The future of work and how you can start your dream business from home
A weekly newsletter on start-ups and ventures
Welcome to Heroa, a weekly newsletter for women in start-ups and ventures. If you enjoy what you read, please do share this newsletter with friends and like it above!
Hello and welcome back to Heroa.
As the weather gets nicer I’ve got back into running in hopeful preparation for the 2021 London Marathon. Running has been a good reminder of how small gains build up over time. One of the great resources I’ve come across, which clearly demonstrates this value of compounding, is a weekly updated list of companies founded in the last 5 years that raised a Series A or B round of financing in 2021. You can check it out here.
This week there’s also content on:
A product manager’s guide to API’s and an Interview with Georgia Lotter, Up Learn’s first product manager. Up Learn is an ed-tech software company powered by neuroscience and AI
The B2B payment opportunity
The future of work (for start-ups)
Round-up of the news this week
Google fires the second co-lead of its ethical AI team. Founders Future launches a new fund to invest in impact startups. Green bubble warnings grow as money pours into renewables. Former A16Z partner and Future of Work expert Li Jin launches Atelier, a $13M fund to support the Passion Economy.
From the investors
“We’re entering a new era where individuals have more power than institutions, and anyone can start the business of their dreams.” Brianne Kimmel of Work-Life Ventures
The first industrial revolution from home and how you can start your dream job from your kitchen table, by Brianne Kimmel of Work-Life Ventures. The next decade will see new types of builders: couples who join forces, founders with an eye for good design, and creative hackers who find distribution by building what's clever and niche but not obvious for large companies.
The Finance Tech Stack: the opportunity in B2B payments by Medha Agarwal and Urvashi Barooah of Redpoint. One area of the stack they believe is ripe for more innovation is B2B payments, i.e., the process through which businesses make payments and get paid. It is a large market — projected at ~$125T globally — and is largely manual today but has inherently viral properties (whenever a company pays a bill, it automatically connects their system with their suppliers’, hence creating opportunities for viral growth.)
Founders, stop chasing after the limelight — build your damn product by Elena Mazhuha, investment manager at Genesis Investments. Elena argues fame-seeking founders aren’t just annoying; they’re also potentially damaging to Europe’s startup ecosystem.
9 tricks to building your talent acquisition function by Maddy Cross, Talent Director at Notion Capital. Maddy has some practical pieces of advice, such as plan to hire, don’t hire to plan, for scaling your team after raising a Seed round.
From the operators
“With new records for number of start ups in the UK, and more people “wfh”, there is more diversification in the locations where start ups are based, and in the business models they employ.” Vessela Ignatova, Strategy manager at WeWork
The future of start-up acceleration by Vessela Ignatova, Strategy manager at WeWork. Vessela talks about the future of work (for start-ups) in the first part of this three-part series. This is particularly interesting in the context of her role at WeWork.
Brand audit: How to chart the best course for brand growth by Ana Andjelic, strategy executive and one of Forbes most influential CMO’s. Ana has devised a series of questions, grouped in five areas: Business, Brand, Category, Consumer and Culture, to audit a brand to set it on the right growth path.
Changing landscape for online merchants by Angela Santurbano, Angel Investor and Product Manager at Facebook. Retail is going online. This means that the current infrastructure is evolving and there’s a lot of innovative disruption in the space and this is providing a tailwind for new successful venture-backed start-ups
A Product Manager’s Guide to APIs by Akshayaa Govindan a Product Manager at Scotiabank. It has become increasingly important to understand tools that simplify workflows and integrate components to provide a seamless user experience for customers and in this piece, Akshayaa explains how we can use APIs to create better customer experiences.
Events
Startup Grind global conference will take place on 22-25 February.
Innov8rs connect is running a conference on ecosystem engagement and start-up collaboration from 22-25th February.
Capital Enterprise presents Building and Growing your Sales Process & Pipeline on Wednesday, 24th February.
VC Lead Ladies discuss Responsible Investing and how to integrate ESG factors into the investment process on Friday, 26th February.
The Debut Sessions by Ascension Ventures on Friday, 26 February.
Heartful Academy presents How can the world of startups and investing become inclusive & diverse? on Tuesday, March 9.
Job opportunities
Icebreaker VC is hiring for an Investment Analyst.
FirstMark are growing their Investment team in the US.
Sports Tech Hub is hiring for a Programme Manager.
Omnipresent is hiring for a Partnership Manager.
Lots of jobs are currently available on the Diversity VC jobs board.
An interview with Georgia Lotter, Up Learn’s first Product Manager
Georgia and I first met on a challenging project at Deloitte. I was and remain hugely impressed by her tenacity and drive. Another exciting and recent challenge is that she preparing to take on a full-time role as Up Learn’s first Product Manager. Up Learn is a B2B and B2C ed-tech start-up that uses machine learning to help students improve their grades. In her new role, she’ll be figuring out what Up Learn’s real Product priorities are and how she’ll integrate with various teams who are currently wearing Product hats.
Tell us about your career to date:
I started out as a teacher - I did Teach First after leaving university and taught Maths in a secondary school in Kent. It was a challenging, moving experience and one I still think about often; I had to quickly figure out how to break down concepts so that students could understand them and also learn how to manage a class so that my students could get qualified.
A couple of years later, I joined Deloitte Digital. By this point, I’d explored various kinds of education technology and was interested more broadly in the way that technology is impacting everything. One of the many wonderful things about Deloitte was the network of people - it’s a place where there’s an expert in literally everything a couple of emails away.
Then a year and a half ago, I moved to an education technology startup called Up Learn. Up Learn stands out for the exceptional quality of its courses. I’m really excited by the opportunities that technology presents for all kinds of learning to become as accessible, engaging, efficient and generally Matrix-esque as possible!
What’s been your biggest challenge?
In a startup, you're obviously dealing with lots of uncertainty and you’re generally more exposed to trends and changes in the industry. On the other hand, there’s a big upside; everybody, including me, has that sense that they’re important to the future of the business and feels personally proud of and excited about the company’s growth and success.
What or who do you turn to for inspiration?
I get inspiration from all sorts of things. Yesterday I read a short book about quick and easy usability testing called ‘Rocket Surgery Made Easy' which has some great ideas that we can put into practice at Up Learn. But I also draw inspiration from reading and conversations that are less obviously related to my work. I’ve been into reading biographies and histories recently and have felt inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft’s original ideas, Barack Obama’s coolness and charm (who isn’t!), and even the secrets of the survival and evolution of the English language. I also use running as a way to meditate on problems. Weirdly, when most of my brain is just thinking about putting one foot in front of the other, it’s a good time to process other stuff!
What’s next for you?
The past year has been a bit of a catalyst for edtech. There are lots of interesting conversations happening at the moment about e.g. what learning will look like when things are back to semi-normal and what the future of assessment should be, triggered by school exam cancellations. Plus, this year we’re going to have more courses live than ever, and we’ll be doing more than ever to improve what we currently do as well as reach new audiences… so plenty to keep me busy!
SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!
If you have any comments, questions, or want to chat about start-ups and venturing, then do drop me a comment.
Written by Alexandra Wyatt, based in London but a global traveller. You can also reach me on Twitter and Instagram.