Roderick Morris's guest appearances

Roderick Morris

The Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands

Think Like A Founder

Operators Series

Ray Dalio

Jennifer Garner

Ben Horowitz

Rick Heitzmann

Paul Hsiao

Nicole Quinn

Michele Romanow

Andrew Dudum

Eamonn Carey

Elizabeth Yin

Mike Ghaffary

Monique Woodard

Alexandra Fine

Martha Stewart

Jeff Housenbold

OwlTail

If you’ve ever looked in vain for a developmental toy for a young child that appealed to you, you’ll understand why Lovevery is a hit. They offer products that are age-appropriate and made for learning. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Roderick Morris, one of the cofounders at Lovevery. Listen in to hear about how Lovevery approached product design, using VCs, and balancing equity and debt. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:  Why Roderick helped create the Lovevery products How Lovevery approached their first product How Lovevery set the price point How Roderick prioritized Contribution margins for the brand How to measure brand Why Roderick and his cofounder decided to go the VC route How to balance equity and debt Funny stories about product tests with kids What product the Lovevery founders were set on that turned out to be a flop How Lovevery went about product design on day one, and then today The process to develop brand and customer personas Wholesalers used by Lovevery Roderick’s partnership with Amazon How to use Amazon to drive traffic to Lovevery’s website How to prioritize teambuilding Holding onto culture while building staff Number-one advice for new entrepreneurs  Resources: Roderick Morris Lovevery

If you’ve ever looked in vain for a developmental toy for a young child that appealed to you, you’ll understand why Lovevery is a hit. They offer products that are age-appropriate and made for learning. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Roderick Morris, one of the cofounders at Lovevery. Listen in to hear about how Lovevery approached product design, using VCs, and balancing equity and debt. Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode: <ul> <li>Why Roderick helped create the Lovevery products</li> <li>How Lovevery approached their first product</li> <li>How Lovevery set the price point</li> <li>How Roderick prioritized</li> <li>Contribution margins for the brand</li> <li>How to measure brand</li> <li>Why Roderick and his cofounder decided to go the VC route</li> <li>How to balance equity and debt</li> <li>Funny stories about product tests with kids</li> <li>What product the Lovevery founders were set on that turned out to be a flop</li> <li>How Lovevery went about product design on day one, and then today</li> <li>The process to develop brand and customer personas</li> <li>Wholesalers used by Lovevery</li> <li>Roderick’s partnership with Amazon</li> <li>How to use Amazon to drive traffic to Lovevery’s website</li> <li>How to prioritize teambuilding</li> <li>Holding onto culture while building staff</li> <li>Number-one advice for new entrepreneurs</li> </ul> Resources: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roderickmorris/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Roderick Morris</a> <a href="https://lovevery.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lovevery</a>


