What’s Saba Says, again? A bulletin to get tips on building a startup, and my takes on tech and VC. Subscribe on sabakarim.com to read the full edition and get it delivered direct to your inbox on Sundays.
📅 || UPCOMING EVENTS
On Wednesday I will be chatting with five Techstars Managing Directors about the recent funding announcement from J.P. Morgan. Set a reminder on Spaces here. Also, it’s been a while since I did ClearPitch, my 60-minute masterclass on how to get better at pitching. If you want an invite to the Zoom session, add your email here.
👟 || STARTUP OF THE WEEK
Reza. It is more than a shoe. Or a startup. Reza is footwear brand and community aimed to connect and inspire. I have my pair as you can find on my Instagram, but if you’re into getting stopped every block having people ask about the shoes, or not being hit by cars in the night when running - you should join the network too.
🤑 || FEATURED INVESTOR
No investor keeps it more real than Janine. Another founder turned funder, Janine is the GP and founding partner of Overlooked Ventures - a venture capital fund investing in early-stage companies with one or more historically ignored founders. She is must-follow on Twitter, often sharing incredible tips for founders, and the sweetest pics of her family. If you’re an LP or someone looking to diversify, then I’d be happy to make you an intro to invest in Overlooked too. Learn more about her here and here.
🐛 || PITCH PRACTICE
Think of your pitch-deck as a children's book like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, instead of a fantasy novel such Harry Potter. Short, few words, descriptive pictures, simple narrative. If its over 15 slides, it usually means you’re unsure about something with regards to the business.. so, keep it concise. Oh, and check out journey.io which is quickly becoming a great storytelling tool for founders fundraising.
✨ || TALKING TECHSTARS
As briefly mentioned earlier, Techstars just received $80M funding to invest in Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs. These programs are focused on founders traditionally undervalued and overlooked by venture capital sources. Read more here.
📕 || BOOK RECOMMENDATION
The Psychology of Money. This was a quick read, full of interesting data points regarding money and the economy. It should help think through how you feel about money and hone in on your strategy for making more. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you’ll find most people say they wished they read this earlier in life. Either way, it’s not too late.
💡 || TWEET OF THE WEEK
When Figma first came out, I thought to myself ‘Wow, this looks just like Sketch, but it’s in the cloud’. While founders feel like they need to create something groundbreaking, sometimes it helps to just carve out a different market either by adding a feature (Figma), differentiated experience (GoPuff has a warehouse of products vs. Instacart which buys it on-demand from the stores), or different price strategy (Equinox is about 20x more expensive than Planet Fitness).