The longer you work at goop, the more seriously you come to learn that Gwyneth is not just a girl’s girl: She’s also, at her core, a founder’s girl. If a girl’s girl is someone who never sees herself as being in competition with other women—who defaults to generosity and kindness and always assumes good intention—a founder’s girl is someone who radiates the same energy around other founders. GP believes (in business and in life) that a rising tide lifts all boats, and you see that aphorism reflected in her approach to being both a CEO and a hands-on investor to a surprising number of brands.
In the interview here, we asked her about this side of her work. She shares her wins and losses, what she’s most excited about in the start-up space, and her most actionable advice for young brands.
A Q&A with Gwyneth
How do you evaluate the brands that you invest in?
This is something that has changed over the years. I remember when Pinterest was brought to me very, very early and I relied on Seb, the goop CEO at the time, to do the diligence. He had deep relationships in the digital space, and he brought me that and a couple of things. And I trusted his instincts. That was one of my first big investments.
Now, part of what I can bring to the table is that I’m an operator and a founder. So if it’s a company that I feel really aligned with—I like what they’re doing, and I like their numbers and all of that—I also consider if I feel I can be helpful to grow the company or if I can be helpful to the founder. It’s nice to have people around the cap table whom you can call and ask for help from.
I'll also look for companies where the goop platform can help. As you can imagine, a lot of brands come to me saying they want to be in the goop shop. Sometimes it’s great, too, because I can really see how a brand is performing on our platform, and then I can sense if there’s a product-market fit.
What do you consider a deal-breaker?
In the consumer space right now, what's really a deal-breaker for me is if the growth has been through only paid channels. That’s an older model of growth that we're all starting to see break down now in the direct-to-consumer model—you don’t want to be buying customers and chasing churn. And a lot of direct-to-consumer companies were growing that way. It’s not real growth. So that's a deal-breaker for me. I want to see that people love the brand, that churn is low, that there’s a lot of loyalty, and that they’re growing as much through organic and other channels as they are through paid.
In your current portfolio, which brands are you most excited about?
Let's see...well, I’m excited about Oura, of course the Oura Ring, which I was lucky enough to invest in early. And it’s a product that I use and love, and it has really impacted my wellness positively.
I made a little investment in Olipop, the healthy soda brand, which is great because my son loves it.
I love Studs, which is a piercing business that these great young women founded.
Crown Affair, of course, which we sell on goop and is a fantastic brand.
GP’s Picks: Crown Affair
Ami Cole is a Black-owned beauty brand that has great clean formulas for everyone, and especially people with darker skin.
GP’s Picks: Ami Cole
Caddis is an eyeglass brand I invested in for a few reasons: I love how, first of all, the quality's amazing. The shapes are very cool. It's more than just a readers brand. They are a part of rebranding aging—and I always love a good rebrand. Aging is cool and wisdom is awesome. And Caddis is disrupting the making of readers, which can make you look so old. They’re making the glasses that were so for-your-grandma—so cool. Like something Paul Newman might have worn in the ’70s.
GP’s Picks: Caddis
For beauty brands, do you consider investing only if they're clean?
Yes. I don’t invest in beauty companies that are not clean, although not all the brands I invest in are clean to goop’s strict ingredient standards. So, for example, there’s one beauty brand I’m invested in that’s much cleaner than normal brands, but only a couple of products are clean to our standards at goop. But I know they’re always working toward being fully clean toward our standards. Or another example is a beauty company like Thirteen Lune, which I invested in, and it’s an incredible place to discover beauty brands created by Black and Brown founders and is committed to cleaner brands.
And in the fashion space, what do you look for?
I really don't invest in the fashion space—my one exception was Universal Standard. On the consumer side, my portfolio is more wellness- and food-focused, like Oura and Sweetgreen and Everytable.
What do you learn from the companies that you invest in? What do they learn from your goop experience?
You learn the most at the board level. I’m on the board of Rent the Runway, and I learned a lot watching them go public. And, for example, earlier investments I made in Sweetgreen—those founders have been great and helpful and taught me stuff along the way.
Especially for the younger brands, a lot of it is me with the founder. They know I’m on the other end of the phone if they need me for anything. I can share all the highs and lows, all the wins and the many mistakes we’ve made, so that they don’t make the same.
What advice do you have for younger brands who are pitching investors?
I should say first: It’s so hard to be a founder and to start a company and to make it work.
Most companies don't succeed. So I think there are certain things that need to be in place. What's your point of differentiation? What problem are you solving? Are you doing it in a different way? What traction or interest is there thus far in the brand if it’s an early-stage company?
The closer a founder is to their business—and not only how it works but why it works—is always beneficial. It’s good information to have top of mind when you’re having these meetings.
What big bets have you taken that have really paid off for you?
Definitely Sweetgreen and Pinterest. I think Oura is great. Daily Harvest, Canva, and Chief, which is a membership network for female executive leaders and CEOs.
How do you evaluate how much effort is worth putting in to helping grow the brands you invest in?
I let the founder lead it. And there are brands like Equitea, the tea company that I invested in and I’m really passionate about: Quentin is a founder who leads a really small team—he needs the support and the operational piece that I can help with.
And then sometimes I’ve invested in companies that are just like, "Can you introduce us to this person or that person?" Or "Could you post for us on social media?" That kind of thing. So it can be from really deep in the weeds with a founder to more light touch.
And how would you say that investing in companies aligns with your purpose as a CEO?
Innovation is such an important part of our culture and our marketplaces. So I really like to see innovation, whether it’s in product or SaaS or whatever the area is. And we're living in a particularly exciting time where we keep seeing all these new expressions of the internet, whether it be web3 or AI. It’s exciting to be in this time observing markets, observing trends.
And it helps me with goop because I'm close to what the consumer is doing in other areas as well, not just our consumer. I can understand trends and where things are going and watch to see if some of it is applicable to goop.
I remember during the web3 boom, everyone was like, "What are you going to do? How are you going to bring web3 into goop?" And I was like, “I’m not. We are not ready for this at all. And I don't think our consumer is either.” I think I was right about that, but it was good to be close to it so that I could learn.
Are there any brands that you regret investing in?
I would say most of my investing regrets are things that I didn't do.
They were probably earlier investments that I didn't do proper diligence on and I just thought, Oh, this is a nice person and I want to help them. But it didn't make a lot of business sense to do it.
What are the trends in business you’re most closely following right now?
AI is going to upend the way we do a lot of things. So I’m staying close to that and trying to understand as best I can: What will the utilities built around that be? What are the businesses you could invest in that leverage AI but that aren't necessarily creating the large language models themselves?