Investor Spotlight: Denise Lambertson, Constellation Capital

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Hannah Dittman sits down with Denise Lambertson, founder and Managing Partner at Constellation Capital — a boutique follow-in venture fund investing in consumable CPG and wellness brands. Denise brings one of the most distinctive backgrounds in consumer investing: she began her career as Madonna's executive assistant, spent six years producing world tours and brand partnerships, then built LMS, a pioneering celebrity and influencer marketing agency that served nearly 250 businesses over 15 years. That experience became the foundation for Constellation Capital, where she pools celebrity, athlete, influencer, and operator LPs to deploy both capital and deep marketing expertise into emerging brands.

Constellation's Fund 1 ($10M, fully deployed, launched 2018) concentrated heavily on consumable CPG, and Fund 2 (targeting $25M) is currently in market. The fund writes initial checks of ~$250K as a follow-in investor — meaning Denise doesn't lead rounds or set terms, but invests alongside institutional or angel leads and brings differentiated value through what she calls her "network capital advantage."

Hannah and Denise dig into what it really means to be a follow-in investor, what Denise's diligence process looks like through a marketing lens, and what she's seeing work — and not work — in digital and influencer marketing today. They also tackle the growing importance of AI literacy for CPG founders, what pre-launch marketing done right actually looks like, and what team structure should look like before an early-stage fundraise.

Listen in as they cover:

• Denise's path from Madonna's executive assistant to pioneering celebrity/influencer marketing to venture capital
• Constellation Capital's fund structure, LP base (celebrities, athletes, influencers, operators, independent grocers), and investment thesis
• What a follow-in investor actually does — and how it differs from a lead investor
• How Denise sources deals, collaborates with co-investors, and adds value post-check
• The "network capital advantage" and why celebrity alone does not make a business
• A standout portfolio company that built 30,000 qualified email subscribers before launch — and why it worked
• What founder EQ looks like: the portfolio founder who consistently does exactly what she says she'll do
• Why AI literacy is now a core diligence criterion in Fund 2 — and how it can add 12–18 months of runway
• Influencer marketing reframed: building it as a performance channel and distribution network, not just getting posts
• Why "we haven't spent anything on marketing" is not a flex — and what investors actually want to see
• Team structure advice: no more than four people pre-fundraise, lean into fractional talent and AI tools
• How to reach Denise, co-invest with Constellation, and get started in CPG investing
  
  

Whether you're a founder preparing to fundraise, an operator building out your marketing strategy, or someone curious about what non-traditional paths into venture capital look like, this episode is full of sharp, practical insight from someone who's been in the room — and on the stage — from the very beginning.

Episode Links:

• Constellation Capital: [constellationcapital.com]
• Denise Lambertson on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deniselambertson
• Denise Lambertson on Substack: Constellation Capital
• Pitch Constellation: [e-mail]
• Co-invest or connect: [e-mail]
• Angel investing platforms mentioned: Sidecar (sydecar.com), AngelList
  
  

Connect with the guest: 
Denise Lambertson — Founder & Managing Partner, Constellation Capital 
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deniselambertson/ 
📧 Pitch: [e-mail] 
📧 Connect/co-invest: [e-mail]

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

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• Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at [e-mail]
• Episode music by Super Fantastics

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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.

Denise Lambertson
It's not a flex to say you spent nothing on marketing and all your influencer buzz is on paid organic. And I get that a lot if that's true. First of all, it's great. You've got some great network or you've got some great people to reach out to, but it's not going to last. Right? So what that really tells me is you haven't actually tested influencer or any other marketing strategy in a rigorous way that would, like, give me conf that it can scale. And for some reason there is this, like, look out everything I've accomplished without paying for anything. And so I really want to caution founders against being seduced by that idea. As an investor, that's not what I'm looking for.

00:45
Denise Lambertson
I'm looking to see that you have tested a few different channels and with the capital that we and my peers deploy into your company, we're going to deploy it into a system that we know is going to work because you've tested it and we'll scale.

