👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
Welcome to the Secrets of… Series — in which I’ve carefully designed a series of eleven thought-provoking questions to tease the most interesting and insightful information out of the best brand builders in the world.
This week, I sat down with Alex Malamatinas, the Founder and Managing Partner of Melitas Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund that partners with innovative early-stage food & beverage companies.
Alex and I went to college together — and the companies his fund has invested in (Magic Spoon! OLIPOP! Verb Energy! Kin Equphorics! Dream Pops!) reads like a list of all of the items in my pantry right now.
These companies all make products I love (and consume regularly). And they also have some of my favorite branding in the food & beverage space.
So you can see why I was so excited to catch up with Alex — and bring you his best brand-building insights!
Alex serves on the boards of Abbot’s Butcher, NomNom, Verb Energy, Beekeeper's Naturals, Lemon Perfect, Elements, RIND Snacks, Nurture Life, and MUD WTR. Alex was previously a senior member of the investment teams at Tyrian Investments (seeded by Tiger Management) and Indus Capital (former Soros Partners), where he invested in global consumer companies. He began his career in Morgan Stanley's London and New York offices. Alex received his MBA from Wharton, with a Major in Finance, and BA in Political Science, with honors and distinction, from Stanford University.
1. How would you explain what you do to someone who has no idea?
I manage a fund that invests capital in early-stage companies which are building innovative food and beverage brands. We get very involved with these companies early on, and we help them build their teams and their strategies.
A great example would be Verb Energy — which is a healthy, caffeinated energy bar company. It’s been an incredible journey, because we partnered with the company and with the founders in the very early days when the three co-founders were straight out of college at Yale.
Now, we've invested or led every subsequent round. My partners and I have gotten to help to build out the team and the board and to think about strategy and product innovation. It's been amazing watching the founders, the team, and the company grow.
I love Verb energy bars. My favorite is the Double Chocolate. Have you pitched them any flavor ideas?
The Verb team is incredibly creative!
I don't know if I can give them more ideas there — but we definitely spend a lot of time talking about and tasting the new flavors.
2. One of my favorite quotes about branding is this one from Wally Olins:
Fundamentally, branding is a manifestation of the human condition. It is about belonging; belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family. Branding demonstrates that sense of belonging. It has this function for both people who are part of the same group and also for the people who don’t belong.
What brands have made you feel like you personally belong in your lifetime? These could be brands you belong with right now—or in the past (say, when you were a teenager).
My fund’s name is Melitas Ventures, which comes from the Latin meaning “better for you opportunities.” And we invest in better-for-you food and beverage brands.
It just so happens that several of our brands cater to elder Millennials like me. So I actually feel that I belong to several of these brands.
Many of these millennial brands convey a sense of '90s nostalgia. I’d call out two of them in particular — OLIPOP, which is a prebiotic soda, and Magic Spoon, which is a healthy cereal.
Both of these brands make great-tasting, healthier products, and their branding resonates with the '90s — or at least… people who were growing up in the '90s.
Those two brands bring me back to a certain time.
3. What event or interaction in your life has most shaped who you are today in your job?
The first is growing up in a CPG household. While I was in high school, my father was managing large food and beverage branded company. He was Procter & Gamble-trained as a brand manager, and then he was global CEO of Smirnoff — and then global CEO of Burger King. So, I sort of grew up picking up a thing or two about building and managing big brands by osmosis.
When Smirnoff came out with their branding campaign called Pure Thrill, they created these cool commercials where you would look through the bottle — and you'd see a whole different perspective on what was going on with people at the party.
They ended up winning all sorts of awards and the Cannes Golden Lion. Just seeing that was inspiring.
I also remember when Burger King changed their logo. All of those things, as a child, were really interesting to observe.
The second was being at both college and business school and being surrounded by really talented entrepreneurs who at the time were just in their early days of building their companies — like Katrina Lake from college who went on to build StitchFix, and Will Shu from business school who went on to build Deliveroo.
