Raising capital as a pseudonymous founder; Hiring in an era of extreme competition; Talking openly about pregnancy at work
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Welcome to the new year with Femstreet. I’ve missed you!I’m Sarahand 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.
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)
