Female Founders Conference - Mountain View

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins (Promise, CEO):

• Founded Promise to reduce jail populations by addressing pre-trial detention.
• Key Statistic: 74% of the jail population is awaiting trial; 66% are non-violent offenders.
• Operational Insight: Counties pay for jails, creating a perverse incentive to detain people who cannot afford bail, often under $500.
• Market Opportunity: In one Midwest state, 85–90% of those detained have bails under $500, yet counties pay significant daily costs for their detention.
• Legal Landscape: Cited Humphrey litigation in San Francisco and California Prop 47/SB 10 as drivers for bail reform.
• YC Admission: Accepted into YC Summer 2018 without a technical co-founder or prototype; raised seed funding pre-Demo Day.
• Investors: Secured capital from First Round, Kapor Capital, 8VC, and Roc Nation.
• Growth Strategy: Utilized relationship-based sales rather than cold outreach to enter the government sector.
• Mission: To bring evidence-based decision-making and data analytics to criminal justice to correct equity biases.
• Advice: Founders do not need to know specific technical stacks (e.g., React, Java) to raise capital or build a company; belief in hiring talent is sufficient.
• Personal Background: Former labor organizer, worked with musician Prince on music rights recovery (secured masters in 90 days after 30-year battle), and ran operations/sales at Honor.

Christina (Vanta, CEO):

• Problem Solved: Automates security compliance (SOC2, PCI, HIPAA, FedRAMP) for internet businesses.
• Validation Method: Spent 6–9 months doing manual security audits in spreadsheets before writing code; manual testing confirmed demand.
• "Don't Scale" Story: Initially offered manual reports for automated-fees; customers paid without knowing the backend was manual.
• User Love Metric: Relied on direct communication (Slack/iMessage) with early users rather than standard retention metrics due to small sample size.
• Customer Churn: Fired customers requesting features outside the current roadmap to maintain product focus.
• Advice: Do not build for years; manual processes in early stages allow for faster pivots than encoded software.

Tiffany (Remix, Co-founder):

• Mission: Helps cities plan transportation and public transit strategy.
• Validation Method: Launched a citizen-submitted transit prototype that went viral, generating emails from global urban planners before formalizing the product.
• Metric for Love: Tracks "wins"—instances where a city uses Remix data to make public policy decisions.
• "Don't Scale" Story: Personally attended trade shows, lugged damaged banner stands to Texas, and shared booths to establish presence in the industry.
• Customer Mistake: Onboarded the Vancouver transit agency prematurely (ignoring metric system differences), leading to a churned pilot before successfully renewing years later.
• Sales Strategy: Relied on face-to-face relationships rather than cold emails for B2G sales.

Ashley Wong (GemNote, CEO):

• Pivot: Transitioned from a handwritten card service to a corporate gift-giving platform after Udemy requested help with gifting logistics.
• Cult Following: Built a brand that employees love due to high-quality, premium products rather than cheap swag.
• Growth Model: Viral B2B adoption where employees recommend the platform to peers at other companies.
• Key Metrics: Lifetime Value (LTV), repeat business percentage, and Net Promoter Score (NPS).
• Resilience Story: Fulfilled a 500-gift order for Airbnb with a 3-person team (including boyfriend), realizing customers perceived them as a 50-person company.
• Brand Investment: Prioritized high-quality design and branding early to establish credibility despite being a small startup.

Alexandra Zadarin (Eight, CMO):

• Product: "8" smart mattress tracking sleep data for athletes and general consumers.
• Data Asset: Collected 15 million hours of sleep data; aims to become the world's largest sleep lab.
• Narrative Arc: Structured the company's history around relationship stages: Romance, Couple, Disillusionment, and Lasting Love.
• Crowdfunding Success: Raised $1M on Kickstarter in 45 days, securing entry into the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
• YC Rejection: Rejected twice before acceptance; accepted during the 2015 hardware push.
• Hardware Struggles: Faced manufacturing delays, investor discrimination against co-founder couples, and dropped media coverage post-launch.
• Growth Lesson: Shifted from "vanity metrics" (press/social following) to sustainable growth and revenue margins.
• Team Building: Emphasized hiring "A players" with cultural fit over technical skills alone.
• Advice: Maintain direct customer contact (15+ calls/month) to understand evolving needs in complex domains like sleep science.

Jess Lee (Sequoia Capital, Co-founder of All Raise):

• Background: Former PM at Google Maps; joined Polyvore as a user, became first hire, and eventually CEO.
• Leadership Evolution: Shifted from product focus to CEO as Polyvore grew; faced challenges with early employee departures and VP hiring mistakes.
• Acquisition Experience: Navigated the emotional and logistical complexity of Yahoo's acquisition, including maintaining a "double life" during保密 negotiations.
• Fundraising Advice: Women should pitch "the dream" and big hairy audacious visions rather than focusing on downside protection.
• Investment Thesis: Looks for grit, tenacity, and founders who act as missionaries rather than mercenaries.
• All Raise Mission: Aims to double senior women in VC (from 9% to 18%) and increase capital to female founders from 15% to 25% within five years.
• Diversity Tip: Focus on culture inside the company (parent-friendliness, meritocracy) rather than just the recruiting pipeline; avoid exclusive social decision-making.

Holly Liu (Kabam, Co-founder/Lead Designer):

• Pivot History: Started as a corporate social network (Water Cooler), pivoted to fan communities on Facebook, then to mobile gaming (Kingdoms of Camelot).
• Failure Lesson: Ignored the rule "make something people want" initially with the corporate network, launching a product with 1,400 inactive users.
• Success Strategy: Went to where users were (Facebook) rather than trying to pull users to a platform; built "Kingdoms of Camelot" on Facebook before moving to mobile.
• Launch Philosophy: Launched imperfect products quickly to avoid "polishing a turd"; user feedback often contradicted internal assumptions.
• Mobile Transition: Moved a co-founder to China to build a mobile team after Facebook enacted a 30% tax on in-app purchases.
• Exit: Sold Kabam to Netmarble/Foxnet for over $1 billion.
• Mental Model: Adopted the mindset that "you are the right person" despite imposter syndrome; success is built on belief and persistence.
• Industry Diversity: Advocated for more female representation in gaming, noting that games are not inherently male-dominated and tools should be more accessible.

Stanford Office Hours (Q&A with Startups):

• PadPiper (Pat Piper):
  • Product: Online housing marketplace for interns, offering B2B matching services for employers.
  • Traction: Matched 20 interns in a paid pilot; $300–$600 take rate per intern.
  • Challenge: Overcoming landlord hesitation to adopt new technology; relying on word-of-mouth for supply.
  • Market Size: Targeting 12 million U.S. interns; potential global expansion.
• Nifty (Tiffany & Co-founder):
  • Product: Chrome extension aggregating data from productivity apps (Jira, Slack, GitHub, Confluence) into a single sidebar.
  • Value Prop: Estimates 15–20% of engineering time is wasted on context switching between tools.
  • Launch Strategy: Narrowed scope from a massive platform to a focused Chrome extension based on feedback.
  • Key Challenge: Clear messaging and communication of the tool's immediate utility to engineers.