“I think the entrepreneurs that have the best shot at success are those who have done the work to understand who they are, to have tons of confidence and courage in what they're building, but to also just be very aware, and humble about what they aren't great at.”
— Melanie Strong

Today’s guest is Melanie Strong, Managing Partner at Next Ventures and former Nike executive for over 18 years. With a history of leading diverse international teams, Melanie is one of the most passionate leaders you can find in the sports, health and wellness space.

In this interview, Melanie talks about the fundamentals of human performance. Whether you are an athlete or not, you’ll appreciate her humble insights about career development, well-being, company-building, and life fulfilment :)

“That's my mantra when I ride— humility, humility, humility— over and over again.”
— Melanie Strong

Highlights

Coming into venture with a fresh set of eyes.
The exciting developments in sports, health, and wellness.
The #1 well-being habit that everyone needs to pay attention to!
The ‘artform’ of early-stage venture investing.
The people-first approach to performance and resilience.

Transcript

Arjun Dev Arora 0:00

Hello everybody my name is Arjun Dev Arora and I'm the Founder and Managing Partner of Format One. We support funds and founders and help accelerate their efforts via people, capital, and strategy.

Jon Low 0:15

Jon Low here, I'm the co-founder at Format One. Along with Arjun, I'm the lead on a lot of the communications coaching and leadership coaching. But enough about us. Today, we have an excellent guest on the show. Her name's Melanie Strong. Why don’t you introduce yourself, Melanie and tell us what you've been up to?

Melanie Strong 0:30

Oh, sure. So you guys can call me now. I had the unique pleasure of meeting Arjun a few years ago when I was at Nike. As your listeners may know, Arjun is an advisor with Nike’s accelerator, which is called Valiant Labs, and is quite the mentor and advisor in this space.

So, let's see, since we met Arjun, first I met him first several years ago, I knew that I wanted to do something in my post Nike life that wasn't just another corporate gig. So, I had spent some time exploring this space, and decided to join a new fund called Next Ventures. So, I had started as an advisor in January of 2019, and came on as the 3rd Managing Partner exactly a year ago. So, my one year anniversary. Thank you. Yeah, it's been an exciting journey.

You know, as you guys know, I don't have the typical pedigree for a venture capitalist. I am aware enough to know what those words mean to a lot of folks. And so I spent some time understanding the differences between the perception and reality. And there's truth to all sides, as you guys know, but I've really enjoyed not having that maybe perception bias that comes with what a classic VC should look like, act like.

I love working with founders, I love people, I love the space that we invest in. And so far, that's been enough. So I'm having a great time!

Jon Low 2:05

I'm glad to hear. Transitioning from a corporate career, and again, getting into venture without the typical pedigree. What was that calibration period, like for you?

Melanie Strong 2:25

It was such a change, you know, and I spent quite a few months, even years maybe even before leaving Nike to make sure I understood what that would feel like, when you work as as many people may know, when you work at a brand, especially a very beloved brand for a very long time, it becomes part of your identity. And that's really positive in some ways, and not so positive in other ways.

So, I had the benefit of having this unraveling period, because I was making this decision on my own. I'm very lucky and grateful that I had the chance to do that at my own speed. So I spent a lot of time thinking about who I was without the Nike email address. And the, I don't know, the prestige, maybe that might come with that. And that was very humbling for me understanding what I was good at, that, you know, uniquely belong to me, that didn't belong to the brand, or these amazing teams that I worked with the agencies that we worked and partnered with, what was I uniquely good at, and that that took some time to figure out. And ultimately, it's what led me to the space because I know that I'm good at a variety of things that can help startups be successful.

I am also acutely aware of what I'm not good at. and totally okay, admitting that. And I think that's also helpful in this space. But it was a really fun experience. I had the imposter syndrome that comes with any big life change. And then I think I spent enough time surrounding myself with mentors and advisors to help me when I felt like I was mistepping or second guessing myself. And after a year, I can say that I couldn't be more excited about having made the leap.

Jon Low 4:18

Wow, that's so great. Thanks for sharing that. And, you know, Next Ventures has a particular cultural value system and an investment thesis. You know, what about Next helped you find that kind of home for your career?