Being around these entrepreneurs and watching their passion in the early days is something that impacted me.
Then the third interaction, which is essential for my job, is that I learned how to invest in companies and identify companies with a lot of potential by investing at some large New York-based investment firms.
4. What is the business-related book you would gift to someone who isn’t in your field? And what is the non-business-related book that’s had the most impact on you in your career?
My Business-Related Book:
Getting More by Stuart Diamond
We negotiate in almost every aspect of our lives, and often people don't even realize that.
When you're in the business of investing in private companies, whether you're the investor or the entrepreneur, negotiations and the skills of negotiating are very important.
Stuart Diamond was a professor at Wharton when I was there — and his book is a great introduction to negotiations.
My Non-Business-Related Book:
Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
This book applies design to your life — and it gives practical tips that help you find what you're passionate about and your calling.
There was a point in my career when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next. And I found this book to be extremely helpful.
I was already an investor, but I was an investor in public markets. I always admired entrepreneurs, and it was always a hobby or a side hustle of mine to help advise entrepreneurs and write small angel checks. This book helped me realize that what I'm most passionate about is early-stage investing. Ultimately, that led to my launching our first fund, Melitas Ventures, about four years ago.
As is often the case, it's not just one book or one experience. But this book was certainly impactful in helping me sort of piece everything together.
5. You're getting put into the Brand Builders Hall of Fame. What do you want to be remembered for? And what do you wish would be forgotten?
Brands to Be Remembered For:
OLIPOP and Magic Spoon
We get involved so early with these brands, and the credit really goes to the founders and the entrepreneurs who have the vision and build these brands into really large companies.
But from my perspective, I’d like to be remembered for helping build iconic brands like OLIPOP and Magic Spoon that could one day become household staples for generations to come.
I’d also like to be remembered for helping improve overall health by replacing unhealthy products with brands like these.
Brands to Be Forgotten:
None
Honestly, for us, we believe both in the mission and the financial profile of the companies we invest in.
Obviously, some end up being more successful than others.
But there's nothing that comes to mind where I say I don't want to be associated with this.
6. What’s the most controversial thing a brand you work with has ever done — and how did it turn out for them?
There's a brand that we're involved with now, and we've been involved with since pretty much day one.
It's a company called MUD/WTR, which is a plantbased coffee alternative company, and they've done very well.
Early on, they came out with a campaign that said F*CK Your Coffee.
It struck a very controversial chord.
As an early-stage investor, you wonder if this is something that can scale — and how the large companies are eventually going think about this?
But what was incredible about it was that the campaign was a memo from the founder Shane to his customers. Shane was talking directly to his fan base. He spelled out what he meant and said he's not mad at coffee, he's just disappointed.
Shane didn't like the fact that coffee gives you a rise and then a fall in terms of your energy levels and the jitters. And MUD/WTR uses plant-based, healthy ingredients to give you a more sustained energy boost.
It was a very clear, authentic message. And Shane got a very devoted following of consumers who could relate to it, because they just were not happy with coffee either.
The brands of tomorrow need to have an authentic voice to resonate with consumers.
And you need to be doing something different — because doing more of the same is not going to get you anywhere.
This campaign had an authentic and clear message that resonated with people. And it spoke to a demographic that wasn't being served by other products.
7. In a world where consumers are more divided than ever, what do you think brands need to do to now engage them?
To resonate with today's consumers, you need to start by having an authentic and differentiated voice. And then you need to continue evolving — making statements and regularly engaging with your customers in a way that you would with your friends.
Today's consumer is looking for brands to be like their friends: someone who you're close to, someone who you can rely on, someone who you share values with.
And the more a brand is like a friend, the more the brand needs to feel humanized. That involves engagement over social media, influencers, and various other channels to make the brand feel more real.
The generic brands of the last generation just don’t work anymore. And this can be difficult for large and established brands. Some brands have tried too hard to become cool or to connect with younger consumers. But they need to figure out a way to evolve in an authentic way.
