Bolo AI’s Post

2024 started off fast (in a good way) and I am so happy to say that Green Book Global was recently accepted into the “Future of Tech is Inclusive” program sponsored by Goodie Nation and Amex Ventures In just one week I learned so much about the amazing work that Joey Womack and Goodie Nation is doing to help close the “Relationship Gap” with diverse founders and also the impact and history that Amex Ventures has had across various segments. Specifically in the travel space, did you you know that American Express invented the first travelers check? When our speaker mentioned that during one of our sessions, I immediately went to Google to confirm (you know I like to fact check) and sure enough, there was American Express as the inventor (specifically Marcellus Flemming Berry who was an employee of Amex). American Express also started travel and tour services back in the early 1900s (had no idea!) Also, just by Day 4 of the program, we were already able to test our investor readiness by doing a mock pitch to Amex Ventures. It was super helpful to receive feedback from a VC lens but also to confirm if what I am pitching/saying is being received as intended. There is also this tool that Goodie Nation uses to score your progress as a founder after that investor readiness session that is just 🙌🏾 🤯 And this was just the first week! As a FYI, being part of the “Future of Tech is Inclusive” program doesn’t gurantee investment or partnership with Amex Ventures (also doesn’t rule it out). However, what it does gurantee is knowledge and ability to better equipped to know how to work with large brands like Amex. And that in itself is super powerful!! So super excited and grateful to the Amex Ventures team (Jennifer Cozen Ope Runsewe Oliver Ginns Mona Pezeshki Alyssa Smith Kevin Weber ) and Goodie Nation for this opportunity and looking forward to more to come! PS: got another post about Goodie Nation coming because it is 🔥🔥🔥 and too much to discuss in one post!

Valuable lessons & thoughts!

Here’s to new ventures in 2024

Around 2 years ago, my face was plastered on #TimesSquare in #NYC by Nasdaq for the 1B$+ #IPO of the startup I was in at the time. It felt surreal. The past 2 years since have been a long, fruitful and enlightening road. Here are some important lessons learned for me since: 1. There is no sure ground, there are no solid assurances; the only thing you can rely on being there 100% of the time is yourself. 2. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Master Bruce Lee. My expertise of 12 years of doing nothing but B2B software sales confidently makes me a fearsome fighter in that space. 3. Money comes and goes, hardships come and go. Keep believing in yourself and keep pushing forward. And, have some fun on the ride! There's no reason not to.

How do you grow a company to unicorn status? I sat down with Maren Schlieper, Chief Strategy Officer of German Insurtech wefox to find out just that! Maren joined wefox 2 years into it's journey, having worked previously with household names such as PayPal and Groupon, and 5 years after joining, helped grow the company to a $4.5billion valuation in 2022. Join us to learn the barriers to successful scaling, the importance of transparency, and the balance between strategy and execution on this weeks eye-opening episode: https://bit.ly/3KH741w #unicornstartup #strategy #leadershiplearns

There's so much ambiguity around what Operating teams within Venture firms actually do, and what they should provide to both portfolio companies and the market. Scale Venture Partners recently put on a master class with their 'How I Scaled This' event, helmed by everyone's favorite B2B Bob Barker, Craig Rosenberg. Here's my biggest takeaways around what VC's and startups alike can learn from how they are curating actionable B2B best practices, and sharing them: (link in comments)

Thinking about #data and #AI? Check out the Vestigo Ventures June newsletter for all impacts to #FinTech and #FinServices. Subscribe at www.VestigoVentures.com

⏰ Last week for early bird tickets ⏰ Sifted Summit all about connecting founders and investors — this is your chance to get months worth of business done in just two days this October 4-5 in London. The team have been hard at work making sure this year’s Sifted Summit is bigger and better than 2022, with some awesome speakers lined up including the founders of Stripe, Olio, Oliva, Kry, Bitpanda and Babbel, as well as partners from Atomico, General Catalyst and Balderton Capital to name just a few. Book before Friday to get an early bird ticket 💸 << link in comments #startupevent #techevent #siftedsummit #scaleup #startupcommunity

My amazing cousin, Cleven Ticeson (https://lnkd.in/gWis4xX6) , a 14 time Emmy award winning producer for KCTS9 in Seattle, is a hero of mine. I grew up watching the educational shows like Bill Nye and the performing arts they would showcase. He was following the work I have been doing de-siloing the Black professional class working in venture scale entrepreneurship in the Pacific Northwest and composed a news reel covering Dreamward Group that moved me not only because he is my hyper-talented and dear cousin but because it voiced and gave me the perspective of the decades that what we’re building has been missing from the mass culture and my culture. Lewis Rudd once told me that the hardest target to hit is an invisible one and my dear cousin hit me right in the heart by speaking in his video about the unseen, but nonetheless felt, absence of inclusive capitalization of startups. Felt by the generation of Black people that watched the tech industry grow not only painting Black technologists and Black founders out of the heroic saga of tech, but Black funders as well. I am so glad that Dreamward Group is able to paint the target and make it visible through our work. Venture Capital, the financial backing of the tech industry, just like tech itself, had an evolution with foundational moments in the 70s on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley yet it’s mechanics, drama, and operation are largely unknown to the public that isn’t working in tech entrepreneurship. It’s trajectory and heights of accomplishment with Andreessen Horowitz and Madrona Ventures are parallel and analogous to Google and Amazon…But only the later two brands are household names to people outside of the industry. The world knows the story of Black people being excluded from Tech, It knows the story of Black people being excluded from executive leadership. It experienced the Obama administration and the depravity of the Trump backlash and had to ask itself why it had actively or passively participated in writing off Black professionals. Some of the world hears of Black founders getting less than 2% of invested capital, but even on hearing that, they don’t know the story of Black people being excluded from the role of deciding which startups get funded using a yet third party’s (often their own government’s) money…That is the story of Venture Capital today, and that’s what Dreamward is changing for the future.

"Despite having more than 4 years of runway, we know that a sustainable path has a much higher chance of success than the path we were on." "This change also means we’re reducing the size of the Pitch team by around 2/3 today." "Going forward, we’ll be a significantly smaller team focused on creating maximum value for our customers and driving sustainable growth." - 👏 Kudos to Christian Reber, his co-founder and all investors 👏 Original post in first comment 👇 #earlystagestartups #venturecapital