joanne bradford

For most startups, their growth strategy depends upon their ability to raise money. SKU's mentor community includes mentors who can help founders with their fundraising strategy. Spring '24 mentor Karen Howland has been a wonderful addition to SKU. She joined Rose Park Advisors as a Managing Director in 2023 through an acquisition of CircleUp Growth Partners. At CircleUp, and now at Rose Park Consumer, she led the investment team focused on investing in early-stage consumer product brands. She works closely with her portfolio companies, advising on a variety of things including, capital structure, business trends, and key growth drivers. Before joining CircleUp, she spent over 15 years at top-tier international investment firms, including Citadel, Barclays Capital PLC, and UBS where she held positions in the Investment Banking and Equity Research divisions, focusing on the consumer and retail sectors in New York, London and San Francisco. Karen was also the founding member of hedge fund TWO OCEAN CAPITAL LP, which later merged into Citadel. SKU is currently interviewing potential mentors for the Fall '24 Track. If you are interested in learning more, please fill out the SKU Mentor Interest Form: https://lnkd.in/grvpPD8e If you are a founder who is interested in being mentored by a team of CPG superstars, we are accepting applications for Fall '24 Track until May 31. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gizfPVVd Meghan Shookman Katie DeVito Elise Jacobs Blanck Bruce Hinson Abby June Richards, CPA-TX Scott Sanders Matthew LoLordo MS / SSGB Kristi Bridges Cassandra Hume Kelsi Petersen #foodservice #foodservicechannel #salesstrategy #channelstrategy #accelerator #cpgaccelerator #cpg #consumerpackagedgoods #micheladas #micheladamix #startup #cpgstartup #startups #mentoring #mentors #mentorshipmatters

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I just wrapped up a panel with the Marketing Leadership affinity group within the How Women Invest community with my hero Auntie Nancy Hayes, aka the Yoda of board membership, angel investing, and general badassery. We talked about different ways to serve on boards, a role in which experienced Marketers seem to be often underrepresented. Why? If I had to guess, I'd say: 1 - Most heads of marketing are women 2 - marketing is undervalued, especially under sales/revenue experience 3—Compound the first two with the messages you tell yourself about your own worthiness, and suddenly, you're a great marketer for everyone else but yourself. ___________ For those who are interested in getting closer or into the board room, there are so many ways to start/get experience: 1—Board Observer (one of my current board roles)—you represent the investor but have no votes. It is unpaid, but/and hugely essential to act as a bridge of visibility and communication between the fund you've invested with and the company in which the fund has invested. My role brings value to both sides with much less bias than the other VC board seats. 2—Corporate board director—There is much governance but not much influence on the product, as the company usually has big enough teams for that. There is a lot of hiring/firing CEOs (read: drama), which can still be fun, especially for those fresh-popcorn-in-my-bag swag kinda folks (both grossly generalizing and way understating this role's fiduciary importance, but you get the idea). 3—Independent board director—this is another of my favorite places to sit. It is much like the Board observer role but with voting rights and equity (although not always, as these terms are negotiated and influenced by the shareholding board seats). You are NOT representing a VC fund (typically), but you might have subject matter expertise in the product or are a generalist boss gal like myself and bring a sense of neutrality and balance to the board. 4—Advisor. Advisors are similar to IBD in terms of influence and type of advice but are not part of the board or its meetings. This role is usually paid in some combination of equity and cash. It's another of my faves. (Are you seeing the trend here?) We have not even touched non-profit boards (where I got my start and am currently sitting on my sixth), but we will save it for next time as it's a whole 'nother Oprah. If you want to learn more, How Women Lead is hosting its 5th annual #getonboard week, starting October 21. Hybrid virtual and in-person. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/diizwv8j #womeninleadership #boardofdirectors #howwomenlead #governance #boarddiversity #corporategovernance #boardservice #businessleadership #leadership Julie Candelon Susan Greenwood Schroeder Mikayla Ludwig

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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DeepCast Pro - For Podcasters launched a bunch of new features and has a slew more dropping in the next 2-3 weeks (well, and for many weeks thereafter). If you're a podcaster, friend of a podcaster, or someone similar, give the press release a read and then jump over to DeepCast Pro (www.deepcast.pro) to claim your podcast and get started for free, then consider upgrading to our Basic paid tier. #podcasting #customercentricity #productvelocity

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We're absolutely thrilled to announce a monumental milestone for Flo Health Inc.! After years of dedication to women's health, Flo, a long-standing member of the Target Global family, has secured over $200 million in Series C funding led by General Atlantic.This incredible investment propels Flo's valuation beyond $1 billion, officially making it a unicorn – a rare and remarkable feat in the femtech space. This accomplishment isn't just about numbers. It's a testament to the power of prioritizing women's health. Flo has seen phenomenal growth over eight years, becoming the #1 downloaded app in the Health & Fitness category. Today, Flo empowers nearly 70 million monthly active users (MAUs) and boasts close to 5 million paid subscribers. Notably, 1 in 4 US women trust Flo, solidifying its position as a leader in the global movement for women's health. But this is just the beginning! This investment fuels Flo's mission to revolutionize female healthcare experiences worldwide. By directing resources towards areas of critical yet unmet needs (which, let's be honest, encompasses a vast majority of women's health!), Flo will continue to be a driving force for positive change. Congratulations Dmitry Gurski,Yuri Gurski, and the entire Flo Health Inc. team! More in the Financial Times here ---->https://lnkd.in/dJZdajM4

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Consumer founders in SF come check out our event next week and register below

