Not OK, WSJ

For some reason, The Wall Street Journal thinks it is OK to suggest diversity was one of the reasons Silicon Valley Bank failed.

This is not OK.

Via David Fogel and Jessica E. Lessin.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 13 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared that Wangie.app had prepped its therapists about Silicon Valley Bank.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Was relieved to hear the Silicon Valley Bank situation had been resolved.
Had a quick call with Jamie Beaumont of Playter.
Was pitched by Hassan Daher, CFA of Qardus.
Met my neighbour to be for a late breakfast.
Was pitched by a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.
Spoke with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners about the unbundled vc founder support program.
Had A Deeper Chat with 🌈 Dan Bowyer of SuperSeed.
Had an investment update call that was full of red flags.
Joined The Stage. Thank you Hector Mason for including me.
Collected my son from table tennis training.
Was gaslit by him.
Was told my head looked like a tic tac.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Wangie founder support

Fingers crossed this morning that the UK follows the US with action to guarantee depositors at Silicon Valley Bank.

In the meantime, Wangie.app has therapists online on-demand who can support you with as little as a 15-minute private chat as you are no doubt busy. There is also a free anonymous group chat in the Wangie.app Lounge.

They have been briefed on the situation. They can't solve it, they can help you to structure your thoughts.

Please share with anyone you feel might find this helpful.

Thank you Monika Holod for organising this.

https://www.wangie.app/

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 10 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared my advice around Silicon Valley Bank.
Has an unhealthy breakfast with Barrie Baxter of Brixx Software.
Chatted with Yasir Hassan about our investment in Monika Holod of Wangie.app.
Had coffee with John O'Neill.
Met Charlie Hart and Oliver Daniel of GiveWheel.
Had coffee with Tracey Gilliland of Semper.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Silicon Valley Bank PSA

PSA for the few founders that haven't heard about Silicon Valley Bank.

Get your money out ASAP.

You don't want to be the cause of a bank run but it's much worse to be the last person standing.

Likely outcome - the Fed steps in and 'encourages' someone to buy them. Don't rely on this.

Future mitigation - multiple banks accounts and have them with listed businesses and watch their share prices like a hawk.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 9 Mar 23

#TodayI

Flew back to Guernsey.
Shared how what I am looking for has changed given the state of the venture market.
Had my Important not Urgent day.
Had a meeting at a bank.
Had a meeting at the site of our house build.

#NowI

Have a call with Stuart Lewis of Rest Less UK.
Need to review some investment docs.

#LaterI

Am improvising my joy back with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel and you can now buy tickets for our showcase on the 23rd!
https://lnkd.in/e7HbEVB9

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Have my metrics changed

Venture capital funding is much slower than it was 18 months ago. I was asked this week if the metrics I am looking for have changed.

Mine haven't but the market's has so I am looking for founders to have adapted.

They should assume raises will take longer, be smaller and at lower valuations. (This won't be true for all.)
They should have a plan B if they don't hit their targets.
They should aim for profitability sooner.

It doesn't matter what I want. It does matter what the market wants and that they are aware of that.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 8 Mar 23

#TodayI

Was pitched by Keano Chang of iknowa.
Met a founder for coffee.
Had a high-quality coffee with Hector Mason of Episode 1 Ventures and discussed all things investing.
Met James Campbell 甘吉 and Jonny Plein of Kuai Commerce for salt beef sandwiches and chopped liver.
Shared the women in my network's International Womens Day posts.
Met another founder for coffee.
Travelled to Gatwick ahead of my early flight tomorrow.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

International Womens Day 2023

On International Women's Day 2023, it's not about me.

