Investor Spotlight: Nate Cooper, Barrel Ventures

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Nate Cooper, investor at Barrel Ventures, to explore what early-stage food and beverage investors look for when backing emerging brands. The conversation dives deep into evaluating product-market fit, understanding what drives conviction in early-stage deals, and why founder characteristics matter just as much as metrics when building a fundable CPG brand.

Nate shares his unconventional path from multi-generational food industry roots to failed entrepreneur to successful angel investor—landing Olipop as his very first check. He discusses how Barrel Ventures approaches pre-seed to Series A investments with hyper-specialized focus on anything that touches food, from pre-farm to post-fork. Drawing from portfolio wins like Olipop, Gonanas, and Nowadays, Nate reveals what separates compelling opportunities from brands that aren't quite ready—and how founders can position themselves before they start raising capital.

Throughout the episode, listeners gain insider perspective on building investor relationships, the founder traits that signal long-term success, and practical advice on metrics that matter: velocity over door count, margin structures relative to category benchmarks, and the power of compounding growth over hypergrowth. Nate emphasizes his litmus test for investment decisions: "Would I work for this person?" He also shares why non-consensus bets often become the biggest winners, how GLP-1s and wearables are reshaping food consumption, and why humility, grit, and team-first language are green flags for early-stage backers.

Whether you're building toward your first institutional round or evaluating angel investors, this conversation offers clarity on what early-stage food investors care about most when backing mission-driven founders building real, durable businesses.

Listen in as they discuss:

• Nate's path from multi-generational food family to failed founder to early Olipop investor
• Barrel Ventures' thesis: pre-seed to Series A, pre-farm to post-fork, $100K-$750K checks
• Why velocity matters exponentially more than door count when scaling retail
• Evaluating margins relative to category benchmarks and line of sight to profitability
• The "messy middle" of CPG growth: slotting fees, distribution, team building, and inventory
• Why compounding steady growth (3 triples, 2 doubles) beats hypergrowth in CPG
• The power of habit formation: products that become ingrained in daily routines
• Pattern recognition: identifying founder traits that signal resilience and execution
• Nate's investment litmus test: "Would I work for this person?"
• Why non-consensus bets (Olipop, Nowadays) often become category-defining brands
• Market trends: GLP-1 impact on food vs. alcohol, protein positioning, AI applications
• Founder characteristics that matter: humility, grit, "we" vs. "me" language
• How to prepare for diligence: deck, model, sell sheet, org chart, and radical transparency
• Why showing your warts early builds trust better than hiding them
• Advice for operators transitioning to investing: network building and karma-driven connections
  
  

Episode Links:

Barrel Ventures
Website: http://www.barrelvc.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrel-ventures/about/ 

Nate Cooper - Investor, Barrel Ventures
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-cooper-2ba9aa19/ 

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• Episode music by Super Fantastics
  
  

Creators and Guests

Host

Hannah Dittman

Operations and Finance Correspondent at Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Nate Cooper
You know, the first time I tried Olipop, there were no numbers to look at. There was a deck, there was three cans in front of me. There was a brand and there was, hey, this is a product. What does it taste like? And so for a lot of products, I try to picture myself in the store and how is this going to look on the shelf in the category? How's it going to look next to competitors? How big is the category? If A brand takes 1, 2, 5, 10% of a category, how big can that be? And so, like, if you're going after a category, that is a tiny category and you take 10% of that category and you're only, you know, let's say the category is $50 million.

00:43
Nate Cooper
And you take 10% of a $50 million category, you can build a really cool business.

00:50
Hannah Dittman
Hey, everyone. I'm Hannah Dipman, operations and finance host of the startup CPG podcast. And today I'm excited to be joined by Nate Cooper of Barrel Ventures. Nate brings a deeply grounded, multigenerational perspective to food investing. A former entrepreneur turned seasoned investor, he spent his career inside the realities of building and scaling food businesses. From navigating operational growing pains to understanding how brands win or become overly complex as they move through the growth phases. That operator DNA shows up clearly in how he evaluates companies and founders today. In this episode, we unpack what Nate is seeing across the food industry right now. Key market trends, common watch outs that trip brands up as they scale, and what builds conviction and early stage deals. He shares the founder attributes he consistently wants to get behind.

