← Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman
Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman
Funding the Right Way: Venture Capital, Marketing & Founder Strategy with Laurel Mintz
00:24:55
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. This is Coffee Number Five. I'm your host, Lara Schmoisman. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to coffee number five. And today is the first episode of 2026. I'm excited that I'm bringing you a subject that we are not talking about a lot. A lot of times, most of it. I mean, I talk to founders all the time and everyone like, say, oh, I gonna bootstrap. And then they realize, hmm, I don't have enough money. That happens all the time. And they realize that maybe they made product, but then how am I gonna sell it if I don't have marketing? I need marketing. And then if you get into retail or you have a big purchase order commitment, you still need money. So it's so nice, by the way, when you're gonna be gonna be talking to a friend because it makes a conversation so much exciting, but not only because of that, because you know things that otherwise you wouldn't know, but when with a guest. So today I want to invite and welcome my friend Laurel Mint. And welcome so much. And I'm so happy to have you at Coffee Number Five. We are overdue for a coffee, but the beard works. So, Loral, today you are with Fabric bc, but also your background is in marketing. You created award winning advertising campaigns. So tell us a little more about where you came from, where you're coming from, and why you felt the need of creating fabric. Busy.
- [01:38]
B
Yes, it's a very windy road. But first, thank you for having me.
- [01:43]
A
So I started are the more interesting roads.
- [01:46]
B
That's true, that's true. And then you look back and you're like, oh, that all actually makes a lot of sense. And I think mine does. So I started my career as a corporate M and A attorney, an MBA in digital marketing. I practiced for a very short while until my dad got sick. He's healthy now, so that's a happy ending. But he was running the west coast for a national furniture chain called Bassett. I stepped in at 26 as interim CEO. We sold that. 2009, I launched my marketing agency, elevate my brand. That's been around 17 years and 400 plus brands later. And because of my legal and business background, a lot of private equity and venture firms specifically were coming to us to market them. And one of the GPS said to me one day after one of our calls, you need to go launch your own fund. You have better earlier deal flow than we do. This marketing special sauce and this commitment to diversity. And honestly, Lara, I was like, no, I'm good. I don't Need a second headache or a second company? I'm, I'm an operator. Like that's not really my world. But I had been a LPN investor for about 12 years at that point, including investing in ventures. So I knew enough to be dangerous and then of course knew enough on the corporate M and A side as well. And I started just becoming obsessed with the idea and saw the statistics that really made me take the leap of faith to launch a fund. So that's what we did.
- [03:08]
A
I mean that's in. It was in the back of your mind and you were like, I think I need to do this. You started from no, no, no. And then what was the moment that you felt like, okay, maybe I should do this? Do you remember that moment?
- [03:22]
B
I do. Well, I, it wasn't really in the back of my mind until this person, this client called it out for me. And then I started becoming obsessed with the idea. And so when I was doing like my homework and research around what it would look like to be a gp, which is what I am, a general partner, if you or anyone listening would be an investor, they would be LPs. I saw a couple of things. One was the 2% number, which most of us know, which is less than 2% of all venture dollars goes to non white old dudes basically. And that's something that everybody complains about and talks about all the time. But what we really should be talking about is the other side of that metric, which is that when diverse founders do receive funding, we return on average at a 25% higher return rate. And when you think about it, it really makes sense. We've never had any indication we would get funding. We're scrappier, we make a dollar stretch to five or more cash efficient. And when I saw that statistic, that was my moment. That was like my Oprah aha moment of got it. So doing good and doing well are not concessionary. We can do both simultaneously, do good things in the world and make a lot of money. That is a, is a, a thing I can get behind and that's really what launched fabric.
- [04:27]
A
So what a person need to know in order to get an JP or lp and what's the difference?
- [04:36]
B
A GP is a general partner. That's what I am. That's someone who runs an actual fund and making all the day to day decisions, looking at companies, deploying capital. I've got a great team, of course, and then an LP is a limited partner. And that's what you would be if you were an investor and part of my mission in doing this work, as you know, has been educating and empowering a lot of women and a lot of women of color, frankly, to understand what this asset class is all about. To your point, people don't understand the jargon. And because powers that be have been in control of 80, you know, 95% of the wealth since the beginning of time, they use a lot of jargon to make us feel like we can't do this. And so that has been part of my mission as well, is really breaking down the stereotypes and demystifying venture as an asset class because it's really powerful.
