OLE: Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Hi friends -
It’s a crappy time. We’re dealing with a lot. Some of us are dealing with more than others. Those of us who are lucky enough to be healthy feel stuck in the same day. Every day. We try to wrap our days and eating habits around novelties to wake us up and distract us. But the novelties wear off quickly.
We’ve debated sending this email out and then decided it may be nice to say hi and make noise together again, like we do now in NYC every evening at 7pm. But if you’re having trouble concentrating long enough to read through yet another email, give yourself a break. Sending you a big hug.
First time joining us? That means someone amazing thought you would be a fantastic addition to our little experiment.
SINCE LAST TIME
Since we last spoke, I’ve been mostly working on building FFNY from the ground up, making our first investments in consumer healthcare — Frame, Stix and Expectful — and building our first studio company. Work is work, but it’s been a nice distraction and it feels good to know the companies we’ve backed are helping people right now.
7PM CLAPS
You know what else feels good? Generous friends who roll up their sleeves when our leaders fail to. Big kudos to:
Frank & Trish Barbieri and Ryan & Devon Sarver for creating Frontline Foods, which allows us to donate money to keep restaurants in business so they can keep hospital workers fed during this crisis.
Alex Iskold for creating 1kproject.org, where you can donate $1k a month for three months to help a family directly impacted by the pandemic.
Emily Hochman at Wellory for giving free 1:1 advice with a nutritionist for frontline hospital workers.
Evelyn Rusli at Yumi for creating Rainbows in Windows to help kids make sense of our current state.
Alexia Tsotsis and other friends behind operationmasks.org, through which you can donate to get PPE to frontline workers.
ONE BIG ASK
If I can ask everyone here for one thing it would be this: please send me an early-stage startup solving a big problem in consumer healthcare that I should have on my radar for investing in with my LP, Johnson & Johnson. We typically like to be a first check (or invest in companies currently valued < $5M).
Pls email me at maya@foundersfactory.co with good leads.
I’m also still writing angel checks, so if there's an amazing company that fits outside of this thesis, please send it my way.
BIG HUG to our contributors! You mean the world to us. Wanna follow suit? See "how to contribute" below. Easy peasy.
Responding to something below? Please submit it HERE. LOOK AT ME I’M IN CAPS PAY ATTENTION TO ME.
INTERESTING OPS
A fast-growing, female-founded women’s healthcare company is closing its round. It’s sales are up 90%+ in the last few months. J&J, BDMI among investors. If you’re actively investing, please reach out to maya@foundersfactory.co for info.
Ryan Graves is hiring for an investment associate at Saltwater.
I’m hiring for lead engineer for FFNY.
Are you hiring? Raising money for a startup or fund? Or are you looking to make investments in startups or funds? Tell us.
CONGRATSBOT
Congratulating a few of our members; this list is by no means exhaustive:
Congrats to Mike Rothman for selling Fatherly.
Congrats to our portfolio company Thinker Tinker for inking a three year IP deal with Dreamworks.
Congrats Megan Quinn for taking on the COO role at Niantic.
Congrats to Nick Gray for selling Museum Hack.
Congrats to Kendall Bird on Frame’s launch and getting featured in Oprah Mag.
Congrats to Dan Maccarone on his new book, the Barstool MBA.
SMB-FRIENDLY (& MOM-FRIENDLY) GIFT TIPS
Rebecca Revel has curated a lovely set of sustainably sourced, small business pre-curated gift boxes, with a portion of all sales going towards mission-driven orgs.
Pair home-made sourdough bread with Brightland olive oil. We decided to invest in this company after trying it and buying it as gifts for friends who became obsessed, too. It’s beyond delicious — and lightyears better for you than most olive oil you buy off the shelf.
As everyone’s hair inches its way to Carole Baskin lengths, help them take care of it with Crown Affair’s wind-down haircare products.
Treat a loved one (or yourself) to nutritional counseling with Wellory.
Now that you’re spending more time at home, and if you are in the position to splurge on beautiful art and support an amazing artist, take a look at Miya Ando’s work and let us know if you’d like an intro. We just bought a piece for our home and love it so much.
Donate to any of the new orgs in the “7PM CLAPS” section above!
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR LITTLE EXPERIMENT
If you enjoy OLE and/or benefit from it in some way, please give back in these ways:
1. Suggest fantastic new people who are truly great fits for our community HERE.
2. List amazing, one-of-a-kind ops HERE.
3. Email maya@foundersfactory.co a solid consumer healthcare company currently raising (valued < $5M; big market; bigger-than-life team)
Sending you all hugs and hoping you are are healthy and doing well.
Til next time,
Maya & Rob
LOVE!! Thank you for all of it!