01:36
Hannah Dittman
His simple but powerful litmus test of would I want to work for this person? And tactical fundraising advice for founders trying to stand out while building something real and durable. If you're a founder navigating growth, preparing to raise, or pressure testing whether you're building the kind of company investors want to lean into long term. This conversation is full of practical, hard earned insight into. Enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Hannah and today I'm here with Nate Cooper, an investor from Barrel Ventures. Nate, welcome to the show.

02:11
Nate Cooper
Thanks for having me.

02:11
Hannah Dittman
We're so excited to have you here today. I think it's going to be a really fun chat and you're bearing the Chicago cold for us, so thank you for joining us. I'd love to kick off with an introduction of yourself, your background, and the path that led you to Barrel.

02:26
Nate Cooper
Yeah, so I grew up in the food industry. Family has been in and around the industry for better part of 100 years I told myself I'd never worked in this industry and I've never left it. About 15 years ago I helped start a restaurant chain called Life Kitchen. Did that for a handful of years and then said if I spend another day in food, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. And decided to go back to business school at Kellogg and of course started another food business because I'm addicted clean. That business was called Wise Apple, which was essentially Lunchables and Blue Apron had a baby. We found kind of immediate product market fit, raised a bunch of money, grew the business really quickly, all while I was in business school.

03:04
Nate Cooper
Shout out to Keller for letting me graduate because I was not a great student. And then we kind of got screwed over by Large Strategic who backed out of a deal before funding it. That was almost eight years ago. And then I sort of said, hey, what do I want to do with my life? And had no idea. And because of my history and the family history, just started seeing a bunch of early stage companies that were raising money and things like that. And I said, you know what, maybe I'll write a small angel track or two. And got really lucky with the first few and spiraled today and here I am.

03:35
Hannah Dittman
That's so amazing. I feel like it was calling to you in a way that your path led you here and I love the fact that you're a multi generation consumer person. What was the background of consumer in your family?

03:47
Nate Cooper
Background was less consumer, more food. So my great grandfather had a packaging business. Their customers were all food companies and my grandfather had a value added produce business. So they would get in produce, chop it, cut it and select the packaged salads that you get at grocery stores. They did that for the quick service restaurant industry.

04:07
Hannah Dittman
What a amazing thing to see kind of growing up. And I think you just have such a different understanding of how the world works when you understand supply chain or how things are getting made or what goes into producing things. I'd love to also get a firm overview of Barrel and kind of hear about your criteria, mandate, stage, focus, aum differentiation, all of the nitty gritty good stuff that helps us contextualize the rest of this conversation.

04:32
Nate Cooper
Yeah, so we are very specialized from a 10,000 foot view. We will invest pre farm, two post fork and everything in between. If it touches food in any way or has the potential touch food in any way, we'll take a look at it. And we've done some consumer wellness stuff on the side as well. Early stage precede to series A. All of our LPs are families, corporates, execs, kind of throw out food and beverage. And so we say we're not often the biggest check, but you'll be hard pressed to find someone who's got bigger network or more value added than we have. All including funds and SPVs, we've got close to $50 million under management. Then we've been really fortunate to back some incredible founders.

05:12
Hannah Dittman
That's awesome. I feel like you are king of the food.

05:16
Nate Cooper
Don't call me king of food. I'll take. I'm not king of anything.

05:20
Hannah Dittman
I love the hyper specialization and hyper focus and especially with investors that have deep expertise in what they're focusing on. I think it makes a really great founder fit when someone just really, intimately understands every single aspect of all the problems or challenges or obstacles you may be facing. Is very familiar with margin structures and lead times and things like that. I think sometimes the nuance by category doesn't fully get missed, but maybe isn't appreciated at the same level with generalist funds as it can be with specialists. So I think that's really cool. You mentioned early stage checks. Could you maybe give a little bit more color description on check size and revenue size of the companies that those checks are going into?

06:07
Nate Cooper
Yeah, we've written checks, you know, anywhere from 100k to 750k. First check in, average check in to a company is probably 500k and all up to million and a half, 2 million revenue size of companies. We've done pre revenue and we've done companies that are $10 million of revenue.

06:22
Hannah Dittman
Exciting. I feel like that's oftentimes, especially in Food and Bev, where founders are really needing that capital and that muscle behind them. So I love the focus and I love the ability to lean in early. I think that the market had changed so much. I feel like a lot of people pulled out of that segment of the market or shied off of it. So it's really exciting to be chatting with someone who's leaning in and believing in that segment. You mentioned also that you were kind of started out your investing career with a little bit of angel investing. What were some of the companies that you started getting behind in your early investing days?

