There’s a massive healthcare worker shortage in the United States and many of the current solutions are expensive and inefficient. Grapefruit Health is addressing the deficit in a novel way by creating the first and only national workforce that’s composed completely of clinical students in fields such as medicine, nursing, physical therapy, social work, and pharmacy. They recruit, train, and manage students to perform work on the behalf of healthcare organizations remotely through their proprietary software. Not only is this saving healthcare organizations billions, it’s also incorporating these students into the workforce, who are essential for the future. 

Eric Alvarez is the founder and CEO of Grapefruit Health. He has a master’s in Health Systems Management from Rush University, where he also serves as adjunct faculty. The idea for Grapefruit Health stems from working with students and realizing their challenges in finding relevant work that pays enough. That, along with his experience as a hospital administrator and his role as the COO of an acquired SaaS enterprise healthcare solutions company, was the motivation to build Grapefruit Health. Eric is also a veteran, having served in the United States Air Force as an Aviation Electrical and Environmental Systems Specialist on C-5 Aircraft. 

Grapefruits, like the healthcare system, are messy, segmented, require cutting or peeling open to see what’s inside, and usually take a tool (spoon) to consume. Not to mention, you won’t know if it’s sweet or sour until you take a bite.

What sets Grapefruit Health apart?

We’re the only company addressing the healthcare worker shortage by utilizing clinical students. We’re hyper attentive, quick to respond, provide really strong clean data and analytics and results back on success. We also address socioeconomic status by not charging the patients anything and all of our work is scripted at a fourth grade level for better communication with all. We match students to patients based on language, culture, and proximity so we can have these really high-fidelity, high-trust conversations. We are not robots; we're not robocalling; we're not auto texting; we're not artificial intelligence. We are human beings, because we strongly believe that healthcare is human. And that's what sets us apart.

How does Grapefruit Health inspire “customer love”?

It’s a complex business because we have our actual direct customers who are healthcare organizations, payers and providers who naturally love us because we take so much work off their plate and for less money. We also have clinical students gaining experience and getting paid to work in their field of study and patients receiving the care they need. It’s a win-win-win for everyone. 

Tell us about some recent milestones for Grapefruit Health. 

• We closed our first client just six months into the business, which was really exciting to move that fast.

• We received a $100,000 grant from Google. 

• We were selected as one of just a small handful of companies internationally to participate in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Healthcare Accelerator: Global Cohort for Workforce.

What drives you into startup battle?

I really like solving weird, complex, hard problems. I’m motivated by the opportunity to fix what’s difficult and broken. Even my hobbies consist of rebuilding destroyed things. I’ll admit when I was younger I was more driven by money - return on investment- but now I’m definitely impact driven. They say wisdom comes with age. 

Any favorite startup focused book?

I recently read The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. A lot of us founders are chasing this ideal we want to have. “I want to have 100,000 students,” or “I want to raise this much money.” That's your ideal and where you are is here, so if you measure yourself on that you're measuring the gap. That's bad. If instead you say, “Well, I started at zero and now I have 100 students” or “we’re doing a few grand in revenue,” then wow. That’s the gain, and if you measure yourself on the gain, you'll be much more satisfied and happy. The book goes through different exercises to keep you in that gain mindset and not feeling like you’re chasing this ideal that is constantly moving. Thomas Jefferson didn’t say, “life, liberty and happiness.” It's the pursuit, and if you're always pursuing happiness, you'll never reach it. 

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Americans LOVE their pets, with more than 60% of households having at least one pet at home. Pet parenting is expensive and almost half have gone into debt for their furry family members. Wagmo is a pet wellness company that provides individual pet insurance plans as well as employee benefits so pets get the care they need whether it be grooming, maintenance, injury, or cancer treatments. Wagmo alleviates the financial stress of those routine and emergency care services. Co-founders Christie Horvath, CEO, and Ali Foxworth, COO, are self-proclaimed “insurance nerds who are obsessed with their dogs.” They worked together on the insurance team at BlackRock and bonded over their shared love of rescue dogs. They would send each other links of puppies and that was the foundation of their friendship that led to a business partnership. 

Christie is from Colorado and grew up with cats and dogs. When she was accepted into Harvard Business School, she brought her dog Denver with her, who was young and healthy. One night, out of the blue, he had a seizure and Christie spent 1000s of dollars to find out that he had an inoperable brain tumor. That experience exposed her to the trauma and intensity of being a pet parent and luckily she had pet insurance, but decided she wanted to provide innovation into the stagnated pet insurance industry. 

The name Wagmo was inspired by a sign that said, “Wag more, bark less.” Wagmo - we can all benefit from that advice, humans and pets alike! 

• What’s Wagmo’s North Star?

We help people access high-quality care for their pets. We remove the financial burden and financial friction of keeping pets alive and well. When I took my dog Denver to the vet hospital they wouldn’t take him back to give him the medicine he needed until I paid a deposit and put my credit card down. The last thing you want to be worried about at that moment is “Can I actually afford this?” 

• What makes Wagmo a “must-have” vs a “nice-to-have”?

I think it all comes down to the way that people think about and treat their pets, which for many people, pets are like their children. This is not a discretionary spend. When your children are sick, you take care of them, and you'll do anything for them. When your pet is sick, it’s the same thing and the same amount of importance and priority is being applied to preventative care and wellness care, which is really our bread and butter. 

• How does Wagmo inspire “customer love”?

Customers have an incredible moment of joy when after filing a wellness claim, whammo, they get their reimbursement back within hours via Venmo or PayPal. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as we have a remarkable customer support and customer experience team working hard behind the scenes. They are all pet parents and many are vet techs or ex-vet techs, so their hearts are really in it. Their passion and compassion really comes through and they connect emotionally to the claims, which goes a long way. 

• What’s in the works at Wagmo?

We're really focused on our employer benefit program. We have a really cool, super unique, employer pet wellness program that we've built in the last year and a half with massive success to date, and I think we've got a lot of growth still to come. This is going to be a big year for us, so that's definitely our focus.

• Any favorite startup focused book or podcast?

I try not to read startup books because they stress me out. One podcast I’m obsessed with right now is called “You’re Wrong About” with Sarah Marshall. She basically unpacks popular historical events, news, and concepts and the misperceptions that often take place. It’s fascinating with great storytelling. I like that it’s intellectual, but very accessible and fun to listen to.

• What’s something interesting about you that people may not know?

I’m very allergic to dogs - they give me hives and make my asthma worse. I take a lot of Zyrtec, which helps and makes it livable. But I would rather be itchy and wheezy than without a dog in my life, which just goes to show how much I love dogs! 

• Join our pre-seed founder breakfast in NYC on April 11th!

Wow, what a week!

As we all reflect on the last week, here are few learnings we’ve aggregated from across our community of 500 founders and operators:

1. The importance of liquidity: Raising funds is important, but so too is safeguarding those funds and doing so with minimal complexity. Having three months of runway in FDIC-insured, liquid accounts is vital. Beyond three months of immediate cash needs consider how to spread them across custodians, accounts, and account types. Moreover, make sure these accounts are connected with streamlined wiring processes, so you’re not left verifying micro transactions when it’s truly urgent to move funds.

2. Diversification of asset custodians: Make sure you diversify across not just accounts, but actual asset custodians. For example you might have a money market account, but if it sits at the same bank in which you have your checking or savings account, this money market account might actually still sit on their balance sheet and be subject to their solvency. Some banks custodian assets with others like BlackRock or Fidelity. By diversifying across companies you’re subject to less single counterparty risk. Additionally the liquidity laws for custodians are different than they are for banks who can often leverage deposits to varying degrees to provide loans, and buy Treasuries.

3. Staying calm while taking swift action: While there’s no need to panic, we did all learn the lessons of platform over-reliance and concentration. We are fortunate to have strong communication channels and community, but having the information is step one, taking decisive action with that information is something of equal or greater importance.

Here are some insights, reflections, and press from our founder community:

Tifany Dufu, Founder & CEO of The Cru on NPR:

“In my case, 1 in 4 women have considered leaving their jobs in the past year. And we partner with their employers to try to ensure that they have access to the resources that they need and the peer coaching they need to be successful. And so I'm working hard every day. I have investors. I have venture capitalists who have invested in The Cru, but we are not doing this for the big bucks. We have families. We have food that we need to put on the table. And particularly because we have team members, we have employees who work hard every day for our companies, it was incredibly stressful to not be able to potentially meet payroll. That is the biggest expense for an early-stage startup.”

Fran Brzyski, Co-Founder & CEO of Hark in the Wall Street Journal:

Fran had been using SVB as the primary banking account for his startup Hark Technologies Inc. He said he had been a happy customer but on Thursday, after seeing news circulating about SVB’s problems, decided to move most of the money to an account he had with Under Technologies Inc., which does business as Rho Technologies. He originally opened the Rho account upon the advice of one of his investors who had suggested he diversify where he holds the startup’s funds.

Kelsey Hunter, Founder and CEO of Paloma:

“We’ve done a lot to ensure a strong cash position this year. With both a team and a customer base of independent business owners depending on payouts, the impact of this situation would have been significant. I wasn’t willing to wait and see what would happen. As the markets opened Thursday and challenges at SVB became clear, I made the decision to clear out our SVB account – where we have banked for over 5 years – and I’m happy to have made that call. Ultimately this process has shown the strength of our board, with the support and speed of Geri Kirilova (Laconia Capital) making sure we could do what was needed, and has outlined opportunities to optimize our financial management, which I’m grateful for.”

Scott Hartley, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Fund

Scott spoke on China Global Television Network and China Radio International about the international impact of the SVB shut down, from foreign funds and startup’s ability to access US banking via SVB to the impact on global employee bases had uninsured deposits not been covered by the FDIC. The globalization of tech led to international capital inflows to the largest VC funds which then invested into startups, fifty percent of whom banked with SVB, so the impact of SVB’s failure had global ramifications. 

Jenny Fielding, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Fund on Bloomberg TV

Jenny made an appearance on Bloomberg TV and spoke to the importance of effective communication during times of crisis. “We saw in the waves of lay-offs that when there is not good communication, things really go awry. Our founders are speaking with their employees, being proactive and showing their leadership skills during this stressful time.’’

