#246 Brett Thomas – Co-Founder of Cavu Venture Partners on Building Brands for a Healthier World
Key Takeaways
Brett began his career working at a hedge fund in New York City but after a few years he realized that he needed to pursue his passion: consumer brands.
“It’s okay to make mistakes in life, my whole thing is no regrets. If you think you’re going to wake up ten years from now and say, do you wish you did that? And you say yes I regret that I didn’t go for that or take that chance, that’s what I’m worried about”
Brett is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Cavu Venture Partners – a venture fund that is fueling the brands that lead the health and wellness industry.
“If you give someone the chance to upgrade their life in some way whether it’s improving their sleep, improving their diet, look better, feel better, eat better, they’re going to take it.”
Brett’s Advice for Founders:
- Build an incredible founding team
- Be ‘learners’ and not ‘knowers’
- Be willing to take risks
- Understand your blind spots and weaknesses.
0:29 Drive
Brett’s drive was instilled in him at a young age through sports. Through building his confidence and work ethic, Brett’s drive in sports led to him playing Division 1 tennis at Boston College.
“The lessons you learn, working within a team, setting goals short term, medium term, long term, and starting to see the practice and dedication that’s required in order to be better, are lessons I still take today and apply not only in the business world but as a parent”
6:29 Positive Mindset
Brett explains his morning exercise routine that leaves him feeling positive and ready to take on the day. Reflecting on his time working for a hedge fund in New York City in his 20’s, Brett says that he didn’t realize the toll that those years had on his mental health.
“Being a little bit selfish and taking your time to focus on you whether it’s through exercise, going for a walk, socializing, or taking a day off”
9:55 Understanding Product Development
Brett explains the early lessons that taught him about the importance of product development and display.
“The challenging part is what’s a fad versus a trend, what can actually travel outside of this bubble of Los Angeles, California in general, and go more mainstream and that’s the harder challenge”
12:45 Reading & Social Media
Brett says that he reads 2-3 hours a day and it’s during that time that he has some of his greatest idea generations. He also talks about the value in social media for learning from others and gaining customer feedback.
“It’s a lot easier now to discover and experience new products, new trends real time. The hard part is, there’s a lot more noise in the market so you have to get through that clutter just to find that gem or what we believe to be that next gem”
17:03 Intensity and speed
Brett talks about the importance of working with intensity and speed.
“You don’t want to rush just for the sake of rushing but you always have to move with a speed of, we had to get this done yesterday”
17:55 The Inspiration Behind Cavu
Brett explains the meaning behind CAVU’s name as: “Cavu is a pilot’s term, it’s the perfect flying condition”
“Our whole goal when we started Cavu was to make those skies a little bit clearer and a little less turbulent for entrepreneurs because it is a rocky journey to say the least”
“Picking that head up and stepping back and getting out of the business people talk about for a period of time is really helpful”
21:12 Brett’s Grandfather
Brett reflects on a story of when he was 9 years old and went mushroom picking with his grandfather.
“My grandfather told me, by the time you turn 30, if you’re working at a job and you’re not passionate about it, you need to quit your job immediately and go out and pursue your passion”
Brett talks about his time working at a hedge fund in his twenties and the aha-moment where he took his grandfather’s advice.
“It’s okay to make mistakes in life, my whole thing is no regrets. If you think you’re going to wake up ten years from now and say, do you wish you did that? And you say yes I regret that I didn’t go for that or take that chance, that’s the things I’m worried about”
25:50 Transitioning to Consumer Brands
“My whole goal was to make mistakes on my own money so that at some point in time when I was ready to take other people’s money, I had that pattern recognition, I had put in five or six years of experience of mistakes and learnings so that when I took money from other people I was in a good spot where I could manage that in a manner which they deserve with the results they deserve”
27:50 Health & Wellness Industry
Brett explains his aha-moment after his wife and him first became parents and the importance they placed on what they put in and on their child’s body whether it was food or shampoo.
“If you give someone the chance to upgrade their life in some way whether it’s improving their sleep, improving their diet, look better, feel better, eat better, they’re going to take it.”
“For me it’s that initial spark meeting where you meet an entrepreneur or founder that you have no idea what the meeting’s going to be like or how amazing their product may or may not be and you walk away just inspired”
33:05 Health & Wellness Brands
Brett talks about a few of the companies he has worked with that have changed the health and wellness industry including Bai and Vital Proteins.
38:30 The Founding Team
Brett says that the most important aspect of a company is the founding company.
“Founding teams to us is even more important to us than the product itself”
Brett says that they look for founders that are ‘learners’ and not ‘knowers’, willing to take risks, and understand their blind spots and weaknesses.
40:19 Building Cavu
Brett and his founding partner, Rohan Oza began by investing in companies together. Rohan had more experience than Brett at the time, having worked with companies like Vitamin Water and Pop Chips.
“Since we’re invested, there’s an emotional connection attachment. We’re passionate about the packaging redesign and we will push the envelope and we will have dialogues with our founders that push the envelope in terms of pushing them a little bit”
“At some point in time most people are going to be concerned about their health and wellness and understanding what they put in their body affects a whole variety of things that people didn’t know existed before”
49:19 Founder Difficulties
Brett says that the common struggle he sees among founders is their hesitation and fears around making radical changes to the business.
“The ones that are willing to take those calculated risks to make those changes could be the step change to the business”
54:50 Lessons Learned
Reflecting back on the start of Cavu, Brett says that he didn’t do a great job delegating the tasks that favored his weaknesses.
“You don’t have to do it all by yourself, you have a team and it’s letting your team run the play and trusting them to run it and that they’ll run it better than you”
Brett also says that he underestimated the amount of time and dedication he needed to commit in order to develop his team.
58:39 What’s Next for Cavu
Brett says he is currently the most energized he has been when it comes to the future of Cavu and the consumer brands in health and wellness. He explains the impact that COVID-19 has had on people understanding the importance of prioritizing their health and what they consume.
“More and more consumers are aware of health and wellness and they want to make it more a part of their life”
“Our greatest skill set is identifying trends early, finding great amazing category creators with great founders, and being able to amplify those voices and those brands to be the leader in their respective categories”
1:03:28 Brett’s Interview Choice
If Brett could sit down and interview anyone dead or alive, he would choose his grandfather.
Connect with Brett
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