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I’ll be the first to back up the notion that diverse founders have just as much ambition, drive, intellectual horsepower, creativity—you name it—than anyone else. There is, however, an advantage that some founders have over others that I hate to admit exists—but one that I would very much like to solve for.
The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game.
founders, marketers, investors?—?and As a VC, one of the key things I’m looking for in any new investor is “product-founder fit” e.g. does this founder have an insight or advantage that makes them uniquely suited to successfully build this product and business? Founders, marketers and growth leaders?—?join
The venture capital screening call is an important step to get right in due diligence. In this Dreamit Dose, associates Alana Hill and I, Elliot Levy , offer five things we wish founders knew after screening over 1,000 startups in the last year. It’s honestly refreshing when we hear a founder that’s no BS and succinct during the Q/A.
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder. Fifteen had co-founders over 40. Five have LGBTQ+ founders. Three teams have African-American founders.
Yesterday, I met with a founder with an interesting model who was raising $400k to bring the finishing touches to her product to make it customer-ready. First off, the vast majority of venture dollars goes to white men. This blog post is not about debating if "enough" diverse founders get funding--whatever that might mean.
Entrepreneurs with innovative ideas utilizing NEC’s technologies and businesses can move their ventures forward into seed-ready startups upon acceptance into NEC’s Elev X! Venture Studio. empowers ambitious founders with bold ideas to create a lasting impact,” said Shintaro Matsumoto, President and CEO of NEC X.
Press Release The venture fund and growth-focused accelerator accepted the cohort from a field of nearly 2,000 pre-Series A companies NEW YORK CITY, NY — April 2, 2019 — Dreamit Ventures, an early stage venture fund and growth-focused accelerator, announced its latest batch of startups this week.
One is “tentpole company,” or a category-defining startup that helps put their hometown on the map, both for investors and future generations of founders. Internally, we’ve begun using the term “founder-market-geography fit” to describe this idea. What is Founder-Market-Geography Fit? Let’s get into it.
Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs.
Two prominent entrepreneurs share their views on starting a business plus 10 tips every first-time founder should have. A founders journey when taking on the challenge of launching a startup is filled with highs and lows.Their path to success will have challenges, setbacks, and moments of doubt.
When I look at all of the opportunities we are currently considering plus all of the investments we have made this year to date, what stands out most to me is the location of the founders and teams. It takes a long time, at least five years and more likely a decade, to know how changes in the startup economy and venture capital will play out.
co-founder). This shows that you’re comfortable at “trial closing” and the type of founder who actively looks for the “obstacles to sale.” It set you miles apart from other founders and quickly demonstrate your sales skills. Those are the 5 MORE things VCs wish startup founders knew before pitching.
Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. We are proud to announce the close of our 7th early-stage fund with $280 million to invest in seed and early stage founders. What do you do with a $650 million platform?
So the question remains: what is the appropriate amount of funding founders should request? This framework helps founders position their fundraising targets and avoid red flags with investors. Here are some common red flags for venture investors: Red Flag #1 : Ask isn’t tied to specific fundable milestones. Don’t do this.
The venture fund launched a completely virtual program with a focus on helping 13 Urbantech, Healthtech, and Securetech startups with business development, customer growth, and capital raising in a time of economic uncertainty. pic.twitter.com/oNozwB4OF3 — Dreamit Ventures (@dreamit) March 19, 2020.
During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? Paul Martino, General Partner at Bullpen Capital.
Studies show that diversity is key to sparking innovation and developing holistic solutions in early-stage ventures, The post expanding equity in STEM innovation: showcasing female founders of color appeared first on VentureWell. Innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental drivers of economic growth.
In almost every single investment I’ve ever made, I can think of a singular moment in my relationship with a founder that, no matter what came before or what might come after, defined our relationship. Not only that, but the venture community is extremely small when it comes to investor reputations.
Long before diversity and inclusion became buzzwords, we decided to make venture capital inclusive from day one at 500 Startups. The post Why Investing in Female Founders Matters Now More Than Ever appeared first on 500 Startups. Since 2010, we have expressed our commitment to those values in multiple ways.
Co-founders of sportsbook FanDuel, Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones, announced this week the public launch of their cryptocurrency casino and sportsbook B etHog and its closing of a $6 million seed funding round. Consumers now have a trusted brand of a first-class online casino and sports betting experience not found anywhere else.
If you’re a white professional in venture, you might feel uncomfortable tweeting or blogging about race. Besides, if you’re not comfortable with making mistakes and learning from them—what are you even doing in venture? Founders from communities of color are less likely to have personal wealth to fall back on.
Revolution Ventures Invests in Oula, the Maternity Care Startup Combining the Best of Obstetrics and Midwifery Oula will use the $28M Series B to open additional clinics and launch new services. With plans to open new clinics in 2025, the company is poised to become the largest U.S. employer of midwives.