06:56
Nate Cooper
The first real check I wrote was in Olipop, which obviously has been a one of one in this world.

07:02
Hannah Dittman
A very good first one, maybe the best.

07:06
Nate Cooper
Helena was really early. Gonanas was early and just kind of spiraled. And I think one of the reasons we've had some success is I didn't know any better than to get my hands dirty, have the traditional investor training or the apprenticeship of venture capital. I knew how to, pardon my French, get shit done and like, endure the shitstorm that is entrepreneurship and especially entrepreneurship and food. And I think it's a rare perspective. And so if there's connections or fundraising or storytelling, whatever it is, our portfolio companies need help. Like, I've been through that shoot storm before and I'm. I'm happy to get my hands dirty alongside you.

07:40
Hannah Dittman
I love that in the trenches mentality. I think that's such a great way to operate as an investor. I'd love to kind of take the conversation into some market thoughts and thought leadership. Obviously, you've been deep in a space for a really long time. I'm sure you have some very interesting perspectives on trends and categories of interest and things going on in your world. I'd love to start out maybe with just any current food and bev trends or categories that are particularly interesting to you right now or that you're kind of watching and keeping your eye on.

08:10
Nate Cooper
I think the impact that GLP1s are having on food and beverage and couple that with the impact that wearables are having on food and beverage. You know, everyone, when people started seeing the facts about GLP1s and, you know, one in eight consumers are on it, everyone said, oh, this is going to impact food, like, massively. And I think the impact on food will actually be more gradual because at the end of the day, what GLP1S does is, like, scientifically they're reducing addictive behaviors, right? But you still have to eat to survive, right? So you might not snack as much and you might not eat as fatty food or fried foods and things like that, but you're still going to eat, right? What you don't have to do is you don't have to drink.

08:51
Nate Cooper
And so I think it's going to have a much more severe effect on alcohol consumption than it is on food.

08:55
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I think that's a great perspective. And one of the benefits of being in probably arguably the biggest necessity sector is that it's never going away. We do need to eat. Are there any market shifts or insights that you think might be relevant, particularly for founders fundraising or starting a new brand right now, you know, where they're either having to, like, really get behind their own thesis or try to craft.

09:22
Nate Cooper
A narrative, you know, in the same way that every tech company, like either has to be an AI company right now, like almost every food company has to be a protein company within reason. I think within technology, the specific use cases of AI within this vertical of food and beverage is really fascinating. Right. And I don't think it's ever going to take that back. At some point it'll probably replace humans. But I think how can you turn a four hour task into a four 40 minute task I think is really interesting. And we've got a few companies in our portfolio that are really helping and their customers are increasingly like ecstatic with the product that the effect that their products are having.

10:01
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I feel like that's hopefully such an unlock. I think there's so many ways that people are trying to kind of leverage and integrate AI and obviously that's kind of like a buzzy conversation topic as well. In general, especially if you're going through fundraising or anything like that, I think everyone sees like an opportunity and especially in the infancy of something and we're not fully in the infancy anymore, but applying it in new and novel ways can often I think be a wedge or a differentiator for consumer brands. And that goes across anything. I mean new product formats, new marketing techniques like all these things get being the first mover on something innovative, whether it's directly related to your product or just how you're operating your business can often be a big source of fuel in the engine for an early stage brand.

10:50
Hannah Dittman
And I think kind of making a way to differentiate yourself in as many moats as possible. And efficiencies can definitely help in those 0 to 1, 1 to 2 days for sure. If you were running a brand and thinking about going into a fundraise or you know, you and me are getting coffee and you're giving me some friendly advice, what are the things you'd be thinking about telling me that or making sure that I really had right or really had in place before embarking on that journey.

11:16
Nate Cooper
Margins or at least line of sight to positive margins. Not positive, but like margins that work. I'll take velocity over door count any day of the week, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You know, you get one chance to enter stores, right. And if you blow it and don't sell at a high velocity or best in class velocity or what you're expected, you're not going to be welcomed back or a very low chance you're going to be welcomed back. And so make it work in the stores that you're at before going to more and more chains and opening doors. Increased sales by increasing velocity is always exponentially sexier than increased sales. By increasing door count.