                 Lovevery: Roderick Morris
            

Jessica Rolph

Hello and welcome to The Consumer VC. I am your host Mike Gelb and on this show we talk about the world of venture capital and consumer facing startups.Thank you very much Natalie Dillon for the intro to today's guests, Jessica Rolph and Rod Morris, the co-founders of Lovevery, Staged-based play essentials designed by experts, built for babies and toddlers up to age 3. Previously, Jessica co-founded and served as COO of Happy Family, an extremely successful organic baby food company. Rod previously was the Senior Vice President at Opower. Going into this episode, I didn't know much about toys and learning behavior for babies, so I learned a ton and Jessica and Rod make it so easy to digest how they are thinking differently about child development with Lovevery. Without further ado, here they are.You can follow Jessica @rolphjessica and Rod @roderickmorris. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.If you’re enjoying the show, if you could leave a review on the apple podcast app as that helps other folks find it, that would be really helpful. If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM me and follow me on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc. For all episodes, please visit theconsumervc.com. Thanks again for listening.One book that inspired Jessica professionally is High Performance Habits by Brenden Burchard.One book that inspired Rod professionally is Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini and one book that inspired him personally is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.Here are some of the questions that I ask -Jessica - how did you come up with the concept of Lovevery?What was the insight that you learned that inspired you to start Lovevery?When did you know that you wanted Roderick as a co-founder and how did that come about?Talk to me a little bit of the dynamic between you two. What’s the decision making and the delegation process when it comes to business activities? I understand that Jessica is the CEO and Roderick is the President, but what does that actually mean?Let’s talk about the early days.How did you think about design, quality and this translating into your first product, the $140 baby gym?How did you approach the supply chain?Once you built your first product, what was the go-to market strategy?How did you know if the brand building was working if the primary objective is not to sell the baby gymHow did you think about growth?Organic vs. PaidWhat were some of the ways you were able to establish a community around - bothyour brand and products?The fundraiseWhy did you want to raise money?What was your fundraising strategy?Was it tough to raise with your company located in Idaho?What was the biggest hurdle when fundraising?Any advice for founders that are located in secondary and tertiary markets that are looking to raise money from institutional investors? - have to show up and get smarter through the processAny Advice for founders that don’t have a network that are looking to raise?What’s one thing that you would change when it came to fundraising?Product and pricing strategy. You have a subscription business for the play kits and then you have individual products like the play gym.When you think about building a new product, how do you think about whether it should be part of a subscription vs. separate?How do you think about market expansion? Are you going to stay in the 0-3 age or is the plan to eventually introduce products later on in a child’s development as well?How has COVID changed your operating plans and did you have to pivot any part of your business?I’ve heard investors say that they wouldn’t invest in companies that are located in secondary/tertiary markets because of their worry about talent recruitment as the company scales? How do you think about talent recruitment as you're based in Idaho?What’s one piece of advice that you might have for folks that are fundraising?

Hello and welcome to The Consumer VC. I am your host Mike Gelb and on this show we talk about the world of venture capital and consumer facing startups. Thank you very much <a href="https://www.maveron.com/team/dillon-natalie/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Natalie Dillon</a> for the intro to today's guests, <a href="https://lovevery.com/pages/about-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jessica Rolph</a> and <a href="https://lovevery.com/pages/about-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rod Morris</a>, the co-founders of <a href="https://lovevery.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lovevery</a>, Staged-based play essentials designed by experts, built for babies and toddlers up to age 3. Previously, Jessica co-founded and served as COO of Happy Family, an extremely successful organic baby food company. Rod previously was the Senior Vice President at Opower. Going into this episode, I didn't know much about toys and learning behavior for babies, so I learned a ton and Jessica and Rod make it so easy to digest how they are thinking differently about child development with Lovevery. Without further ado, here they are.You can follow Jessica <a href="https://twitter.com/rolphjessica" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@rolphjessica</a> and Rod <a href="https://twitter.com/roderickmorris" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@roderickmorris</a>. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeGelb" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@mikegelb</a>. You can also follow for episode announcements <a href="https://twitter.com/ConsumerVc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@consumervc</a>.If you’re enjoying the show, if you could leave a review on the apple podcast app as that helps other folks find it, that would be really helpful. If you are a founder and working on something innovative, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM me and follow me on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc. For all episodes, please visit <a href="http://theconsumervc.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">theconsumervc.com</a>. Thanks again for listening.One book that inspired Jessica professionally is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401952852?camp=1789&amp;creativeASIN=1401952852&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;tag=theconsumervc-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">High Performance Habits</a> by Brenden Burchard.One book that inspired Rod professionally is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0205609996?camp=1789&amp;creativeASIN=0205609996&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;tag=theconsumervc-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Influence: Science and Practice</a> by Robert Cialdini and one book that inspired him personally is Plato’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1521777810?camp=1789&amp;creativeASIN=1521777810&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;tag=theconsumervc-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Allegory of the Cave</a>. Here are some of the questions that I ask -<ol><li>Jessica - how did you come up with the concept of Lovevery?</li><li>What was the insight that you learned that inspired you to start Lovevery?</li><li>When did you know that you wanted Roderick as a co-founder and how did that come about?</li><li>Talk to me a little bit of the dynamic between you two. What’s the decision making and the delegation process when it comes to business activities? I understand that Jessica is the CEO and Roderick is the President, but what does that actually mean?</li><li>Let’s talk about the early days.</li><li>How did you think about design, quality and this translating into your first product, the $140 baby gym?</li><li>How did you approach the supply chain?</li><li>Once you built your first product, what was the go-to market strategy?</li><li>How did you know if the brand building was working if the primary objective is not to sell the baby gym</li><li>How did you think about growth?</li><li>Organic vs. Paid</li><li>What were some of the ways you were able to establish a community around - bothyour brand and products?</li><li>The fundraise</li><li>Why did you want to raise money?</li><li>What was your fundraising strategy?</li><li>Was it tough to raise with your company located in Idaho?</li><li>What was the biggest hurdle when fundraising?</li><li>Any advice for founders that are located in secondary and tertiary markets that are looking to raise money from institutional investors? - have to show up and get smarter through the process</li><li>Any Advice for founders that don’t have a network that are looking to raise?</li><li>What’s one thing that you would change when it came to fundraising?</li><li>Product and pricing strategy. You have a subscription business for the play kits and then you have individual products like the play gym.</li><li>When you think about building a new product, how do you think about whether it should be part of a subscription vs. separate?</li><li>How do you think about market expansion? Are you going to stay in the 0-3 age or is the plan to eventually introduce products later on in a child’s development as well?</li><li>How has COVID changed your operating plans and did you have to pivot any part of your business?</li><li>I’ve heard investors say that they wouldn’t invest in companies that are located in secondary/tertiary markets because of their worry about talent recruitment as the company scales? How do you think about talent recruitment as you're based in Idaho?</li><li>What’s one piece of advice that you might have for folks that are fundraising?</li></ol>

