The Underestimated - Issue 07
The Diversity X newsletter showcasing the underestimated founders making a positive impact in the world and keeping you up to date on the Diversity X journey.
What is coming up in this issue?
📖 Failing Upwards
🌱 Community Update
👏🏾 Team Update
📰 Monthly update on what has been going on with Diversity X
🎉 Community Celebrations
🤝 🔦Spotlight on 5 Diversity X Founders’ Community members (three startups)
📆Upcoming events and plans
Failing Upwards
When was the last time you read about an underestimated founder® losing billions for investors, and then receiving the biggest seed cheque ever from one of the world’s most prominent VC firms? They call this failing upwards. It simply does not happen for underestimated founders®.
Now, Adam Neumann is not just a lucky founder. He is a gifted salesman, and despite the valuation loss for WeWork, one could argue that he created a successful business (depending on how and what success is for you). But with Flow, it is a concept. There is no MVP. No traction. But I am sure it will make money. However, this piece is not about Adam Neumann, Flow, or even a16z. It is about the fact that underestimated founders® struggle with getting the first chance and never really have the opportunity to fail upwards. And it is systemic and representative of the VC industry as a whole.
Brittany Barreto, PhD reiterates the same point with this brilliant post.
It is the time for action. Every small step counts. And creating opportunities to access capital is core to Diversity X's work. We are getting closer to launching our own VC firm (more anon).
So, let’s chat if you are an angel investor, HNWI, or family office - I can explain the Diversity X thesis and how it creates opportunity in what looks like a bear market.
Community Update
“Welcome home!”
These words have been shared a lot over the last month as the Diversity X Founders’ Community has moved from a WhatsApp Group to our new platform on Heartbeat.
Some feedback:
Membership of the Diversity X Founders Community is simple. Do you identify as an underestimated founder® (person of colour, female, LQBTQ+, disabled, neuro-diverse, or older)? If so, then welcome home. The Diversity X Founders’ Community is a safe space for underestimated founders® to collaborate, debate, support, and build genuine connections. It will always be free to belong to this community.
In August, we also held TWO social events. At the beginning of the month, it was our picnic in Victoria Park - see the photos here, and at the end of the month, we held our End of Summer Social at The Conduit in London (check out some photos here).
If you would like to join this diverse group of startups and scale-ups led by brilliant, unique underestimated founders®, contact us at admin@diversityx.vc
Team Update
Who’s coming with me????? It is a question I have been asking along the way. Now, I am excited to share that Marquis Caines, who joined the team in June, has agreed to join me as co-Managing Partner. Marquis and I are aligned on the plans for Diversity X, the thesis for the VC firm we are committed to building, and the underestimated founders® we are devoted to supporting.
News from the Diversity X journey
Highlights over the last month:
💥 Our Founders’ Community is growing - 264 (at the last newsletter issue date) → 274 at the peak point in August…but wait - on the new platform, we have 143. We were unsure what this means, but I suppose it is positive in that we had 52% of the community transition to a new platform. Others may still come over as this has been the height of the Northern Hemisphere summer. We have challenged ourselves to reach 500 by the end of the year.
💥 373 views of issue 6 (down seven from issue 5) and 235 subscribers (to date, up 35 from issue 6).
💥💥We are working on building a VC Firm. That process is coming along, and we are now working on becoming Appointed Representatives with Frank Investments. There is a lot of paperwork for the FCA! All going well; we hope to be in a position to talk more next month. If you are keen to chat about what we are planning, please email Kevin Withane at kevin@diversityx.vc, or Marquis Caines at marquis@diversityx.vc.
💥We introduced 25% of the founders to Satoshi Block Dojo’s Cohort 3! Find out more below.
💥 Thank you to everyone who has supported the journey so far.
🍾Community Celebrations🎊
Over the last 11 months, every Friday, as a community, we come together to celebrate wins, losses, and obstacles not overcome. But celebrating positive news is not limited to just Fridays; there are days when they just keep coming. Here are some of the founders’ celebrations over the last month.
Congratulations to Michael Olagunju of AirMaths and Divya P & Janine Miles MSc. of HQNFTs (featured in Meet the Underestimated in issue 6) on being accepted into the Satoshi Block Dojo Cohort 3 - read more here.
Roleshare closed their $1.2mn seed round - massive congratulations to Sophie and Dave Smallwood (Sophie was one of the first community members of Diversity X) - read about it here (and Sifted named this one of the hottest closes of August)... did you see Kevin Withane in there…
Afrocenchix scored a big win by being launched in Selfridges, the department store.