11:55
Nate Cooper
I like people who have really big visions, but not a, hey, we're going to launch 12 SKUs tomorrow, like, and we're going to execute this skew this year. And then here's where we want to be five years from now.

12:06
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I think those are all really great pieces of advice. I'd love to kind of double click into a few of them. So you mentioned making sure margins work and impressive velocities and showing traction there. How are you as an investor evaluating that? What numbers are you seeing that are getting you excited and what's going on in your head that's making you kind of think something might be worth looking into more or not?

12:31
Nate Cooper
Yeah, I think it depends on the stage of the company. It depends on the category. At the earliest stages, it's more art than it is science. By all means. Right. You know, the first time I tried Olipop, there were no numbers to look at. There was a deck, there was three cans in front of me. There was a brand, and there was, hey, this is a product. What does it taste like? And so for a lot of products, I try to picture myself in the store and how is this going to look on the shelf in the category? How's it going to look next to competitors? How big is the category? If A brand takes 1, 2, 5, 10% of a category, how big can that be?

13:05
Nate Cooper
And so, like, if you're going after a category that is a tiny category and you take 10% of that category and you're only, you know, let's say the category is $50 million, and you take 10% of a $50 million category, you can build a really cool business. Right. But that's only a $5 million business probably isn't a fit for a venture capital fund. And so looking at it that way is something that has worked for us. There's no real formula. And at the earliest stage, it really is more art than science.

13:32
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I think that makes total sense. And I think, I'm sure it's also very like, category dependent a lot of these things too. If we're talking about margins, frozen food might be a little bit more challenging than slightly more premium snack or a candy or something like that. I think everything has its own benchmarks of what is considered good or strong or compelling. Are you kind of thinking about category or subcategory averages and then comparing a brand's margin to those, or do you feel like you're less so looking at external market competition and more so looking directly at a company?

14:10
Hannah Dittman
When they have financials at a company's P and L and saying, okay, let's look at this on a case by case basis and understand what we need to believe to happen here for this to eventually become profitable and cash stable if it was invested in.

14:27
Nate Cooper
Yeah, I think you got to look at it relative to the category. Right. If you're looking at a company that has margins that are 30% lower than the rest of the category and doesn't have a line of sight to get in place within 5 to 10% of the category, you're. You're in trouble. Right. If you're looking at a company that has margins that are on par with the category, you know, from day one, that's a really good sign. But again, it's food is this funny world where when you're really small, you can be profitable, and when you're really big, you can be profitable. The messy middle is where it gets challenging.

14:58
Hannah Dittman
What do you think's going on in that middle segment? Is it door rollouts, stocking fees? Like, where do you think the kind of outflows are happening?

15:06
Nate Cooper
Docking fees, building a team, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, slotting fees, like all the above? And so that messy middle is where a lot of brands fail.

15:19
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, it gets really challenging and complex. And then to your earlier point, I think it's sage advice, what you said about kind of not blowing outdoor rollout too quickly. And I think a lot of it comes back to this conversation we're having now where when you're trying to accomplish so many goals in a business all at the same time, and you're opening a million can of worms, managing capital and capital needs gets crazy exponentially very quickly. Team needs as well. And your ability to really focus on problem solving and making sure you're kind of like being as efficient as possible gets more and more challenging. And then competing incentives start happening and you just make it so much more complicated for yourself. The more variables you layer into your business and kind of the permutations of problems that come along with all of those.

16:12
Hannah Dittman
So, yeah, I just wanted to tie it back to what you said, because I totally agree. And I think it's oftentimes in a founder's mind, you're a person who's a dreamer and you have all these great ideas and you're so excited to get running at it, and you feel like you want to grow and there's all these opportunities that might be on the table. But I think focusing on the North Star and staying diligent, like you're saying To a plan. Like you want someone with a vision but you also want them to like really understand their plan executing against that vision. A level of discipline that I think can almost be a competing personality trait with some of founders personalities.

16:45
Nate Cooper
People also forget the power of compounding. Right. I think Warren Buffett called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. Or someone did. Right. And you look at companies like Dude Wipes, right? I saw a post, I forgot the founder of Dude Wipes yesterday on LinkedIn. You know they're now doing $300 million a year in sales. Company started in 2014 and so it seems like an overnight success but like they grew a relative reasonably amount every year. In software, you know the age old saying is start with a million dollars in sales and three triples and two doubles and you're at a hundred million. Right. And all these companies in CPG, you know, we want to grow 5x, we want to grow 10x, repeat that. Just really growing 10x in a year.

