Girl Math Vibe Check (June ‘26)
Note from the Founders 👋
The Girl Math Guide to Joining Cohort 4 📖
Deal Spotlight: Vacation Inc ☀️
Investor Resource: A First Look at Cohort 4 Curriculum 🗓️
Media & Press: Financial Freedom💰
What's Coming Up: Happy Hour Energy 🍻
Closing Note 💌
Note from the Founders 👋
HAPPY SUMMER ☀️☕ from Serena, Porter, and Emma, the co-founders of Girl Math Capital! We hope this season is off to a hot start with great weather, summer Fridays, and trips to your nearest body of water. As for ours, we’re on cloud 9 after back-to-back nights of our biggest NYC events to date: a book talk with Mrs. Dow Jones and an interview with Dr. Sylvia Kwan, Ellevest’s CEO. We even got the whole team, including our intern Maureen, together for a celebratory dinner!
We’re also fresh off Emma’s wedding two weekends ago (new last name alert!!!), after Serena crushed NY Tech Week, representing GMC at countless events, judging a fashion tech pitch competition with the Pattern Maker, and hosting a B2B SaaS founder dinner with Scale Venture Partners.
On the investing side, we hit a milestone worth pausing on: $1M invested through Girl Math Capital. In 1.5 years and across 250+ checks, our community has moved one million dollars into alternative investing opportunities: a testament to the incredible group of investors who have made Girl Math Capital what it is today, and to the rockstar founders who have welcomed us to their cap tables.
And lastly, in true Girl Math fashion, we launched Cohort 4 applications right in the middle of all of it. We can’t wait to welcome a new group of women to the Girl Math Capital ecosystem and kickstart our fourth virtual bootcamp educating women on alternative investing. If you’ve been watching from the sidelines, there couldn’t be a better time to join us. We're continuing to level up our deal flow, bring extended education opportunities to our members, and host events across the country.
Want to learn more? We’re hosting two virtual info sessions to answer all your burning questions:
Ahead of those, we thought we’d tackle one of our most frequently asked questions head on: how do I know if Girl Math is right for me at my stage in my financial journey?
Read on for the key questions to ask yourself - you might be more ready than you think.
The Girl Math Guide to Joining Cohort 4 📖
One of the questions we get most often - from prospective members, from women who've been following us for months, even from people who've already invested before - is some version of “am I at the right stage for this?”
While only you can decide whether you want to hit “submit” on that Cohort 4 application, we want to give you a framework you can use to help decide whether we’re the right next step in your financial journey.
1. What does Girl Math Capital membership give you?
At its core, GMC is centered on two core pillars: quality education and access to deal flow.
Our Cohort program is a four-month virtual bootcamp covering alternative investing - specifically angel investing, real estate, and crypto. We kick off a new cohort every January and August, and this next one starts August 3rd! Every cohort starts with a session led by Ellevest on comprehensive portfolio management, because we want you to see the full picture before you zoom in on alternatives. From there, angels, VCs, real estate professionals, and crypto experts join us as guest speakers and dive into each of our three blocks to teach you the fundamentals around evaluating a deal and constructing your portfolio.
At the same time, members get access to investment opportunities across consumer, technology, media, AI, climate, women's health, and more, ranging from pre-seed all the way to late-stage and pre-IPO secondaries. Most of our deals are early stage startups, but we share real estate, venture funds, and Broadway and film productions whenever we can.
Add in our virtual and in-person events, and a network of 400+ women across 29 cities and 11 countries who are equally passionate about growing their wealth and making an impact, and you've got what GMC is all about.
Cohort membership is $599 for your first year, and $499 each year thereafter.
2. Am I financially ready?
Do I have an emergency fund?
Before putting money into anything illiquid, make sure you have a cash cushion, typically 3 to 6 months of living expenses. Alternative investments are a long game, and you want a solid financial foundation underneath you before you start. Once you've saved it, keep it somewhere accessible but working for you. A high-yield savings account (HYSA) is the move so you are actually earning on your dollars vs. receiving next to nothing in interest from a checking account.
Have I paid off high-interest debt?
If you're carrying high-interest debt, credit cards, personal loans, or buy-now-pay-later balances, that's where your money should work first. A good rule of thumb is that anything above ~7% APR is worth prioritizing before you start deploying capital elsewhere. This is sometimes called the 7% rule, or the idea that 7% roughly matches long-term average stock market returns, so if your debt costs more than what you'd reasonably expect to earn, paying it off first is the better "investment." Tackle your highest-interest balances first and work your way down.
Am I invested in the public markets?
Here's a curriculum spoiler: only 5-10% of your portfolio should be in alternative investments. So what about the other 90-95%? That should sit in the public markets, and if you’re not yet invested in stocks and bonds, ETFs, and/or mutual funds, that’s the best place to start.
The good news is it doesn't have to be complicated. Low-cost index funds and ETFs (like those tracking the S&P 500) are the foundation most financial experts recommend. They're diversified, low-fee, and you can get started with almost any amount. From there, you can layer in individual stocks, bonds, and other assets as you get more comfortable.
If you're not sure where to start, our friends at Ellevest are a great resource - they specialize in investing specifically for women, and each of our cohorts kick off with them for exactly this reason. The goal isn't to have it all figured out before you join GMC, but to make sure your foundation is in place so that the 5-10% you put into alternatives is money you can afford to be patient with, because that’ll be high risk, high reward, and highly illiquid.
3. Am I in the right mindset?
Am I ready to explore alternatives?
Maybe you've already written your first angel check and you're looking to go deeper. Maybe you've heard "startup investing" and thought “that sounds cool but also terrifying.” Maybe crypto still feels like a foreign language and real estate feels like something you'll figure out when you move to the suburbs. Either way, we meet you where you are. Our guest speakers help you build knowledge from the ground up, not assume you already know the finance jargon. What we do ask is that you come curious and open-minded, because the women who lean into the learning curve get the most out of it.
Do I feel confident enough?
Here's something both Haley Sacks and Dr. Sylvia Kwan said at our events this week, independently of each other, and it’s something we deeply believe in: action comes before confidence. We so often wait until we feel ready - until we know enough, earn enough, understand enough - and that waiting is costly. You don't wait until you feel ready; you get ready by doing. You ask the "dumb" question in your cohort’s Slack channel. You join a diligence call on a company you've never heard of. You write your first baby check. And then one day you realize you've written three checks and you’re doing the damn thing. You just have to start.
4. What's the time commitment?
Cohort sessions are every other Monday at 8 pm ET. We also host one Girl Math Round Table on a broader topic and at least one deal flow meeting per month, so there’s always something to plug into. In-person events vary by city.
We'll always be here in busy seasons of life and slower ones, but the women who make the most of their membership are the ones who show up, engage with the community, test their learnings on real deal flow, and bring their own expertise to the table to help others. You get out what you put in.
5. What's the investment minimum?
We don't have an investment minimum, but we do expect members to be actively exploring and engaging with our deal flow. One thing to note - most of our deals are only open to accredited investors, meaning you have an annual income of $200k+ (or $300k+ with a spouse) or a net worth of $1M+ excluding your primary residence. Our accredited members have invested as little as $500 and as much as $50k. It’s about building the habit and the muscle, not the check size.
6. Already consistently investing and want the network and deal flow without the bootcamp?
Our Community membership might be a great fit for you. It’s $499/year, rolling admission, with access to deal flow, SPVs, and events. You can apply here.
Not quite there yet?
That's okay too. Members get first access to GMC events, but we open them to the public afterward, so follow us on socials and bookmark our Luma calendar to stay in the loop. Our virtual and in-person events are a great place to get a feel for the community before you commit.
Still not sure? Feel free to reply to this email - we read every one!
Deal Spotlight: Vacation Inc ☀️
ICYMI: Each month, we'll share a few of the deals our community has backed, not to give investment advice, but to show you the breadth of opportunities Girl Math members are exploring and spotlight some epic founders.
Emma here! I get asked all the time, “So have you seen any exits since you started angel investing?” Let's talk about my very first "Girl Math" check and where it stands today.
My first check was into Vacation Inc., the sunscreen brand that’s basically summer nostalgia in a bottle: playful, retro branding and packaging that makes you feel like you rolled straight off the beach in a neon-soaked, Miami Vice fever dream straight out of 1985. I invested in their Series B, led by True Beauty Ventures, through a syndicate run by Maya Bakhai. (If you've been reading our newsletters, you already know we are big fans of Maya over here.)
