Dan Reich (Troops.ai + TULA) - From skincare to SaaS, building B2C and B2B businesses

The Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands - A podcast by Mike Gelb

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My guest today is Dan Reich, who is a serial entrepreneur. Some of the companies he founded are Spinback, TULA and Troops.ai. TULA started as a digitally native health and beauty brand where Dan served as CEO from inception to over $1mm in sales in less than one year. Troops is a B2B technology company that is building a mobile-first, intelligent CRM. Since Dan has extensive backgrounds in both B2B and B2C, in this episode we focus on some of the differences when building a B2C company vs. B2B.Here are some questions I ask Dan -What was your attraction to entrepreneurship?Why did you decide to launch a skincare brand? What was the insight?How did you think about the competitive landscape within skincare?When did you realize after launching this could be something real?What was your approach to scaling online?What was your initial omnichannel strategy?How were you able to successfully fundraise?What was the hardest part of TULA's business to get investors over the line?Why did you decide to step down as CEO?What compelled you to start a completely different business in Troops.ai?What are some of the differences building an enterprise business vs. consumer business?As an investor, what do you look for in an entrepreneur?Are there specific categories you focus on or find attractive?Walk me through your decision making process.What's one thing you'd change with the fundraising / venture capital process?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?What's one piece of advice for founders currently building?