Key Moments
Female Founders Conference - Mountain View
Y CombinatorKey Moments
Women founders share startup journeys, lessons learned on fundraising, product-market fit, and work-life balance.
Key Insights
Authenticity and purpose-driven entrepreneurship are crucial for success and personal fulfillment, especially for women founders.
Early-stage startups benefit immensely from direct customer discovery, rapid iteration, and focusing on solving real pain points.
Fundraising involves selling a compelling vision and understanding investor needs, rather than solely relying on conservative projections.
Building a strong company culture and prioritizing people, including diverse hiring and fostering camaraderie, is vital for long-term growth.
Resilience, the ability to 'make life happen' despite setbacks, and a willingness to learn continuously are essential for navigating the startup journey.
Leveraging personal networks, seeking mentorship, and building a supportive peer group are invaluable for overcoming challenges and avoiding isolation.
PHAEDRA ELLIS LAMPKINS: FROM POVERTY TO PROMISE
Phaedra Ellis Lampkins, CEO of Promise, shared her journey from growing up poor to founding a YC-backed company focused on criminal justice reform. Her early experiences with economic inequality, such as relying on food stamps and witnessing the transformative power of her mother getting a higher-paying job, instilled in her a deep commitment to creating opportunity and dignity for all. This personal background became the driving force behind her professional life, initially in the labor movement and later in entrepreneurship dedicated to social change.
A SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE: RECONSIDERING JUSTICE
Phaedra's work with co-founder Diana Frappier, a criminal defense lawyer, profoundly shifted her perception of crime and justice. Initially viewing offenders with judgment due to her violent father, she learned through Diana’s clients that many individuals in the justice system came from backgrounds similar to hers but lacked opportunities. This revelation highlighted the systemic issues perpetuating incarceration, particularly for the poor and people of color, and the disproportionate impact of cash bail on those awaiting trial for minor offenses.
PRINCE AND THE POWER OF BOLDNESS
Working with the musician Prince proved to be a transformative experience for Phaedra. She learned invaluable lessons in boldness, believing in the truth, and the stewardship of resources. Her unconventional approach helped Prince reclaim his masters in 90 days after a 30-year battle, demonstrating the power of asking 'stupid questions' and challenging norms. This experience, combined with observing technology's impact on artists of color, sparked her interest in making technology work for working people and those owning their own assets.
HONOR AND THE LEARNING CURVE OF TECH
Phaedra's time at Honor, a tech company, provided a 'business school' education in a fast-paced environment. She quickly rose to head of sales and operations. Here, she confronted the challenges of communicating in a tech-centric culture, realizing a disconnect between her real-world intelligence and the specific communication styles valued in Silicon Valley. This experience underscored the need for diverse communication methods and highlighted the tech industry's desire for purpose, dispelling her prior notion that young tech workers were solely motivated by money.
BUILDING PROMISE: ADDRESSING CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The death of Prince and subsequent public scrutiny catalyzed Phaedra's decision to build her own company. With Diana, she founded Promise to address the injustices of the cash bail system. They discovered that the majority of people in jail are awaiting trial, often for non-violent offenses, simply because they cannot afford bail. The system disproportionately affects poor individuals and people of color, leading to job loss, housing instability, and family separation, while costing counties significant amounts of money.
PROMISE'S YC JOURNEY AND FUNDRAISING SUCCESS
Promise's acceptance into Y Combinator, despite lacking a technical co-founder, prototype, or funding, was a testament to their deep market understanding. Phaedra emphasized that founders don't need to be technical experts but rather believe in their vision and ability to hire those who are. Promise successfully raised a significant seed round, with Phaedra advising founders to recognize their value to investors, focus on growth, and leverage YC's timelines for fundraising, rather than solely chasing 'hot' VCs.
VANTA: AUTOMATING SECURITY COMPLIANCE
Christina Cacioppo, Co-founder and CEO of Vanta, explained how her company automates security compliance for internet businesses. They help startups both enhance security and achieve certifications like SOC 2. The realization that people truly wanted their product came when, as 'consultants' working in spreadsheets, they started receiving unsolicited requests from non-friends after auditing initial companies. This organic demand, even for their manual, spreadsheet-based service, signaled strong product-market fit.
REMIX: REVOLUTIONIZING URBAN TRANSPORTATION
Tiffany Chu, Co-founder of Remix, shared how her company aids over 300 cities globally in planning transportation and street design. Their initial prototype, a grassroots side project for better transit routes, garnered unexpected global attention and hundreds of emails from city planners. This immediate, widespread interest, even before fully understanding the pain point, was the 'aha!' moment. Subsequent user research solidified their understanding of the needs within urban planning, pushing them to build a robust platform.
