As the child of two attorneys, law school was always top of mind for Ulupreneur Caroline Dell while growing up. But after studying economics and public policy at Brown, she realized that business might offer a better way to make an impact on the world.
Caroline was fascinated by how people work, live, gather, and operate—and by all the connections among them. After working at the global consulting firm Bain, she joined an early-stage startup as a founding employee and helped the business grow from first customer to millions in revenue. That’s when Caroline fell in love with the entrepreneurial world.
While working for Chief, a private network for executive women, she recognized the simple yet transformative power of a strong network. But how could that power be scaled? Caroline was developing a thesis around the time ChatGPT entered the market and saw the incredible advantages AI could offer for professional networking. After she helped Chief raise $100 million in its Series B, the company’s CEO told her it was time to take the plunge and create her own business. As Caroline puts it, “It was like the mother bird kicking me out of the nest.”
She was on a mission. Caroline spent three months researching and validating her hypothesis before incorporating the company in 2024. But it still needed a name. Through her network, she connected with technical co-founder Chris Fischer, and together they created Goodword, a relationship management platform that helps founders and operators unlock the power of their networks.
Goodword emerged from beta in June of this year, and we caught up with Caroline as the platform’s backend reached 550 profiles and 6.4 million relationships across its users and their combined networks.
What is your advice to founders fundraising for the first time?
Start with your own network. I raised about half a million dollars from friends, family, and angels, and I’d say probably 80% of them knew me before I founded Goodword. Then cultivate those relationships, because once people have invested in you, they want to see you succeed. If angels have invested, ask whether they know VCs who might be interested, and continue building from there.
How has it been working with Ulu?
I would absolutely recommend Ulu to another founder because they provide any and all support you ask for, without creating overhead you don’t need. We’re also a New York-based company, and Ulu is our largest West Coast investor, so it has been incredibly helpful to have that perspective.
We hold a quarterly meeting with our largest investors, where we ask questions like: What’s happening in consumer AI? What new metrics are startups tracking? Maria Salamanca has a great sense of what’s happening in AI, and she brings a West Coast perspective that is a little further along the learning curve.
She also sends us examples of other consumer AI companies outside our space. It’s easy for investors to send us something directly related to what we do, but Maria sometimes shares companies that aren’t in our space yet are still incredibly interesting and relevant to our thinking.
It’s incredibly valuable when you can simply pick up the phone, call an investor, and talk something through.
What are your dreams for Goodword?
Our dream is to help every professional make the most of their network and become a connector. We’re starting by serving founders and operators—and we define founders broadly as business owners: anyone who needs to raise capital, hire people, and sell a product.
We already serve operators, investors, and community builders. Ultimately, we’d like to make Goodword available to everyone—college students, MBA students, and people who are just beginning their careers—because that’s actually the perfect time to start.
Today, Goodword is also extremely valuable for people who already have large networks. It allows you to bring everything together in one place, consolidate your relationships, and unlock the thousands of people in your network and beyond.
We envision a more connected world that creates collaboration, joy, and opportunities.
