Creator coins; How to manage unhappy customers; Building a business that is both fulfilling and successful
Where women in tech lead, shape and fund the future.
Happy (almost) holidays! 🎉 I’m Sarah and this is the 210th edition of Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators, and investors. The most clicked post from last week’s curation was Rethinking Equity Compensation. If you like the content in this newsletter, please like it above and share it with friends.
You’ll hear from me one more time in 2021 for our Special Edition newsletter on Dec 31st, and then I promise to not invade your inbox over the holiday. This is the last Sunday issue for this year. We will be back with our usual format on Jan 16th 2022, but the member only newsletter will resume on January 7th.
I’d also love your feedback on Femstreet this year. If you have a few minutes, here’s a 2-minute survey that I hope will let us take things to another level in 2022 😊 We will alsoe give away an annual premium subsription to one of the particpants. Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season.
Insights
Brazil’s Nubank went public on the New York Stock Exchange last week, co-founder Cristina Junqueira’s a 2.9% stake, valued at $1.3B. 👀 Melania Trump is selling NFTs now. Women-focused PE fund Alitheia IDF raises $100M to invest in gender-diverse businesses across Africa. Shares of Gwyneth Paltrow-backed crypto mining firm TeraWulf fall 40% in debut. How Cameo’s Chief People Officer Melanie Steinbach is combining mature operational excellence and startup learning agility for future success. Meet the 18 female executives All Raise has placed through its startup board diversity program. Ashley Kosak, ex-engineer at SpaceX, says she was harassed and groped at Elon Musk’s ‘bros’ club’. The Enterprise Sales Holiday Wish List. How Blackstone quietly became a major force behind female founders. Top tips for effective customer marketing and 2022 Product Marketing predictions. 22 Healthcare predictions for 2022. Index’s Nina Achadjian on why vertical SaaS is the future. The world’s biggest decentralized secret santa.
People
Katie Haun, General Partner of a16z Crypto, is leaving to launch her own fund focused on web3 early next year. She'll keep her Andreessen-connected board seats, including at Coinbase.
Sapphire Ventures Europe promotes Annalise Dragic to Partner at age 29. Whoop Whoop!
Firstmark promotes Lisa Xu to Principal.
A message from On Deck
ODX: The accelerator customized to you
ODX is a $100m accelerator designed to put the next generation of global founders in business. ODX invests in people rather than companies or ideas. You can join if you’re pre-team or even pre-traction. If you’re an experienced founder already working on a company, ODX will help identify and hit key milestones you need to grow.
Regardless of where you’re in your founder journey, ODX will back you with a $125,000 check and access to the On Deck network – thousands of companies, founders, operators, and investors you can tap into for talent, capital and distribution.
What founders, startup operators, and investors are talking about…
Creator coins and the future of income
Athletes and artists usually have a limited window to realize their maximum earning potential. Yet Michael Jackson earned $48 million, ten years after his death. Using blockchain tokens, creators and other individuals have started to sell shares of themselves in different incarnations. Mercedes Bent of Lightspeed Ventures on personal brands as currency…Read more.
Building a business that is both fulfilling and successful
Building a fulfilling business is the goal of entrepreneurship. A business that lights you up and one that you actually enjoy running. The way to arrive at this point is understand how you are wired — your key strengths and personality — then use this information to map to the right business for you. Ellen Donnelly of The Ask on how you can learn to lead yourself effectively…Read more.
Why product-led growth is relevant to you and how to use it to drive sales
We’re in the user era where sales are leaning harder into user-centric and less so on CIO and exec sales to start. It’s easy/cheap to start a SaaS company, buyers want to self-educate and self-serve and COVID accelerated shifts from field sales to inside/online sales. Lolita Taub on the characteristics and customer flows of a PLG company…Read more.
Why every company is a healthcare company
Mental healthcare is becoming table-stakes. Employer-sponsored benefits have evolved from a mandated, cost reduction initiative to a proactive source of healthcare innovation. Michelle Nacouzi of Northzone on why employers are leading a trillion-dollar disruption…Read more.
How to manage unhappy customers
Unhappy customers drain your energy. They are annoying — especially, the ones on the free tier. Customer service is a tough field if you’re not the best person to establish connection with other people and you can’t yet afford to hire the one who is. But there are bulletproof ways to deal with it.…Read more.
Start the new year strong surrounded by ambitious women in tech.
Whether you’re preparing for fundraising or you’re looking to connect with like-minded people in your industry, with the Femstreet membership, you can connect with and learn from the best. As a Femstreet member, you get access to 100 software deals. In addition to the discounts for Stripe, Carta, Airtable, Mercury & many more, for $10 per month or $100 per year, Femstreet members get:
💬 Access to our private community network on Slack
📩 An additional weekly Member Briefing in your inbox
🎥 Interactive bi-weekly video networking sessions.
💥 Vetted resources like our Operator Ocean with 200+ resources
🛠️ A free featured job post on our job board as annual membership holders
👀Explore new opportunities for 2022 or post a job
Whether you’re seeking your dream role or dream employee — Femstreet Jobs has you covered. Check out all the new opportunities on our Job Board. The Femstreet job board makes it easier for everyone to recruit from and find their next big gig within our global community.
Want to get in front of Femstreet’s finest? Featured job posts sit on top of the feed, get promoted in our newsletter, and will be tweeted. New jobs drop every Friday on Twitter!
Featured Jobs this week (remote if not stated otherwise)
👉 Founder Success Manager @Visible.vc
👉 Founding Community Ambassador @Scapin
👉 Digital Ads Specialist @Nansen
👉 EIR @Aveo (Berlin)
👉 Product Manager @Yoop (NYC)
👉 Senior Front End Eng @Request
👉Senior Product Manager, Growth @Wikimedia Foundation
👉Sales Executive @Onepilot (London)
👉Finance Manager @Klang Games (Berlin)
👉 Product Analyst @Classkick
👉Analytics Engineer @Hex
Check out all the open roles or post your own here.
In case you missed it
Community-Led Growth Nirvana - for everyone
A straight-talking deep dive into the equity terms that matter for founders.- for everyone
Me, My Teen Self and Instagram - for everyone
The future of media, community-driven knowledge networks, and the ownership economy - for everyone
How to set up a modern GTM motion for a SaaS startup. - for everyone
Are sports cards the future of retail investing? - 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
How to build and scale a remarkable startup without compromising on people or culture - for members only’
See you in the new year with new energy, happy holidays 👋
Comments, questions, tips or raising your Seed round? Send me a note
Written by Sarah Nöckel, Investor at Northzone. Born in Germany. Based in London. You can find me elsewhere on Twitter and Instagram.