Casey Powers, CEO of Climb Credit:

“I definitely learned these lessons the hard way this past week. Climb has a venture debt facility with SVB and kept 100% of its cash there pursuant to the requirements of that loan agreement. Looking back, I would have negotiated for the right to diversify banking but this wasn’t even something that crossed my mind at the time. I’m grateful that the FDIC stepped in to help the entire ecosystem of small businesses that were in a worse position. Also - The Fund’s Slack space was my saving grace throughout the past week - in fact, that’s where I first learned of the crisis and that information allowed me to move quickly. Our company is now navigating the difficult decisions around diversifying our corporate funds, maintaining compliance on our loan agreement and standing up an entirely new A/R and A/P process for a fairly complex financial operation (we are a lending company).”

Ari Newman, Venture Partner at The Fund Rockies in Bloomberg:

Ari talked to Bloomberg about how some VCs are supporting funding gaps during this crisis. “Some deep-pocketed firms, including General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures, offered to help portfolio companies cover payroll. Ari Newman, co-founder of Massive Capital Partners, was “dialing for dollars” to help his portfolio companies find the funds to make payroll. On Sunday evening, after the government's announcement, he said he had no regrets. “I did the right thing to protect and support my portfolio and I’d do it again,” Newman said.

TOMORROW! Join Jenny Fielding and Sherveen Mashayekhi for a fireside chat about the implications of Silicon Valley Bank’s closure on the wider tech ecosystem. Register here!

International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the achievements of women and to advocate for gender equality. As a female-led VC fund, The Fund XX believes that promoting and supporting female entrepreneurs is crucial so that we #EmbraceEquity and make progress towards diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Historically, women have faced significant barriers in accessing funding and support for their businesses. According to recent studies, women-led startups receive less than 2% of venture capital funding despite evidence showing that businesses with diverse leadership teams perform better. At The Fund XX, we emphatically believe that investing and supporting women founders and CEOs not only helps to address gender inequality but also drives economic growth and innovation. 

The Fund XX understands firsthand the unique challenges that women face in the business world. We have seen the difficulties of securing funding and gaining access to networks and resources. We also recognize the importance of diversity in leadership teams and the positive impact it has on the success of any business. We strive to not only provide funding but also to support female entrepreneurs with mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources. By working together, we can break down the barriers that have traditionally hindered women’s success in the business world. For these aforementioned reasons, we asked these impressive women founders and CEOs from The Fund XX portfolio to share advice for other female entrepreneurs looking to get started and thrive in this market.

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Q: What is your biggest challenge as a female founder? 

Jessica McGlory, Founder & CEO, Guaranteed

Female Icon: “Serena Williams ~ Her grit, determination, business prowess and athletic capabilities are all incredibly admirable traits.”

Michelle Huie, Founder & CEO, ShopDot

Female Icon: “My mother – she immigrated from Hong Kong to the US in the late 1960s and had the strongest work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. She opened up a hair salon in NYC Chinatown all while working full time as a seamstress in the Garment District. She passed away when I was 15 but seeing how hard she hustled for her family will forever be imprinted in my memories of her.”

Renee Fry Founder, Gentreo

Female Icon: “Carla Harris forged the way for minority women on Wall Street and has been leading the way for women for over 30 years.”

Sam Coxe, Co-Founder & CEO, Flaus

Female Icon: “My female icon is Serena Williams, who has proven to young athletes that anything is possible and has inspired more diversity in sports. She has also inspired other communities, specifically women and mothers, when she shared her story on the experiences and hardships of childbirth. Serena had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to reach the pinnacle of success. Not only is she an incredible athlete, but she is also a successful businesswoman, mother and friend.”

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Q: What are you most proud of to date as a female founder?

Ngoc Le, Co-Founder & CEO, Phase Zero

Female Icon: “Michelle Obama is a strong advocate for empowering women and is known for her grace, poise, and elegance.”

Bec Jones, Co-Founder & CEO, Clutch Wallet

Female Icon: “Princess Diana ~ I admire her for challenging the expectations that were placed upon her, for her fierce dedication to fighting for equality and those in need, and for maintaining her composure in difficult public situations.”

Britt Fuller, Founder & CEO, Notably

Female Icon: “Melanie Perkins is one of my favorite female icons. She built Canva, a product in our same market, to a $6B company and did it while being candid about the challenges and rejections along the way. I admire her for using her success to invest in her community and causes she cares about. I just love her!”

Amanda Levay, Founder & CEO, Redactable

Female Icon: “I'd like to shout out the female VCs that invested in my company… all a part of the shift that we love to see in the fundraising landscape, and just having them on my cap table has been very inspiring!”

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Q: Any final tips for female founders getting started in this downturn?

Cara McCarty Abbott, CEO, Betterleave

Female Icon: “Women who are generous with their time, feedback and networks.” 

Vanessa Liu, Co-Founder & CEO, Sugarwork

Female Icon: “My mom is my role model and the coolest woman I know. She started her crystal bedazzling business in the 1980s in the face of adversity - even family members did not want to give her capital. She's worked so hard to prove herself and is still at it at 80 years young, and I am constantly inspired by her.”

Jade Kearney, Co-Founder & CEO, She Matters

Female Icon: “Meena Harris ~ I am amazed at how she has managed to expand her brand and create huge impact through multiple ventures, and she does that as a woman of color and a Mama!” 

Jennifer Brisman, Founder & CEO, VOW

Female Icon: “My 14 year old daughter. Home recovering from a life threatening ski accident.  She cheers herself on from conquering a walk down and up our street, has mastered the game of chess and bakes like a world class chef, all while doubling down on her schoolwork, always wearing a bright smile.”

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We celebrate the incredible achievements of these women founders and CEOs and also so many more around the world paving the way for future generations so that we can truly #EmbraceEquity. The Fund XX encourages more investors to support women-led businesses and work towards a more diverse and equitable future. Investing in women is not only the right thing to do, but it is also a smart business decision. We are proud to support female entrepreneurs and will continue to do so, not just on International Women’s Day but each and every day.

The Fund XX Portfolio is hiring!

Betterleave is growing its provider network of grief therapists, death doulas and spiritual coaches.

Flaus is looking for superstar dentists to join the exclusive dental ambassador program. If interested, please reach out to us at partnerships@goflaus.com. 

Gentreo just launched their Vice President of Marketing search.

Guaranteed is looking to hire a Head of Clinical Affairs.

Notably is hiring for a full stack engineer.

Also, check out over 600 open roles across the broader Fund community!

If you are a female founder and CEO building a tech-enabled business and looking to raise a pre-seed or seed round (or know of someone we should meet), we want to hear from you! Please contact us at katie.russell@thefund.vc.

For most people, COVID provided an opportunity to rethink life, priorities, and employment. This was no different for Arthur Wang, the Founder and CEO of Fud, the world’s first hustling community that empowers hustlers - i.e. people that have or want a side income - to maximize their education and earnings. About 40% of working Americans have a side hustle; the average hustle makes $1,100 a month, but the median is only $200. Arthur asked himself why these deltas exist and wanted to do something about it. He’s a serial founder having created companies in the consumer, finance, media, and entertainment industries. Arthur is a hustler at heart, and shares his personal experiences and the motivation that drives him to build Fud. 

• What's Fud’s North Star?

Our North Star is to help put money in hustlers’ pockets. We want to empower everyone with a side hustle to succeed and we strive to support them in elevating their hustles by building a community that thrives on sharing their know-how.

• What’s Fud’s founding story?

During my own little COVID hiatus, I was trying to find a pair of Jordan One sneakers. I was surprised to find out you cannot buy sneakers anymore unless you go through resellers. As I started digging into that world, I found that there was this amazing community of people that are reselling sneakers and “investing in sneakers.” I caught the bug and was able to sell $10,000 in sneakers. It made me think of the time I bought my first car using my baseball card collection, and it was a reminder that there are a lot of interesting and uncommon ways to make money nowadays. The problem is that it’s hard to find good information on how exactly to start and the steps you need to take to get from A to B. I thought it was a big opportunity to actually provide people with the step-by-step processes to get these hustles going, the mentorship to help them stay on track, and a community to provide support and accountability .

• Why the name Fud?

This is me being a bit irreverent. I wanted to play with the whole fear, uncertainty and doubt and I get a chuckle out of anything with a FU in it. I’m cool being the black sheep and doing things in non-traditional ways.

• How does Fud inspire customer love?

When you join Fud, you feel like you’ve found a home with other folks who enjoy hustling and talking about the latest and greatest ways they’re making money from their skills and passions. They’re out there getting their hands dirty and figuring stuff out as they go. We provide an opportunity for them to share their excitement and knowledge with others like them, who they can help and learn from. It’s also a place to get inspired and up your game. We respect everyone’s hustle because it takes intelligence to master anything, from ride sharing to ecommerce, to thrifting - everyone gets respect.

• What sets you apart?

We've all seen Tik Tok, YouTube, and other social media platforms do a great job of leaning into what I call “money porn” – everyone’s got a Lambo and money flying out of computers, but how does someone get there? No idea, right? These platforms are largely entertainment, but we provide a place that people can actually share and learn skills to make more money (Lambo not guaranteed 😉). We're all about “Learning. Earning. Together.”

• Tell us the importance of what Fud is building.

Yes, we’re fun and social, but we’re a pain killer and NOT a vitamin. We're seeing people coming in who don't want traditional jobs; they have their own businesses and they want to work with many clients without having all their eggs in one basket. With inflation, layoffs and no safety, (not even in big tech), people want to live a life on their terms with more freedom. This is going to be a huge area of growth and this is the future of work. If you want to make money and find your place in the new economy, it's a requirement that you learn a side hustle or multiple! We need investors and people buying into that vision.

• What drives you into the startup battle day after day?

I'm an immigrant and grew up in the Chinese restaurant business, and I very much believe in the American Dream. I’ve had professional roles at big companies, including investment banking, but I wanted to get back to my roots. I love getting out there and trying new things. Also, my dad’s side of the family are all educators, so there’s something in my DNA that’s a combination of hustling and teaching that keeps me going. I enjoy teaching, but not in the traditional way; rather, the experiential learning or school of hard knocks. I feel like we take for granted the opportunity to help people out there hustling. What keeps me motivated is seeing the support in our community and people making money.

• Know an underrepresented early stage founder headed to SXSW? Send them our way for office hours on March 11!

New York City has the largest public transportation system in the United States, and one of the largest in the world, yet millions of people are still living in “transit deserts,” where there is a limited supply of transportation and/or a lack of infrastructure. Transit is not just an issue of access and opportunity, but of equity and justice, as most transit deserts are disproportionately affecting low income communities who are the most in need of reliable transportation services. Historically, these communities solved this problem with private ride-sharing networks called “dollar vans.” 

