| Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week's startup news and trends. Oper8r, built by Winter Mead and Welly Sculley, wants to help new entrants in the VC world scale. The accelerator launched last year as a “Y Combinator for emerging fund managers,” built to help solo capitalists and people launching rolling funds grow up. The idea was that a well-networked, smart individual may be able to raise their first $10 million in a debut fund off of connections, but when it comes time to scale to a $50 million or $200 million fund, managers need to have a sophisticated understanding of how the LP world works. Now, Mead claims that all 18 graduates within his first cohort, which include Stellation capital, Maple VC, Interlace Ventures and Supply Change Capital, have successfully closed funds. Its second cohort is still in the fundraising process, but across both cohorts, over $500 million has been closed. Oper8r is launching its third cohort next week and soon will announce the launch of Cr8r, an early-stage program to help talented angel investors grow their investment cadence. Oper8r's expansion comes as the rate of first-time venture fundraising grows as well. The Wall Street Journal's Yuliya Chernova wrote a story this week about how, after years of being on the decline, the rate of first-time venture fundraising in the United States is "on track to reverse course.” The story, pulling analysis from advisory firm Different Funds, states that "in the second quarter of this year, some 40% of venture-fund announcements, which includes funds just setting out to raise capital, were made by debut funds, whereas they represented between roughly 20% and 30% of fund announcements in each quarter over the past two years." This data screams that the rise of a solo GP, or an ambitious rolling-fund-turned-venture firm, isn't a one-off, it's an actual trend. This means there's more pressure for venture firms to go beyond a scout program when it comes to supporting the next big investors — and there's more of a market for formal efforts to scale operations. Mead, meanwhile, is cooking up ways to add validation and signal to Oper8r. Many accelerators write checks to further validate their choices, but also to tap into the access they're getting by helping budding entrepreneurs before top-tier LPs and VCs notice them. He hinted that Oper8r may pursue a similar strategy as it seeks to be the go-to for emerging managers. "I think capital speaks louder than educational programs," he said. "If you're putting money into the opportunities you're engaged with, I think it serves as a greater signal than someone just coming through the program." In the rest of this newsletter, we'll discuss the creator economy's latest dance, international BNPL week, and why I'm putting Reid Hoffman in the hot seat. As always, you can find me on Twitter @nmasc_ and listen to my podcast, Equity. | 
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