Rachael Crook celebrates the 80% of people working in social care who are women - https://lnkd.in/e3tFTutX
Sonia Dorais talks about the obstacle of unconscious bias - https://lnkd.in/eBMZ7Stc
Deepali Nangia thanks the modern day reformers and allies in her life - https://lnkd.in/eNNiAidV
Mae Yip gives a shout out to five incredible women who have supported and inspired her throughout her career - https://lnkd.in/eYYGJ299
Irina Agafonova celebrates all the fabulous women in her life - https://lnkd.in/eDfezvXJ
Sophie Bailey gives a shout out to her amazing co-founder Sally Page - https://lnkd.in/eryBumwu
Ella Goldner (Levy) thanks the women who've been supporting her - https://lnkd.in/egWZUkes
Yang Liu is shining a light on female founders that have created brands that we all know and love, to inspire young girls to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow - https://lnkd.in/efnTHDDE
Jas Schembri and Jo Goodall's luna is featured in the App Store - https://lnkd.in/e_uzHMb6
Sarah Abrahams shares some of the things they do at KPMG | Acceleris to foster an equitable, inclusive culture for our own people and ensure we are set up to support founders from all backgrounds - https://lnkd.in/eHuYkdGW
Claire Stewart FRSB celebrates her co-founder Joly Fengyang Zou - https://lnkd.in/eq3ECdH5
Karolina Löfqvist is extra grateful for her team of kick-ass women - https://lnkd.in/eZ539Ne5
Chantal Epp FRSA won a Women in Innovation grant from Innovate UK - https://lnkd.in/ef8Rfzct
Hannah Sutcliffe is on a panel to discuss the interplay between innovation and diversity and inclusion - https://lnkd.in/etpGrBfa
Triin Linamagi celebrates the incredible women in her community - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/triinlinamagi_internationalwomensday-iwd-activity-7039190573685055488-g5li
Katryn Wales of UK Business Angels Association continually strives to drive change and back important initiatives that enable many more women to angel invest - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katryn-w-382245ba_spotlighting-leading-women-angels-and-initiatives-activity-7039186687247142912-zYU4
Anne-Marie Perry celebrates being in a business that employs a majority of females who are driven to deliver quality care - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anne-marie-perry-a2a93419_internationalwomensday-wecare-activity-7039188330483208192-3tk6
Farah Kabir talks about being proudly female founded and led and the sexism and bias they've encountered at every touchpoint of their journey - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7039184926637740032-rQPe
Andrea Sommer wants to enable women to launch and grow their startups with proper funding and huge community support - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrealsommer_internationalwomensactionday-takeaction-iwd-activity-7039224626354278400-MS_u

Evening update - 7 Mar 23

#TodayI

Shared an unspoken truth.
Prepped for ZINC's investor office hours.
Spoke with Mads Jensen of SuperSeed to understand their investment thesis.
Attended ZINC's investor office hours and spoke with:
Carter Davidson and Jonathan Wang.
Jon Holden and Matthew Caudle.
Anna Sandgren and Vineet Ahuja.
Anna Wollaston and Hoa Doan.
Thank you ZINC for organising and you all for your time.
Met a fellow investor.
Had coffee with Cally Russell of Unfolded.

#NowI

Have to plough through my large backlog.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Frictionless investors

An unspoken truth is founders want frictionless investors.

They don't want investors that will hassle them all the time with how is it going or I'm worried about x. They do want investors they can call on when they need them.

They have to spend most of their time getting on with running the business.

I will only invest in you if I think you will win if you never speak to me again.

Then it's up to you - I can be frictionless or you can call on me whenever you need me.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 6 Mar 23

#TodayI

Had two hours sleep.
Shared my most important advice for first-time founders.
Got the 7am flight to London Gatwick.
Had a great in-person chat with Monika Holod of Wangie.app who I just invested in.
Met old friend Catherine Powell of The London Meditation Project for coffee. Always make time for old friends.
Had coffee with Anthony Paine of Stashbee.
Had the best ramen at Kanada-ya

#NowI

Am going to sleep.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

My most important advice to first-time founders

Build a network of other founders. There are a lot of solved problems out there. You don't need to recreate the wheel.

