📢HCP Newsletter: The Pursuit of Equity & Access – June 2022

Buckle up for Harlem Capital’s monthly recap! 🏎️💨

Jun 30, 2022

Hello, Summer ☀️

We marked the start of summer with the vibrant Harlem Capital community at our Summer Soiree in New York City. As a fully remote team, this annual event is a wonderful chance for all of HCP to get together with founders, LPs, interns, and partners who are building alongside us.

Happy Pride Month! 🌈🌈

Every year the HCP team looks forward to celebrating Pride Month for the incremental opportunity to amplify LGBTQ+ voices, support LGBTQ+ rights, and recognize the LGBTQ+ individuals who have made a lasting impact in our communities. We at HCP strongly advocate for all individuals to live openly and authentically every day.

This month we highlighted some inspirational LGBTQ+ individuals in HCP’s ecosystem you should have on your radar 🌟🌟

Harlem Capital @HarlemCapital

It's PRIDE MONTH! Every year the HCP team looks forward to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community & all the brave individuals who choose to be unapologetically themselves every day. Representation matters - here are some exceptional LGBTQ+ individuals in HCP's orbit you should know👇

Juneteenth - A Call to Action ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽

While the Juneteenth holiday offers a moment to reflect on and celebrate the progress made toward racial equality, the historic impact of slavery in the U.S. continues to shape our communities and lives. The HCP team takes this holiday as a reminder of our call to action: to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over 20 years. We are proud to support the 28 Black founders across 25 of our portfolio companies.

Roe v. Wade ⚖️

We are distraught to see the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Roe v. Wade. Although women comprise 50% of the United States, they remain sorely disenfranchised. Today, and every day, we commit to serving the underserved, and will continue to use our platform to fight for women.

Portfolio News 🗞️

The Life of a Glow-Getter

Congratulations to Glow Labs’ Annie Reardon and Renee Russo for making the Crain’s New York 20 in their Twenties list this year! Glow Labs is the first no-code loyalty rewards program built on the blockchain. Harlem Capital led the company’s $4.15 million seed round this past April.

👉🏽 Crain’s 20 in their Twenties

Go Ahead, Take a Gander

Gander, an e-commerce platform that collects and embeds user-generated content into retail sites to help shoppers see what products look like in real life, has closed its $4.2 million seed round led by Harlem Capital and Crossbeam Venture Partners. Check out the 26-year-old founder, Kimiloluwa Fafowora, who is among the ~250 Black women who have secured $1 million in funding.

👉🏽Gander Closes $4.2M Seed Round

Interested in working at one of the startups in our portfolio?💻👇

Submit your information to the HCP job board👩🏾‍💻👩🏾‍💻

Harlem Capital Related 🚀

Venture Capital 🤝🏽 The Next-Gen of Game Changers

We are excited to welcome our Summer 2022 interns: Stephanie Saunderson, Jamie Woodard, Gabriela Forter, Monique Malcom-Hay, and Helom Berhane!

Tell me more…👂🏽

⚡The applicants were chosen from a pool of 1,177, making a 0.5% acceptance rate

⚡The class is 50% Black and 50% Latino, as well as 33% first-generation American and 17% first-generation college students

⚡We have now had 82 interns across 14 classes with 8,617 applicants (1.0% acceptance rate)

Read more about the Harlem Capital legacy and our network effect here.

Better Than Your Morning Coffee ☕

Jarrid was featured on Morning Brew’s Imposters podcast where he shared how work and good fortune have shaped his life trajectory.

Gems dropped:
💎 To Jarrid’s six-year-old self, don’t be afraid to ask for help
💎 I want people to say I gave life my all, tried to enjoy every day, and made the world a better place

How To: Change the Face of Entrepreneurship & Investing

Check out Henri on the 20-minute VC! Henri covers fundraising for Fund I, building HCP’s strategy, fund model math, what it means to be a GP & more.

Don’t miss out on these nuggets of wisdom:
💎 Own your confidence as a founder and belief that you’ll be successful
💎 If someone invests in you it doesn’t mean they don’t view risk in you
💎 Learn not to take the nos personally
💎 You should expect to get better every year

The Bear Market – Time to Hibernate?

Senior Associate Nicole DeTommaso sat down with NPR’s Morning Edition to talk about venture capital amidst historically high inflation and interest rate hikes. Grab a set of headphones and listen in on Nicole’s two cents. HCP founder Amy Spurling of Compt also shares her wisdom having been a CFO during the ‘08 recession 📉

👉🏽 Nicole x NPR Morning Edition

The More Equity podcast, celebrating 5️⃣0️⃣ episodes🎉🎧🎙️

The More Equity podcast has evolved into an integral piece of the HCP platform. We are extremely thankful to our listeners and guests who have contributed to our mission to increase transparency for diverse communities. Cheers to our first 50 episodes and all to come 🥂👏🏾

It’s momentous to cap off 50 episodes with our LP series ~ where we get the perspectives of 8 of our investors and hear why they decided to partner with Harlem Capital. Catch up on a few below: