Due to winter storm Toby, this event has been rescheduled to April 26th.

Consumer product startups are often overlooked in the startup & investment scene, but thanks to up-and-coming disruptors in the space like Dollar Shave Club, Glossier, and Bonobos, we’re seeing a big rise in consumer products and direct-to-consumer startups.

New consumer product startups are taking advantage of new tech, marketing channels, and the changing habits of consumers to build brand awareness and grow their companies. Through social media, new brands can become more popular than the incumbent giants currently manufacturing consumer goods.

With all of the opportunity for new consumer goods startups, there are still many challenges an entrepreneur will face. Developing a prototype, creating the product, manufacturing, distributing and marketing all become hard questions to answer.

Join us and our expert panelists who’ve created successful consumer goods to discuss important product development and e-commerce topics like:

• Developing early prototypes and finding product/market fit
• Identifying target customer segments for your product
• Finding manufacturers and distributors
• Marketing your product through social media and other channels
• Understanding short term and long term channel strategy
• Thinking about MVPs in the context of physical goods
• Understanding the private label option

About the panelists

• Kabeer Chopra, Co-founder & CPO of Burrow – Kabeer is the Co-founder of Burrow, a direct-to-consumer sofa startup that manufactures and delivers customizable, modular sofas that can be assembled in less than 10 minutes without tools. They were part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2016 class and raised a $4.3 million seed round in December. They launched in April 2017 and closed $3 million in sales at the end of the year. Kabeer co-founded an in-store mobile experience platform and has also launched e-commerce and mobile applications for several start-ups. More recently, he managed global retail analytics for Michael Kors and played a pivotal role in their digital innovation team.
• Janet Lieberman, Co-founder & CTO of Dame – Janet is the Co-founder & CTO of Dame, a sex tech startup on a mission to design well-engineered sex toys, heighten intimacy, and openly empower the sexual experiences of womankind. In 2014, Janet helped create the first successful hands-free couples’ vibrator, Eva, which raised over $575,000 on Indiegogo when it launched. In 2017, Dame launched Fin, which was the first sex toy to ever be posted on Kickstarter. Janet earned her mechanical engineering degree from MIT in 2007 before starting her career in product development.
• Matteo Franceschetti, Co-founder & CEO of Eight – Matteo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eight, the world’s leading sleep enhancement company. Named one of the Most Innovative Companies in Consumer Electronics by Fast Company, Eight is redesigning the traditional concept of a mattress, by developing cutting-edge AI and machine learning models to track bio signals during sleep with the goal of optimizing body recovery and rest. Eight has raised $27 million from leading Silicon Valley investors including Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and StartX, Stanford University’s fund. Prior to Eight, Matteo co-founded and led GIR (acquired in 2014) and Global Investment (acquired 2011). Matteo has been Co-Chair at FWD.us and Mentor at Techstars, Microsoft Bizpark and the NYU Summer Launchpad Program. He is also a Member of the Forbes Technology Council.

Schedule:

6:30 – 6:50: Drinks & Networking
6:50 – 7:50: Panel
7:50 – 8:15: Audience Q&A
8:15 – 9:00: More Drinks & Networking