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It's been three months since I moved from GE CMO to CEO of Said Differently and shifted from the Brand side to the Agency side. I'm still learning and taking it all in. But this week I had the chance—thanks to the incredible Jenny Rooney—to share some insights at ADWEEK’s  #Brandweek, which I'd like to share here as well. 1. Agencies get the clients they deserve. I grew up with the opposite maxim: Clients get the work they deserve, but the reverse is just as true. If you want to be a true thought partner, invest the time to deeply understand your client's challenges and provide the solution and team that best meets their needs—not just what's readily available. 2. I'd like to turn the clock back and remind my former self to always fully explain the business problem absent of a potential solution.      3. Is the idea being presented right for the specific client or challenge...or is it just a good creative idea? 4. Passion matters. If you can't get excited about a client's challenge, stay home. 5.  STOP selling, shut up, and listen. Don't try to know everything. Instead, strive to understand the problem and offer a fresh perspective.   6. Staff client accounts with people who are genuinely interested in the brand. I’m proud to say this is one of Said Differently’s biggest differentiators—we build a unique team for every project. At most agencies, there's always that one account everyone wants to work on. With us, every client is that client.  7. Let's stop talking about how broken the agency model is and remember that we all GET to do this work every day. We get to be problem-solvers and magic-makers. We get to discover the DNA that makes every brand unique. And if we're really smart about it, we get to truly partner – brand + agency – to drive growth. I’m excited to evolve this list as I continue to work with you all on the other side of the table. 

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Check out the latest issue of my investor-focused newsletter Not From Concentrate!

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Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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I have a big announcement to make.  In life, you back your winners. You back the people who exceed your expectations, exhibit a high level of integrity, energy, grit and give you as a leader leverage. Matthew Thompson is one of those special leaders, and today he is being promoted from GM of our public sector business to Chief Revenue Officer for all of Socure globally. Matt’s leadership at Socure has been transformative.  He has been at the forefront of our public sector business, leveraging his vast experience to build and scale our operations in an incredibly short period of time.  After only 2.5 years of serving the Fed and SLED Markets, Socure is now supporting 22 state agencies, 3 federal agencies, 1 Higher Ed Institution, and we’re in talks, pilots and integrations with dozens more.   On top of that, we’ve formalized 20+ meaningful strategic partnerships and already achieved several of the critical security and compliance milestones that are essential to doing business with the government. For anyone not familiar, that rate of growth is unheard of in the public sector. Matt’s commitment to excellence and putting in the extra effort that separates winners from the rest of the pack, has been nothing short of inspiring. He’s a tremendous motivator, communicator and possesses a rare sense of extreme ownership and accountability, something you want in every teammate. One of the most amazing things about Matt is his humility.  But he did share some numbers in a recent post that demonstrate the incredible transformations our team has created in the public sector under Matt’s leadership. 🔹 For one of our government customers, we were able to process 100% of applicants, with 95% being onboarded through auto-approval in less than one second. 🔹 For another agency, we showed them how using our solution would save their constituents more than 157,000 hours of time annually during digital onboarding 🔹 We replaced a bureau in another agency where we’ve demonstrated the ability to approve 24% more people that were otherwise being rejected while also stopping 82% in fraud losses that they were letting through 🔹 We are verifying almost 40% more 18 year olds than any competing solution on the market and verifying 92%+ of Gen Z constituents with almost 100% coverage of the US adult population I can’t wait to see what we will achieve together in Socure’s next stage of growth. Congrats Matthew Thompson! #identity #fraud #leadership https://lnkd.in/gpH8vDnX

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At SKYEFOX VENTURES - SFXV we are enabling brands to scale successfully to reap the rewards of success. Thank you to our friends and partners at BeautyMatter! Scott Gurfein Matthew Wenzler Socket Managed Services #partnerships #business #supplychain #entrepreneur #share #businessmodels #architecture #scalability #teamwork #socialnetworking #culture #socialentrepreneurship #entrepreneurship #startupstrategies #leanstartups #startups #startup #leanmanufacturing #manufacturing #management #productmanagement #projectmanagement #operationsmanagement #executivesandmanagement #futurism #future #innovation #productivity #strategy #consultants #managementconsulting

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That planning season is upon us once more - almost like it’s an annual thing :) The more informed you are the more realistic the planning the cycle - especially in a new market transition cycle (here we go again!) Join Randy Wootton and Maxio break down all dimensions of growth and operations with data points across the SaaS market to build a plan rooted in market reality 🔥

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Alan Jones has been investing since before I even landed in this country. He's one of my favourite investors to follow and invest alongside. If you're angel investing, or even just thinking about early-stage tech investing, then you should join us for this (online) event tomorrow to hear from these two! #angelinvesting #investing #technology #australia

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Successful retailers partner with DTC brands! Check out Charm.io's new report on the three key strategies for how retailers can use data-backed insights to partner with DTC brands to grow sales, and avoid the "retail apocalypse". https://lnkd.in/eTP8sswD #retailgrowth #merchandising #dtcdata #ecommerceanalytics

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One often overlooked advantage for marketplace startups is the sustainable edge they gain in acquiring supply or demand. When Casey Winters was scaling Grubhub’s marketing team, he zeroed in on what would give them that edge on both sides of the marketplace. “At Grubhub, we had such a pay-for-performance model that it was easy to get restaurants to try us out, which kept our cost of sales much lower than enterprise sales,” he explains. He dives deeper into how startups can use data to fuel growth on the In Depth podcast. Link to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e_xy3Df2

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A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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