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
Speaking up is easier than you think
Two Black womxn founders improving kids’ toys & activities
Acquisitions and deals you need to know about
Some tweets to round out your week
What's On My Mind 💭
I’ve been thinking…
In a meeting this week, someone asked me why I am such a vocal supporter of Black, Brown, Latino, and other Founders of Color. I've always said that it was because of my experience fundraising as a solo woman founder in the tech industry. I saw firsthand the challenge that underrepresented people face and I lived it, in a way, by not having a wildly impressive pedigree, ivy league connections, or safety net. We dug in deeper to talk about my background and I explained working in foreclosure law and seeing the effects it had on the families who lost their homes, I moved into debtor's rights and criminal defense and began helping clients through the hardest part of their life, through my job as a paralegal.
It became clear as I talked about my background that I have been fighting social justice since I was 19 years old and supporting families and clients struggling with debt, foreclosure, and criminal cases. This isn't new to me, but the act of being vocal about it online and standing up for what I believe in is.
But as I continue to learn about the privilege of my whiteness I feel that it's even more important that I give my privilege to allow for equal opportunity to those who have been historically overlooked.
For the past year, I've been reading and learning as much as I can to be a better ally but not just that, to truly understand the Black experience so I can find a way to be the change and be sure my children will also be the change. This week, I just started reading Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, and even in the first few stories, I am learning more about African American history than I did in school and that is just not right. Ibram said, "The fact that whiteness was something that could exist only in purity, not in percentages, was something reinforced throughout my entire life."
I learn so I can teach my children and family members to be better. I support overlooked founders because I have a privilege that I, as a white woman, will use to help others who don't. It's that simple.
What I’ve Been Working On 💁🏻♀️
Things I care about that I want to share
Announcing My Last Investment for 2021 - Couplet ☕️
Everyone should taste specialty coffee, and Couplet is making that possible. Their curated, sustainably sourced selection of coffee gets delivered right to your door. You don't have to be a coffee snob to enjoy good coffee. Couplet Coffee was my last investment for a while, and I'm happy to wrap up with this amazing company and its founder Gefen Skolnick. P.S. they release limited edition merch made by underrepresented artists every other week that sells out pretty fast. Make sure you sign up for updates on their website, Couplet Coffee is launching early this year.
I've started a new series on Twitter to support founders. Each week, I choose a helpful topic for entrepreneurs and provide advice or connections. This week was all about investor + mentor office hours. I urged investors to drop their links so that founders could connect with them. Just from this week, I've received dozens of DMs and messages from founders who got a call or found a mentor. Even a little bit of work goes a long way!
Top Secret Projects for Overlooked Founders
Over the last few months, I've been working on a couple of top-secret projects that will help overlooked founders. Stay tuned…. 👀
Recently Hit the Stands 📰
Things in the news you should check out
Change The Game, Not The Players: Why Nobody Should Have To Overcome Imposter Syndrome
In 2020, only 7.4% of Fortune 500 companies had a womxn CEO, and in 2021, only 2 Black womxn are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. While it's important to celebrate these womxn in leadership, these numbers should be higher. Imposter syndrome and an especially challenging year for womxn in the workforce are two things we need to address.
HmntyCntrd named one of the 10 most innovative design companies of 2021
Vivianne Castillo, who was featured as a Founder You Should Follow a few issues ago, was just featured in FastCompany. Her company, HmntyCntrd was highlighted as one of the 10 most innovative design companies this year. As a professional growth community, HmntyCntrd provides classes for UX designers that help them put humans first in design and be more inclusive. Congratulations to Vivianne and the entire team at HmntyCntrd for this recognition!
Zapier buys no-code-focused Makerpad in its first acquisition
Popular workflow automation tool Zapier acquired its first company, Makerpad. Makerpad is a platform that teaches individuals how to build software without coding. Since its first and only round of fundraising in 2012, Zapier has expanded its core product and remote team. Ben Tossell, founder of Makerpad, said that his company will be a "stand-alone entity" from Zapier. One of the coolest parts about this deal is that it started from a tweet.
This Pipe-ing hot startup just raised $50M to be the ‘Nasdaq for revenue’
Pipe was founded by Harry Hurst, Josh Mangel, and Zain Allarakhia in 2019 to SaaS companies a way to convert their revenue into capital. Over the last year, Pipe raised $16 million collectively, and just announced news of a new strategic equity round of funding at $50 million. With this additional capital, Pipe is expanding into other recurring revenue companies like D2C subscription companies.
