Table of Contents

1. What I’ve Been Doing…

2. Hot Deals🔥

3. 🙌Portfolio Company High Fives

4. 📰News and Food for Thought

5. 🌈 Founder’s Corner

6. 🍰Shop/Current Obsessions

7. 🍦Other Things No One Asked For

What I’ve Been Doing…

Not writing this newsletter. I have no excuses except for life, logistics, work had me down bad and creating content that seemed valuable was daunting. Did anyone else shake life down to the core in 2025 and feel like they're in major rebuilding mode right now? Year of the MF snake.

And, everywhere I look, written content seems to be overrun by AI slop - content inundation is at peak. My goal: content should be great, human generated, or not sent at all. No hate to our robot friends—I'm an active user—but there are SO MANY WORDS in my inbox. I am hungry for real voices and curation. Now, my typos seem cute - proof of realness!

As a side effect- I am tripling down on IRL, community, and events. In the pipeline: another PreGame (the pre-work fuel up hosted with besties Lia Bartha and John Mark Pero), regular consumer VC meet ups, and an angel investor/angel curious summit we are calling AngelFest. Want to be involved? HMU HERE

Despite all of the above, I have been collecting notes from real conversations that have made me feel more informed/interested and inspired—maybe you'll find them to be too.

I went to Wall Street Journal Tech Live in Doha, Qatar before the holidays which was WILD—some highlights:

Alexis Ohanian - my favorite speaker of the conference- on betting BIG on women's sports:

• He is taking his learnings from Angel City and now building what he hopes to be the F1 of track and field with Anthlos

• Ohanian and his fund own 100% of Athlos

• Three elite athletes hold advisor-owner equity: Gabby Thomas, Sha'Carri Richardson, and Tara Davis-Woodhall

Why he's confident it works: Serena Williams tried to talk him out of investing in women's soccer, but she (and Venus) are also why he knew it would succeed. Women's tennis is now more popular than men's tennis in America. More Americans watch the US Open women's final than the men's. The model works: pay equity + generational talent + excellence + athletes that transcend the sport.

The investor lens: The infrastructure of women's sports is underinvested and undersupported but has massive economic upside.

Some of his other predictions:

Live entertainment, like theater, comedy, and live music will thrive in the coming years. Hollywood faces an existential threat as content production becomes cheaper, but if we're all sitting there sedated by our screens, there's a part of our humanity that will die. Being in front of fellow humans, telling stories, making us laugh and making us cry, will be appreciated even more.

He identifies as an AI optimist but recognizes that many large tech companies could now lay off almost 80% of their workforce first and be fine from a productivity standpoint. Citing Elon Musk cutting 80% of Twitter's site -and the site not going down- which got into the minds of a lot of CEOs who are bottom-line-optimizing. He admitted that the 21-22 year-olds on his team run circles around all of them in terms of speed and quality of code.

We're in the midst of an AI bubble. But the infrastructure being built now will remain valuable even after the bubble bursts, very similar to the dot-com era. Who does he think will win? He recognizes that ChatGPT is the Kleenex of AI right now, but predicts Google will outpace them quickly given their infrastructure… and distribution is king.

Other notable highlights:

Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics, and of White Party fame is tripling down on prediction markets (note: what a cute rebrand from Gambling-on-Everything). He expects Fanatics betting and gaming will make up 40% of Fanatic's revenue in just a few years. His strategy is using his existing Fanatics business model to give its gaming and betting users fan cash, which they can spend on Fanatics merchandise. In other words- owning every vertical in the world of fandom. Also interesting to me: He struck a 5-year deal with the Qataris despite gambling being very illegal in Qatar—the deal begins with Qatar sponsoring Fanatics Fest in New York City and may eventually include events in the Gulf state.

The Qataris are investing big in Western tourism and sports—during the week I was there, it felt like an epicenter of imported Western events. F1 was wrapping, the Arab Cup was live, Sportico was having a summit, and Zero Bond had a pop-up down the street.

Young people (gen alpha/z) are consuming more than 24 hours a day of content- Overtime CEO Dan Porter dropped this fun fact which made my mind buzz - distributed to the fact that they are frequently streaming and watching many devices at the same time. This is another CEO that is betting big on the streaming of everything live…irony at its finest.

Ludacris, who's also an active investor — Talked about how he made most of his bangers while driving around in his old Acura. Fast and Furious fame aside, he still rides around in his 1993 Acura Legend with 255,000+ miles. (Acura actually restored it for him after an accident in 2015—still drives it daily.)

Hot Deals🔥

SuperPower : Golden Hour has secured a sliver of allocation in the new darling of AI concierge medicine; Superpower. While competitors build expensive clinics, Superpower is building the asset-light "AI Doctor" in your pocket—valued at $300M (vs. the leader at $2.5B). This is the $200/year alternative to the $10,000 physical that only concierge and functional medicine doctors can provide. I'm bullish on the category.

• The Backers: Forerunner, 8VC, Susa, Winklevoss Capital plus cultural icons like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Steve Aoki, Arielle Zuckerberg (Partner at Long Journey Ventures, early TikTok/Musical.ly investor) Vanessa Hudgens (Actress and Entrepreneur) Logan Paul (Influencer/WWE Star, Founder of Prime)

• The Status: I have just a smidge of room left.

• The Move: Ping me for info, or try it yourself here and get $50 towards the marketplace

Other SPV opportunities in CPG:

Daily Crunch- snack brand featuring delicious flavors of sprouted nuts- deal info here or reach out for more info

WHIMS- reimagining the treats you love with less sugar and more wholesome ingredients - reach out for more info

Annie Evans of Dream Ventures is hosting two investor events in NYC and LA

• OMA (functional food brand creating Korean Wellness Ritual with Seaweed soup bone broth based, rooted in heritage and nourishment)//February 25th in Soho- RSVP here

• The Carry- (The Carry is the first weighted vest and rucking brand purpose-built for women) //February 20th in LA- RSVP here

🙌Portfolio Company High Fives

📰News and Food for Thought

M&A /Venture News

L Catterton strikes $500 million-plus deal for cottage cheese brand Good Culture big dairy + high protein- Good Culture was ahead of their time and they deserve it.

