Nisha Dua

Five years ago, my partner Nisha Dua and I left corporate life and formed BBG Ventures, convinced that a rising generation of founders from diverse communities and backgrounds were poised to build transformative companies in a rapidly changing America. Today we’re announcing a new $60M early-stage fund to continue that work, and releasing the research that informed our investment thesis: The Mind of Polycultural America: A Look at Identity, Priorities and Behaviors (https://lnkd.in/eGzP3f2r) We’ve always looked around corners to identify shifts in behavior and attitudes. But several years ago, Nisha began describing the changing face of the country as the American Polyculture; and last year we set out to better understand it. That research – a survey of 2000+ people, large enough to be statistically relevant across race, gender, age, income, political party, and geography – reveals a number of surprising insights. Americans today define their identities based on a unique perception of their place in the world, which will demand more nuance and personalization in the platforms and products we bring to market; but we have surprisingly common priorities, needs and concerns across nearly every age group, race and gender. The research also confirmed our belief that a diverse cross-section of founders who understand first-hand the challenges and opportunities in our polycultural future will have a competitive advantage in arenas that still need transformation: health, education, financial security, workforce support and climate safety. Thrilled to be on this journey with my partner of more than decade, Nisha Dua, plus the stellar BBGV team: Claire Biernacki, Carol Magalhães Isaacs, Drew Silverman Fennessy, Addison B. Marsh, Jr. If you know a founder transforming the way we live in one of these categories, send them our way. Thanks Leena Rao for the coverage on Business Insider! https://lnkd.in/eRb5Vv3R

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RETHINKING RETIREMENT We've been investing in the Future of Work since we launched BBG Ventures, targeting underserved segments like deskless workers (Anthill, OX) and solopreneurs (Topline Pro). Over the summer we spent time digging into another deeply underserved segment of the workforce: Boomers. By the end of this decade, the entire generation will have hit retirement age and, for the first time, Americans 65+ will outnumber those under 18. This has huge implications for every aspect of society, and it mandates that we start thinking differently about retirement. The question for all of us is this: Can we re-focus healthy Americans 60+ on a new phase of productivity, a “third act” that enables them to keep learning, keep earning, keep socially-engaged and contributing to the nation’s economic growth? And what role can AI play in helping every senior identify their unique skill set and personal priorities — and connect them with the right opportunities? We have some thoughts on how to make this happen, and we'd love you to give it a read, add your feedback, forward it to a founder who's working in this arena (or who you think might be intrigued), and share it! AgeTech has been too focused on death and decay; it's time we embrace longevity and give older Americans a way to keep working -- on their terms. cc: Carol Magalhães Isaacs, CFA Nisha Dua, Claire Biernacki, Drew Silverman Fennessy

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Everybody needs a place to put their love. - Karina Dresses tagline, circa 2012 In 2012 I made my first investment in a #femalefounder who also happened to be 50+. At the time I had no idea how unusual these founder traits were. I just knew the founder was passionate, authentic, experienced, perfectly aligned with both the product and the market. Most importantly there was a strong emotional bond between the product and the customers who bought it. 🤷🏾‍♂️- it just seemed like the smart thing to do. Not a lot of my investor buddies agreed at the time- probably not so surprising. Fast forward 10+ years and the value of my investment is ~20x & the amount of free cash flow distributed to equity holders is substantial & still increasing YOY. My takeaways: ✅Invest in authenticity, passion and intimacy (customer)- no matter what the founder profile looks like relative to others. ✅Follow your gut. ✅Not every deal is venture scale worthy. But there’s a potential investor for every deal. ✅Be the best version of you, not a lame version of someone else. Works for both investors & founders. :) Congratulations to Karina and the team at Karina Dresses! Proud as punch to be on this journey with you all🚀

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Learn a bit more about our DNA and how we operate at Acurio Ventures from Kate Cornell

