September FFF Deets

😭 This Delulu Girl Cried on Her Birthday | 👩🏽‍💻 Land a VC Job with this...| 🌹 Matchmaking for Female Founders & Investors

Author

Sri Varre
August 31, 2023

Can you believe this delulu chick just turned 23? 🎂 It's been one hell of an emotional rollercoaster with my life taking a major 180...and not the good kind lmao. 🥴 Still processing and manifesting some inner peace! ✨

Meanwhile, props are in order for some badass babes scoring wins without relying on girl math - elf acquiring Susan Yara’s Naturium for $355M and Shay Mitchell's BEIS (on track to reach $200M in rev) reaching profitability. Em would be so turned on by Shay rn. 😏❤️‍🔥

We're not fans of girl math illusions ➗✖️. Even if crunching numbers and running all the P&L models isn’t our strongest suit, we all have a figure-outable mindset, and we can confidently speak and story tell around every pivotal financial metric.

Lately I've been wondering why so many people online seem fake AF. I'm only here for friends who keep it 💯 on their feeds and IRL. No feign authenticity and alternative personas please! 🙅🏽‍♀️

Speaking of deceit - 🇺🇸🐘 Vivek Ramaswamy is really rubbing me the wrong way. The billionaire biotech founder-turned-VC-turned-politician's past is questionable at best.

I'm hype to start reviewing books about female founders like Glossier's Emily Weiss. Stay tuned! 📚 And lmk if I should launch a matchmaking platform connecting female founders and investors! 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾 Could be major.

Even with the simple pleasures, rejection still sucks with the job search and in life. Sometimes there's just no silver lining and that's the tea. When I'm down, comedy specials and romance novels bring perspective. 💡

Anywho, forget hustling and come chill in your fave fit! Let's manifest wealth and joy on our terms, no girl math required. 💕💸

If you know a bestie/s that would find value from this newsletter,
I would be so grateful if you could send it to them 🫶🏽

15+ Grants & Accelerators

the gender funding gap doesn’t exist

  1. 🚪 Keep It Local Business Fund | Nextdoor Kind Foundation | Alice 
    *must be a founder of color
    Amount: $5K | Deadline: September 1 | Application

  2. ⚜️ Futures Accelerator: Entrepreneurship | Gold House 
    *must be an Asian or Asian Pacific (API) founder
    Amount: $150K investment via SAFE | Deadline: September 1 | Application

  3. 💄 BGV 2023 National Beauty Pitch | Black Girl Ventures | Rare Beauty | JCPenney
    *must be 51% owned by Black/Brown women founder(s) and revenue generating
    Amount: up to $10K | Deadline: September 2 | Application

  4. 👍🏽 Certification Boost Grant | NAACP | Leslie 
    *must be 51% POC, women, people with disabilities owned or be based in a HUBZone
    Amount: $5K | Deadline: September 8 | Application 

  5. 🦋 BGV Fall 2023 Pitch Program | Black Girl Ventures
    *must be 51% owned by Black/Brown women founder(s) and revenue generating
    Amount: $2K-$10K | Deadline: Sept 22 (LA) Sept 29 (Austin) Nov 10 (NYC) | Application


    🧩 For the full list of September grants, bookmark this Airtable! This will be updated on a weekly basis.

Female Founder Resources

  1. 🚀 LAUNCH LAB | DTC Digital Marketing | Female Founder World 
    Register Now | Dates: September 12 - October 17 | Time: every Tuesday at 6PM ET

  2.  🌇 FounderMade | Consumer Founders & Investors
     Dates: October 18-19 | Location: West Hollywood & Santa Monica
     DTC Executive Summit | Innovation Show x Hawkefest 

  3. 🔶 AWS Fundraising Lab | Graham & Walker 
     Register Now | Date: September 6 at 12 - 1:30PM ET
     💫 G&W Catalyst | Fundraising Readiness | Deadline: September 7

  4. 🟣 Emmeline Ventures Founder Circles | Emmeline Ventures | Naseem Sayani | Sign Up | First Session: September 8

  5. 🍽️ Diane Dinners | digitalundivided | Brittany S. Hale
    (video series giving a candid snapshot of fundraising environment for Black and Brown founders)

    🧩 For the full list of September resources, bookmark this Airtable! This will be updated on a weekly basis.