GEM NOTE: FROM HANDWRITTEN CARDS TO GIFTING
Ashley Wong, CEO and Founder of Gem Note, recounted its evolution from a handwritten card service to a corporate gifting platform. Initial customer feedback indicated a preference for gifting services. Clients like Udemy explained the inefficiencies and frustrations of internal gift-giving processes for HR and sales. By transforming into a premium corporate gifting service, Gem Note tapped into an intrinsic human desire for nice things, fostering a cult following and strong repeat business, measured by LTV and NPS.
THE 'NON-SCALABLE' EFFORTS OF EARLY STARTUPS
All three founders shared stories of 'doing things that don't scale.' Christina revealed that Vanta's 'automated' security reports were initially generated manually from raw data by her. Tiffany described lugging damaged banner stands to a trade show in Texas to establish a physical presence, creating the illusion of a crowded booth by sharing space. Ashley recalled fulfilling Airbnb's first 500-gift order with just herself, her boyfriend, and a cousin, highlighting the resilience and willpower required in the early days.
DEFINING CUSTOMER LOVE AND GRACEFULLY FIRING CUSTOMERS
Customer love was defined differently by each. Vanta used close communication and noted how users tolerated a clunky, 'brutalist' website because they loved the core offering. Remix developed a 'wins' metric to track customer policy decisions and public plans made using their product. Gem Note measured LTV, repeat business, and NPS, benefiting from customers spreading the word about their premium gifts. They also discussed firing customers, primarily for non-payment or unreasonable, off-roadmap feature demands that didn't align with their current product capabilities or unit economics.
AGILE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN GOVTECH AND B2B
Tiffany explained Remix's agile product development in the slow-moving govtech sector by maintaining regular customer touch points (in-person visits, weekly calls). They focused on asking specific, challenging questions to elicit honest feedback, creating a 'container' for user input. Christina integrated small engineering tasks from support into her 'day job' and reserved evenings for bigger projects. Ashley emphasized weekly engineering cycles at Gem Note, ensuring engineers understood the business case and customer experience directly, promoting 'tech strategy' involvement.
ALEXANDRA ZATERRAIN: EIGHT SLEEP'S ROMANCE TO LASTING LOVE
Alexandra Zatarain, Co-founder and CMO of Eight Sleep, likened building a company to a relationship, starting with 'romance.' Her co-founder Matteo, frustrated with sleep, envisioned technology to improve it. With Max, they built a prototype. Alexandra joined with no consumer marketing experience. After thorough customer discovery (100+ interviews, sleep conferences), they launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2015. They hit $1 million in pre-orders in 45 days, validating their product and securing VC interest.
DISILLUSIONMENT AND THE POWER OF YC
The 'disillusionment' phase hit when they faced manufacturing challenges and struggled to attract investment, partly due to investors' wariness of hardware and Alexandra's marriage to Matteo being seen as a risk. Sales dried up, and they grappled with hiring. YC, after two rejections, accepted them. YC fostered 'rediscovery,' challenging their approach and encouraging them to get beta units into users' homes, leading to invaluable insights from 'White Glove service' by their CTO. YC also pushed for weekly growth tracking and refined their investor pitch.
MAKING IT HAPPEN: CHINA AND GLOBAL SHIPMENT
With YC's support, they refined their pitch, securing investment. The 'making it happen' phase involved almost the entire team moving to China to manage manufacturing, overcoming immense challenges without prior hardware experience. Alexandra's team successfully shipped 8,000 Smart Covers to 67 countries, dealing with higher costs, customer expectations, and regulations. This achievement became a source of immense pride, demonstrating their ability to tackle any obstacle.
BUILDING LASTING LOVE AND KEY LESSONS
Now in the 'lasting love' phase, Eight Sleep focuses on long-term sustainability and impact. Despite more problems, they've become adept at solving them. Key lessons include continuous customer discovery (15+ calls/month), hiring 'A players' aligned with culture, focusing on critical metrics (growth, revenue), and 'finding your tribe' of mentors and peers. Alexandra emphasized that building a company is about deep passion and a shared vision to 'change the world' through their product.
JESS LEE: POLYVORE'S UNORTHODOX RISE TO CEO
Jess Lee, Partner at Sequoia Capital, shared her unconventional journey to CEO of Polyvore. She started as a passionate user, sending product ideas to the co-founders. They hired her as the first PM. Though risky to leave Google, she optimized for learning and growth. Jess evolved from doing 'whatever needed to get done' (coding, sales, facilities) to forming departments under her leadership. Eventually, the founders recognized her as a co-founder and later transitioned her to CEO, acknowledging her role in building the company itself.
