Gaingels

Out Leadership’s 4th annual #LGBTQ+ Board Diversity Report is out, showing that despite an increase in inclusive board policies, a significant representation gap remains to be addressed. A few key highlights: 📌 US Progress: 31% of Fortune 500 companies now have LGBTQ+-inclusive policies, a remarkable 78x increase since 2015. 📌 Nasdaq Leads: 51% of Nasdaq companies adopted LGBTQ+-inclusive policies, a 12x rise since 2022, driven by the Nasdaq's board diversity rule and Out Leadership's research. 📌 Representation Remains Low: Despite policy advancements, LGBTQ+ leaders hold less than 1% of Fortune 500 board seats. At Gaingels, we're addressing this through our Board Diversity Program, helping portfolio companies recruit independent board members from underrepresented backgrounds. Since the program's inception, we've supported 200+ portfolio companies in finding highly qualified candidates from a variety of backgrounds. 💬 Have questions? Get in touch with Brandon Parkes, Head of our Corporate Board Diversity Program. 📖 See the full report: https://lnkd.in/eSy3R8PE #DiversityAndInclusion #BoardDiversity Egon Zehnder, KPMG

🍴 Disrupting Food Ordering: MealMe, Inc. Secures $8M in Series A Funding! 🚀 In a game-changing move for the food ordering industry, MealMe, a San Francisco-based startup, raised $8 million in Series A funding! 🔑 Who’s Betting Big? 🎯 Lead Investor: Mercury Fund Finance 🤝 Key Participants: Palm Drive Capital & Gaingels Founded in 2019 by Will Said 📈 and 🍴 Matthew Bouchner, MealMe is revolutionizing the way we order food with its API that connects users to over 1 billion products across 1.2 million restaurants, grocery stores, and retailers in the U.S. and Canada. 📈 What’s Next? The funding will help MealMe: ▪️🏪 Expand store selections. ▪️⚙️ Provide better developer support and uptime. Their growing customer base includes Tripadvisor, Favor Delivery, and Fantuan Delivery NY, among others. MealMe empowers any company to integrate its API or SDKs into apps, websites, or ad units, enabling instant ordering from 1M+ locations in North America! 💡 Why does this matter? MealMe is paving the way for seamless food, grocery, and retail ordering at scale, making it an indispensable tool for developers and businesses alike. 📢 What Do You Think? 💬 Share your thoughts: Is this the future of food ordering? 🔄 Repost to spread the word! 👥 Follow us for more tech funding insights. 📆 News Month: October, 2024 🔗 Source: FinSMEs

The venture capital landscape is experiencing a period of evolution, marked by fluctuating valuations, market slowdown, and a reshaping of investor activity. These changes reflect both the resilience and challenges in the ecosystem, as startups and investors adapt to shifting economic and geopolitical conditions. Understanding these trends provides valuable insights into the opportunities and risks facing investors and founders alike as they navigate this new chapter in venture capital. 1️⃣ Valuations: median pre-money valuations for early-stage U.S. startups rose overall, but trends varied by stage. Carta shows seed and Series C valuations in Q3 2024 surpassed Q1 2022 levels, while Series B and Series D valuations stayed well below early 2022. 2️⃣ Slowdown: The venture market has slowed. For seed-stage companies from early 2020, 38% raised Series A within two years, but this fell to 13-15% for 2022 seed rounds. While not all are failing, it highlights the market's deceleration. 3️⃣ Deal count: Seed deal counts have dropped 22% from the previous quarter and 28% compared to last year, while Series A deals are down 26% quarter-over-quarter and 8% year-over-year.  4️⃣ VC Consolidation: The VC market is consolidating, with many firms turning into "zombies." In 2023, 15,303 investors participated in at least one U.S. deal; by Q3 2024, this dropped to 11,425, per PitchBook-NVCA.   5️⃣ Market Conditions:   ▪️Interest Rates: The Fed reduced rates by half a percentage point in September and an additional quarter point in November. While the macroeconomic outlook remains uncertain, these cuts could positively impact the broader VC landscape. ▪️Election: We’ve seen renewed interest by both investors and portfolio companies wanting to continue to make an impact. My key finding is that it's not time to give up - it's time to get creative.💡 Yes, fewer deals are happening because investors are being more selective, but really good ideas are still getting attention. Finding support from investors who can recognize your potential and a supportive network can make a difference in the long run. #venturecapital #VCFunding #WomenEntrepreneurs #LGBTQEntrepreneurs #StartUps

While other kids played, Scott Smith petitioned to skip six grades. Though his parents vetoed the leap, his restless curiosity laid the foundation for something extraordinary... Fizz, the credit-building platform Scott co-founded, wasn’t created for convenience but from a deep understanding of #college students' needs. Facing those challenges firsthand, Scott was determined to solve them. Today, Fizz empowers students at over 300 universities to navigate financial #adulthood with confidence. From growing up in Metro Detroit to co-founding Fizz and earning a spot on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, Scott’s journey exemplifies passion, perseverance, and purpose Well done, Scott Smith. We are honored to have you apart of this year's Gaingels 100! https://lnkd.in/gn4fT-6p 🎉 ------- #FounderStories #VentureBacked #ForbesUnder30 ##Gaingels100

