Femstreet22 Issue #26 - Weekly Newsletter on Women in Tech and VC
Your weekly newsletter on women in tech, venture and entrepreneurship
Issue #26
"Figure out what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. Build diverse authentic relationships and work on them every single day. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Admit what you don’t know. Find that right balance of exuding confidence and humility."
Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Fitz
👋 Hello there and welcome to another edition of Femstreet22!
I wanted to take the opportunity and thank everyone who has shared the newsletter with their network in the past weeks and introduced me to other female investors and founders. I certainly came with new energy to this week's issue because of that!
Speaking of networking... Alpha Edison, Flybridge and XFactor Ventures have created the #StartWithEight initiative. #StartWithEight is a simple commitment — take meetings with 8 women from outside your networks in the month of March — with an ambitious goal — to build parity across the venture ecosystem.
And here is what people were talking about in the Fem-universe last week:
💸FROM THE INVESTOR
Who leads the way in Europe when it comes to investing in female-founded companies?
Some of the continent's top investors dominate the list, including Germany's High-Tech Gründerfonds, Paris-based Kima Ventures and Sweden's Almi Invest. The top 16 VC investors in Europe's female-founded companies
Kelly Kirkpatrick and Alan Clayton of SOSV deep dives into the characteristics and strengths of female founders using data from 700 global startups in "What female founders bring to the table"
Suzanne Ashman, a partner at investment firm LocalGlobe, highlights the need to fund more female tech entrepreneurs. LocalGlobe's Suzanne Ashman on the need to fund more women in tech
Venture capital firm Backing Minds scours the Swedish startup scene for the hidden gems - outside Stockholm. Its partner Susanne Najafi – who grew up in the working-class suburb of Rinkeby, Stockholm – mainly focuses on immigrant and female entrepreneurs, who often lack access to the VC establishment in Stockholm. Backing Minds VC Susanne Najafi on her investment strategy
Francesca Warner, CEO of Diveristy VC on Why 2018 needs to be the year of transparency in venture capital
Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Ventures highlights in a post a few female US VCs in their 20s and 30s who entrepreneurs and other VCs should know — but may not because they are earlier in their careers — and should be looping in to their deal flow. Female VCs You Should Know
We all know the stats. Only 2% of venture funding went to female founders in 2017, and just 8% of partners at the top venture capital firms are women. In honor of International Women’s Day, venture firm Alpha Edison wrote a Medium post about “doing something about these statistics through action.” Here’s what the female VCs had to say when asked how venture capital can close its funding gender gap.
7 Women VCs on How Female Founders Can Get More Venture Dollars
FROM THE OPERATOR
London’s largest innovative centre Plexal is launching a brand new deep tech accelerator programme for women-led start-ups, named Plexiglass. Plexiglass, the new deep tech accelerator just for women-led start-ups.
Harry Stebbings of 20VC spoke to Mariam Naficy, Founder & CEO of Minted about the right way for founders to think about capital efficiency and how to create a culture of continuous learning (Podcast)
Always talking about your great app idea? Venetia Archer took the plunge and launched hers, the beauty concierge app Ruuby, which allows you to book a haircut or massage to your home at the press of a button. Women in tech: Venetia Archer, founder and CEO of Ruuby app
For women founders in particular, getting to the first million is essential. There’s a famous fundraising adage, “You need $1,000,000 to raise $1,000,000.” Before a fundraiser can secure the coveted 7 figure gift, a nonprofit needs $1,000,000 in annual revenue. Getting To Your First Million: Three Fundraising Fails To Avoid
200 business leaders and MPs sign Telegraph letter urging Government to boost female entrepreneurship in Britain.The letter, reproduced in full below, explained that female entrepreneurs are being unfairly held back and their access to capital restricted, with just nine per cent of funding into UK startups currently going to women-run businesses annually. Why the Telegraph is campaigning for women entrepreneurs
The Founders of Away, Steph Korey and Jen Rubio, (of my favourite luggage brand) have 3 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs AWAY Travel, Luggage, Founders on Tips for Success for female founders
Femtech, defined as software, diagnostic products, and services that use technology to improve women’s health, is poised to be a disruptor in global healthcare, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.
This can be attributed to the rise of the ‘she-economy’, where women are not only playing an increasingly influential role across the healthcare continuum, but also have higher purchasing power. Femtech - Digital Revolution in Women’s Health (Infographic)
PRODUCTS BUILT BY WOMEN FOR WOMEN
🗺️ The UK startup Amble is developing a navigational app that provides personalised safety routes for women.
💰 IFundWomen is a New York based video-driven crowdfunding site for female founders.
👌Venture Chat Girls Collective is an online curation of the best advice from female founders, investors, and operators.
🚪 Glassbreakers is a peer mentorship community for women from the team that built Glassdoor.
👥 Leap from Y Combinator is an online community where women in tech can talk about whatever they want.
📆EVENTS
SaaStr has launched a SaaStr Europa Diversity and Inclusion program! To help break down the barriers, SaaStr have set aside 100 special, no-charge passes to SaaStr Europa on 15 June in Paris for members of underrepresented groups in the B2B SaaS community. Space is extremely limited. APPLY NOW!
- March 12 in London: Finding Balance - Managing Motherhood And Entrepreneurship
- March 12 at Station F in Paris: Female Founders Breakfast Meeting
- March 14 in London: Intertech @Starling Bank - A celebration of IWD and Diversity in Technology and Finance
- March 15 in London: Introduction to Investing - Hosted by MoneyGirl
- March 15 at EY in London: Ambition Nation: Female Leaders Series
SMART READS OF THE WEEK
Ethan Agarwal, founder and CEO of Aaptiv, a digital health company with nearly 200k paying members, shares How I learned to stop worrying and love working capital
The science behind personalized music recommendations. Spotify’s Discover Weekly: How machine learning finds your new music.
Comments, questions, tips? Send me a note!
Until next Sunday,
Sarah
You know that there is a small but meaningful thing you can do this Sunday. Please take a minute and share Femstreet22 with friends on Twitter or Linked or forward this by 📧
Sharing is caring.