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Happy March! We have a great edition of The Spool in store for you today - it's a 4-minute read.
In March's edition:
So let's dive in!
Let’s talk exits. An exit is a major milestone for a privately held company and those who own shares in that company.
We’re all familiar with an IPO or initial public offering. It’s the process by which a privately held company goes public by selling shares of its stock to the general public. This process typically involves the company issuing new shares of stock, which are then sold to investors through an underwriting process managed by investment banks.
Venture Capital funds that own shares in a company that IPOs can often sell some or all of their shares at the time of the IPO or shortly after. The value or profits delivered to investors who own shares in a private company that decides to IPO are dependent on the market capitalization (valuation) of the company at the time of IPO relative to the price paid for those shares when the company was private.
But there are several ways that startups can exit outside of an IPO, including acquisition and mergers.
In an acquisition, a larger company buys the startup and its assets, typically in exchange for a cash payment or equity in the acquiring company. Acquisitions can provide the startup with a significant infusion of capital and can also provide liquidity for the startup's founders and investors.
Alternatively, in a merger two or more companies combine to form a new entity. This can be an attractive option for startups that want to join forces with another company to gain scale and access to new markets or technology.
Each exit option has its advantages and disadvantages. The best exit option for a startup depends on its circumstances and goals. No matter the type of exit though, Sweater's team will be ready when the time comes.
News 🗞️
Congrats to Nomadica on their recent boxed wine launch, which has already received two spots on VinePair’s list of the 15 Best Boxed Wines for 2024! Since launching the product on their website, Nomadica has seen a twofold surge in monthly sales in just one week! Boxed wine is a $1B+ category that saw 3% growth last year. We couldn’t be more excited to see Nomadica continue to make exceptional wine accessible, convenient, and environmentally sustainable. You can shop Nomadica on their website, in select Whole Foods and other retailers.
Parallel Health was selected as a finalist to present their precision health tech startup at TechArena 2024! Known as the home of changemakers, TechArena focuses on the future of tech from health to climate to space travel.
Graza has chips (imagine Oprah’s voice). Graza is changing your snack and app game with a limited release of extra virgin olive oil slow baked potato chips. Grab your bag here.
Jobs 🚀
Get your Sweater fix on-demand. To view our entire library of on-demand content, click here.
Kristin Olszewski, founder and CEO of Nomadica, is hellbent on making exceptional wine accessible, convenient, and environmentally sustainable. This powerhouse founder’s background may surprise you, as she dropped out of Harvard Medical School to become a sommelier.
After studying Sustainable Agriculture and Gender Studies as an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, she continued to Harvard Medical School. As the first person in her family to graduate college, she had always planned to pursue becoming a doctor. It was during this time that she worked in the restaurant industry and discovered her passion for wine.
With the support of a mentor, she dropped out of Harvard to enter the restaurant industry full-time working across notable restaurant groups, including Mozza and Husk, as a wine director and sommelier. In each restaurant, she noticed young people were only interested in cocktails, mainly because the wine industry had lost touch with younger generations. Nomadica was born.
Nomadica is focused on providing a new generation of wine drinkers with high-quality, small-production wines from producers who are focused on sustainable processes and responsible farming. Cans are 400x lighter than glass bottles reducing emissions from shipping by up to 80%. We couldn’t be more excited about Nomadica’s adoption of boxed wine, which only expands its reach while staying true to its identity as a sustainable wine company.
Want to invest in Nomadica and other innovative start ups? Click here to make your initial investment in the Cashmere Fund.
The future of alternative investing for retail investors is here. At Sweater, we’ve built a turnkey fund management platform that seamlessly unlocks venture capital access for the mass retail market.
And now you have the opportunity to potentially co-own a piece of the operating company, Sweater Inc. through our friends at StartEngine. To learn more about the potential offering, click here.
No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, will not be accepted. No offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the offering statement is filed and only through an intermediary's platform. An indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. "Reserving" shares is simply an indication of interest.
