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.
Hi friends, greetings from old and wet London. This is issue No. 166 - adding the issue number is the only way for me to remember what day it actually is but we made it through the first month of the year. If you’re looking for a new job, we’ve got some amazing opportunities waiting for you to apply at the bottom of this email.
Here’s what you'll learn in today’s issue full of goodies:
How your company can use Tiktok to cultivate user trust.
Why some work that doesn’t feel like work and we are seeing the erosion of place.
Ann Bordetsky, formerly COO at Rival, joined NEA as a Partner. We hosted a Q&A with her on how to lead your company through a crisis last year. Read more.
The Pill Club added former Uber exec Liz Meyerdirk as CEO.
From The Investor
How startups behave on TikTok
Tiktok can help startups build user trust and buy-in, drive awareness of new products and services, create a buzz and get user feedback and helps them create a two-way dialogue. Li Jin of Atelier Ventures argues that companies that figure out how to leverage TikTok will have an advantage in building brand awareness, cultivating user trust, and efficiently acquiring customers. Here is how it’s done.
Hacking human systems
Applying software to highly regulated and intermediated industries like education and healthcare is tricky. When well-meaning technologists dive into these industries, they slam into a few major challenges like “legacy infrastructure debt” or like the people with the greatest needs have the least ability to pay. Despite the challenges, Parul Singh of Founder Collective says that scrappy entrepreneurs find their way around them by finding discrete use cases and ecosystem help. Read more.
The emergence of a new layer in modern enterprise
The new data layer as a large shift in the modern enterprise has the potential to outgrow “code” by orders of magnitude and create several multi-billion dollar categories over the next decade. Irina Haivas of Atomico goes into what’s driving the rise and the opportunities ahead. Read more.
Work that doesn’t feel like work and the erosion of place
How can we enhance creativity, multi-disciplinary thinking, and the quality of our thoughts? Can serendipity and authenticity happen more online than in the physical world? Sari Azout of Levels VC shares her thoughts and reflections here.
The Essential Guide to Syndicates
Paige Finn unpacks the definition of a syndicate, how to work with syndicates and why you should consider them as part of your fundraising journey as an organizer, an investor, or a founder. Get the guide.
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Join now and attend our Femstreet Meet and Greet on February 10th or ask a friend with a membership to join our virtual member-only happy hour.
Positioning is not equivalent to your company’s messaging and it often takes founders many iterations to figure out the right one. A shift in positioning can completely transform how we perceive a product and can mean the difference between success and failure. April Dunford, the queen of B2B Marketing positioning, shares how it’s done.
3 key things that VCs consider before they invest
Sending pass emails is part of our job as venture investors. Rejection is a part of life, but the amount of rejection a founder faces in fundraising can be demoralizing and an emotional roller coaster. Holly Liu touches on the three things she wished she had known earlier about VCs when she was a founder. Read more.
How to hire your first marketer
Many founders make the wrong choice with their first marketing leader. To find the right first hire, Emily Kramer & Kathleen Estreich suggest you understand the marketer’s experience and make sure it isn’t their first time in more than 1 or 2 of the areas you can find in their guide here.
How do we rebuild the internet from scratch?
So what would you do if you had a second chance to recreate the internet? Social networks are largely this “big, horrible thing”, but they also have very real positives. How can you tell, when you’re starting a company, which of these things the company will be? Read more.
Four steps to take when preparing for interviews at tech companies
At tech companies, there are usually 4–6 interview rounds and at each interview, the interviewer(s) is looking for different competencies. Take these four steps recommended by Isabel Nyo of Atlassian to ensure you’re ready mentally & intellectually. Read more.
Become a Femstreet contributor
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.
🔥🧘🏽Director, Marketing & Content @Coa (SF, NYC/Remote) Coa is a venture-backed startup building the modern mental health and emotional fitness experience the 21st century needs. You’ve worked in early-stage startups before, love to build content strategies, and have an appreciation for meaningful brand experiences? Apply here.
Analyst @Founders Intelligence (London/Remote) Founders Intelligence is an entrepreneur powered consultancy helping the likes of Facebook, Unilever, and BP redefine their industries by delivering strategy, building new ventures, and investing in startups. As an analyst, you’ll advise corporates on emerging tech & business models, structure commercial deals, and evaluate partnership & investment opportunities. If you’re ambitious and driven by impact, they’d love to hear from you. Apply here.
Visual Designer @Hidden Door (NYC/Remote) Hidden Door, co-founded by Hilary Mason, is an NYC based and VC backed company that is building a new kind of online social narrative game for kids to imagine and explore limitless story worlds together with AI, and looking for a Lead Artist/Visual Designer. If you have hands-on experience including art direction, visual design, and user experience in the gaming or entertainment industries…Apply here.
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