by Krishna K. Gupta and Stash Pomichter
We’re thrilled to welcome Josh to the REMUS team as a Venture Partner. He will be working to help us understand and act upon the trends and opportunities relevant to the post-COVID Gen Z consumer. For those who don’t know Josh, he is a social media superstar who has built a legion of fans across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. He is a founding member of SWAY House, a cultural phenomenon of its own.
Like us, Josh is young and ambitious. His interests far exceed the 20M followers he has amassed on TikTok. His journey began as a normal kid outside Toronto who was interested in hanging out with friends and playing sports. He had an entrepreneurial streak from a very young age, first selling sports equipment, then later realizing the power of social media to build a fan base.
Josh is joining us because he wants to learn how to become a more sophisticated investor and entrepreneur, with the ultimate goal of becoming the first influencer billionaire. We want to help him get there.
We couldn’t be more different as people, but Josh’s journey reminds us somewhat of our own. As a young boy growing up outside Chicago (the American Toronto), founder Krishna Gupta also exhibited an entrepreneurial streak. He eventually started the firm from his MIT dorm room at age 20. To Krishna, it’s both exhilarating and petrifying to realize there is now a proper new generation that has emerged after him.
To that point, this partnership has arisen thanks to the initiative of REMUS’ resident Gen Z-er, Stash Pomichter. Stash himself founded a company when he was 15 and dropped out of MIT to join REMUS as a venture capitalist at age 19. Kids these days…
Although we are better-known for our investments in enterprise technology companies, we have done some interesting consumer deals in the past, including in health and wellness (seed rounds of ClassPass and Allurion), finance (Gyft), and retail (Bombfell). With Josh’s help, we intend to do more deals focused on the next-generation consumer in the coming 2-3 years.
As we see the world changing in front of us, we are interested to explore several themes with Josh, who will help any company in which we invest and will bring the power of his Gen Z consumer base with him. What does a next-generation, post-COVID consumer experience look like? How does the increased buying power and influence of Gen Z shape existing industries?
In the coming months and years, we’ll examine these questions and more, with the ultimate aim of helping to build the next great companies. We’re delighted to tap into Josh’s knowledge, passion, and youthful energy as we do.