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Apply now to get a coveted spot for the Venture Lane B2B Pitch Night Event! 🚀 🥇 On November 19th, Venture Lane | Startup Hub is hosting our exclusive Pitch Night 👉 - a rare opportunity for Boston's B2B tech founders to tune their pitch and get in front of awesome mentors, investors, and industry leaders. ⏰ Apply by November 1st to secure your spot! 📲 Find the application link in the comments below. #B2BTech #Startups #Fundraising #BostonStartups #PitchNight #VentureLaneStudio

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💰 Women-Led VC Funds: Navigating 2024 Fundraising Landscape 💰 According to Venture Capital Journal, despite a strong start, women-led VC funds are feeling the impact of the industry-wide fundraising slowdown. As of November 30, 2024, women-led VC funds have raised $2.54 billion, which represents a 25% decrease from 2023's total of $3.43 billion. In comparison, global venture fundraising is down 13% YoY. While the numbers reflect challenges, there's still potential for growth: • Several funds typically file updates in December • These late submissions could help narrow the gap Let's continue supporting diversity in VC and monitor these trends as we approach year-end. #VentureCapital #WomenInVC #FundingTrends2024 La Creme de la STEM ™ - female founders support system Noshin Ahmed Lori Rodriguez Emilie Vallauri Craig Zapatka

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Beyonce uses a laundromat🫧? And LVMH was feeling spendy last week 💸. These are my top stories from last week: ♡ Women’s Health & Beauty ♡ • Perelel acquires Loom • Paul Schiraldi appointed as CEO of ILIA Beauty • 4am Skin is officially in Bloomingdale’s • Love x Money Ventures invests in Marlow • Lili Reinhart’s new brand aims to start the conversation about acne • The fertility revolution: How Dandi is transforming patient care ♡ E-Commerce, Retail & Social ♡ • Beyoncé launches Levi’s Reimagine campaign • Luxury fashion’s power sourcer, Gab Waller, is reinventing the job with AI • Off-White sold by LVMH to Bluestar Alliance • Laundromat bars are trending ♡ Tech, Business, & Investing ♡ • Port workers’ strike delayed • Eva, the entertainment booking platform, raises $2M and expands to more cities • LVMH and Formula 1 sign a 10-year global partnership • LVMH invests in non-alcoholic brand French Bloom • Adam Neumann’s new startup is reworking WeWork’s old business model You can read more in this week's issue of ICYMI: https://lnkd.in/gpEiANhM #consumernews #litrendingtopics

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Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

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In Q2 2024, the time between funding rounds for Series D+ companies increased to 2.1 years from 1.2 years in 2021, according to PitchBook. In my view, founders building enduring high-growth companies with products that their customers love can still attract capital, but the questions are: at what price and in what form does it make the most sense? More time typically allows growing startups to raise the capital they need at a higher valuation, resulting in less dilution for management, employees, and inside investors. This dynamic is especially important for those who raised capital at peak prices in 2021 and may now see lower valuation multiples, which in some cases means raising today could be at a flat or lower valuation. As a result, I'm talking about alternative financing options with many founder and investor friends. These include venture debt, SAFEs, convertible notes, and other solutions, which can be used individually or most often together to extend runway without repricing equity or sacrificing growth before a formal priced round. I'm excited to see the startup and venture community appearing to be more agile than I've ever seen it. Ideally, we'll harness our collective energy and creativity to support risk-taking builders with solutions as they navigate the market. See you out there! Note: These thoughts are solely mine and do not reflect the opinions of any company I am associated with.

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"Embracing the Pivot: How Investors Support Startups in Transition" Exploring the crucial role of adaptability in startups As investors, our role extends beyond funding—we must provide strategic guidance during these pivotal moments. Read more about navigating pivots in today's dynamic startup ecosystem: lool ventures Yaniv Golan Maya Azoulay Dina Walker Lena Young Roy Katzenelson Yair Kfir Maria Osipov

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How do you find Limited Partners and get them over the line? Find out in this webinar next week!

