Female Foundry Week 41: VCs are buying public stocks. Finding right board advisor. Expansion in market slowdown. Is rise of creator economy good for creators? Web Summit draw.
Welcome to The Week 41, 2022 Edition of the Female Foundry weekly newsletter!
Female Foundry - where female investors and founders meet.
In The News
Frontdoor Labs, a London-based HR startup for web3, co-founded by Yasaman Rajaee raises a $1m Pre-Seed round led by Signature Ventures; A Munich-based automation app for general counsels Fides, founded by Lisa Gradow and Philippa Peters, bags a $4.3m Seed round led by La Famiglia.
London fintech for under-18s, GoHenry, founded by Louise Hill raises $55m Series B round from existing investors Edison Partners and Revaia; Tallinn-based zero-waste jewelry brand Cloud Factory co-founded by Kati Kask raises €2m Seed round led by Change Ventures; Cylib, a battery-recycling startup based in Aachen, Germany, and co-founded by Lilian Schwich raises a €3.6m Seed round Speedinvest and others.
European venture funding drops 44% in Q3 as the appetite for early-stage opportunities weakens. Read full story ➯
Spotlight
VC firms buy up public tech stocks as startup market stalls.
Struggling to find good investments in the current startup market, an increasing number of Venture Capital firms are currently taking advantage of a mass stock sell-off that allows them to buy shares of high-profile tech companies at a good price, for the first time in years. A number of Silicon Valley firms (Sequoia and a16z) have registered as investment advisers in the past three years to enable them to expand their investment scope into cryptocurrencies and publicly-traded stocks. Berber Jin analyses this interesting trend that “blurs lines” between private and public investing and, as he suggests, may imply more than bargain-hunting. Read full story ➯
Global Mental Health Day - Strategies for managing mental health for founders.
72% of startup founders state they suffer from mental health problems and 77% claim that running a business has negatively affected their mental health. This is nearly three times the average prevalence of mental health issues in the standard population. Taking care of your mental health is one of the most important investments you can make for your company. In this article from 2021, Valentina Zakirova shares practical strategies founders can implement to look after their mental health. Read full story ➯
I also recommend listening to Morra Aarons-Mele and Poppy Jaman OBE who share more practical tips on this topic. Listen to full story ➯
Do you want to be an ally to a founder? Check my quick guide.
Fundraising
Traits to look for in board advisor.
Advisory boards, if executed well, can be undoubtedly a powerful asset for any startup. Advisors can make powerful introductions, help a business to adapt to different cultural and business norms, bring necessary strategic or technical expertise, and improve the speed of successful outcomes. Board advisors, unlike directors, have no formal power or fiduciary duties but a wrong board advisor can be a real burden, adding time and frustration, and bringing a problematic dynamic to the rest of the board. Identifying the right board advisor requires real effort. Read full story ➯
How to expand into new markets during market slowdown.
Expanding into new markets during the economic downturn, although counterintuitive, might not be a bad idea. After all, economic shifts often present unique windows of opportunity unavailable during economic prosperity. Startups that thrive in adversity (and there have been some: Uber, Airbnb, Beyond Meet), have a chance to gain significant market position during uncertain economic times. Kirstie Pickering shares practical advice that might be helpful for startups that are currently considering expanding into new markets. Read full story ➯
Analysis
Why booming creator economy might not be good for creators.
2022 has seen rapid growth of the creator economy. From individual creators experimenting with blockchain to traditional Venture Capital firms investing heavily in tools for creators (fuelled by the recent successful acquisition of Figma). Much of what has become the status quo in 2022 was unthinkable for both creators and brands only a few years ago. With more investments in this space, the barrier to entry has become so low that almost everyone today can claim to be a content creator. What are the implications of the rapid growth of the creator economy? Is the expansion good or bad for creators? Varun Khadri discusses the trend. Read full story ➯
From the Community
Web Summit is only 2 weeks away and we have a complimentary ticket to share!
Join me in Lisbon on the 1st of November and meet over 70,000 other tech enthusiasts and builders from over 160 countries. Web Summit 2022 has officially sold out, so this might be the last chance to be part of this epic event.
To enter the draw, just submit your interest below and you will be given a unique ballot number. The deadline for submission is Friday, 21st of October, 10 pm BST. Draw is for a General Ticket entry. Web Summit Terms and Conditions apply. I will announce the winning ballot here next Saturday. Good luck!
Hiring
Check Female Foundry Job Board, join female-founded startups.
Odin ➯ Growth Hacker | Ohne ➯ Sales Associate | Skiller Whale ➯ Business Dev Manager
Find more female-founded startup jobs here.
That’s all for this week! 👋 See you next Saturday! Have a great weekend.
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Agata
Written by Agata Nowicka, a founder of Female Foundry, a serial entrepreneur, and an investor based in London.
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