Dollaride is an innovative platform that has taken these “dollar van” networks to the next level by using technology to effectively close gaps in local transit. Dollaride was founded by Su Sanni and Chris Coles in 2017 on the notion that equitable access to transit is a common good worth pursuing. Su grew up in Brooklyn and Chris in Washington D.C., both experiencing the difficulties of living in a transit desert first-hand. Su and Chris share how Dollaride is providing mobility for communities underserved by public transit, while at the same time helping to reduce carbon emissions and bolstering clean mobility options. 

How did you meet? 

Su: We met virtually through a networking group called Stealth Mode New York, which is a group of black and brown entrepreneurs, investors, engineers, and designers in New York who are all working on interesting things. I sent out an email expressing I had a business idea to provide transportation to local communities through dollar vans and wanted to hire and work with engineers to build an MVP. I started working with Chris and a few other engineers, but after about 6 months it was really clear that Chris was more than just an engineer doing the coding. He was really engaged in the process and someone who spoke honestly with me about the product, business strategy, and potential challenges. Our relationship evolved into me inviting Chris to become my co-founder.  

What’s Dollaride’s Northstar?

Our guiding principle is to make transportation more accessible to everyone, especially people who live in transit deserts. We operate in New York City at the moment, specifically Brooklyn and Queens, but we’re working on expanding outside of NYC.

How does Dollaride inspire “customer love”?

Throughout our company history, what’s really resonated with people is the cultural heritage that dollar vans and other forms of informal transit have within their local communities. We’re building modern tools for fleet owners while acknowledging that cultural affinity. We’ve received so much love because we help provide a service that people have grown up on for decades. We also hear how refreshing it is to see a tech company that is led by diverse founders from their own community. 

Tell us about some recent milestones Dollaride crushed. 

• We recently received $10 million from the State of New York to build the first all-electric dollar van network, so we’re going to be hyper focused on implementing a fleet electrification program in New York City. 

• In 2022, we served 18,000 passengers in Jamaica, Queens alone. There’s a lot of people out there taking shuttle routes that are powered with Dollaride software. 

• Our social and economic  impact has been inspiring, as riders have reported how we’ve given them time back in their day by reducing their daily commute time by ~30 mins (on avg). And some drivers have reported their annual income growing by at least 25% as a result of using Dollaride. 

What sets Dollaride apart from competitors?

We’re the only tech company in the US that focuses on providing solutions- actual software and other service solutions to this demographic of riders and drivers in underserved communities. With the $10 million grant and contract from the State of New York, we will now provide electric vehicles and charging stations to fleet owners and drivers. We are building an end-to-end solution for delivering clean transportation in transit deserts. 

Any advice for other founders? 

We recommend actively seeking support groups and affinity groups where you can learn from other peers, investors, and folks who come from similar backgrounds and have an extra vested interest in seeing you succeed. For us, those groups include Stealth Mode New York, where we met, and another one is Bleecker Collective, a virtual platform where you can get career advancement support, programming and make professional connections. Most participants in Bleecker are women, people of color, and all types of folks who are underrepresented in their industries. There’s also a whole host of VCs that focus on underrepresented founders, such as  Visible Hands. So from investment all the way to peer support, seeking out, joining and participating in these types of programs is a great way to level up your network as you enter a new industry and/or start a business.

• Join our pre-seed founder breakfast in NYC on February 28th!

• Know an underrepresented early stage founder headed to SXSW? Send them our way for office hours on March 11!

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa with over 213 million and the majority of these people rely on the informal sector for employment. According to World Economics, the size of Nigeria's informal economy is estimated to be more than 57% of the GDP. Most informal businesses are Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are considered one of the most powerful engines of economic development, innovation, and employment, not just in Nigeria and Africa, but around the globe. Unfortunately, access to finance is a critical barrier for growth, which is why OnePipe is making it super easy for businesses to embed or launch financial services like accounts, credit, payments and loans with simple APIs and no-code solutions.

OnePipe’s founder and Chief Plumber Ope Adeoye worked for many years at the largest FinTech infrastructure company in Nigeria and decided to start OnePipe to create a way for businesses who serve MSMEs to enrich their offerings with financial services and help their customers grow their businesses. OnePipe is based in Nigeria, they just incorporated in Kenya, and plan to expand into other African countries. OnePipe is part of the new financial services ecosystem in Africa and Ope tells us what’s pumping through the pipe. 

• Why is OnePipe going to win?

Our focus is heavily on untapped markets that everyone seems to be avoiding due to fragmentation, low education levels, the fact that you may need to lead with credit to build trust, it’s not necessarily a fancy app, and other kinds of problematic scenarios. We see others steering clear of these informal markets and underserved groups and we want to attack them head on. We will win against non-consumption, not against the alternatives to OnePipe. We will win because we have chosen to compete with the market, not with the competition. 

• What’s been one of the greatest challenges founding OnePipe? 

Given that we are heavily invested in the informal market, the level of digital education is one of the biggest challenges. People have accounts, but they don't care about the account or how to use it digitally. But in order to access inventory finance (one of the offerings made possible by OnePipe), they are learning how to operate their accounts through channels like USSD. We also send field agents to train them and if they get confused, they can engage with the contact center via WhatsApp. It’s difficult, but we’re making progress. 

• How does OnePipe inspire “customer love”?

One major component of the product we have today is enabling traditional distributors in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to offer inventory finance to their customers - usually, small-time retailers. We’ve processed over a billion Naira of such transactions so far and we interviewed quite a number of retailers and they love the product. It saves them having to use their own cash to stock their shop and it helps them free up the cash they have to do other things that can grow their business. The inventory is paid for by our partner lenders. The suppliers that are on the network deliver the goods to the retailers. Then once they've finished selling it, they refund the money, which is building their credit profile as well. The distributors also love this because it helps them retain customers. Win-win-win.

• What is OnePipe’s Northstar?

A major goal is that we want everyone to bank with some entity that is not a commercial bank. We would like to get to 1 million people in the informal sector to obtain their financial services from the next node in their supply chain versus an actual commercial bank. No commercial bank can know a thin-file MSME better than the supplier who delivers the goods he sells for his livelihood. If we can get past the 1 million mark, then we treat that as escape velocity and it’s about to take off fully.

• You’re on the Board of Trustees of the Open Technology Foundation, helping with the Open Banking Nigeria initiative, tell us more about that. 

Open banking is one of the best ways to drive financial inclusion and Open Banking Nigeria is an advocacy group that is leaning on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to release open banking guidelines, while motivating the banks that they need to comply when it comes out and why it's a good thing. Finally, last year, the CBN released a draft of open banking guidelines for the country, but it hasn’t quite set a deadline. Open banking never works without a deadline and it didn't explicitly define the specifications. So in the next iteration, we're working towards helping to define a set of specifications that could be adopted, and nudging them towards setting a hard deadline. I think this year they will announce both so for those of us with the Open Banking Nigeria Group it’s mostly advocacy to make that happen and sensitize the industry itself. 

• Join our pre-seed founder breakfast in NYC on February 28th!

• Know an underrepresented early stage founder headed to SXSW? Send them our way for office hours on March 11!

Fillow is disrupting the feminine hygiene industry by giving menstruators a product that satisfies all their needs: long-lasting, leak-free, comfortable, transparent, and easy to use. Their innovative product design is a disc that is inserted with an applicator and removed with a pull-string. The company is led by friends and co-founders Phoebe [Seoyeon] Choi, Camryn Ross, Helena Kim, and Mary Woo.  Phoebe, Camryn, and Helena studied economics at the University of Chicago and Mary has a Biological/Biosystems engineering degree from MIT. They share how Fillow is providing menstruators with a voice in a historically stigmatized and stagnant market. 

• What’s the Fillow founding story? 

We are a group of friends and after COVID our long awaited reunion got cut short because one of us had a period leak. This led to a very long conversation about how so many people still have to deal with period leaks and that there’s got to be a better way. Through more research, we realized the current period products are based on the designs and products that are nearly a century old, with close to zero innovations or iterations made on the products themselves. So with the idea of actually creating THE innovative product, we entered the UChicago Booth College New Venture Challenge and became the first all-female team to win, with the largest investment amount and that's how we officially got started.

• What’s Fillow’s Northstar?

Our mission is to place the power on each individual to make the choices that best empower the relationship they have with their own body. And we don't want a period product to compromise making these choices, which we realize a lot of times that is the case. The period market itself is extremely gendered, and has historically tiptoed around the subject of menstruation. This often resulted in menstruators feeling shame around their period, and also left people uneducated on the process of menstruation in the name of keeping periods discreet. We wanted to create a safe space where self discovery is encouraged, while also offering a product that doesn't sacrifice personal comfort and meets all their needs.

• Tell us about a recent milestone Fillow has crushed.

We recently launched our landing page where you can sign up to receive our product. We’ve begun advertising ahead of our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter next month and have seen some great interest! We started publicly sharing our product less than a month ago and have already received more than 2,800 email subscribers and 700+ requests to join our VIP group on Facebook.

• What sets Fillow apart from other menstruation brands?  

Our product addresses the two main concerns that menstruators talk about which is longer wear and convenience. Current period products only offer one of these features at the sacrifice of the other. Pads and tampons are very convenient to use, but they need to be changed frequently, every 4-8 hours. Then we have the cups and discs category that can last up to 12 hours, but they are notorious for being inconvenient due to the difficult and messy insertion and removal. We are recapturing this unique space in the market by bringing the first ever disc with an applicator combination, combining the easy application of tampons, while also maintaining the reusability and longer lasting feature of menstrual cups. We’re creating a product that is not only innovative, but familiar, so the transition between the current existing products to ours is very smooth.

• What makes you a unique founding team?

We were friends before being co-founders and three of us actually lived together for a year. We're all very young, driven, dedicated women who began working on Fillow full-time right after graduating from college. We’ve all made personal sacrifices to take the risk to start a startup. We have complementary backgrounds, as we’ve worked in different fields with a focus on business, marketing, and product development. Our unique skill sets blend well together to bring Fillow to the market. 

• Any words of wisdom?

Phoebe: Don’t be afraid of asking questions. There are so many mentors and advisors out there who can really help you on your journey, especially as first-time founders.

Mary: Build trust within your team. It allows for easier delegation and makes everyone’s workload more manageable. 

Camryn: Be well educated and researched in the problem and the market. As young women, people doubted our level of knowledge quite often, so it’s very important to be able to pull numbers and answer questions eloquently and professionally. 

