Row Vigor founder Kevin Allen discusses his frustration fundraising for his fitness platform compared to rival rowing hardware startups.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Allen: A VC told me I was "too young and too Black"
“I remember my first company, I actually had a venture MD pull me aside and tell me I was too young and too black to get funded. Like they weren't gonna listen.”
Opinion
Allen: VCs issue performative diversity pledges while ignoring Black founders
“What they're doing is they're putting out messaging that, that is asking that a community at large, when they have us, Already here. But I see all these letters from the, you know, the managing directors of this firm or that firm saying, you know, we are commi…”
Insight
Allen: The advice to never build for investors is bullshit
“You know, I've had investors tell me you never want to build a company for investors. That's bullshit. Investors are going to invest in what they like. And if they're the only ones that can provide you access to capital, then you have no choice. Otherwise your…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Allen: Rowvigor CTO ghosted a crucial San Francisco investor pitch flight
“I had bought him a plane ticket and, you know, and we had talked about how important this was and he just missed his plane and didn't say anything or attempt to get on another one.”
Opinion
Allen: Peloton and Fitness Apps Fail to Support the Customer Journey
“One of the things we see in the fitness market is that a lot of people are putting content out, which Peloton is doing in an outstanding way, but they're not supporting their customers in a journey.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Allen: ROWViGOR Targets 85% to 95% Customer Retention
“We want to be north of 85% in terms of keeping people engaged. We think we can do better than that. We're, you know, we're looking at this in the ninety-ninety-five percent range just because of the elements that we talked about.”