17:25
Nate Cooper
Like I've been through it with some companies, like it's great but it's a horrible experience. Like things break really bad and you're gonna look back at me into that, you'll be like what happened? Like being able to where am I? Yeah, you know, like tripling three times in a row and then doubling two times in a row. It's much more doable. And going from one to a hundred million dollars in sales for a CPG business is unbelievable accomplishment that very few get to.

17:51
Hannah Dittman
So true.

17:51
Nate Cooper
But doing it in five years versus doing it in two years doesn't sound, it's much easier than you know, doing it in two years. Right. You know, companies like Olipop, which, their growth trajectory has been spectacular but I think in their first year they did less than a million dollars in sales. 1 to 2, they went from like 800k to 8 million. The years after that they didn't grow 10x, they didn't grow more than 5x in a year. But like they compounded to now where their numbers are insane. And so the power of compounding for CPG brands is an unbelievable effect. And I think people forget about that.

18:26
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I think so many good insights that you had in all of that. I think scale begets scale in very mass mainstream CPG in a lot of ways. Like we all know brand blocks on shelf and there's so much psychology behind kind of that level of an ability to scale like what we're talking about with Olipop at one point. And I think the Other layer that I would call out that you're talking about in some ways here too is that widgets are hard. I mean software scaling is so different than widgets. I mean the real world implications. It's not just like sales SDRs, calling people and pushing out software. Like you build one thing and then it scales infinitely to other people.

19:09
Hannah Dittman
Every time you're building something in consumer, it's a one to one and you're having to rebuild that widget to get a one to one with a customer. There is almost, there's brand scale for sure, but there's no widget scaling that is the same and that changes the growth dynamic so much and the complexity of the growth dynamic so much for what you can achieve and how quickly you can achieve it with a consumer company. And totally agree. There is no overnight success in cpg. I mean for most people, the really big successful ones, even like ciete so many, it's like a 10 year journey.

19:46
Hannah Dittman
And often the really early years, like you don't hear founders talk too much about those or even count them sometimes because in the farmer's market days or whatever they're doing in the really early days, they kind of like write that off pre initial investment. But yeah, it's a slog. And I feel like investors who realize that and are like really in it for the long haul with brands and ready to take on that kind of commitment with the ones that they're backing is really important because if your growth expectations aren't aligned with your investor, that can be a really big headache really quickly.

20:20
Nate Cooper
I think the cool thing with CPG products, especially in food, is that you have this opportunity to ingrain yourselves into people's habits and their repeatable behavior. Right? So with beverages, right. With. With Olipop or nowadays, you know, there are people who drink an Olipop every single day, multiple times a day. With nowadays like this is replacing people's alcohol multiple times a week. Multiple times a weekend go nanas. I can't tell you how many people tell me they make go nanas with their children every single weekend. And we do it with our kids every weekend, right? It is like this, it's become this activity that we don't go a week where without making muffins with our kids because they love it and it's a fun, easy thing to do with our kids.

20:58
Hannah Dittman
It's so beautiful. I think from a business perspective obviously it's like yay sticky. But from just like passion perspective I think it's such a beautiful part of consumer. It Drives so much bonding with other people and bonding with the brand. And I think that's why there's kind of like the brand component to consumer that matters so much too because that's a portion of kind of building that relationship and dynamic in someone's routine and being a stable item that they turn back to. If you could kind of go back to the beginning of your investing career or even maybe your entrepreneurial journey, what are some lessons learned or things you wish you knew at the very beginning that now reflecting back have you've kind of layered into your knowledge stack?

21:44
Nate Cooper
Don't be afraid to make big bets right in hindsight like the ones that I wish I would have given Olipop every dollar I ever had. Right. I think, you know, at least for me, trusting my gut. I passed on a lot of really great brands that have done really well. And I think one thing that I heard, I don't know who said this, but never underestimate how big your biggest winners can get. Right. And when a CPG product or a software company works, it can work and work really well onto a scale that nobody ever imagined.