Helena: Be shameless in asking for connections because networking is so, so important in this space. On a personal note make sure to protect your sleep.

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The fashion industry has a huge waste problem! Brands are sitting on thousands of garments deemed unsellable for miscellaneous reasons (including being too wrinkled). What happens to all of those items? Some are donated, some are recycled, some are burned, but most of the time they end up in landfills. All of these options aren’t sustainable considering the energy emitted to make them. Hemster is taking these garments and using technology to refurbish them at scale. The company started as a tailoring service to empower retailers and brands to guarantee perfect fits in stores and online. They still offer this service, but have expanded to provide a sustainable solution so no garment goes to waste from fixable damages and minor flaws.

Allison Lee is the founder and CEO of Hemster. She was born in Korea and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. She studied psychology and has a professional background in data segmentation and monetization. She used her experience to fuse the two and bring the forgotten art of tailoring into the journey of shopping. Allison shares how Hemster has modernized tailoring through tech and is helping us all create a circular and sustainable wardrobe.

What’s Hemster’s mission?

We’re continuously developing a new mission. We’ve been around for 7 years now, and have had to redefine ourselves a number of times to adapt to the market and embrace change. As the company grows, the team grows, and everyone is maturing. It’s always good to ask yourself, is there a better mission to unlock the next chapter of the company? We started out bringing fit freedom to everyone by partnering with brands to provide virtual tailoring solutions. We’ve now expanded with our Revive service, which adds wearable years to previously unsellable inventory.  

How does Hemster inspire “customer love”?

• The big thing, especially when you're thinking about our B2B2C funnel, is we provide transparency at every stage. Brands claim they’re going to be sustainable by 2035, but what does that mean? We provide a QR code for each item so that people can scan and learn the environmental impact they’ve made by purchasing this refurbished item. It brings a different individualized experience to the shopper knowing they’re getting something that would have probably ended up in a landfill.

• In addition, what’s really missing in the industry is the transparency about how long an item is supposed to last. Is it 10 years? 20 years? We’re shifting the paradigm of how people think about the value of what they’re buying based on the wearable years, not just the price tag you see. Spending $200 on something that lasts 20 years is a lot better deal than spending $50 on something that lasts 2 years. Customers appreciate that they can redefine their budget to optimize for long lasting fashion.

Tell us about some recent milestones Hemster’s crushed.

A huge milestone for us was that we became profitable at the end of last year. That’s due to the growth we experienced over the last couple years. In 2021 we grew 9x and last year we grew 5x, which was particularly exciting because it was through the expansion of the sustainability side. This year we’re really doubling down and should grow another 5x while staying EBIDTA positive.

What’s on the horizon for Hemster?

We’re really focusing on our Revive service and sustainability. Brands are sitting on thousands of garments that basically become garbage. We’ve sorted, processed, and digitized thousands of these 'lost' garments and compiled data and insights to address the issue. We’re thinking about expanding to Europe, as most of the brands we’re working with already have a European market and there’s a definite need. We also want to target the Asian market down the line.

What have been some of the greatest challenges founding Hemster?

There are always new challenges, but I would highlight a few:

• It was a hard journey being a young, first-time, immigrant, female founder. I wanted people to look at my numbers and not me, which wasn’t always the case. In the end, I'm glad investors weeded me out so that I could in turn pick the right people to be on my cap table.

• The pandemic almost took us out because our brand partners basically closed down overnight. We went from $200k monthly revenue to $0 and stayed at $0 for all of 2020. It was our first pivot from working with brick-and-mortar stores to working with the online virtual experience. We never gave up and muscled through.

• I’ve had to learn to let go of my own narrative. I grew Hemster through the sheer willpower of convincing people that they needed our product, but it wasn’t really a natural market fit. I had to stop selling, so that I could hear what problems really required fixing. I needed to let go of my agenda and really listen, and that’s been the biggest mindset shift and moment of growth for me.

  ---

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As we enter 2023 there has been a guiding theme in many conversations that we’re having and that is, “how do I do more on less?” This requires a mental shift from what I might call “abundance mentality” to “resource-constrained mentality.” For anyone who might recall the story of Apollo 13 and the less-than-optimal pile of duck tape and cardboard from which Commander Jim Lovell and crew had to make an air filter to convert CO2 out of scrap materials to stay alive, this is 2023 for many startups.

I too have been there, many times in the trenches. I’ve gotten the elated email saying “we’re in for $3M” and also the midnight note when cash is out and we might have to let everyone go by 5pm tomorrow or run the risk of being in fiduciary breach, conference calls with law firms costing you money you don’t have, and trying to bridge a company to acquisition out of the executive team’s pocket. As anyone knows in startup land, there are extreme highs, and also extreme lows of self-doubt.

There is a dream of unlimited capital where your desired hires, desired salary, and desired months of runway to perfectly de-risk the business reverse engineer the target fundraise, and you back out valuation by dividing your target fundraise by 15-20% dilution. This is abundant living, and these days are on hold for now. Of course we’ll all read about some serial founder’s new company that we didn’t know existed that just closed a $40M Series A pre-product, but that’s not me, and that’s not most of us. For most of us we need to shift gears into “resource constrained” mentality.

Logic of Abundance:

• I need to prove out X, Y, and Z to de-risk my business

• In order to do that I need to hire people, and build for 18 months

• The cost of those people is $100k/month so I’m raising $1.8M

• I’ll probably just oversubscribe to $2M and do it at $10M post

• That’s a nice round number of 20% dilution I can sleep with

Resource constrained logic is our new paradigm. This is the reality in which you don’t get the perfect oxygen filter and burn time to take the spaceship home. Instead you have a pile of cardboard and duck tape and 14 seconds of fuel to burn to put the spacecraft on the exact trajectory, or you’re going to bounce off Earth’s atmosphere and hurtle endlessly into space. This is the world of Apollo 13 and imperfect solutions, and you need to figure out how to make it all work without all the right parts. Nearly always, something pretty major is missing, both in pre-seed investing, and in pre-seed company building. It’s about making it work in spite of missing pieces. This new world is one in which investors remain on the fence waiting for a lead, where some Zoom calls result in “come back to me when you have more traction,” or “we actually only invest in [insert one of 1,000 made-up excuses].”

Resource-Constrained Logic:

• I need to prove out X, Y, and Z to de-risk my business

• In order to do that I need to raise as much money as I can

• Let me A/B test various fundraising strategies holding constant the amount of acceptable dilution, but varying amounts of capital. For example if I can only circle up $750K of interest, and investors are willing to price this at about 15% ownership, then the post-money cap on my round will be $5M.

• I need that $750K to last me 18 months

• Therefore my burn rate can be 750K/18=$41,666

• I need to figure out how to run my business on $41K net burn rate / month. If this is utterly impossible then I need to go back to the drawing board and accept more money and more dilution. Or I need to generate services revenue such that perhaps my gross burn can be as much as $60K or $80K but I’m offsetting that net burn with $20-40K of revenue per month. These are my options.

We have phrases such as “down round” or “re-price” that scare us, but they need not alarm. When these words come about we’re likely long past preventative medicine or even the Operating Room where we get to control every aspect of the surgery and make sure every stitch is perfect and every wound dressed. We are now in the Emergency Room where the operating principles are different. In the ER it is about survival, about triage, about staying alive no matter how messy it all gets. The guiding principles of the ER are very different than that of the orderly OR. If 2023 is a challenging year, and we know that going in, we all need to be asking the tough questions earlier to take preventative action, and make decisions while in the OR that might not be perfect, but they save us from going into the ER where we have less choice. The main challenge of 2023 is take proactive steps, and don’t do it alone. Involve your cap table. Call your investors. Ask for help. Lean into your network.

Founders sometimes tell us, “I’m unable to raise money.” Raising money is a function of two things 1) traction, and 2) price. If you can’t expand your reach to show sufficient traction fast enough, then the other lever you can control is the price. When a founder is “unable to raise” at a $12M valuation, the answer is simple; lower the price. If investors aren’t biting at a certain price, simply reframe the ask. Terms like “down round” sound bad, but all you’re doing is trading off an amount of dilution for an amount of capital, so don’t get hung up on the sticker price. It’s about getting great partners around your table, and doing so in a way that preserves as much equity as you can while raising as much money as you can to extend your runway.

A doctor warning a patient to take care of themself and be careful hopefully keeps patients out of the OR, and especially out of the ER. Preventative medicine is important and so is transparency. The world has changed over the past twelve months, and it will continue to change over the subsequent year or two. The deeper we all internalize these messages and heed caution, the better prepared we can be to act in whatever environment comes about, OR or ER. We are all living in various incarnations of the Apollo 13 capsule where the air filter will eventually fail and there is limited fuel to get home. It’s how we manage this that keeps us alive. In this new paradigm make sure you check the health of your business, involve others, ask for help, and practice preventative medicine such that you stay off the Op table. By the time you forgot to share investor updates and you’re three months from cash out, you’re already in the urgent care, and it’s going to take life support to stay alive. 2023 is the year to look out ahead and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Take action.

—

Scott Hartley is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Fund.

The world is drowning in stuff and consumers are more conscious than ever of the dire need to reduce the amount of waste. People are becoming less concerned with owning material goods and care more about the experience and getting access to what they need, when they need it. Linear commerce just isn’t sustainable for people, businesses, and our planet. Rentle is the circular commerce platform that empowers merchants to expand their commerce from ownership to access. Rentle’s proposition is that if you’re not going to eat it or drink it—if you’re not going to consume it, in a literal sense of the word—you’d be better off renting or subscribing to it.

Rentle was founded in 2018 by Tuomo Laine, Toomas Kallioja and Joel Mikkonen. All three founders attended Aalto University in Espoo, Finland and after they developed the business idea for Rentle, they piled into an RV and spent a week driving around to Finnish ski resorts and other companies offering rentals. They asked a lot of questions and were very encouraged with the answers they received. They became very aware of the sustainability issues and knew that they could create a software solution that embraces the circular economy. CEO Tuomo Laine shares how Rentle is changing the world — it's where sustainability and capitalism meet.

Check out the video!

What’s Rentle’s Northstar?

We always look at the number of merchants that we empower with our circular commerce platform. We have over 10,000 SMB merchants, and more than 1,000 merchants are signing up every month. We enable revenue streams like subscriptions, rentals, buybacks, or even second-hand sales and refurbished sales. We want merchants to move from linear commerce towards circular commerce, towards a business model that aims to reduce the junk we have in the world. 

