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To our Founding Members, employees, investors, friends, family and early supporters, today we celebrate the public launch of the Sweater Cashmere Fund. Just like the startups Sweater aims to invest in, we, too, are a growing company, and it's important to take some time to let major moments sink in while in the thick of it all. Today is one of those priceless moments. Today, we celebrate each other, our milestones, and small achievements because that’s what keeps pushing us forward.
Here's a little video from our team sharing more about what pushes us forward at Sweater:
They said it couldn’t be done. “But how will you get around the accreditation requirements?” Oh, how many times we heard this sentiment and others in a similar vein. We figured it out without changing laws or regulations, and earlier this year, the Cashmere Fund was officially declared effective by the SEC.
Grew a waitlist to over 65,000. As we were developing the Sweater mobile app, we knew there were more people out there like us, who wanted access to the venture capital asset class—a lot more people, in fact.
Assembled the right team. Not to be cliche, but working for an early-stage startup takes a leap of faith, and we are beyond grateful to each of our Sweater “Stitches” for helping us get to where we are today. It takes belief, and we have a lot of belief on our team.
Built a thriving community. Not only do A LOT of people want the opportunity to invest in VC, but many want a seat at the table, a voice, an opportunity to influence real change and impact the future. We’ve built a nationwide scout network of over a hundred scouts and growing. We’ve forged venture partnerships with other VCs, emerging fund managers, and accelerator programs that share a similar vision—it’s important that we bring them into the fold.
The Sweater community is growing. Since opening the fund to our waitlist in April, we’ve stitched thousands of Members into our community, raising millions in AUM. And just this week, we hosted our first Sweater Cozy pop-up event in NYC where hundreds of those same members showed up to meet and support founders as they pitched their ideas. This was humbling to experience.
Making those first investments. On Monday, we announced the first 5 deals made by our rockstar investment team (you can meet them in the app). We’re so excited about these first portfolio companies—they’re all so unique and well-positioned in their markets.
Thanks for letting us brag a little—it’s important to celebrate achievements, however big or small.
Access and opportunity are not intangible ideas. They can be truly experienced if given the right environment to thrive. It also takes failure, experience, empathy and learning to nurture that environment. That’s the vision we’re building at Sweater—a community that drives opportunity and access for more people, more investors, more founders of all backgrounds and experiences.
Our mission to create wealth-building opportunities for all people through venture investing is rooted in the vision of a better, more inclusive and equitable venture ecosystem. This is because we firmly believe that venture capital shapes the future and that the right to shape that future belongs to everyone.
Now that the app is launched we can begin scaling the product and its functionality, so it can be better tool for our vision of a tightly interwoven tapestry—a place where our Members, portfolio companies, founders, and the larger venture community come together.
Thanks to all of you who have helped us get this far. The future starts today.
—Jesse, Chad, Matthew, & the Sweater Team
P.S. Download the app and join us in shaping the future of venture.
