Determination. 'Ecosystem' #30
A weekly guide on tech news and early stage fundraising. Aiming to open access to venture capital for less networked founders and junior VCs.
For access to all monthly events, archive or if you would like to support the project, become an annual subscriber⭐ New to ‘Ecosystem’? Find out what it is here.
Hello and welcome to issue #30! Wow, that’s a big number!
It will hardly come as a surprise that the biggest news story for me this week was Whitney Wolfe Herd taking Bumble public, becoming the 22nd female founder to IPO her company (find out who the other 21 fantastic ladies are in the Wins for women section below).
With Bumble stock continuing to soar, Whitney is now also world's youngest self-made woman billionaire. 👏🏻🌟👸🏼 Her achievements in tech are significant on so many levels - will take a lot longer than a few lines to unbundle/explain why. Instead, I’d like to point to the person behind the name - what makes Whitney an exceptional human being and why she deserves all the credit she is given now and much more.
A marketing genius who co-founded two of world’s most popular dating apps
Bumble may be the online dating app Whitney is known for best, but it’s not the only one she (co)founded and helped grow. Ever heard of Tinder? It’s very likely you wouldn’t have had if it wasn’t for Whitney. As a former co-founder at the company (later stripped of her title), she was the person who not only came up with the name but built its first (and core) target audience of college students. Whitney was the brains behind the uber successful distribution strategy (on hardly any marketing budget).
In an interview with Bloomberg, Tinder’s technical co-founder Joe Munoz explained:
Whitney would go to chapters of her sorority, do her presentation, and have all the girls at the meetings install the app. Then she’d go to the corresponding brother fraternity.
Her determination, drive and wit helped build insane network effects (>10,000 user growth nearly overnight in the very early days!) - and ultimately created the critical mass that made Tinder explode.
**How I came across Whitney’s profile years ago was while researching the user acquisition strategies successful b2c online platforms used to build their audiences prior to getting VC-funded. Have looked up to her ever since.
Standing up for herself (and for other women)
“At 24, after I sued my former employer, the online backlash nearly cost me my future.”
Whitney is an example of how important it is to stand up for yourself. She reported sexual harassment. Left her former company. Filed a lawsuit and won in court (and later on, in life). What doesn’t get emphasized enough here is the bullying from internet strangers she was subject to as a result. It was a time before the #MeToo movement. In her own words a period of ‘me only’ - and there wasn’t a support network she could turn to. She sunk into depression that lasted for months. Yet there was a silver lining.
“I experienced firsthand how unequal relationships negatively impact all areas of life. I wanted to change this.”
Turning pain into purpose
How do you pick yourself up in a dark moment?
“Whenever you are feeling like it’s the end, you have to remember somebody else, many others are feeling that way. How can you take something that brakes your heart and build a solution out of that?”
Whitney’s original vision to ‘fix the broken internet’ was to create a female-only social network where women could speak to one another only with compliments. She partnered up with serial entrepreneur Andrey Andreev (Founder, Badoo) to build what would later become Bumble and stood her ground (again!) when in the early conversations, she insisted she could only come on board as a founder, not CMO.
Empowering women to form relationships from a place of equality
“We have one mission, and that is to end misogyny.”
Whitney has continuously addressed online bullying and protected the ‘Bumble community’ - calling out toxic user behavior, championing legislation that made digital sexual harassment a crime.
“When Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd launched the dating app in 2014, she wanted to solve a real-world 21st century relationship problem: how to find love for the millions of women just waiting around for men. So she turned traditional dating norms upside down, creating an app launched by women, guided by women and for women that defied age-old gender norms by letting the women make the first move.” (CNBC)
Her vision to fix the lack of accountability in online culture and relationships goes well beyond dating - Bumble has now grown into a networking platform, allowing people of all genders to make empowered connections in all areas of life (read her own words in the letter that accompanied the company’s S-1 paperwork here).
This week Whitney Wolfe Herd broke another glass ceiling for women, having built a company about them, for them - which is now worth > $8BN (more about the journey here). This week I got to explain to my 13 year old sister what an IPO was, and thanks to Whitney, I was able to show her she really can be whoever she chooses when she grows up. That she can build her own wealth and be self-made. I do hope she shares this story with her circle of friends - so more young girls are exposed to such news and see the endless opportunities before them. So that slowly slowly female-led billion-dollar businesses become the norm, not the exception. Inch by inch, the system is moving (credit to Soraya Darabi, Co-Founder and GP, TMV for posting this) - and the smallest thing we can all do (women and men!) to help build on the momentum is share and pay it forward.
“If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped… To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Melinda Gates, Co-Chair and Founder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
And this is what happens when women make the first move:
Enjoy the Sunday (Happy Valentine’s Day!) and until next week! 👋
“Have a dream, chase it down, jump over every single hurdle, and run through fire and ice to get there.” - Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO, Bumble
#EcosystemGiants
Stay tuned for an email later today :)
More initiatives in the ecosystem:
26 February 2021 - The Debut Sessions by Ascension Ventures*
*If you are a founder raising your first round of funding, you may still apply to pitch by 5pm, Wednesday 17th February for a chance to win a £100k Term Sheet from Ascension Ventures. Angel investors attending the event now have the opportunity to co-invest alongside Ascension for as little as £2,000 in the winning pitch company
Take the survey to contribute to the European Founder Mental Health Report - an initiative driven by Talis Capital and InsideOut - bringing founder mental health to the top of the agenda: ‘not just in the pandemic era, but for good’.
11 - 13 May 2021 - One Tech World - 'The' conference for women in tech
Innovation Ecosystem Updates
Whether you are an investor, a founder, an operator, a corporate or a friend. The top news stories this week you may find of interest.