Why is Rentle going to win?

Circularity and re-commerce by definition is 100x more complex than linear commerce, as money and products are moving in both directions. When it comes to circular commerce infrastructure, there are so many things that haven’t been optimized at the same level as linear commerce, which is what we’re solving for. We’re basically the Shopify of the circular economy, and we’re trying to do in 5 years what they did in 10. It’s not only that the demand is so great, but the fact is that the world doesn’t have time to wait 10 years for us to become more sustainable in our consumption. 

How does Rentle inspire “customer love”?

Our approach, and the founder background, comes from service design. Everything that we do, we go quite deep, not only into the superficial level of UI, UX, and usability, but we really drill down on understanding the real root problems the customers want to solve with our platform. Our merchants experience enjoyment and more profitability when we provide a frictionless way for them to grow their circular business, while making the world of commerce more sustainable. 

Tell us about some recent milestones that Rentle crushed. 

• The end of last year we raised a 3.8 million seed round; it’s exciting to be backed by investors sharing a vision of a better world.

• Product wise, we have a background in supporting rentals, but starting this quarter, we will add support for merchants to offer subscriptions for their customers. We see that this will have a huge impact on all sorts of items like sports equipment (think children’s bikes), electronic subscriptions (iPhones and laptops), and clothes, to name a few.

• This year we’re launching buyback programs. I’m the most convenience driven consumer (some could say lazy) and the fact I can give back an item to the merchant at the end of the life cycle, rather than having to figure out a responsible second-hand or recycling solution just makes my life so much easier. I know the merchant is much more capable of providing the item the most sustainable end of its life cycle - or in the best case a second cycle!

• We are also now proud members of the Unreasonable Fellowship, a fellowship re-purposing capitalism to be a driver of sustainability. They should get all the visibility possible, they have gathered an amazing group of purpose-driven people driving positive change in the world.

Do you have any podcast recommendations or advice for founders?

One podcast I fell in love with and haven’t looked back from is Acquired. I've probably listened to every episode and I think it’s one of the best podcasts for any founder. I’m also a huge fan of Ben Thompson’s Stratechery. 

On a personal note, as a Nordic founder, I’d like to bring to the table that sometimes it’s better for founders to consider themselves more like activist investors. You are often the biggest shareholder, board member and a CXO. Having that separation of concerns, rather than only viewing yourself as a founder can allow you to make the difficult hard decisions that actually push the company forward, as in that framework things are not so personal. It can also help you be a better leader. 

What’s something interesting about you that people may not know? 

I was struck by lightning. I was in the Finnish navy finishing my compulsory service and we were in a tent during a powerful thunderstorm, which is probably the worst place you can be. In the fraction of a second lightning coursed through the bodies of all eight of us in the tent, and while today all of us luckily are ok, some people suffered internal burns, nerve damage, paralysis and memory loss—the usual array of lightning-related injuries. It changed me and really motivated me to challenge myself to the fullest. I was literally jolted full of energy and my battery has since been charged to take on one of the most important missions in the world - to help global consumption become sustainable!

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About 15 years ago, there were 100’s of medical recalls any given year, but today it’s in the 1,000’s and the scope of those recalls has exploded with millions of units being affected. Notisphere’s mission is to prevent recalled items from ever causing harm to a patient. Their digital platform allows immediate and accurate communication between suppliers and providers. They are expanding their platform to include other supply disruptions and you can see a more detailed video explanation here. 

Founder and CEO Guillermo Ramas was born in Argentina, grew up in Spain, and has spent the last 25+ years in the U.S. working on healthcare technology, with a large focus on supply chain. He was volunteering with a group of providers and suppliers to come up with recommendations to the FDA to improve the recall process and the idea for Notisphere was born. Guillermo founded the company in 2018 and was accepted into the Cedars-Sinai accelerator program the year after, which gave him the right push to bring his idea to fruition. 

How has Notisphere disrupted the medical recall process? 

The recall process hasn’t changed in 50 years. Suppliers and manufacturers will FedEx papers overnight to hospitals. Oftentimes they don’t even know who to send it to, so it can take days for the right person to actually receive it. Then the FDA requires the supplier to get an acknowledgement from the provider saying they’ve received it and are aware of it. The entire process is communicated through snail mail, so you can imagine the back and forth, confusion, frustration, and why it usually takes months. What we’re doing is not rocket science and it’s not sexy, but we’ve introduced a concept that allows a provider to acknowledge the receipt of an alert in real time through technology, rather than waiting for a paper to arrive and a response to come back. Our software is improving communication and reducing the overall cycle time. 

What’s Notisphere’s North Star?

I would say transparency and efficiency. Our platform allows for very clear information to be communicated to those that need it in a transparent way. And we do this efficiently by making it simple and intuitive. We can implement and train people in one day with zero integration needs. We want to take away the burden of the process.

Tell us about some recent milestones that Notisphere crushed.

• We recently achieved what I think is the fastest ever acknowledgment from a provider back to a supplier …. 18 minutes, when the norm right now is months. I’m excited for when minutes, not months, becomes the standard. 

• In 2022 we tripled the number of users on the platform.

• We’ve expanded our platform beyond just recalls to include other disruption events like back orders and shortages.

• With our new software we will allow a supplier to communicate with anybody, regardless if they’re on the platform. Obviously there's added benefits if you’re on the platform, but we have a broader vision and desire to help the healthcare industry with all supply disruptions.

How does Notisphere inspire “customer love”?

We have a few white papers and case studies from customers explaining how easy and beneficial it is to use our product.  A couple that come to mind are this one describing how easy our solution deploys to 100+ surgery center sites in a matter of hours; and this one covering how The Joint Commission was favorably impressed when they saw how Baptist Health, AR was using our platform to manage recalls.

We have several more on our website, and plenty in the works. I do love knowing that we make our users extremely happy, and that they get excited about what we are doing!

What makes Notisphere a must-have vs a nice-to-have?

If you think about all of the supply disruptions today, regardless if it's a recall, or a backorder, or shortage, etc, they end up affecting patient care. If a patient goes to a hospital for a procedure and it gets canceled because there’s a backorder on a particular item, that can be a huge problem. When we solve these supply disruptions, patients receive better care. 

When you consider recalls, the issue can get very serious. If somebody is scheduled to have an implant procedure and that manufacturer issues a recall that week, but the hospital doesn’t realize it until the next month, then that person ends up receiving the defective implant. Then the surgeon will need to decide the risks and whether the implant needs to be replaced. It can be a matter of life, harm, or even death, which definitely makes it a must-have. 

Any words of wisdom?

My advice to folks would always be, don't let what makes you different be a deterrent (in my case being an older, first-time founder), because in the end, you have a unique set of skills that you bring to the table.

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There’s no denying that COVID has brought infectious diseases to the forefront, but they’ve always existed and continue to be a global threat. Diagnosing and researching infectious diseases is challenging to say the least, but there are also high rates of diagnostic failure that lead to mortality and drug resistance. Since 2016, Biotia has been leveraging genomics and artificial intelligence for precision infectious disease insights to guide patient treatment and improve health outcomes. 

Biotia was launched out of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech in association with Weill Cornell Medicine. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Niamh O’Hara met her co-founder Dr. Christopher Mason at the New York Genome Center and they wanted to use technology to impact patient care and health. Niamh has PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a focus in Genomics, while Christopher has a PhD in Genetics and is a professor at Weill Cornell Medicine. They are dedicated to Biotia’s mission of fighting infectious disease with AI and genomics while developing the world’s leading microbial sequence database. Niamh provided some insight into Biotia and how their technology is changing the way infectious diseases are diagnosed and treated, as well how the data is shared and analyzed. 

• What inspired the creation of Biotia? 

While getting my PhD, I was using DNA sequencing in my research. As I started working with hospitals, I saw this incredible gap in the way they do diagnostics. The current gold standard is to take a sample, like urine, they grow it on a petri dish, and look through a microscope to identify microbial species. This is technology from the 1800s and it's pretty wild that it’s still the gold standard. It's also really limited because less than 5% or so of species can actually be cultured, and slow because you're waiting for these microorganisms to grow. So we basically have this technology that I'd been using as a grad student, and it's very standard in the academic/research front, that you use DNA and RNA sequencing to identify microbial species and drug resistance markers. We just identified this giant gap between standard practice and research and built Biotia to bridge that gap.

• What is Biotia’s Northstar?

Science. We're mostly a bunch of scientists, the majority coming out of Cornell, Cornell Tech, Weill Cornell, and Columbia University. We use a very rigorous scientific approach with a focus on publications, sharing data, and collaboration. 

• Tell us about a recent milestone Biotia crushed. 

We closed an oversubscribed, $8 million Series A round last summer, which has allowed us to grow the company, including hiring 14 people last year.

• What is Biotia working on? 

-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the SARS-CoV-2 Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Assay: This is the product we have for COVID. We were working on this before the pandemic and have also shifted back to focus on other application areas. 

-Urology: We have a genomics assay for testing urine, which allows us to diagnose urinary tract infections and pathogens that cause sexually transmitted infections. 

-Challenge infections: These are generally infections that you find in sterile sites like in the central nervous system. We can test cerebral spinal fluid and joint fluid, so a product we've been developing is an assay that can diagnose prosthetic joint infections for post-joint replacement surgery. There are a number of people who get infections at those sites and they're very hard to diagnose and treat. Our product tests for synovial fluid, which can actually guide the selection of antimicrobials, or which drugs to choose to treat those infections.

• What differentiates Biotia from competitors?

There are other companies out there working on similar technology, but nobody is doing the combination of different assays that we've been developing. In addition, we have a clinical lab in New York, so that opens a lot of doors. New York is the largest market and it’s very hard to get accreditations in the state. You can’t sell into New York without a clinical lab or Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) approval, but you can sell into any other state because New York has the highest bar. 

Another differentiator for us is we have taken the platform we've built, and we've extended it to launch GeoSeeq. It’s a genomics biosurveillance hub that allows researchers globally to upload their genomic data. We created this with the Rockefeller Foundation, Weill Cornell Medicine, MetaSUB, Biomedical Informatics, Fiocruz, and City University of New York and we built a number of analytical tools on top of it to make sense of all the data. What we’re doing is moving towards predicting emerging pathogens and outbreaks before they occur, and then coordinating with public health folks on guidance and responding. 

