How Ingrained Is Sexism in Silicon Valley? Ask the Women Trying to Get FundingA few years ago, Heather Marie, the founder and CEO of the e-commerce platform Shoppable, attended a conference that matched entrepreneurs with potential investors. She’d set up a few meetings, and one of them, she says, went like this: When she asked whether or not the investor had seen the background on her company, he replied, “No, I didn’t. Actually, I’ve got to be honest with you — I didn’t look into it at all. I just took the meeting because you’re hot.” Marie ended the meeting quickly. “He was being completely disrespectful, wasting my time and wasting my money,” she says. [ NY Mag ] 'Shark Tank' guest judge Chris Sacca has retired from startup investing — here's the investment approach he used to become a billionaireBillionaire venture capitalist Chris Sacca surprised many in the tech world on Wednesday when he announced that he was retiring from startup investing. After a stint at the Silicon Valley office of law firm Fenwick & West and then Google, Sacca struck out on his own and founded Lowercase Capital in 2007. He built his reputation and fortune on early investments in companies like Facebook, Uber, and Twitter. [ Business Insider ] Four Years of Homebrew: Notes From Our 2017 Annual Investor MeetingFor VCs, annual LP meetings are combination Board Meeting + Community Event. We spent an afternoon with our investors, providing updates on fund performance, market dynamics and future plans. Several founders gave 10-12 minute updates on their companies, and then, a dinner with our LPs, Homebrew founders and fund advisors. It’s of course not the only time our investors hear from us – we send our quarterly letters with financial statement, and given that our investor base is largely institutional, see them individually once or twice a year in-person (in addition to ‘as-needed’ conversations when they’re referencing other fund managers, discussing direct investment opportunities in our portfolio companies and so on). [ Hunter Walk ] The Science of Bouncing Back From Adversity Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Wharton professor Adam Grant take a deep dive into loss--and how to recover from it--in their new book, 'Option B.' [ Inc. ] Quitting the Silicon Valley Swamp. After 15 long years, I've said all I have to say about tech awfulness.My 20s were a blur of jobs and relationships abandoned, most due to a combination of restlessness, ambition, and alcoholism. The net result of that recklessness: A fat advance check for my first book, Bringing Nothing To The Party. No wonder I got a taste for it. Later I quit my apartment in London - and London itself, and then England - and embarked on a new life spent living in hotels. Along the way I quit most of my possessions until I could fit my life in a single carry-on bag. On the eve of my 30th birthday I finally quit alcohol, and have been sober ever since. All of which saw me rewarded with yet another check, for a second book called The Upgrade. (And then a third: Sober Is My New Drunk.) [ Pando ] Female Fintech Founder On Series F And The Future Of PaymentsFintech isn’t rife with female founders; certainly not those that have secured funding time and again, albeit in small conservative rounds. Karla Friede was first an executive with depth in sales and marketing and a passion for innovating. As the president and CEO of a company who had developed a new offering, a B2B payment technology, she was excited about getting to market. The owner had other irons in the fire. In many companies constantly innovating, not all product concepts get commercialized. Karla didn’t want to see that happen and decided to get creative…and more comfortable with risk. [ Forbes ] VC Data Spotlight – Lightspeed Venture PartnersLightspeed Venture Partners is having an amazing year with some of their recent exits. Here are few coverage in the media : The Snap IPO means a huge payday for two VC firms [ CNBC ] Here are the breakdown of their recent data below : Red-hot software start-up Rubrik has zoomed to a $1.3 billion valuation in two years
To Reclaim The Soul Of Silicon Valley, Look Back At These Four Qualities That Defined Its Early DaysCalm and compassion pervade the air around Julie Hanna. Perhaps that is because she has seen so many facets of the world. Egyptian-born Hanna, who went on to become one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent entrepreneurs and executives, lived on the front lines of civil war in Jordan, before fleeing with her family to Beirut and eventually immigrating to the United States. During a recent interview in San Francisco, we talked about the key elements of Silicon Valley’s mindset and culture, and how they could be exported to places like Jordan, the Middle East, and worldwide. [ Forbes ] |