Melanie Strong 4:43

I spent some time working with bigger funds which was really eye opening. So, both through Nike because we had partnerships with a lot of the bigger, more established and respected funds. And then in my own journey of figuring out what was going to be the right one.

And in place for me, I also spent time with big name funds, who had hundreds of employees and just this, you know, decades long legacy of being very successful. And those are very interesting places and places where I could have learned a lot. But I really liked the idea of something that felt completely different from Nike, meaning foundational, humble, starting from the ground up a place where I could build a culture, where I could be part of building the fundamentals of that team and fund.

So, I love the idea of a first-time fund, which is what Next Ventures is. And then I also very much love the idea of keeping at least as new a VC as I am, I love the idea of staying in the space of sports and health and wellness. So, it's a place I love living in and participating in. And I've spent the last 20 years as a brand and marketing leader as well as a general manager and business leaders. So I know this space. And so I really felt like, again, as humble as you can be as a first time VC, investing in an area where you have subject matter expertise makes a ton of sense.

So, if I was looking at blockchain deals all day, I don't know that anyone would invest in us as a fund. I'm probably not your girl. But if it's in the space of both serving high performing athletes, and then scaling that same service and benefit to anyone who wants to live a healthier life, I think I know that space. It's the space I lived in my whole life.

So, that gave me a lot of confidence to join Next Ventures because that is very much our thesis. Let's find those great innovations, technologies, services that might be vetted today with that high performing athlete community, but could benefit anyone around the world who wants to just live a longer and healthier life? And I just love that it's not unlike the mission at Nike.

Jon Low 7:07

Yeah. Wow. Thanks. And and just just as like a slight segue into, you know, when you mentioned, like high performing athletes, you yourself are one, are you not?

Melanie Strong 7:20

No, don't say that out loud.

Jon Low 7:24

Yeah, I think when I first got connected to you on LinkedIn, I saw a mountain bike. Yeah, something that terrified me to think of riding myself, but great to be a spectator. Can you tell us some of your outdoor adventures?

Melanie Strong 7:41

For sure, it's kept me sane, you know, when mindfulness practice started to become the norm, and we were talking about it at work. And in my life, I tried really, really hard to figure out meditation. And despite my best efforts, and downloading every app in this space, is the place where I find the most presence and relief from the chatter of all the things in my brain or when I'm on my bike, or when I'm in the woods. And so that has been why I've loved mountain biking, frankly, and trail running and anything outside that kind of gets your heart pumping.

In Oregon, especially where every ride starts with a climb. And so you're like, angry, and you're working through stuff, and you're thinking about all the things you haven't had time to process during the day. But when you're going downhill, you have to be humble.

That's my mantra when I ride— humility, humility, humility— over and over again. And that presence of humility, with the trail and the bike and the trees and the rocks. I don't know, that's been my saving grace.

I have a doctor that I've been seeing for 10 years. She's a naturopath in Portland. And she's like, if you weren't, it's my therapy, if you weren't doing that. I think, you know, she's always said you would have a lot more challenges with just dealing with all the daily ins and outs of life. So, I am not a high performing athlete, but I love being active. And I think that's important. I know you guys feel the same way, finding that balance to our daily jobs or corporate jobs is really important to me.

Jon Low 9:27

You mentioned because, you know, you mentioned the fund has this focus on high performing athletes, but really, the innovations in that space can also benefit anyone else who just aspires to take a bit of that and really have a more holistic, healthy lifestyle, right, without necessarily like competing in the Olympics?

Melanie Strong 9:49

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's, you know, that's what every big sports brand is striving for, right? You can own this position as a premium brand. Delivering premium products, digital or sneakers and T shirt services. But if you can't figure out how to deliver those same benefits to the broader population, I don't think you're doing your job. So luckily, at Nike, that whole idea of democratizing these products and services was already so embedded in the culture. And that is the same for next ventures. If we only invested in products that served elite athletes and people who could afford those products, we wouldn't be doing our job. We want to be able to vet and scale those very quickly to the masses, because that's where we have the most opportunity to have impact.

