Hi there 👋 Welcome to the Let's Start Up newsletter, curated by me, Janine Sickmeyer, a tech founder turned angel investor. Follow me as I share startup tips, industry news, founders you should know, and investors putting their money where their mouth is. Let’s Start Up, is a community of its own with an emphasis on the overlooked and underrepresented.
What's In This Issue 🗞
A brief look into what you'll be reading about
Building an app when you don't know how to code
Startup news you can't miss
Commitments to minority-owned businesses
#Memestocks
What's On My Mind 💭
I’ve been thinking…
Being an entrepreneur is a lot like being an artist. You spend hours and hours working so hard on this beautiful piece that you know will become THE piece. The one you can be proud of. And then after so much hard work, messy hands, and heart. Oh, so much heart. You take a look at it and it just never feels finished. But you let it go, thinking that if you keep painting or keep molding or keep orchestrating, it will become something you don’t even recognize anymore.
And when you reflect back on it months or even years later, you can remember the exact moment in time when you knew it was special. Much like a work of art, you can remember what you were thinking about as you composed the notes, and what you were imagining as you skated each color across the canvas. You remember the thoughts that flew in and out of your mind as you placed the words on the page. And no matter what you are building, you are an artist. An artist of engineering.
Elle Luna was a designer for Square when she sought more creativity and freedom for her life. She quit her startup job in a popular article she penned called The Crossroads of Should and Must that she later turned into a book. This was a guiding light for me as an entrepreneur. The article came at the time I needed it most - when I was in the heat of building my app and everyone around me was getting funding, moving into an office, hitting revenue targets and I was left hearing those four little words echo through my mind from all of my family and friends "When are you launching?", leaving me to wonder why I ever wanted to become a starving artist.
If you're a startup founder working hard to build your company, or find product-market-fit or trying to raise money through a pandemic - I see you. I see that beautiful artwork you are creating and if you meet with people who have to tilt their head to see it, they will never understand how it feels to be it. Find the right people to take on your journey.
Speaking of art: I recently discovered Wilsar, an artist-entrepreneur, who inspired this intro. I spent hours looking through her pieces and selected one that spoke to me. If you're looking for new artwork, I suggest checking a few of my favorite Black artists: Jade Purple Brown, Shabazz Larkin, Wilsar Creative, Corey Pemberton (in order below).
What I’ve Been Working On 💁🏻♀️
Things I care about that I want to share
10 Days of Dealflow
10 Days of Dealflow is coming to an end, and we've seen so much interest from founders and investors alike. Dozens of startup inquiries later, the first 10 Days of Dealflow was one to remember. On Sunday, January 31, we'll be sending out a roundup email just in case you missed any of the deals and so you can see the stats. If you can't wait for the roundup, scroll through the Let's Start Up twitter, our DMS are still open.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching a Tech Product without Tech Experience
Launching a tech product with no tech experience is a challenge – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to make it happen. In a feature by Mailchimp and Courier Magazine, I’m interviewed sharing how I got my product off the ground without being a technical founder. Check it out for a little inspiration.
Recently Hit the Stands 📰
Things in the news you should check out
A 23-year-old CEO explains the tricks for successfully attracting Gen Z customers
Gen Zs are a hugely influential segment of consumers, and brands should be paying attention to them. Tiffany Zhong, CEO of Zebra IQ, shares how Gen Zs are different than millennials and the way this key demographic is "shifting the paradigm around money, education, and work." Listen to Tiffany Zhong and Connie Chan of a16z share how to partner with Gen Z influencers and the right way to use emojis.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are growing, and the women's health space is no exception. Stix is one of the DTC brands quickly gaining traction. The brand has been selling pregnancy and ovulation tests for over a year, and now they just added a new line of products for UTIs. Now, they're serving an even larger market beyond pregnancy and fertility. Founders Cynthia Plotch and Jamie Norwood, have seen a surge in sales (70% growth) during the pandemic, and the growth is only expected to continue.
Stripe leads $102 million funding round for online checkout start-up Fast
Online payment processing giant Stripe just made a large investment in Fast, a 1-click checkout and login company. Fast just announced this Series B funding round only two months after their first checkout product was released. CEO Domm Holland describes Fast as a "one-click checkout for the entire internet." With the product, shoppers don't have to keep entering in their information or even go to their cart to purchase an item. Fast is said to also help online retailers get more sales since shoppers are more willing to complete their purchase without "shopping cart abandonment" and a faster checkout experience.