00:57
Hannah Dittman
Hey everyone, I'm Hannah Dittman, operations and finance host of the Startup CPG podcast. And today I'm exc to be joined by Denise Lambertson, founder and managing partner at Constellation Capital. Denise brings a unique perspective to venture investing with a background that spans marketing, brand building and entertainment. Before launching her own agency, LMS and moving into early stage investing, she's even spent years early in her career working with cultural icons like Madonna and now backs emerging consumer brands through Constellation Capital where she partners with founders to help build standout brands. In this episode, we tap Denise's deep marketing experience as she shares the digital marketing insights she sees working across her portfolio. We unpack how following capital works, both in terms of diligence and post investment. Denise sheds light on what an LP base of angels, celebrities, operators and creators looks and works like.

01:48
Hannah Dittman
She shares advice for founders, aspects of brands and founders in her portfolio that really stand out, and lessons learned from her experience investing. If you're a founder looking for some great takes from an investor with a broad background outside of finance, this episode is a must. Listen. Enjoy. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Hannah and today I'm thrilled to be here with Denise Lambertson of Constellation Capital. Denise, welcome to the show.

02:18
Denise Lambertson
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

02:20
Hannah Dittman
We're so excited that you're here with us today. I'd love to dive into your background. I know you've got a really interesting one and the path that led you to Constellation Capital.

02:29
Denise Lambertson
Yes, my Route to venture capital is very non traditional. Nobody is more surprised that I'm venture capitalist than me, to be honest. I started my career in the music industry through a very happy accident. I ended up as Madonna's executive assistant as my first job right out of college. I worked with her for six years and we did three world tours and put out albums and some incredible brand partnerships that I got to observe. I left in 2009 thinking that I was ready to transition into marketing and business, which is where I gotten my degree. I thought the whole world was going to be waiting for me, waiting to give me this corner office job.

03:10
Denise Lambertson
And I found that most people that I interviewed with at the time were really interested in my network that I had built and my experience, but didn't really know what to do with me. So I started to put together consulting fractional work that was connecting celebrities and brands. The beginning it was really big brands and then I found that the majority of celebrities that I knew were really interested in the startup community. So I decided I was going to learn about that. That quickly turned into building an agency around celebrity and influencer marketing for startups, which was pretty niche at the time. We're talking 2011, 12, 13. And that was honestly my on ramp into CPG.

03:49
Denise Lambertson
It was maybe one or two clients in and I got a beverage brand and wow, was my mind blown at what an incredible network and community and virality exists in cpg. You know who was an investor at this brand was on the board of this other one. And I started to get kind of moved around in a really incredible way right as health and wellness was really crossing over. And I did that. I built that agency, it was called LMS. We worked with almost 250 businesses in the 15 years that it was running. And in around 2016 it started to become popular for the celebrities that I was building these sweat equity deals with. They started to want to invest capital. And that was when the germ of the idea of Constellation Capital was created.

04:36
Denise Lambertson
I decided instead of trying to do all of these connective investments, one off that I would organize the community of celebrities, influencers, athletes, et cetera that really trusted me and that I worked with into one pooled entity and deploy capital on their behalf and come to these brands that I had been serving as a marketer through my agency with capital and marketing expertise, which at the time was pretty rare in CPG venture capital, especially the marketing. So that is my background. I closed LMS at the end of 2023 so that I could focus wholly and Completely on the portfolio companies at Constellation.

05:14
Hannah Dittman
Denise, you are so cool. I can only imagine all of the awesome stories and lives that you've lived and the cool experiences that you've had. And a really entrepreneurial and trailblazing mindset too. To be able to pivot and really create a niche segment that ended up becoming like a mainstay power lane in today's day and age, long before it was commonplace to do so. I think being early on that whole idea of influencer marketing, celebrity partnerships in the more modern way that we think about it now is awesome. And I'm sure you had a big hand in changing the marketing landscape over time to where it is today. So super pumped that you're here with us today and appreciate you walking through your journey for context. I'd love to also get a little bit more color on Constellation Capital as a firm.

