Teaching diverse founders how to create investable pitch material through a scalable online platform and making it easy for investors to discover them through data-driven curation.
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Hi there,
Our community has grown like crazy this summer! You are in good company and I'm so glad you're here. For all the newcomers, I personally write this newsletter every month with my thoughts at the top, company updates and events, the Morse Minute, and our featured founder to round it out so be sure to scroll to the end!
I'm going to be honest with you, these past two weeks were like none other for me. On Tuesday, 8/16, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) announced a $350 million investment in Adam Neumann's (disgraced WeWork founder) new
company, Flow. This is the largest check they have ever written and values the pre-launch company at over $1 billion. This coming after they already led a $70 million round in May for Flowcarbon, which recently halted operations indefinitely. Social media was full of reactions; I contributed with this tweet and this LinkedIn post, which attracted domestic and international media attention. You can catch my comments in TechCrunch, The New York Post, BBC, Bloomberg Live with Emily Chang, and more.
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If you click on the Bloomberg interview, you'll notice that it starts with a screen that the video was corrected to remove certain statements, which I withdrew and that should have been challenged during the broadcast. I did not intend to make any false accusations, and so when I received a letter from Mr. Neumann's legal team, I withdrew the comments in question. I do, however, intend to exercise my First Amendment rights and remain, as I have for years now, a voice in the community for equitable opportunity, funding, and good business ethics.
A16z, a major prestigious investment house, wrote its biggest check ever to a man who lost billions of investor dollars while vastly enriching himself personally and is chronicled as the case study for bad business ethics.
There has to be the ability to separate what is a good business idea that has the potential to be a good investment from the person executing the idea. A16z signaled to the world that it doesn't matter to them if a certain type of entrepreneur overstated or oversold himself and his business. They are ignoring that for this founder to the exclusion of others who have more viable business ideas and better business ethics.
Now, let's think about where an investment house's money comes from. It comes from Limited Partners that include endowments, pension funds, wealthy individuals, and other fiduciary backers. I ask the LPs, is that where you want your capital to be deployed? I cannot think of any rationale that justifies stewarding capital in such a way. It also makes me question the breadth of their sourcing if they feel it prudent to channel so much of the fund into a single, questionable, founder. For those who say he has learned from his mistakes, this Forbes article about his recent dealings with real estate tech company
Alfred suggests otherwise.
For those of you who don't understand the outrage at this announcement, here are some sobering statistics:
I believe decisions like Andreessen's signal a growing divide between fund LPs and the GPs who are deciding how to allocate their capital. Emerging fund managers may not have the ability to write such large checks, but they are more conscientious stewards of capital by nature of their alignment with their LPs, which will be rewarded when the undervalued asset classes they invest in generate outsized returns. Think of how many female, Latinx, and Black founders with highly investable companies and strong business ethics those fund managers have in their pipelines who will outperform with investor capital.
Founders, whether you identify as underrepresented or not, I encourage you to seek out investors who are intentional with their money. Find angels, community members, lenders, and GPs who have the ability and sense to identify BOTH a good business idea AND a moral business person.
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Read on for upcoming events, replays of past ones, and don't miss our featured founder at the end! Let's chat if you run an accelerator or program and are interested in providing pitch content and guidance to your members. Thank you for reading this. Thank you for helping us. I appreciate you.
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Allison Byers, Founder & CEO
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Click on an update to learn more and access content.
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We're Hiring: We are actively recruiting for multiple roles including Head of Product, Engineering Lead, Data Scientist, and Pitch Reviewers. Click to check out all the descriptions and maybe we'll get to work together!
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Announcement: I'm thrilled to share that I've joined the Boston Chapter Leadership Team at All Raise! All Raise is a national non-profit whose goal is to significantly increase the amount of funding going to female founders and the percentage of female checkwriters. This could not be more aligned with my own mission and with Scroobious.
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Awards: I am a finalist for the Equity Champion award and Scroobious is a finalist for the Community Hero award for Startup Boston. If you nominated us, thank you so, so much! Please vote for us every day through 9/2.