One successful strategy some of these larger companies have taken is acquiring emerging brands.
For example, Unilever acquired Sir Kensington's ketchup.
And they’ve done well by maintaining the independence of the brand — because there's a certain authenticity to it that they can't replicate themselves.
8. What principle do you think great investors overlook all the time?
The importance of people — specifically the founders and the team.
We all know that the financials are important, the branding is important, and the product's important. All of these things are incredibly important, but you need the right pilot flying the plane.
You need a visionary, but you also need somebody that can execute.
9. What advice would you give your 26-year-old self—both career-related and not career-related?
Career-Related Advice:
Follow Your Passions
It's so important to pursue something that you're truly passionate about rather than what people tell you to do.
You can’t be overly focused on building out a resume or satisfying other people's expectations — because ultimately, you're only going to be happy if you do what you’re passionate about.
And that's what you're probably gonna be best at.
Non-Career-Related Advice
Lead a Healthier Lifestyle.
Eat healthier. Work out regularly. Don’t wait till you’re in your 30's and 40’s.
The earlier in life you can think about these things, the better you'll feel and the better it is for your health. And it becomes a more natural part of your routine.
10. What’s the most valuable positive advice you’ve ever been given? And what’s the most valuable negative advice you’ve ever been given?
Positive Advice:
You've got to find what you love.
You'll remember this. It’s from Steve Jobs's graduation speech he gave to us at Stanford in 2005.
I first heard that line as an eighteen-year-old.
And the more that I experience life and think back to it, the more impactful that piece of advice becomes.
Negative Advice:
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
This is from that same Steve Jobs speech.
It's maybe a scary notion… but we all have limited time on this planet.
And remembering that helps put things into perspective, particularly when you're making big or important decisions.
11. What motivates you to get up and go every day?
It took me a few years to finally find what I love — but I love working with talented entrepreneurs and helping them build iconic, better-for-you food and beverage brands.
It gives me so much satisfaction because I believe in the mission of better-for-you food and beverage, and I love doing my part to help these brands. Now that we're set up to do this through Melitas Ventures, that excites me.
In one of my prior jobs, I was investing in large food and beverage companies.
I met some great companies. But a key challenge for many of them became or has become the fact that their core products are inherently unhealthy — filled with sugar and sodium. And yet they capture most of the shelf space and most of the market share.
What became apparent to me was that there was going to be a move away from these products towards healthier products.
The shift was not going to happen overnight, because companies are not going to just take all these other products off the shelves. It was going to be a multiyear, potentially multidecade phenomenon where you'll see these emerging better-for-you brands
I identified this structural trend a few years ago. And it’s a trend that I'm passionate about — as somebody who increasingly has become more self aware of my lifestyle and what I'm consuming.
It’s also a mission that is important in this country, as we’re seeing such high levels of obesity and diabetes.
If you can do something that you're passionate about and help build companies and help improve people's lives — that's powerful.
12. Who do you most admire—and what question would you most like to ask them?
Growing up as a teenager, I always admired Michael Jordan.
He was an incredible basketball player. But he was also such an incredible leader and always rose to every occasion.
While he clearly had raw talent, he just kept improving his skills, his physical capabilities, and his mental agility.
I'd love to ask him, “What motivated you every day to get better and stay at the top of your game?”
13. Last question—what's your secret?
I'm very clearly the investor who has the luxury of working with very talented entrepreneurs and building very creative brands.
My secret is that, in a different lifetime, I would want to be the creative force of the company that’s building the iconic brand.
So you would want to be the creative director?
Exactly!
Nice. We could switch jobs.
Sure, let's try it for a week and see how it goes.
Bonus Question: Who do you want to hear the Secrets of… next?
I’d love to introduce you to some of our founders 😀.
Yes, please!
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About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.
This was very insightful. Thanks for sharing!