Jessica Rolph and Roderick Morris (Lovevery) - Building Toys For Different Stages of a Child's Development, Advice When Co-Founding A Company, and Their Approach to Fundraising

"So I think the biggest difference between somebody who's a founder and somebody who isn't is that there's no longer an off switch when you're a founder."On this episode of Think Like A Founder Maureen talks to Roderick Morris, co-founder of Lovevery, a child development toy company. Roderick talks about how becoming a parent shifted his approach as a founder, his time in the Peace Corps, and his dream job as an orchestra conductor. Think Like A Founder is produced by SNP Communications in San Francisco California. Learn more by visiting us at www.snpnet.com or connect with Maureen Taylor on LinkedIn to continue the conversation there. Series Producer: Roisin Hunt. Sound design: Marc Ream. Creative Producer: Eli Shell. Content and scripting: Mike Sullivan. Production Coordinator: Natasha Thomas. Thanks also to Selena Persiani-Shell, John Hughes and Renn Vara.

"So I think the biggest difference between somebody who's a founder and somebody who isn't is that there's no longer an off switch when you're a founder." On this episode of Think Like A Founder Maureen talks to Roderick Morris, co-founder of Lovevery, a child development toy company. Roderick talks about how becoming a parent shifted his approach as a founder, his time in the Peace Corps, and his dream job as an orchestra conductor.  Think Like A Founder is produced by SNP Communications in San Francisco California. Learn more by visiting us at <a href="http://www.snpnet.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.snpnet.com</a> or connect with Maureen Taylor on LinkedIn to continue the conversation there.  Series Producer: Roisin Hunt. Sound design: Marc Ream. Creative Producer: Eli Shell. Content and scripting: Mike Sullivan. Production Coordinator: Natasha Thomas.  Thanks also to Selena Persiani-Shell, John Hughes and Renn Vara.

004: Roderick Morris - Co-Founder and President of Lovevery