Ep 79: Celebrity Whisperer & Investor of Lady Gaga, Gwyneth Palthrow, Sophia Amoruso, Tom Brady etc.

Nicole Quinn is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners,
where she focuses on consumer and FinTech investing. Consumer
behaviour, founder insights, and company brand are core in
Nicole’s mind. Nicknamed the “Celebrity Whisperer”, she has led
the Series A in Cameo and Lady Gaga's Haus Labs and seed rounds
in Girlboss, Illumix and Sagely. She also invested in the Series
B in Calm and Series C in Goop and sourced Rothy's and Zola.


In this episode, we learn how Nicole went from helping her dad
run his online pharmacy chain as a child to spending around 8
years at Morgan Stanley to finally entering the VC space.


Nicole shares what a true brand is, how she measures an engaged
followship, what it’s like working with celebrity-led companies,
how to separate the celebrity from the company, the due diligence
she did prior to investing in Lady Gaga’s company, what make
founders like Sophia Amoruso of Girlboss stand out and why she
produced a sizable term sheet to Lunchclub in less than 7
days. 


If you’ve been interested in consumer products and wondering what
it’s like to spot & invest in future trends, then this is the
episode for you. 





Highlights:


2:56 Learning the value of money

4:04 Working at Morgan Stanley for 8 years

5:06 Angel Investing

6:04 Joining an European fintech startup

7:40 Focus on your strengths & make them stronger (in
Stanford)

9:46 Meeting members of Lightspeed Venture Partners,
including Jeremy Liew

12:22 How founders find the thing they were born to do

14:40 Working with Lady Gaga to build Haus Laboratories

16:13 Doing due diligence on Lady Gaga to measure engagement

17:42 Separating the celebrity from the company

19:26 Leading indicators of a true brand being built

20:23 Why Nicole invests in early stage founders (e.g.
Girlboss & Rothy’s)

22:03 How Lightspeed spots new trends

22:47 Being wrong about future trends

24:42 Why Nicole offered Lunchclub a sizable term sheet in
less than 7 days

26:58 The ICE Influencer policy at Calm

29:50 Companies incorporating NFTs well into their business






Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/79 


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