This is Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators and investors. I try to make this one of the best emails you get each Sunday morning. If you enjoy the content, please like it above and share it with friends.
Welcome to issue No. 160 and here’s what you will learn today:
How you can build products that solve a real problem and make something a lot of people want.
How to build a design-first company.
How you can work more intelligently with venture capital investors.
Apple hired Intel’s Barbara Whye as its new head of diversity.
From The Investor
No more FAANG but let’s go MT SAAS which stands for Microsoft, Twilio, Salesforce, Adobe, Amazon, and Shopify. Mary D’Onfrio of Bessemer Venture Partners on why cloud computing is the mega-trend of the next decade and MT SAAS is a new basket of top public technology companies.
Regardless of your company or industry, better design creates an improved user experience and drives customer excitement for your product. Morgan Mahlock of In-Q-Tel and Grace Isford of Canvas Ventures on how to build a design-first company.
This week I learned that Ant Financial currently holds the most patents for blockchain in China. Lillian Li of Eight Roads Ventures shines light on Ant Financial's future product range and why it’s push into SaaS with their blockchain, database and collaboration offerings.
Angela Strange and Seema Amble of a16z on why in a world of increasingly generic product experiences and rising acquisition costs, fintech companies are pursuing a marketing advantage through vertical banking, services tailored to specific customer communities. They also tough on new retailer payment methods and QR codes’ big moment.
I know Construction tech doesn’t sound as sexy as consumer apps but they have the potential to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar (!!!) industry. Allison Xu of Bain Capital Ventures dives into the key challenges and opportunities across construction projects.
At some point last week I opened LinkedIn and I thought I am on Facebook, two days later I opened Twitter and thought I am on Instagram. How come? They all launched stories. In an audio recording, Monique Villa of Mucker Capital shared why any average person is going to need enterprise functionalities to function and participate in society.
Become a Femstreet Member
Our members are entrepreneurs, young professionals and decision-makers working in startups in product, sales, ops & strategy roles, and investors. While this newsletter will always be free, the membership for $100/year includes the following benefits and perks:
Private Community Network: Connect with like-minded CEOs, startup operators and investors on Slack, who you can turn to at any time for repeatable, scalable advice at your fingertips. Learn from the best and apply it to your business, hire diverse talent or find a new job.
Monthly video networking sessions, Femstreet Circles with industry leaders, in-person meetups, and a member directory.
Special offers: Enjoy exclusive savings on events and software tools.
An additional weekly Member Briefing with a curation of community-sourced learnings and opportunities.
Meet female founders and startup operators from top companies at our monthly Meet & Greet on Nov 24th and join the next Femstreet Circle on proactive press outreach and brand narratives on Dec 3rd.
Marketing and brand queen Sarah McBride of Zenly shared all the lessons learned from a viral 🍦truck in Japan.
“Anyone can build products. Not everyone can build products that solve a real problem and land product-market fit.”
Sunita Mohanty, Product Lead as part of Facebook's New Product Experimentation, on how you can build products that solve real problems with this lightweight JTBD framework.
You are a startup operator or investor and would like to increase your reach with your blog posts? We’d love to bring your content to our platform. Each month we will publish a select number of articles written by our operator and investor community. Our subscribers include the most important and interesting women in technology and business. Here are some of them. If you want to join this incredible group of Femstreet contributors, please reach out.
🗓️ December 15 The Debut Sessions LIVE pitch competition The event will see 4 early-stage tech companies pitch to some of the most recognised VC's / investors in the UK in a 'Dragon's Den' style format. This will be followed by a 30 minute panel discussion and multiple, interactive 'Session Rooms' (including a 'Term Sheet Clinic' and 'Investor Deck Clinic'). The winner of the Main Stage Pitch Competition will receive a Term Sheet from Ascension Ventures for a £100,000 SEIS investment. Apply to Pitch.
And In Case You Missed It
8 things to think of when first angel investing- for members only
