F3C invests in consumer brands with new $25 million fund

The Family Fund & Founder Community, calling itself F3C, announced $25 million in new capital commitments and its goal to become the largest community of founders who co-invest in the late seed and Series A stages consumer brands.

General Partners Kurt Seidensticker, Founder of Vital Protein; Sean Kelly, founder of SnackNation and Caroo; and Josh Wand, founder of Forcebrands, have already assembled a community of more than 50 founders and CEOs, including Amanda Baldwin at Supergoop, Tyler Ricks at SuperCoffee, Jake Kassan at MVMT and Jordan Bass at HOP WTR.

With the new venture capital fund, they will support and mentor promising founders leading consumer and consumer technology brands. We’ve also seen another consumer brand founder do it recently: Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snacks, plans to deploy $350 million in consumer brands through his new venture capital firm, Camino Partners.

Kelly told TechCrunch that F3C’s “secret sauce” is that they’re all operators, so they know the startup journey intimately and what it takes to grow a successful business.

He remembers meeting people who helped shape Caroo’s strategy, not just those who invested, but were founders and successful operators first. In fact, they helped him see when he needed to pivot his business, he said. If early-stage founders can get that kind of deep networking early on, it could really help, Kelly added.

And while some VCs just inject funds, F3C focuses more on mentoring and expanding its network of partners and suppliers, or anything that can help operations, marketing and company logistics.

“It was important to me to create a community of seasoned founders who could offer support and guidance to entrepreneurs along their journey,” Kurt Seidensticker said via email. “Having such advisors to offer first-hand learnings and insights not only helps founders execute quickly, but provides them with the right strategy to accelerate growth and build category-leading brands.”

F3C seeks companies to invest in that have a sustainable value proposition that can achieve profitability through positive unit economics and good repeat behavior, Kelly said.

The new fund has made nine core investments to date, including Flossy, an a la carte dental services company; Elemind Technologies, developing a new type of wearable that ultrasonically modulates your brain waves to adjust your behavior and even help you sleep better; Hopwater, a soft drink; and Ghost, a supplement and energy drink company.

“We believe the consumer ecosystem is truly sustainable,” Wand said in an interview. “When you look at our active network of founders, everything we do supports the entire consumer ecosystem, not just brands. We just want to do that really well.