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Product-Founder Fit; Developer Super Fans & The New Marketing Playbook
Where women in tech lead, shape and fund the future.
Hi, thank you for opening. I’m Sarah and this is the 176th edition of Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators and investors. In case you missed it, Femstreet got a new look 👀 Hope you guys like it. If you enjoy the content, please like it above and share it with friends.
Insights
What a week: Canva raised $71M in new funding and its valuation balloons to $15B. Canva surpassed $500M in revenue in 2020 with 130% YoY revenue growth, 55M monthly active users. Wow! Real raises $10M from Lightspeed and Megan Rapinoe to rethink therapy. Cleo Capital is targeting $20M for Fund II. The women’s effect on ‘C-Suite thinking’. Six months after launch, The Girls' Night In is closing its virtual membership group. The business of being relatable. Formation raises $4M from A16Z to help underrepresented engineers break into top tier companies. Adaptable NFTs. SPAC my Ass: The story of a shell company and man boy. Why DTC companies need something beyond a good product. The B2B Marketplace Funding Napkin 2021. How iteration is the key to TikTok. Transitioning from consulting to startup. Automating Investor Relations. The meaning of the Metaverse. The collapse of social institutions and the rise of individual influencers.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by…
intent: We see the beautifully effective apps in the broad ideas
Through 12 years of our experience, we delivered more than 160 apps and specialized in shaping them from even the vaguest visions. As, for example, Lover’s founder said: „We came in with a broad brief and a vague vision. Their design team has worked well with our product manager and has done a brilliant job conceptualizing what the product needs to look like.” The final version of Lover helps you enhance your sexual life no matter your orientation, i.e., it tackles orgasm and desire challenges.
Do you have a vision that you want to forge into a beautifully effective app?
From The Investor
The next chapter in the “embedded” movement
Merritt Hummer of Bain Capital says: “Embedded fintech is old news. The next chapter of the "embedded" movement? Marketplaces.” Software + payments became a standard monetization playbook for vertical saas startups. A third layer is emerging now: software + payments + marketplace…Read more.
So you want to be a COO…
COO is one of the vaguest titles. Make it clear what type of COO you want to become. Because of the rise of technical founders and the increasing need for COOs, many more companies are recruiting externally than before. Allison Pickens of The New Normal Fund goes deep into the COO role and why there's something a bit "off" about declaring "COO" as your ultimate career goal…Read more.
How to crush developer documentation
Developer documentation is one of the differentiators in developer community-building efforts. If you’re an engineer, and you hear about an interesting project, the first place you’ll land is the documentation. Astasia Myers of Redpoint Ventures on the importance of documentation for a robust developer ecosystem, the latest evolution in the developer documentation, and on building and scaling developer and user education…Read more.
User research platforms
The market for user research tools has long been fragmented, leaving UX and product teams to manually close the gaps between tools. User research is driven by 3 trends - product-led growth, rapid market shifts, and increasing focus on customer experience. Jennifer Li of A16z looks at the forces and the new players behind the next wave of tools…Read more.
Next-gen developer tooling
In an age where every company is a software company, developers aren’t just an in-demand resource. Whether built for them or selling through them, innovative developer tools that capture the hearts and minds of the developer community have a chance of capturing the wallets of almost every single company, too. Shamillah Bankiya and Virginia Pozzato of Dawn Capital analyze the trends and new players entering the market to address gaps and opportunities created by the first wave of developer tooling…Read more.
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Join now and attend our next member meet & greet on April 14th.
From The Founder and Operator
Do you have Product-Founder fit?
Today a crucial topic when it comes to business building: whether or not your idea has legs. Typically, this is the concept known as idea validation or product-market fit. The third layer that is sorely missing from the traditional narrative is Product-Founder fit.
Ellen Donnelly recommends you ask yourself “am I the right person to build this?”…Read more.
“I make bets to learn — I aim for success, but also expect many painful failures. The end goal isn’t to quit once I reach a milestone, it’s to stay in the game and have fun.”
Life as a new entrepreneur
An employee gets a sense of small, continued progress, an entrepreneur rides a rollercoaster with no seat belts. It’s a mental game that requires new skills. Linda Zhang, formerly Faire, on the assumptions about starting a business, the difference between employee vs. entrepreneur, and applying vs. unlearning product management skills…Read more.
Moving from the Megacorporate to the Start-up world
What would it be like to move from the oldest, most trusted IT companies to one of the hottest, most nimble start-ups in this industry? Lin Sun moved from IBM to Solo.io, here is what she learned…Read more.
It's time to unbundle Instagram
Opening the Instagram app today feels reminiscent of Facebook: noisy and bloated. If you take all the shiny features away, people log in to Instagram for three reasons: connection (close friends), communities, and commerce. In the last year, founders have begun carving out niche products that align with these three themes, whether intentionally or by chance. Holyn Kanake of Twitter explores opportunities and new companies that emerged …Read more.
Does your product have developer super fans?
Developers are incredibly opinionated creatures. Developer super fans are users of your product who write code or leverage your product technically. They're customers who have a strong admiration for your product and likely use it every day. Tessa Kriesel of Fast on how to leverage your super fans…Read more.
The new marketing playbook in a social-driven world
In an increasingly social world, influence marketing is becoming an industry game-changer, particularly in the beauty and fashion sectors. We know by now that micro and nano influencers are driving ROI for brands. Marie Dolle on how can one set-up influencer marketing at scale and what to consider…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.
Events
🗓️ April 14-28
Public.com’s Women & Wealth Finance Festival
🗓️ April 15
Aspiring VC Career Pathways
🗓️ April 16
#Womenterprise Breakfast
🗓️ April 21
Huckletree VC Connect: Female Founders
🗓️ April 26
LatinxVC Fellowship: Breaking into VC
Our readers are global and increasingly more diverse, ambitious professionals, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers.
I’ve created a sponsor deck for those that want to partner with us in Q2/3.
Reach out to our community of young business professionals and decision-makers and tell your story through a source our readers trust through sponsored ads, job postings, and join our list of exclusive community deals.
And In Case You Missed It
Are sports cards the future of retail investing? - for everyone
Community-led product growth - for everyone
How to hack media messaging and effectively bootstrap PR - for members only
8 things to think of when first angel investing- for members only
5 trends in data- for everyone
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 members only
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
See you next week 👋
Comments, questions, tips or raising a Seed capital? Send me a note
Written by Sarah Nöckel, Early-Stage investor at Northzone. Born in Germany. Based in London. You can find me elsewhere on Twitter and Instagram.
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