​This is a bi-weekly newsletter of curated actionable insights and resources for underestimated founders, funders, and friends. We're 10,608 strong and growing.

​Welcome to our very first issue on Luma and, for those wondering, we’ll soon open up applications to join our FREE but curated community — where you'll be able to access $250K+ in SaaS tool & product discounts, find exclusive resources and content, browse the member directory, see and join upcoming events, and chat with other members! Thank you to all of you for creating a global community of thousands of underestimated founders, funders, and friends supporting each other on our journey to startup-investor success!

​Speaking of “success,” how do we define it? Well, according to the Populace & Gallup Success Index, less than 10% of Americans define success in status-oriented, comparative, or zero-sum terms, yet Americans believe most do. The data shows that we largely associate success with education (17.1%), relationships (15.6%), and character (15.6%). Fun fact: 86% of Americans feel successful.

​What is success to you? For limited partners (LPs), success is delivering alpha for their investors by investing in venture capital fund general managers (GPs). For GPs, success is producing outsized returns for their LPs by investing in unicorns. For venture-backed founders, success is building unicorns.

​What is success to me? As a GP, success is producing alpha, but as a human, it is so much more than that. Success, to me, is about pushing through old narratives anchored in internalized racism and survival and proving that the members of our underestimated and underrepresented are made to be bosses and to create generational wealth. Going one layer deeper, it's about getting away from zero-sum thinking and leveraging an abundance mindset. Success is about knowing in your bones that supporting each other doesn’t minimize but instead enlarges the pie of opportunity, enables us to reclaim our power, and allows us to re-write stories of turbulence to ones that illustrate the strength that comes from honoring, embracing, and accepting who we are as individuals and as a community.

​I’m excited to see our community grow, succeed, and pave the way for those who come behind us. Shout out to my good friend Elias Torres for giving birth to a Latino-founded unicorn (<1% of unicorns are Latino-founded) and leading by example!

​✨ Lolita Taub
twitter | lu.ma
Recently featured in RAISE, Confluence, and The Next 14: Black & Latinx Emerging Fund Managers to Know (+ Fund).

​Congrats

​Eva Ho (on the cover) raised $160M Fika Ventures Fund III and $35M for an opportunity fund. Kate Ryder raised $110M for Maven. Eve Halimi raised $2.1M for Alinea. Fatima Dicko raised $2.5M for Sugar. Jelanie Memory (on the cover) raised $7M for A Kids Company About. Ashlee Wisdom (on the cover) raised $1M for Health in Her Hue.

​SPONSORED: Underrepresented fintech founders, Mastercard has a program for you: Start Path! Their early-stage programming offers industry expertise, enterprise partnership preparedness, investor engagement, and exposure. You will also be considered for a non-dilutive equity grant. Learn more and apply by 9/6.

​Funders

​Cheryl Campos | LPs: 14 Black & Latinx emerging fund managers to know

​Lerer Hippeau | Aspiring angels: attend Gen Z VCs Summit & learn how to break in on 9/17

​BLCK VC | Aspiring Black VCs: apply for a 9-week investor training program by 9/10

​Startup-Investor Matching Tool | VCs: meet thesis-aligned underrepresented founders

​GP-LP Matching Tool | LPs: get thesis-aligned intros to underrepresented GPs

​SPONSORED: c/olabworks is an independent and minority-owned venture lab with a mission to build meaningful companies focused on emerging cultural trends & categories. Sound interesting? Get in touch!  

​Founders

​All Raise | Women and non-binary founders: get your FREE fundraising masterclass

​Asking for a founder | Access a list of SaaS products made by underrepresented founders

​Asking for a founder | Get resources to learn no-code

​Morgan Stanley | Underrepresented founders: apply for a 5-month multicultural accelerator by 9/16

​LaaS | Underrepresented founders: get resources made for you.

​SPONSORED: Fundraising? Leverage Visible's purpose-built fundraising CRM for founders. Use LOLITA690 to receive 90% off your first 6 months.  

​Money

​Y Combinator | Founders: apply for the Winter 22 cohort and receive $125K by 9/8

​iFundWomen | Female founders: apply for a funding program with a $100K prize

​SoGal Foundation | Black female founders: apply for $5-$10K in grants

​1863 Ventures | Black founders: apply to get a 3Rs $5K grant

​Non-dilutive capital | Create a profile to find non-dilutive capital

​Equity Crowdfunding | Raise up to $5 million

​Startup-Investor Matching Tool | Founders: get intros to investors

​Jobs

​Copy.ai | Full-Stack Engineer (Remote)

​Klever | Bilingual CTO (Remote)

​Seva Exchange Corporation | VP of Product Engineering (Remote)

​💥 See all open roles and post yours here.

​Want more? Follow me @lolitataub and let me know how I can help. Want to support our newsletter and get featured? Become a sponsor.