Alicia Keys and the NFL partner to launch a fund; The most common early-stage hiring mistake; The rise of the digital girlfriend
Your weekly Newsletter on Women in Tech and Venture Capital
This is Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female operators and investors. I try to make this one of the best emails you get each Sunday morning. If you enjoy this issue, please like it above.
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Happy Sunday, everyone.
I am writing this week’s issue from Berlin. I got here earlier this week for work but stayed for the weekend to hang out with my family and friends. Last week, I shared my learnings and I emphasized the importance of consistency in growing your audience. However, on weekends like that, I really struggle to find time and mental space to write. I usually find my ways to make it work though.
“I want my writing to be a source of fulfillment and career opportunities, not stress.”
- Sari Azout
This week, Femstreet member Sari Azout of Level Ventures was reflecting on her lessons learned writing a newsletter, why she won’t go paid, and why she thinks consistency is overrated. It is a great time to write and start a newsletter, even if you don't monetize your writing directly. These are honest and refreshing words - I feel you, sister.
Insights
Why Whitney Wolfe Herd almost walked away from Bumble. R&B icon Alicia Keys and the NFL partner to launch a $1B fund to support black-owned businesses. Caroline Brochado and Sophia Bendz on the boom in Europe’s early and growth-stage startups. Zoox becomes fourth company to land driverless testing permit in California. Courtne Smith launches NewNew, a social network based on shared content. Gen Zers are carving their own path on Discord to break into the tech industry. How to get the most branding bang out of your B2B IPO. Faye Maidment joins Unshackled VC fulltime. Tips for your YC application. Actress Kerry Washington explains why she became a startup investor. Four people who worked on Pinterest’s finance team speak out about an unequal culture.
From The Investor
It’s data that makes the largest technology companies so valuable. Data is revenue and revenue is sexy. As part of Snowflake’s buzzy IPO this week, I wanted to dive more into why data matters and what companies are looking into to improve their capabilities to work with data.
Shiyan Ko of Hustle Fund goes deep on the most common early-stage hiring mistake: Poor job/role definition. Get good at writing job descriptions! If you've never hired for the role before, go meet the best people in that role in your network. It will help you calibrate what skills to value in the role.
What do camgirls have in common with Twitch streamers? Lillian Li of Eight Roads Ventures dives into live streaming monetization models.
There has been a lot of discussion about what is coming next as a new social platform. With the likes of TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook having been around for a long time, people are wondering what the next big thing will look like. Cayetana Hurtado of Balderton Capital highlights some characteristics that any contender will need to have in order to become the next big social platform.
If you’re still working form home and fancy an occasional change of scenery. Lola Wajskop of Hummingbird published a practical guide to remote work in London.
For founders ready to commercialize opensource, Chang Xu of Basis Set Ventures goes deep on the profile of your first go-to-market hires.
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Join now and attend Wednesday’s Femstreet Meet & Greet and our Startup Legals Circle on October 1st.
From The Founder and Operator
Many OnlyFans stars are saying TikTok is making them rich. Lucy Mort of Hinge on OnlyFans and the rise of the digital girlfriend and how intimacy and connection are being commodified.
The ML infrastructure space is crowded and understanding the various ML platforms and offering can be a challenge. Aparna Dhinakaran of Arize A clarifies the ML infrastructure tools for production.
Amelia Christopher published a tutorial for you to learn how you can evaluate the performance of your React components and further optimize them to gain a more performant React web app.
Here is some approachable technical content by Laura Ellis of IBM for anyone that wants to understand Kubernetes.
Events
🗓️ September 22
What Startups can Learn from Product Management
🗓️ September 22
Data Science Virtual Salon
🗓️ September 22
Lere Hippeau and SVB host The Future of NYC Tech
🗓️ September 24
Slush x Northzone Afterparty
🗓️ September 30
Female Founders Offline x Felix Capital
🗓️ October 7-8
The Opensource Business Forum, the first European conference to discuss opportunities and tackle challenges facing the development of commercial open source software in Europe.
Looking to launch your own fund? Join a select cohort of new fund managers learning the brass tacks of raising a first fund. Meet LPs. Virtual and free.
Fall 2020 Cohort: September 21st to November 13th. Sign up here.
How to start a company on a (H,TN,J,O,L,E) visa: Unshackled’s Roundtable 2.0 is a 12-week program to reach the earliest, undiscovered and underserved future immigrant founders in the U.S. and empower them with the resources to achieve their own version of The American Dream. Apply here.
And In Case You Missed It
5 internal processes to increase customer retention- for everyone
Tips for founder personal brand building - for members only
How to build and scale a remarkable startup without compromising on people or culture - for everyone
6 lessons from building a business in a downturn - for members only
Effects of hype and exclusivity on launch strategies- for everyone
The Athlete CEO - for everyone
If you’re new around here, I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my little old heart for being part of Femstreet this Sunday. I hope you learn something new every time you open this email.
Keep it up with the power moves, friends and see you next week! 👋
Comments, questions, tips? Send me a note
Written by Sarah Nöckel, Early-Stage investor at Northzone. All things workplace tech, data and enterprization of consumer. Born in Germany. Based in London. You can find me elsewhere on Twitter and Instagram.