💉 Vaccines and vacations, $2B from cold outreach, increasing representation in funds, the most active US investors, mistakes to avoid as a founder, and $$$ opportunities
A bi-weekly newsletter of curated actionable resources for underestimated founders, funders, and friends.
Welcome to Lolita’s Newsletter! We share curated actionable resources for underestimated founders, funders, and friends. We are at 7,768 members. To give or get access exclusive founder content, office hours, join our Slack community, and get your pitch deck reviewed become an annual subscriber or gifter.
Josh scheduled our first COVID vaccine shots for the end of the month and I started dreaming of a Hawaii vacation. That was until I saw car rental prices at $700+ a day. I looked into this and here’s the TL;DR: car rental cos sold their cars to survive and now there’s a huge supply issue. Will be looking up car rental availability before booking flights on my next vacation. In other news: TCF celebrated its 1/2 bday, Coinbase made Garry Tan $2B thanks to a cold outreach (for it!), Miki Reynolds has got me thinking more about catalyzing a new wave of LPs (GP-LP Matching Tool?), Latina Jessica Alba is filing an IPO for Honest, Melanie Perkins just became a billionaire, and I can’t stop listening to Megan Thee Stallion’s Savage. Honestly, it’s helping balance out my COVID anxiety and sad feelings from hearing about Adam Toledo, DMX, and Daunte Wright. RIP.
Happy Ramadan to those who celebrate!
✨ Lolita Taub
link.tree | twitter
PS My mom’s surgery went well. Thanks for your thoughtful messages.
ICYMI: I'm speaking at Collision on Wed, 4/21! I had a great convo on the Your First Million pod w/Arlan Hamilton & Chacho Valadez, received the 500 Startup's Founder Advocate Award & made it into the "You Don't Need This Book" book. The Startup-Investor Matching Tool's intros have led to 24 checks ($3.8M+!).
Congrats
Rebecca Lynn for raising $350M for Canvas Ventures. Nikhil Basu Trivedi and Mike Smith for raising $175M for Footwork. Monique and Melvin Rodriguez for raising $100M for Mielle Organics. Travis Montaque for raising $36M for Holler. Sarah Kunst for raising $20M for Cleo Capital. Ariela Safira for raising $10M for Real. Kathryn Finney for raising $5M for Genius Guild. Sophie Novati for raising $4M for Formation. Kim and Tim Lewis for raising over $2M for CurlMix. Sarah Cannon, Aaron Holiday, Lauren Kolodny, Jenny Lefcourt, Elliott Robinson, Reshma Sohoni, Julie Yoo, and everyone else who made the Forbes Midas Brink List.
SPONSORED Founders: every year, the government sets aside $150B in tax credits. MainStreet plugs directly into your payroll system and checks for 200+ credits every month. We’ve helped startups claim $80M+ the last year alone, and it’s free to see how much you’re owed. On average, we are saving founders $51,040! Learn more here.
Funders
Leslie Feinzaig | LPs and VCs: find out how to increase representation at funds
Kauffman Fellows | Emerging fund managers: model your portfolio construction
Startup-Investor Matching Tool | VCs: receive thesis-aligned customized deal flow
🌈 Want to invest in women and people of color emerging fund managers? Sign-up here.
SPONSORED Are you a Black Founder building a scalable company that rejuvenates your community? Genius Guild is a business creation platform that is supporting high growth Black Entrepreneurs. Learn more here.
Founders
Asking for a founder | Read answers to “should founders raise to build their MVP?”
Asking for a founder | Learn how to get customer feedback in this thread
Asking for a founder | Review this list of mistakes to avoid as a founder
📚 Want more resources? Here are courses + services for you.
SPONSORED Retail founders: Target’s newest accelerator program Target Forward Founders is looking for early-stage product brands looking to learn how to scale into retail for their 8-week accelerator program. Apply here by May 12th, 11:59PM CST.
Money
Sound Ventures | NFT founders: apply by 4/21 to compete for a $1M+ investment
ERA | NYC founders: apply by 4/26 to ERAs Accelerator and get $100K
1863 Ventures | Black founders: apply to get a 3Rs $5K grant
Equity Crowdfunding | Raise up to $5 million
Non-dilutive capital | Create a profile to find non-dilutive capital
👋🏽 Want investor intros? Sign-up for The Startup-Investor Matching Tool and, if you founded a community-driven co, submit to The Community Fund.
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