Amanda Herson
@Amanda_Herson
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Partner @fcollective . I tweet about VC, building companies, being human and sometimes parenting/ balancing act.
New York, NY
Joined September 2013
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
Mad respect for Founders who we ask so much of:
- be visionary… but start practically 🌅
- be confident… but have humility 💪🏼
- be decisive… but take feedback ⚖️
- move fast… burn slow 🔥
- be focused… but do everything 🦹
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Thought I had a challenging week until I sat across from a Founder, out fundraising (with a smile), filling the role of CEO, CMO, CFO, and CTO, while facing a shrinking runway and operating a complex business. Founders are born fighters.
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Some founders are obsessed with their product.
The best founders are obsessed with how the world interacts with their product.
Slight nuance, but huge difference.
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This tweet is a reminder that D2C and VC aren’t always a great mix.
You can put venture dollars into D2C, but you can’t always expect venture-style returns.
A few thoughts for those building new brands in 2022. 🧵
@TaylorHoliday
Allbirds - 📉 -63%
Brilliant Earth - 📉 -31%
Casper - Went Private
Figs - 📉 -29%
Lululemon - 📉 -1%
Olaplex - 📉 -18%
Peloton - 📉 -85%*
Purple - 📉 -81%
Stitch Fix - 📉 -83%
Yeti - 📉-9%
The Honest Co -📉-74%
Warby Parker - 📉-41%
*
@laurenthomas
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VCs have an opportunity to diversify. For Founders its binary -they forego potentially high paying jobs to take a Founder salary and bet the farm.
When things aren’t 📈 there’s no ‘basket’ to rely on. Having this vulnerable conversation with a founder friend who dedicated a
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Being able to articulate why YOU (and not anyone else) founded THIS company NOW is incredibly powerful. Founder market fit is a beautiful thing when it happens.
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What is the best way to send info to VCs in 2022 for a first meeting/ intro?
▶️ Deck
📽️ Deck with Voice Over
🔒 DocSend
📜 Notion Doc
🗒️ Memo
🔗 Links
✈️ TestFlight
🕵️ Don't – Create an air of mystery!
Every VC has a preference–and advice for their founders–here's mine.
🧵
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To an amazing team
@fcollective
- feeling very lucky and grateful to continue to learn, build, and partner alongside this crew 🙏🏻🙌🏻
@micahjay1
@dafrankel
@epaley
@bcwilless
+ many others!
We couldn't be more excited to welcome
@Amanda_Herson
to the partnership at Founder Collective!
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Career advice I was given: ‘Go work for a name brand and work your way up’.
VS Career advice I give: ‘Can always resort to a name brand, go take a risk and work with smart people who you respect. Build something.’
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Exciting day at FC. Thrilled and honored to continue on our mission with exceptional partners
@dafrankel
@epaley
@micahjay1
Never have we been more committed to our strategy of small funds, focused on the seed stage to foster alignment with founders.
Today, we're excited to announce our 5th Fund!
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Went to college, got my Opt and was sponsored x3 for H-1B. Why would you want ambitious, educated graduates who are willing to risk everything to live in a foreign country to leave? America is world class because it attracts talent from around the world! No H-1B lowers the bar.
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In tears after a catch-up with an Israeli Founder so passionate about continuing to build, while her husband is on neighborhood patrol and her kids stay close to the bomb shelter. Israel is a nation of builders and believers. My heart is with all Founders who I know want to keep
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Did I mention how many smart, amazing, interesting and impactful women there are in VC in NYC - this week has been filled with a few of those gems… you know who you are 🙌
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An email from a Founder (who you didn’t invest in) who has to close their business is devastating. Especially when you know they poured their heart, soul and savings into the business and sacrificed mental health. There is grit and resilience, but there is also luck and timing.
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A friend ran marketing for a startup famous for its cult-like workout classes and zealous members.
In the early days this person had a limited budget – unable to buy ads, she pored over customer service logs and made a horrifying find:
Their towels smelled bad...
/🧵
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I don’t have anything to add to the GameStop stock talk.
However, I did spend a decade growing a retail chain to 300+ stores and watched many competitors close shop. Here's how to spot the Five S’s of a retail death spiral:
🏬 Store
📦 Stock
🛎️ Staff
🛒 Systems
🌐 Strategy
/🧵
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Young female angels should know this. Angel investing is about self- confidence (+ some spare cash from sacrifice). There is rarely a secret insight, proprietary info, massive minimum threshold, or outsized smarts. I wish I had known this.
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Venture is a constant balance between speed and depth. Too fast and you are only ever on the surface. Too deep and you miss the action on the surface.
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VCs offer a lot of advice from a 30,000-foot view.
Here are 7 bits of practical wisdom I gleaned when managing a large, resource-constrained, growing team that you can apply to your startup today.