CEO CHALLENGES AND THE POWER OF PEER SUPPORT
As a first-time CEO, Jess's biggest surprise was the constant shifting of her role and the feeling of never being 'good enough' as the company scaled. The most painful challenges revolved around 'people issues' – early employees leaving or hiring mistakes. She emphasized the importance of external support, particularly from other founders and female founder groups, to share the burden and gain honest insights, countering the Silicon Valley pressure to always appear 'crushing it'.
FROM FOUNDER TO VC: LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD
After Polyvore's acquisition by Yahoo, Jess decided against another startup, opting instead to become a VC to leverage her experience for the 'next generation' of founders. As a female founder targeting women, she understood the fundraising challenges and aimed to 'level the playing field' by increasing investment in women entrepreneurs and women in VC. She believes women are critical consumers (80% household purchasing power, healthcare decisions), making them valuable, often 'underserved' markets for VCs.
FUNDRAISING ADVICE AND BUILDING ICONIC WOMEN IN TECH
Jess advised founders, especially women, to 'pitch the dream'—focus on upside maximization rather than risk minimization. She noted a tendency for women to use conservative financial projections compared to men. Her work with All Raise aims to increase the percentage of senior women in VC and the proportion of funding going to female founders. The ultimate goal is to create more 'iconic women in tech' and shift the conversation to women's business potential, driven by both 'fear' (of missing out) and 'greed' (for returns).
HALLEH LU: KABAM'S PIVOTS AND THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE
Halleh Lu, former Co-founder of Kabam, shared their tumultuous journey from a corporate social network to a mobile gaming giant. Starting in 2006, they initially built a workplace democratization tool, ignoring 'make something people want'—resulting in only 1,400 users after seven months. Their investor advised them to 'go where the users are,' leading them to build fan communities for TV shows and sports on Facebook, growing to 60 million users. This pivot was critical, embedding market-driven development into their DNA.
SURVIVING FINANCIAL CRISIS AND PIVOTING TO MOBILE
The 2008 financial crisis devastated their ad-supported business, with contracts disappearing and ad revenues plummeting. Kabam again had to pivot. Recognizing the recession-proof nature of Facebook games and their own Facebook app-building expertise, they launched Kingdoms of Camelot, an empire-building strategy game. Initial user tests were brutal, but Halleh emphasized 'don't wait to launch.' They released an incomplete game, learning that users craved new connections with strangers, leading to unforeseen virality and success.
OVERCOMING PLATFORM TAXES AND MANAGING GROWTH
In 2011, Facebook's 30% tax threatened Kabam's business, which relied heavily on paid advertising with known ROI and LTV. This forced a strategic decision to expand beyond Facebook. They sent a co-founder to China to build a mobile team and port Kingdoms of Camelot to mobile. The next year, it became a top-grossing mobile app, pioneering in-app purchases. This decisive move (despite internal resistance and the original 'killing the goose' concern) secured their future as a mobile gaming company, eventually selling for over $1 billion.
EMBRACING INCOMPETENCE AND THE POWER OF SELF-BELIEF
Halleh's biggest regret was believing her internal narrative of incompetence and not belonging. She learned that 'everybody's incompetent' in a startup and that founders are the 'right person' because it's their dream and vision. Her message: 'make life happen for you,' don't let it happen to you. Your present circumstances do not dictate your future. Success requires failure, and even from the shittiest situations, a billion-dollar outcome is possible. She urged female founders to embrace their role and 'just do it'.
OFFICE HOURS: PIED PIPER AND NIFTY
The session concluded with 'office hours' for two startups. Pat Piper, an online housing marketplace for interns, aims to solve housing inefficiency for university recruiters. They matched 20 interns in a paid pilot, with a take rate of $300-600 per intern. The founder highlighted the 12 million US intern market and the landlords' desire for reliable, filtered tenants. Their main challenge is overcoming landlord reluctance to try new services, despite exclusive access to filtered tenants for their properties. Nifty, a Chrome extension for software engineers, aims to organize data across productivity apps. Their tool surfaces relevant data at the right time in a customizable sidebar, preventing context switching and reducing wasted time (estimated 15-20% of an engineer's day). Tiffany emphasized the problem of engineers wasting time on administrative tasks instead of coding. They're launching soon, with messaging being their current biggest challenge.
