Carey Smith (Unorthodox) - Scaling Big Ass Fans to $250 million and What It Means to be a Contrarian Investor

My guest today is Carey Smith. Carey is the founder of Big Ass Fans, which in less than two decades he took the company from 0 to $250 million in revenue, without the help of investors. Following the sale of Big Ass Fans, Carey started Unorthodox Ventures, where he partners with extraordinary founders, providing capital and expertise to build companies faster. Their portfolio includes Fit Joy, Go Fish and Lumun. This was a great conversation whre we chat about Carey's transition from a founder to investor and how that has helped shaped his decision making process. Without further ado, here's Carey.And there you have it. It was great learning from Carey and what it means to be a contrarian investor.One book that inspired Carey is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim.Some of the questions I ask Carey:What was your attraction to entrepreneurship?What was the insight that led you to founding Big Ass Fans?Why did you want to sell Big Ass FansWhy did you decide to become an investor?You don't have a sector of focus, how do you think about opportunities?What's your approach to investing in companies?How did you go about building your team?What are some of the advantages for entrepreneurs fundraising from a family office as opposed to a VC fund.How do you approach portfolio construction and exercising pro-rata?What's one thing you would change about the fundraising process?How do you think about sourcing?What's your most recent investment?What's one company you had the opportunity invest in, didn't, and in retrospect wish you did?What's the best piece of advice you've received?What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?

Om Podcasten

The Consumer VC takes a look into early-stage consumer investing and venture capital. If you are interested in learning about consumer trends, have a b2c business and interested in learning about the fundraising process at the early stage, you have come to the right place. Mike interviews some of the top venture capitalists in the world that focus on B2C and consumer type companies or have a deep track record investing in these categories such as marketplaces, SaaS, social, CPG and non-tech subscription. Mike also interviews founders that are building some of the most disruptive consumer facing companies in the world. The conversation usually includes the insight the founder discovered, fundraising strategy, and the pitch. This podcast also includes bonus episodes. Each bonus episode dives into a particular subject that might not have to due with the fundraise or venture capital, but still would be helpful to founders. For example, a bonus episode on brand strategy or how to construct a board of directors. All bonus episodes will be clearly labeled. For all episodes, please visit www.theconsumervc.com. For updates, you can follow @mikegelb on Twitter.