Hot Take of the Week 🔥
Somebody had to say it
A Little Birdie Told Me 🐦
Tweet of the week
Walk the Walk 💰
Investors putting their money where their mouth is
Plaid launches FinRise, an incubator for underrepresented fintech founders
Plaid, a company that helps other companies build fintech solutions so that they can connect their financial data to apps and services. The company just announced FinRise, an incubator for fintech founders from underrepresented backgrounds. This nine-month incubator is looking for three to five post-seed and pre-Series B tech startups with a product in the beta stage.
Apple commits 35 million dollars to Harlem Capital and the Clear Vision Impact Fund
Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, shared news of their $35 million commitment to Harlem Capital and the Clear Vision Impact Fund, two groups who are accelerating, supporting, and growing Black-owned businesses on the Apple Financial Results Conference Call.
How Atlanta's Calendly turned a scheduling nightmare into a $3B startup
Scheduling virtual meetings can be a bit messy, and now that many of us are WFH, we need help more than ever. Calendly, an online scheduling tool founded by Tope Awotona, just closed a $350 million investment from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq, and is now valued at over $3 billion.
NextView Ventures closes NextView IV
NextView Ventures just announced the closing of their fourth fund of $100 million. This fund is double the size of their third one, but even though it's larger, the company's mission is still to empower diverse, exceptional early-stage entrepreneurs.
Investors You Should Follow 👀
Founders making moves
Abadesi Osunsade, Hustle Crew
Founder & CEO of Hustle Crew, VP of community at Brandwatch, author, and podcast co-host, Abadesi Osunsade is making strides. Hustle Crew offers workshops so that companies can optimize for inclusion in everything they do. Their workshops are applicable to any company in any industry and take a broad approach so that you can apply the learned framework to any decision. You can also sign up for a Hustle Crew membership for weekly newsletters, a Bias & Inclusion Wiki, and monthly workshops. If you're committed to changing your community and being more inclusive, this membership is a must.
Karen Young, OUI the People
Karen Young is a human-based marketer, product genius, and the founder of OUI the People, a company that creates better bodycare. Oui the People has a mission to watch their language with the reConstitution of Beauty. Karen did some research on popular beauty brands and found that they're selling to women in an antiquated fashion - using terms like anti-aging, flawless, and perfect. Oui the People is focused on making womxn and those who are non-binary feel great in their own skin. Browse around their website. Trust us, you won't be disappointed.
What Founders Need to Know 🤔
Advice and resources you didn't know you needed.
Micro funds are becoming more popular, and one of the well-known players in the space is the Weekend Fund. This two-person team is a $10M fund and their methods are a little different from the traditional ones. Read how they work with startups on their blog.
When you're raising capital, you have to master the art of negotiation. Fundraising is all about building momentum and creating a sense of urgency. If you're currently raising, read this thread from Elizabeth Yin.
Jamie Lee Melzer, Founder of CPG brand Watermelon Road and investor to early-stage consumer companies, has learned a lot since she started angel investing a year ago. She put together a ton of resources for those in the VC Industry in this guide.
Fundraising is a lot more complicated than it seems and it can be the most difficult part of starting a company. Gigi Levy-Weiss, a General Partner at NFX, compiled all of her knowledge into a Non-Obvious Guide to Fundraising.
Cleared for Takeoff 🚀
Stagger helps brands tell their stories visually, and more effectively. Built for small businesses, the online app allows you to design a story using animated or still assets and templates from designers and publish it anywhere online. Now, you can measure the performance of your embedded stories using the analytics dashboard. You can embed your staggers in web platforms like Webflow, WordPress, and Wix. Public beta is now open so that you can try it out for free.
Opal's Digital Wellbeing Assistant
Now more than ever, we're dependent on our screens. Opal is a digital well-being assistant for iPhone users. Through a VPN service, you can block distracting websites and apps, lockdown apps, and even set schedules for usage. Opal just raised $4.3 million in funding, and unlike other VPNs, it won't collect your private browsing data.
Before you go 🚪
Check out what you might have missed
WHAT is going on with GameStop stock? Explain it to me like I'm a 5-year-old....
A bunch of people on Reddit got together and bought GameStop stock, making the price rise, and a hedge fund lost billions of dollars through what's called a "short squeeze". The losses surpassed what they were worth and they had to file bankruptcy.
Redditors started looking for other hedge funds with massive short exposure so they could short squeeze them into bankruptcy as well.
Meanwhile, Robinhood restricted trading for GameStop, AMC, and other #Memestocks, which quickly turned into a class-action lawsuit and brought both AOC and Ted Cruz to agree on the same thing for the first time ever.
But before you go rush over to Public and put your life savings into Nokia because Dave Portnoy told you to, listen to investor Chris Sacca shares advice from his own experience: don't trade with money you don't own!
Thanks for reading! I’ll catch you next time. And don’t forget to share Let’s Start Up with your community!