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The Advantage of Having Venture Backed Friends

This is going to be BIG.

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.

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Playing the Long Game in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

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.

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Introducing Trust, and the Importance of Product-Founder Fit

Both Sides of the Table

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

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5 Things VC Associates Wish Founders Knew Before Their Call

Dream It

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.

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Lessons from a Diverse Venture Capital Portfolio

This is going to be BIG.

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.

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The Bad Advice Diverse Founders are Given Around Fundraising

This is going to be BIG.

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.

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NEC X Accepting Applications for Elev X! Ignite Venture Studio

American Entrepreneurship

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.