In March, Vacation announced a $70 million investment from VMG Partners - the same firm that backed Sun Bum before its $400 million sale to SC Johnson in 2019. The deal valued Vacation at $210 million, and most of the capital went toward secondary proceeds (existing investors selling shares, not new cash going onto the balance sheet). VMG is hoping to run the same playbook twice: take a brand with serious cultural buzz and turn it into a category leader with staying power.
I'll be honest, this news made my month when it came out - it's not a full exit, but it's a strong signal that Vacation is leveling up. BUT in the spirit of keeping it real, not every deal in my portfolio is popping off right now. I've had a few companies go through real tests lately, restructuring, leadership changes, and tough fundraises, and that's part of the game too. It’s important to remember that angel investing runs on the J-curve. The losses tend to show up before the wins do, so don’t get discouraged if you start to see those first. Patience is the price of entry.
Being on this cap table (and EVERY cap table) has been such a joy and learning experience, and I can't wait to see where Vacation goes next. 🍹
Investor Resource ✏️
A First Look at Cohort 4 Curriculum 🗓️
Applications for Cohort 4 are open, and if you’re not yet a member, you may be wondering what the your first four months in Girl Math look like. So here's a sneak peek without giving it all away. 😉
After kicking off with portfolio management with Ellevest, we spend several weeks in the world of angel and venture investing, covering everything from the investing fundamentals, evaluation frameworks, and exit and dilution math, plus hands on practice evaluating deals.
Then we shift into real estate, breaking down the landscape and the different ways you can get in the game. We close out the curriculum with crypto, from the technical basics to the bigger policy and macro forces shaping where the space goes next.
Every session is led by an expert who lives and breathes what they're teaching. And of course, we open and close as a full cohort together, because GMC is as much about the community you build as the curriculum you learn.
Applications for Cohort 4 close July 10th - apply here!
Media & Press: Financial Freedom 💰
What a week!
On Monday, we packed the house at Morgan Stanley for an exclusive interview with Haley Sacks, aka Mrs. Dow Jones, about her New York Times best-selling book, Future Rich Person. The room was left buzzing, with signed copies and selfies with Haley in tow, as well as actionable tips to take home, including but not limited to:
Surround yourself with friends who want to make financially savvy decisions because your circle shapes your conversations.
Get in early and stay invested; time in the market beats timing the market.
Focus on making more before you focus on cutting the things you love. Negotiate your salary before giving up your daily coffee.
On Tuesday, we sat down with Ellevest CEO Dr. Sylvia Kwan at NeueHouse for a conversation on building wealth as a woman. A few lines we're still thinking about:
Ellevest's founding insight: most financial products were built assuming a male default. Sylvia built Ellevest to flip that, designing around women as the financial head of household from the ground up.
Alternatives are where a lot of real wealth gets made, which is why Ellevest weaves them into every client strategy.
Action breeds confidence, not the other way around. And if you're too intimidated to know where to start? You can’t go wrong with low-cost ETFs.
What's Coming Up: Happy Hour Energy 🍻
On June 22nd, we're heading downtown for "Girl Math: Why We Invest the Way We Do," a bar lecture hosted with After5 Society in NYC. We'll be digging into the psychological and cultural barriers that keep women out of investing rooms and the data that shows when we do invest, we actually outperform. Most importantly, we'll talk about what to do about it. Expect happy hour energy and a room full of women who get it. Online tickets are sold out, but reply to this email and we'll get you sorted.
If you're on the West Coast, join us in San Francisco on Tuesday for a mixer at Peacekeeper. Co-founder Serena Ainslie and our SF city leads will be on hand to talk all things GMC, and it's open to members and anyone in their network who might be curious about joining. Join the waitlist here.
And if you're still deciding whether Cohort 4 is your next move, join us for one of our virtual info sessions on June 23rd at 7pm ET or June 30th at 2pm ET. Come with questions!
Lastly, follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok so you don't miss a thing.
Closing Note 💌
Girl Math Capital was born from the frustration that deals were shared in some circles and not in others. This newsletter is one more way to make sure those conversations and opportunities reach more people, and in particular, more women. If you know someone who'd love this newsletter, pass it along. We believe alternative investing isn't just for finance and tech bros - it's for women who want to get smart, build community, and build generational wealth. See you next month 💸💅
The Girl Math Team
If this got you curious, apply to our next cohort, or apply to be a community member here.
