#204 - Investor Spotlight: Habitat Partners with Daniel Faierman

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff is joined by Daniel Faierman, Partner at Habitat Partners, an early-stage venture firm spun out of the renowned creative agency Red Antler. With experience at major CPG companies such as PepsiCo, Danone, and AB InBev, Daniel brings a well-rounded perspective on brand building, strategic investment, and evaluating emerging consumer brands.

They explore what Habitat Partners looks for in early-stage investments, with a focus on strong gross margins, capital efficiency, and early signs of product-market fit. Daniel shares how brands can succeed in pre-launch or seed rounds, the metrics that matter most — including velocities and marketing efficiency — and the importance of building a credible online presence even for retail-focused companies.

He also offers candid advice on what not to do when pitching investors, outlines common valuation benchmarks, and highlights specific whitespace opportunities he’s actively looking to fund.

If you’re a founder preparing to raise capital or simply seeking to better understand the CPG investment landscape, this episode delivers strategic insights and actionable guidance from a seasoned investor. Listen now!

Listen in as they share about:

Who Is Daniel Faierman and What Is Habitat Partners?
Key KPIs They Evaluate
DTC vs Retail Channel Strategy
Fundraising Mistakes to Avoid
Valuation Guidance
White Space Opportunity They’re Seeking
What Founders Should Ask Habitat
Other Early-Stage CPG Funds Mentioned

Episode Links:
Website: https://www.habitatpartners.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-faierman/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
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Visit host Daniel's Linkedin
Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	A few years back when I ran a beverage company, we had to launch using those plastic sleeves to put our designs on the cans.
0:08.0	But they looked bad, the sleeves get stretched out, they don't cover the full can, and overall they just look and feel low quality.
0:14.0	Lucky for you, digital can printing technology has come so far over the last few years that now you can launch your beverage brand or new skews with a fully
0:21.7	printed look and it's at similar pricing to those plastic sleeves.
0:25.3	Our friends at CanWorks, which is the largest U.S.-based digital can printer, are happy to work with
0:30.1	our community at very low minimums, even one palette.
0:32.9	They've got locations in the East Coast, the West Coast, Texas.
0:36.0	Get in touch with them through our contact form.
0:38.2	It's at canworksprinting.com slash startup CPG.
0:42.7	Thank you. In order to build brand awareness that ultimately is going to like drive velocities,
1:03.4	like a lot of it is going to take place on social media.
1:06.5	I think there's a huge difference between spending a ton on paid media,
1:10.3	especially if you're
1:11.0	not a D to C focused brand in terms of your sales channel, and like building content for
1:15.6	the purpose of like driving velocities on shelf.
1:19.4	And so it is important.
1:20.5	Like we like to look at like, you know, like classic social media metrics and we'll audit
1:24.6	like the accounts TikTok and like the Instagram. I think it's something
1:29.1	though that like over time can improve if the right talent and agency partners are put in place.
1:35.3	Like in the seed phase it would be like pretty hard to already have 100,000 followers or like
1:40.3	all these viral TikTok videos like over like a year's period after launch. And so like we want
1:46.2	signs that like the brand can sometimes generate organic virality that they have a serious focus on
	...

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