22:17
Hannah Dittman
It makes a lot of sense that I feel like you have an entrepreneurial background because these takeaways are very like risk on and very like founder mindset which I think you need especially in early stage investing, like where you're sitting in the market, you're having to have so much risk on conviction. I mean you're at the riskier side of the spectrum of where you're needing to get belief in a brand. What helps you kind of build that conviction and get to that feeling of ready to get across the finish line of writing a check to somebody.

22:51
Nate Cooper
I think I'm doing what I'm doing for a couple reasons. One, like we built a track record and really good track record and we're good at it. And two, because I'm unemployable. Like I'm an entrepreneur and doing what I'm doing because I may not function in a big corporate like hierarchy instruction.

23:07
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, you don't want to be a soldier.

23:09
Nate Cooper
I am by all means unemployable. I think it's the people like even in the companies that I have the most faith that they're going to be successful. Like when I write that check and hit that button to wire the money, like I'm scared shitless. And even until we get the money back, I'm still scared shitless.

23:28
Hannah Dittman
I love to hear like an investor's emotion because you don't often hear this side of the story ever.

23:35
Nate Cooper
And anyone who says they aren't like, they're either lying or they're full of it. But I think it's a lot of it's pattern recognition. Right. Whether it's these are similar founder traits that have worked exceptionally well or you're going after a similar consumer or things like that. But I try to put myself of like, would I work for this person? Right. Could I see myself being part of this team for five or ten years? Would I have this person, you know, watch my kids? Would I have them stay at my house? Would I have them. I think there's a consulting interview question or thought of like, could you be delayed in an airport with this person?

24:07
Hannah Dittman
Yes. Very familiar with that.

24:10
Nate Cooper
I was like as an investor looking at a company, I'm like, would I work for this person? And if I can't answer yes, then it's going to be much harder. I think the odds of me investing if I can't answer yes are very low.

24:21
Hannah Dittman
I really love that insight. First time I've heard that be articulated in that way. And I think that is such a great litmus test for people evaluation in general. I mean, I think like vice versa. That's an amazing question for a founder to ask themselves about an investor. Would I want to work for this investor?

24:40
Nate Cooper
That's not to say like everyone has to be. I can picture myself working for this person, him or her, and have them be my favorite boss in the world. But it's like, do I believe in their vision? Do I believe they're the people who are going to make it right? And would it be a hell of a ride to be on this vision with them?

24:55
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, I think those are so great. Could we maybe get into tangible terms? Obviously you have amazing founders in your portfolio that you have felt this way about. Could you kind of explain the early journey, evaluating or getting to know them and what points you were starting to feel some of these things towards them or what they were doing or displaying that helped you start to feel that way?

25:18
Nate Cooper
Yes. I'll give a couple examples. Go. Nana's is a really unique one because Annie, one of the co founders, Gonadas, happens to be my sister in law and so I got to see that business when her and Morgan started it in their dorm at the University of Michigan, which obviously is an unfair advantage and like unfair vision into that business. But like they sold I think a quarter million banana breads out of their dorms in college. One like, how did you not burn down your Dorm, right? Doing that. 2. I pictured myself like doing 1% of that. Like, I wouldn't have sold 2,500 banana breads out of my dorm. And like, the vision to do that, I was like, hey, you're going to build something real here. And five years later, like, they built something real. They have a really substantial business.

26:04
Nate Cooper
Justin and Anthony nowadays, like, so much of what they were doing in their vision and their tenacity and the way they talked about the business reminded me of David and Ben@Olipop eight years ago. And, you know, I met Justin and Anthony probably 18, 20 months ago and their trajectory is very similar. A lot of it's pattern recognition. A lot of it is just like, again, putting yourself in their shoes. And it's like, where were you when they were doing this?

26:33
Hannah Dittman
That's incredible stories. And honestly, just such a cool experience for you to kind of get to aggregate and witness and be a part of all of these really awesome rides and just such cool life experiences that very few people on this planet get to see intimately or be a part of or yet experience themselves. If you had to kind of like boil these founder traits up into like terms or kind of like, I hate to use the word checklist because it's a little bit contrite, but buckets of characteristics, what do you think the most important ones would be for a founder to present or aspire to?

27:13
Nate Cooper
For me, my personal preference, I think humility is one of them. Not everyone. Humility, grit, tenacity. I don't know if this is a trip, but like we before I, right. And so people who use the words of like we, the team, us versus I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me. And I think a lot of it is just, you know, going back to pattern recognition. When I started in this world, in this career, you know, when you see 10 or 20 deals a year, you think everyone is going to change the world, right? When you see a thousand deals a year, you start to recognize, like, who's full of it, who reminds you of the ones that have done exceptional things in the past.

27:50
Nate Cooper
And that's not to mean that if a certain founder checks off the boxes and has the characteristics that they're going to be successful. But you can identify red flags and you can identify probably increase the likelihood of you're going to be successful.

28:02
Hannah Dittman
Really, really helpful insights and context there. You mentioned earlier that the nowadays founders reminded you of the Olipop founders, specifically in the way they kind of articulate their vision, mission, and maybe even product to you. Would you mind double clicking on that and explaining that a little further? Maybe giving the example of how exactly it is that they talk about their business that resonates so strongly.

28:28
Nate Cooper
It was neither of their first businesses, so they were repeat founders. Hearing them speak about a question I like to answer is like, where's your business going to be in three to five years? And it's not like this hopeful, oh, here's where we hope to be like, here's what I imagine will be like. We will be X, Y, Z. And it's this level of confidence, not cockiness, but surety that we're going to accomplish this. And here's what we have to knock down to accomplish whatever these goals are. I think those are the two things that really struck a chord with me. Where Anthony and Justin reminded me of David and Ben. You know, I met Anthony and Justin in 2024, end of 24 and I met David and Ben middle of 2018.

29:09
Hannah Dittman
That's really helpful. And I think sheds so much light and color into what helps get investors confident. And so much of it is just having a really good handle on operational management plan and the kind of strategic thinking. And like you're saying confidence and knowing how to go and execute the plan kind of goes back to what you're saying also what I want to work for them. You're like, you want clarity, focus and understanding of what's going to happen and how you would be part of the puzzle. All those things that you would be looking for from a leader if you were kind of starting day one. So that makes a lot of sense and I think is a great way to articulate in a case study way a lot of the concepts that you've already shared here today.

29:54
Nate Cooper
I think the other thing, and this really specifically applies to both now Olipop and nowadays is they were both very, very non consensus at the time. And nowadays it's probably still not consensus where there's that old saying like first they laugh at you, then they judge you, then they want to be you. When I first met Olipop, I sent it to 30 people saying like, hey, here's this new great company, I'm going to invest. Do you want to invest? And every single one of them except for one said it's never going to work. Right.

30:23
Hannah Dittman
Well they regret that now, including my wife.

30:26
Nate Cooper
So I get to hold that.

30:27
Hannah Dittman
You're like, I was right.

30:30
Nate Cooper
She said it was disgusting. Please don't invest. Obviously she's changed her mind in tune on both of those. But nowadays Even Brewbone, the CEO of Anheuser Busch, I think it was yesterday at some beer, wine and spirits convention, was asked a question on stage and said, are we still talking about that? And I mean, in my lifetime I have never seen a new product get so much shelf space at any type of store so quickly. And so if you go into a Total line or a Binnies or a Specs or a bevmo, this category now has an entire aisle. And this is a category that didn't exist a year and a half ago to now have an entire aisle. And assuming that the legislation happens to keep this legal, which I would, I'm very confident it's going to.

31:11
Nate Cooper
I think this is going to be a $10 billion category within five years that didn't exist two years ago. And for the guy, the CEO, I think it was the CEO of AB InBev who said that, or maybe it was CEO of us on stage two days ago. I think he's going to be taking a very different tone in a couple years.

31:27
Hannah Dittman
Wow. Yeah, I think that's really helpful. And I also think kind of to your point, contrarian views or consensus, like if investing was easy enough that everything was, you were able to spot the big winners immediately, everyone would be investing and everyone would be very good at it and very wealthy. I think doing that job as much as being a good founder kind oftentimes means seeing the market in your own very unique way and seeing the path that maybe not everyone sees. Being an investor is a similar skill set. In that way, you've got to be able to see things in a way that maybe not everyone else is seeing them and that it's what dictates your ability to pattern recognize home runs and be able to find the good ones. So, yeah, fingers crossed.

32:12
Hannah Dittman
I feel like you've got a good track record so far. But yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense that there's not a lot of groupthink on these things. And it shouldn't be discouraging for founders or maybe even other investors if you find yourself in that position because you might be the one of one. That's right. I'd love to kind of pivot into a case study. Slack question. As you know, startup CPG has the largest slack community in the industry with now over 35,000 members. I'd love to pull a question directly from our channel and have you answer it as a case study for any founders that might have a similar question. Today's question is what do I need to have prepared before Going into a diligence.

