SMB September is hot off the press!
New fundings, market updates, and a little bit of OutKast
👋🏾 Welcome Back! What to Expect in This Month's Newsletter
Hi everyone! Thanks for bearing with us as we took a brief summer hiatus. Hope you've all been staying safe and healthy and found some ways to enjoy the season! In this month's newsletter we have some interesting market updates including the correlation between vaccination rates and SMB growth (courtesy of Prof. Galloway). We also have a guest feature for our deep diligence. Have you ever thought of the correlation between hip hop and SMB growth?
Let's get into it!
📜 What's New With the Crew?
We have been hard at work finding awesome new companies to support! Austin and Sydney made their first co-investment in SMB tech - DocSpace! You can learn more about them here. Jen recently joined the Board of Optimize Health, a company providing SMB healthcare practices with solutions to start and/or accelerate their Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) programs.
📰 SMB News Roundup
A new unicorn in SMB tech - Human Interest. Congrats!!
Jeff Jordan @ A16Z wrote a really interesting post on how technology is enabling a growth in SMBs.
Congrats to Aurelia, which is building a no-code finance tool for SMBs, on your $3M Seed Round!
Speaking of SMB fintech tools, SMB fintech remains a really important market as CFOs are constantly looking for new innovations here.
There seems to be a correlation between vaccine rates and SMB growth making vaccine take-rate into an important economic issue.
✍🏾Deep Diligence
In this month's section, we decided to do things a little differently. We have asked our friend, Dan Runcie, who writes for 11k+ people on Trapital if he'd be willing to share a few bits from his most recent post. He graciously said yes and we're so excited to share a bit of his wisdom with you.
Why did his recent post - The Outkast Edge - resonate so deeply with us? Well, at SMB Syndicate, one of the main pieces of pushback we get from folks is - how can a business scale by selling to the longtail? What Dan has outlined in The Outkast Edge is a playbook on how to accomplish just that. We're really excited to feature a few paragraphs of his article here.
Snippets from Trapital’s “The Outkast Edge”
"[Outkast's] journey is the namesake for a theory I’m calling The OutKast Edge. It’s when an outsider takes longer to succeed but slowly rises to the top by growing a loyal and like-minded audience. OutKast was forced to use grassroots and unique growth tactics, which only added to their longevity. These solid stables of fans give those with the OutKast Edge leverage to call their own shots and stay true to their core mission.
This theory is valuable for artists, entertainers, content creators, startup founders, and more. Today’s available technology has opened the doors for outcasts in all walks of life to reach their audience. It’s still hard as hell, but it’s possible. The OutKast Edge is a framework to understand how slept-on trends become popular and sustain their unique edge after they succeed.
The OutKast Edge 101
Create content for like-minded outsiders
In the beginning, OutKast didn’t shy away from making music that was hyper-specific to them. Their narratives didn’t exist in the mainstream media — they had to create their own paths so people like them could be seen. Their music hits different. For the OutKast Edge, the creator’s connection to the material must be personal. It invites like-minded fans into a world that builds an even deeper connection.
Build an audience on independent platforms
Independently released content is the most common way for true outcasts to grow a community. These types of creators learn where their fans consume content and adapt accordingly. Early on, bigger corporations — record labels, TV networks, publishers — are rarely interested in the outsider’s content because they often underestimate the market. If those companies are interested, they make lowball offers or want to alter the material in ways that feel inauthentic. But those offers get turned down. The OutKast Edge is about honoring yourself and your fans through authenticity.
Play the long game: persevere and push through
The OutKast Edge is a long game. In the early days, outcasts will see their peers rise faster. Those artists will get big interviews on The Breakfast Club while the outcasts are still selling mixtapes at gas stations. Times get tough both mentally and financially, but they learn from any constructive feedback and keep pushing."
Please sign up for Trapital to read the entire thing and get more of Dan's awesome content!
📅 Upcoming Events
We are still cooking up some ideas on what events make the most sense in the future! Watch this space, more soon! Have an idea? Drop it in the comments!