Welcome to our #126 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a new women-led fund and network called Coalition which is designed to increase diversity on cap tables and help founders access the best talent in tech.
Don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Gillian Fleming who is Founding Director and CEO of Mint Ventures, an angel group focused on investing in women led and diverse teams with a social, ethical or environmental purpose.
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And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
Coalition fund and network: women as operators and investors
Coalition is a women-led fund and network designed to increase diversity.
The Coalition, a (US based) women-led fund and network, has recently launched publicly, designed to increase diversity on cap tables and help founders access some of the best talent in tech, as reported by TechCrunch.
The fund is a $12.5m investment vehicle with investors including the founders of Glossier and Chief, as well as senior executives at startups such as Stripe and Maven.
Investors in the debut fund include General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Homebrew, BoxGroup, Lowercarbon Capital and Thrive Capital.
Beyond a focus on diversity, the fund has introduced a new economic model to help bring diverse operators into deals at scale:
The firm struck a deal with two LPs ie General Catalyst (GC) and Thrive-which introduce a founder seeking specific operator expertise.
The Coalition fund surfaces and vets relevant operator profiles and increasingly via their operator network.
When a match is made ie the founder and operator agree to work together, ‘GC or Thrive carves out a portion of their firm’s upside in that specific investment for the operator, in exchange for advisory support’. This is the equivalent of a meaningful angel check in the most recent round.
The GC and Thrive partnership is also a way to get people from diverse backgrounds onto cap tables, without needing to invest their own money. Operators, especially from underrepresented backgrounds do not always have money to angel invest or set up a rolling fund.
Therefore, founders can turn to Coalition for capital or the network at no further dilution. The operator network is also a way for smart folks to get into venture, connect to the (startup) investment ecosystem and take a more ‘portfolio approach’ to their career.
Given the check size (their sweet spot is $200,000 at the seed stage), the Coalition almost always has to invest alongside a lead investor. Therefore collaboration with other investors such as GC and Thrive Capital is key.
What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:
News in Brief
Financial news
Nasdaq China Index dropped >3% bucking pos US tech performance as sentiment is starting to sour again given ongoing Covid limitations, muted stimulus actions & ongoing accounting standoff between Beijing & Washington.
Shock July stock rally- Nasdaq 100 jumped 12.6%, S&P 500 9.1% – was a monster the Fed may regret seeing. Financial conditions have eased despite supersized Fed hikes. The Fed may have to ‘bring the party to a halt’ very soon.
The Fed unanimously raises its rate by 75 bps to range of 2.25%-2.5%, in line with expectations and anticipates the further increases in the target rate “will be appropriate.” Fed's balance-sheet reduction process is proceeding as planned with caps on Treasury roll-off doubling to $60bn/mth.
The US economy is in technical recession as GDP shrinks for a second quarter. Q2 GDP fell at a 0.9% annualised rate as inventories, residential investment subtract from growth after a 1.6% decline in the first three months of the year.
Meta has dropped out of Top 10 most valuable US companie and is now number 11, behind AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN, TSLA, BRK, UNH, JNJ, V, NVDA. There used to be 5 Big Tech companies but there are now only 4 (AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, MSFT all have >$1tn mkt caps while META <$440bn.
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs
Crypto traders split on the US Fed’s rate hike's impact on Bitcoin. The U.S. central bank has raised rates by 150 bps since March, injecting volatility into asset markets. Some analysts expect BTC to stay resilient after Wednesday's expected hike. (See current bitcoin price).
Report: El Salvador's finance Minister says Bitcoin adoption is 'gaining ground'. Alejandro Zelaya said bitcoin adoption has been beneficial to El Salvador's unbanked population.
Ethereum’s final testnet Merge set for early August. Goerli will be the network’s third and final testnet before the network's transition to proof of stake, which is scheduled for mid-September. (See current ether price).
Upgrade still ‘not priced in’- ethereum co-founder issues shock price prediction.
Interest in ether options rises to record as traders bet on 'Merge'. "A few hedge fund names have been large buyers of the ETH calls," one trading firm noted.
The Purse Podcast
We cover the following in our conversation:
Female entrepreneurship in the UK/Scotland
Women founders-access to capital
Female angel investors
How to start angel investing
And more
Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify+
Coffee Break? Read This
We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.
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