A VC’s Take on: Public Goods

This story was originally posted on my instagram (Digitallyyours_) An account where I use a venture capital lens to discuss today’s digitally-native, venture-backed products (DNVBs) at their earliest stages and beyond.

• The Elevator Pitch: Fairly-priced, good-for-you products
• Today: In January 2018, Public Goods launched a highly successful indiegogo campaign raising nearly $1.5MM from zealous fans. Since then, founders Michael and Morgan have raised $3MM from SF funds YesVC and Day One Ventures.
• The Opportunity: With the CPG market overwhelmingly flooded with harmful products, Public Good has found a sweet spot in delivering common home & bath products armed with only healthy ingredients. Additionally, in recent years, smaller CPG brands have been known to gain an upper hand on the giants (J&J, P&G, etc). Since 2013, more than $17 billion in U.S. CPG industry sales have shifted from large players to small ones.
• The Experience: I commend Morgan and Michael for realizing the huge supply chain inefficiency in the CPG market and wanting to cut out unnecessary middlemen while transfering savings onto the consumers. Their model is very consumer friendly given that they eliminate retailers and distributors, and they’ve done an excellent job of communicating this aspect to consumers (check out their indiegogo video). I’d like to think PG is Brandless’ younger sister with “for-the-people-by-the-people” vibes [given its bootstrapped/crowdsourced history]. Yet, the two are very much still competitors and I, for one, am excited to see these two establish dominance (or not?) in the world of generics.
• My Opinion: I tried out several of Public Goods’ products (toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, and the travel size set) to get a sense of what a monthly PG membership might look like. I didn’t necessarily notice a difference between their toothpaste and my typical go-to toothpaste (Crest) or my toothbrush. Additionally, I appreciated that the travel kit included everything one might need when traveling [including convenience], yet I think I still prefer my higher quality toiletries (shampoo, soap, etc) for daily, non-travel use. Overall, I wouldn’t mind switching over to PG for certain products if it meant savings; however, I wonder what the average PG consumer needs to get out of PG to consider their annual membership worth it.