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🐰 March's Founder Newsletter

🐰 March's Founder Newsletter

📆 Events, Resources & Support

Tori at the Knowledge Shop
March 14, 2024

⭐️ Who are we? the founder community in NYC. Don’t build a startup alone.

Quick Links:

🏡 Join the community 📅 Attend an event 💰 Sponsor an issue 🗞️ Appear in the newsletter 🙋‍♀️ Volunteer ⏰ Book a mentor

👋 Hello Everyone,

Spring is in the air, the sun is shining and the energy is off the charts 📈!

Perfect time for International women’s month and the unabashed celebration for the 50% of the population who knock it out of the park - not just one month a year…but EVERY SINGLE DAY 💪🔥👸.

Massive thank you to everyone of you who are building your startup journey with TKS, and giving back at the same time 🤯

I did an extra special public shoutout for you all on Linkedin, to help all of your good work to be seen by as many people as possible (please don’t hate me for not being able to tag everyone - did my best with Linkedin’s crazy tagging algo’).

Coming up in this issue….

🙋‍♀️ Membership subscription - thank you for sharing your thoughts
🤖 ☕️ Event re-caps (are you famous??)
🌟 Upcoming TKS Events (next is startup financials on Mar 26th)
🛠️ Tools & Resources - fundraise like a pro, posting on Linkedin, legal rec’s and so much more
📆 Event Calendar: 50+ across NYC
🗞️ Sign up for our weekly event digest email

Thank you so much to everyone who completed last month’s member survey, where from the bottom of my heart, I asked for your help. Missed it? Here’s the last chance to complete it.

TKS is a free community, and i want to keep access open to all - but free things are never free (someone somewhere is always paying) - and right now that is me. Love doing it - but sadly the bank manager does not 😮‍💨

From the responses so far, a freemium model is looking like the way i will go.

Something like…

Free to join / engage and view events. (subject to approval)
Paid membership Option - a monthly fee for eg
1. 🗞️ Event digest with all upcoming events (everyone else one week at a time).
2. 🎟️ Member only events
3. 🏎️ Priority access at free ones etc.

If this sparks any ideas, or you’d like to chat about this, please reach out. Always here for you.

And now, let’s dive in, 3, 2, 1….

Tori

📆 Event Re-Cap 📆

🗣️ Feb’s Coworking Day: We learnt how to speak with confidence!

This time we met at The Yard, Columbus Circle - where it feels like you are working with friends in someone’s home.

Lindsay Rider from The Overture Institute was THE STAR 🤩 of the day. On top of her session, she had kindly agreed to do one hour of 1:1’s with 3 people - well she stayed for 2.5 hours WOW. 🙏

🗣️Want the secrets to speaking with more confidence and clarity?

You’re in luck!

📓 HERE ARE THE NOTES, and… additional 🛠️ tools / resources

☕️ We also huddled and did our first ever dog walk 🐶

No agenda, just a chance for serendipity, a break from the screen and to build meaningful connection with both two and four legged friends.

🐾 The doggie one

🌎 The open one

🇬🇧 The British one

Nomadworks are always amazing hosts. 🙏 🎟️ They are offering a free day pass to folks who want to check out their Times Square spot - email me for details .

📢 Member Shout Outs 📢

It’s been amazing seeing so many of you at recent events, and hearing about how far your startup has come - in some cases, in just a few weeks you’ve raised outside funding, been accepted into accelerators - and one been selected for a TV pitching competition 🤯.

So here’s a shout out to some of these amazing founders. We see you! The hustle, the relentlessness, the passion and also the collaboration.

🤖 AI

Ax Ali co-founder of 3rd-Brain, your household productivity app.

“Simplify sharing a life with tasks, notes and events for two”

3rd-Brain

Ed Cravo, co-founder of Keepers.

We build, empower, and retain your own team, resulting in engaged talent that is more productive, inspired, and accessible.

Neil Saduka, founder of Reeder.

An AI-driven platform specializing in contract intelligence for procurement purposes.

David “D C” Collier, co-founder of Rikai Labs.

We produce engaging chatbots for education and entertainment

👔 B2B Saas

Basmalla Attia, founder of Easy Meets.