/1
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Few successful founders drop out of college, found a successful company, and stick with it for their career.
Most entrepreneurs are going to have some period of time working for someone else.
Here’s how to make the most of it if entrepreneurship is your long-term goal.
/🧵
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Some advice for Founders who have done everything right, but are still facing fundraising headwinds...🌪️
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@camillionaire_m
Welcome to America 😩products are engineered to last too long for a massive country so freshness is elusive.
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It's been a year... survived 365 days back in NYC and all the feels. Moved to NYC exactly one year ago to join
@foundercollective
. Here are a few things I’ve observed and learned at work, home, and play…
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Gorgeous setting, perfect weather, great food + the secret ingredient of wonderful people = magic!
Thanks to the best team for making magic happen
@fcollective
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On the shop floor I was taught ‘if you can’t make a customer, make a friend’. This applies to digital subscriptions too- if I want to leave, make it easy, so that I might come back. If you make me jump through hoops - you’ve made an enemy. UX is everything in an online world.
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Words I’ve heard from Founders today... ‘pre-emptive’, ‘tight-timing’, ‘crowded’. Words I’ve heard from VC’s ‘can we postpone’, ‘swamped’, ‘lots on the hopper’. Feels like we’re all racing to get married and are losing the romance 🤷♀️
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A yr ago I had a meager 27 followers and a hatred for Twitter. I’ve now hit a paltry 2K and have discovered the allure of learning and connecting in the Twitterverse… I still prefer real hugs 🤗 and books 📚 though.
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Chatting to a Founder, I was reminded not to dismiss someone's dream because of my own scar tissue/ internal biases. It's easy to criticize and find flaws. It takes more discipline to squint and look beyond the imperfections.
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Biden made me cry again. Growing up surrounded by antisemitism his speech felt like a warm hug when many needed it most.
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Always admire when a Founder acknowledges and owns the ‘known unknowns’. Gives me a sense of comfort when you know what you don’t know.
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Too much hate and sadness- I’m focusing my energy on building people up, creating opportunities, connecting people who can create change and spreading light wherever we find it. Optimism has to win.
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I have yet to meet a
@DormRoomFund
person who is not amazing. Well done DRF for building an ecosystem with smart, passionate and lovely people who support entrepreneurs-
@hillarycbush
@bcwilless
and many, many others 🙌
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I’m bullish on Q3 2022 start-up vintage:
Here’s why-
- higher Founder conviction with less market certainty
- more discerning early backers driven less by FOMO
- earlier focus on capital efficiency with inflation + contraction of capital
- access to talent with slower hiring
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Growth has been glorified, but we have moved into an era where cash flow is sexy. It reminds me of one of my favourite retail adages:
- Revenue is vanity 📈
- Profit is sanity ⚖
- Cash is reality 🤑
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Walking meetings in Central Park might be the greatest productivity hack- nature, exercise, connection, Vitamin D, occasional dog walk and dirty shoes! If you want to find me- I’ll be walking around the reservoir on repeat with inspiring NY’ers.
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Honored to see the FC partnership on the
@BusinessInsider
Seed 100 list!
#4
Eric Paley (
@epaley
)
#6
David Frankel (
@dafrankel
)
#33
Micah Rosenbloom (
@micahjay1
)
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Happy Birthday 🎂 to one of the best. Those who are lucky enough to know
@micahjay1
, know that today is the day to celebrate a humble, brilliant, thoughtful human with the best snacks South of Houston 🎉
(I may get the cold 🥶 shoulder on Monday morning for publicizing but I’ll
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I watched a proposal 💍 unfold in Central Park today and was reminded that no matter how busy, always stop to celebrate- total strangers but stopped to cheer. Yesterday we celebrated a bud that sprung on a seed planted when we arrived in NYC 🌸 Small celebrations all add up 🥰
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Fundraising in 2021: raise $ then figure it out
Fundraising in 2023: figure it out then raise $
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I know ‘real NYers’ run from the city in summer, but I’m having a love affair with NYC - biking in Central Park, Broadway shows, neighborhood stroll finding new spots, being greeted by name at regular spots. There is adventure around every corner 🍎😍
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Even in the rain, the energy
@HarvardHBS
is electric!
Here are a few things I learned on campus today:
- the allure of big tech has cooled off -> more supply of engineers/ product builders
- fewer consulting/ bank jobs - > more exploring entrepreneurship
- bar for raising
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Could not be more excited to join this incredible team and thank you for the warm twitter welcome:
I couldn't be more excited to announce that
@Amanda_Herson
has joined
@fcollective
as the Principal in our NYC Zoom-office!
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When you wake up to an email from a Founder thanking you for convincing them not to fundraise, but to keep pushing 🙌
Figuring out when to fundraise is one of the tougher parts of being a Founder, especially in this environment. Can be soul crushing if too early or late.