Mentioned in This Episode
●Products
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●Companies
●Organizations
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●People Referenced
Common Questions
Promise is a company founded by Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins that aims to reduce the jail population by addressing issues faced by individuals awaiting trial, many of whom are non-violent offenders with bail under $500. The company focuses on preventing the loss of jobs, housing, and children that can result from even short jail stays, and works towards evidence-based decision-making in criminal justice.
Topics
Mentioned in this video
Founder and CEO of Promise, YC Winter 2018 batch alum, who previously ran revenue and operations at Honor and worked with Prince. She is a labor and community organizer committed to measurable change.
Former US President whose campaign Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins joined to work on economic opportunity for working people.
A partner at Sequoia Capital and co-founder of All Raise, who was previously CEO of Polyvore and a product manager for Google Maps.
CEO of Eventbrite, highlighted as an iconic woman in the tech ecosystem.
Co-founder of Promise and a criminal defense lawyer by trade. Her work with individuals who committed crimes transformed Phaedra's perspective on criminal justice, emphasizing human experiences over criminal acts.
Founder of Stitch Fix, highlighted as an iconic woman in the tech ecosystem.
A friend who introduced Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins to Prince, known for his appearances on CNN.
CEO of Y Combinator, who was a group partner for Eight Sleep and an early beta tester of their smart mattress.
Founder of Cowboy Ventures and a pioneer in venture capital, known for initiating discussions among women partners in VC which led to the formation of All Raise.
An investor who provided significant seed funding for Honor.
A visiting partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of Kabam, who has a background in product design and mobile gaming.
Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins' mother, who worked as a waitress and later returned to school to get a county job, significantly improving their family's financial situation. Her experience influenced Phaedra's commitment to creating equal opportunity.
A litigation in San Francisco that basically stated bail should go away, challenging the traditional bail system.
California legislation that abolished cash bail, further supporting the mission of Promise to reduce jail populations.
California legislation that reclassified many nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, part of a broader criminal justice reform movement.
A major technology company that acquired Nest, inspiring the idea of integrating technology into other aspects of life, like sleep.
A restaurant in San Francisco where Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins' mother worked as a waitress.
A retail company where the Honor team set up a store in Texas as part of their sales and operations.
A smart home company, with their thermostats, whose popular acquisition by Google inspired the idea of bringing technology to sleep.
A media company specializing in technology and computer books, under which Aaron's book in AR/VR is being released.
A coffee company, mentioned as a potential location for conducting informal user feedback sessions by offering gift cards.
A mobile gaming company co-founded by Holly Liu, which started as a corporate social network and eventually sold for over a billion dollars.
A Chrome extension that helps software engineers organize data across productivity apps to improve workflow and reduce time wasted on context switching and administrative tasks.
A well-known startup accelerator program that Promise was part of, specifically the Winter 2018 batch. Gaining acceptance into YC provided validation and support for Promise.
A sleep technology company that uses technology to tackle sleep deprivation, with a signature product of a smart mattress. It was part of YC's Summer 2015 batch.
A short-term rental platform, used as a comparison for Pied Piper's marketplace model, with Pied Piper landlords finding advantages due to San Francisco tenant laws.
A music streaming service, which Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins worked on with Prince, focused on artists owning their own music as a response to technology devaluing artist earnings.
An e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items, mentioned as a company that has made strides to include more women engineers.
A South Korean mobile game developer and publisher that acquired Kabam in 2017.
A music streaming service, mentioned in the context of record labels owning stakes and influencing artist payments, which technology was devaluing music's cost for artists of color.
A venture capital firm where Aileen Lee was the first female partner.
A division of 21st Century Fox focused on gaming and virtual reality, which acquired parts of Kabam in 2017.
A social media platform that released a developer platform, which Kabam leveraged to build fan communities and games. Later, Facebook's 30% tax on app purchases led Kabam to pivot to mobile.
A company offering in-home care to senior citizens where Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins ran revenue and operations, funded by Marc Andreessen. It taught her lessons about corporate communication and the desire for purpose in tech.
A venture capital firm that Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins considered raising money from, initially seeking validation from 'hottest VCs'.
A venture capital firm that invested in Promise, recommended by Phaedra for their alignment with the company's values.
The company that acquired Polyvore in 2015. The acquisition and integration process was described as challenging but ultimately beneficial.
A personal styling service, whose founder Katrina Lake is mentioned as an iconic woman in tech.
A company working on solutions to reduce jail populations, particularly for those awaiting trial due to inability to afford bail. It aims to apply data analytics to foster equity in the criminal justice system.
