Founder Unfriendly: A Conversation with WeStock, Hungryroot & Ten Little Investor Charlie O'Donnell - Hosted by Cameron McCarthy

​Join us for a conversation exploring the hard truths about fundraising, as part of the launch of Charlie O’Donnell's book, Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won’t Tell You About Getting Funded.

​Most fundraising advice is written for tech startups. If you're building a CPG brand, you already know that, because you've tried to apply it and it didn't quite fit.

​Charlie O'Donnell is a New York-based VC who has backed both software companies like WeStock and also multiple consumer brands, including writing the first VC check into Hungryroot, which just announced $700 million in revenues, Ten Little, and Esembly Baby. He's also backed consumer companies that didn't make it where there are lots of lessons learned, including Ample Hills Creamery, and he'll talk about both as he prepares to launch his new book Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won't Tell You About Getting Funded.

​What he's found is that CPG founders are often more anchored in reality than their tech counterparts, you know your unit economics cold, because you have to, but that same operational mindset can work against you when you're trying to raise institutional capital. The story that kept your friends-and-family investors patient is almost the opposite of what a VC fund needs to hear. Making that switch, without losing yourself in the process, is one of the hardest parts of the CPG fundraising journey.

​This is a conversation about what's actually different, what actually matters, and what investors won't tell you to your face.

​Open to founders, operators, and anyone interested in how fundraising actually works.