Couture, Returns, Humble Brags and Top VC Predictions for 2023
Or my holiday season wrapped up into one
Happy New Year (and yes, I can say that)!
December and the holidays were slow on the deal front, and so I have been focusing on publishing my research, catching up with founders and VC’s, and on reconnecting to what got me into this whole investing and operating mess in the first place: my love of fashion and couture.
For Miami Art Basel and the World of Women Gala, I created a custom gown of fuchsia velvet and crotchet wool, from scratch. I haven’t sewn since Bow & Drape, and it felt amazing to work with my hands again.
Then the holidays came, and retail wasn’t as bad as we all suspected. However, I did indulge is some of the exceptional sales online, and then first-hand experienced the pure exacerbation of discovering a poor returns policy for an item that was cheap in person. This inspired me to finally publish my research on reverse logistics, which you can read here.
I began my work on Global Supply Chains back in January 2022, heralded by this post on the pandemic’s effect. Those initial findings continue to plague supply chain, including friction at the last mile, calamity cross-border amid an era of de-globalization, and a pile up on online returns.
I asked some of my fellow VCs to weigh in where things are moving in 2023, which was published in Forbes, and many of their answers aligned around two large opportunity sets:
Sustainability
Excess Inventory
Lastly, I launched a personal website finally, which was at the urge and support of my friend, Eva Goicochea of maude (TY, Eva!): www.aubriepagano.com
Off the heels of positive feedback on launching said website, I tried to talk about myself more on the internet, and it totally back-fired:
On the bright side, I think this means I’ve made it as a Twitter VC.
Until next time,
Aubrie