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In-Person Workshop: 9/7, 12-1:30pm ET at CIC Cambridge Join us in person to learn how to structure your narrative and communicate the most important aspects of your business in a way that makes sense to investors. Thank you to CIC and TriNet for sponsoring!
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Virtual Workshop: 9/13, 10-2:30pm ET Join The Capital Network with me Erik Bullen, Jessica McClear, and Terence Craig on September 13th for this interactive bootcamp to create an enticing pitch deck for fundraising and to get live feedback from investors.
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In-Person Conference: 9/18, 10:30-11:30pm ET at Boston College The BC Entrepreneurship Solstice Conference has an incredible lineup of speakers! Join me and Anam Lakhani, co-founder of Alinea Invest; Travis Rosbach, founder of Tumalo Group and Hydroflask; and Luke Mairo, co-founder of Voltpost for the founders panel.
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Hybrid event: 9/22, 11:45am ET Join me during the 6th annual Startup Boston Week! 12 content tracks, 5 days of learning, thousands of connections with startup entrepreneurs and supporters – and it’s all FREE. I'm giving a presentation about how to put some fun back in fundraising.
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Pitch Competition: Black Women Talk Tech and Mastercard are hosting a pitch competition in Atlanta, GA for any underrepresented founder to win $10k. Applications are due today (8/30)!
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Grant: Comcast is providing advertising and marketing consulting, media strategy, production support, tech equipment, $10k grants, and services to small businesses led by underrepresented founders (BIPOC and women). Applications due 10/14.
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Fellowship: The Fourth Floor has partnered with UBS to launch their Fellowship Program, which will support 50 BIPOC founded, pre-seed, and seed stage start-ups and up to 120 diverse board candidate fellows by connecting them to a deep bench of vetted advisors to facilitate growth and funding opportunities. Apply by 9/2.
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Morse supports diverse founders through their Scroobious corporate sponsorship and their legal professionals create exclusive content for our community to help entrepreneurs.
This month Elizabeth Resteghini answers questions about due diligence and data rooms click here for the full article.
- Due diligence means an investor wants to review your company's books and records in detail to evaluate the business and decide if they want to invest.
- A data room is an online platform that will house all your documents electronically.
- Maintaining a data room is a good idea at any stage and on an ongoing basis, but you need one when you're pitching to investors and ready to start fundraising.
- Investors typically provide you with a detailed diligence request list. Click above for a list of typical requested documents in the full article.
- Professional investors will usually refuse to sign a non-disclosure agreement because they examine many companies and it could result in unintended conflicts for them down the road.
- Updating your data room frequently is best practice. You should make sure it is updated each time you prepare for a new financing.
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Each newsletter features the perspective of one of our members. I encourage you to reach out to offer networking, investment interest, or expertise.
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This month's featured founders are Ramez Attia and Matt Brown, co-founders of Atmen Products and recent graduates of Babson's Olin School of Business. They also attended Lewis & Clark College together where they were team captains at their respective sports
and won the People’s Choice Award at the Invent Oregon Collegiate Challenge. Talk about co-founders with a strong history of working together!
Their first product is a small portable breathalyzer connected via bluetooth to a car’s ignition. This preventative approach is differentiated in the market and they've made significant traction working with car manufacturers. They've got a big vision for being the premier provider of automotive safety technology devices; I encourage you to contact them if you invest in this area.
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"Two years ago one of our friends got into an alcohol-related accident. Fortunately for him and everyone involved, nobody was hurt but it was a wake up call for Matt and me. We saw a serious problem and after a little bit of research, we realized that this problem wasn’t being addressed properly. Over 30 people die every single day in the US alone from DUI-related accidents. We started Atmen Products to put a stop to it. Atmen Products, a safety technology company aimed at eliminating driving under the influence and keeping people safe behind the wheel. Our mission is to save lives. "
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Do you want to be more Scroobious? Let's chat!
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