💸 Everyone wants to have fun(ds), Latinx founders, alligators, money for investors and founders, and more

A practical bi-weekly newsletter for early-stage founders, funders, and friends.

Welcome to Lolita’s Newsletter! We share up-to-date and nugget-sized practical resources and advice for early-stage founders, funders, and operator friends. We are at 3,845 members. To access exclusive content, office hours, join our Slack community, and get your pitch deck reviewed become an annual subscriber or gift a subscription.

What’s new? People are talking about unbundling work, education, and venture capital. My mom is making nopales. Choco’s new favorite game is playing catch (with food). Rashad Moore is bringing 1K underestimated VCs into our ecosystem. I love Virgos and am feeling extra proud of the Latinx community.

This week, I’m fascinated by the power of Twitter and the shifts that are happening in venture capital. On July 13th, Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad, tweeted that he was raising his first-fund on Zoom.

Sahil Lavingia @shl

I’m raising a small fund to invest in early stage startups! If you’re interested in investing–as an LP, aspiring fund manager, founder, or anything else–I’ll be doing a Zoom call about it on Friday at 10AM PST. Register here:

us02web.zoom.usWelcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Fund webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webina…Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Fund webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

This week, Sahil announced he would be investing $5M a year into early-stage founders and writing $100-250K checks. Wow, right?!

Sahil Lavingia @shl

Let the fun(d) begin! Starting today, I am investing $5 million a year into early-stage startups via $100K-250K checks. More info 👇🏽 Let me know if you have any questions! shl.vc

shl.vcSahil LavingiaI am investing $5 million a year into early-stage technology startups.

I got curious and asked the Twitter fam about whether they’d like to see me lead a fund. Over 720 people want to see me run a fund and Arlan Hamilton, Eric Bahn, and Sahil Lavingia expressed support. My brain is still digesting.

Sahil Lavingia @shl

@ArlanWasHere @lolitataub @AngelList Happy to help you with this if you decide to! Was such a great experience.

And Thursday my friend Cindy Bi launched her fund and managed to get an investor in 20 minutes. The venture capital world is changing. Are you (am I) ready for this?

✨ Lolita Taub
link.tree | twitter

ICYMI: I'm investing $50K in cos who have not raised from VCs. Submit your co for investment consideration. Also, I'm a Female Founders Alliance Award finalist for championing underestimated communities! Help me win by voting for me by 8/10.

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Congrats!

Erica Chidi for raising $3M for Loom. Ruben Flores-Martinez for raising $2.7M for Cashdrop. Jessica Meher for raising $1M for Wonderment. Susie Jaramillo and Steven Pereira for receiving investment from Portfolia for Encantos. Sahil Lavingia and Cindy Bi for launching their rolling funds. DeShuna Spencer of kweliTV and Chantel Emmanuel of LimeLoop for becoming Women Who Tech grant awardees. Dawn Dickson of PopCom for her acquisition of Wyzerr.

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Funders

lolitataub @lolitataub

💰🎉Underestimated investors + aspiring investors: I’m co-leading a project to get a handful of you money to invest in awesome early-stage cos! If you’re interested in this project, learn more and apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Techcrunch | Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia launches new seed fund
Republic | 14 Black and Latinx Emerging Fund Managers To Know (& Fund)
500 Startups | Apply for a scholarship to VC Unlocked
Susa Ventures | Apply to a 6-month Venture Fellows program
First Round | Apply to a the Remote Angel Track program
Unshackled Ventures | Apply for a Ventures Fellowship program
VC Jobs | Find a VC job using this search engine

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Founders

lolitataub @lolitataub

💰First-time founders: many of you reach out to me to ask about what kind of capital to raise, where, and how. To help w/your qs, I've written a 5-step guide for you. Topics 🎯fundraising goals 🚀types of cos 💸types of funding 👀fundraising options +++ medium.com/@lolitataub/fi…

medium.comFirst-time founders: here’s how to select the best fundraising strategy for your startupLearn 5 steps on how to select the best fundraising strategy for you and your company, as well as where and how to access capital.

Y Combinator | YC Startup Library
Medium | Where Latinx founders can find funding, resources, and more
Investment Consideration | Submit your co to the Startup-Investor Matching Tool
Guide | First-Time Founders Resource Guide
Legal | Founder legal guidance from lawyer and friend Ed Zimmerman
LAUNCH | Apply to a free early-stage founder two-day course by 8/10
Unusual VC | Apply to a workshop series to sharpen your founder skills by 8/31

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Friends

lolitataub @lolitataub

😂

Nicole Zonnenberg - Black Lives Matter @NZonnenberg

@NoOrdnryCherry @lolitataub My favorite joke: What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator!

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Money

lolitataub @lolitataub

💰Underestimated founders: thx to @indievc, I may invest in your co if it's: 🌱Pre-seed/seed 👩🏽‍💻Tech-centric 🇺🇸Has a US structure 🙅🏽‍♀️Has not raised from VCs 📈Post-rev + focused on generating profit Learn more + apply for investment consideration. notion.so/lolitataub/Lol…

notion.soNotion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It’s the all-in-one workspace for you and your team

Founder Grants | +80 grants for founders
Fundraise from Home | Apply to pitch a handful of awesome investors
Investors | Founders of Color friendly investors
Equity Crowdfunding | Raise up to $1 million on Republic
NewVoices | Apply for 1 of 5 black women beauty founder grants

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A note to founders

Many of you reach out to ask for assistance with your fundraising strategy and pitch deck feedback. To scale my ability to help, I wrote this blog post to get you started with fundraising strategy and created this course to help you build a winning pitch deck. Arlan also has a great course on How to Raise Capital For Your Company From Scratch.

Nick Duncan @Nicholas_Duncan

I'm three minutes into @lolitataub's "Build a Winning Pitch Deck" course and I'm loving it!

gumroad.comBuild a Winning Pitch DeckPre-seed/seed founders: I created this course so that you can build a winning deck and get your company funded!Course includes💁🏽‍♀️ Pitch deck template review📊 Metrics + rev options🐉. Storytelling👁👄👁 Creating FOMO💰 Investor perspective🤔 FAQ

Some of you may want 1:1 support and, for you, I’m happy to answer DMs on Twitter (when time allows) and do 1:1 consult calls.

lolitataub @lolitataub

This email line made my whole week 👇🏽 💰"I took your advice re: our deck and we were able to close a $1m pre-seed round last month" - @jessicameher @hiwonderment 🎉Congrats on your $1M raise, Jess! Cheering you on.

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Thanks for reading! If you got value out of this newsletter forward it to someone and become a premium member. You’ll get pretty cool perks and keep the newsletter going + getting better! - @lolitataub