My Rolling fund is now LIVE! Meet Masala Capital

Hey you, happy Sunday!

If you're on the west coast of the United States, I hope you're staying safe amongst all the fires going on. I used to live in San Diego and remember this time of the year is always wildfire season. If you don't know how to prepare, you can learn more here.

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If you're reading this email, I hope you are relaxed, rehydrating for the week with some Barcode (learn more about it here), and ready for an exciting announcement.

A few weeks ago, a few hundred of you filled out a Google form for me to validate that I would have enough initial capital to launch a rolling fund, and today I'm excited to say:

Masala Capital is now LIVE!

The AngelList page: click here to view/invest
The official Twitter: click here

When I joined Hint water in 2017, one of the reasons I really fell in love with direct-to-consumer businesses is that when we really got our numbers dialed in and were able to scale, we were helping THOUSANDS of new people every day make the switch from a diet soda to a healthy choice. The impact we had on people's lives was incredible and was one of the most fulfilling feelings.

With my rolling fund, aka Masala Capital, I want to focus on investing in companies that make people's lives genuinely better, and the companies that enable that. Simply put, those are consumer brands, retail-enablement and eCommerce-enablement companies.

Thanks to my presence on the internet, and a bi-product of the content I put out for free, I get in front of founders VERY early on, whether I personally meet them or not.

Over the last couple of years, I am told countless stories of how the team at Levels used my brand launch deck to put together the launch strategy for them, or how our landing page guide helped make one company's user acquisition so efficient they had the validation to take their business to the next level. Many of you have also told me this email becomes an important discussion topic in Monday morning meetings.

When you combine the ability to see deal flow before any traditional VC, and the work experience and pattern matching I have, it creates creates 3 outcomes:

1. For Masala Capital, I get the chance to write the first check, and bring additional strategic investors to the table (founders, media company executives, marketers, VCs who have a helpful portfolio, etc).

2. For CPG founders, they get access to myself and the Sharma Brands team, in addition to all of the resources, discounts, and benefits from our partners across software, fulfillment, packaging, branding, etc.

3. For SaaS founders, they now have immediate access to Fortune 100 brands, and countless DTC brands, who are Sharma Brands clients. Masala Capital becomes a platform for these companies.

After being able to write an early check into companies like Haus, JUDY, Caraway, Levels, Omsom, Black Wolf Nation, Brightland, Settle, Snif, Sanzo, Tydo, Alloy, and others... I'm excited to now bring the opportunity for you to join me in all these companies through the rolling fund.

Helena Price Hambrecht, Co-Founder & CEO of Haus, says:

“Nik is a walking encyclopedia of all things DTC. He will save you YEARS of time you would have otherwise spent researching the right tools, building the right web strategy, and connecting with the right people. The earlier you can get him involved, the better.”

Moiz Ali, Founder & CEO of Native (exited for $100m to P&G), says:

"Nik and his team are my go-to resources when myself or my companies need to understand what’s working, what’s upcoming, and what we should be doing better."

And lastly, Sean Riley, Founder & CEO of DUDE Wipes, says:

"Thanks to the audit, game plan and introductions made by Nik Sharma, not only did we have direct access to the best agencies with more favorable pricing, but we also have 3x’d our revenue in a single year."

Click here to join the Masala Capital Rolling Fund!

If you're wondering why I named it Masala Capital, I'll explain that on the new site launching soon. If you know what Masala can do to a plain old dish, then you understand!

Now to get into today's email...

A few weeks ago I wrote a Twitter thread that sort of blew up. It talked about creating a side hustle to help new entrepreneurs and founders place the right pixels on their sites.

While the thread focused on the side hustle setup, I wanted to explain some of the pixels you should make sure you have and why, so you don't end up regretting not doing it later.

In this case, the main purpose for setting up these pixels early, is that you get to leverage the data at a later point, once it's collected enough information or learnings.

Paid Social Pixels

This should be an obvious one — usually it starts with just the Facebook pixel. In addition, you want to place pixels from wherever you think you will be spending because many of these platforms use the data from their pixel as inputs on how to better optimize the targeting of your ads.

Easy ones to add: Pinterest, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Google AdWords/YouTube, Quantcast. If you can get even more granular than the standard pixel events, which usually requires a developer, you'll be in the best position when you do decide to switch ads on.

Analytics Pixels

There are a couple main ones you want to make sure you have on your website:

​Google Analytics. The OG. This plugs in pretty well with all other Google programs (AdWords, merchant center, search console, etc.) for the long run, and gives you immediate access to detailed analytics. It's free to use.

Quantcast Measure. This is one I shout from rooftops and people still don't install it. Quantcast has their ads served on the majority of the internet sites you probably visit, and because of that, they know a lot about the people who end up visiting your site, too. Measure is a free analytics tool built for developers, but one you can add to your store, and it will tell you what kinds of brands your customers shop from, what they read, what tv shows they watch, etc. It's insane how much of this data they can give you. Quantcast also plugs into 3rd party databases and then matches the site visitors to other audiences. All very helpful for your targeting, and even for fundraising. Click here to learn more.

Microsoft Clarity. If you've ever looked at using HotJar but felt the pricing was out of budget, then you need Clarity. Clarity allows you to get analytics on the devices coming on your site, and also see heat maps, click maps, scroll-depth maps, and user session recordings. No, you can't watch them enter their credit card number, thankfully. But you will know exactly what on your pages spikes interest and what loses it.

All these pixels are free to implement and will give you tons of learnings and insights OR data to leverage at a later point. Do NOT regret missing the opportunity to do this early on!

Now onto some fun stuff... 

Software/App of the Week:

Affirm — The Leader in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)

Unlike other consumer financing programs you might see online, Affirm helps your customers check out with BNPL. This gives shoppers a flexible payment option instead of a revolving line of credit, which can be loaded with unexpected downsides.

Affirm is truly built FOR your customers. How, you may ask? 

• There are no late fees.
• No hidden fees.
• No “gotcha” fees.
• Ever. Seriously, that’s why “Ever” is its own line.
• They approve about 20% more customers than their competitors.
• They can help you finance purchases from $50 to $17,500.
• And they have the industry-leading NPS score of +79.

In fifth-grade speak, Affirm is the perfect partner, especially if your goal is to use BNPL to increase conversion. Plus, their retail partners see an average AOV lift of 85%.

I will also point out that Affirm is incredibly simple to set up. We use it across all of our brands, and the integration is very quick to set up. It usually takes less than an hour total (it’s even faster if you switch on Shop Pay Installments, powered by Affirm). 

Give your customers the ability to enjoy your products and it’s benefits now, then let them pay over time!

Get started with Affirm

Brand of the Week:

JUDY — The brand created to help you prepare for any kind of disaster.

In light of the west coast sadly burning, JUDY is running a 15% off site wide sale (use STORM15) so we can ship and deliver kits to those who are near wildfires. When natural disasters happen, there is nothing more important than being prepared.

If nothing else, check out the emergency guides put together by certified disaster experts. They're completely free and available here.

Purchase peace of mind for your family with JUDY: shop now.

That's all for today! Get those 9 hours of sleep. Hydrate. Try something that makes you a little uncomfortable. Have a great week!

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