Hot Take of the Week 🔥
Somebody had to say it
Ok, so the hot take this week is from me because I am back on TikTok and it's too fun not to share these.
A Little Birdie Told Me 🐦
Tweet of the week
Walk the Walk 💰
Investors putting their money where their mouth is
Goldman Sachs Invests $10 Billion In New 'One Million Black Women' Initiative
Black womxn are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs and are highly educated. Although Black womxn are making strides, they are still neglected, making 63 cents on the dollar to white, non-Hispanic men. With One Million Black Women, Goldman Sachs is making the biggest investment ever focused exclusively on Black Womxn.
Brianne Kimmel raising $60M for Fund II at WorkLife
Founder of WorkLife Ventures, Brianne Kimmel, just filed the paperwork for the firm's second fund. WorkLife coins itself as the "first venture capital firm for the new era" and it's already leaving a huge mark by investing in tools to help make work and life easier.
African payments company Flutterwave raises $170M, now valued at over $1B
Launched in 2016, Flutterwave is a Nigerian and U.S.-based payments company. The company provides APIs to help other companies build custom payment applications. Flutterwave just raised $170 million, with total funding at $225 million. Congratulations to Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola and the entire team!
Y Combinator updated its directory to feature its women-founded companies. The directory includes hundreds of companies with a womxn founder and even has combined stats on the companies featured. Visit the directory for more.
Ardent Venture Partners aims to raise $100 million
Two DC venture capitalists joined teams to start a new firm, Ardent Venture Partners. Phil Bronner, a Black VC, and Phil Herget have over 50 years of combined experience in venture capital and are using that experience to invest in companies that are transforming work.
Founders You Should Follow 👀
Founders making moves
Yelitsa Jean-Charles, Healthy Roots Dolls
Yelitsa Jean-Charles founded Health Roots Dolls to represent diversity and empower girls. The company creates storybooks and released its first doll, Zoe. Beyond creating a brown doll, Healthy Roots helps young girls embrace their curls and with curl care education play. My daughter has the Zoe doll and loves her so much! Healthy Roots Dolls just got into Target and many other prominent retail stores. We love everything Yelitsa is doing to put toys in aisles that represent diversity.
Jasmine Paul, CreateFinStew
Jasmine Paul is the founder of CreateFinStew, a fintech startup that helps children understand finances and helps parents teach them. United States Armed Forces Veteran and Author of the award-winning children's book A Boy, a Budget, and a Dream. created an edutainment course for money management and financial literacy for children ages 4-8 and interactive group financial coaching for parents, organizations, and schools.
What Founders Need to Know 🤔
Advice and resources you didn't know you needed.
Harlem Capital tweeted out a few essential questions that founders need to ask venture capitalists. It's a two-way street, after all.
What is an NFTs? A non-fungible token is a "non-duplicable digital certificate of ownership for any assigned digital asset" (Digiday). Dani explains the topic further in this thread.
At the end of every conversation, ask for another connection. This simple tip can take you a long way.
Gale Wilkinson lists out the most important KPIs and why they matter from a seed-stage VC's perspective.
Upcoming Startup Events
Let's Talk Money | Founder Fridays on Clubhouse - March 12th
Join 7 womxn founders and investors, including myself, today at 11AM PST for Founder Fridays. For Women's History Month, we are all sharing our stories of raising capital as womxn, and how we overcame the challenges we faced while doing it.
The Future of Food | SXSW Online 2021 - March 19th
Moderated by our friend Shondra Washington, the host of Pitch Practice on Clubhouse, this session at SXSW Online is a pitch event to celebrate and highlight the founders changing the future of food. Signup for free
2021 Unity and Inclusion Summit hosted by 500 Startups - April 7th-8th
Started in 2016, 500 Startups's Unity and Inclusion Summit has been at the center of empowering, uplifting, and creating better opportunities for diverse founders and investors in VC. Some of our favorites in the industry will be speaking:
Long Time Listener 🎧
Drop-in audio rooms and podcasts you need to know about
Ben Jabbawy, the host of The Ecommerce Marketing Show, brought on Yelsita Jean-Charles, founder of Healthy Roots Dolls to talk about her startup story. Starting as a brand on Kickstarter, Yelsita grew her company and just raised $1M in funding. Listen to this episode to hear more about Yelsita's inspiring journey and her new deal with Target.
Before you go 🚪
Check out what you might have missed
Too relatable for all my murderino friends.
Trying to find more women in VC? Look no further.
Don't sleep on the MidBEST
This brings me such joy.
Thanks for reading! I’ll catch you next time. And don’t forget to share Let’s Start Up with your community!