INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy startups and venture capital news
Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit
Last week, I wrote about Stripe’s grand plans
Before that, I noted Peloton’s secret weapons. Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to kate.clark@techcrunch.com or
on Twitter @KateClarkTweets
If you don’t subscribe to Startups Weekly yet, you can do that here.Startup spotlightThe best companies are built by people who have
personally experienced the problem they’re attempting to solve
Lauren Jonas, the founder and chief executive officer of Part - Parcel, is intimately familiar with the struggles faced by the women she’s
building for.San Francisco-based Part - Parcel is a plus-sized clothing and shoe startup providing dimensional sizing to women across the
The company operates a bit differently than your standard direct-to-consumer business by seeking to include the women who wear and
evangelize the Part - Parcel designs by giving them a cut of their sales.Here’s how it works: Ambassadors sign up to receive signature
styles from Part - Parcel, which they then share and sell to women in their network
Ultimately, the sellers are eligible to receive up to 30% of the profit per sale
The out-of-the-box model, which might remind you somewhat of Mary Kay or Tupperware’s business strategy, is meant to encourage a sense of
community and usher in a new era in which plus-sized women can facilitate other plus-sized women’s access to great clothes. “I bought a
brown men’s polyester suit and wore it to an interview,” Jonas, an early employee at Poshmark and the long-time author of the popular
blog, ‘The Pear Shape,’ tells TechCrunch
“I was that kid wearing a men’s suit.”Clothing tailored to plus-sized women has long been missing from the retail market
Increasingly, however, new brands are building thriving businesses by catering precisely to the historically forgotten demographic
Dia-Co., for example, raised another $70 million in venture capital funding last fall from Sequoia and USV
And Walmart recently acquired another brand in the space, ELOQUII, for an undisclosed amount
Part - Parcel, for its part, has raised $4 million in seed funding in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Liew.The startup
launched earlier this year in Anchorage, “a clothing desert,” and has since grown its network to include women in several other
Given her own history struggling to find a fitted woman’s suit, Jonas launched her line with structured pieces, including suits and
blouses — though the startup’s biggest success yet, she says, has been its boots, which come in three different calf width
options.“Seventy percent of women in this country are plus-sized,” Jonas said
“I’m bringing plus out of the dark corner of the department store.”This week in VCImage: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunchMust
readTechCrunch’s Megan Rose Dickey published a highly anticipated deep dive on the state of sex tech this week
The piece provides new data on funding in sex tech and wellness companies, analysis on sex tech startup’s battle for public advertising
and responses from industry leaders on how we can destigmatize sex with technology
Here’s a short passage from the story:Cindy Gallop sees a market opportunity in every type of business obstacle she encounters
That’s why All The Sky will also seek to invest in startups that tackle the infrastructural tools needed to fuel sextech, like payments,
hosting providers and e-commerce sites.“I want to fund the sextech ecosystem to maintain and sustain a portfolio for All the Skies, to
create a bloody huge sextech ecosystem and three, to monopolistically build out the ecosystem to be a multi-trillion-dollar market,”
Gallop says.On my radarI swung by Contrary Capital‘s Demo Day this week, in which a number of startups gave a 4- to 5-minute pitch
Next on my list is Alchemist‘s Demo Day in Menlo Park
The accelerator welcomes enterprise startups for a six-month program focused on early customer adoption, company development and
mentorship.Also on my radar is Females To The Front
The event began this week in Palm Springs and if I were based in SoCal, I would have swung by
Led by Amy Margolis, the event is said to be the largest gathering of female cannabis founders and funders to date
Here’s how the group describes the event: “Females to the Front Retreat will mix immersive and hands-on workshops, pitch training,
investment deck preparation and business skill set education with investor meetings and plenty of shared meals, pool time, yoga,
connections, rest and rejuvenation
Every workshop is built to directly engage attendees instead of powerpoint and panels
Be prepared to return home inspired, engaged and with so many more tools in your toolbox.”For the record, I don’t advertise events in my
newsletter just wanted to give props to this one because it’s a great development for the cannabis tech ecosystem.Time to DisruptWe are
just weeks away from our flagship conference, TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco
We have dozens of amazing speakers lined up
In addition to taking in the great line-up of speakers, ticket holders can roam around Startup Alley to catch the more than 1,000
companies showcasing their products and technologies
And, of course, you’ll get the opportunity to watch the Startup Battlefield competition live
Past competitors include Dropbox, Cloudflare and Mint… You never know which future unicorn will compete next.You can take a look at the
And if you still need convincing, here’s five reasons to attend this year’s conference from our COO himself.And finally…
#EquityPodThis week, the lovely Alex Wilhelm, editor-in-chief of Crunchbase News, and I gathered to discuss a number of topics including
WeWork’s IPO and Uber’s attempts to bypass a new law meant to protect gig workers