I am so pleased to share that this week, GamePoint Technologies hit another huge milestone: the first prototype of the pickleball digital scorekeeper is ready for beta testing! (actually, I have two of them)! eeeeee!! woooo hoooo!! YAY!!! YAHOOOO!!! The journey hasn't been easy. My website is still a mess because I can’t decide what to put on it since everything is so confidential. The massive amount of work it takes to pull together the mountain of data needed for a solid pitch deck seems neverending, and then there are the thousands of other "very important" tasks on my to-do list. It takes a lot of effort and diligence not to wallow (for too long, anyway) in the overwhelming stress of it all. Amid the chaos, I find moments to breathe and refocus. Yoga on the Bluff resets my soul and reminds me I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. Then, this past Tuesday’s Gaingels event brought a much-needed dose of inspiration, connecting me with an amazing community of supportive and visionary people. And today? Today, everything came together perfectly. I actually played pickleball using my product! It was an exhilarating and surreal experience! I easily kept track of my score, my opponent's score, and who was serving! IYKYK!! Of course, this brings another entirely new set of things to add to my plate surrounding the prototype and the customer feedback loop, etc ... but for tonight, I am just going to be in awe of what I have accomplished, bathe in the joy, and breeeeeeeeeeath!

While investing is our core activity, we believe it’s equally important to showcase the diverse array of other initiatives we’re engaged in. Here are some of our Q3 updates across our key initiatives: the Board Placement program, WAVE (Women Accessing Venture Equality), the newly launched BRIDGE (Black Rising Investors Development and Growth Education), the Gaingels Scholars program, and our Jobs Board. ↗️🙌🏾 #VentureCapital #BoardDiversity #Equity #WomeninVC #InclusiveInvesting #entrepreneurship #nasdaq

Encouraging insights from our CEO, Jennifer Jeronimo! The data showcasing the growth of women and #LGBTQ+ founders—even amidst market shifts—is both inspiring and hopeful. While progress is promising, important work remains. At Gaingels, we're staying intentional and committed to bridging gaps in access and representation because, when everyone has a seat at the table, we all WIN. 👏 #VCFunding #Founders #RepresentationMatters

Fifteen years ago, Uber launched. Today, it’s worth $150B. 📈 But it almost didn't happen. In 2010, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp struggled to raise funds for their ride-hailing idea. They aimed to secure $1.25 million in their seed round—a $10,000 investment back then would now be worth millions. Not everyone believed in them. - Mark Cuban passed. - Gary Vaynerchuk turned them down twice. A few Angels took the leap, and thank God they did. (see photo). When Uber went public in 2019 at an $80 billion valuation, their stakes turned into life-changing returns. This is the reality of startup investing when it works. High risk, high reward. Uber will forever be remembered as one of the most lucrative venture capital investments of all time. #startups #venturecapital #investing

Everything we do at Oura starts and ends with scientific validation. When we launched our heart health features earlier this year (Cardiovascular Age (CVA) and Cardio Capacity (CC)), we were excited to introduce a new type of measurement to the wearable category: pulse wave velocity (PWV). PWV is the speed at which your heartbeat pulse travels throughout your body and is the gold-standard measurement of arterial stiffness. As arteries stiffen, the speed at which your blood flows through them speeds up. These measurements give Oura Members an indication of their cardiovascular health today and a look into how that might impact them in the future.  We think of PWV measurements as being where HRV was 10 years ago. It’s lesser known, but I think we’re going to start seeing it everywhere as a strong indicator of cardiovascular health. To continue to push this cardiovascular health work forward, we’re continuing to validate through trials. This month, our Science team launched Oura’s first-ever randomized, controlled clinical trial, named GONDOR-AS (Guidance with Oura aND AI fOr Reducing Arterial Stiffness). This trial will assess the ability of Oura Advisor, our AI-powered, personalized wellness coach, to guide members toward reducing their arterial stiffness, a measurement that forms the basis for estimating members’ CVA. I’m proud of the work our team does behind the scenes to make Oura the most accurate and trusted device it can be. Learn more about the study and desired learnings on Oura’s Pulse Blog. #WithOura

When Rachel Tipograph sold her Bat Mitzvah gifts on eBay at 13, she wasn’t just earning money—she was discovering her entrepreneurial spirit. Now, she’s the visionary leading MikMak, a global software company that provides eCommerce enablement for multichannel brands. Rachel’s advice to #founders? Embrace who you are. As a proud lesbian founder, she’s turned her unique perspective into a superpower, transforming MikMak into a global SaaS leader that supports over 1,700 brands in navigating the future of e-commerce. 🏳️🌈 💬 Curious how Rachel’s early hustle led to MikMak’s success? Explore her inspiring story here: https://lnkd.in/esq83ZQ5 #FounderStories #VentureBacked #LGBTQ+ #SaaS #Analytics