“Schedule Your Life with Ease”

💃🕺 Consumer

Andres Martinez, founder of Send It.

Slide into the future of sending and receiving packages without sharing your address.

🛍️ CPG

Jaime Salcedo, founder of Painless Picasso.

Specializing in skincare or personal care products designed to provide relief and comfort.

🎓 Education

Paul King, is the founder of King Education.

Empowering students for academic success today — so they can build successful lives tomorrow.

Ann Edwards, founder of Techfunic.

Individualized, affordable, data-driven tutoring for Tech & Math

💰 Finance

Achy Joshi, founder of Kay.

Easy, secure and the fastest way for intelligent document automation. Made for Financial Services.

✏️ HR

Mai Moore, co-founder of Boss me in.

Bridging the intergenerational gap for the future of work.

🧱 Property

Vipin Makhija, founder of Kast.

Your All-In-One Real Estate Lead Capture Machine to Grow Your Brand & Business.

📆 TKS Events 📆

💰 26th March. Startup financials coworking day - hear from CFO’s, and speak 1:1 with VC’s to ask questions about your revenue and business model.

☕️ 5th April. Coffee Huddle - Small group sessions focused on support, and building meaningful connections. First Friday of every month.

🇬🇧 12th April. British founder Coffee Meet - Small group session with fellow founders from across the pond.

🎤 30th April. Product Demos & Feedback - an amazing opportunity to showcase your startup and get real time feedback throughout the day.

Can i have your attention please! This is BIG

Join us on Tuesday March 26th, for a day all about startup finance.

Think… how NOT to run out of money, the impact of different revenue models, feedback on different financial assumptions, and so much more…

🎤 Hear from a panel of CFO's and accountants
🧮 Have your financial model reviewed 1:1 by a VC.
🤝 Personalised intro’s to other amazing founders
🍽️ Lunch courtesy of Grasshopper Bank (the client-first digital bank built to serve the business and innovation economy).

The day has been designed in collaboration with the amazing Alexandra Satine (we’ve been trying to make this happen for nearly a year), founder and CEO of Your Cohort, (who know everything about growing revenue and startups) 🙏❤️

🛠️ Tools & Resources from the community 📈

🧑‍💻 How to get traction on Linkedin (thank you to Paru Radia for sharing, these during our Brit Founder coffee huddle)

* Always posts on your personal account (people buy from people)

* Speak like you’re having a convo, not writing a press release.

* Post a pic of yourself - helps people feel like they are talking to you

* Start mid conversation ie no “I’m happy to announce”, “excited to share that”

* Choose a style akin to as if you were writing to a friend

* Time box how long you allocate to it. 15 mins a post, to avoid it taking over your life.

* Engage / comment on other people’s posts, before posting your own (this is a Tori special, so had to squeeze it in after all of Paru’s)

💰 Customer Acquisition benchmarks and timings (aka convincing VC’s that you are a customer acquisition machine)

Kudos to Tunde Adekeye for pulling so many useful stats and benchmarks together. Including how long sales deals typically take to close, and how to prove the scalability and profitability of different marketing channels.

Read and take notes

⚖️ Lawyer recommendations

Need help with advice on IP and contract drafting? Check out the following, that the community suggested…

Jesse Strauss - tries to support founders, and can work a few hours a month

Matthew Glick - great for anything contract related

Michelle Bufano - an all round good person. Wants to help however she can.

🏦 Banking Comparison Doc

A quick and dirty doc, to try to make choosing a new bank that bit easier. Compares some of the top startup banks in the market today using the wonders of Chat GPT.

Check it out

💸 How to run your fundraise like a pro

Tactical specific advice from the amazing Ann Wehren, who just raised nearly $2mn - one of the best I’ve heard in a long time!

Have a listen

👋 Startup <> Investor Matching

Set up by Lolita Taub of Ganas Ventures (who i rate highly). A chance to build awareness, and connect with investors actively looking for startups just like you!

Apply now

🤨 State of Fundraising in 2023

Want to know in the current funding climate? This report compiled by Carta is eye opening. Early stages definitely performing better.

Check it out

📆 Event Calendar 📆

March’s Events…

Our calendar of startup events across NYC, features our take on the BEST events for founders. From pitch nights, to networking events, accelerators and workshops.