Welcome to Femstree't’s life online. I’m Sarah and this is the 260th edition of Femstreet.
It’s been a sad week. The most popular bank for startups and VCs just went under, and a lot of money is potentially gone. While we don’t know the full effects on the startup ecosystem yet, my heart goes out to all of the founders and fund managers dealing with the ramifications of SVB’s insolvency. Here are some resources for companies banking with SVB.
Northzone hiring in Berlin…After more than 5 years of backing and working with extraordinary entrepreneurs in the German-speaking ecosystem, we are now looking for an Associate to join us. Apply here!
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Assembling IKEA tables got you feelin’ like the Steph Curry of furniture? The Average Joe will turn you into the Marie Kondo of investing. Organized, calm and ready to conquer the markets. Their newsletters are the “IKEA instructions for investing” — short, simple and concise — and filled with market trends and insights. But you don’t read IKEA manuals on your spare time and you wouldn’t read financial publications for fun. Until now…
One of the biggest mistakes you can make during a crisis is fail to communicate swiftly and with poise. It’s not so much about what the comms actually says but how they make people feel. The feeling you want to convey is that you got this under control, you will get info and keep people informed as you go along, and your door is always open to chat. Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin on what to do in a crisis situation and how to communicate to your investors and employees…Read more.
From a down round and 75% headcount reduction to $50m revenue
In 2019, after raising $300m from investors, open-source containerisation platform Docker realised their business model wasn't working. To give them time to pivot, insiders led a meaningful down round and reduced headcount by 75%. They replaced the CEO twice in a year. Airtree’s Jax Vullinghs shares that you can turn around your company if you focus on the users, find a fast-moving current and don’t plug & play someone else's business model…Read more.
Choosing to be co-located vs distributed
Collaboration, cadence, trust, communication, the creativity that emerges from hallway conversations, employee community and engagement — these are all highest when you are together in person. You have to be way stronger as a team to neutralise the cost of being distributed when you are subscale. Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel shares her thoughts on the probability curve of reaching escape velocity if you are distributed vs co-located…Read more.
What it takes to raise a Series A as an Open Source company
Prior to the 2022 downturn, many open source companies could raise Series A (and even Series B) without a commercial product or strategy. But investors’ definition of ‘greatness’ has changed. Which open source metrics do investors care about? How much ARR is needed? Amanda Robson of Cowboy Ventures shares how you can identify that you hit an inflection point to raise your Series A…Read more.
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