Hey, friends of Soapbox! Welcome to our March newsletter.

We hope you are enjoying daylight savings and longer days 🙂 and spring weather

February was all about AI, IPOs, and A-listers. Here are a couple of quick headlines to recap:

OpenAI doubled down on AI dominance with its new platform for custom business AI agents, while Elon Musk lobbied to buy Open AI on X.

YC-backed Optifye.ai went viral on Twitter for their launch of demo software to help factory owners know who’s working and who isn’t. The company launched software that is used in tandem with AI cameras on assembly lines…

Hinge Health made headlines as the first healthcare delivery startup to file for an IPO in years, and Bessemer announced a $350M fund to invest in India’s booming startup scene. 💰

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl had record-breaking viewership—though Taylor Swift’s appearance and Kendrick’s half time show overshadowed the game itself. The Grammys crowned Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter as Album of the Year (first Black artist to win Best Country Album!), and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” took home both Song and Record of the Year.

Let’s dive in 🙂 

Soapbox of the Month

I Deleted Social Media. Here’s What Happened

Written by Emily

Read & share the FULL Soapbox Moment Here

I never would have said I was addicted to my phone — until I deleted social media.. The moment I removed Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter, it hit me just how much of my life had been slipping away into an endless scroll.

I’m not here to be preachy or act like I’ve unlocked some higher level of existence by deleting social media. I don’t think I’m better than anyone for doing this, and I definitely don’t have it all figured out. But I do think it changed a lot for me, and I want to share my experience.

Before I deleted the apps, my screen time was hovering around 7–8 hours a day. Some of that was messaging, Google, and Spotify/YouTube, but I was easily spending 2–4 hours on social media alone. There were probably days when it was even more. I wasn’t just scrolling for fun — I was constantly and subconsciously picking up my phone to fight boredom, distract myself, or chase some quick dopamine hit. Twitter was my news source. TikTok was for entertainment, inspiration, and following trends. Instagram kept me connected to friends and my community. But in reality, none of these apps were actually serving me. They were just stealing my time and attention.

I knew it was a problem. I complained about it like we all do. I constantly felt overwhelmed, distracted, and unproductive, but I justified keeping the apps anyway. “Oh, I just need TikTok for inspiration” or “Instagram helps me stay in touch with people.” But when I really thought about it, I realized I was just making excuses to keep doing something that wasn’t actually serving me.

So, I finally deleted them. And here’s what happened.

The 5 Biggest Changes I Noticed

1. My Focus and Mental Clarity Skyrocketed

Without the constant pull of notifications and the temptation to “just check TikTok for a minute” (which always turned into an hour or more), my brain felt like it could finally take a deep sigh of relief.

I started noticing how often I used to reach for my phone out of pure habit — whether I was waiting in line, watching TV, or even walking from one room to another. Now, without that reflex, I feel more engaged in everyday life. My attention span has stretched beyond the 15-second clips I was feeding it.

Even the mundane parts of life feel more interesting again. I don’t get instantly bored or disengaged like I used to when I had an easy escape in my pocket. Tasks like cooking, cleaning, or just sitting with my thoughts feel more natural, instead of something I need to distract or entertain myself through.

2. My Goals Actually Became Easier to Accomplish

For so long, I kept convincing myself that I just wasn’t disciplined enough. I wanted to read more, work out consistently, cook at home, and keep my space clean — but I always fell short. Turns out, it wasn’t a motivation problem. It was an attention problem.

Social media was constantly draining my willpower, making even the simplest tasks feel like a struggle. Once I cut it out, I suddenly had the mental energy to actually start doing the things I had been putting off.

Instead of “just checking TikTok for 5 minutes”, I now get up and do the thing I wanted to do. And after a few days of consistency, those things become habits. The hardest part of any goal is just starting — and social media was making that so much harder than it needed to be.

3. I Stopped Feeling Like I Was Falling Behind

“Comparison is the thief of joy,” and social media makes it impossible to escape this. Even if I wasn’t consciously comparing myself to people and lifestyles on social media, I was subconsciously stacking my life up against strangers who had completely different paths, priorities, and circumstances.

I would often be burdened with constant thoughts like: Should I be traveling the world? Climbing the corporate ladder? Buying a house? Investing in a capsule wardrobe? Using more retinol? Cutting out microplastics and Red 40? It’s exhausting. And worst of all, there was no clear answer. No matter what I did, there was always someone online doing something else that made me feel like I wasn’t doing enough.

The weirdest part is that most of these people on my feeds didn’t even matter to me. When I was on social media, I somehow knew everything about random peoples’ relationships, their latest brand deals, and even their drama. Tell me why I knew the name of Pookie and Jett’s new baby. Or why I was emotionally invested in a TikTok conspiracy about a woman I had never heard of named Nurse Hannah. THAT’S WEIRD. I am never going to meet these people, and truthfully, their personal lives should not matter to me. Watching their content did not tangibly benefit my life.