06:06
Hannah Dittman
You know, your differentiation, your mandate, check sizes, stage focus, or the criteria of brands that you're looking at.

06:14
Denise Lambertson
Absolutely. So Constellation Capital inaugural fund 1, launched in 2018 and as a boutique fund, $10 million that fund is being deployed. So we're currently raising Fund 2, which will be approximately 25 million. It will still be considered a boutique fund though. $25 million sounds like a lot of money and sounds like a lot of money to me. We are a follow in fund, which means that we don't lead rounds, we don't set terms, we invest with other incredible institutional leads or angel leads and we write initial check around $250,000 with the opportunity to follow on. We invest into the kinds of brands that I know and understand through the lens of my marketing experience. So a lot of that is consumables, CPG.

07:00
Denise Lambertson
That's over 60% of our fund one and it will be similar in fund two, but also more holistically, you know, anything that is good for you and good for the world. So we have an incredible sustainable sock brand in Fund 1. We've got not just consumables, right? We've got pet products and skin care, things like that. So our differentiation, I like to call it a network capital advantage. And the reason I use network instead of celebrity and Influencer is because while celebrity and athlete and Influencer, Those are our LPs and they're really valuable, important. But just as important is the community that we invest with. Right?

07:40
Denise Lambertson
So the other institutional leads that we go in with and the incredible expertise that they have that I don't are the community of operators that I built when I was running lms incredible agencies and Service providers, et cetera, that we have access to. All of those parts are what allow us to provide differentiated value. Of course, the celebrity and the athlete and the influencer gets like so much attention and it is, it's really exciting. But as we all know, a celebrity does not make a business right. It takes a really large team of really incredible experts and helpers, whether it's with capital or operational expertise that will actually get you from zero to exit.

08:20
Hannah Dittman
Well said. And I think you're probably one of the best to know that we've seen a lot of celebrity or influencer brands maybe not achieve the success that people thought they might on the onset, or celebrity backed brands in the same lane. And you're totally right. You have to have a great company to start with, a great product to start with. And then I think the celebrity aspect or the other marketing levers can be an unfair advantage to get that top of funnel a little wider. But if the bottom of the funnel isn't working, it doesn't really matter how wide you get the top to go. And I'd love to dig into the follow in definition and kind of experience later on in this conversation. But first I wanted to kind of ask a little bit more about your LP base.

09:04
Hannah Dittman
You know, a lot of institutional funds, they'll have kind of these big broader institutions, maybe endowments, pension funds, other type of investors in their funds. And you've got a little bit more of a personal touch and an activated base. What's the notable differences to you between celebrity or influencer LP base and a little bit more of a traditional LP base?

09:26
Denise Lambertson
Well, in fairness, I've never worked with a traditional LP base, so I don't know exactly the intricacies of that. But you're right, I envision them as being kind of faceless larger entities. And my LP community is All Angels. We've got 35 LPs that fall into the celebrity, athlete, influencer, creator bucket. Then we have kind of entertainment industry adjacent. So they're managers, agents, lawyers, like the other incredible people that make the entertainment industry work. There's a lot of interest from that community in participating in these investments and in these brands. Then I've got a large group of operators, whether it's in CPG or in other incredible industries.

10:07
Denise Lambertson
But individuals who see the opportunity, who have that are what I call more traditional angel investors that really have made a career probably in their own business and understand the founder journey and also can see the nascent trend of CPG and wellness and want to put their money There. So that's kind of the larger makeup. And they all play a really important part. Now. They're all individuals, so it's hard to generalize their behavior in any way. But what's so great about our industry, Hannah, is that as an individual, you get exposed to the category every day, all day. I mean, go to the grocery store, you go to your cvs, so you're constantly surrounded by. These are the important brands and products that fuel our life. So everybody in the LP base has a distinct point of view.

10:56
Denise Lambertson
They're all from different parts of the country, which I find really valuable. You know, the celebrity and creator contingency are typically very far ahead of the trend. Probably like farther ahead than we would want to even invest in.

11:08
Hannah Dittman
They seem to be setting the trends.

11:10
Denise Lambertson
Exactly. They see things way before they understand the value of who they have access to things. And I forgot to mention, we have a great group of LPs that are also independent grocers and they have a really unique perspective that they bring. So it's really nice to have this kind of, especially for me in Fund 1 as a first time fund manager that again came to venture capital and a, a non traditional way to have this kind of group think around what we're looking at, what we're diligencing, what the categories are. It can be a bit overwhelming, to be honest, because there's a lot and so and there's a lot of opinions and ultimately, you know, we have a diligence process that I follow, but it's more additive than it is overwhelming.

11:49
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, no, that sounds like a huge plus. And a little bit of your own market research almost in your backyard, which is awesome. And also, I mean, kudos to you for getting from Fund one to Fund two with no institutional players and doing that all. I mean, I think any founder listening to this who's done a friends and family or angel round and has collected a bunch of people on their own cap tables probably knows how hard executing and managing some of that is. And to get to Fund two to the scale that you're looking to get it is really exciting and no small feat. So I'm sure you have a lot of founder empathy on that front as well.

12:28
Denise Lambertson
I definitely feel like I understand that unique pain point of founders better than I ever did before.

12:34
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, it takes a little walk in the mud to know what it's like on your shoes. Well, I'd love to dive into, like we said, kind of the difference between a follow in or a follow on versus a lead Investor and how this experience plays out in your investing experience. What kind of dynamics are a typical diligence process like that and at what points are you getting involved and how does your investment journey typically go though?

13:00
Denise Lambertson
So to clarify and set vocabulary straight out the get, you know, a lead investor is usually the one who writes the largest check, negotiates the terms and sets the valuation and they'll often take a board seat because of that. They run like a much a very extensive diligence process. And the follow investors, anybody else who invests in that round is taking that those terms and that valuation and making their investment based on that. We are again as I mentioned, a follow investor. So we don't invest unless there is a lead that has done that hard work. And thank you to all my friends in venture that do that hard work and allow me and Constellation to participate. Off of the back of that hard work we write smaller checks. We are significantly less involved in like day to day governance.

13:47
Denise Lambertson
And I personally look for very specific things related to what again my expertise is that frankly a lead investor doesn't needs to look at a much wider set of data points, diligence, et cetera. So the way that investments, the way that we deploy is a bit of a mixed bag. I'll often see businesses that don't yet have a lead investor and I'll like what I see and I will then make some recommendations, some introductions to funds in my network that do lead and see if any of those funds want to take this on that are as interested as I am and that can validate some of the things that again I don't have the capacity or I don't have the ability to diligence supply chain. For instance.

14:32
Denise Lambertson
I just, you know, and it's so important, it is not lost on me that you can't market something that you cannot get or is not priced right and all right like it needs to be done. And so I look to my peers in the industry to do that hard work. And you know, usually when something when a business comes to me early, before they have a lead or the company really appreciates my willingness to like open my network and make these introductions, I tell the other funds in our network like this is what I see, this is what I like, et cetera. And if they pass or if they participate, I want to know what they do see, what they are worried about, what they like. It becomes a very again community like group think with everyone sitting based on their experience.

15:12
Denise Lambertson
So we deploy once that valuation is set and as Long as we agree with it and we can market and in our portfolio construction as something that would make sense. But it's a pivotal piece and frankly I don't have the experience and background to set those terms. So I lean on those around me to do it and bring what I do know how to do really well into the business.

