🌊 Eels, investments into underestimated founders, Kanye, solo capitalists, and more
A practical bi-weekly newsletter for early-stage founders, funders, and operator friends.
Welcome to Lolita’s Newsletter! We share up-to-date and nugget-sized practical content for early-stage founders, funders, and operator friends. We are at 3,348 members. To access exclusive content, office hours, join our Slack community, and get your pitch deck reviewed become an annual subscriber.
Josh asked, “where do eels come from?” I googled it and apparently, nobody knows. The Startup-Matching Tool is growing (extra thanks Brian Trejo + to our ambassadors!). We can now watch Hamilton (turn on captions) on Netflix. You’ll soon be tempted to switch to Walmart+ (cheaper than Amazon Prime) and buy stuff through WhatsApp. Jack Dorsey is funding a universal income experiment. Chelsea Clinton is eying launching a fund. Elon Musk is advising Kanye West on running for president. Chip tried to get me an intro to Jessica Alba, we laughed, and failed. Tiktok may get banned and Gen Z + Y are freaked-out. Welcome to the second half of 2020!
I’ve been thinking a lot about people’s lip service around investing in underestimated founders. So, I dug into Crunchbase and noted that since May 1st, only 43 investments were made into Asian/Black/Latinx/Indigenous/Pacific Islander founded/led startups. Ugh. For perspective, there have been over 3,100 investments announced since May 1st. It’s irresponsible for investors to be so homogeneous in their investments and to be leaving so much money on the table.
Thoughts on why there are so few dollars going to underestimated founders…
and on what we can do about it…
✨ Lolita Taub
link.tree | twitter
ICYMI: Submit your co for funding consideration here. Sign-up for my fundraising workshop w/Silicon Valley Bank on 7/16. I'm now a Republic VP and I launched on Superpeer.Congrats!
Brian and Candice Brackeen launched Lightship Capital and aim to raise $50M. Lori Cashman and Suzanne Norris raised over $20M for Victress Capital. Dawn Dickson and Pierre Laguerre are the first black woman and man to raised over $1M via crowdequity fundraising campaigns. Angela Benton also raised over $1M. Andy Davis launched the 10x10 Fund. Kobie Fuller launched Valence, a network for black founders. Shani Dowell raised $1M at Possip. Sherryl Dorsey raised over $400K for The Plug Insights. Sheila Vashee joined Basis Set as a Partner. Sophia Bendz joined Cherry Ventures as a Partner.
Funders
Level Ventures | Raising Your First VC fund
NBT | The Rise of the Solo Capitalist
First Republic | What are LPs thinking about the VC sector?
BLCK VC | Breaking into VC program
Techstars | On running virtual accelerators
Founders
Bunch of Founders | Hello underestimated founder slack workspace
Silicon Valley Bank | Fundraising Workshop 7/14
Investment Consideration | Submit your co to the Startup-Investor Matching Tool
Developer Talent | Find developers for your company
Guide | First-Time Founders Resource Guide
Legal | Founder legal guidance from lawyer and friend Ed Zimmerman
Courses
Fundraising | How to Raise Capital For Your Company From Scratch
Pitch Decks | Build a Winning Pitch Deck
MVP | Building your MVP
“Just completed @lolitataub's course where she covers, with clarity, the essential knowledge of financing a startup vital for any founder to have under their belt to make well informed and healthy financial decisions. Definitely recommend!” - @HassanTahir__
Operators
Team Brainstorming | Check-out these virtual tools
Sales | Find your first customers
Developer Talent | Find developers for your company
Friends
Money
iFundWomen x Visa | Black female founder grants
Google for Startups | Black founder accelerator
Investors | Founders of Color friendly investors
Equity Crowdfunding | Raise up to $1 million on Republic
Thanks for reading! If you got value out of this newsletter forward it to someone and consider becoming a premium member. You’ll get pretty cool perks and you’ll help keep the newsletter going + getting better! - @lolitataub