Abby Sugar

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Abby Sugar is a fractional executive, operator, advisor, and former startup founder. She excels at creative thinking, approaching business through the lens of the ‘art of business,’ and is as proficient in grant writing and marketing communications as she is with understanding financial models.

Areas of Expertise

Pitching & Presentation – Intensive pitch deck review and pitching coaching, considering investors and judges’ perspectives
Executive Coaching – Working with executives and founders to identify strengths and weaknesses, and prioritizing actionable steps for growth
Grant Writing – Types of non-dilutive funding available for small businesses and how to compose applications to secure these grants
Fundraising Advising – Helping founders understand types of funding, when and how to approach investors, and best practices
GTM Strategy & Revenue Modeling – Strategic and creative advising on revenue avenues or pivots for startups and SMEs and practical guidance for resources needed to execute a profitable growth strategy

highlights:

Abby’s Substack

Abby’s LinkedIn

Forbes: Why Companies Should Embrace the Fractional Employee Business Model by Cheryl Robinson

Forbes: Play Out Apparel Creates a Community for LGBTQ to Express Themselves Through Gender-Equal Clothing by Cheryl Robinson

NYTimes: His, Hers, Everyone’s: Gender Equal Underwear Goes (Slightly) More Mainstream by Leah Fessler

Founder Institute Silicon Valley: Fall 2021 Graduation Keynote Address (YouTube)

Feel the Boot: Startup Failure Analysis with Abby Sugar (YouTube)

More About the Expert:

Abby Sugar is a fractional executive, operator, advisor, and former startup founder. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University and studied at Oxford University. With a degree in English Literature, she excels at creative thinking, approaching business through the lens of the ‘art of business’ and art through the lens of the ‘business of art.’

She is an outgoing, unapologetically queer startup founder and executive, and is a leading voice in and for the LGBTQ+ community. A Founder Institute Select Portfolio Company CEO for her startup Play Out Apparel, Abby was named to the Forbes Next 1000 List in 2021, and profiled and interviewed numerous times in Forbes and the New York Times. She speaks on podcasts, international panels, and gives frequent interviews about startups, fundraising, leadership, and diversity and inclusion.

Sugar is as proficient in grant writing and marketing communications as she is with building and understanding financial models. When working with clients, she is a direct communicator and pushes clients to consider their project from new angles.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Multitudinous Musings, Sugar’s monthly Substack Newsletter, where she shares general educational articles about startups and investing, long form journalism, and poetry/literature that she reads – it’s also known as Sugar’s Recommended Reading. abbysugar.substack.com

Always upgrade your problems. Challenges or problems are always inevitable. But if you are always having the same problems, that means you aren’t growing. If it feels like your problems are getting harder, that means that you’re upgrading your problems – I always want to have different or bigger challenges than I was having before; that means my business is growing.

Abby Sugar

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