It's 2024! Commerce Predictions, Bows, Lululemon, and Female Funding (ish)
Happy 2024! I took a vacation, which was much needed, and came back flabbergast that even in Rio and Bequia Stanley Cups are a thing.
Since writing this blog fell off, I am trying something new, which is to write shorter quips for everyone instead of my longer thought pieces. brrrrrrrrrr (that’s my drumroll):
2024 predictions are abound (Rex Woodbury and Fred Wilson were two I liked), and I asked my favorite Commerce VC’s their predictions in Forbes this week. LINK.
What we didn’t predict for 2023? Bows. It was the year of the bow, and as someone who founded a (ahem) likeminded company, I disagree that it’s gone too far. Fundamentally, there is a fissure happening between day to day life and what we identify and celebrate online - more and more, digital life is an escape from reality and disconnected from it. Bows and balletcore celebrate digital hyper-feminism in a real world literally being stripped of joy and levity… of girlhood and innocence and rights to said girlhood. LINK.
As Katie Sturino put it best in regards to Lululemon’s former CEO, “the patriarchy does not go away quietly; they gotta let you know what they think on the way out”. LINK.
Ending on a *somewhat* high note, women get more funding as long as they have a male by their side. Mixed gender teams raised 26.1% of all venture capital allocated this year, a jump from the 18.2% last year. Companies with founding teams that are all women raised 1.8% — the lowest percentage of venture capital allocated to such teams since 2016. Cognitive diversity through lived experience is the way to go! LINK.
Off to our partner offsite this week - wish us luck strategizing the year ahead!