The Consummate | 09 July 2023
Welcome to The Consummate! We bring our points of view, updates, news, and curated content to the consumer community in India and Southeast Asia.
In this week’s of The Consummate, we offer a preview of our recent session of Brick by Brick with Arindam Paul, take a look at a funding announcement in the portfolio, and more! Let’s dive in.
In the Spotlight ✨
The Atomberg Story– Lessons in Brand Building on First Principles
We’re privileged to have hosted Arindam Paul, Chief Business Officer and a key member of the founding team at Atomberg Technologies, on the recent session of Brick by Brick: Building Insurgent Brands
During the conversation with DSGCP's Hariharan Premkumar, Arindam dived into several key topics, including:
• The Amazon and Offline playbook Pre-PMF and Post-PMF
• Nurturing a learning and first principles thinking culture in the organization
• Metrics to monitor at different stages of growth
You don’t want to miss out on this!
Currently Consuming ☕️
The Complete History & Strategy of LVMH
Acquired tells the full history of LVMH, and how Bernard Arnault turned a $15m investment in a bankrupt French textile company into the world’s largest individual fortune. It’s a story that’s equal parts Berkshire Hathaway, Steve Jobs and Barbarians at the Gate… and wholly under-appreciated for the genius business model innovations that enabled it.
Why Beauty’s Challenger Brands Need to Rev Up Growth
For many emerging beauty brands, the early days of getting up and running has been the relatively easy part. Now, they need to confront even greater challenges to continue their growth trajectories.
Some of the buzziest brands of recent years haven’t grown much: in a McKinsey analysis of 46 brands that launched after 2005, each with global retail sales of between $50 million and $200 million in 2017, only four had surpassed $400 million in sales five years later.
One critical reason for the slowed momentum is that the market is now highly saturated with competition from all sides. Legacy brands have taken a page from the newcomers’ book, updating product portfolios and marketing, with considerably more capital. At the same time, indie brands are launching at a rapid clip. All this has created an even more challenging environment than when early disrupter brands got their start.
Also read: How to Decode Gen-Z’s Evolving Relationship With Beauty
‘Like Gen Z’s Takeover Of Twitter’– Threads, the most downloaded app
While it’s still early days for the app, it will be interesting to see if Threads can maintain its momentum and offer another platform for brands– something Twitter hasn’t been able to maximize.
Within two days of its launch, Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads became one of the most rapidly downloaded apps ever, amassing more than 70 million users.
Touted as a Twitter killer, Threads’ user interface is strikingly similar to Twitter, apart from missing features like a trending topics tab, a feature to direct message users and hashtags. It’s one of a series of social media networks that have positioned themselves as a better alternative to Twitter, including Bluesky and Mastodon.
Keeping Up With the DSGCP Family 🤝
DSGCP portfolio company, Leverage Edu, raises $40 million in Series C round, valued at $150 million. This is a 25% bump in its previous valuation back in March 2022, when Leverage Edu raised $22 million from a consortium of funds, family offices and individual angels.
IGP unveils new brand identity with a focus on emotions & relationships. With a focus on emotions, relationships, and unparalleled customer experiences, IGP is poised to redefine the art of gifting and make every occasion truly special.
Veeba launches all new All Good Ketchup, made with the goodness of tomatoes, and no synthetic colours and no artificial flavours.
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