Habitat Partners

📢 Is the public sector FINALLY waking up the fact that: nearly 70% of the food consumed in the US is ultra-processed... more than 38 million people live with diabetes... 73% of adults are overweight or obese... $1 trillion is spent annually to treat chronic disease... maybe were finally moving towards first base? - Nov 14th: DT announces RFK as head of HHS with #MAHA aimed at cracking down on food additives, dyes, and chemicals https://lnkd.in/e3ki9TsJ - Nov 27th: HHS proposal to cover semaglutide under Medicare and Medicaid (ironically might actually clash with the #MAHA agenda and will certainly cost billions in taxpayer dollars) https://lnkd.in/e7b9M2Uy - Dec 19th: FDA redefines what it means to be "healthy" https://lnkd.in/eh8f9H92 - Jan 2nd: Newsom signs executive order targetting highly processed foods https://lnkd.in/etzzQnMy - Jan 3rd: U.S. Surgeon General Calls for Cancer Warnings on Alcoholic Beverages (just in time for dry January folks) https://lnkd.in/es36uZ6t .... what's next? I'd like to see the public sector continue to find "healthy" ways to exert pressure on publically traded food/bev businesses is a non-combative, partnership-oriented manner and move away from hearing out lobbyists...

Thanks Modern Retail and Gabriela Barkho for a great overview of the 2025 VC outlook. The bar to get funded is fortunately/unfortunately perpetually higher for early stage consumer businesses (irrespective of interest rates and future macro factors). But if I wasn't a serial optimist, I would't be dedicated to this indsutry. On the bright side, we've already been seeing better profitability dynamics paired with approachable valuations in early stage CPG compared to 2021-2023. In 2024, Habitat Partners funded consumer and B2B technology busineses all the way from pre-seed/seed to the occasional Series A and we'll continue to do so in 2025! Fun seeing some names I admire / collaborate regularly with in here: Manica Blain, Rachel Hirsch, Jennifer Stojkovic On to 2025⚡and happy holidays to all https://lnkd.in/eg8bCfkc

Exciting news - today, Figure officially became a revenue-generating company! This week, we delivered F.02 humanoid robots to our commercial client, & they're currently hard at work It marks 31 months from filing our C-Corp to getting to humanoid robot revenue

"The pressure to really bring value to the marketplace in terms of your product proposition has never been greater." - Daniel Faierman, Partner at Habitat Partners This is from my interview with Daniel Faierman of Habitat Partners. Daniel shares insights on what makes a successful #CPG business, from strong gross margins to product and value proposition differentiation. He also dives deep into the challenges entrepreneurs face today and how Habitat Partners is helping brands thrive despite market pressures. Tune in! 👇👇👇 Full Podcast episode link in comments!👇👇👇 If you enjoy our founder and brand features, please leave The Story of a Brand Show a rating and review. Plus, don’t forget to follow us on Apple and Spotify. Your support helps us bring you more content like this! This episode is brought to you by Compass Rose Ventures and Shopline US. #founders #founderstories #entrepreneurship #brands

Sharing a timelapse of a small fleet of Figure 02 humanoid robots doing work Our robots are reasoning fully autonomously Much of the core engineering infrastructure has been laid the last two years, 2025 is going to be 🤯

I’m thrilled to share that Hedlum Brewing is now the official non-alcoholic beer partner of the New Jersey Devils! 🏒🍻 This partnership marks a huge milestone for us, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring the crisp, refreshing taste of Hedlum to fans at the Prudential Center. Whether you’re cheering for the Devils or enjoying a concert, we’ve got the perfect NA beer to elevate your experience. Here’s to an unforgettable season of great taste and unforgettable moments! #BrewedToBeWild #PrudentialCenter #GameDay #OfficialPartnership #Hedlum #NJDevils #NonAlcoholicBeer

The current VC/fundraising backdrop is both exciting and murky... Minute 1 = 📉 pessimistic take: 1/ The distribution scene is DIRE: As a share of net asset value (NAV), cash to LPs has been in the single digits for 8 consecutive quarters (worst since global financial crisis). The average quarterly rate of distributions over the past decade was ~17%. Distributions from '22-'24F combined (~$200B) are about 25% of the dollars distributed in 2021 alone (#peakzirp). 👀 I envision many emerging fund managers slowing their deployment pace (maybe AI is an exception for some) in order to push out their fundraises and increase the likelihood of approaching DPI before going out again 2/ It's the mega-fund era (for now). ~81% of capital raised has gone to established firms (usually over > $500M). In 2024, we're projected to see ~500 funds successfully raise, the lowest quantity since 2014. The total number of investors that made a deal in 2024 thus far is just 45.5% of the total from 2021. 3/ Cuts of 50/25 bps are candidly not enough to spur material investor/founder-rewarding IPO/M&A acceleration. Private unicorns account for ~$2.5 trillion in value and ~40% of these companies have been held in a portfolio for at least 9 years. While Carta reports that 170 startups were the target of M&A transactions in Q3 (highest total since mid-2022), my hunch is that many of these are 0-1x / all stock outcomes. 4/ The rate of flat and down rounds is at a decade high (26.6%) and many companies are still growing into their frothy 2021/2022 valuations Minute 2 = 📈 optimistic take: 1/ Assuming we don't swing back into inflation, mandating material interest rate cuts (ideally landing in the 2.5-3.5% range) will: lower the cost of borrowing for M&A financing, entice LPs to come back to venture as leaving their money in risk free securities is less lucrative (#hurdlerate), and boost valuations in favor of founders (and as a result accelerate existing portfolio value growth) 2/ Less expected regulation = more M&A #adiosLina? It's already hard enough to pick winners as a VC. Blocking a rare winner from a liquidity event cripples the VC industry... and politics aside, it's reassuring to know that a tax on unrealized gains will not happen (nor will the carried interest loophole be reversed... I hope) 3/ #AI is still in the early innings and the bubble will not pop in 2025. New businesses will raise megarounds from the get go (i.e., Safe Superintelligence recently). The recent generation of pre-seed/seed stage AI businesses will reach the A+ phase and raise some huge rounds. Overall, I'm super optimistic for 2025. If you're not an optimist, I don't know how you survive in this early stage world. A big thank you to the XRC Ventures team for organizing an enriching discussion on the state of VC/fundraising alongside Anna Taranova and Mike McManus, and Jonathan Sagot. Pano Anthos & Diana Melencio, I hope we find each other on more cap tables in the future!

UPDATE: Figure x BMW Figure 02 is now an autonomous fleet, 400% faster with 7x higher success rate We’re committed to delivering millions of useful robots to companies and homes worldwide As background, we unveiled Figure 02 robot ~3 months ago. F.02 robot is our 2nd generation humanoid robot which is designed for commercial customers and the home. Humanoid robots in everyday life will make it feel like living 30yrs in the future We're looking for the top engineers in the world and scaling up ~100 engineers at the moment. Hiring in about every area of the company: AI, Controls, Mechanical, Fleet Operations, etc. Join us to ship millions of humanoid robots: https://lnkd.in/gqwYRJNW Follow our story: Figure

Beyond excited to share the launch of Ayoh Foods by David McCormick and Molly Baz! We're excited to support an innovative brand that is pushing the mayo category to new heights.

Excited to share Happy Wolf Snacks' huge milestone - we can't wait to see you at Whole Foods and many more retailers in the future 🤩 Jana Goodbaum Derek Beigleman