Hi - thank you for opening. Happy Memorial Day Weekend to those who celebrate. I’m Sarahand this is the 183rd edition of Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators, and investors. This issue is full of goodies to bookmark, inspiration, and opportunities. If you enjoy the content, please like it above and share it with friends. You da best!
Insights
This week we are celebrating not one but two female-led companies going public: Vimeo led by the Indian-American Anjali Sud had its stock market debut. AND Direct-to-consumer medical apparel company FIGS, founded by Heather Hasson and Trina Spear raised nearly $581 millionin its IPO. It is the first-ever company taken public by female co-founders. Collab Capital closes $50M debut fund to back Black founders. How to build a great team from scratch.The value of being uncomfortable.Accolade Partners raised a $200M fund to invest in funds started by underrepresented groups. VC firm Lerer Hippeau names four (!) new women partners.Reframing the female founder narrative.Because everyone has a right to get into the game:Paige Finn Doherty launches Seed to Harvest to demystify venture for adults and kids. Why $1k angel cheks matter. Let’s stop romanticizing the entrepreneur dream.
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What founders, startup operators, and investors are talking about…
What product leaders should do when sh*t hits the fan
According to Tatyana Mamut, three frameworks led to her success: Staying focused on customers, prioritizing the big rocks and not getting distracted, and the right North Star metrics to stay accountable to the long-term vision. Bonus: She also shares how to your first product leader…Read more.
“The Hamburger Model combines the best of two separate methods, and can help provide a path toward a goal of achieving $1B+ in revenue over time. Like a hamburger, the meat (your product), is the most important element — but it doesn’t work without the buns (bottom-up and top-down sales strategies). This is no keto diet!”
The 🍔 GTM
The best Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies for startups are like hamburgers: The bottom bun: Bottom-up GTM; The burger: Your Product; The top bun: Enterprise Sales. In the Hamburger GTM Model, your product is the meat. Caryn Marooney of Coatue on how to best implement the model successfully at your company.…Read more.
New frontiers for NFTs
After being non-existent in 2019, NFT Art trading hit $115M in 2020 and has already 7x’d in the first 5 months of 2021. We are currently shifting from creating NFTs to using NFTs. They are keys to exclusive content and opportunities and rather than passively consuming content, fans now create content. Maria Shen of Electric Capital on interesting emerging ways of using NFTs…Read more.
The trillion-dollar paradox
“You’re crazy if you don’t start on cloud.” is the dominant narrative...But Sarah Wang of a16z shows it hurts the share price of public companies on the order of hundreds of billions and why you might just be crazy to stay on it at scale. The impact to market cap (to the tune of hundreds of billions) changes the calculus…Read more.
Should consumer social founders raise funding off a TestFlight?
Running a TestFlight has become THE strategy for new social apps. It's not uncommon to see startups raising a seed or Series A pre-public launch. But being in TestFlight can skew your metrics, making it tough for you (& investors!) to know if you've found product-market fit. Justine and Olivia Moore of CRV on why a private beta can skew your metrics — and how to respond to investors’ questions about it…Read more.
How this first-time solo female founder raised an $11M seed
There are fewer examples of female solo founders — or even female CEOs — who have successfully raised large amounts from venture capitalists, and especially in Biotech. Celine Halioua of Cellular Longevity just did it and recommends you to not try to learn all the patterns/social etiquette on your own, to acknowledge the risks, and to not be tempted to minimize timelines, $ to milestone, etc to satisfy the VC…Read more.
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Hiring continues to be the hardest part for young companies. This is where Femstreet wants to help. The Femstreet job board makes it easier for everyone to recruit from and find their next big gig within our global community. Explore 200+ opportunities across VC, product, marketing, sales & design at companies such as Pitch, Carta, Public, Tessian etc.
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👉 UX/UI Design Consultant @Diem (NYC/Remote) Diem is the home for the womxn-centric communities we naturally seek and create. Femstreet member Emma Bates is seeking a UX/UI design consultant for this summer. You will be given the creative freedom to design an experience from the ground up harnessing our core functionality (video, audio, messaging, feeds)…Apply here
👉 Summer Fellowship @Paperwork Studio (Remote) Paperwork Studio is a B2B media platform creating niche business publications.As their Summer Fellow, your main role will be to work closely with the Head of Business Development to uncover hyper-targeted areas where they can launch new publication. Research geeks Apply here
👉 Marketing Lead @Ascend (Remote) Ascend is an online leadership program for women. Founder and Femstreet member Shivani Berry is looking for an experienced marketing genius to own the majority of the marketing and program operations…Apply here
Check out all of the open roles or post your own here.
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