"You're going to fuck this up." That's the advice I've been giving myself lately. That sentence might occur as disempowering, yet to me, it's freedom.
As a recovering perfectionist, I think the one piece of advice I'd give my younger self goes something like "hey kid, I don't know exactly what's going to happen in your life. But I can tell you this - you're going to fuck it up over and over again. And it's totally, 100% OK. It's fun. Forget trying to get it right or perfect. Go out there and mess it up a bunch."
I started writing this newsletter again after ruminating on that question. What if I gave myself permission for the things I create to suck? Perhaps it does suck. So what? Then what?
It's been my experience that startup founders get A TON of advice. There are a million and one ways that it's "supposed" to go. The dogma fueled my perfectionism until I realized one very important fact. All the advice happens only after someone does something completely new.
Society is filled with books and blog posts about the way things are done. But here's the thing about innovation. The first person that did that thing had no idea how it would go. It's only afterward that we say "aha! that's how they did it!" The education, advice, and learnings from the past are great. But the freedom to create comes from a place of not knowing. Permission to try things.
-Mike
Companies we're supporting 👷♀️
Here are a few companies the Huddle community is giving critical feedback and support to. This batch in particular represents cohort #2 of our BYOB demo day (see below.) Each of these companies is female-founded and is specifically building for the female consumer.
Arrow Birth is “doula-as-a-service,” providing guidance, education, and support to pregnant women and couples throughout the child birthing process on-demand
Frankly is a pre-Seed startup making braless clothing for busty millennial women - an extremely underserved category in the fashion industry today.
Nude Barre is a women's line of skin-toned intimates and hosiery. The company is on a mission to redefine the term "nude" by making skin-toned options for women of all shades.
Private Packs are wearable, reusable hot and cold packs that relieve private body part pain, swelling, and discomfort on-the-go.
Wilde is building a streaming media platform that represents all women. From its ads to emails, the brand incorporates a more diverse POV of the women shaping the future.
Selfmade is a D2C brand creating personal care and beauty products that center the emotional needs and lived experiences of Gen Z womxn, especially womxn of color.
Upcoming community events 🎟
BYOB Demo Day Cohort #2 - Building for the female consumer
We started a digital demo day called BYOB ("Bring Your Own Background") with our friends at Scout Lab. BYOB is our way of giving founders we're working with and in our close network access to investors from home. Our first cohort was on companies transforming healthcare. Our second cohort features founders solving problems for the female consumer, which represents the largest market opportunity today at over $10T in consumer spending power in the US.
Investors - apply to attend and subscribe to our deal flow
Two 🆕 communities we love ❤️
We're enamored by the rise of niche, completely online, and distributed communities that have arisen out of COVID-19. Here are two that we can't stop thinking about:
Compound Writing is a Slack group. I joined a few months back seeking accountability. It worked! I published for the first time in six months, and now you're reading this newsletter. From Compound, I was expecting draft support and encouragement. What I got was much more. Compound members are co-creating everything from blog posts to books together. It's inspiring to watch ideas morph into real creative work through the power of the community. The group is highly engaged and growing. I'd chose generative, creative conversation all day.
Day One is a community for first-time entrepreneurs. It starts as an 8-week program for 100 high-potential future founders. I love anything that promotes more entrepreneurship in the world, and since Day One is one of the most unique, cost-effective ($500) ways to get started, I'm rooting big for Day One. Plus it's backed by friends in the NYC ecosystem who have helped launch dozens of startups. I'm excited to support Day One's first cohort in September. Applications are open now!