VISIBLE NEWS
Visible Hands is a VC firm that provides exceptional founders from underrepresented backgrounds with the funds, hands-on support, and community they need to thrive at the earliest stages of company building.
Happy Friday, VH Community!We hope that you're enjoying the spring weather🌸 As we move into the second week of the May, we're excited to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Month and the amazing contributions of AAPI entrepreneurs. Across our channels, we will be uplifting and highlighting the narratives of AAPI founders in our portfolio, stay tuned! At Visible Hands, this week has been particularly eventful, with exciting updates from our VHNYC Founder Fellowship and BK-XL programs. Our VHNYC Founder Fellowship cohort had a productive meetup that included a show-and-tell session and our first RiceBreaker team bonding activity. Our Fellows had the opportunity to connect with each other emotionally, share their successes and challenges in small groups, and gain insights from a special guest, Chinmay Malaviya, CEO of Ridepanda, who shared his founder journey and experience raising during economic downturns.Meanwhile, our BK-XL programming is in full swing with 12 BIPOC-led companies building in Brooklyn. This week, our founders had the opportunity to have lunch with investors from MaC Venture Capital, attend a special speaker session with Dave Heath, the CEO of Bombas, and participate in a group yoga session in the morning. We also launched weekly Founder Sessions, led by BK-XL Visionary Sergio Villasenor, founder of Drooler, where cohort members had the chance to connect with post-Seed stage founders, gain insights, and share experiences. This week, the BK-XL cohort gathered with Aneto Okonkwo of Chatdesk, a customer support platform for e-commerce brands, to share his experience raising over $9M in venture capital and more about his mission to improve customer experience across all industries.We're also excited to announce that we've opened applications for our third cohort of the Visionaries Accelerator program. This year, selected founders will receive a $200,000 investment for 5% equity on a post-money SAFE, programming to level up their fundraising, sales, and talent strategies, 1-on-1 coaching from seasoned experts at Bolster, hundreds of founder perks, and continued support around founder wellness. The application deadline is May 29, and we encourage exceptional underrepresented founders building high-growth startups to apply here.As always, we appreciate your support and encourage you to share this newsletter! Folks can sign up here. Have any comments, feedback, or questions about our newsletter? Reach out to [email protected]. Enjoy your weekend and we'll see you next week!Be well,The Visible Hands Team
VH ANNOUNCEMENTS
On the left: VH Product Manager, Yulkendy Valdez, is pictured with VHNYC Fellows at their in-person meetup on Wednesday night. On the right, BK-XL Lead, Chris Martinez moderates a discussion with the CEO of Bombas, Dave Heath, for a session with our BK-XL cohort.
VH Product Manager Yulkendy Valdez will be speaking at the upcoming NYC-Based Founders and Funders Event on May 16-17th! Learn more and register here! Separately, check out her post on why Mental Health Awareness Month is important to her and her journey when she was a founder, here.
VH Co-Founder & General Partner Yasmin Cruz Ferrine will be attending the upcoming All Raise Boston Chapter 2nd Annual "Agents of Change" event on May 17th at Northeastern University where female and non-binary founders can network and learn from some of Boston's biggest mentors and influencers. Learn more and RSVP here.
Negotiating Your First Term Sheet" is a guide written by Benjamin Hron for entrepreneurs who are new to the world of venture capital financing. The guide discusses standard terms and important concepts that entrepreneurs should understand before entering into discussions with potential investors. It also provides tips and traps for the unwary. The guide includes a quote from Daniel Acheampong, Co-Founder and General Partner at Visible Hands. To read the full guide, follow this link.
Check out VH Investor Associate, Darrel Frater's Office Hours on Twitter Spaces every Friday 1 pm - 3 pm EST where he creates a safe space for founders to pitch VCs and discuss challenges they are facing in the business.
VISIONARY UPDATES
Founder Updates, Asks, and Wins:
Congrats to Carmi Medoff, VHNYC Fellow, for one year as founder of Onsite Kids! Read more of her reflections here.
Kim Jolasun, '22 Visionary founder and CEO of Villie is speaking at a virtual event on May 12 with Poppylist on "Building your first baby registry with second-time wisdom". Sign up to listen here.
See this Business Insider feature on Ayomi Samaraweera, VHNYC Fellow, who founded Canopy, a platform for social-media-content creators to share knowledge and industry insights and grow their careers. Read more here
'21 Visionary, Noelle Acosta, Founder of Noula Health, is hosting a morning walk on West Side Highway in NY on 5/19. Join her and the crew here.
Congrats to Shannon Morales, Founder and CEO of Tribaja, for hosting Tribaja's Diversitech conference this week! Diversitech is a 3-day event featuring diverse speakers and professionals in the tech and startup spaces in Philly! See updates here.
Congrats to Cathleen Turner, VHLX fellow, Founder, and CEO of Czero Foods for a successful demo day and involvement in Food Foundry's 5th Cohort! Check it out here.