15:32
Hannah Dittman
I love how complimentary that is and thank you so much for the color and for additional context. I think it is very commonplace, probably the rule versus the exception for multiple investors to be involved with early stage CPG deals. It's very rare that you'll see one firm take a whole deal until a lot later into the growth stage of a consumer investment life cycle. So I think that is more the norm and kind of an expectation. I think it's awesome to be able to get deal flow going both founder driven with yourself into your network or from your network into you. Especially if maybe if they see something that they want your eyes diligencing or your expertise to weigh in on.

16:15
Hannah Dittman
And it maybe gives a little bit more of a rounded view and experience for the founders that are getting all these different participants in their cap table.

16:25
Denise Lambertson
And I do want to actually underscore that point, Hannah, which I didn't before, which is yes, often I will see deals first and send them to my network. But I am so grateful that oftentimes the incredible peers that I have in venture will be investing in something and bring it to me as well. That happens more often than the former and that is really a great way to kind of cut through the clutter on a specific category or product is to have these, you know, what I call friends in the industry bring me great deals once they've done the hard work that they can do. So that happens more often than not.

16:57
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, it takes a village on the founder side. It takes a village on the investor side. We're all in it together out here from a founder seat. You know, if I'm a founder listening to this, thinking about what it means to have my cap table construction, if I'm going through a fundraise, what's my interaction with a follow investor post investment versus my interaction with maybe my lead investor. Am I getting to interface with you still? Do I reap the benefits of your network and the value that you can provide, how does it all work together once the check is cleared?

17:29
Denise Lambertson
Well, I can only speak to the way that I behave at Constellation Capital and I don't know that it's consistent across individual angels, et cetera, but and I Know, every fund says this, but we do believe in men really being more than just a shack. And I try to live that every day with our portfolio companies. So listen, my expertise is in marketing, celebrity influencers, social media and E commerce, right? So my POV is I'm here when you need me and I try not to bother you when you don't. Frankly, there are certain things that I have to check in on throughout the year. I have to report to my LPs, I've got, you know, get some information. But typically the company I like to check in at the end of the year. How can I support and look at.

18:10
Denise Lambertson
Review your marketing plan for next year. Can I help? Look at your metrics and numbers. Let me see where you're putting your marketing dollars. Do you have a celebrity influencer creator in your business? How are they performing? What can I do to support? We run mailers for all of our portfolio companies to my network, which include our celebrity and influencer LPs, but also I have a very large network of celebrity and influencer and athletes that aren't LPs. I like to share the product with and a lot of times that's just about visibility and introducing the product to a group of people. But that's something that my portfolio companies really appreciate in digital marketing metrics. And what is what works and what doesn't work changes really fast. So I like to share the wins anonymously of like one company with another.

18:56
Denise Lambertson
Hey, this incredible platform, this incredible strategy, et cetera. Again, I used to own a marketing agency and I would provide a bunch of these as services. And it's so frankly heartwarming for me now that I can do everything that I used to do as an agency without having to say, well, here's your scope of work. This is out of your scope. This is a change like now I can just do. Because we are all aligned and incentivized in the same way, which is to see the company, you know, grow and reach its full potential and succeed and show a return. So again, I try not to bother our portfolio companies when they don't need me. And there's not always a time when marketing is the big focus, right? Especially in the early days. It's not as much brand marketing.

19:34
Denise Lambertson
Maybe it's more shopper marketing or trade or some of the more foundational things around brand. But when it comes to like very push consumer marketing, pull, direct response, et cetera, you know, like put me in coach, that's where I can really be valuable.

19:48
Hannah Dittman
I love that And Denise just wanted to like give you a double click on this too because I think it's really unique that you've been able to kind of capitalize on a non traditional investment background and have it be a real value add for the companies that you're working with almost in an advisor capacity in some instances. Which I think is really unique because I think a lot of investors have amazing backgrounds and provide great value. You know, the ones coming from traditional paths where they've just been in finance and they go the finance route to investing, they are so sharp, they have a lot of pattern recognition and provide a lot of value to companies, but not the same value.

20:25
Hannah Dittman
And you're normally kind of rounding out a lot of your investors experience within your own company and your advisor board and all these other people. So I think it's really special and unique to be able to provide a really strong lens on a core power lane of consumer businesses, which really is product and marketing to the most extent. And being able to provide that as an investor and having the incentive aligned for that company to really win and doing what you can to make it happen, I think is really unique. I'd love to ask you about a standout founder or company from your portfolio and maybe the journey of what they, what the fundraising process was like or what really stood out to you to get a little bit more insight into how you're specifically thinking about brands and brand performance.

21:12
Denise Lambertson
So one of our portfolio companies did an incredible job of what I call pre marketing. Before launch they ran some campaigns and acquired I think like 30,000 emails. So that the day that they turned the lights on, so to speak, they were not trying to find a customer and find. This is, you know, I should clarify that this was pre2022. I think we invested in 2019 into this company. So it was still in the D2C to launch Craze, right, for CPG. So it was a D2C only launch. And because they had done all this pre marketing and had this really engaged qualified email list, their first few months of sales were so outsized in comparison to what their peers would have done even in a paid marketing environment on Meta, right. Like they had could put into place like this direct response.

22:06
Denise Lambertson
They had emails of people that they knew were about that they had warmed up to the customers. And I've always been really impressed. I mean they just started so much farther ahead because they did that. That was an incredible launch. And not because of PR and not because they had a celebrity, but because they did that work ahead of time. So that is a standout for one. And I have another founder in my portfolio. I tell her all the time like she is. Every year she's like says, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it. And then every year at the end of that year, she has done what she said she was going to do.

22:38
Denise Lambertson
And in the way that she said she was going to do it, I, you know, irrespective of course, like market changes, et cetera. But like, she communicates really well, no fluff, no bluster about her intentions to build the business. It is, you know, I don't feel like I am being like, I have to cut her numbers by 25% to 50%, which, you know, some cases you do like, it's really nice to have my expectations managed and then consistently see that delivered on. And even in times where the strategy needs to change, that's communicated really well. Like, that really stands out to me as being just a founder eq. That is so valuable for me as it just helps me help them so much more.

23:21
Hannah Dittman
Yeah, and I'm sure it's a lot of trust building as well to be able to rely. I mean, you're answering to LPs, like you're saying, you know, you're doing your own reporting out on this and you want to be able to believe what you know to be true in your companies and what you're expecting to happen is accurate and going to happen and then you're not missing any red flags. You know, part of the investor job is to also kind of keep a pulse on things and know if something's going off the rails, that you're able to kind of step in and give a shout or try to course correct where you can if that happens to be the case.

23:51
Hannah Dittman
And I think it's great to have the trust and almost relief in the back of your mind that I'm comfortable with this one and I'm fully aware of what's going on there and that's one of my children that I don't necessarily have to super worry about. Reflecting on your career and your time investing and your experience working with and alongside brands, are there any big pieces of advice that you would give founders or operators that you think could be helpful in their journeys from your perspective?

24:23
Denise Lambertson
Well, this is not so much a reflection on years past, but I have been talking about this a lot with founders and I think it's incredibly important and it is a key piece of our diligence in fund two and it just didn't exist in fund one. And so that advice would be get serious about AI literacy for you and your team. It is a margin compression tool, it is a time compression tool, it is an efficiency tool. And yes, I know that we don't, we aren't running AI companies but what AI and AI literacy and upskilling your team can give you can be 12 to 18 months more Runway off a series A check than it would have five years ago.