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When you send an email, you often have no idea what the receiver is going through personally, professionally or emotionally … lean in with compassion. Everyone is dealing with something and putting on a brave face professionally.
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Seed investing has gotten so fast that putting on your safety-belt (aka doing some diligence or even taking a 2nd meeting) is becoming luxury vs norm. Buckle up or hope for the best?
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Niche used to be a ➖ word. It stood for small markets and ltd growth. Now when I hear 'niche', I think of loyal customers, stickier network effects + a movement towards belonging vs. fitting in.
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Living on zoom is bad enough. I really don’t want to live in the metaverse. Is it unpopular to be long on real life these days? 🤗
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Fundamentals are fundamental. I’ve scaled a business where the fundamentals didn’t work, grew it fast… and closed it down. (High rent/CAC, low AOV and frequency is not a good look).
Way more fun to iterate early, get the model right and then accelerate.
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After a relatively stressful week, I got to walk my kids to the bus stop, hear about their week and give them a hug. Nothing else matters. THE END
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4 continents, 3 kids, 2 days… but Cape Town… you are a beauty ☀️🚠🌊
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Early investing is walking that fine line between naïveté/ believing anything is possible and a healthy dose of skepticism. Constantly rebalancing.
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Took a chance on a cold inbound and so glad I did. Almost didn’t as Founders did not exist online- no LinkedIn, no social media, zero online presence. Highly recommend some digital breadcrumbs to help build credibility when going out to fundraise outside of existing networks 💰
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Even grudge experiences can be made delightful! Well done
@tryramp
for making the drudgery of expenses as delightful as possibly by thinking through all the mundane blockers and friction- gmail retrieval of Uber receipts is the 🍒
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Walmart announced it would be tokenizing products and services as NFTs. Budweiser changed its name on Twitter to Beer.eth. More and more legacy brands are madly trying to devise a Web3 plan.
A few thoughts on how brands should process Web3 from a retailer turned VC.
🧵
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It's a beautiful day in Soho and so energizing to be around people who aren't family and aren't on a screen (I do♥️ my family... but we've seen a lot of each other 🤪).
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In the first 15 minutes of a pitch, so critical to frame:
- what is the pain point?
- what is the product?
- who is the audience?
Obvious to the Founder but sometimes less obvious to others.
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According to GenZ… all my emojis have been cancelled… so for the last time 👍🙈❤️ ✅👌🙈👏. Any suggestions on which ones won’t offend anyone 😭(stepping away from the keyboard).
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First full East Coast winter in over a decade, so hard to tell if I’m done with Winter or done with Covid 🤷♀️
I’m definitely powered by people and ☀️and drained by zoom and gloom.
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In retail lingo, we say: 'If you can't make a customer...make a friend.'
In VC lingo we say: 'If you can't make an investment... make a helpful intro.'
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Coming out of hibernation, I am realizing that my social stamina is at an all time low. Covid has really brought out the introvert in me.
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VCMoms often get credit and praise… most of us couldn’t do it without amazing Dads/partners like
@marcherson
.
I also happen to know some inspiring Dads who happen to be in VC
@bcwilless
@dafrankel
@micahjay1
@epaley
@josephflaherty
🙌🥇
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Grateful to
#AllRaiseVCSummit
for inspiring hope in a dark week.
More female funders=more female founders and exits=more $$ towards policies that impact women and children=brighter future 🙏.
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I believe in karma. Thank you
@dinakaplan
- 15 minutes after sending good wishes into the world… my un-collared puppy 🐶 who mysteriously escaped was safely returned to my arms by kind NY’ers who went out of their way🙏🙌
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The more I try to understand crypto the more I realize this is part of a cultural movement towards decentralization. I’m excited even though I have so much to learn. 📚
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Been seeing a lot of customer retention tools... they’re great but nothing beats great customer service. The best investment and ROI is often simply in customer service and staff training 🙌
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Founders who want to make all stakeholders happy will never be able to move as fast as Founders who are comfortable with discomfort.
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🏰 Do you have a moat?
One of the leading killers of D2C companies is category crowding. For example, look at the meal kit market. It’s become challenging to find long-term success because there is so much competition.
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Great teams and startups are built by repeatedly doing things that seem basic, even boring, over time. So don't wait for a creative breakthrough; break the work down into manageable chunks, while striving for the big vision and stick with it day after day.
/End
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Never take for granted a surprise Spring Day in the middle of winter in NYC- take the scenic route through Central Park 🌳
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Chatting ecommerce and logistics around the world today - not yet noon and I’ve ‘been to’ Germany, Romania, West Coast, East Coast, South Africa and Denmark... Zoom has benefits, but I miss people.