In the beginning of my venture career, I knew of a firm that was involved in a highly competitive funding round that they ultimately failed to win. For years, he went on to advise other founders about how to generate VC interest, which really could have amounted to, “Be a warm body with a pulse in a sector that firm got shut out of a deal in.”
Founders are not machines. The rate is even higher among founders: Studies reveal that entrepreneurs are more prone to depression (30%) and anxiety disorders (27%) compared to non-entrepreneurs (Journal of Business Venturing). One Series A founder noted, “The peer-to-peer sessions were powerful. The feedback?
In Their Own Words: Female Founders and CEOs Discuss the Discourse That’s Missing (and Hitting) the Mark This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “ Inspire Inclusion ” — a call to recognize the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life, in all facets of life, including the innovation economy.
a pioneering company in quantum computing hardware, has secured a significant investment from Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc. The Expertise Behind Qolab: Co-founder John Martinis A key figure behind Qolabs innovations is Dr. John Martinis, the companys Co-founder and CTO.
Six startups showcased at Investopia 2025 represented a diverse range of industries, demonstrating the breadth of innovation within Crimson Founders 2025. Amongst these groundbreaking ventures, two startupsHexemBio and Spectrohmsecured key investor interest and accolades for their revolutionary technologies.
population, but in 2022, companies with solely female founders garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups. The long and short of it: Female founders face systemic barriers to founding, funding, and scaling their businesses. Women represent 50.5% of the U.S. That ticked up to 15.4%
This is what I know it feels like for a lot of founders and investors alikefloating in the rarified air of extremely successful people defined by their outcomes. When my wisdom teeth came in over the years, there were a few days here and there that the pain got so bad that had I woke up feeling as bad as I did the next day, I was going to do.
Steven Wamathai is the General Partner and Co-Founder of FrontEnd Ventures, a Kenya-focused venture capital fund committed to supporting local and diverse founder teams that are passionate about innovating and changing their value chains.
Jeff Berman is General Partner at Camber Creek , one of the first venture funds dedicated to real estate technology and the built world. The team owns, operates and manages over 150 million square feet of real estate, making Camber Creek one of the biggest value-add venture partners for real estate tech startups.
Post-AOL, I dedicated myself to backing and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Revolution. When I started AOL, not far from here in the fields of Northern Virginia, most of our venture dollars came from investors in Silicon Valley and New York. were on the platform.
That was a question posed to me by a new analyst at a venture capital fund. While there are lots and lots of really kind, generous people working in venture capital--the recently retired Howard Morgan, Hunter Walk, Brad Feld, and Karin Klein for example--it's really tough to argue that there isn't widespread jerkery. We're not jerks.
I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? I don’t have enough traction.
We gathered 50 founders from across the country for 36 hours of connection and candor in Alexandria, VA, and no surprise: We left inspired. We believe place matters, and that there’s no substitute for meeting founders where they are, in the ecosystems they’re building within.
During Q&A, both sides start engaging in a sort of conversational dance - with one side leading (VC/customer) and the other side following (founder). But often, we’ll hear founders misstep and repeat easy mistakes that throw off Q&A flow and cause startups to lose points.
Not in the “founder friendly” culture of tech anyway. An examination of several high profile stories this past year about female CEO issues lays bare the other reason: It’s not “founder friendly.” It’s male founder friendly. Founders have to reckon with that. Travis should hire her back?? He should have been long gone.
The idea of being a founder has never been so popular around the world, so how is that going to change industries and entire regions? This year we dove headfirst into the rise of corporate venture capital, the changing nature of venture capital education, and the important task of startup ecosystem building.
That's basically what founders have to do when they fundraise, because you'll never be more successful with an investor who thought it was their brilliant idea to invest in your company, not yours. One of my favorite phrases is "performing inception". Remember what we learned from the movie. VCs need to see your message time and time again.
Well, I missed something in the data that was subsequently reported on by PitchBook , one of the authors of the report: Venture funding for female founders has hit its lowest quarterly total in three years. Firms invested a total of $434 million in Q3—the lowest figure since the second quarter of 2017, according to PitchBook data.
miles to visit founders, college campuses, co-investors, ecosystem builders, and communities in rising cities. Rise of the Rest Senior Associate, James Barlia , and Senior Director of Strategy, Jamie Rodota , also headed to the Palmetto State to meet with local investors and judge the College of Charleston Founders Club’s pitch competition.
Seed funding came from venture firms committed to deep tech. Co-founders Halen Mattison and Luke Neise announced the closing of an $8 million seed round for their startup G eneral Galactic , a pioneer in fossil-free fuel generation technology. We started General Galactic to be the energy company of the future.
Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.
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