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At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, an engaging discussion shed light on the evolving venture capital (VC) landscape. One of the key takeaways was the underscore of vibrant growth of the VC sector, with the number of firms soaring from 6,000 in 2013 to about 60,000 today. This surge in competition is driving VCs to innovate and refine their fundraising strategies, creating a dynamic environment for investment opportunities. Additionally, the session touched on how family offices provide flexible capital for smaller investments while emphasizing the thorough scrutiny required for larger funds. An emphasis on candid conversations among VCs and limited partners highlighted a commitment to fostering a more collaborative and forward-thinking investment community. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/gHjJbtr3 Fortune Allie Garfinkle Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Headline Newsletter #VentureCapital #Investment #hospitality #community Clara Shih Paulo Rosado #BrainstormTech Christine Moseley Rick Rose

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At Costanoa Ventures, we pride ourselves on identifying and supporting exceptional founders poised to create impactful, lasting change. Hona is a shining example, driven by a trio of extremely talented founders: Manny Griffiths, Joshua Christensen, and Matt McClellan. They each bring unique, differentiated expertise to the table, and Amy Cheetham and I are extremely excited to partner with them. There are approximately 450,000 law firms in the United States, with half of those firms being B2C - think personal injury, mass tort, or immigration law as opposed to BigLaw. One of the reasons we love how Hona is tackling this market is their focus on B2C law firms and product excellence - B2B firms are historically difficult to sell brand new software products into, but B2C firms are completely different buyers. Oftentimes there's just a handful of lawyers and paralegals in a partnership, and any piece of technology they can use to give them an edge would be valuable. 44% of negative Google reviews on law firms directly reference poor communication as the reason for a negative experience, and the number 1 reason for Attorney Bar complaints in the U.S. is "lack of communication". On the lawyer's side, attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants spend an average of 7.4 hours per week on unnecessary updates, redundant communication, and activities that aren't directly contributing towards getting a client's case solved. Manny and the team at Hona are working to change all of that. Hona delivers a tightly-integrated communications platform to help facilitate better communication between law firms and their clients. During legal proceedings, client communications tend to be a large resource-stressor for law firms. Clients will frequently call firms for case updates, legal explanations, or general administrative questions that tend to eat away at firm resources without providing any additional progress toward case resolution. Hona exists to ease that burden - it’s a platform that allows law firms to efficiently communicate with their clients over text, easily build customizable web pages and embed videos, and share information on case status and basic legal process education. This crucial communication processes allow attorneys to focus on their job – moving cases forward, while keeping their clients informed and educated. If you're a lawyer dealing with these problems - don't hesitate to reach out to us or the Hona team! It's a privilege to work with Hona on this journey. The company has been growing at a rapid pace, and they're delivering meaningful technology to help people get through legal proceedings in a much more fluid, transparent, and easy process. Manny, Joshua, and Matt are exceptional founders whose combined skills and dedication to continuous learning position them perfectly to lead Hona to success. They're just getting started, and we can't wait to see what they'll achieve.

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A good dataroom makes a great impression, but is not that obvious what that looks like and what consumer VCs are looking for! Having gone through hundreds of these at dmg ventures and seen the good, the bad and the ugly we want to help entrepreneurs putting their best foot forward. So Taos Edmondson, CFA wrote a great piece on how B2C founders can build data rooms that investors will love. Have a read!

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In the world of startups, success and growth often hinge on one thing: a strong #team 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 … a team with an aligned vision, an unyielding desire to win, and the grit to navigate both the highs and the lows. At FEBE Ventures, we’re no different. Much like the startups we back, our journey is filled with exhilarating highs - milestones reached, deals closed, founders supported - and moments of doubt and introspection. But it’s the incredible people I work with who make it all worth it. As we wrap up a notable year… filled with milestones, challenges, and countless learnings, I’m taking a moment to reflect on how fortunate and humbled I am to work with some of the best in the business. To my colleagues - Olivier, Nicolas, Jai, Minh, Chau, Suman, Thảo & Khanh - you make me better every day. This year has been a testament to what can be achieved when talented, passionate people come together with a shared mission: “for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs” Here’s to more growth, more learnings, and more wins in the years to come! 🚀🚀🚀

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I really enjoyed breaking in our new studio to sit down with Temporal Technologies Co-Founders Samar Abbas and Maxim Fateev for the latest episode of Founded & Funded. Temporal was founded in 2019 based on an open-source microservices orchestration engine project but is the result of a more than decade-long partnership between the two co-founders that spanned their time working on different iterations of the same thing at AWS, Microsoft, and Uber. In this episode, Samar, Maxim, and I dive into the challenges of building an open-source ecosystem while also working on a commercial offering and scaling a successful company, how to navigate and adjust a product roadmap in an ever-changing world of AI and large language models, and how to successfully build an early startup team, navigate through a CEO transition, and bring on a startups first independent board member. It's a very compelling conversation and a must-listen for every builder out there. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gymf9sES Find other platforms and the transcript on our website: https://lnkd.in/ggRtnKtM Be sure to subscribe to our channel for more deep dives into cutting-edge technologies and the minds behind them. Don't forget to like, comment, and share this conversation if you found it valuable!

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🔍 Understanding Pari Passu in Venture Capital 🔍 In our latest HealthVC newsletter, we're diving deep into the principle of pari passu—a cornerstone of fairness and transparency in investment agreements. Whether you're a founder or an investor, knowing how pari passu impacts anti-dilution protections, liquidation preferences, and investor rights is essential. Join us to explore how this principle shapes a level playing field in the world of venture capital. Read the full newsletter and stay informed on how to navigate fair and equitable investments! #VentureCapital #InvestorRelations #PariPassu #StartupGrowth #InvestmentStrategies

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🌱 For pre-seed/seed founders 🌱 The early stage vc markets have changed drastically -- but many founders don't truly understand how or how much things have shifted until its too late or they are deep into the fundraising process already. This recent Allocate pod lifts the veil on the pre-seed/seed 2024 markets. SO MANY GEMS are packed 💎 into the first 20 min, I had to listen twice. Key takeaways from pre-seed VCs I'm a big fan of Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures, Kirby Winfield at Ascend (PNW represent!) & Nate Williams. 💎 The market in one word: 'turbulent' 💎 Fundraising bi-furcation; 2X founder building in AI (rounds take weeks) vs All Others (rounds take up to 6 months). 💎 "Leading VCs" (ie. first check in) are putting in a TON of work - building conviction & then helping founders fill the round. 💎 Up to 5 rounds pre-A; need lower early valuations to enable step ups 💎 Pre-seed entry valuations have corrected to $5-8M 💎 Round sizes have increased at pre-seed & seed for extended runway Many more insights in the full pod here: https://lnkd.in/gYf-DMr6 #venturecapital #preseed

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From fashion collabs to shifting beauty standards, the future of consumer goods is all about reinvention. At HSR, we are spotlighting the biggest moves in health, entertainment, and business. Check out our latest weekly digest: ♡ Women’s Health & Beauty ♡ - Emergency contraception sales spiked more than 930% in some states following the election ♡ Media, Entertainment & Creator ♡ - SKIMS just released a limited edition collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana - Influencer-turned-entrepreneur, Danielle Bernstein’s new women’s fragrance is expected to land in Ulta in 2025 ♡ E-Commerce, Retail & Social ♡ - McKinsey’s eighth annual “The State of Fashion” report is out - from Business of Fashion - Gen Z’s obsession with “swicy” ingredients may signal a growing opportunity in consumer food - Ulta Beauty is cracking down on its return policy ahead of the holiday season ♡ Tech, Business, & Investing ♡ - The $8.5 billion merger between Tapestry and Capri was called off - Athleisure brand, Vuori, reaches a $5.5 billion valuation following its recent $825 million investment You can check out more in this week's HSR ICYMI: https://lnkd.in/g5QncktG

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