HELP A SIS OUT (WITHOUT LEAVING 🛌 )

🎙️ FEEDBACK: Based on initial feedback and internal research I’ve done within my network, I am considering piloting a LGC “matchmaking” program:

🥰 Share your thoughts HERE! (welcome any other suggestions too)

  • 👩🏽‍💼 Feature ONE female founder, investor, or operator

  • ✋🏽 Share any community asks they have for the LGC community (with designated contact info):

    • 🎤 Talent (open full-time or part-time roles)

    • 💸 Fundraising (pre-seed - Series A) | (background on company, pitch deck, etc.)

    • 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾 Partnerships (campaign, timeline, goal/purpose, etc.)

    • 🧪 Product Testing (sharing the product/s, timeline, and feedback form)

    • 🥳 Events (advertising purpose/goals & RSVP link)

🙋🏽‍♀️ VC PLATFORM ROLES & INTROS: I am actively looking for a Platform Associate or Chief of Staff role at an early-stage VC investing in:

🎯 Stage: pre-seed to Series A
🏭 Industries
🥑 Consumer (beauty, health & wellness, apparel, food & bev)
💻 Consumer tech (retail tech, e-commerce enablement, etc.)
⚕️ Healthcare (ideally digital health & femtech)
Female-founded or BIPOC-founded startups.

If you or anyone you know within your network is hiring, please reply this email or email me ([email protected]) with info about the role. Here is additional info on my background:

📑 Linkedln | Twitter | Resume

📝 Personal Portfolio
📣 VC Platform Pitch | Brand Audit
🎵 VC TikTok Strategy

💼 VC INTERVIEW TIP

🚨Heads up lazy gals - take all my advice with a grain of salt (everyone’s recruiting experience is unique).

⏳ Average time to land a VC gig is 6-9 months. I'm at 10 months hustling through the process 😅 After 15+ interviews, I've learned you gotta go the extra mile.

Most interview processes involve a work project - memo, case study, presentation etc. Shoutout to my friends and mentors who’ve shared examples to guide me!

😡😔 I ABSOLUTELY HATE that so much is still gate kept about breaking into VC. I want us all to have access and learn together! Peep my personal portfolio, VC platform/brand audit deck, and a VC TikTok strategy deck for inspo but don't copy pls. 🙏🏽

🫂 RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT TIP: connecting VCs with high quality candidates for open roles at their portfolio companies or for positions at the firm if you don’t align with their thesis.

Chin up lazy girls! With grit and kindness we can succeed in VC on our own terms. Rooting for you! 🙌

LAZY GIRL APPROVED FAVES

 💝 OVERUSING & GIFTING…

▶️ HITTING PLAY ON…

 📖 UNDER THE COVERS READING…

💄💖 Glossy | Inside Story of Emily Wiess | Marissa Meltzer | Launches September 12 (full review coming the week of September 11!)

✨ It’s giving Brotopia meets Beauty Empire meets Reality Star from Old Money

❤️‍🔥🪩👠 Under the Influence | Noelle Crooks | (slating a full review for the week of October 9)

✨ It’s giving Girlboss meets CEO Barbie meets Devil Wears Prada

🎞️ CANCELLING PLANS TO WATCH…

♠️ Molly’s Game | Amazon Prime | Based on the true story of Molly Bloom (former Olympic-class skier who ran the most high-stakes poker game)

🔵 Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones | Netflix | Dan Buettner
(reminds me of Limitless with Chris Hemsworth)

🤓 INTELLECTUAL AMMO FROM…

💁🏽‍♀️🛍️🌐 Kinza Haq ➡️ The Girl Economy is HERE

😍 PARASOCIALLY OBSESSING OVER…

@thestanzamedia

My handwriting is horrendous lol but here we are! #fashion #privateequity #keringgroup #valentino #longervideos

🕶️ 🇮🇹 🛵 Nadine | PE POV on hospitality, fashion, and design | Founder of The Stanza Media | Host of The Stanza

👩🏽‍🔬 TESTING…

First Glossier product I’ve owned

In my hot girl wellness era

🔮 MANIFESTING…

Obsessed with this community? Here’s how to show some extra love if you wanna help a delulu girl out:

📱Screenshot your fave part of this newsletter and share it on Twitter or Linkedln (tag me so I can retweet and repost!)
🗣️ Drop your suggestions for topics you want covered in future editions HERE. I wanna help y’all on your journey as a founders/operators/investors! 
💌 Forward this newsletter to someone in your tribe who needs these good vibes in their inbox. Tell them to join the fam! 🥳