25:02
Denise Lambertson
So I recently looked at a business that was had the output of a 20 person team on a four person team and that brand will defer like almost $500,000 in early hires and run two to three times more experiments per dollar spent especially in like marketing and creative costs. That is meaningful. And so it's even though our industry it supplies physical tangible goods. This revolution is not just for tech. We are diligencing this heavily in fund two and I would really encourage founders and operators to start their own education and literacy and make it a key piece of their business because as we know new features, new changes come out all the time. And so like building that into the DNA of your business will be an incredible accretive value.

25:54
Hannah Dittman
Very well said. And I think a lot of tangible insight there from your own experience or working alongside portfolio companies as well. And I think it's so true. The revolution is not just for tech. I think we've all started to use things in their infancy in emails or small nascent places. But the impact you're able to have is just increasingly growing and the sky's the limit in some ways and the people capitalizing on that have definitely been able to do a lot with a little which like you're saying, extending your fundraise timeline. I mean the practical impact of that is dilution protection, protecting capital for inventory growth opportunities. If you get into extra retail accounts or in case anything recalls or anything else nuclear might happen that you have some downside protection as well.

26:44
Hannah Dittman
I mean there's so many more productive uses of places where money can go that can really fuel growth sometimes if the input of that money is optimized as much as possible and sometimes that is with humans, but sometimes it might not be. And, and that makes a lot of sense. I'd be remiss to not get to pick your brain on the marketing side a little bit given we've got such a an expert here. Are there anything that you think if I'm a founder just thinking about digital marketing or influencer marketing and I'm trying to flex or build that muscle a little bit. Are there anything that you think I should be thinking about watching or key pillars to success that I'd want to make sure I double clicked on?

27:24
Denise Lambertson
Absolutely. I would encourage founders to stop thinking of influencer marketing as just getting posts and start thinking of building it as a performance channel and a distribution network. So we can all opine about the heyday of influencer marketing around discovery and, you know, not paying influencers and the chronological feed. But today the reality is it's much closer to paid media and affiliate with creators functioning like main media companies. So in that vein, get really clear on the job you are hiring influencers to do. Is it awareness, is it content creation, is it direct response and then like design the and structure the economics and measurement around that. And I also want to add it's not a flex to say you've spent nothing on marketing and all your influencer buzz is unpaid organic. And I get that a lot if that's true.

28:15
Denise Lambertson
First of all, it's great. You've got some great network or you've got some great people to reach out to, but it's not going to last. Right. So what that really tells me is you haven't actually tested Influencer or any other marketing strategy in a rigorous way that would like, give me confidence that it can scale. And so, and for some reason there is this like, look out everything I've accomplished without paying for anything. And so I really want to caution founders against being seduced by that idea. As an investor, that's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking to see that you have tested a few different channels. And with the capital that we and my peers deploy into your company, we're going to deploy it into a system that we know is going to work because you've tested it and will scale.

28:55
Hannah Dittman
I love the clarity that you said that with and the conviction because I think that is so helpful for founders and a great piece of advice. I think oftentimes founders are thinking of a narrative where they're thinking in their minds, I need to ask for money. They need to feel like their money that they give me is going to make a big impact. The way I can do that is by saying, look, we haven't spent any money. Imagine what we could do if we had the money. But I think it's a really helpful counterpoint that you're sharing to set as an investor.

29:24
Hannah Dittman
There's a different way to think about that with a high level of conviction that you're saying, hey, we didn't have a ton of money, but with the money we did have, we proved out some level of competence and expertise to show you even more proof that if you give us money, this is what we could do with it, and this is exactly what we would do with it. It's one more step in the planning process and I think that's really helpful to give some concrete feedback to founders so they know where to drive the boat and kind of wrap their head around where their narrative and communication needs to go. Speaking of other founder advice and questions, I'd love to pull a case study question for you to answer here today.

30:05
Hannah Dittman
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 should a team structure look like before fundraising for an early stage CPG round?