Meet the Underestimated
Zubair Junjunia - ZNotes
The Founder:
Zubair is an educational activist, social entrepreneur, and founder of ZNotes. He is the recipient of the Diana Legacy Award - the "highest accolade a young person can receive for their social and humanitarian efforts". Zubair is the National Youth Leader for the UK at the Global Partnership for Education, an advisory board member of DEFI at Cambridge University and the EY Foundation as well as a One Young World ambassador. An SDG advocate, he has been published and spoken internationally including at the 74th UN General Assembly, ITU Regional Innovation Forum and the first-ever youth moderator at the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum. Holding a Master’s in Mathematics from UCL, Zubair is a marathon runner, triathlete, and inline/figure skater.
The Startup:
ZNotes is a London-based, bootstrapped social-impact startup that is addressing the uneven playing field of standardized testing by taking a student-empowered approach: identifying high-achieving students to co-create moderated educational resources supporting 7 international exam boards and their qualifications including IGCSEs, A-Levels, the IB and SATs. To date, ZNotes has organically grown to 28 million website hits, ~4 million unique visitors and 160k+ registered users, and a Discord community of over 15k members. ZNotes began with a single student’s revision notes to now having 100+ student contributors and a team of 40 volunteers who support the day-to-day activities.
💥How can you help ZNotes? Connect with Zubair and learn more about Znotes raise. Or connect with us and we’ll pass on your details.
Charlie Rosier, Tyrell James, and Jane Magnani - Babbu
The Founders:
CEO and co-founder, entrepreneur, innovator and mother, Charlie has successfully delivered projects for Babbu since its establishment. As a founding member of Cuckooz Nest and Parenthood Ventures, Charlie has over 5 years of experience in the field of Early Years education and EdTech. Her background in law and business administration gives her the perfect base to deliver cutting-edge solutions to democratise access to childcare and Early Years education for every family.
Babbu’s co-founder and CPO, Tyrell acts as head of user experience. With >10 years’ experience, he has a demonstrated history of working in the design industry, making him a strong information technology professional, skilled in Digital Strategy, Copywriting, User Experience, Axure RP. He has worked for the UK Home Office on the EU Settlement Scheme (Government-led initiative). He has also worked for Publicis Sapiens and Google among others to coordinate their interactive user experience developments.
Jane is Babbu’s Early Years expert and Head of Education. She is an experienced, passionate, and enthusiastic Early Years Educator. She also has extensive knowledge of EYFS framework and Development matters. With 15 years’ experience working with Early Years, she has acted as practitioner as well as a manager for Cuckooz Nest and Hatching Dragons, enabling her to gain the broader perspective of the requirements for adequate Early Years development.
The Startup:
Babbu- the UK’s first online nursery™; a Barclays-accelerator-backed platform that supports the learning and development of new parents and their children during the first crucial five years.
They are driven by a simple but ambitious vision: a world in which all children reach their full potential (175 million children do not attend pre-primary education globally).
Babbu was recently been named as one of the best parent apps to download and has been shortlisted for several awards including Tech for Impact Start-Up of the Year and Early Stage Innovation Award. Their proprietary curriculum and content distil decades of scientific research and various pedagogical theories including Montessori and Forest School – making Early Years’ education easy, accessible and fun.
Their current G2M is primarily a B2B proposition helping leading employers enhance their employer value proposition in a meaningful and authentic way. The Babbu platform is subscription-based with a ‘buy-one-give-one’ model, whereby their distribute the product for free to some of the UK’s most disadvantaged families via charitable partnerships.
💥What can you do to support this startup? Babbu is raising an EIS round - so you know what to do. Additionally, you can support the Babbu beta – if you’re a parent with child under 12 months, then sign up for free here.
Kayode Adeleye - Caena
The Founder:
Kayode Adeleye - Founder
Kayode is Co-Founder & CEO of Caena. While working as an investment banker, he realised that the complex financing process led to uncertainties and difficulty for companies seeking funding. Kayode’s mission with Caena is to make venture financing more equitable by making it easier for all founders, irrespective of their background to access capital.
He is an expert/mentor for organisations including Virgin Startups, Cartier Women’s Initiative, startAD Abu Dhabi and HEC Paris Incubateur helping entrepreneurs with financial modelling and investment readiness.
Additionally, Kayode has helped support a number of founders within the Diversity X Founders’ Community.
The Startup:
Caena is redefining venture financing by automating complex and time-consuming workflows. Caena's tools help investors source and evaluate deals and manage their portfolios. For startups, the automated financial modelling and investor matching tools radically simplify the fundraising process, saving founders time and money
💥How can you help Caena? Startups: join over 2,500 founders using Caena for their fundraising - send out teasers, build financial models and find relevant investors. Get started for free. Investors: sign up for the early version of the investor deal sourcing and evaluation tool.
Upcoming Events
Every Friday - A Week in Review call
And that’s a wrap for this month….
Reach out with any questions to admin@diversityx.vc
INVESTORS - let’s chat - contact either myself (kevin@diversityx.vc) or Marquis (marquis@diversityx.vc)….we have exciting news to share.
Underestimated founders® - come join a community that is welcoming and a safe space.
Thank you to Lexi from Services to Literature for the last minute editing!
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