A social media company, mentioned as being on the 'great places to work in tech' list alongside Polyvore.
A video-sharing platform that sold to Google for over a billion dollars in 2006, serving as an inspiration for Holly Liu and her co-founders to start their company.
An American commercial broadcast television network that worked with Kabam to distribute episodes of shows like Grey's Anatomy on Facebook.
An online housing marketplace that helps interns find furnished, affordable monthly rentals. It started as a C2C marketplace and is expanding to a B2B program for employers.
A shipping company that Eight Sleep used to hand-deliver their first units to customers in New York City.
A platform for version control and collaboration, frequently used by engineers for code, pull requests (PRs), and notes, and a central point of Nifty's integration.
A venture capital firm founded by Aileen Lee, mentioned as part of the initiative to support women in VC.
A crowd-sourced fashion magazine that allowed users to mix and match products to create outfits. Jess Lee transitioned from a passionate user to its CEO before its acquisition by Yahoo.
A work management platform, mentioned as an example of productivity tools that originated in large tech companies and went public.
An online classifieds website, mentioned as a source that university recruiters currently use to find housing for interns, highlighting the inefficiency Pied Piper is solving.
A collaboration software tool used for documentation, mentioned as one of the many applications engineers use that Nifty aims to integrate with.
A note-taking application, mentioned as a tool some programmers use for personal notes, highlighting the fragmentation of information Nifty addresses.
A music streaming service, mentioned as being surpassed by Kingdoms of Camelot in terms of top-grossing app in 2012.
A project tracking software tool where product managers create tickets with product descriptions, mentioned as an application Nifty integrates with.
A mapping service from Google where Jess Lee previously worked as a product manager.
An event management and ticketing website, whose CEO Julia Hartz is mentioned as an iconic woman in tech.
An advertising platform on Facebook, suggested as a tool for fake door testing new product ideas by driving traffic to landing pages.
A collaboration tool for designers and developers, mentioned as an app where designers provide links to specs that engineers need to access.
A messaging platform used by teams for communication, mentioned as a place where designers might share links, illustrating the need for Nifty's data organization.
A board game, mentioned as a popular game that Kabam co-founders played during Christmas parties, indicating their passion for games.
A fashion magazine, used by Jess Lee as an analogy to quantify the large advertising market on paper for potential investors.
A popular TV show whose episodes Kabam distributed through Facebook as part of their fan community strategy.
Another game by Kabam, noted for achieving near 50/50 gender parity among players.
Kabam's largest game, mentioned as a successful AAA mobile gaming title.
A technology news website where stories about M&A (mergers and acquisitions) are often published, described as often sounding 'glorious' compared to the reality.
A popular Facebook game, mentioned as an example of successful games during the 2008 recession.
A popular Facebook game, mentioned as an example of successful games during the 2008 recession.
Kabam's first strategy-based game on Facebook, which eventually became a top-grossing mobile app. It utilized public domain IP and focused on social connections between strangers.
A movie starring Prince that Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins watched as a child, influencing her initial negative perception of him due to a scene depicting violence against women.
A fashion magazine, used by Jess Lee as an analogy to quantify the large advertising market on paper for potential investors.
A video game, mentioned as a game played by Kabam co-workers, reflecting their passion for gaming.
The city where Prince lived, and where Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins spent time after his death, leading to a shift in her focus to doing good in the world.
A city in California where Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins and Diana Frappier would walk and encounter people Diana had represented as a criminal defense lawyer.
A public university where Holly Liu pursued a graduate program in Information Management Systems, which led her to the Bay Area.
An organization where Diana Frappier and Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins worked together.
A prestigious business school, mentioned as a reference point for corporate communication styles that Phaedra Ellis-Lampkins had to learn to navigate in her career.
A software company, mentioned as being on the 'great places to work in tech' list alongside Polyvore.
The location where Y Combinator's Demo Day is held, and where Eight Sleep showcased their product.
A non-profit co-founded by Jess Lee, aiming to level the playing field for women in venture capital and increase diversity in the tech ecosystem.
An entertainment company founded by Jay-Z, mentioned as an investor in Promise, highlighting the intersection with music.
A venture capital firm where Jess Lee is a partner, known for its investments in technology companies and its influence on startup strategies.
A method of validating new product ideas by simulating a product experience (e.g., a landing page) before actually building the product, to gauge customer interest.
An initiative or community that spun out of the efforts to support women in venture capital.
An initiative within All Raise where female founders can get advice and support, co-captained by Jess Lee.
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