30:25
Denise Lambertson
Certainly no more than four people. If you've got co founders, two is plenty of and then fractional, fractional. I would love to see that you are working not with agencies at that stage, but with vendors or consultants or fractional talent and that you're optimizing, as I mentioned before, like the AI tools and the other platform tools that can be really valuable early on. I want to see that you can be a Swiss army knife and especially as a founder or like the founding team, that you may have a few generalists that can support a bunch of different areas, but certainly no more than four people on headcount and even that feels high. And everyone else should be fractional in my opinion.

31:05
Hannah Dittman
Very helpful and thank you for such a tangible answer. And it kind of goes back to your points earlier, talking about leveraging AI, building a general athlete skill set where you have a lot of confidence in someone understanding all aspects of the business. It makes a lot of sense that you want to make sure in the early days the people running the ship know every part of the ship and are able to get that boat going. Denise, you're both so sharp and so humble and so awesome to chat with. It's been such a pleasure to learn. I could sit here and ask you questions all day and I would love to hear some of your stories one day as well.

31:40
Hannah Dittman
But for any founders that want to get in touch with you and share their business with you or maybe learn more, what's the best way for them to get in contact and second Part of my question for anyone looking to transition into investing like you did, do you have any advice for them or maybe even potentially any openings or interest in joining the Constellation Capital team?

32:00
Denise Lambertson
For the first part of your question, if you are a company that is interested in having Constellation invest in you, we have an email address set up for that. It's diligenceonstellation capital. And if you are looking to transition into investing, I would recommend first of all do it. It's a really great way to like evolve your skill set is to start looking critically at businesses with a different hat on. I would get involved in angel network and that's a really great place to start. And there's a bunch of great platforms. I think one's called Sidecar, S y D E car and then there's AngelList of course and several others. If you want to observe or listen to more of my insights, I do have a substack Constellation Capital where I can go and go and go on a certain topic.

32:48
Denise Lambertson
And certainly one of the something I just wrote about was the 10 things that I learned from fund one and that really surprised me and I would encourage anybody to read that because I really came in thinking, oh I got this. You know, I know where I stand on these core issues and there were some that were really enlightening. One that stands out, you know, if you believe in a macro trend then you should invest in a few companies that are doing it right. Like I always felt like loyalty I'm just going to invest in this one.

33:16
Denise Lambertson
But like you know, if you believe in the trend, like whichever one is the winner and there's probably going to be multiple but like you're covered in the one that ends up getting acquired that will cover your losses in the other because you believe in like the consumer trend and the consumer pull of it and that was a really big insight for me. So as far as Constellation Capital we are pretty lean as a small fund and so I don't typically I hire some fractional people. I you know, take my own medicine on that point and would certainly be willing to hear out anybody that felt like they would like to participate and they can reach out to me at Info onstellation Capital. And again it's just me and my incredible admin angeline right now on a full time basis and then fractional talent.

33:56
Denise Lambertson
And for those that want to co invest or invest with us, I would encourage again reach out in the same way. I'm always building that network. I love to co invest. I believe it to community activity. I believe that all shifts rise with the tide and so encourage anybody that is an investor or has a group of friends that want to be investors, that want to get into some of the kinds of deals that we're into to just reach out and we'll put you in our CRM and we'll make sure you get the deal flow that we're seeing.

34:20
Hannah Dittman
Love it. Super great info and Denise, thank you so much again. This was such a fun chat. It was such a pleasure to spend some time with you today and I'm really looking forward to following along on your fun 2 journey, reading your fun 1 insights and seeing all the future success that you'll continue to have.

34:38
Denise Lambertson
Awesome. Thank you so much Hannah. Congratulations to Startup cpg by the way. It's been incredible to watch your growth as a startup as well. So good for you guys.

34:46
Hannah Dittman
Thank you so much and thanks for being part of the community.

34:49
Denise Lambertson
Thank you.

34:51
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 up @startupcpg.com you'll then get an invite to our online Slack community of over 35,000 All Star CPG members, hear about amazing events near 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.