Is Your Closet a Portfolio? (Asking for a Friend) (July '26)
Note from the Founders 👋
The Girl Math of Alternatives: What Do Birkin Bags and Pokémon Have in Common? 👜
Deal Spotlight: CAKE 🎂
Investor Resource: Knowing Your Worth 💰
Media & Press: Podcast People 👥
What's Coming Up: Cohort 4 & Our West Coast Tour 🌉
Closing Note 💌
Note from the Founders 👋
GM ☕ from Serena, Porter, and Emma, the co-founders of Girl Math Capital! It’s high summer, and no matter where this newsletter finds you, we hope you’re at least sweating out the heat in a Girl Math Capital hat (yes, we will be making them available to non-members very soon 👀).
We officially wrapped up Cohort 3 last month, and Cohort 4 launches next month, which means we’re squarely in our favorite in-between season: celebrating the kickass group of women who just finished our curriculum, and gearing up to welcome the next group to the Girl Math ecosystem. This upcoming cohort is going to be our largest yet, and we can’t wait for all that’s to come with our growing crew.
We’re also of course taking advantage of summer travels: Serena and Emma just got back from Chicago, where they brunched with our Midwest members, and in two weeks they’re headed to see Porter in Austin 🤠, before they all hit San Francisco and LA. If you’re in any of those cities, hit us up! We have some fun West Coast events in the works and we’d love to see you there.
Speaking of cities… our City Leads have been throwing some incredible events lately and deserve all the kudos for taking Girl Math country-wide. Major shoutouts to Lindsay Klaff, Madeleine Phillips, and Madeline Klineman in SF, Anne Slevin in LA, Maria Frampton in Chicago, and Chelsea Zillner in Austin. Head to our socials to see what everyone’s been up to, and we can’t wait for each of our cities to grow with the start of Cohort 4.
Happy reading! 💸
The Girl Math of Alternatives: What Do Birkin Bags and Pokémon Have in Common? 👜
Pokémon cards have hit the mainstream, affirmatively making the transition from nostalgic collectible to investable asset (though it’s unclear how long the hype will last). From CNBC headlines to Instagram dumps to your next door neighbor you haven’t seen in 15 years asking for your cards - wait, this may be just a male experience? But you get the point. Pokémon has been everywhere.
Back in February, Logan Paul sold a Pikachu Illustrator card, the "holy grail" of the franchise, for $16.5 million to a venture capitalist, deemed the most expensive Pokémon card of all time by the Guinness World Records. The Weeknd started his own collectibles Instagram account just to share his cards. Joe Jonas has been posting his pulls all over his feed. And hitting much closer to home: Emma's husband and his two brothers started their own Pokémon trading business, the Gold Star Brothers (please give them a follow and, more importantly, please sell them your gold stars).
This phenomenon is even bigger than what we’ve been seeing with our own eyes. In May, CNBC reported that Pokémon card values are up roughly 3,800% since 2004 and 1,350% since 2020. Secondary prices are insane: a PSA 10 (Poké speak for tip top condition) “crystal” Lugia that would have sold for $20k 12 months ago is now $100k. Numbers like that raise the obvious question: is this growth real, or is it a bubble waiting to pop?
Naturally, as the founders of an alternative investing community, that question doesn't stop at Pokémon cards. It's the same one we'd ask about other collectibles like designer bags, art collections, and fine wine - is this actually an investment?
So let’s start with the basics.
What actually makes something an investment?
Generally, an investment is an asset bought by an individual or organization with the hope that it generate some future income or profit. It can do so in two ways:
Income. The asset generates cash flow without being sold. Stocks pay dividends, bonds pay interest, and real estate can collect rent.
Appreciation. The price of the asset increases. Generally, the only way to recognize appreciation is to sell a portion or all of the investment.
Case Study: The Birkin Bag
You may have heard the widely quoted stat that "Birkin bags outperform the S&P 500." It's one of the most argued-over claims in the collectibles-as-an-investment conversation.
Here are the problems with taking it as Bible:
The data is cherry-picked. That stat usually comes from studies tracking resale prices of Birkins that actually sold, skewing toward bags in excellent condition, rare colorways, and exotic leathers. The beat-up ones that have seen their fair share of subway commutes might get sold too, but those aren't the ones beating the S&P 500.
There's no income. Regardless of whether you're using it or just displaying it in your closet, there's no dividend. There goes half the investment equation before you even get to appreciation.
The appreciation is a bet, not a given. Resale value depends entirely on fashion staying loyal to a bag Hermès has made for over 30 years. There's no way to predict the spread between what you pay today and what your granddaughter gets selling it in 80 years. Add in condition risk and authentication risk, and you've got a pretty risky "investment" on your hands.
Pokémon cards, art, and wine fall into the same trap:
Pokémon cards: grading is subjective, fraud and counterfeit slabs are a real problem, and pricing swings hard with hype cycles (see: this year).
Art: the market is illiquid and opaque, prices are often set by a small number of insiders, and most art never resells for anywhere near what was paid.
Wine: aging can genuinely create value, but only with proper storage and authentication, and a single bad cellar can wipe out years of "appreciation" overnight.
The underlying theme: scarcity and hype aren't the same thing as a functioning market. But psychologically, we want to believe they are.
It feels better to justify a bag or a card as "an investment" than as "a thing I wanted and bought for myself.” That’s consumerism dressed up as a portfolio strategy, and “girl math” would be the first archetype to lean into the reframe. But Girl Math Capital says you need to be honest about which one you’re doing.
