Sumeet Shah, Founder and Managing Partner, VHS Ventures
Sumeet credits his career to a series of fortunate accidents, where his eternal curiosity and penchant for building mentorships led him to where he is today.
“I was born and raised in New Jersey and attended college in New York City. I pursued a degree in biomedical engineering and graduated from Columbia University in 2008, a particularly interesting time due to the global financial crisis.
My first job out of college was at a consulting firm that focused on working with private equity-backed companies. During this period, I was primarily working with consumer brands so I spent a lot of time on operational improvement and got the chance to work with many consumer private equity firms along the way.
It was a very interesting time to work in the consumer space because it was during a time of the D2C boom. You had Warby Parker, Birchbox, Peloton, Casper, and so forth launching and raising their first rounds of capital. I spent a lot of time connecting with these founders and getting to know these companies.
In 2013, I ventured into the startup realm. In less than a year, I was quickly approached by one of the consumer investors I met back in 2011 who was launching a new early-stage consumer VC firm. I was asked to join as a Senior Associate and Brand Foundry Ventures was born.
During my time at Brand Foundry, I executed twenty deals over the course of two funds. We invested in companies like Allbirds, The Wing, Rocket of Awesome, Koio, and more. We also led seed rounds for The Sill and YUMI during my time there.
I stepped away from investing in 2017 and did some freelance partnerships and strategy work for about a year and a half before I was approached by an investor group to help launch Swiftarc Ventures. I helped build its investing, fundraising, platform, and operations arms for two and a half years, and got approached by the Clearco team in late 2021 to help restart its Ventures Partnerships arm. I spent part of 2022 on that team but sadly got laid off at the end of the summer — the rest of the team dissolved from then till the end of the year as well. As I was working through my next move, I started making some personal investments and transformed that portfolio into my own firm, VHS Ventures, which launched this summer. VHS Ventures is an early-stage, pre-seed to series A, consumer-focused venture capital firm. So far, we have backed eleven companies to date.
In summary, my venture capital career has been a series of fortunate accidents. It's been quite the wild ride.”
Can you share more about VHS Ventures and your investment thesis?
“We focus on consumer brands and consumer infrastructure founders. Regarding consumer brands, our investments are a founder-driven thesis focused on product-driven companies with experienced founders and foundational growth strategies. We're subsector-agnostic, looking at food/beverage, health/beauty/wellness, CPG, and apparel/accessories/fashion.
On the consumer infrastructure side, our investments are a market-driven thesis directed toward tech-enabled platforms that enhance various aspects of consumer business models such as supply chain, third-party logistics, inventory, data analytics, experiential retail, and e-commerce fulfillment. The overall investment goal is to create a circular ecosystem, where our infrastructure founders collaborate with our brand founders, and our brand founders engage with other brand founders in our portfolio.
Ultimately, VHS Ventures is not just an investment firm but a village where every stakeholder has a role and responsibility to help the group succeed so that everyone is rewarded.”
What is your opinion about the current consumer landscape?
“It is incredibly difficult to build a unicorn out of the current market conditions, but that’s not our objective. Instead, we focus our efforts on careful foundational growth by building and investing in consumer companies capable of reaching a $10-$25 million top-line revenue within five years of our initial investment.
That careful growth ethos can help open pathways for our portfolio founders — from investments by larger partners or acquisitions by consumer conglomerates. Or roll-up M&A deals by private equity-backed brands. We deliberately avoid the ‘go-public or bust’ perspective that has traditionally prevailed in the venture ecosystem.
While the consumer sector is undoubtedly saturated, we’re looking for the right founders who are building unique businesses that can contribute to consistent and successful revenue growth.”
What are some trends that you are seeing in the consumer market today?
“My favorite is the ‘brand-in-a-box’ concept tailored for the creator economy. It’s awe-inspiring to watch what is going on with creators, but the current opportunities to monetize their craft are quite limited, especially when they don't have enough equity in these opportunities. I am spending a lot of time looking at companies building the suite of supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, and even marketing channels for these creators, with opportunities to include light or heavy customization.
I also am spending time on finding the next generation of heritage brands in the beauty and wellness space. Brands with loyal retention and strong purchasing power such as 20+ years of purchase and/or ambassadorship, as well as brands that naturally cater to multiple demographics in the process.
Lastly, I've been spending more time around the idea of ‘healthy nostalgia.’ We grew up enjoying products that were incredibly unhealthy, so I'm investing in brands that evoke that delicious memory but are stealthily healthier alternatives. Taste is the primary response, with health being the surprise factor. At VHS Ventures, we’ve invested in brands with this ethos such as Peaceful Fruits and Fronen.”
What do you like to do for fun?
“I’ve been boxing for over ten years now. Back in 2011, I first learned to box thanks to a coach who was also a Golden Gloves silver medalist. I got back heavily into boxing in 2014 when we were doing some due diligence on ClassPass during my Brand Foundry years. I met one of my longtime coaches in the process, Fran Fontan, and he and Danny Nicholas have trained me for many years now. I also fought in two charity boxing events for Haymakers for Hope, in 2016 and 2017, and one for Overthrow Boxing but I have since retired. I now just train and spar at the storied Mendez Boxing. They used to be located in Madison Square Park but are now in Harlem, holding the largest ring in the city!”