Trending. While startups may have raised a record $150BN from venture capitalists in 2020 (13% more than compared to 2019), women’s share of funding shrank to 2.2% (Fortune). Microsoft and Google in a heated battle over the future of news (Bloomberg). The collaboration software market is to reach $500 billion in 2027 - what are the apps that could change the nature of work? (Quartz) Facebook is building a smartwatch that can go on sale as early as 2022 (Verge) and Amazon set to launch its own digital currency (TechRadar).
Sustainability. Stripe makes its carbon removal purchase tool available worldwide (Irish Times). Oxford University set to launch up to 20 sustainability startups in two years through world’s first conservation-focused venture studio program (Climate Change Blogger). What Biden’s plan to reboot climate innovation is (MIT Technology Review) and what it means for stocks and the economy (Forbes).
Acquisitions. SAP buys no-code platform AppGyver (Reuters). Nike acquires data-integration platform Datalogue to fuel digital growth (Yahoo Finance). Tider parent company Match Group snaps social media firm Hyperconnect in a move to expand beyond dating (CNBC).
Massive rounds. Software maker Nexthink tops $1.1BN valuation with mega-round of $180M. Global digital consumer products platform Branded raises $150M and acquires acquires 20 top-selling marketplace brands (PR Newswire). Corporate card startup Ramp secures $150M debt line from Goldman Sachs (the company raised a $30M Series B in late December 2020, after a $23M Series A earlier in the same year). New unicorn alert - Less than four months after its $51M Series C, mental health and wellness platform Modern Health raises another $74M in a Series D and reaches $1.17B valuation (Pitchbook). In Europe, Sweden’s largest and fastest growing last-mile logistics startup Instabox closes $90M to transform last-mile deliveries for e-commerce (Private Equity Wire). British BigChange, a developer of mobile workforce and fleet management software snaps $102M (Techcrunch).
And large seed rounds out of Europe -French delivery grocery startup Cajoo - $7.3M (Techcrunch), Paris-based hyper casual game publisher Homa Games - $15M (Techcrunch) and Uptime, UK-based knowledge hacking app, with $16M(FinSMEs).
Wins for women. Former NEA partner Dayna Grayson and ex-Uber executive Rachel Holt closed their debut VC fund of $140M; and will be investing in ventures transforming “foundational industries” such as manufacturing, transportation and logistics (Techcrunch). 👏 Unicorn clothing-rental startup Rent the Runway cofounder Jenny Fleiss joins growth equity firm Volition Capital (Fast Company). Melissa Krinzman (Managing Partner, Krillion Ventures) becomes the first-ever Venture Capitalist in Residence for the City of Miami.👏
76% of women-led VC firms having been started within the last 5 years - capital is power. A list of 111+ powerful ladies who are solo/equal owners of venture or growth capital funds. Going back to the news of the week ( #$BMBL) - who are the other 21 incredible women who led their companies to an IPO? (Business Insider).
Funder
‘A startup is an experiment until it has been validated by the ecosystem. Activating your army of investors is a tangible strategy to acquire more customers, source and close candidates, and hit significant company milestones ahead of the next financing round.’
Brianne Kimmel (Founder, Worklife Ventures) on ‘activating your army of investors’ to acquire more customers, source candidates, and hit key milestones ahead of the next financing round - and ways to go about it as a founder
‘Find someone or a few people you admire and then try to extract as many learnings as you can from them.’
From finding mentors to VC time management - Beata Klein (Associate, Creandum) shares her biggest learnings after >1 year in VC
BY INVESTORS, FOR INVESTORS: A report by Adelpha sharing best practice examples for diversity and inclusion within the investment industry
Founder/Operator
Going public in Europe -the pros/cons. Camille Leca (COO Listing, Euronext) and Odd Sverre Østlie (CEO, Pexi) on when to (not) get acquired, the differences between the European and American IPO markets and what early-stage startups considering a future IPO should know
Matan Bar (Co-Founder and CEO, Melio) on building one of the fastest-growing fintech companies today - tips on expansion strategy, scaling operations and hiring top talent
Twitter Highlight (s)
Thomas Moon, Vice President, Sapphire Ventures
James Wise, Partner, Balderton Capital
Startup of the week
An audio social network for women
Quilt is a female-founded self-care audio-social network. The app is focused on wellness (spiritual and personal development), career/purpose and relationships, sex and family. Seems like a timely feature given the theme of this newsletter issue - more women building products to redefine social interaction :)
Tweet @wearequilt to share they were featured in ‘Ecosystem’!
I would love to hear from founders working on products/services that advance one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Are you building a purpose-driven startup I should know about?
Startup Go-to Resources
Eight Ways to go Viral - What do Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube have in common? An insightful article by Uzi Shmilovici (CEO and founder, Future Simple) on building viral features to accelerate growth
Enterprise Playbook: Pricing: How to Build a Value-Based Calculator, a guide by Work-Bench
From a $550k first raise to a $350M second raise? Profitability from day one, a simple yet viral product - Tope Awotona on building Calendly
Turning 'Adjacent' users into engaged ones - an in-depth analysis by Bangaly Kaba (EIR at Reforge; Former VP Growth at Instacart & Instagram) inc examples for Slack and Instagram
A Guide to B2B Tech Branding - a 'must-read' whitepaper by Battery Ventures
An open-sourced impact investor list
The features that can make or break a product - Whitney Wolfe Herd (Founder and CEO, Bumble) on Masters of Scale
VC 101: The Angel Investor's Guide to Startup Investing How to develop an effective fundraising deck?
100+ Fundraising and Development Resources for Black, Latinx, and Women Founders
Thank you for reading another ‘Ecosystem’ newsletter! What feedback do you have for me (likes/dislikes)? I would greatly appreciate if you share this with contacts (founders, tech operators & investors) who may find the content helpful🖤 Connect with me on Twitter