Why This VC Built the Marquee Event in CPG | Josh Wand, Family Fund

Mike Gelb (0:00)

Hey, welcome to Consumer VC. This is a podcast where we discuss investing in consumer brands and technology businesses. I'm your host, Mike Gelb. This episode is a little bit different. As you can maybe tell, it's a lot shorter than the rest of the episodes. I'm talking with Josh Wand, who is the co-founder of Family Fund and Founder Community and Founderland.

This episode, we're gonna focus on Founderland, which is one of the Marquee events in all of CPG, and how Josh and his partner, Sean, created this event. I'm super excited, I'm attending it for the first time. This is the third year they've done it, and I just can't wait. Without further ado, here's Josh.

Josh, how are you?

Josh Wand (0:48)

I'm doing great, Mike. Good to see you.

Mike Gelb (0:50)

Good to see you. I can't believe I got you right now to come on the show, because this is like the craziest week for you. I mean, next week is Founderland. How are you feeling?

Josh Wand (1:00)

It's like leading up to the Super Bowl for us. It is crazy. There's a lot of preparation. There's a lot of organization, and you have to step away and think strategically about how it's all going to be executed, but I couldn't be more excited, and I wouldn't miss this. So thanks for the invite.

Mike Gelb (1:15)

Oh, stop. No, no, no, no, no. Thanks so much. I'm so excited that I caught you right before Founderland. Thank you. So, why...

So you obviously started Family Fund with Sean a few years ago. Why then also, why should a Venture Capital Fund create a massive event? I mean, it kind of has become, like a lot of people say, like the go-to event in CPG. What was the purpose behind it?

How did it kind of all come together?

Josh Wand (1:49)

When Sean and I decided to create Family Fund and Founder Community, we decided to build a fund that we always wish we had as founders. And part of that is building this LP community of the credible founders and CEOs and retailers and strategics and investment bankers and thought leaders in the space that can help these founders build their businesses. And so this ecosystem approach is very important to us. And then what we realized is we can't invest in every brand. We can't have every founder and family office in our fund. But what we really are deeply passionate about is building the consumer ecosystem, paying it forward and helping a lot of others. So we said, honestly, like about three years ago, we were planning our AGM, which was our Family Fund Summit to bring together all of our portfolio companies and our investors said, what if we extended it one day, and we created a festival to celebrate founders and CEOs in an environment in which they could lean in and they could support each other top to top, because they're so busy.

It's so hard and so lonely at the top to ask for help and to deal with other people that have been on similar stages of the journey. If we do that, we bring together retail decision-makers and strategic acquirers and other investors we deeply admire and respect that we want to work with and partner with, all together with content, with meals together, with thought leadership talks, with experiential activations put on by the founders that are true expression.

What might happen? What we realized was a whole lot of relationship building and partnership development. So, what was we're running an experiment, turned out year three to be something that we couldn't be more thrilled to put on.

Mike Gelb (3:39)

So, talk to me a little bit about, that's amazing. So, it kind of was tied to the first event that you do on the night before, is that right?

Josh Wand (3:48)

Yeah, we actually have our Family Fund AGM the day before, in Malibu at the Calgary Ghost Ranch. So, not only do we have Founderland on Thursday, Tuesday night and Wednesday, we have all of our portfolio companies, our LPs together for moderated talks, portfolio presentations, state of the union, meals together, workouts together, real relationship building. And then we expand upon that. And the following day, we will have a thousand people drop in to Founderland with just an incredible experience for all.

Mike Gelb (4:21)

So, one of those things that since you have all the people that are associated with Family Fund, why not just extend that and make an event that's more open, where you obviously have different types of folks, too, that are coming like retailer buyers and different investors, for example, that are all traveling here from then, obviously, different founders, too, that companies that you find interesting maybe aren't in your current portfolio. Why don't we then extend it and actually create an event that brings all of this together, since we already have our group in town?