Raising capital as a pseudonymous founder; Hiring in an era of extreme competition; Talking openly about pregnancy at work
Where women in tech lead, shape and fund the future.
Welcome to the new year with Femstreet. I’ve missed you! I’m Sarah and this is the 211th edition of Femstreet, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content by female CEOs, operators, and investors. This issue is full of goodies to kick off the year and has many awesome new job opportunities. If you like the content in this newsletter, please like it above and share it with friends.
The lucky winner of a free annual membership after completing our annual survey is Lisa Ferrer, founder of Kirae.io. Welcome to the community, Lisa!
Insights
Amy Wu of Lightspeed joins portfolio company FTX’s new $2B fund to lead investments in crypto companies across sectors, which makes it one of the largest crypto funds to date. And we now know that the departing Andreessen partner Katie Haun seeks to raise at least $900M for crypto funds and it seems like she’s already making investments. Not the news we wanted the year to start with: the share of money going to women-only founding teams shrank in 2021, the total dollar amount rose. Riot Games pays $100M to settle gender discrimination lawsuits. Xata’s founder Monica Sarbu launches Tupu.io to help women thrive in tech jobs through mentorship. Former Atlassian Caroline Clark launched Arcade, a ‘try before you buy’ demo company. A tech product launch checklist. Celebs like Kim Kardashian are being sued over cryptocurrency promotion. How to position an Open Source project. Looking to break into VC this year? Here’s Accelerated’s Guide to VC Recruiting. NFT collection The World of Women is about to get a whole lot bigger. ICYMI: Elizabeth Holmes found guilty. Fem3: Thoughts from a woman and contributor in Web3. 2022 annual planning for founders. Why is the Internet so lonely? Sarah Guo on how avatars might help us use the internet better.
People
Tesla’s most prominent black executive, HR Chief Valerie Capers Workman, is leaving the company.
a16z promoted Sarah Wang to General Partner.
Ashley Paston, formerly Bain Capital, joined Meritech as Partner.
Github COO Erica Brescia joined Redpoint Ventures as Partner.
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What founders, startup operators, and investors are talking about…
Hiring in an era of extreme competition
Every tech company is struggling to recruit people. It doesn't matter how hot that company is. The reality is, it's a candidate's market right now. Everyone is looking for the secret sauce to win over talent. Searchlight founder Kerry Wang raised a Series A from Founders Fund and shares how companies can make the right talent decisions, craft more compelling offers, and retain and engage new hires.…Read more.
We need to talk about pregnancy at work sooner
By sharing the news with her team about her second child early on, Lauren Lyon of Headline hoped her younger colleagues could see that talking about something related to women’s health–being pregnant, having a miscarriage, going through menopause, having PCOS, or getting an abortion–isn’t a ding on your work ethic or a sign of not being good enough. Encouraging words about something we tend to not talk about by Lauren who had a miscarriage after telling her colleagues about her pregnancy…Read more.
Raising capital as a pseudonymous founder
If you look at the recent wave of crypto startups, you’ll notice pseudonymity is becoming the new norm. Investors that want to retain a competitive edge in crypto are rushing to develop frameworks to better evaluate pseudonymous founders. They can look into the founder’s on-chain history and will likely expect a Zoom call with the video off. Soona Amhaz of Volt Capital outlined what investors look for during the diligence process…Read more.
Early startup learnings from a student founder
Isabelle Zhou was an early employee of the video collaboration platform Nooks before joining Floodgate. Before joining a startup, you should truly understand your motivations and know whether you have enough mental stamina and conviction in the company to do the really hard things. Isabella wrote about a framework to find out if this is the right path for you and why the intangibles matter the most…Read more.
Turn months and weeks into a few hours
How can you make progress faster by compressing 1-month work into 1-day or 1-hour? Cutting scope tends to be the cheapest, most sustainable way to ship and learn faster. Does it mean sloppy work? No, it means getting clear about the question you want to answer. Linda Zhang on how to validate your ideas faster by meeting your customers directly where they hang out and making a narrowly focused prototype…Read more.
How to convert product-qualified leads (PQLs) into revenue
Product-qualified leads can be the unifying metric for teams executing on a Product-Led Sales motion. Not only do PQLs convert better than MQLs, but they are calculated using real product usage data, so you can understand why an opportunity is qualified. Alexa Grabell of Pocus on how teams can leverage PQLs to drive actions within their sales, marketing, or customer success workflow…Read more.
Consumerizing the private markets
The private markets are becoming accessible to the masses. Today, everyone is an investor. Companies like Robinhood have made it so that anyone can participate in the upside of companies they love. Crypto has shown us that decentralized ownership can rapidly scale any project to global reach. Talia Goldberg and Kate Walker of Bessemer on the entrepreneurs building tools and platforms that expand private market participation.…Read more.
👀 it’s January, there’s never been a better time to explore new job opportunities
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)
👉 Product Designer @Passionfroot
👉 Founding Creator @Passionfroot
👉 Full Stack Developer @Passionfroot
👉 Senior PM @Gigs (Berlin, London)
👉 Head of People @Gigs (Berlin, London)
👉 Community Manager @First Round Capital
👉 Community Ambassador @Meet Cute
👉 Digital Ads Specialist @Nansen
👉 Senior Customer Care Director @SwagUp
👉 Product Manager @Yoop (NYC)
👉 Senior Front End Eng @Request
👉 Pre Seed Investor (VP/Principal) @Flash Ventures (London)
👉 Investment Analyst @Columbia Lake Partners (London)
Check out all the open roles or post your own here.
In case you missed it
Femstreet's Top Highlights of 2021 - for everyone
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 next Sunday, my friends👋
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.