Hi There! I’m Kofi Ampadu, a startup advisor and investor who focuses on consumer brand startups. I am looking forward to answering your questions during this week’s AMA.
A little bit about myself. I have more than 10 years of experience in the consumer products (CPG) space. Got introduced to the industry as an engineer at Kraft Foods, with responsibility for overseeing product innovation initiatives at 4 different facilities around the country. It was a great intro to CPG because I got a front-row seat to the innovation gaps in the industry. I took a couple of years off to get an MBA from Carnegie Mellon and joined Accenture as a strategy consultant focused on CPG and retail industries.
After serving my time as a consultant, I co-founded my first startup, H2Melon. A health & wellness beverage brand that my team and I grew into 100s of key accounts with very little funding raised. We ultimately decided to shut down the startup our unit economics could not sustain long term growth. I then had a short stint with a second startup, Par - a peer-to-peer marketplace for airline miles. It was a great idea but terrible business so we barely lasted a year.
While founding my startups, I also served on the leadership of the Startup Leadership Program, a highly-selective six-month program for startup founders. This role got me comfortable with advising startups and eventually investing in them. I am now a venture scout for a couple of funds.
You can ask me anything about entrepreneurship, I have been lucky to see from multiple angles. I will give tactical responses and not just high-level pie-in-the-sky answers that are difficult to action against.
Let’s get started!
Republic Venture Partner AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a weekly series. Feel free to ask questions in the discussion section below.* He will be answering questions Wednesday 6/10 through Friday 6/12 so submit your questions now!
*must sign into Republic account to ask questions — register here first!
This educational article is provided by Republic to help its users understand this area of the market, it should not be construed as investment advice as it is impersonal, disinterested and was produced by Republic for Republic’s users, without remuneration received or expected.
7 comments