Then you can focus on solving the problems unique to your business.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 3 March 23

#TodayI

Announced unbundled vc's investment in Monika Holod of Wangie.app.
Chatted with Martin Lewis.
Spoke with Tom Hollis of Tupelo to understand his investment thesis.
Had lunch with Craig Allen at Good Rebel and a quick tour of Julius Baer's office.
Was pitched by Mohamed Ali Walji of Kounteq .
Was pitched by a founder who wishes to remain anonymous.

#LaterI

Need to do some of the important not urgent work I failed to do yesterday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

New investment - Monika Holod of Wangie

I am excited to announce unbundled vc has invested in Monika Holod and Wangie.app.

Wangie.app offers on-demand anonymous therapy. Just open the app and do it.

Why Wangie?

Mental health is important to me. I've never invested in the space because it is crowded. Every business has a differentiator. That differentiator has to matter enough.

Here the key differentiator is on-demand. Historically, people had to find a therapist - hard - and agree a weekly or monthly regular schedule - not how people live their lives any more. People expect on-demand and for that to be high quality.

Why Monika?

Monika is laser-focused, has the right skills to build this with her experience in brand marketing in high-growth venture-backed businesses and is capital efficient.

Wangie.app has the opportunity to redefine how people receive therapy.

Go check it out.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 2 Mar 23

#TodayI

Posted about the launch of unbundled vc's founder support program with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners.
Bumped into Amy Richards and had coffee.
Had my weekly important not urgent day and didn't get as much important work done as I would have liked.

#LaterI

Am improvising my joy back with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel. Showcase details coming soon.

#TomorrowI

Will share my latest investment. Very excited about this one!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Transitioning from founder-led sales

A classic startup problem is the transition from founder-led sales.

Founders understand the problem they are trying to solve back to front and are typically good at sales. Transposing that into other people is hard.

To help solve this problem, I am delighted to announce the launch of unbundled vc's founder support scheme.

Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners is a go-to-market expert with over 15 years of experience at growth stage, VC-backed SaaS companies. He has particular expertise in mentoring founders around selling and transitioning from founder-led sales.

We are partnering to offer founders a free one-hour consultation with actionable feedback for any founders I invest in and can extend that today to three more founders who Matthew and I will choose. Either contact me directly or comment on this post.

The feedback goes just to you and I will never see it. It's there to help you, it's not DD.

There is more to come. Watch this space

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 1 Mar 23

#TodayI

Posted about investing in solo founders.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Attended a JTC Group breakfast where we were fortunate to have Tim Hames speaking. Thank you Martin Punt for the invite.
Chatted with Elena Gusakova (Vysotskaya) of Astra Global and Ligo Partners LLC.
Had a postponement.
Spoke with Chryssi Chorafa and Hugh Furness of StarLiX.
Got to pick Hailey Eustace's brain on deep tech investing after I missed her Alma Angels talk.
Collected my son from football club.

#LaterI

Have to drop off and collect another son from football training.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

I like solo founders

I like solo founders. My last two new investments have been in solo female founders.

Why?

If I'm comparing two early-stage startups and they are in similar positions, it's way more impressive if you achieved that as a solo founder because it was achieved by just one person!

As the business progresses, this effect diminishes as you have more resources around you to fill the gap.

Why female? That's irrelevant. If you're good enough, you're good enough.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 28 Feb 23

#TodayI

Posted about Rare Disease Day and my sons' condition.
Was pitched by Darshita Mehta Gillies of Maanch.
Had a call with Bobby Phillips and some of his colleagues.
Was pitched by Ollie Dotsch of Kano World.
Chatted with Eleanor Kaye of Newton Venture Program.
Had a postponement.
Attended a panel meeting.
Signed some investment docs.

#NowI

Have to send funds for that investment.
Need to get back to a founder.
Have to take the bins out in the rain :(

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic