Participated · Series B · Sep 2021

Cleancult is a NYC-based sustainable cleaning brand founded in 2019 by Ryan Lupberger and Zachary Bedrosian. It offers a full lineup of home cleaning essentials—liquid hand soap, laundry detergent, stain stick, all-purpose cleaner, dish soap, bar soap—made with biodegradable plant-based formulas, many featuring its patented CocoClean Technology. The company emphasizes zero-waste packaging, using recyclable milk cartons and offering reusable glass dispensers instead of plastic bottles. Cleancult closed a $25M Series B with investors including Reynolds Channel, Anchor Capital, Box Group, Vanterra Capital, Blue Scorpion Investments, Hartbeat Ventures (Kevin Hart), and Rachel Zoe Ventures. As part of the financing, Seth Cohen (Managing Partner, Reynolds Channel) and Mark Zurcher (former CEO of Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP) will join the board. With the new funding the company plans to add retailer partners and expand into an additional 2,500 stores, growing its retail presence to over 5,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada, including CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and Meijer.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2015

FabFitFun’s flagship product is the FabFitFun Box, a seasonal curated collection of full‑size products across beauty, fashion, wellness, fitness, home and technology. Since launching in 2010, the company has grown from a newsletter and blog into a platform with more than one million members globally and services including FabFitFunTV, an online community, daily lifestyle content, and seasonal sales. FabFitFun operates a retail engagement platform that designs customized seasonal programs for brand partners, including access to celebrity/influencer networks, generating hundreds of millions of targeted impressions. Members receive personalized seasonal offerings and remain engaged through live TV, social media, and year‑round exclusive shopping experiences. The company emphasizes high value compared to retail for its members and deeper, longer‑term touchpoints for brands. FabFitFun recently completed a financing update, signaling resources to pursue product and geographic expansion. FabFitFun sells a quarterly subscription box priced at $49.99 that contains 8–12 full-sized products valued at over $200. The company grew out of an online magazine and maintains a media arm that publishes 5–10 pieces of original content per day alongside newsletters and social media. FabFitFun sources products at or below production cost or receives them free from brands, and also runs paid campaigns for CPG partners such as Vaseline and Crest. Investors report the business had bootstrapped to roughly $15 million in annual revenue and counts over 1 million members; the team is 35+ employees. The company uses consumer surveying to inform merchandising and plans to use personalization to deliver boxes tailored to individual users with minimal choices required.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2015

Bringhub provides a platform that adds a shopping layer to editorial and advertising content so readers can buy products without leaving the article or ad. The product supports shopping from multiple stores in a single checkout and supplies publishers and retailers with data on user shopping habits. The company says it has partnered with more than 100 publishers, including NBC’s Today, InStyle and AOL, and works with over 500 retailers. Bringhub positions its tools as a way for content producers and marketers to monetize content at scale. The startup announced a strategic investment from Integrated Asset Management Limited, which the company and the investor frame as a move to accelerate e-commerce monetization and analytics capabilities. Bringhub’s platform focus and existing publisher/retailer footprint suggest the company is aiming to expand adoption and revenue-generation opportunities for publishers and brands. Bringhub is a Los Angeles, CA-based e-commerce platform that enables online shoppers to purchase goods and services they discover in online content through a checkout that lives directly in the publisher’s site. The company was co-founded in 2014 by Dominik Pantelides (CEO), Brian Marvin (COO) and Albert Khasky (CTO). Bringhub is to launch with $1.8M in seed funding. Backers include Bill Budinger, Capital Union Investments Hong Kong, BAM Ventures, Canyon Creek Capital, Rachel Zoe Ventures, and others. The solution is slated to launch at the end of April via a select group of premier publishers and top-tier retailers. The article does not report any operating metrics such as revenue or user counts.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2014

Beautycon Media began as a Los Angeles event planner that books conferences and festivals linking YouTube stars, their audiences and brands. The company operates Beautycon Festival, curated social channels, a small shop for branded swag and a subscription box, and plans to test its own cosmetics and apparel later this year. CEO Moj Mahdara is hiring a head of content so Beautycon can create more original media and actively develop influencers. With the new financing, the company is also making a substantial push into data and analytics, planning to publish white papers and share learnings with brand partners and the press. Beautycon targets women ages 18–25 and cites estimates of $4 billion in annual cosmetics spending, $5.7 billion in apparel and accessories and $8.2 billion in computers and electronics for that demographic. The company has positioned itself as a creator-centric bridge between Gen Z influencers, their audiences and commercial partners. Founded in 2012, BeautyCon began as live fan-focused events and has expanded into a content platform and membership program. Its core offerings include BeautyCon.com (an online content aggregator), large-scale live experiences, and the BFF Fan Club subscription ($99/year) that delivers curated gift packs and creator-driven perks. The company targets 16-to-24-year-old females and aggregates content from Snapchat, Vine, Instagram and YouTube to reach a tech-savvy audience. BeautyCon runs events in multiple global cities (listed for London, Los Angeles, New York and Dubai) and emphasizes direct creator-to-fan engagement. The company reports click-throughs and media impressions have grown almost 200% year over year, indicating rapid audience and brand engagement growth. Leadership says the next phase is to become a fully integrated global media brand and expand its content and membership offerings. BeautyCon operates a conference-driven media business that books and coordinates events linking YouTube talent, their audiences, and brands targeting millennial women. Its core product is live summits where fans meet creators and brands, supported by content and branded-product initiatives. The company targets women ages 18–25 and cites that demographic’s annual spending potential (about $4.0B on cosmetics, $5.7B on apparel and accessories, and $8.2B on computers and electronics). BeautyCon plans to link fans with products sponsored by YouTube talent, products sold under BeautyCon’s own brand or its contributors’ brands, events, and content under a single umbrella. Its conference business has attracted a network of talent including Bethany Mota, Amanda Steele, and Kandee Johnson, who together command a combined audience of about 22.5 million across social platforms. BeautyCon has content partnerships with Hearst magazines (including Seventeen and Elle) and online properties like WhoWhatWear, Maker Studios, TheZoeReport, and Polished, and in 2013 raised under $2 million in seed financing from a group of entertainment and publishing investors.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2014

Spring is a mobile-first shopping platform that integrates directly with fashion brands so users can follow brands and purchase items shown in posts. Each post contains scrollable photos, a price, a description, and a one-swipe purchase flow that saves credit-card details for faster mobile checkout. Brands retain control over the inventory they post and the frequency of posts. The company has grown from about 200 to more than 700 brands and from roughly 2,000 to around 20,000 products, with plans to reach 500,000 products by the end of the summer. Spring launched in August 2014 (created by David Tisch and Alan Tisch) and is expanding distribution with a newly released Android app, a planned web app, and eventual international expansion. The company has raised a total of $32.5 million to date. Spring (formerly known under the Jello Labs name) is developing a mobile-commerce product slated to launch in the fall, likely around August, with an emphasis on exclusive partnerships with major fashion and retail brands. The team includes co-founders David Tisch (chairman) and Alan Tisch (CEO), Octavian Costache as CTO, and Ara Katz as CMO. Prior to the Series A, David Tisch provided runway funding personally. The company has secured a $7.5 million Series A and counts a mix of fashion-industry and tech investors. Spring currently has 26 full-time employees, including 14 full-time engineers. The rollout strategy is deliberately slow to support exclusive brand relationships.