💸 +$100M Black + women-led rounds, hate-crimes, LPs, mentors, investor intros, so many perks, and money
A bi-weekly newsletter of curated resources 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 friends. We are at 6,988 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.
This week was hard. It’s been awful to see Asian and Pacific Islander hate-crimes increase and Texas’ freezing temperatures lead to unnecessary deaths in our communities. This, on top of COVID life, makes it hard to get through some days. And it is in trying times like this that it becomes that much more important to make space to breathe, feel and heal. Whatever that means for you. For me, that involves acknowledging what I’m grateful for and sharing resources with you. All I have is gratitude for…
💰 Investors writing big checks into Black and female founded-led startups and underestimated founders raising +$100M rounds. Tope Awotona raised $350M for Calendly. Rihanna Fenty raised $115M for Savage x Fenty. Allison Barr Allen raised $102M for Fast.
👀 LPs who are signing up to invest in women and people of color emerging fund managers here
🏫 Mentors who are signing up to mentor underestimated founders here
⚡️ Companies who are signing up to provide perks to underestimated founders here
🤗 Members of our +6.9K community of founders, funders, and friends supporting each other IRL and online
🔧 Newsletter sponsors who are signing up to sponsor exclusive content, office hours, a Slack community, pitch deck reviews for underestimated founders here
Below are resources for underestimated founders. These could not exist without our community’s support. Thank you.
📓 Guide | Where Black Female Founders Can Find Resources, and More here
✏️ Mentor program | Underestimated founders, access to mentors here
🤫 Perks program | Underestimated founders, access perks here
👋 Investor intros | Underestimated founders, access investors here
✨ Lolita Taub
link.tree | twitter
ICYMI: You can join my office hours at GSV's Startup Bootcamp. Crunchbase, Technica.ly, and The Masters of Community podcast featured me. Startup-Investor Matching Tool intros have resulted in 20 checks (+$2.8M!).
Congrats!
Congrats Whitney Wolfe Herd for taking Bumble public. Paul Judge for raising $300M for Panoramic Ventures. Rachel Holt and Dayna Grayson for raising $140M for Construct Capital. Rihanna, Allison Barr Allen, Tope Awotona, Julie Papanek, Sandra Horning, Michelle Zhang for raising +$100M rounds. Addie Lerner and Tali Volgelstein for raising $68M for Avid VC. Li Jin for raising $13M for Atelier Ventures. Travis Holoway for raising $10M for Solo Funds. Alia Daniels, Ashley Williams, Bee Law, Carolyn Rodz, Dawn Dickson, Elise Smith, Julia Niiro, Travis Holoway, Lynn Greenberg, and everyone else who made the Forbes Next 1000 List.
Funders
Sarah Kunts | Hire Cleo Capital’s women of color fellows for VC roles
John Gannon | Practice your financial modeling skills
Lolita Taub | Take a look at these scout programs
Chingona Ventures | Check-out this trailblazing fund’s portfolio co break-down
Startup-Investor Matching Tool | Receive thesis-aligned and customized deal flow
💰 Raising or looking for co-investors? Here's what I invest in.
Founders
First Pitches | Learn about Arlan’s first pitch and her success hacks
Lolita Taub | Understand the difference between a SAFE, equity financing, and a convertible note
Elizabeth Yin | Know your cap table basics
Startup Club | Learn how to give a great pitch with the partners at The Community Fund on 2/22
Transparent Collective | Underestimated founders: apply by 3/1 to get access to 1:1 mentorship, pitch coaching, investor connections, and more
📚 Want more resources? Here are courses + services for you.
Community-Driven Cos
Mac Reddin | Learn why community is something companies should invest in
Holly Firestone | Check-out how community impacts a company
Lolita Taub | Know the investors who are creating the most value-add communities
Lisa Xu | Nerd out on the rise of the community department
The Community Fund | Join our fireside chat on investing in community driven companies on 2/23
🙌🏽 Building a community-driven co? Submit your co to The Community Fund.
Money
Google for Startups | Black founders in Europe: apply for <$100K by 3/21
BVCC | Black + Latinx founders: apply for $20K by 3/16
Founder Institute | Black founders: access +700 accelerators, investors and more
Founder Grants | Access +80 grants for founders
Equity Crowdfunding | Raise up to $5 million on Republic
Non-dilutive capital | Create a profile to find non-dilutive capital on INTRO
👋🏽 Want investor intros? Sign-up for The Startup-Investor Matching Tool.
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