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The Santa Monica Lab That Builds Companies Like an Assembly Line
Most venture firms wait for founders to knock. Science builds the company first, then writes the check - and the method has turned razors, canned water and robo-advising into billion-dollar exits.
Justin Kassan
Justin Kassan is the Chief Marketing Officer of Honeylove, the Los Angeles-based sculptwear and intimates brand founded by musician Betsie Larkin. He joined in 2025 after roughly a decade spent inside some of the most recognizable direct-to-consumer brands in America: he ran paid social acquisition at Dollar Shave Club, climbed from Director of Acquisition to VP of Growth at the watch brand MVMT, and served as Vice President of Media at Fabletics from 2023 to 2025. His specialty is the unglamorous engine room of modern retail - media buying, attribution, creative testing and the arithmetic of turning ad spend into repeat customers. He studied Environmental Science at UC Santa Barbara before ending up, improbably, in the business of compression panels and wireless bras.
Monica Belsito
Monica Belsito is the CEO of Function of Beauty, the made-to-order personal care company that turns an online quiz into a custom bottle of shampoo. She took the top job in July 2025 after a career spent building consumer brands that get acquired: founding CMO at feminine-care brand LOLA, CMO at hummus maker Sabra (bought by PepsiCo in 2024), and senior brand manager at Dollar Shave Club before its $1 billion sale to Unilever. A Georgetown grad and Harvard MBA who started in crisis PR and Colgate's management program, she now steers Function of Beauty's push from DTC into shelves at Target, Sephora, Walmart, and Amazon.
Kirsten Green
Kirsten Green is the founder and managing partner of Forerunner Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with nearly $3 billion in AUM that made early bets on Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, Glossier, Bonobos, and Chime. A former equity research analyst who walked mall parking lots every Friday counting shopping bags, Green built Forerunner over a decade of SPV investments before raising her first institutional fund in 2012. Her consumer-first thesis - that following where people spend their time and money reveals where the economy is heading - has made her one of the most recognized venture investors in the world, appearing on the Forbes Midas List and Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women consecutively since 2017.