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India’s current population is over 1.4 billion and is set to become the world's most heavily populated country by 2030. It’s also a place with a culture and deep roots in spirituality and religion. VAMA, an acronym for Virtual Astrology and Mandir App, is growing quickly by using technology to make it easy for people to book pujas, do mandir darshan, attend a daily aarti, collect donations, receive astrology services, remedies, and more. The co-founders behind VAMA are Manu Jain, Aacharya Dev, and Himanshu Semwal and they are on a mission to make the temples of India accessible to anyone and keep faith alive digitally. While the app is only available in India at the moment, they plan to expand to the international diaspora soon. We chatted with CEO Manu Jain to find out about their journey and what’s in the stars for VAMA.

• Why VAMA and why now?

My two co-founders, Himanshu and Aacharya, and I go back about a decade. All three of us were working with telecom operators in India. Before the whole mobile internet generation had come in, the only way that you could consume organized content was behind telecom operators and at the time, astrology was the most used content. When we decided to do something in the internet space, we agreed that not only astrology, but also the temple ecosystem, was a vertical that needed to be brought online. Between us, we have 30 years of experience in the space, we understand the nuances, and we’re passionate about bringing people closer to their faith and religion. 

• What differentiates VAMA?

The team that we have and the unique skills that each of us bring to the table. Aacharya is a third generation astrologer and gets us access to temples, which is not easy, Himanshu comes from a product background, and I have a history of partnering for distribution. Right now, there are a few platforms that provide some similar services; the large market continues to be offline and we are on a mission to build this online with our experience and strengths.

• Tell us about some recent milestones that VAMA has crushed?

-One of the biggest things for us is that we are very proud of the temples that we have partnered with. For many of the temples, it’s the first time that they are coming online so there's a huge trust. In India most temples are unicorns in themselves - they don’t need money, they really want to partner with someone who understands the subject, so for them to partner with us is a huge win. 

- We’ve signed distribution agreements with MX Player (a large OTT platform), and with one of the largest matrimony sites in India (Jeevansathi) along with a large distribution opportunity with a Telecom operator in India.

-We also recently raised a $1.25M seed round.

• How does VAMA inspire customer love?

During COVID people couldn’t visit temples, and customers told us that we made it possible for them to see their God. Our astrology customers tell us that they appreciate that our astrologers want to solve their problem without prolonging the calls for higher prices. Faith is really a zero or one, either you have it or you don’t. For people who have it, we’re providing services that they are usually not able to get. 

• What have been some of the greatest challenges building VAMA?

It has been a challenge to raise capital for three first time Internet founders who are 40+ and who don't come from pedigreed education.  People expect us to be much younger, especially in the India ecosystem. We also come from a corporate background so investors question whether we will just go find another job. We have been fortunate to have some people who believed in us quite early, but getting people to take you seriously and back you when you’re building is always a problem to be solved.

• What makes you unique founders?

Our success, I believe, will be defined by our execution. There’s a word in Hindi that’s called junoon (जुनून), which is passion. The junoon we have for making VAMA one of the most successful companies in India is unparalleled. We wake up with a jump in our spirit to make changes each and every day; along with our diverse backgrounds and the understanding of the space, we are confident in making VAMA one of the largest platforms for Faith.

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The only guarantee in life is death, but it’s not guaranteed that we will have a good dying experience. When Jessica McGlory’s father was put in hospice, it was the first time she’d ever heard the word. She had to learn on the fly; she became a caregiver overnight, and suddenly she faced the reality that her father was at the end of his life. At the two year anniversary of her father’s death, she was reflecting on the hospice experience and realized there was so much left to be desired. She was motivated to build something better and to change the way we treat death. Guaranteed came to her mind, as she wanted a guaranteed positive experience for those in hospice, not only for the dying patients, but also for loved ones, employees, and society as a whole. 

• What is Guaranteed? 

Guaranteed is a tech-enabled healthcare services business and we are providing direct patient care for hospice. We are accredited and certified and currently servicing patients in Los Angeles, with plans to expand into additional markets in 2023. We provide well vetted, highly trained and incredibly empathetic care workers the opportunity to go in and do what they do best. We want to make sure that they can do their job with less focus on the admin side and a lot more focus on providing the best patient experience. We also provide 24/7 coverage with palliative trained nurses via video telemedicine, as well as the ability to schedule visits with your chaplain, social worker, dietitian, all via video with unlimited visits that they're able to do. So they still have the in person care in their home, however, they have increased accessibility to their different care team members. That way if something happens at 2am, they can get an immediate response and have this situation evaluated and addressed right then and there. 

• What’s Guaranteed’s Northstar?

Our North Star is our dedication to changing the way we treat dying in the world. Not only are we providing a better experience for the patient, family, and staff, but we’re also investing in educational content. People need to start talking about death and dying because everyone struggles when they lose someone close. Death is such a taboo, which is so strange, because all of us will face it. We really try to get people to open up because that's the only way that we're going to allow people to have a better way to die.

• Tell us about a recent milestone that Guaranteed crushed.

We closed a seed round of $6.5 million, bringing our total funding to $9.25 million in less than a year of being incorporated. That milestone was particularly huge for a few different reasons. One, we know that this amount of capital will really allow us to build out a true patient experience that we can be proud of. Two, this is one of the hardest and toughest fundraising environments that we've seen in recent times. It was further validation that people really believe that this is something that people need. The third reason this milestone is so important is that it’s one of the largest seed rounds ever raised by a Black female solo founder. I hope that when others see that, they feel inspired and they feel empowered to go out and raise the funds that they need to tackle big visions that can really impact the world. 

• What sets Guaranteed apart?

Not only do we provide the best patient care for people who are dying, but we are the first hospice in the nation to have family admission, where they get a plan of care, just like the dying patient gets a plan of care. The plans are dedicated to the different realities they will be facing including grief. Unfortunately, one of the big things that ends up happening is that family members see death is coming and they don't want to accept it. They don't visit or take the time to have the needed conversations. We see hospice as an opportunity for people to have closure and experience grief in a healthy way. 

• Any favorite books?

The book that has made quite an impact on me recently is Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It really helps us examine why we are so obsessed with the curative versus having a natural course of life. Why, even if someone's 93, do we want them to have open heart surgery? This book opened my mind to the way we think about systems. When things have always been done the same way, how can you start to challenge some of those notions and ways of thinking? 

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Welcome to The Fund Holiday Gift Guide! We’re excited to offer some great gift ideas with special discounts from our portfolio companies and community member companies. And more than half of these products are built by female and diverse founders!

Wagmo

Wagmo Holiday Plan-Unlike pet insurance, Wagmo Pet Wellness reimburses you for the routine care that you are already doing for your pet. Our pet wellness plans include things like vet visits, dental cleanings, vaccines, and more. Limited Time Only $75 Bonus Grooming Credit. Price: $29.99/mo

Pair Eyewear

Pair Eyewear, the first direct-to-consumer, customizable eyewear brand reimagining the consumer experience for those with glasses, allows adults and children alike to quickly and easily customize the look of their glasses anytime, anywhere. Choose your base frame: Eyeglasses, Sunglasses—all our frames at just $60, including prescription lenses and express yourself with hundreds of colorful top frames to choose from.

Twice

TWICE is a holistic oral health system that combines cutting-edge science
and clean ingredients for better mouth body balance. Super-ingredient filled products provide you with a beautiful and healthy smile as you brush, floss, rinse, and brighten twice-a-day. The Oral Wellness Immunity Rinse has nano-emulsion technology for long-lasting freshness. Their proprietary dual-action formula delivers powerful ingredients deep within your gum lines to help safeguard against infection-causing bacteria, boost oral defenses and improve the wellness of your mouth.

August

Introducing August's ultra comfy, ultra long 100% cotton & fully biodegradable long night pads. These pads are PLASTIC FREE making them extremely soft & extra comfy. Organic cotton fibers, undamaged by pesticides, are longer and have dense tiny holes in the surface of the pad making them soft, long-lasting, and breathable. The biodegradable backsheet film uses advanced technology to remove residual heat and moisture to keep you comfortable for hours. This makes the pads more absorbent, and prevents the feeling of a soggy wet pad after hours of use.

Halfdays

Halfdays is an outdoor brand for the modern woman. The collection of performance apparel for is designed the lodge, the mountain and everywhere in between. Use code thefund_essentials for 15% off the Halfdays Essentials Collection. Offer not applicable on ski jackets, ski pants, ski accessories or base layers. Not applicable to previous purchases. One use per customer. Discount code must applied at checkout. Offer ends 12/31 at 11:59 pm MST.

True Sons Grooming, Inc.

True Sons Hair and Beard Dye Foam is a no mix, no fuss dye for hair & beards that restores natural color quickly and easily. Our air oxidizing foam is a unique product that starts working the moment it comes out of the nozzle. It is easy to use and gives natural-looking results.

Pearline Health

Pearline Health is dismantling an antiquated, $162 bn industry with tech-enabled 30 minute teeth cleaning, whitening and straightening appointments in salon-style studios. We're women- and dentist-founded and our flagship studio is in West Hollywood. We offer 30 minute teeth cleaning and whitening appointments with Registered Dental Hygienists without the work, wait or worry. Clear aligner treatment (teeth straightening) directed by our doctors and Candid, using revolutionary remote monitoring tech that makes it convenient and affordable to achieve a straighter, healthier smile. We’re currently in West Hollywood, but expanding soon!

Glaize

Make nail art super easy with Glaize Stick N Mix nail art stickers. These festive yet chic decals are perfect for adding a little sparkle to your mani, giving you a grown-up take on Christmas nail art. Wear them over gels, polish or just bare nails and seal with a clear top coat. We currently ship within the United Kingdom.

£1 from every sale will go to Beit el Baraka, a Lebanese NGO that helps to support Lebanese citizens with the increasing cost of living.

Press Hook

Get press coverage for your brand by joining a simple, easy to use PR platform and welcoming media community. Press Hook connects top journalists to innovative startups and is much more efficient and less time-consuming than doing it on your own. We connect brands with relevant journalists searching for relative content at the right time, right place. In effect, we help startups get brand awareness through valuable earned media exposure.

Esembly

Esembly is a diapering system for sustainability. Helping new families cloth diaper with ease, confidence and style. The Esembly Try-It Kit is a reassuringly simple introduction to cloth diapering. The kit includes everything you need to get started; 3 organic diapers, specially-formulated detergent and a waterproof storage bag to keep it all together. Perfect gift for an eco-conscious new parent!

