Would you pay to tweet?
Testing and PMF, building a technical product, and more!
The Syllabus is Dorm Room Fund’s bi-weekly newsletter bringing you the latest news and startup resources for student founders, as well as portfolio updates and job opportunities from our community of companies. Oh, and of course some hot takes.
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Keeping up: Here’s what’s on our radar
🥊 Slack vs Microsoft - If Teams and Slack aren’t direct competitors, why is Slack taking antitrust action? Read more here.
🐦Would you pay to Tweet? - Twitter says it’s looking at subscription options (first outed by a job listing) to tackle falling ad revenue. Read more here.
🏠 VCs working from home - Do remote pitching, mentoring and networking even work? Read more here.
💰Facebook to back VC funds - This will reportedly give them early insights into a wider swath of companies. Read more here.
🎉 What we’re celebrating
Justine Humenansky, SF partner, was recently featured on Rebel One - RBL1’s Founder Highlights Series focused on accelerating impact innovation. Watch a recording of the livestream here.
Cloud Agronomics — a DRF portfolio company which uses hyperspectral imaging to detect crop-borne diseases — was highlighted by Brown University. Read the article here.
How to build and scale your product without a technical background
Dorm Room Fund invested in Showcase Insights because of our strong belief that they can modernize the market research industry by connecting brands with their target customers at the earliest stages of product development.
Dana Kim, founder and CEO, and Ethan Kellough, chief product officer, share their experience building, testing and expanding their product.
Digital Identity as an Investment
Trustworthy digital identification remains one of the main challenges of the internet because none of the traditional, offline methods of verifying that someone is who they claim to be apply. Yet, while digital identity is one of the most foundational and valuable digital assets we have - made even more apparent by the pandemic - many people question whether there is a business to be built around it.
The following article by Justine Humenansky, a DRF SF partner, attempts to provide an overview of what digital identity is and why it matters, to explain its relevancy now and in the future, and to highlight startups and investors in the space.
Additional reading and resources
This Google Spreadsheet lists over 350 US-based venture-backed Black founders, complete with founder statistics and the VC firms that invested. Read more here.
This handy guide outlines six things VCs are searching for in your pitch. Read more here.
There’s a huge gap in data about LGBTQ entrepreneurs. The newly launched StartOut Pride Economic Impact Index in collaboration with Socos Labs aims to solve this. Read more here.
👔 Job opportunities from the DRF network
We certainly couldn’t think of better places to work. But we suppose we *might* be a little biased…
Clair is hiring a Strategy and Operations Associate.
Ribbon is hiring a Senior Product Manager.
Maven Ventures is hiring an Associate/Analyst.
Songbird Therapy is hiring a Strategy & Ops Intern.
Thanks for reading
If you liked our news stories, startup resources, and hot takes and aren’t already subscribed to our newsletter, sign up now to get The Syllabus in your inbox!
Working on something big? Apply to be considered for an investment from Dorm Room Fund. Know a student founder we should meet or have comments, questions, or suggestions for the newsletter? Send us an email at info@dormroomfund.com.
Photo by George Prentzas on Unsplash