🌾 Oat milk, GPT-3, underestimated founders, angels, alternatives to VC, 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 3,629 members. To access exclusive content, office hours, join our Slack community, and get your pitch deck reviewed become an annual subscriber.
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​Oprah and Natalie Portman are making oat milk a $2 Billion dollar thing. Sauvignon blanc is officially the pandemic wine of choice. KFC plans to 3D-print chicken nuggets. White Castle has robots now. GPT-3 is sexist. Snapchat is adding a meditation feature and Instagram is testing personal fundraising. And now you can smell like a campfire.
​So, we need more underestimated founders funded and more underestimated investors writing checks. To get underestimated founders connected to investors and access to capital, Josh and I created the Startup-Matching Tool. We have +200 investors and +600 startups on the tool. And over ~2.5 months that it’s been around, we’ve seen 6 checks written to startups. We’ve started getting more requests from aspiring angels also wanting to invest but not knowing where to start. So, I wrote this thread to answer angel FAQs and I’m actively exploring ways to support new/aspiring investors.
​I am also thinking about highlighting different types of capital founders can leverage. Because just look at the stats on where startups get funding right now:
​💳 57% personal savings and credit
👵 38% friends and family
🏦 1.43% banks
đź‘Ľ .91% angels
đź’° .05% venture capital (of that, 8%, 1% and .4% goes to women, Black, and Latinx- founded startups, respectively)
✨ ?% equity crowdfunding
​Clearly VC is for a tiny portion of the startup ecosystem and, for underestimated founders, most of the other capital sources are not an option. Here’s the thing, there are other alternatives: equity crowdfunding, side-hustles to bootstrap (I’m doing this), pitch competitions, grants, and what’s exciting is that more choices are popping up — like INTRO by Indie.vc.
​✨ Lolita Taub
link.tree | twitter
​ICYMI: Submit your co for funding consideration here. RSVP for the Vinetta Project Pitch 2nd semi-finals event (I'm a judge). Also, I'm a finalist for the Female Founders Alliance Champion Awards and you can vote for me here or watch my interview with Jason Calacanis here.
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​Congrats!
​Kirsten Green for raising $500M for her next Forerunner Fund. Sandhya Venkatachalam for becoming a Partner at Khosla Ventures. Harry Stebbings for launching the $8.3M 20VC Fund. Elias Torres for the $360M valuation of Drift. Ursula Burns, Lisa Price, Jewel Burks Solomon, Zim Flores, Stacey Brown Philpot, Camille Hearst, Suzanne Shank, Courtney Adeleye, Angela, and Aicha Evans for trailblazing with your company exits! Fonta Gillman, DeShuna Elisa Spencer, Shavini Fernando, and Cory Siskind for making the Vinetta Project DC’s Semi-Final Pitch Competition!
​Funders
​CBInsights | Q2’20 VC Report
Kauffman x Capital Access Lab | Investing in underestimated founders
Investing | Emerging fund managers talk about the evolving VC space
20MinuteVC | Interview with Harry Stebbings and Sarah Kunst
First Round | Josh Kopelman is looking to add a new Partner to First Round
Corigin Ventures | Black + Latinx GPs reach out to Corigin for LP money
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​Founders
​Techcrunch | Founder-friendly VC directory
Advice | Take this kind of smart money
Template | Writing your company’s value proposition
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
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​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__
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​Operators
​All Raise | Sign-up for speaking opportunities
Team Brainstorming | Check-out these virtual tools
Sales | Find your first customers
Developer Talent | Find developers for your company
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​Friends
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​Money
​Founder Grants | +80 grants for founders
Fundraise from Home | Apply to pitch a handful of awesome investors
Techstars Anywhere Accelerator | Applications are open
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
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​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