How to shut down a company; Best practices for working with marketing agencies and contractors; Starting your PLG motion
Where women in tech lead, shape and fund the future.
Welcome to Femstree't’s life online in 2023. I’m Sarah and this is the 253rd edition of Femstreet. If you enjoy this issue, please share it with your friends and like it above.
Insights
Katrina Lake returns to Stitch Fix as CEO to save the personal styling business after its stock had tanked 93% since the CEO handover in 2021 and multiple rounds of layoffs. Monique Woodard Unveils Cake Ventures, a $17M new fund focused on demographic change. Solo GP Nichole Wischoff announced her $20M fund II, backed by Peter Thiel, to invest in ‘unsexy businesses’. Memes and monetisation: Can you make money from memes? Female founders like Away and Glossier have found great success in the consumer goods category over the years, but that era might be over as investor preferences shift. How to say ‘No’ to non-promotable work in 2023. Selling to SMBs has become an attractive proposition, here’s a Founder’s Playbook on how to sell to SMB. Your tech startup but every employee is a character from The White Lotus. Why you as founder should find a fast current, not a large body of water. Barbie was the first avatar. What does it mean to develop your identity today?
A message from BetterHelp
Make your mental health a priority with BetterHelp
Therapy is hard work, but finding support shouldn't be. Find an affordable, accredited therapist to suit your situation - whether that's managing anxiety, depression, grief, relationships, trauma or other mental health challenges - through BetterHelp's online platform. Once you've been matched, scheduling live video and phone sessions is simple, and so is unlimited messaging with your therapist.
Join 3 million others and get 25% off your first month of professional online therapy.
From builders and investors in our universe…
How and when to hire marketing agencies and contractors
Startups waste way too much money hiring contractors for all the wrong things. It’s too hard to effectively manage a bunch of marketing contractors and agencies if your ratio of external to internal marketers is off. Marketing contractors aren't band-aids in a downturn. Emily Kramer of MKT1 on how to use them successfully, and what to keep in mind when hiring all types of marketing contractors or agencies…Read more.
Five steps to starting your PLG motion
PLG is proven to have higher efficiency and broader reach than any other growth motion and can be a great complement to a sales-led motion. But you need a good reason and strong conviction to launch a PLG motion, because the investment is not trivial. If you are starting net-new with PLG, your main challenge will be a lack of foundation and expertise. Gitlab’s former growth leader Hila Qu shares how you can pick a starting point and what the most common pitfalls are…Read more.
Rise of the Silicon Valley small business
Angel investor and Clubhouse’s former Head of Commumity Anu Atluru believes that in 2023, we’ll see more Silicon Valley startups that operate like small businesses. And some of them will have big outcomes. What’s the archetype of a Silicon Valley small business? How do they differ from traditional SMBs and tech startups? And, why now?…Read more.
How to shut down a company when things aren't working
Failure is part of the business model of our industry, but there's little advice on how to shut down a company when things aren't working. We just don’t talk about it that often. Pulley’s Yin Wu shares tactics for dissolving a startup in three parts, and what to tell investors to get them to fund your next bet…Read more.
How to tell if your idea is worth pursuing
Thinking about starting something new in 2023? The best way to begin testing new ideas is to make a validation plan and create a hypothesis statement. Zoe Chew on how to validate startup ideas quickly using these five steps…Read more.
New year, new opportunities and talent!
Whether you were impacted by the recent layoffs or you’re looking for a new challenge or talent - we want to help. Join the Femstreet Talent Collective! New opportunities await.
We’ve got incredible talent in our Collective! Companies can get 1 month 50% off our Collective with the code femstreet50, cancel anytime.
For companies: If you're hiring, apply to start getting bi-monthly drops of amazing people in our community for new gigs across Product, Chief of Staff profiles, Marketing, UX, Strategy etc — actively or passively. Apply to join now and choose from the open talent looking for their next thing here.
Looking for a new, big gig? Applicants, please apply to join our Talent Collective here.
25% of our audience say the first thing they do when they wake up on Sunday morning is read Femstreet.
Reach out to our community of young business professionals and decision-makers, tell your story from a source that our readers trust through sponsored ads or job postings on our job board.
Our readers are global, diverse, ambitious professionals, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers. Reserve your spot for Q1 2023 now!
In case you missed it
Thank you for tuning in this week. See you next Sunday!
👋 Sarah
Comments, questions, tips? Send me a note