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Rachel Blumenthal

Former Founder & CEO, Rockets of Awesome · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderinvestorexecutiveoperator@TheRachelLeigh ↗rocketsofawesome.com ↗

Rachel Blumenthal is an entrepreneur who founded the children's clothing brand Rockets of Awesome, baby registry platform Cricket's Circle, and jewelry line Rachel Leigh. She advises and invests in early-stage startups and serves on the board of Heyday and the Good+ Foundation.

10statements → 2claims → 2claims resolved → 4.1/5average certainty → 2.5/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

1 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 1 assertion · 3 opinions · 5 insights · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertion are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Rachel argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Investors ask male founders about opportunity and female founders about risk
“There's statistically significant data in research that will tell you that when male founders are meeting with investors, whether they're male or female investors, they are asked the question of what is the greatest opportunity that you have ahead of you? And …”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 23:16 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Blumenthal: Rockets of Awesome will dominate children's apparel in five years
“We're going to dominate children's apparel. We are going to be the number one place that both parents and kids want to shop”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 32:33 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
100% certainty 4
0% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

186 words/min while actually speaking · 0.9 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Rachel Blumenthal: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 13 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,417 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Rachel Blumenthal is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 80%

Everything Rachel Blumenthal said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Investors ask male founders about opportunity and female founders about risk
“There's statistically significant data in research that will tell you that when male founders are meeting with investors, whether they're male or female investors, they are asked the question of what is the greatest opportunity that you have ahead of you? And …”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 23:16 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Insight
Blumenthal: Former operators make better VCs due to empathy and prioritization
“An investor that was an operator, which I have to say is really hard to find, but an investor that was an operator, I'd say first and foremost, really understands how hard it is to be a founder, how hard it is to be an operating team, and so there's a sensitiv…”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 16:43 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Opinion
Blumenthal: Kirsten Green is a standout investor despite lacking operator background
“Where I have had the greatest success is is in one of my longest time investors being Kirsten Green from Forerunner in that Kirsten loves consumers. She loves retail. She intimately understands the consumer and understands the dynamic between consumers and dif…”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 20:50 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Opinion
Blumenthal: Venture investors lack conviction and display follower mentality
“I often find that there's generally not much conviction across the board and that there's a lot of follower type behavior where everybody wants to get in on a deal, a business, an opportunity that everybody else wants to be in on. It creates this follower ment…”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 22:17 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Blumenthal: Rockets of Awesome will dominate children's apparel in five years
“We're going to dominate children's apparel. We are going to be the number one place that both parents and kids want to shop”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 32:33 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Opinion
Blumenthal: Incumbent apparel retailers neglect dual kids-and-parents customer dynamic
“That has very much been forgotten in any of the incumbents, and it's critical in the success of this category that we understand the demands and the needs and the psychology of both of those constituents”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 32:51 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Insight
Blumenthal: Kids' apparel is a larger recurring opportunity than strollers
“What becomes the pain point is that your kids are growing so rapidly, and every two to three months at that period of time, they're outgrowing their clothes, and keeping that dresser stocked with clothes that fit your kids that don't become crop tops and cropp…”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 7:46 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Insight
Blumenthal: Founders must create scarcity and play hard-to-get with VCs
“Nobody, whether it's an investment, or it's a cookie as it relates to kids, or it's a car when you go and buy your car, nobody wants something that they can easily get, right? Everybody wants a challenge, and so when fundraising, it's really important to play …”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 9:34 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Insight
Blumenthal: Successful leaders project confidence and fake it through imposter syndrome
“The reality is that we all have imposter syndrome, right? We all think that we're not good enough or we're not there yet, but the ones that succeed are the ones that fake it. We just fake it every single day and we put on the air of confidence, whether we're C…”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 27:36 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome
Insight
Blumenthal: Certain categories will never innovate without female founders and investors
“There are categories that will never be innovative if we don't have female entrepreneurs and female investors, right?”
Rachel Blumenthal Jul 13, 2018 ▶ 28:35 20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increase The Flexibility of Your Burn When Growth is Ambiguous with Rachel Blumenthal, Founder & CEO @ Rockets of Awesome

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why Fundraising Is Like Dating and How to Play The Game Successfully & How To Increa Jul 13, 2018 24m
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