Natalie Sportelli is a Director at Bullish, the unique early-stage consumer VC and creative agency that invests $500K-$3M while providing hands-on operational support. Working with portfolio companies like Warby Parker, Sunday Lawn, and Hally Hair, she brings a rare perspective from journalism at Forbes, platform work at Lerer Hippeau, and startup operations at Thingtesting to help consumer brands scale.
🔧 Operational Readiness Assessment - Framework for evaluating whether early-stage consumer brands are ready for intensive growth support
📊 Dual Capital-Creative Model - Approach to balancing investment capital with hands-on operational services
🤝 Authentic Customer Development - Process for building real customer love versus superficial marketing metrics
⚙️ Cultural Trend Operationalization - Method for translating cultural insights into actionable business strategies
📈 Scaling Transition Management - Framework for preparing founders for operational breaking points during growth phases
🎯 Brand-Operations Integration - Strategy for ensuring creative brand investments drive measurable business outcomes
Whether you're seeking VC partnership or building internal capabilities, Natalie's frameworks will help you align capital, creativity, and operations for sustainable consumer brand growth.
Perfect for: Consumer brand founders, VC-backed operators, brand-building executives, growth-stage entrepreneurs
Guest: Natalie Sportelli - Director, Bullish
Host: Samantha Rose - Managing Partner, Hologram Capital & Founder, Endless Commerce
This episode was recorded live and is part of our series on operational frameworks that drive real business results. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
What is Commerce is Chaos?
Look, we've all heard the polished founder story—the perfect pitch, the seamless scale, the overnight success. But what about the time you oversold by 100K units? Or when your 'seamless' integration crashed right before Black Friday?
Host Samantha Rose has been there—from founding her first consumer business, GIR, managing fulfillment and industrial design for your favorite brands, or acquiring distressed brands on her own.
Welcome to Commerce is Chaos, the podcast for founders who knows that building a real business is beautifully, chaotically messy.