Summer hasn't slowed the storm
July is here...
And things are heating up.
This month was pretty great...
I just got back from a great week at the beach with the fam. We worked a bit, but also got some sun and rejuvenation work done :)
And back in Hatchland, we onboarded a *stellar* VP of Sales, Kalliopi Vlastos. We're super pumped to have her onboard. She's been helping us as we finesse our sales processes, and she's already killing the game.
I wrote another HBR piece, this time on compensation strategies (sexy, I know). I've really been enjoying writing one piece a month that helps me think about how to recruit, build, and manage teams.
Something I'm proud of...
As many of you know, three years ago I launched the Vinetta Project in DC (thanks to many of you receiving this who helped make it happen!).
This week the Vinetta team released our first formal impact report. Prior to now, a lot of our impact was pretty anecdotal, and I was totally blown away on what we found: Our DC-based, female-founded companies have raised upwards of $26 million in seed stage capital since we launched 3 years ago. In a country where only 2% of venture funds go to female founders and in a city where venture capital isn't easy to come by, I think that's pretty rad :)
Vinetta is looking for some additional sponsors for 2019, so if you know of any companies that may be interested in supporting the growth of the Vinetta community, drop me a note and I'll connect you to the folks currently running the show.
Awesome reads...
Bad Blood is *such* a good book. It follows the Elizabeth Holmes / Theranos story, and I was blown away by how absolutely out of control that company was from day one. A total must-read.
This study on DC rents by metro stop was super cool. Moral of the story: Living in the DC metro area is mad expensive.
Tara Silver updated her DC tech resources guide to cover a whole lot of what's happening in DC. If you know of any founders just starting their startup journey, please forward!
Our superstar VP of Marketing is now publishing an awesome newsletter on software development covering news, tips, relevant tools and the like!
Brilliant stuff my friends are building...
For those of us looking to develop our writing craft, Chris Wink just launched an *amazing* podcast called The Writing Podcast where he interviews journalists, novelists, songwriters, and rappers (including TI <-- really looking forward to that one).
For those of us working to spark creativity within our teams, Monica Kang launched a great card game, SPARK, that doubles as both an ice-breaker and creativity-maker!
For those of us who are drowning in the government bureacrazy, Evan Burfield just dropped us a lifejacket with his book Regulatory Hacking where he helps startups like ours learn "how to understand, adapt to, and influence government regulation."
Sending some love...
To the many people who make startup life just a tad bit less stressful, like Ksenia Coulter, Karen Gordon, Stephanie Minkov, Ellie Thompson, Shelly Porges, Jen Pengelly, Emily Goldfein, and Rachna Choudhry for offering to connect me to great people; like Brian Williams, Kevin Alansky, Ashley Chang, and Shelly Porges for amazing advice on our business; like Viveka Hulyalkar and Ashtan Moore for clutch emotional support; Meggie Ladlow, Veni Kunche, and Mackenzie Morgan for their guidance on building a great engineering culture here; like Shanaz Chowdhery for giving me some clutch personal advice; like Camille Stewart for including me on her radio show; like Alex Fleming or Kelly O'Malley for inviting me to speak at your events; like Alicia Fuller for explaining how venture debt works; like David Aiken, Anisha Chopra and Xinmei Wang for support building projections; like Ian Smith and Ryan Troll for donating awesome, consistent user testing support!
Some quick announcements...
One of my favorite DC startups, MemoryWell, is hiring for a Director of Operations. If you know of anyone great, tell them to apply!
The Cartier Women's Initiative is giving away $100K to 7 female founded companies. Our very own DC-based powerhouse Shelly Porges is the chair of their North American jury :)
A few ways to help...
We're hiring for senior developers! Any leads are super appreciated, especially women or minority candidates.
We're super interested in more speaking opportunities! It's one of the top ways we find customers. If you know of opportunities to speak in front of startups or small businesses, we'd love to hear about them!
Onward and upward,
Amelia
