🤑 Money culture, NFTs, cats, equity crowdfunding, community, and $1 million in cash & credits
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 7,361 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.
Money culture got a boost this week with NFTs and equity crowdfunding amendments! Yup. A meme of a cat playing a piano sold for $61K, this Beeple JPG sold for $69M on an NFT platform (last month, this flying cat meme sold for $590K), and Jack Dorsey’s first tweet is going for $2.5M. And the there was this. The SEC’s amendment that allows founders to raise $5M on equity crowdfunding platforms went live on Monday, 3/15. That same day, Gumroad raised $5M on equity crowdfunding platform Republic.
I looked into becoming an NFT art creator but, as it turns out, you have to pay “gas fees” to play. So, I’m a pass for now on that side-hustle. But I did invest a tiny amount into Sahil’s Gumroad and Arlan’s Backstage fundraise. Definitely here for the trailblazers pushing for the democratization of retail + VC investing! Why? I love the idea of underestimated founders raising a meaningful amount of money that will both infuse capital into our startups and leverage a community-driven moat.
Speaking of community, did you hear that Brianne Kimmel is raising a $60M fund to invest in the creator and builder community? Her first fund was $5M, like ours at The Community Fund. I’m getting ideas.
✨ Lolita Taub
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ICYMI: Forbes, Inside, and Clay & Milk featured me. Startup-Investor Matching Tool intros have resulted in 22 checks ($3.8M+!).
Congrats
Congrats GB for raising $170M for Flutterwave. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson and Lisa Myers for raising $100M for Clerisy Capital. Erik Torenberg for raising $125M for Village Global. Don Thompson for raising $70M for Cleveland Avenue. Kendrick Nguyen for raising $36M for Republic. Candice and Brian Brackeen for being awarded $5M for LightShip Capital. Sahil Lavingia for raising $5M for Gumroad. Chrissy Cowdrey for raising $1.3M for Stagger. Maria Salamanca for making Partner at Unshackled Ventures. Meera Clark for becoming a principal at Obvious Ventures.
Funders
Paige Doherty | Learn how to set up your syndicate/SPV
Alex Iskold | Read why its hard to learn the business of VC
Startup-Investor Matching Tool | Receive thesis-aligned and customized deal flow
🌈 Want to invest in women and people of color emerging fund managers? Sign-up here.
SPONSORED Interested in becoming an angel investor? In case you missed it, you can now become a Backstage Capital investor and share upside with Arlan and her team by investing in their groundbreaking Reg CF. You don't have to be accredited, and investments start at $100.
Founders
First Pitches | Learn how Sid Viswanathan built a healthcare unicorn
Steph Nass | Check-out OpenVCs investor database
Goldman Sachs | Underestimated founders: apply to join GS’s accelerator by 3/29
📚 Want more resources? Here are courses + services for you.
SPONSORED JOB Konvoy Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on video gaming, is hiring an Associate to join the investment team in their Denver office. If you're interested in working at the intersection of digital entertainment and venture, check out the job description and apply!
Community-Driven Cos
Allison James | Read about one VC’s perspective on what makes a community
Lolita Taub | Check out this and this list of VCs creating community to follow
The Community Fund | Join the next TCF chat on clubhouse to learn how our partners decide to invest
🙌🏽 Building a community-driven co? Submit your co to The Community Fund.
Money
GSV Ventures | Apply to pitch for $1M in prizes by 3/31
Lightship Capital | Apply to pitch for a $25K check
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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