities trading. What was your attraction to ecommerce and Amazon?What was the insight that led you founding at the time Recom Brands and what was the opportunity did you see?Walk me through your due diligence process when analyzing Amazon brands?What are typically the multiples and how do they change from brands who are omnichannel?How do you go about building a brand on Amazon?What's your approach to portfolio construction and category?Why was $55 million the right amount for your fund (congrats on fundraising!)?What's your ideal (realistic) return when you acquire a brand?Do the brands you acquire typically also have their own DTC channel?Once you acquire the brand, is your value add consolidating the supply chain / cutting costs or is it revenue growth?Do you ever have your brands go omnichannel?Do you ever get nervous about copy cats? Either from Amazon or competitors?How do you analyze different Amazon markets and think about market expansion?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice for founders?

Om Podcasten

The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.