32:49
Hannah Dittman
And I think that's a founder asking either materials or kind of things in place in their company before being ready to maybe set up a data room or open a diligence process.

33:01
Nate Cooper
Yeah, I'd say it obviously depends on the stage of the company, but high level, a deck, a model not to hold you to your numbers that they're going to be accurate because I guarantee you they're not going to be accurate. But more so like I want to see how you're thinking about the business. A sell sheet org chart. If you're using Coman, you know, agreements of coman. My view on Dataroom is give me as much as you possibly can and I'll tell you what I don't need versus giving me less and I'll ask you for what I need. Like the more the merrier. Just keep it organized.

33:35
Hannah Dittman
I think sometimes founders might have a fear of like oversharing, like am I shooting myself in the foot or something like that by giving away something that might not be as perfect as they want to see or something like that. What's your take as an investor? That mindset or maybe that hesitation that.

33:52
Nate Cooper
Some founders have Everything, everyone has warts and so better to show them early than to find them later and see like someone was trying to hide them.

34:03
Hannah Dittman
Great analogy and so true. I mean, I think something maybe people don't realize is like if an investor wants to see something and it's not in your data room, they're going to ask for it and you're going to have to send it anyway. Then there's going to be like the additional thought of why was this not shared quickly or readily. And then the worst thing I think you can do with an investor is damage the trust relationship because like you're saying the people are so important and the trust in someone as an operator and a leader is so important. So I think diligence, outside of the tactical answer to that question, it's also a trust building exercise. You're evaluating someone's truthfulness, their forthcomingness, the cleanliness of how they think about their business and what they are typically using to manage their business.

34:48
Hannah Dittman
It's telling you a lot of things, not just with documents, but also with behaviors as well. So I think founders should probably keep that in mind too.

34:56
Nate Cooper
Yeah, I mean, I view when we invest in a company, I'm partnering with this person for, you know, the next five to 10 years and whether it's a small check or a large check, like I'm here to help You. I want this to be an incredibly close, working, like, mutually beneficial relationship where at the end of the day, hopefully, we will both make a lot of money. And so if you start off on the wrong foot by hiding things on either side, like, that's not a recipe for success.

35:20
Hannah Dittman
Very well said. Well, Nate, this was like such an amazing chat. I feel like you have so much wisdom on so many different avenues and great energy. You're so fun to speak with. I imagine that you're an exceptional mentor to the people you work with and the founders that you partner with. I'd love to kind of take a second to make sure there's some tactical ways for people to apply all this amazing knowledge to once they finish listening to the episode. For founders that want to get in touch with you, where can they find you? Or what is the best way for them to get in contact with you? And second question, for operators looking to transition or other people that also might be interested in taking the leap into investing, what advice would you have for them?

35:59
Nate Cooper
I think investing, like, my superpower, first off, I don't feel like this is a job. I genuinely feel lucky and excited to get to go into work every day, like, and I know how incredibly rare and lucky that is. This is a world of who do you know, who's top of mind, who have you met lately? And like, at the end of that, it's the network you build. And I am a big believer in karma and my superpower is my network. And so I am a massive believer of I'm going to connect two people and have nothing benefit me in the immediate with the belief that people are genuinely good people and at some point it's going to come back to benefit me in the future. And it's worked out pretty well so far.

36:40
Hannah Dittman
I think that's such a unique and great piece of advice and honestly a testament to the kind of person you are and how you operate. So thank you for sharing that and thank you so much for all of your time today. Nate, I'm so glad we got the chance to chat and have you on the podcast. I think everyone's going to really enjoy a lot of the insights and the words of wisdom that you shared today. So thank you for your time.

37:00
Nate Cooper
Thanks for having me.

37:03
Hannah Dittman
Well, friends, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in cpg. And if you love this podcast, you'll love our Slack community even more. Here at Startup cpg, we're a community of brands and experts and you should join. Sign [e-mail] you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community of over 35,000 All Star CPG members. Hear about amazing events near your you and all our special opportunities to get you in front of buyers, investors, brands and more. It's a free community. So what are you waiting for? I'll catch you on the next episode and I'll see you on the Slack.
Transcribed by https://fireflies.ai/