Eoghan Nolan

Curious about how we spot the most unobvious winners at seed? It’s simple - we invest in those we’d never want to bet against. In 2017 slice was a scrappy fintech financing smartphones for college students. Today, it’s set to become India’s first true digital bank, catering to the needs of India’s Gen Z. With this merger, Slice is poised to simplify digital banking for a billion Indians, establishing a new gold standard of customer-focused banking.

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Onbo by Stilt Inc. was the only real competitor to bank sponsors for “Credit as a Service” product. We reached $2.5M-$3M ARR in less than 6 months post launch. We made a deliberate decision to build Onbo on state lending licenses. This resulted in insane demand from fitnech startups to build on Onbo. No other competitor took this approach at the time. Because most outsiders didn't understand the regulations as deeply as we did. With BaaS, you have compounded single points of failure: - your business is dependent on one entity that’s taking on asymmetric risk - if that entity is in trouble (for any reason), you could be blocked from operating the business With Onbo, both of these risks were limited. Aside from CFPB, we did not have deep oversight from other regulators like the FDIC and OCC. Limited Federal oversight still applied. Building “Credit as a Service” product through a state by state licensing route reduced the immense oversight restrictions and limited the risk for fintech. There are certain disadvantages to the state by state licensing route but your business won’t be at the risk of shutting down because your bank sponsor onboarded an unrelated risky client. Most of the commentary misses out on alternatives to bank sponsorships. So much more can still be built outside the bank sponsorship model.

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Great shout-out here Sean Po. Independent retailers have seen a fantastic resurgence since the pandemic. Gabe Maier articulated a key reason for this with his post in response to Colin True's podcast featuring Eoin Comerford (link to post in the comments): "You know what I would love - Brand X - to not be able to find your product in a local store, and touch it and try it on. I would much rather have to go onto the internet, get it, get it home, then figure out it was wrong, and then have you send me another one." - said no consumer As TrackFly builds a foundation of useable data for independent retailers (data that exists for large chain retailers but not for the millions of independent stores today), these independent boutiques and specialty stores can make informed decisions about their own businesses while brands are better able to service this wholesale independent retail channel. By doing so, we empower brick-and-mortar retailers to run their businesses more effectively, and we all benefit as consumers with less product waste and less inventory spoilage, as well as fewer out-of-stock situations for the products we want to buy at the local stores we love. #buylocal #supplychain #startup #retailtech #commerce

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Celebrating ten years since founding Female Founders Fund, we’re thrilled to announce a major milestone: the full return of Fund I. With notable exits such as Walmart’s acquisition of ELOQUII, Fiserv’s acquisition of BentoBox, and Maven Clinic’s recent $125M growth round, we’re seeing firsthand the power of women-led innovation. Being an early investor in Maven Clinic has shown us the transformative potential of female founders reshaping legacy industries like healthcare. Kate Ryder’s success story in building Maven into a category-defining business has become a beacon of inspiration for other female founders across all sectors. With this milestone, we’re proud to double down on our commitment to the next generation of female founders building tomorrow’s leading companies. As FFF investor Erin Harkless Moore, CFA of Pivotal Ventures put it, 'Female Founders Fund has shown that investing in women isn’t niche—it’s mainstream.' A special thanks to Allie Garfinkle at Fortune for covering our story! https://lnkd.in/ejTw7zWr

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