So here’s our take: if you're going to buy collectibles, treat it as consumption with potential upside, not an investment strategy.
Our practical rules of the road:
Never let it substitute for real diversification among more common alternative asset classes.
Understand what drives the bid-ask spread.
And most importantly, buy things you’d be happy owning even at zero resale value.
Emma’s husband always says he’d be happy owning his cardboard even if it went to zero, and that’s exactly the right attitude. 😊
What do you think? Is your closet a portfolio, or just a really well-dressed liability? Reply and tell us where you land.
Deal Spotlight: CAKE 🎂
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.
One of the best parts of angel investing is finding a company where you're both the investor and the target customer: where you don't need a pitch deck to understand the appeal, because you already experience the problem. That's exactly what happened with CAKE.
We first met co-founder Estelle Palandjian on a panel in NYC, and it was an instant "we need to know more." Estelle's own path into the company is part of what makes it stick: she was a VC who invested in CAKE first, couldn’t stop thinking about how it was made for women like her, and came onboard as a co-founder. CAKE is a private membership community for premium shoppers and the brands who want to reach them. $100 a year gets you thousands of dollars to spend across a network of fashion and beauty brands, plus VIP perks, exclusive events, and early access to sales. For a community that already treats shopping like a strategy (see warnings above, lol), the pitch was an easy yes.
GMC member Juliana Arbelaez gravitated towards the mechanics of the business - a "dual-sided marketplace where both brands and individual consumers benefit, and incentives are largely aligned." Even beyond the CAKE’s core service, she sees a company built for "long-term scalability beyond a traditional shopping app."
Arielle Kassinove came at it as a user first. She's drawn to companies that "build communities and create genuine engagement," and for her, "the best investments are the ones you genuinely use and can't help but share with others." CAKE's mission of putting money back into consumers' pockets made it “an easy yes.”
We're excited to watch CAKE keep growing and see just how far our CAKE cards can go 😉 Follow along with CAKE here, and join the platform here 🍰
LA Members at a CAKE Event with Co-Founder Estelle Palandjian
Investor Resource ✏️
Knowing Your Worth 💰
We talk a lot about investing at Girl Math Capital, but before you can invest, you have to earn.
Last month, GMC member Maggie Fair, Managing Director at Daversa Partners (the executive search firm behind leadership teams at companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Notion), led a Round Table on salary negotiations. After spending years embedded in compensation conversations between founders and candidates, she's seen firsthand how much money people (especially women) leave on the table simply because they don't ask.
A few of our favorite reminders from the session:
Anchor on the market, not your history. Your current salary is just one data point, and is not always indicative of your value if your salary was not increasing at the rate of the market. Research comparable roles using resources like Levels.fyi, LinkedIn Salary, Glassdoor, recruiters, and your own network to see what the market rates are for the role you’re interviewing for. Going into a negotiation with market data strengthens your case and repositions the conversation away from your past salary (especially helpful if you’re looking for a pay bump).
Negotiate the whole package. Base salary is only one lever. Equity, signing bonuses, review timing, PTO, remote flexibility, and title can all be part of the conversation, especially if you’re joining a startup with more limited flexibility on salary.
Say your number, then stop talking. One of Maggie's favorite pieces of advice was surprisingly straightforward: state your ask confidently, then let the silence do its job. Filling the silence often weakens a negotiation, as we tend to say things like “that’s just a starting number” or “I’m flexible”.
Every dollar compounds. A higher starting salary becomes the foundation for future raises, bonuses, retirement contributions, and ultimately, the capital you'll have available to invest. As Maggie put it, every dollar left on the table today compounds against you.
Our favorite reframe from the evening: you're not asking for a favor; you're pricing your work. It echoed something Mrs. Dow Jones told us at our Future Rich Person book talk too - instead of cutting expenses first, focus on earning more, whether that's negotiating your salary, starting a side hustle, or investing in skills that raise your earning potential. Every dollar you negotiate today is a dollar you can invest tomorrow, building for years to come. Consider this your sign to negotiate.
Media & Press: Podcast People 👥
If there’s one thing we love to do, it’s yapping about Girl Math.
This past month, Porter joined the Startup Network to break down GMC's origin story, why alternative investing is core to the mission, and how the team sources deal flow and thinks about the power law of early-stage bets. Plus, why financial independence is a core value underlying our mission. Tune in here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🎧
Next, the Earth to Society podcast kicks off Season 2 with an interview with Emma, where they dive into the gap Girl Math solves for, how our community has evolved over time, and what their college selves would think of where they are now. 🥹 Listen here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🎙️
What's Coming Up: Cohort 4 & Our West Coast Tour 🌉
August is shaping up to be one of our busiest (and most exciting) months yet.
Cohort 4 kicks off August 3rd. We're getting ready to welcome our largest cohort of future angel investors, LPs, operators, and founders into the Girl Math Capital community. Over the next four and a half months, they'll learn everything from startup investing and venture capital to secondaries, search funds, real estate, crypto, and the mechanics of private markets.
We're heading west! The week of August 3rd, the three of us will be in San Francisco and Los Angeles meeting members, hosting community events, and spending time with investors and founders across the ecosystem. If you're on the West Coast (or just happen to be passing through), we'd love to see you. Follow our social channels and Luma page for event announcements, and don't hesitate to reach out if you're around.
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, submit your information to join our next cohort, or apply to be a community member here.
