Hi there 👋 Welcome to Let’s Start Up a newsletter, curated by me, Janine Sickmeyer, a tech founder turned investor. Follow me as I share startup tips, industry news, founders you should know, and investors putting their money where their mouth is.
What's In This Issue 🗞
A brief look into what you'll be reading about
A big milestone!
Things I’m excited about this Summer
Two women building impressive businesses
What's On My Mind 💭
I’ve been thinking…
I hit 50,000 followers on Twitter! 🥳
I created my Twitter account in 2008 to connect with fellow entrepreneurs who were building in Columbus. I was starting my first company and was in search of a community that I could lean on for advice and support.
For the next 12 years, I was on and off Twitter because I was a little busy growing my startup and having kids! I didn’t hit my stride on Twitter until 2020 when I found my voice and started speaking up for what I believe in.
Back when I was starting my first company, I used Twitter as an outlet to talk about the challenges and big wins. I guess you could say I was building in public before it was cool. I’ve grown and changed since 2008: launched & sold that first company, started angel investing, and now I’m co-leading Overlooked Ventures and building Cobble.
Twitter has been a place for such amazing community and support. The amazing friends I met there have encouraged me to just go for it and have been the best cheerleaders along the way. Thank you to all of you, whether you’re a Twitter follower or not, for supporting and challenging me when I’ve needed it most. This might be cheesy… but I wouldn’t be here without you 💙
To celebrate, here’s a throwback picture from a photoshoot with my dear friend Allie Lehman.
What I’ve Been Working On 💁🏻♀️
Things I care about that I want to share
I’ve been on all sides of the startup journey from bootstrapped founder to exited angel investor to institutionally-backed VC. Read this AMA thread I did, and feel free to ask any questions you have!
Summer events
This Summer, I’ll be at conferences and events and I can’t wait to meet you all IRL! Let me know if you’ll be at the following events or in the cities they’re taking place.
Tuesday, July 12th: Insight Partners - Vision Capital Summer Social in New York, NY
June 20-22: Collision Conference in Toronto
Monday, June 20 at 1:30 pm et: Securing your first LPs: How to build a winning pitch
Wednesday, June 22 at 11:30 pm et: Moving past male, pale, and stale: Increasing diversity in VC
Wednesday, June 22 at 2:40 pm et: Finding the founders of tomorrow
Columbus, Ohio is quickly becoming the Midwest’s tech hub
Last week I spoke at the TechCrunch Columbus City Spotlight! Columbus is becoming a Midwest Tech Hub, with over $3 billion injected into the city’s startups over the last 10 years. Overlooked Ventures was featured as driving the future of Columbus’ startup scene!
Kabila Conversations: Normalizing MomPreneurship
I’ll be joining Kabila for a conversation about being a mother and an entrepreneur on July 7th at 11:00 am et. Learn more about Kabila and register here!
Recently Hit the Stands 📰
Things in the news you should check out
A downturn is nothing new for diverse founders
Women and racially diverse investors, founders, and operators don’t have the “doom-and-gloom mentality because we are so used to doing more with less,” says CEO of AllRaise Mandela SH Dixon. These founders have never had it easy. They’ve always had to get by and start a successful company without the never-ending supply of capital.
Female Funding: Meet The Female-Focused VC Firms Diversifying The Industry
Venture funding remains high in the UK. Although the total funding is high, women founders in the UK are only receiving 1% of the country’s funding. Diverse teams are proven to perform better, however, women and diverse individuals are not represented equally in venture capital. In a study, Equal Ventures found that over half of successful venture capital firms were led by white males, 11% by white women, and 1% led by black women.
Black Founders Matter presses VCs to pledge commitment to diversity
Marceau Michel, the founder of Black Founders Matter, a $10M fund that invests in Black founders, announced the 25 by 25 Pledge, a pledge that encourages venture capitalists to commit to investing a quarter of their funds into BIPOC women founders by the year 2025. The pledge also outlines that VC firms should have a staff of 25% BIPOC women.
Black Women Tech Talk’s Annual Roadmap to Billions Conference has secured BLCK VC and Upfront Ventures as partners for its 6th Annual conference. The largest gathering of diverse women, Roadmap to Billions is a hybrid conference that will take place virtually and in person in Brooklyn, New York. Black Women Tech Talk, BLCK VC, and Upfront Ventures are coming together to educate, empower, and allocate crucial funding dollars
Diversity: The Holy Grail Of Venture Capital
Annual VC funding increased by 4.4x from 2013 to 2021. As venture capital funding has increased, there have been more calls for more support for diversity in the VC and PE world. 77% of VC dollars go to white male founders, and unfortunately, this statistic hasn’t changed much in the last decade. Capital decisions are controlled by a homogenous group, and that needs to change.
It’s not business as usual (and investors are admitting it)
Investors aren’t pretending things aren’t business as usual. Top accelerators and investors like Y Combinator are telling their portfolio founders to plan for the worst, along with advice for weathering the storm. In this TechCrunch article, Natasha Mascarenhas shares what investors are telling their founders in “black swan” memos.
Which Startup Investors Pulled Back The Most So Far In 2022?
Crunchbase analyzed the spending patterns of the most active investors to see how their activity compares from 2022 to 2020. According to the data, the most active investors have made more investments this year than the previous year. Firms. like SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Insight Partners are up when you count their # of deals this year vs 2021.
The VC Reset: May 2022 Funding Falls Again, But Not At Every Stage
In May, Global VC funding was at $39 billion, according to Crunchbase data. This was the first month global VC funding had dropped below $40 billion. Late-stage and growth investing are the main stages seeing a slowdown, while seed-stage investing remains strong.
