TLDR: Shameless plug this week. Acceleprise is now Forum, and we closed on $30m in new funding for our fourth pre-seed fund & our new seed fund.
Happy 4th of July, and thank you to everyone who continues to read. I hope you’ve enjoyed being part of the MMM!
For those who missed my LinkedIn post last week, I thought I would use this opportunity to share it one more time:
Today is the day. Let me introduce you to Forum Ventures. For decades, software has been modernizing everything in our lives. Especially in business. Over the past 8 years, the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index is up 1140% compared to the S&P at 159%. With low interest rates, investors have flocked to private markets like Venture Capital to find growth, and in turn, technology has flourished.
The availability of capital, the decentralization and access to talent, the new tools at our fingertips to build, and the rate of change have all created opportunities and made entrepreneurship more accessible and impactful than ever.
The creator economy is booming, and not just independent creators, artists, and musicians, but all creators. Entrepreneurs. Business leaders. Dreamers. Innovators. Changemakers. You can feel the tectonic shifts beneath our proverbial feet.
And so it's not enough to be complacent, operating what is objectively and by every measure a successful accelerator. Instead it's time to strengthen the core by leveraging the assets we've built into a more complete offering to founders.
Everything you need from zero to sustainable. A go-to partner, platform, and community for B2B SaaS founders.
We've always been more than an accelerator. We are fractional founders. We don't just give you a set of e-learnings and inflate the value of our networks. We are former operators and we run your business with you. One on one. Sometimes ten on one.
Your success is our success. And that's why we're making a series of announcements today.
First; Over $30M in new funding across our Fourth Pre-Seed Fund & our new Forum Seed Fund as covered by TechCrunch this morning. (https://lnkd.in/dj7YYwe)
Second; Our new Innovation Forum, a private community for innovation executives to connect, participate in workshops, meet promising companies, and support one another. Our Founding Members come from world-class organizations like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Morgan Stanley, and E*Trade just to name a few. (Apply here: https://lnkd.in/dNui9_y)
Third; The new Opportunity Forum, a unique talent marketplace, connecting diverse early-in-career talent to promising tech companies. Even though 53% of our investments have had a female or underrepresented founder at the helm, we know it takes more than money to reverse vicious cycles.
Fourth; Our new brand. Forum Ventures. Forum is a place to connect, to discuss new ideas, to exchange views, to open our minds, and to collaborate. And as a result – a place to learn from each other. To grow. To create new things. To innovate. To build the future. What could be more fitting?
And this is just the beginning.
Learn more at: https://www.forumvc.com/
Apologies for the shameless plug, I know this isn’t our normal MMM, but in the six months I’ve been writing, MMM readers have referred founders, become mentors, and connected us to amazing investors. I figure the more great people who know what we’re up to at Forum, the better!
See you Monday.