Girls Into VC - The Sweet Parts of VC

Hey GIVC :),

In honor of National Gummi Bear day, we hope your Tuesday is going extra sweet as today’s theme is the “sweet” parts of VC!

🗓️ Sweets of the Week

• W.W.W. (Weekly Words of Wisdom)

• Opportunities

• VC Lesson: Down Rounds: What Happens When a Startup's Valuation Drops?

• Upcoming Community Events

• Founder Feature: Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland (Founders of Summer Friday)

W.W.W. (Weekly Words of Wisdom)

Resumes and cover letters aren't what get you in the door anymore.

Relationships are.

Job boards are flooded -> recruiters spend less than seven seconds per resume. The real edge isn't a well formatted resume (still focus on having that because it is a requirement); it's having someone on the inside who vouches for you.

Cold outreach can feel uncomfortable, but here's the reframe: you're not pitching yourself to a gatekeeper. You're reaching out to a person. Someone who once sat exactly where you're sitting. They have hobbies, opinions, and a life outside of work. Show up with genuine curiosity, and the conversation practically takes care of itself.

The best opportunities? They don't fall straight into your lap. Sometimes, you have to reach into the bag. 🍬🧸🎀

Opportunities

• TKS (The Knowledge Society) is a 10-month program for high school students aged 13-17 where you work on real-world projects in frontier areas like AI, biotech, and more. Students go on to build products, start companies, and gain firsthand experience in how ideas go from zero to something real while still in high school.

  TKS is designed for students who want to go beyond the classroom, working alongside mentors from companies like Google, Microsoft, and early-stage startups.

  If this sounds like something you’d want to explore, you can learn more and apply here 📍

  BONUS!!!

  Girls Into VC members will receive a $500 scholarship upon admission using the code: GIRLSVC2026
  The current application round closes April 30, with more limited financial aid available after that.

• Young women in grades 9-12 are invited to apply to become Junior Venture Capitalists (Jr. VCs). This unique program teaches high school girls about investing in businesses. They learn real-life lessons by meeting with investors and entrepreneurs, and attending educational workshops.

  📍Apply here. 

• Calling female founders.  Apply for the WFN Fast Pitch through 5/31/25.  Select the Tech/Tech-enabled or Consumer/CPG track. The winner in each track receives a $25K cash grant (no equity, no strings attached!), donated professional services, and other perks. Bonus $5K cash grant awarded by our Jr. Venture Capitalists!

  📍Apply here.

• $2,500 grant opportunity for female founders!! A serial entrepreneur, exited founder, and the founder of Power to Pitch, where she helps early-stage founders master the art of communication to secure the funding they need, Kat Weaver is an amazing individual with a huge heart. She is generously giving away a $2,500 grant.

  Apply here! (No pitch deck required)

• 645 Ventures 

  SF Summer Investment Fellow (Student from Berkeley, MIT or Stanford)

• Primordial Ventures

  Ventures Summer Venture Fellowship (Undergraduate students)

• Red Glass Ventures

  Summer Intern (All)

VC Lesson: Down Rounds: What Happens When a Startup's Valuation Drops?

Not every startup’s journey is linear.

Most people breaking into VC hear about the wins. The unicorns, the 10x returns, and the IPOs. However, most people don’t hear what happens when a company raises its next round of funding at a lower valuation than before. That's a down round, and in the last two years, they're occurring more often than the industry wants to admit.

So what is a down round exactly?

Pretend a startup raised money in 2021 at a $200M valuation. Peak market, and everyone was euphoric. Fast forward to today -> growth slowed, the market corrected, and now they need more cash.

Investors now will only write a check at a $120M valuation. That gap from $200M to $120M is a down round. The company didn't necessarily do anything wrong. Sometimes the market just shifts beneath you and lowers your valuation.

What happens to early investors?

When a down round closes, earlier investors get diluted, which means their ownership percentage shrinks. In some term sheets, there is something called anti-dilution provisions, which helps protect later investors from losing their ownership percentage but at the expense of founders and early backers.

There are two main types worth knowing. 

1. Broad-based weighted average: the more founder-friendly version that softens the blow for everyone involved

2. Full ratchet: the aggressive version that adjusts the earlier investor's price per share to match the new lower round, so early investors and founders are hurt the most

Why should you care?

Down rounds signal distress, but they're not necessarily a death sentence for the startup. Some companies restructure and come back stronger. However, it’s important to know how to read one and understand who's protected/who isn't.

That kind of fluency that makes you stand out in a VC conversation. 

Anyone can grab a gummy bear. But knowing which ones are worth reaching for? That's what separates a great investor from everyone else in the room.

Upcoming Community Events

• Girls Into VC Cape Town: Born Rich: Rewriting Your Financial Story Webinar

  Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Sabrina Lamb, Founder and CEO of Wekeza. We’re stripping away the jargon to explore:

  • The Mindset: Overcoming the mental load of making your first investment.

  • ​The Framework: Understanding the legal and economic landscape of wealth in SA.

  • ​The Vision: Why financial literacy is the essential first step toward a career in Venture Capital.

  📍Register here.

• Girls Into VC is an official media partner for the 2026 Principled Business Summit, happening October 28-30 in Austin.

  250 years of capitalism. 250 years of America. A conversation about what comes next for business and leadership.

  Speakers include John Mackey, Salim Bassoul, Carlos Mendez, and more.

  BONUS: 20% off for the Girls Into VC network

  📍Register here.

And if you're a founder, there's an opportunity with your name on it.

• The Principled Business Pitch Competition is an opportunity for pre-seed and seed-stage founders across sectors like AI, energy, crypto, and consumer to gain mentorship, investor exposure, and hands-on pitch training. Finalists will pitch live at FreedomFest in Las Vegas (July 8–11) and compete for a $25,000 cash prize.

  Applications close June 2, and participants must be early-stage founders (students and first-time builders are very welcome!).

  📍Apply here.

Founder Feature: Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland (Founders of Summer Friday)

Marianna spent years building a community online by recommending products she loved, but there was a gap between what she was recommending and what her audience was asking for. Nobody was making it, so she started creating Summer Fridays with Lauren in 2018, and it became the first influencer brand ever carried at Sephora.

Lauren used to work as a morning news anchor. When she got pregnant with her first son, she began cleaning out her skincare drawer and realized she couldn’t use most of her products because they contained toxic ingredients. However, the cleaner alternatives on the market either felt completely off-brand or weren’t any better. She brought this idea to Marianna, and the Jet Lag Mask was born.

Quotes

See you next Tuesday :)

The Girls Into VC Team 💗