π¦ Issue 5. Community-driven unicorns, 27 investments, recruiting investment partners, fundraising war rooms, and more
A monthly newsletter for community-driven founders, funders, and friends.
Welcome to The Community Fundβs Newsletter. The Community Fund is an early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies. Community-driven companies have customers who identify as members, create value for each other, and drive a marketing-sales flywheel. Learn more about TCF here.
Happy August 1st! Have you been hearing more and more about awesome community-driven companies? We certainly have. Thanks to valuations held by AirBnB ($90B), MongoDB ($23B), Peloton ($35B), and others, the community-driven moat has been proven and is trending. What can we say? Future unicorns will be community-driven and weβre excited to back them!
π Speaking of community-driven companies, congrats to TCF investment partners Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant for raising $60M for Squire and achieving a $750M valuation!
As for whatβs new at The Community Fund, since we launched in October 2020, hereβsβ¦
HOW WEβVE DONE
seen thousands of startups reach out to us at thecommunity.vc and our investment partners directly
invested in 27 community-driven startups
seen 9 valuation increases
WHAT WEβRE PLANNING
growing, recruiting new investment partners (to maximize our sector/skill-set and geographical coverage) and launching year 2 with them in Q4 2021. Stay tuned for the application weβll share here and @thecommunityvc.
offering fundraising war rooms for our portfolio companies, where weβll roll up our sleeves and help our founders plan and execute on their raise - leveraging our collective communities and brains.
β¨ The Community Fund
linktr.ee | Twitter
ICYMI
: TCF was featured in
TechCrunch
,
Fast Company
. We crossed 4.5K followers @
thecommunityvc
; and set up a
job board for all community-driven companies
.
Portfolio companies
Fundraises
Kindra @PRNewsWire @Bazaar | Kindra Raises $4.5M Seed Round To Grow Women's Wellness Brand Focused On Menopause
Famosos @Forbes @Revista PENG | Famosos Raises $4.5M Seed to Expand Celebrity Engagement Platform in LATAM and expands to Brazil
News
Snowball Wealth @Cheddar @CNBC | Snowball Wealth Focuses on Helping Women Overcome Student Debt
Baraka @Wamda | Baraka is one of the 7 MENA startups selected for Y Combinator
Bradefy @Richmond Inno | How Brandefy customers helped inspire the creation of newly launched skincare line
Zeta @TechCrunch | How Zeta aims to make money management a multi-player game to help couples achieve financial success
Dame @Forbes | Dame made the Women-Led Startups Driving The Future Of FemTech list
Golde @Marie Claire | Get to know Trinity Mouzon Wofford of Golde in this Beauty Inside & Out feature
EngineEars @Trapital | MixedByAli talks about launching EngineEars, TDEβs Legacy, and Mixing for Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre
The Grand @Forbes | The Grandβs recent fundraise has the attention of Japan
Ayana @New York Times | Itβs Hard to Search for a Therapist of Color. Ayana is changing that.
Ceremonia @Hypebae | Haircare Brand Ceremonia Expands Offerings with Terrycloth Apparel
Healthy Roots @GoDaddy | Icons of Detroit: Celebrating the Beauty of Diversity with Healthy Roots Dolls
Offers
The Grand | Manager training & community: The Grand, a community that actively supports each other in navigating professional and personal life milestones, invites you to their Becoming an Effective Manager program.
Copper | Authors & reader community: Copper, a platform connecting authors and readers, welcomes the TCF community to sign-up as a beta tester for an inside look.
Marco | Experience Seekers: Marco, an experiences platform that brings people together through extraordinary experiences, is offering the TCF community a 20% discount.
West Tenth | Home-based business owners: West Tenth welcomes the TCF community to sign-up for Quick Shop, a feature that allows you to request specific service packages & products offered by women home-based businesses owners.Β
Snowball Wealth | Students tackling debt: Snowball Wealth, a platform helping students tackling debt so they can start saving and investing, invites you to their save $1K in 30-days challenge.
π° Want TCF to consider your startup for investment?
Submit your co to
thecommunity.vc
.
Portfolio Co Feature
: Brandefy has released Skincall, a skincare brand created by and for the Brandefy community.
Investment partners
Fundraises
Dave Salvant & Songe LaRonΒ @Fortune | As barbershops boom, Squire Technologies draws a $750 million valuation
News
Lolita Taub @TechCrunch | Traditional VCs turn to emerging managers for deal flow and, in some cases, new partners
Dave Salvant & Songe Laron @Essense | 7 Black-Owned Apps You Need To Download Now
Aaron Samuels @The New York Times | 5 Pieces of Good News About the News
Offers
Melissa Moore @AllRaise | Women and non-binary founders: get your FREE fundraising masterclass on All Raise, a platform working to accelerate the success of female founders and funders.
π Want to get to know the team?
Follow us on Twitter
@thecommunityvc
.
Portfolio Co Feature:
Enhance your intimacy with Workshops by Dame Products. Choose from their existing library of pleasure-unlocking classes or keep an eye out for upcoming live classes. Learn skills and new perspectives to support and re-kindle your sex life!
LPs news
Jeff Bussgang @Harvard Business School | For Entrepreneurs, the Benefits of Slowing Down
Jobs
Elektra Health | Head of Product > New York City, NY
Zeta | React Native Engineer > Remote
Sugar | Senior Softwarre Engineer > Remote
The Grand | Business Development Manager > Remote
Zette | Product Designer > Remote
π₯ See all open roles here. π₯
πΌ Want to post OR find a job?
Visit the Community Fund Jobs, a board for the best jobs at community-driven companies,
here
.Β
Events
8/27-28 | AfroTech: The largest Black tech conference. TCF investment partner Aaron Samuels will be leading the conference.
9/21-23 | Techcrunch Disrupt: A conference focused on founders and investors shaping the future of disruptive technology and ideas and startup experts providing insights to entrepreneurs. TCF Co-founder & GP Lolita Taub will be speaking.
Portfolio Company
: Ceremonia launched their Guava Rescue and Repair Kit to keep your hair protected in the sun. Check them out.
Resources
Lolita Taub | Take advantage of this 400+ Community-Driven Founder Resources Guide
Peter Yang | Read how to scale a product community to 100K members
Jenny Weigle | Learn how to conduct a mid-year review with your community
Rich Millington | Get tips on how to use data to prioritize community activities
TCF x Community Club | Join our community-driven investor Slack community
π Want to read more The Community Fund content?
Follow us on our Medium blog
here
.
β¨ Like the newsletter and think others would benefit from it? Share it with community-driven founders, funders, and friends.
π If youβd like to learn more about The Community Fund, visit our linktr.ee and reach out to Lolita Taub.