Jon Low 10:43

Oh, wow. So well said. So, you've been engaged at Next Ventures for about a year, you're heading up to a year anniversary? What are some highlight moments? Whether it's a specific founder you like, a brand that you help in achieving a certain milestone, or it could be one of the most enjoyable team meetings you've ever had...

Melanie Strong 11:13

That's a great question. Oddly, I think my personal best experience, meaning the time when I feel like I have learned the most in this role was probably during the early days of COVID. And I know that sounds crazy, because it was an awful period. And it is still awful, right?

The unknowns of what as a culture we're going to face are really scary. But working with our portfolio companies, in those first few weeks, when it became clear that our lives were going to be different forever, was incredibly gratifying. Because as you guys know, at the end of the day, this is about people. It's about leaders, about their teams, and about the communities. They exist to serve. And I was so gratified as a new investor and a new managing partner to see how our companies responded, because it was all about the people, you know, yeah, we got into financial modeling and cash flow and projecting worst case scenarios of how COVID was going to impact their business.

But the first thing every company did in our portfolio was think about the people. And that was very gratifying for me, because you don't know you don't know until you hit a crisis moment, how leaders are going to lead. And we've certainly seen that play out countless times in our country and around the world, right? It's easy to leave when things are good. But true leadership emerges during times of crisis. And so for me, that was very gratifying. It gave me a lot of confidence, our team that we had the right people, leading our companies, that we were in a position to help them because they needed help, as everyone did, and still does. But that was my moment of understanding where I could add value. And I was so proud, so proud of our team for being able to lead their teams effectively during a really scary time.

Jon Low 13:22

Wow, that's, um, that's pretty amazing to discover that. I mean, did you upon experiencing that, did you and the team look back and identify, hey, “What about O\our people diligence processes is helping this being picked up? Because it could be a by chance thing? You know?

Melanie Strong 13:44

Yeah, I've thought a lot about what leads to making a great decision as it relates to an investor investing in a company. And there are VCs who have these incredible operationalized processes. And we need to learn more from those VCs, in terms of the science behind understanding what makes a good company great.

But there is also the art, and I'm really good at the art. I don't know if that's because I've always been a storyteller. I was a journalist. I was a first grade teacher, I really like people. And I think that helps a lot in this job because I want to understand people and then I want to help them be successful. And so that art is probably what helped us during COVID.

We had already made the decision to invest and actually we invested in three more companies once COVID took over and became a pandemic. So we were still investing in new companies, but with that mindset of not only doing the work to understand the potential of the company from a financial perspective, but Understanding the people. And that's that's, I think, harder to learn. I'm really grateful that I had a chance to learn and create that muscle just through years of working with teams, and experiencing both the highs and lows of culture. But I think it's a great question, john, I think it's really hard to put on paper. But it is, I guess I always go back to that idea of art and science. It's a bit of both. That makes a really great partnership.

Jon Low 15:30

So nicely said that combination of art and science. I mean, definitely. It's funny, because we understand, it's hard to quantify, right? The impact, like in another specific number, the impact of, you know, people dynamics, proper, high functioning people dynamics, but we all know, that the cost of really bad people dynamics is catastrophic, right. So the downside is, you might not have a business.

The upside is not so hard to quantify. And that's where I guess that's where the ongoing art of investing at the earliest stages will be an ongoing art, I guess. But, if someone does find a SaaS product to take care of it, I'm investing in them for sure. But in the meantime, we just have to rely on people's diversity, and just good ol teamwork.

Melanie Strong 16:33

Yeah, I hope we never forget that.

Jon Low 16:37

And on a more personal question. I don't know whether you find it personal. So what are some of your favorite products that the firms invested in? Or what are some of the products you use?

Melanie Strong 16:50

We actually test every single product that we think is interesting enough for us to consider an investment in, which means we are currently testing probably 20, different connected coaching and training products, software, hardware, AI, VR, the whole gambit.

We've tested every sports bar on the market.. And that said, we are all huge personal advocates of every company we've invested in, and the ones that I get most excited about. I'll, I'll start with the Oura Ring.