Lalo

We make baby and toddler essentials parents are proud to own. The Play Kit is the perfect table and chairs set for toddlers. Great for play dates, snack time, art projects and more!

Jawa

Jawa is the marketplace for gamers to buy and sell gear! Custom gaming computers, consoles, and accessories from boutique sellers across the US!

PlantBaby

PlantBaby is an innovative nutrition company that designs clean and healthy plant-based drinks, foods, and formulas to fuel the next generation. We are developing an inspired portfolio of healthy products that are plant-based, dairy-free, climate-friendly, and scientifically backed.

Kiki Milk is the first organic, clean-label, plant-based 'milk' specifically designed for kids. Made with exclusively organic, whole-food ingredients like organic oats, organic hemp seeds, organic sprouted pumpkin seeds, and organic coconuts, Kiki Milk is a naturally delicious and nutritious option for kids and adults alike. In Kiki Milk, we add ZERO gums, oils, artificial flavors, sweeteners, or common allergens like soy, gluten, or dairy. We even take it a step further by rigorously third-party testing our ingredients to verify they are free from glyphosate and heavy metals. What’s left is Kiki Milk, a deliciously nutrient-dense milk that's better for you and the planet! For additional information, visit www.kikimilk.com.

Boutiq

Boutiq’s portfolio of luxury vacation rental homes are perfect for hosting a large gathering of family of friends, from the ski slopes to the beach to country retreats!

Sheets & Giggles

Join 100,000+ people sleeping on Sheets & Gigges' award-winning, eco-friendly Eucalyptus Lyocell sheets, mattresses, pillows, and comforters. Naturally temperature-regulating to prevent night sweats, our flagship 400 thread count sateen weave is sustainable, hypoallergenic, vegan, dust mite resistant, and dermatologist recommended for sensitive skin and hair.

Character

Character is the next-generation home improvement brand for all DIYers, new and experienced. The Essential Set Holiday Bundle is valued at $412 but customers can get it for $295!

Cleancult

Everything you need to start your new clean routine, at our best value! Our Complete Home Bundle is packed with over 30% off in savings, essentials, and more! This bundle includes our entire suite of refillable glass bottles in your choice of color and our entire set of paper-based refills.

Revival Homes

Revival Homes is a lending platform and contractor marketplace helping Southern California homeowners build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). We solve homeowners’ two biggest pain points: paying for an ADU and finding high-quality contractors. Our one-stop shop makes it simple and affordable to get your ADU project off the ground. We offer a free consultation with an ADU expert, who will help you create a project plan, a budget, and a strategy for financing your ADU.

Graceful

Graceful is a first of its kind digital vault for children. Built on the cutting edge of augmented reality, a Graceful vault is where parents store all the most important and precious digital items and assets for their kids.

Behave

BEHAVE is reinventing the candy experience with low-sugar, low-net carb, chef-crafted sweets featuring elevated flavors and all-natural ingredients that let you feel good about indulging. Our gummies - which come in Sweet and Sour - are just 1g Sugar, 60 calories, and <6g Net Carbs per bag. And you won't find any GMOs, Gluten, Dairy, or Artificial Colors or Flavors here. So go ahead, eat the whole bag.

Gummies with just 1g Sugar, 60 calories, low net carbs, mouth-watering flavors, and nothing artificial in every bag. So go ahead, eat the whole thing.

Spicewell

Spicewell is the world’s first Ayurvedic, nutrient dense (10% DV of 21 Vitamins!) salt and pepper backed by functional medicine doctors like Dr. Mark Hyman and founders of FlybyJing and Essential Living Foods. Made with vitamins derived from organic vegetables like kale, broccoli, cranberry and maitake mushrooms to name just a few - it delivers 10% of your daily vitamins in a half teaspoon serving size. The vitamins are heat resistant and excellent to cook or season with. Spicewell New Salt is 30% lower in sodium than regular salt and blended with Ashwagandha.

All Phenoms

All Phenoms is on a mission to elevate functional drinks with phenomenal-for-you sparkling beverages for body and mind. Our three unique blends are a one-stop source for pre & probiotics, vitamins & minerals, adaptogens & nootropics with delicious organic fruits and botanicals that make adding a boost of wellness to your routine easy and enjoyable.

Daily is a refreshing sparkling blend infused with delicious organic pineapple and mango and blended with essential nutrition to power your day. Superboost is an blueberry mint, immune-boosting sparkling water that brings together a super flavor and super function. Motivate is a clean energy and focus blend created to uplift without jitters and crash in a refreshing citrus ginger.

CrowdSolve

CrowdSolve is a 'pre-incubation' platform for climate entrepreneurs. Designed to empower early-stage innovators who are solving the climate crisis by providing them with resources and next steps, guiding them through their venture development journey.

This holiday season, give the gift of climate hope. The ideal gift for the person in your life who cares deeply about climate solutions. Give a fun, meaningful way to support climate-focused innovators. How it works:

1) Buy Sponsorship Gift - For $25 ea., we’ll match your recipient with a climate innovation project. Your gift will support an early-stage climate innovator, giving them access to curated curriculum on the CrowdSolve platform, helping them make progress on their innovation.
2) Tell us who it’s for - Tell us about their first name and email. Choose a date/time for them to receive their sponsorship gift.
3) Sponsor-Innovation Match - We make it easy for your recipient to follow a climate innovation.

Project examples include energy, tech, wind/solar, retail and much more. Innovators are from all over the world - from Colorado to Nigeria.

Minded

Give the gift of better mental health. Sign up today and receive a comprehensive evaluation and customized medication plan for your depression, anxiety, insomnia, and more—all from the comfort of home. Minded is an online psychiatry practice that specializes in treating woman. We provide expert mental health care and medication management that's sensitive to what's going on in a woman's life, body, and mind at every stage of her life.

CityRow

The multi-sensory CityRow Max Rower features innovative water resistance technology and a built-in touchscreen with high-fidelity speakers for a fully immersive, total-body workout with thousands of classes. Pair your Apple Watch to sync every workout and display your stats in real-time to track your progress.

CraftJam

CraftJam provides science-based performance improvement through high-powered, addictively enjoyable crafting workshops for businesses, teams, and individuals. We've fused decades of research with creative, hands-on projects that boost well-being, collaboration, focus, and social engagement. Our customer success team ensures events that work for all ages, all sizes of groups, and your organization's mission. Customers can chose from 100+ workshops and 60+ craft kits. You schedule an event, we ship the supplies to each attendee and one of our trained JamMasters conducts the workshop. Attendees attain science-based wellness and performance tools.

Hemp Farms of New York

Hemp Farms of New York makes the very finest CBD products from organically grown upstate New York hemp. Products are tailored to the demands of everyday lifesytles. Enter dreamland with the HFNY full-spectrum Sleep CBD Oil. Our 100% plant-based Sleep CBD Oil supports you in falling asleep quickly and easily, while bringing you vibrant and vivid dreams, so you can wake refreshed, alert, and energized for your day

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Have you ever stood in the vitamins and supplements aisle at the drugstore and asked yourself, “which one do I buy?” So many choices, all claiming to support whatever ailment or deficiency you’re trying to remedy. The problem is that none of these nonprescription health products are required to conduct clinical trials or seek FDA approval.  And since clinical trials were created to validate pharma drugs, they’re simply too slow and expensive even if wellness products wanted them! Jeff Chen and Pelin Thorogood joined forces to democratize the access to clinical trials so health and wellness products can clinically PROVE their true effectiveness. Their pioneering company, Radicle Science, is the first-of-its-kind Proof-as-a-Service for non-pharmaceutical products. They’re simplifying the process for companies who want clinical evidence that their product truly works beyond placebo, while at the same time giving consumers confidence and trust in the products they’re purchasing. 

What’s your personal motivation for founding Radicle Science? 

• Jeff: Becoming a doctor, my mission was to bring health and healing to people. I realized that if I wanted to create a dramatic change in impact, working within healthcare systems might not be the best way to do that. I saw nonprescription health and wellness products as having unparalleled innovation opportunities compared to things that are stuck within the mold of the healthcare system. For me it represented the greatest opportunity to deliver better health in mass to society.  Ultimately, what was missing was the proof - for consumers, retailers, brands and doctors. There are doctors who'd love to talk about supplements, but don’t because there’s no clinical evidence. So that's when I said okay, we've got to figure out how to generate proof on these products.

• Pelin: I experienced the causes and ramifications of a glaring proof gap between pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals when I was funding first-of-their-kind natural medicine trials at renowned research institutions across the U.S.  As a tech CEO, I’d seen first-hand how data-driven decision making could transform entire industries.  I knew it was time to do the same for these massive non-pharmaceuticals used by nearly all Americans.  The fact that I am a Mediterranean girl who had grown up with a lot of ancient herbal remedies was a big contributor. I had personally experienced remedies work for some people, for some conditions - and not for others -  and felt it was time to scientifically prove their personalized effects. I found a like-spirited partner in Jeff… and Radicle Science was born.  

What’s Radicle Science’s “North Star”?

Our North Star is creating a world where people have access to PROVEN health and wellness treatments that are inherently democratized, meaning accessible and affordable. These treatments cannot be patented, cannot be monopolized, and do not require a doctor's prescription. We pioneered Proof-as-a-Service and we use a precision medicine approach because we all have unique bodies and conditions that need to be represented in clinical trials.  

Tell us about some recent milestones that Radicle Science crushed.

• We’ve been running studies for a little over a year and we've already had over 25,000 Americans participate from all 50 U.S. states. The typical clinical trial on a wellness product like a dietary supplement has a few dozen people - and very few supplements ever undergo a clinical trial. In contrast, our trials involve at least 500 people!  Historically, participants in clinical trials have been white males in urban areas; conversely, we’re making sure to include women, minorities, rural populations and other groups traditionally excluded from trials. This approach ensures our data represents the diversity of the broader population and thus is actually generalizable and actionable for society, delivering much needed health equity! 

• To date, we've run history’s first and largest randomized controlled trials involving cannabinoids. 

• We recently signed one of the top five largest CPG companies in the world as a client. They want to start using Radicle Science to systematically generate proof on their products. Stay tuned! 

• We were named by KPMG as one of America's Top 10 "Tech Innovators" and UC San Francisco (a traditional kind of healthcare establishment) named us as a finalist for their annual “Rising Star” award. 

What’s on the horizon for Radicle Science?

