Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

Is DTC really dead?

23 Oct 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:35

Precursor Ventures (speaker) defends the direct-to-consumer (DTC) physical-products category against claims it is "dead," noting that companies in the space are still growing despite LP skepticism and limited investor capital. The speaker argues constrained capital can force founders to run disciplined businesses, and that Precursor continues to invest in this category while valuing more exit paths for long-running founder-built brands.

Chapters

They're physical products companies that sell direct to the consumer as one of their core channels. And, you know, two or three years ago, LPs would tell me, this category is dead. Why are you investing? I was like, well, nobody told the companies that the category is dead because they're still growing. And it's a category where it's really hard to get investor capital. So in some ways, you're sort of forced to run a good business. There's no other way. And it's one of those things where we've continued to invest in this category. And I feel really good about the companies that we're in. And I think having more exit paths for these companies is a good thing, because there are some of these brands who are where the founders are like, I put 10 years of my life into building this brand.