What I’ve been up to…

Holiday Pop UP:

Last week, Marilynn Joyner of Her Workplace, Annie Evans and I hosted a Holiday Pop Up, alongside Dora Maar and Couper. We hosted 20 woman- founded brands for all holiday shopping needs, and ear seeding treatments by WTHN, massage and energy healing by Skoop, and hair/makeup by Glamsquad.

Big takeaway for 2024: Can we all agree to have massages and treatments at every gathering?

The space, Her Workplace, is a gorgeous co-working space geared toward women. Hit me up for a day pass.

We are closed!

Last check of the year went to Vyrao– the gorgeous brand with fragrances backed by neuroscience to alter your state of being. Very witchy. Led by Stacy Huggins, Annie Evans, and moi- we had 29 women in this syndicate, with the round being led by Estee Lauder’s Incubation Fund.

Hot Deals🔥

831 Stories- the A24 of romance, it’s hip Hallmark Channel.

The romance genre serves over 30 million (!) enthusiastic, digitally-native readers (many reading at least one book/week)

Stigma has left the space brandless and lacking innovation, which presents a massive opportunity to create a fan universe (think: Comic Con, Bravo Con)

831 Stories fills the void by building immersive, holistic universes for fans, engaging and energizing a rapidly growing community with taste-making romance content, cool-kid credibility, a digital hub, and an expansive offering to create a premium experience

831 is harnessing the potential of an underserved, overzealous fan base that’s highly concentrated online, capitalizing on the commercial viability and mitigated risk of content that relies on a proven formula, and leveraging new technologies to expand the offering and home in on what audiences are responding to.

Raising a $1.5 pre-seed – current commitments from Oversubscribed (Erin and Sara Foster’s Fund), Corazon, Gary Vaynerchuk, Hayley Barna (Birchbox), DBA (UTA), Alexandra Shapiro (NBC), Marci Klein (SNL), and a number of others.

Media /fandom lovers and experts: this one is for you. Reach out for more info.

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Paperstack– platform executing fast capital lending to e-comm/DTC brands

Below-industry average default rate due to proprietary AI/ML algo underwriting process (0.4% default rate compared to ~5% industry average)

ML-driven underwriting engine to better assess risk  (by tying into the merchant’s full ecommerce stack -eg. Shopify, bank account, Stripe, Google Ads, Meta ads, etc.- via API ) 

Deployed $12M (~2.5 turns of their $5M facility) in the past 15 months. 

Only raised 1.25 in dilutive capital so far

Raising 1m seed+ on a SAFE, $20m cap (post money) , 20% discount 

Small and fast allocation from Jemison Alexander- room for a few more angels via SPV. Reach out for more info.

🍰 Shop Women-Founded Brands/Current Obsessions

Y’ALL I have made a female-founded gift guide (AI Image prompt: give me a stressed out modern Mona Lisa)

Late adds…

Jenny Fleiss (co-founder Rent the Runway, Jetblack) just launched a fun company with her kids: introducing the Roll Rider– a carry-on scooter suitcase that’s approved for airline travel and lets your kids scoot through the airport hassle-free turning the most stressful part of a trip into fun. Products ship out next week, just in time for your winter travel.

Very pretty and entirely washable rugs from Kaspene. I love that you can throw the whole thing in the washing machine after a spill, but more importantly- these rugs were sourced directly from manufacturers, disrupting the importers, and are putting any profits from marketplaces into the pockets of the people that actually make them.

🙌 Portfolio Company High Fives

Une Femme Wines The Betty & The Callie Gift Pack selected as one of Oprah’s 62 Gifts That Give Back to a Ton of Great Causes

Alli Schaper, co-founder of Supermush, featured in Forbes 30 under 30

📰 News and Food For Thought

Yay for… Millennial Women are Embracing Angel Investing

Boo for …Venture capital’s steep decline is leaving female startup founders in the cold, new data shows

Buying Habits and Trends for the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry

Why did no one tell me about this book before now?? Best fiction I have read in a LONG time!

The CPG mafia is losing its mind over the (sold, then relaunched) apertif brand HAUS launching caviar (and photoshopping into old brand shoots).

haus has pivoted to caviar and photoshopped tins of caviar into their old photos

— Jesse Tyler (@jessebtyler)
Dec 19, 2023

🌈 Founder Resources and Grants

Women’s Net $25K Amber Grant (Due Dec 31)

GRANT POWER: a program giving early stage founders the skills, lessons, and resources to succeed in securing non-dilutive funding (including immediate access to a list of 250+ grants, essentials for winning them, insights on how to find them, and more. Apply here

A few more spots available in the Dream Ventures accelerator- apply here. We have a great referral program for anyone who sends a founder our way and is accepted into the program- let me know if you want more info.

🍦Other Things No One Asked For

Seeing Wonka this weekend, which brings me to Timothy Chalamet, which brings me to this household fav (can be performed by me and my 12 year old upon request)