- [05:25]
A
So what kind of brands will you work with and why would you choose to work with them and what do they need to have in order for you to take them as a partner?
- [05:35]
B
Yeah, we focus. So every venture fund has what's called a thesis. And that's just like what do you invest in? Like what is your overall idea around who and what you invest in? And so for us obviously we've got the diversity layer first and then we focus on consumer tech, health tech and fintech. And those are areas not only that we've been seeing for many, many years from the agency side. So we get this really great early deal flow before companies are even going out to raise capital. But we, we also do some really interesting diligence. So as you know, there's all this marketing listening software that agencies use. And I had this one day in the shower because that's where you have all your best ideas, in my opinion.
- [06:17]
A
I know, it happens to me too.
- [06:19]
B
Right, because you're, your brain's nothing. I'm either cooking or in the shower, you know, and I thought, you know what, I bet I could use that software on the fun side as a de risking mechanism and run these companies through it to see are their numbers real or are they full of you know what, which so many of them are. How far are they from an omnichannel marketing perspective from their competitors in their space? So really that like 30,000 foot view and that helps us to see if our check is going to meaningfully close the gap for them. And that's a very unique approach to diligence. We obviously do all the traditional founder financial diligence, all of the things that you need to look at to make sure a company is solid. And then that marketing layer is really our extra secret sauce.
- [07:01]
A
Yeah, yeah, I can totally see that. But also you have something there going on about pitching around, teaching brands how to pitch or founders how to pitch and to, to Ask for money, basically. Because pitching and asking for money is very different than pitching an idea.
- [07:20]
B
Totally. I think that that's more of a messaging conversation, which you are really great at as well. And so what we did was we launched a quarterly pitch day. We picked six companies at random. They come in and they do 10 minutes of pitch and then they get 10 minutes of feedback from our entire network. Started out as a small group and now we get about 80 to 100 people virtually in that room. Which is really fantastic because the thought process was, well, first of all, like, this is a great marketing vehicle for us. Right. We're always thinking about how to market ourselves as marketers. Try not to be the marketers who have no shoes locally. And then it gives them, to your point, the opportunity to receive real time feedback from folks who are really seasoned, both as investors and founders within that room. So it's a really honest dialogue and conversation. The other piece of it was we can't write checks to everyone. So by opening this up to our network, we're giving them visibility to others like you who might be able to support them or other investors who might be able to write checks even if we decide that's not going to be us. So we're, we're really, we really try and be ecosystem builders in this world.
- [08:23]
A
I love that. So I see a lot of decks. I see clients of mine that asked me to build decks. I see people that, they want to show me their brand because we're talking about marketing and I have nothing to do with the financial part. People, please don't. Because Loral is great at both worlds doesn't mean that every marketer is. And nor I do not have anything to do about running financials, forecasting, anything like that. That's another role. It has nothing to do with the marketing role. I'm happy to talk to the financial part, but it's not what I do. But we're really good at creating decks. And sometimes I see these decks that they go, they go in different places and they go the wrong place. So someone who wants to tell me about their marketing, they send me a financial deck and they want to tell me about their brand. So can we talk about the financial deck and what a financial deck is? They have what are the must to have and, and what they need to get in there to be able to pitch and to. I mean, I'm a big, big fan. Everyone knows about Shark Tank. And the worst thing is that when a founder doesn't know their numbers.
- [09:35]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's that's number one. Founders need to know their numbers. I'm actually not a financial person either. That was not my area. Um, and so I think that that's why so many investors and founders appreciate working with, with us. Because that was not where I came from. So I don't come at it from that perspective. We have a team that does all of the projections and financial assistance. But you don't have to be a financial genius to write a really successful or build a really successful deck that delivers. And I think that if you're going out to fundraise, the basics just need to be there and you don't need to be clever for clever sakes. The shorter the deck, the better. Then you can build in exhibits at the end. So if anyone wants to dig in more, they can. Or you can create what's called a data room where all of these detailed financials can live. Because what happens is, you know, as a vc, we're looking at these decks all day long. I look at, I've seen, I see thousands of decks a year and I take a few minutes if I'm being totally honest, if you're lucky on them. And so most decks just need the same kind of general structure. I hate to see decks that are too clever for clever sake. And really it's what problem? What is your solution? Why are you and your team the right people to solve for this? Is there a product market fit or an idea of why there would be product market fit? What is your TAM Sam som which is total addressable market, Serviceable, Addressable, addressable market. TAM SAM and some and wait TAM total job. Anyways, it's like the global market and then there's like how much you can actually service within that global market since you're like only US based let's say. And then there's the actuals of like okay, this is really, if we get 1% of this, this is really what we should be targeting. So those numbers I don't think are, are really that exciting and people like to dig in on those. But the likelihood that a new brand is going to be able to capture 1% of a global market is really unlikely.
- [11:27]
A
So let me ask you a question. So when you are, would you invest in an idea or you need someone who is in the market already.
- [11:35]
B
We do pre seed checks which are can be pre revenue and can be conceptual. But I would say the market right now is not favoring that. So in the last few years people were throwing dumb money at dumb valuations because there was Just all of this cash that was available and people were throwing money at companies that were just ideas. And now because it's a more constricted market, because of tariffs and the public markets and the lack of IPOs and M& A being kind of quiet activity, being quiet people, people are a lot more hesitant to write checks. And that's both on the LP side into funds as well as on the fund side into individual companies. So while we do, we would write a check to an idea, there's not a lot out there that we're seeing that's pre revenue, pre. Pre seed that we would probably look at because we. It's so, so early. And there is no, there's no reason in my opinion that you should come to a VC without at least some proof of concept, concept, product, market fit, some surveying of your audience, some brand building. Unless the idea is so wild and crazy that you just have to talk about it and get funding and get it out. That's really a rare brand. I would say there's not a lot I would see that would warrant that. And so typically we see more seed companies even up to pre A, which is like 50 million in. In valuation. So we're seeing a little bit later stage companies. Basically what they're saying are they call them tourist founders and funders. Right. So anyone who is just like playing in the market and thinking like, oh, I have this great idea, I'm going to go out there and raise $10 million, that's really not happening in the market anymore.
- [13:14]
A
So let me ask you a question because I think that a lot of companies and investors right now got a little burn or little skeptical because everything and so much investment that it went into AI.
- [13:27]
B
Yeah.
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A
Do you think that there is going to still be money going to AI and AI ideas?
- [13:34]
B
I get this question like every time, I'm sure. Yeah. So the funny part about AI is that it's been around for like 15 or 20 years. Like it's been in our phones forever. It's been around forever. It just happens to be the buzzy, sexy term right now. So everyone keeps pitching AI and whenever anyone pitches me AI as a foundation of their company, I go in hard because I'm like, do you really have AI? Are you just pitching me something that you think you can build and you just have like a little talking monkey in a corner putting data in a spreadsheet. So that's one like, is this a concept or do you actually have the data to be able to build an. A large language model? Because the volume of data required to actually build that is so vast and very few startups I would believe have access to it.
- [14:17]
A
I think that most companies right now that are the say that they're building on AI, they're building on gimmicks.
- [14:23]
B
Right? Well and that's the other part of the conversation is the buyer build conversation. So people pitch to raise millions of dollars on an AI concept when really they should be layering it or building it on top of an existing GPT model for that debt, for that data access. So I always tell people like don't waste your time and my money. Like you're, why are you building something that's so incredibly unique, that's really not to be a valuable company? And they're saying that 94 or 96% of all AI companies are failing right now and will continue to fail. So there will certainly be some really, really big winners. But I think it's just the sexy pitch term right now. But it will, there will be a reckoning. We're just in the early days of seeing how this is going to be layered into every industry that we work.
- [15:08]
A
The other day I was looking at this deck and was very interesting because it was a messy decks but also it was, they were showing affiliations and it's like I don't know if you're, I was like why are you putting as a affiliation this brand, this community? I said, well because I know the founder and that's you're not affiliate. You need to be very transparent of what you put in the deck. Not because you know the brother of the person who owns a company. That doesn't mean that you have a relationship with them.
- [15:41]
B
I mean I'm less concerned. Yes, you're totally right. I'm less concerned with that because especially when you're in startup land, like you're just trying to make it work and a lot of that is smoke and mirrors. Like it just has to be in early days. Right. So I don't begrudge someone for trying to build a bigger boulder deck and using some logos to do that unless it's part of their core service offering or product offering. If that's part of it then then you better have more than two.
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A
Well, I, I'm a little concerned with that because if you put an affiliation need to be a business, a business relationship already.
- [16:13]
B
Yes, agreed.
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A
And if you not understanding what a business relationship entitles, then you're not building a real business.
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B
Yeah, well it depends on what that business is as well. Like is it a product Business that requires affiliate affiliations like that, or are they just trying to build some bravado is really what I'm saying.
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A
Yeah. Yes. Smoke and mirrors is normally. And that's a lot of things that I see in companies trying to get funding. So how do you decide that a company. This is really different. What someone needs to pitch you for you to say, yes, I will give you my money.
- [16:49]
B
This is not a great answer, because it's not. Look, like I said, we do all the traditional financial and founder diligence, then that second layer of marketing diligence really helps us understand if this company is and can be successful within their greater market. But I will tell you, I. It's kind of like a note when I see it, which is not very helpful, but the backs of my knees literally start to sweat when I talk to a founder that I think is solving the right problem and that they're the right founder for that problem. Literally, the backs of my knees will start to sweat. It's a very weird, visceral reaction that I have when I'm talking to a founder that I think is the right fabric. I think it's great. You have.
- [17:28]
A
It's like some people say that you have something like little hairs in your neck. I get excited when I see a prospective client that it comes to me and that I feel like this brand has a lot of potential because they have the story because you need. I really get excited. It's a completely different mood that. Okay, I get. It's a normal client or someone that has one more brand.
- [17:51]
B
Yeah. And I. And I see this, and I get pitched this all day, every day. So it takes a lot to get me excited. And a lot of that also has to do with how the founder communicates themselves. Like how. To your point earlier, how they pitch and are they good communicators? Because that is also an indicator that they'll probably be able to create partnerships and they'll be able to continue the fundraising, close their round. And there's a lot around communication because that's, you know, both of our areas of expertise that I also think is critically important. And in fact, I wrote a check to a founder. I loved her concept, of course, and did all the diligence, but before I wrote her the check, I wrote her an email and I said, I have to tell you, you have communicated better with me more consistently so intentionally more than any founder I've ever talked to. And that's not why I'm writing you the check, but I just need you to know how very impressed I've been with your cadence of communication and your ability to really deliver your message. And it takes a lot to really impress me because we see a lot of messaging, a lot of branding. Again, like, you do. Like, people market out of us all the time.
- [18:53]
A
I see it even is like an interview, a job interview. When you ask a question, you want someone to answer the answer to that question. I don't want someone who tell me this rambling.
- [19:05]
B
Yeah, the rambling. I can't.
- [19:07]
A
Yes, I. I can't. Oh, my God, I can't. I can't. Even when I talk to a founder or a prospective client that I say, okay, what's your. Your founder story? You need. No, and I also. I need to know what you hire me for. Are you hired me to create that founder story. You're creating me just to market what you have. They're very different things.
- [19:27]
B
Totally. I wouldn't say I'm not nice about it because I always try and be kind as a human, but, like, if I have a founder who starts to ramble, I will just pull them back. I'll be like, okay, wait, I don't understand. Like, what are you talking about? Like, what are we talking about here? How much are you raising? What is this for? How much Runway do you need? Like, you know, I get down to the nitty gritty of the questions. You've got to. Got to pull them down from the clouds every now and then. And also, sometimes I'll go back to the team and I'll say, look, you've got a great concept and. Or a great product. Your founder is not the right person to be pitching this. Like, you need your CMO to be doing that or some. Some other. Your salesperson, maybe. I don't know. It's shocking to me how many times I get pitched by a founder who should not be the CEO.