A Little Birdie Told Me 🐦
Tweet of the moment
Hot Take of the Week 🔥
Somebody had to say it
Founders You Should Follow 👀
Keep an eye on these founders making moves
Marcella Hall | Kabila
Marcella Hall is co-founder of Kabila, a co-founder matching app and community for tech founders. Marcella is also the Senior Manager of Engagement & Culture at goPuff, a recurring co-host of “M&A Stories” series with Fifth Chrome CEO Anirvan Sen, and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland. Coming soon, the Kabila app will help you organically connect with other founders across the globe while also providing valuable resources. Join the Kabila community and their waitlist for the launch of the Kabila app on the website!
Ariana Waller | Mueshi
CEO and engineer, Ariana Waller (also known as 🦄 Ariana the Techie) is the founder of Mueshi, pronounced mew she. Mueshi is a fine art NFT marketplace built on the Solana Blockchain and allows individuals to buy, sell, and fractionally invest in fine art NFTs. Ariana is a serial entrepreneur and a graduate of Tuskegee University. You can subscribe to Mueshi’s launch to be the first to know when the marketplace is live here.
Walk the Walk 💰
Companies and investors putting their money where their mouth is
L’Oréal launched BOLD FEMALE FOUNDERS to invest in start-ups led by women entrepreneurs. The fund will focus on companies worldwide across the wider beauty ecosystem, including brands, beauty tech, biotech, and green science.
Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
LACI, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, is launching a green-loan program for Black, brown, and women early-stage startups. The LACI Cleantech Debt Fund will offer loans of $25,000 to $250,000 to these founders.
Ulta Beauty launched the MUSE accelerator to support early-stage BIPOC founders. Shontay Lundy of Black Girl Sunscreen will be a mentor to the program, as well as other big name founders. All participants will receive $50k to accelerate their growth!
Deadline to Apply 📆
Opportunities and events you don’t want to miss
Apply to Pitch at 2022 TechCrunch Events
TechCrunch put together a Typeform for founders to apply for all early-stage features and pitch offs across Startup Battlefield 200 at TC Disrupt, industry-specific events, and TC Spotlight events.
Black Founders Demo Day | August 20
On August 20th in Miami, 16 selected companies will be invited to demonstrate their company and pitch on the main stage. Apply if you’re a founder or sign up to attend here.
Refactr.Tech | September 14-16
The Refactr.tech conference showcases marginalized people & allies, and it’s in-person Sep 14-16, 2022. Get your early-bird tickets now. Also, check out that speaker lineup!
New on the Founders Library! 📚
Founder resources from Cobble
In this section, we’re sharing articles, downloads, and more from Cobble’s Founders Library. These materials are FREE, all you have to do is sign up for a Cobble account.
Article: Tips for Clear, Confident Communication
One of the most important traits for a founder is the ability to communicate. You’re communicating constantly with your team, investors, prospects, and clients. In each interaction, you’re not just communicating a MESSAGE (which is the specific information you want to share) — you’re also communicating signals about yourself as a MESSENGER. Are you someone who is trustworthy? Dependable? Able to inspire others?
Article: Knowing Your Numbers
“Know your numbers” is a piece of advice constantly given to entrepreneurs. And for good reason: If you don’t know what metrics are core to your business and how you’re doing on them, you’re not going to successfully grow.
Sign up for Cobble to get access to all of these resources and more (it’s free).
New Funds Announced 🚀
Recently launched venture funds
After failing to raise capital and selling his on-demand dry cleaning startup to P&G, Vijen Patel started the 81 Collection, a $40M Fund that’s backing "boring" startups in industries typically overlooked by venture capital.
Hannah Grey, founded by Kate Beardsley and Jessica Peltz-Zatulove, is a VC firm that invests in customer-centric founders redefining everyday experiences. The firm invests at the pre-seed and seed stage, writing checks ranging from $400,000 to $1 million.
Good Growth Capital announced its third fund, which was oversubscribed at over $100 Million. Good Growth Capital is a majority woman and diverse-owned firm that invests in pre-seed through Series B companies that are disrupting health tech, green tech, and other sectors.
Dan Portillo and Phin Barnes, founders of the new firm The General Partnership, are taking an unconventional approach to VC. They’re betting that high-quality entrepreneurs will get more value from support like marketing help, recruiting services, and legal support. The General Partnership plans on providing this and more with their new $240 million fund.
Founder Tips 📝
What you need to know
Fundraising isn’t easy but Joe Speiser has a system that anyone can use to raise.
Don’t just post your blog with a link on Twitter. Take it a step further with this advice from Tommy Clark.
Tons of investors are still actively writing checks. Read through this thread to find some of them.
Long Time Listener 🎧
Podcasts & audio files you should listen to
Champagne Problem Pity Party with VP of Marketing at SparkToro, Amanda Natividad | Emotionally Fit
Dr. Emily Anhalt, the host of the Emotionally Fit podcast, invited Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at Spark Toro, to talk about downplaying our own struggles. In this episode of the Emotionally Fit podcast, Emily Anhalt shares why it’s okay to acknowledge our own pain while also empathizing with others. There is room to empathize with others
Investing in Calm Companies with Tyler Tringas from Calm Fund | Venturing in VC
Landon Campbell of Inside’s Venturing in VC podcast brings on Tyler Tringas, General Partner and Founder of Calm Company Fund. Tyler and his fund invest in software and software-enabled businesses at any stage. Listen to this episode to learn why Calm Company Fund doesn’t put founders on a unicorn or bust path.
Before You Go 🚪
What you might have missed.
This new Liquid Death marketing campaign is the laugh you need.
People are using TikTok, but it’s not for what you think.
Congratulations to Five to Nine founders Jasmine Shells and Denise Umubyeyi on their $4.25M seed round!
On June 22, Eric Bahn and Janel Spilker are launching a new YouTube series called Uncapped Notes.