Without social media, my brain isn’t cluttered with irrelevant information about people I will never meet. Instead, I focus on the relationships that actually matter to me — my friends, my family, my circle. I admire the people around me and use them as a guiding force for inspiration, instead of chasing after some random person’s version of success.

Because seriously — why was I jealous of a makeup and skincare influencer in LA when I don’t even like makeup that much and have zero interest in living in LA? How did these people even end up on my feed, and why was I so enamored with them?

4. My Mood Stabilized and the Doom Feeling Went Away

Less social media meant less exposure to negativity. I am no longer being bombarded with bad news, outrage, and random internet drama that had no real impact on my life but still managed to stress me out.

Social media rewards extreme emotions — whether it’s anger, excitement, or sadness. But without that constant flood of highs and lows, I feel more emotionally stable. Less reactive, more in control. I don’t get sucked into debates about things I don’t actually care about. I don’t spiral over every terrible news headline. I just… exist. And it’s so much better.

5. I Replaced Mindless Scrolling With Intentional Activities

When you take away a bad habit, you have to replace it with something else. I found myself naturally gravitating toward activities that actually serve me — like reading, walking, journaling, and listening to music. I’ve also started learning new skills and hobbies. Instead of passively consuming content, I’m actually doing things.

Read the rest here

CAREER 🧑‍💻

Have you heard of digital gardens? 💐 🌼 ☀️ 

Think of them as “personal wikis” or “evergreen notes”—living, evolving spaces where you can document and refine your thoughts over time.

In venture, the ability to write down ideas, challenge assumptions, and develop theses is invaluable. A digital garden helps you track industry trends, refine mental models, and connect ideas in new ways. It’s a space for critical thinking—whether you share it publicly or keep it for yourself.

Even if you don’t publish it, having a record of how your thinking has evolved can be useful in conversations with LPs, investors, founders, and the greater startup community.

What makes a digital garden different?

1️⃣ It’s explorable – Ideas are linked organically rather than organized chronologically.
2️⃣ It grows over time – Notes start as half-formed thoughts and evolve as you refine them.

But not all writing is a digital garden. For example, newsletters (like Soapbox ❤️😃) don’t quite count. Why? Because they’re published, not cultivated. A newsletter is a snapshot of your thinking at one point in time and curated for a specific audience, while a digital garden is always evolving.

No-code tools to start your own digital garden:

• Notion – Free and easy to use

• Obsidian – Great for private notes, with a user-friendly app

• Roam – Popular among networked note-takers

Here are some great examples of digital gardens:

• New Age Consumer by Em Herrera

• Andy Matuschak’s Notes

• Shawn Wang @swyx

CULTURE 🌈

Slow Ventures raised a $60M seed fund to back social media creators 😲 

Slow Ventures recently announced they are investing $1M–$3M into online creators' holding companies in exchange for a ~10% equity stake in their cash profit (above a certain earnings threshold). They also secure the right to invest in future ventures if the creator decides to raise additional funding.

Slow isn’t investing in specific projects (like a single YouTube series or a merch line). Instead, they back creators holistically - aligning with them across all their business endeavors.

Who they’re targeting: The fund is focused on niche creators across various verticals—think camping, automotive, gardening, and other specialized spaces—not mainstream celebrities or athletes (sorry, Mr. Beast).

Slow Ventures prioritizes YouTube when scouting for investments, viewing it as the strongest platform for monetization. While creators on TikTok or Instagram may still find success, Slow tends to see those platforms as a secondary filter in their decision-making process.

👉 Our take: This is an exciting new model in an underexplored space. Creators are making serious money, and investing in them could be a highly lucrative move.

Learn more about the Slow Creator Fund

CAPITAL 💸

Are bridge rounds a signal of growth, a tight market, or a company waiting to die?

We loved Last Money In’s coverage on bridge rounds this month. They walk through examples of past bridge rounds and highlight the little nuances of what could distinguish a strong bridge round from a risky one.

A snapshot of some of their scenarios:

• A company is performing well but not well enough to justify a larger priced round and/or at their target valuation.

• A company underperformed for some semi-legitimate reason (supply chain issue, capacity issue, product bug, R&D required more time than expected, revenue lagging traction, etc.)

• A company is underperforming, and the round is one last-ditch effort to make something happen.

Our Take: Bridge rounds are a sticky (but often needed) situation especially at the early stages. These rounds should only be opened up if there is an actual cash crunch or a larger round doesn’t make sense at the time for a founder. For our friends at the Series A/B stage, messy cap tables with lots of bridge rounds (Seed-A1, A2, A3, etc.) could be a sign of a lack of capital discipline, PMF, or a sign of a near death.

From Our Feed to Yours

Tweets, Memes, and other things from our feed that gave us a laugh.

Thanks for supporting Soapbox!!! Have something you want us to talk about, or want to connect? Drop us a note at [email protected] 

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