- [20:06]
A
That's completely clear. And I think that also is not understand who you are in the business. And each one in our business, we. We have a role and we all like. For example, I changed completely the person who I was a few years ago, and to a person I To a day because I was new in the business and I evolved to find out, okay, this is my place. A lot of people don't know their place, and I think that they will appreciate that you say that to them. Well, I don't know if everyone will appreciate it.
- [20:37]
B
I mean, usually, again, I try and do it very kindly, but there are certainly. And these are founders. I would not invest in founders that have way too much ego and they're not coachable and they don't listen. And I'm like, yeah, I'm never going to give you any money because you're not going to listen to the thing. I'm very seasoned in all of these areas. If you are not, you have so much ego to think that you know all these things and aren't going to take feedback from a seasoned professional and an expert in these fields, then you're not going to be a good fit for my money.
- [21:04]
A
No. And it's the same as me as a marketing agency owner. And you if that founder that you tried to market and you're trying to help to grow their company because at the end of the day is our winner. You, when you help a brand grow, I don't want to have a brand that I cannot help grow. And when you have those clients that they don't consistently, they don't let you work, then it's not good for your agency either.
- [21:29]
B
Yeah, you're like, why the are you paying me?
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A
Like, exactly.
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B
So it's so confusing because obviously I've been on the service side as well. And I, I, it happens, you know, more often than people would would think. They, they get excited about hiring you, then they hire you and they don't listen. You're like, what are we doing? I fire clients because of that. You know, I'm like, me too, me too.
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A
It's completely necessary because it speaks badly about me and my team. And believe me, it burns out my team and frustrates my team a lot more that a client. That is a lot of work and you need to do a lot of work. A lot of deadlines. That's not so frustrating as a client that doesn't listen.
- [22:09]
B
Totally. And those are usually, they're usually the smaller clients too. They take the most effort and time. And you're like, ugh, not worth it.
- [22:15]
A
So before we go, I want to ask you a couple questions. So let's talk about 2020 things. You think that there is opportunities for brands to get money?
- [22:26]
B
Of course. Yeah. We're raising a second larger fund, a Q2, this year. So that's really exciting. And we'll be writing bigger checks out of that. The last fund that we closing up was always our proof of concept to see if this is what I wanted the Next, you know, 20 years of my life to look like. But the industry in the market right now in terms of capital is really interesting. I think it's the same thing I have been telling people all through 2025, which is this is when real money is made. When the markets are still a little bit constricted. There isn't as much cash out in the markets. That's when you get the right, the better deal. Like, I negotiate my term sheets all the time, even though we're not leading rounds. Like, I really am able to capture so much more value for my dollar and in a constricted market than I would have three or four years ago when everyone was throwing money at everything. I think the right founders will be able to raise the right money. And that's the other big thing. Like, not everyone is the right money too. So don't just get excited at the idea of capital. Everybody is venture scalable. Not everybody should raise capital. There's so many alternative financial sources out there. We're very expensive money and we're pains in the ass because we want to make sure that you're. We have some control over what happens with the money. So I would say ventures not shouldn't be everyone's focus.
- [23:39]
A
But yeah, and it shouldn't be. And it shouldn't be for everyone.
- [23:44]
B
Totally.
- [23:45]
A
And for every moment of your business.
- [23:47]
B
I completely agree.
- [23:48]
A
Okay, one more question, and this is really important for me personally because when I meet you next time, I know how do you drink your coffee?
- [23:56]
B
Ooh, I have the most amazing machine. It's called an xbloom. Have you heard of this?
- [24:01]
A
No, I haven't.
- [24:02]
B
Own recipe. And it lie. I push a button in the morning, it live grinds the beans, it moves the cup over and then it pour. It does a pour over coffee. And it's all the right temperature. So there's like five different pours, all the right temperatures to properly bloom the beans. And then I take it with sugar free vanilla.
- [24:21]
A
Mm, yum. Okay, so next time I want one of those. All right, my friend, thank you so much for being here. This was wonderful. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
- [24:31]
B
Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun to you guys.
- [24:35]
A
I will see you next week with more coffee number five. Bye. Find everything you need@larashmoisman.com or in the episode notes right below. Don't forget to subscribe. Was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Ciao, ciao.