Check out Inc’s feature on ‘22 Visionary, Sydney Montgomery (CEO and Founder of Outline it) on the power of saying "yes" here.
WHAT WE HAVE OUR EYES ON
➕ Founder funding, community resources, and events:
Last chance to register! The Flex Summit is TOMORROW. This hybrid summit will promote access and diversity within the wellness community. Learn more and get your tickets now to attend on May 6th in New York City at Primary Co-working space.
BLACK AMBITION is a set of prizes to fund bold ideas and companies led by Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs. To learn more and apply by May 8th, click here!
Primary VC NYC Fellowship is a free, part-time, no-equity program that helps aspiring entrepreneurs launch new startups. This cohort is specifically for female founders and applications are due by May 9th. To learn more and apply, click here.
If your EdTech startup is seeking to grow to the next level then the Learn Launch Fund + Accelerator program is built for you. Applications are due May 12th. Learn more and apply here!
PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator Program - Juntos Crecemos Edition is a six-month, mentor-guided program to support the acceleration of emerging Hispanic-led innovations that are transforming the way consumers live their lives. Learn more and apply here by May 15th!
Graham & Walker is hosting Founder Day on May 18th, a program with workshops, networking, and 1-1 mentorship with top VC, banking, legal, marketing, and technical experts. Learn more and register here.
Apply for the Rally IN-Prize Competition, where participants can pitch their product or service to an audience of VCs, angel investors, and other connected individuals and compete for up to $1M cash prize! To learn more and apply by May 19th, click here.
Have innovative solutions around environmental sustainability or data for market access? Apply for the Strive Community Innovation Fund by Mastercard for up to $150K in funding. To learn more and apply by May 26th, click here!
Applications are open now for The Idea Accelerator by Builders + Backers! Learn more and apply here by May 22nd.
Applications are now open for a new 13-week accelerator starting this September in New York: Techstars Economic Mobility Powered by Samvid Ventures. Learn more and apply here by June 7.
Applications are open and rolling for the Forum Ventures B2B SaaS Accelerator, a high-touch program for early-stage founders designed to get you to the next stage. Learn more and apply here.
The Venture Lane Traction Studio has opened applications for its B2B tech accelerator that kicks off in September! For more information and to apply, click here. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis.
🌎 Ecosystem Spotlights:
Join the Dorm Room Fund Summer Tracks this year for VC and startup-centric masterclasses targeted toward underrepresented students! For more information and to apply by May 19th, click here.
Looking to learn about all things VC? Harlem Capital has a robust intern program where they bring on 6-8 interns three times per year. Check out their syllabus here in Nicole's post!
Calling all Black VC professionals, experts, and ecosystem partners! Applications are NOW OPEN for Cohort 2 of the BLCK VC Mentorship Network. If you are looking for mentoring or interested in being a mentor, click here for more information on being a mentor and here for more information on being a mentee and to apply by May 19th!
digitalundivided and Cosmopolitan have partnered to recognize and celebrate women in the startup space! Become a New C-Suite Honoree - the annual initiative spotlighting a top 10 list of game-changing businesses with women of color entrepreneurs. Learn more and apply here by May 28th!
Scroobious is increasing diversity in the startup ecosystem by teaching founders how to create investable pitch material and making it easy for investors to discover them. AAA Northeast has partnered with them to support 20 BIPOC and/or female/non-binary identifying entrepreneurs in their fundraising efforts with free 1-year Scroobious memberships. Learn more and apply here.
💼 Featured Jobs:
Our friends over at Liberty Mutual are hiring for multiple innovation-related positions - learn more about the available roles and apply here!
'21 Visionary Team Hearth Display is currently hiring for a Marketing Manager! Learn more and apply for the role here.
Slauson & Co. is growing and looking to add an Investment Associate to their team. Learn more and apply.
If you're a community engagement specialist and you love working to close the racial funding gap, BLCK VC is currently hiring for our Head of Community position! Apply here and share with your network!
🧑🏽💻 What we are watching, reading, or listening to:
Watching: What's Love Got to Do with It? (2022)
Reading: '21 Visionary, Chudi Iregbulem was featured in NASDAQ! Thank you Nasdaq for recognizing music matters 🎵 and Ladderworks for the plug 🙏🏾 Read more here.
Listening: '21 Visionary, Noelle Acosta recently spoke on Harlem Capital Partner's More Equity podcast where she shared how her personal struggles led her to build a customized reproductive & hormonal support startup. Thanks for the shoutout to VH and our GPs, Noelle! Listen to the podcast and learn about Noelle's startup journey here.
If you'd like your founder resource or event/conference to be featured in our weekly newsletter, shoot us a message at kerry@visiblehands.vc
"We celebrate the bold, the curious, and the irrational. We applaud those with big dreams, and who choose the harder, riskier path in relentless pursuit of pushing forward what is possible."
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