FemStreet22 Issue #15 - December 10, 2017
Your weekly newsletter on women in VC, STEM, female founders & femtech startups
FemStreet22 - Issue #15
👋🏻Happy Sunday folks!
It has been a busy week and here is what people were talking about in the Fem-universe :
From the investor 💸
- Introducing NYC Female Founder Office Hours – Female Founder Office Hours by Rebecca Kaden (Union Square Ventures) & Dayna Grayson (NEA)
- Given that Benchmark — one of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms —only had five general partners, the addition of any sixth partner would instantly catapult that selection into the upper echelon of tech investors. That the selection was Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first female partner during a year of reckoning in gender equality, made her elevation all the more head-turning. ~ Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first female partner, is seen as the future of the venture firm
- A storm fueled by greater awareness about sexual assault and harassment has been gaining momentum in the U.S. ever since a former Uber engineer named Susan Fowler hit “publish” on a post about her jarring experience inside the high-flying rideshare company. ~ In the world of VC, harassment claims aren’t necessarily a deal killer
- OpenView Partners spoke to 15 top software leaders to learn how they foster diversity within their own companies.~ How Companies Like Zendesk, Datadog and Slack Incorporate Diversity into Their Hiring
- Time Magazine published its “person of the year” edition today and honored “the silence breakers” for speaking up and forcing our society to confront its position towards men in power exploiting their power for sexual gain. Real change is clearly needed. Mark Suster on Why We Must Have Zero Tolerance for Sexual Misconduct (Venture Capital Edition)
- Gotham Gal, angel investor Joanne Wilson writes Investors should all care about diversity
- On a drizzly November morning, a bright set of female entrepreneurs from across the fields of of travel, B2B, CPG, retail, health, entertainment and tech presented their exciting new ventures at AllBright’s inaugural Pitch Day. ~ Vegan condoms and AI-powered city guides — what the UK’s female founders are bringing to market
- The Femtech market (technology/products/software that focus on women's health) is currently booming - around $1.1 billion in funding since 2014 - but it is still nowhere near as large as it should be considering that women represent almost half of the population and +75 percent of consumer buying power. Why is this? Why are VCs, the media and others ignoring huge piles of money? ~Why Femtech Shouldn't Be A Checkbox Exercise For Your Portfolio
- VC Isn’t Concerned About Diversity. It Should Be. by Melinda Gates
- VC is the cool career choice for MBA graduates, but getting hired is difficult. ~ How to break into venture capital
- Beth Ferreira on Coming Full Circle: Joining FirstMark Capital as General Partner
- Venture capitalist Jenny Abramson is holding her once-a-month open office hours at Hera Hub, a women's co-working space in Washington, D.C. With her long, straight black hair swept out of the way over her right shoulder, she deftly jots notes with a stylus on an iPad while maintaining eye contact as Kimberly Linson tells her about Leaderally, a new professional learning site for teachers. ~ Inside Jenny Abramson's Female First VC Fund
From the operator 👩🏽 💻
- Job titles & seniority vary across employers, and often the size of company (early-stage startup vs. Fortune 500) hints to how many engineers & layers of hierarchy exist in career ladders. With just the top ~10% of Google engineers awarded a title of “Staff Engineer” and women representing just a quarter of the computing workforce, 2018 represents an opportunity for women in engineering to blaze trails for others to follow as leaders building new technologies & future companies! ~ 12 Inspiring Female Staff Engineers to Watch in 2018
- C heck out these six podcasts aimed at helping female entrepreneurs succeed in the world. Each of these podcasts is unique and serves their demographic with nontraditional content and conversations. ~ 6 Podcasts for Female Entrepreneurs
- The tech sector has long been part of the problem when it comes to gender equality. Now, the head of the UN’s HeForShe campaign is asking it to find a solution. ~ What men in tech can do to address terrible gender inequality
- Elvie, the maker of a connected pelvic floor trainer that helps women with bladder control and yes, even better sex, has proven there’s a market for so-called “femtech” devices. After generating 1 million euros in its first months of direct sales, and growing 50 percent quarter-over-quarter, the company is a good indication that products for women that aren’t just ugly, utilitarian medical devices can make for a profitable business. ~ Elvie’s founder says to ignore the femtech naysayers
- The Cost of Devaluing Women by the New York Times
Investment tracker 💰
- Code.org, the non-profit organization that aims to increase access to computer science education, has raised $12 million in philanthropic funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Infosys Foundation USA and PricewaterhouseCoopers. ~ Code.org raises $12 million from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others
- ADAY,founded by Nina Faulhaber and Meg He, a fresh entrant in the highly competitive world of direct-to-consumer fashion, has raised $2 million in new funding for its mission to simplify wardrobes with a line of durable, technical and chic womenswear.~ ADAY aims to simplify your wardrobe with $2M in funding
- And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2017 is… Lia Diagnostics. The Lia pregnancy test will be the first-ever flushable test to hit the market, offering a more sustainable, disposable, convenient and private way for women to find out if they’re pregnant or not. ~ Lia is launching the first-ever flushable pregnancy test
Events 🎉
- Recoding the Future: Women in Tech - 1st edition, December 12 in London
- BUSINESS BREAKFAST EVENT - GLOBAL WOMAN CLUB STOCKHOLM, December 12
- Femna Taboo Topics Series #1 - Pregnant and running a business, December 12 in Berlin
- FEMALE FUTURE FORCE Community München: MeetUp Leadership, December 13 in Munich
- Female Founders Round Table Discussions (TBE Club), December 13 in London
#GOODREADS before you head out for Sunday Brunch
- The A To Z On Series A: Part Ones – Sapphire Ventures Perspectives
- How to calculate your total addressable market and make a great TAM slide for investors
- Why Chamath Palihapitiya invests in startups without ever meeting them
P.S.: If you like FemStreet22, why not share it on Twitter or Linked, or with your colleagues and friends?
Sarah
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