Oura is interesting, right? Because they came in as a disrupter to the Fitbit and Apple Watches of the world. And directly competing with a whoop with a point of view that a ring-based device will be a better experience and deliver more accurate data than a sorry that a finger based wearable will deliver more accurate data and a better experience for consumers and risks. And so we made that bet when we invested in or a little over a year ago.

But one of the things that I hadn't anticipated over the last year was just how important sleep would become in terms of mainstream thinking about health and wellness. The CEO of Oura, a wonderful guy named Harpreet, Harpreet has always been at the forefront of advocating for the value of sleep over any other fitness and health indicator. Because we get that question a lot, you know, as, as experts in this space, which is such a privilege to be seen as an expert, and we get asked a lot like, what are the things that hacks the special tricks that you have learned after spending your lives in the human performance space?

Reality is I want to say it's some magic macronutrient supplement technology based innovation. It's not, it's sleep. So, even for someone like me, I have been surrounded by coaches and athletes and people who care a lot about performance my whole life. I used to think that I could get away with short changing myself on sleep. And the Oura Ring calls BS on that real fast.

So, I used to be one of those awful corporate people we all love to hate, who claimed that I didn't need sleep, right? And I could stay up late, get up early, be the first in the office and perform well. And the reality is like that wasn't true. That was a game and trick I was playing on myself. And so the beauty of Oura ring is, in a very non-judgmental way helps you understand what other elements of your daily life, for instance, impact your sleep.

So, even if I'm in bed for eight hours, and this is actually more an issue with women, I'm not generally getting enough deep sleep, unless I do a couple things. One I can't drink, which is so sad. I still do, I'll have a glass of wine. But I know that it comes with probably less high quality deep sleep that night. So at least I know what my exchange is for having that glass of wine.

I can't look at my computer. Blue Light absolutely impacts my deep sleep, some of it is hormonal, so being able to use the Oura ring to track my hormones and see how my hormones throughout the month are impacting my deep sleep is also really fascinating. So, even though I thought I was so in tune to my body, and the things that would help me feel and function better, the Oura ring really helped me take that to a different place, I also got one from my husband, we got a little competitive with our deep sleep metrics affect your sleep, not good. It's a rather unhealthy result of being competitive. But yeah, that's that's probably a good example.

The other product that well, there's two products that I also use almost everyday one is Power Dot, which is a beautiful and mobile e-stem unit. So, if you guys have ever been to a chiropractor or physical therapist, you've probably experienced a stem in an area of your body where you need a little more blood flow and a little more accelerated recovery in the at home devices and that space have always been super clunky. But the Power Dot is beautiful.

It's small, it's easy to use, you can travel with it anywhere you control it through a well designed app. And that in and of itself is super exciting. But the reason why we invested in Power Dot is because there is also a medical platform that they're launching this year that allows healthcare practitioners to deliver remote care through the app. So instead of me having to go see my chiropractor to get East him, they can my doctor can prescribe treatment through shared access of my app, and then track compliance, which is really, really cool. So that was the reason why Power Dot was so interesting. Not only did they have this beautiful D2C consumer experience, but they also have a B2B Medical experience they're launching this year. So I'm a big fan of that company as well. Try not to play favorites, however.

Jon Low 22:47

We're kind of running out on time. Well, we could listen to you talk forever. For any entrepreneurs watching this present and future, what would you want to let them know?

Melanie Strong 23:14

The entrepreneurs that have inspired me the most whether it's in my new life at Next Ventures or in my life prior who've been the ones who are very passionate about what they're building, but also understand where they need help.

I think a flag for me over the last few years have been folks in any aspect of my life who think that they're good at everything. Because it's not possible. And I think the entrepreneurs that have the best shot at success are those who have done the work to understand who they are, to have tons of confidence and courage in what they're building, but to also just be very aware, and humble about what they aren't great at.

Lead and I think most importantly, where they're going to need support to be successful. So that would be my biggest learning maybe, as it relates to how to help entrepreneurs and founders be successful. Don't be afraid of saying what you need help on and what you're not great at. And I think that's a really important vulnerability that everyone should bring to the table. And certainly for our fund. It's really wonderful when we can see that vulnerability in a founder