Show Notes
This is a special episode pulled from the VITALIZE vault—back when The VITALIZE Podcast was Talking Venture! Justin Gordon (
@justingordon212) talks with Amanda DoAmaral (
@AmandaDoAmanda), Co-Founder of Fiveable, a social learning network for students. Since this original episode released in May 2021, Fiveable has raised a $10M Series A. Fiveable is an educational technology company that is committed to unlocking opportunities for young people through academic and social empowerment. At Fiveable they believe that students who are educated, confident, and informed will open more opportunities for their future. Fiveable aims to give equal opportunities for all students to reach their potential.
Amanda DoAmaral is an educator, activist, and co-founder of Fiveable. She spent half a decade teaching high school history in Oakland, CA, where her passion for creating equitable educational opportunities was ignited. Amanda has been a vocal advocate for inclusive history curriculum and is active within the Milwaukee tech community.
Show Notes:
- What Fiveable does
- Onboarding Serena Williams and Chelsea Clinton as an investors
- Fiveable’s origin story
- Turning tutoring ex-students via livestream into a VC-backed startup
- Fiveable’s early growth stage
- How the Fiveable product has evolved over time
- Risk assessment and hiring a team
- Generational entrepreneurship and participating in an accelerator
- The lack of education about available resources for founders
- Amanda’s experience with gener8tor and how it contributed to Fiveable’s growth
- Raising pre-seed capital and the stress of executing fund allocation
- What has fueled Fiveable’s growth
- Content development and SEO strategy
- Managing an expansive team and hiring students
- The impact of building in public
- The big vision for Fiveable
More about the show:
The Vitalize Podcast, a show by
Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member
angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.
Hosted by
Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series.
The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors.
The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital.
More about us:
Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The Vitalize Team:
What is The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing?
The VITALIZE Podcast, a show by VITALIZE Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work. Hosted by Justin Gordon, The VITALIZE Podcast features interviews with startup founders, investors, and operators as well experts in the future of work. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world while the Future of Work series dives deep into the founders and investors shaping the workplace. Learn more at thevitalizepodcast.com.