Rick Desai @ Listen Ventures on Tiger Woods, Economics of Consumer Investing, Evolution of Value-Add Investing, Content-Driven Commerce

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.

“I think the best brands attract consumers to have a relationship with the brand. But the ones that are even better than that are the ones where consumers show up and have a dialogue with each other.”

Rick Desai is the Head of Investments at Listen Ventures, an  early-stage consumer-focused venture capital firm based in Chicago. Prior to joining Listen, he co-founded Dashfire, a Chicago-based startup studio that built and invested in over 40 businesses. His social entrepreneurial endeavors in urban Indian slums have earned him a Clinton fellowship. He began his career with Lehman Brothers in investment banking and Madison Dearborn Partners in private equity.

In this episode, we covered:

• Lessons Learned from Tiger Woods on Brand & Excellence

• The Economics behind Consumer Investing

• Brand vs. Branding

• Value-Add Investing

• The Future of Audio

• Content-Driven Commerce

And much more.... Please Enjoy!

You can find Listen Ventures on their website, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin, Rick on Linkedin & Twitter,  and Listen’s podcast- “Overheard: Where Venture Meets Culture” on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

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Manifold Group is a venture holding company based in Chicago with offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, and soon Atlantic Canada. Early stage private investments represent an extraordinary investment opportunity, but existing investment models in the space leave much to be desired.Manifold is a new model for growth in the new economy, designed to create and capture value at the early stage through synergies across its venture fund, incubation and acceleration studio, and advisory firm. Learn more about Manifold at https://www.manifold.group.