We are continually increasing the number of conditions that we're studying and generating proof around. We started with the top three that everybody goes to non-pharmaceutical products for: pain, sleep, and anxiety. Since then we've added many others including energy, gut health, and cognition. And we’ve started creating studies on need states such as immunity and women’s health. Our current focus is on benefiting these conditions/correcting so-called deficiencies, and in the future we plan to study how non-pharmaceuticals can enhance normal human physical and mental performance. We also plan to expand into other industries that clearly need proof such as beauty and cosmetics, nutrition, functional foods & beverages, and pet care to name a few. Those will come in due course, but we’ve started with dietary supplements because it’s a massive industry ($50B in the U.S.) that most Americans consume, with the greatest potential to impact people’s lives when there is real proof!

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Almost five years and 300 investments into The Fund we have a lot to be thankful for. What started out as a small local experiment to support founders in New York has turned into a truly global platform. The pandemic put a lot of stress on the planet, but for antifragile things like community, it only made us stronger. We scaled The Fund from $5M to $50M of assets under management over the last few years because we all saw something more powerful in the community than we did in isolation, and that propelled us forward. 

The fundamental shift I’ve seen over my 11 years in venture capital is how borders are blurring, and investing internationally has become the norm. The flattening of information has facilitated fast replication of business models that work. The commoditization of capital and return-seeking has driven investors to look farther afield to find differentiated problem solving. And infrastructure now enables global relationship management better than ever. 

What’s clear is that talent is everywhere, and the opportunity to solve meaningful problems is even more salient in less developed markets. Moreover, there is close to $300 billion ready to be deployed by a select number of VC firms, and there simply isn’t enough happening in the US startup ecosystem to absorb that capital. International market opportunities and valuations will attract more and more sophisticated growth investors. We might continue to be “surprised” when big-name firms write meaningful checks into emerging markets, but this will become normalized as regional winners will generate the biggest returns over the coming decade. 

When I started in venture capital in 2011, I was told that VCs could invest early-stage and local, or late-stage and global. “There’s no way to have the network to invest early and everywhere,” people warned. Venture capital is about sourcing, selecting, and winning entry into the best deals, and it’s clearly hard to do that on all sides of the planet. What’s changed in the last decade though, are the communication platforms that allow for authentic global connection at scale. Today it’s genuinely easier to forge friendships across a dozen countries than it is to commute to lunch, something I encounter on a weekly basis. 

Personally, this evolution has been empowering. Domesticity was always at odds with how I self-identified. I grew up hearing stories of my father’s childhood in Saudi Arabia and Havana, with his family trips to places like Jerusalem, Baghdad and Damascus, and I spent six out of my seven years in college and grad school living abroad or with international students. As soon as I could apply to anything, I applied to everything that would put a pin on the map and a story in my pocket. When I worked at Google after school I convinced managers to let me launch teams in India, and as a VC partner on Sand Hill Road I managed our earliest investments in China. 

But my international endeavors were always against the grain. When the US State Department began inviting me on entrepreneurship delegations to Malaysia, Senegal, Turkey, and Algeria I knew I couldn’t get official approval, so rather than ask for permission I simply began to take more “vacations” where I’d sneak off to speaking engagements. I told bosses I’d be at the beach as I boarded red-eyes bound for Cairo and Dar es Salam. I had chargers stolen in Dakar and ended up in a hospital in Algiers, but when I got home I’d smile and pretend I’d been in Europe. 

When the White House took me on as an Innovation Fellow and later invited me to Kenya on President Obama’s delegation, the Wall Street Journal reported on it, but my Silicon Valley venture firm thought it was a fundraising distraction, and asked me not to talk about it. 

I haven’t changed but the world has, and now funds like Bond Capital and General Atlantic are beginning to write nine-figure growth checks into “risky” companies we helped launch or pre-seed many years ago. So as we continue to double down across the globe, backing talent no matter where it sits, I’m optimistic about the future. And as the world of institutional capital wakes up to the brilliance and power of global entrepreneurs, serious fuel to the fire is coming. 

The power of The Fund is our community, one that humbly started in New York but grew roots across the planet. Now nearly 1,000 founders strong there is no city or market in which we don’t have a dozen connections, so investing everywhere has become a fait accompli. We don’t hide behind narrow mandates that rationalize a stale worldview to appease the past; we will follow the human relationships that thread and stitch their way across a borderless patchwork that is the future.

Great founders and ideas come from everywhere, that’s where you’ll find us. The Fund is doubling down, and gone global, because we never believed otherwise. Our roots began in New York, but what is New York but the most cosmopolitan place on Earth, a place where people of all walks of life convene and connect. It’s a city of everyone and everything, and so it’s only natural that we follow it radically as it unfurls itself across the globe. This week, and always, we’re thankful for you, our community, our peers, and for the deep optimism we will continue to create together. 

—

Scott Hartley is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Fund. 

Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple Music, beauty boxes, meal delivery - how many subscription services do you have? Chances are it’s a handful and behind the scenes, the majority of your payments are processing via the card network, a network built in the 1950’s which has high transaction fees for merchants and high failure rates for recurring payments from consumers. Waivr is building payments infrastructure for the subscription economy. They are launching real-time subscription payments, which reduces costs and bounce rates for merchants. They closed a $1.4M pre-seed round and recently opened up beta access to their product.

Co-founder and CEO Carolina Nucamendi is from the South of Mexico and moved to Los Angeles over 10 years ago. She was the former Vice President of Mobile Banking-Money Movement at City National Bank and that’s where she met her co-founder Brenna Curran, who was a product manager at Deloitte working with her on a project. Through a series of iterations, they realized that subscription payments can be very problematic from both the merchant and consumer sides and created Waivr to modernize the way payments are processed.

What value does Waivr provide to customers?

We provide three different pillars of value for merchants:

1. Lower cost: Waivr processes payments through a hybrid RTP/ACH network, which is a lot cheaper for merchants. We can save a streaming service 30% in processing costs for a $20 transaction or 80% for a $100 transaction. As transaction value grows, so do merchant savings.

2. Optimized payment cycles: The API utilizes account level data and proprietary logic to determine optimal timing for when a transaction has the highest likelihood of clearing–an optimal billing date–for a subscription. It also verifies funds to avoid overdrawing or bouncing a payment. 

3. Instant disbursement: We're moving money through the RTP network, so it settles with the merchant’s account instantly. So they're actually able to get the liquidity much faster than they would otherwise. 

What’s Waivr’s “North Star”?

The subscription economy has really taken over the way we're acquiring almost every single item in our lives: movies, shows, music, household items, groceries, meal delivery services, and even dog food. So when we think about how much that’s changing the way we are transacting, it's just as important for the infrastructure to support this type of societal shift. Our North Star is really to modernize the infrastructure to match the changes in financial behaviors and make it smoother for merchants, which in turn positively affects all of us as consumers as well.

 What sets Waivr apart from competitors? 

The optimization of payment cycles is something new in the market. Not only do we give merchants access to infrastructure rails that are cheaper and better, but we also add logic from a data perspective to make sure that customers aren’t bouncing a payment and bills are aligned with a customer’s income cycle, resulting in lower churn. We help merchants with their bottom line, which is to reduce costs and retain customers.

What makes you a unique founder?

I would say being an immigrant has helped me so much. I had to navigate my career, start a life in a place where I didn’t know anyone, didn't have a lot of stability, and I was constantly facing different challenges. This really prepared me for being a founder because the experience is very similar. You have to build something from nothing, figure stuff out on the fly, navigate systems, and constantly gain knowledge. I learnt to be very comfortable with unpredictability, to the point that it became second nature, which is key in startups.

Do you have any advice for other founders?

Embrace what you don't know and don’t be afraid to fail. As long as you have convictions you'll figure it out along the way, and failures will always come with new opportunities.

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Connecting people and companies is one of the most important tasks for venture capital funds and professional investors. Getro is a platform with a mission to accelerate companies and professionals doing work that matters. They help companies hire faster by identifying referred candidates from sources they trust and professionals get warm introductions to companies they're interested in working for. They want to help people find better opportunities through better introductions. 

Co-founder and CEO Evan Walden is a two-time founder and his previous company, ReWork, was a recruiting agency dedicated to helping people find jobs. He and co-founder Raul San N.H. were interested in how they could scale that idea with more technology and spun out the concept for Getro. As they were talking to investors about the idea, many were interested in taking the product and putting it on their website. This includes us, as we use Getro for our personalized jobs board and we have a constant stream of opportunities available- right now there are over 500 job openings in our 200+ portfolio.

Check out The Fund's job board

• Why is Getro going to win?

We've been working in this space for a really long time, over 12 years now. We've been working specifically with VCs for about six years, so we know the customer really well and we're passionate about the problem. We're also willing to innovate in a way that other companies aren't. We're always trying new things and taking risks.

• How does Getro inspire “customer love”?

Our customers are super busy; they have a million things going on, so it's important for us to build products that don't really require them to do anything in order to get value. We also have an amazing customer success team, so we've invested a lot of time and energy into finding folks to join Getro who are really passionate about the customer and really care about creating great customer experiences. That's a huge differentiator that we have compared to other solutions on the market.

• What’s on the horizon for Getro?

This year the whole technology landscape has shifted fast, so one of our business goals is to get to profitability by the end of the year, which we're on track to do. From a product standpoint, we've found product market fit with our jobs board, and now help over 750 networks (mostly venture funds) collect and organize all the jobs in their network of companies.  We're also getting ready to launch a new product,  GetroConnect, which organizes all the people in the network of a fund, and helps investors making the right introduction at the right time. 

• Do you have any advice for other founders?

My first reaction was “don't take generalized advice.” One of the biggest things I've learned is that in the world of startups, people are passionate about helping each other way more than in other industries. Founders know how hard it is to build a company and are motivated to give back; it feels good to help. People always give advice with the best of intentions, but they may not have the same context as you, so it's important to do some investigation to understand what context the advice is coming from, and to ultimate follow your own intuition; you're the expert of your business!

I would also say therapy/coaching is one of the most effective tools for any founder. Managing your own psychology is the hardest thing about being a founder, and it's the thing that no one else can do for you. Success has lots of different definitions, but just being on the journey with quality mental health is so important.

• Any favorite books?

I recommend 3 books that will send you down a rabbit hole of other good content:

1. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall B. Rosenberg. It's a great way of understanding your needs and the needs of others, and making sense of why people tend to act the way they do. 

2. The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp. It's a compilation of principles from other books I love and changed my mindset around leadership.

3. The last one is The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building by Matt Mochary, Alex MacCaw, and Misha Talavera. Hands down the best book for any startup CEO.

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