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As Founders head out for Fall fundraising, leverage your investors and don't fundraise alone. If you plan to fundraise in the next 6-12 months, know where your liferaft is and how to paddle it. (It's important to understand who has already ‘jumped ship’ and cut any deadweight).
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If you are running short of time on a pitch, make sure you answers these 3 questions 🙋🏼♀️ :
- Why me ??
- Why now ⏱ ??
- Why hasn't anyone else done this ??
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When you start the day with an early morning walk (coffee☕️in hand) with your son and puppy 🐶 on a gorgeous day, pick up fresh pastries and it’s not yet 7am… you know it’s going to be a great day 🏇
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Founder updates are often about the practice more than the product:
- short> long
- keep your investors invested
- transparency builds trust
- silence builds fear
- good and bad news equally valuable
What to include 🧵
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Be content and grateful- she never compares herself to others and always feels lucky for her lot in life. Referring to her deterioration, she would say 'I've had good innings’. 🙏
10/10
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Few things sweeter than a Saturday/ night date with your daughter ❤️
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My heart breaks for South Africa today. Hopeful that as we always have, we find a way to reunite, reconcile and rebuild. 💔🇿🇦
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It takes a village to be a working mom during Covid... incredible partner, supportive team, people you can rely on, old friends who just listen. 🧵
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The buzz on the streets of the UWS this am, seeing kids returning to school mask free for the first time in 3 yrs, put a spring 🌸 in my step (even though it’s Fall and I hate cold 🥶 weather). These kids went through a lot.
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With every new entrant, CAC rises. Your novel arbitrage advantage gets commoditized in quarters, if not months. Building a billion-dollar brand with a leaky bucket is an immense pain. “We’ll out market them” is not a sustainable strategy.
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PMF is not everything. Understanding exactly why you have PMF and prioritizing building around this nugget (to repetitively delight customers) is everything 🙌
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Survived first networking event of 2021 and am reminded how real people far exceed their zoom/ Twitter personas 👏+ most people are taller+ ambient music should go down a few decibels as you age 🙈
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I asked a Founder how his family are doing in a country in the midst of civil unrest. I was surprised at how grateful he was and he told me not one VC had asked. Everyone is dealing with stuff outside of their work life. How are you REALLY doing?
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Tweeted last week ‘leaders are made in tough times’. Couldn’t be more true this week. Watching Founders rise to the occasion, steady the ship and put on a brave face in trying times is inspiring! (The support for each other is heart-warming.)
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Talented founders who raised multi-million💰 pre-seeds in 21/22 are finding the bar for seed/Series A has risen dramatically.
Many will make the leap, but some are stuck in an awkward spot.
Focus on growth, while practicing capital efficiency; the rest will sort itself.
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Hope the world understands that they ‘shot the messenger’. Devastating to so many in our country and the economy.
Opinion | South Africa's Omicron Work Deserves a Prize - The New York Times
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An over-reliance on Facebook is a scary reality for many growing companies. While diversification takes heavy lifting 🏋️♂️many shots at goal ⛹️♀️and possibly short term ROI sacrifice 📉, it is critical to own your own destiny and find other levers.
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@YakubuAgbese
Sometimes - but you can use lose a decade of earning power and go backwards in your career while others progress depending on how the market views your experience.
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❓ Is it a sales channel or a company?
VCs are used to asking “Feature or company” of software businesses, and they should ask a similar question to most D2C upstarts.
Can this product/line *really* stand independently?
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Very proud of this phenomenal human. Great companies are built on the UWS 💃
1/It’s the honor of a lifetime to announce the public beta launch of Summer Health (
@joinsummer
) and our $7.5M seed round from
@Alfred_Lin
at
@sequoia
,
@deenashakir
at
@Lux_Capital
,
@BoxGroup
,
@ChelseaClinton
and more. We connect you with pediatricians via text within 15 minutes.
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Despite the doom and Covid gloom… I’m feeling optimistic.
2020/21 taught us many coping tools:
1) this too shall pass
2) be overly compassionate to everyone because everyone is dealing with ‘stuff’
3) make hay while the sun shines
4) we’re all in this together
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TBT - it's been a busy week in NYC tech. Throwback to only 1 week ago when we hosted our annual celebration of this exceptional community. Thanks
@GoogleStartups
@samtrodriguez
for the incredible space and extra sparkle.
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That time you told a Founder that you ‘think they might want to consider a different route’ and your NYC cab 🚕 driver thinks you are talking to them and starts swearing at you… true story.
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Who wants to co-invest? Offering TS at $5 on $50- valuation inflation for cuteness and tenacity.
Big vision and 2nd time Founder (lemonade stand was highest performing on the block)…
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💥 Celebrate well-executed failures
A culture of fear stifles growth, but not all failures are created equal. E.g., A well-planned and carefully considered flop dramatically differs from a collapse caused by carelessness. Make sure everyone appreciates the difference.
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