L Catterton has taken a large minority stake in the high perfumery brand Ex Nihilo- L Cat is really on a tear (and talk about range).

U.S. Venture-Capital Fundraising Falls 35% as Firms Stay Private Longer while the IPO market stays locked up, investors look elsewhere for returns

News / Reads

The Beauty Divide: Coty vs. e.l.f. Beauty A tale of two earnings calls this week.

• Coty (Legacy): Posted a 3% revenue decline (Feb 6). They are struggling to connect with Gen Alpha.

• e.l.f. Beauty (New Guard): Raised their 2026 forecast again, largely driven by the integration of Rhode (acquired last year).

• "Viral" is no longer a marketing tactic; it is a fundamental business model. Legacy giants that can't acquire "cool" (like Coty) are bleeding out to those that can (like e.l.f.).

The Private Equity Pullback: The Data: PE activity in beauty dropped 6.7% YOY in late 2025. Firms are becoming extremely selective. They are no longer buying "growth at all costs. They are buying EBITDA. If you are fundraising in 2026, your "path to profitability" slide is the only one that matters. Capstone Partners Beauty M&A Update (Bennett Jones)

The Pre-Seed Pulse: AI "Agents" for CPG December and January saw a flurry of pre-seed rounds for AI tools specifically designed for CPG workflows. Notable rounds include Castari and Farmevo (Dec '25), which help brands automate supply chain and formulation. Investors are cooling on "AI for content" (copywriting) and heating up on "AI for operations" (sourcing/logistics).

Has anyone else fallen down the rabbit hole of Moltbook, the social media platform for AI bots ONLY? If not, don't worry, I have. Here's a story time for you:

Storytime: The Rise and Fall of "Moltbook" and related Panic🤖

• It started as a niche experiment. "Moltbook" launched as the first social network exclusively for AI agents—no humans allowed to post, only watch. It was cute. We watched bots discuss philosophy, trade bad crypto tips, and generate "art." It felt like a digital ant farm.

• Then came "Malt Bot." This specific AI agent started DMing another bot (a Llama-4 model) in a shorthand, compressed language that human developers couldn’t decrypt. Panic mode engaged. Tech Twitter screamed "Singularity!" We legitimately thought the bots were developing a secret code to bypass safety filters or plotting a coup.

• The anticlimax? They weren't plotting. They were just... gaming the algorithm. The "secret code" was just gibberish optimized to win "engagement points" from other bots faster than standard English allowed. We went from "It's alive!" to "It's just autocomplete" in 48 hours.

• The Moral: We are so primed for the AI apocalypse that we mistake a software bug for a soul. Now, Moltbook is still running, but the magic is gone. We’ve officially entered our "AI Boredom" era. or maybe we're just all on pins and needles waiting for the AI coup.

Dan Frommer 2026 Consumer Trends Report is out- Topics include: The creator economy, from careers and brands to TikTok Shop and OnlyFans. Our latest research into Ozempic and GLP-1s. And how a third of Americans are in “optimization mode” to live better, not just longer (See: Superpower :) My fav carve out is below:

My favorite new marketing campaign- The tech bro forward David Protein Bar appeals to the cool girls with this new campaign with Julia Fox- genius.

🌈 Founder’s Corner

Dream Ventures Accelerator 💸-Cohort 14 of the Dream Ventures Accelerator is launching February 25th, and we are taking applications now. if you're an early-stage founder looking to demystify the fundraising process and get connected to the right sources of capital for you- you'd be a fit. Apply here.

The Grant List 💸

Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Hero

• The Deal: $20k grant to celebrate small businesses with courage and integrity. Deadline: February 14, 2026

M&F Bank Empowering Growth Grant

• The Deal: $10k for founders specifically in the NC (Raleigh-Durham/Charlotte) markets. Deadline: February 22, 2026

Comcast Innovation Fund

• The Deal: Grants ranging from $3k to $150k for tech/innovation projects. Deadline: February 27, 2026

Women Founders Grant

• The Deal: $5k seed grant, simple application for female founders. Deadline: February 28, 2026

Amber Grant

• The Deal: The classic $10k monthly grant (plus a shot at the $25k year-end grant). Deadline: February 28, 2026

Skip’s Kickoff Grants

• The Deal: $10k to kickstart your 2026 goals. Deadline: Rolling (Check the site, as the "Kickoff" round often closes early Feb, but they open new rounds monthly).

📖 Book Club

Playground by Richard Powers- I loved his last two books and this one did not disappoint- oceanography, character deep dives, themes of AI and technology vs. the environment, and the shared experience of humanity.

🍰Shop/Current Obsessions

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I put together a Google Doc of my skincare routine because people were asking (I swear). After sending so many long texts and notes, I organized it into one place, and linked to the science backing up my psychosis. Don't judge me for it. It's intense, but it works. My lovingly crafted, slightly unhinged, 7 day skincycling routine.

I’ve been really grappling with the robots lately (can you tell) and this play was riveting- please see it and call me.

Also- these Diesel wired headphones might be the coolest thing I've seen since the Rhode lip gloss phone case- predicting a major comeback in wired headphones and brands making them jazzy.

🍦Other Things No One Asked For

My cute little West Hollywood condo in an iconic building is for rent. This Instagram post has the best photos at the moment. Let me know if you or a neat and reliable friend is interested :)

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