It only takes one engagement survey to destroy the company culture you’ve worked years to create.
I’ve seen this pattern happen at too many organizations–including ones where I’ve been on the payroll. Leadership sets out wit…
When Polly Rodriguez started sexual wellness company Unbound, she struggled to find her place among male-dominated tech entrepreneur circles. “It was hard to be taken seriously in general because of the products that we were selling,” Rodriguez says. “And I grew up in the Midwest from a lower-middle-class background–so there was no one in my life that had started a business before.”
Instead, she turned to some of the enclaves for women founders in New York. “I think that’s how I ended up building a massive network of female founders,” she says. “I absolutely would not be here today if I didn’t have them to turn to.”
You’ll hear similar accounts from other female founders, many of whom feel shut out of more traditional networks of mentors and entrepreneurs. (Not to mention they’re starved for venture capital dollars, which are largely reserved for male founders: In 2018, just 2.3% of total capital went to women entrepreneurs.) Elle Huerta gave up on general networking events while starting Mend, a self-care app for heartbreak. “It was always interesting to me that a lot of people–men especially–couldn’t be imaginative about something that they didn’t have direct experience with,” she says. “This is something a lot of us experienced, so after a while, I stopped going to those events because they were just a waste of my time. I was like, ‘It would be more valuable for me just to go home, focus on building my company, and get traction so that I can be taken seriously.’”
For these women, building out networks of their own–much like the “mafias” of homogeneous founders spawned by tech exits–can be key to their success. In Silicon Valley, the moneyed alumni of tech heavyweights–and soon, the likes of Airbnb and Uber–have long offered guidance and financial backing to their peers and friends. For investors, entrepreneurs with that pedigree can seem like a sure bet. “They are looking for any indication or sense of validity because they’re inundated with pitches,” Rodriguez says. “You see time and time again that the generation of PayPal and Facebook went on to fund the next companies that went on to fund the next companies. And that’s largely because the VCs are like, Well, if he did well there, he’ll do well here, too. For women, we don’t have those examples to point to because all of us are basically first-time founders.”
Rodriguez often felt that potential mentors and investors in the Valley evaluated her work largely on the merits of her tech stack, and how it ranked against tech companies in more traditional verticals. “But I think women get it,” she says. “They get that making products is really hard. Branding is hard. Marketing is hard. It just doesn’t demand the same respect in the world of Silicon Valley when it comes to mentorship.”
What Rodriguez and Huerta also found was that female entrepreneurs were more candid about the challenges they had faced. “One of the reasons we bonded was because we all have this shared experience—the categories that we were in were ones where it was harder to raise money,” Huerta says of a circle of women entrepreneurs she frequently turns to, which includes Rodriguez. “But I have continued to really cultivate the relationships I have with my friends who are female founders of companies because they are so open and honest.”
If female founders tend to share more about the hurdles they’ve faced while fundraising or, say, hiring, Rodriguez believes it’s partly due to a lack of confidence. Finding a group of women founders who talk candidly about their experiences can also help silence one’s inner critic. “I think women are so much more forthright because we are more pragmatic,” she says. “We have to be. So when an investor is pressing you and is like, ‘Is there a possibility that this will fail?’ Most women are going to respond with, ‘Well, yeah.’”
Eva Goicochea, the founder of sex essentials startup Maude, has found these groups invaluable but wishes male peers were as forthcoming. “I would say the real value comes from the honesty around the topics,” she says. “I would love for men to be in the room if they would say they don’t have everything figured out. So yes, I’m pro-women and pro-women’s groups, but I’m also like, ‘Can we all just be honest about what it takes to build a startup?’”
What competition?
Of course, carving out a female-friendly space isn’t just about camaraderie—it’s also good for business and helps lay the groundwork for a new ecosystem of female founders and investors. When Mend tested an ad-supported model of its app in late 2018, Huerta broached Rodriguez, who agreed to sign on as their first advertiser. (As a company in the sex tech space, Unbound has to contend with countless ad regulations, so advertising opportunities are harder to come by.) “I know Unbound really well,” she says. “I know what their mission is, and I believe in what they’re doing. So I have no problem introducing that brand to our audience. I can feel good about that, and it’s mutually beneficial.”
On Valentine’s Day, Mend put out a gift box, for which she collaborated with a number of founders in her network, including Unbound but also the minds behind vitamin startup Ritual and feminine wellness care brand Queen V. And in February, Mend hosted an event with Maude in its Brooklyn space, free of charge. “That kind of thing makes such a big difference when you’re a startup and don’t have a big marketing budget,” Huerta says.
Unbound and Mend have both also benefitted from tie-ups with founders and companies that are much further along. Mend has done multiple events with social networking platform Bumble. “Being able to plug into that audience has been huge for us,” Huerta says. “For them, we’re a drop in the bucket. So when a company that’s really been able to scale collaborates with smaller female-founded companies–which they’re doing all the time–that really helps.”
And according to Rodriguez, having Zola founder Shan-Lyn Ma as an investor and adviser for Unbound has shown her what it must be like to have the boys’ club at your disposal. “I didn’t know what a good adviser looked like until she became one of our advisers,” she says. “She opened up her network to me in a way that I was like, ‘Oh, this is how the men do it.’ She sent off a bunch of emails–and when Shan emails somebody, they’re going to take the meeting because she’s been so successful.”
In other words, this isn’t the one-upmanship that the likes of Lyft and Uber engage in. These founders recognize that as more female founders rise to the top–and clock billion dollar valuations–it boosts all female founders. In fact, some of Unbound’s “fiercest competitors” in the sex tech space are also Rodriguez’s closest friends. “Ultimately, we’re not competing against each other,” she says. “We’re competing against the patriarchy.”
Huerta says that she sees a shared target audience across many of the companies run by her peers, especially as they invest more in, say, offline experiences. “We’ve all built digital communities, and we’ve also seen the value of bringing those communities offline and bringing them together,” Huerta says. “The likelihood is low that you’re going to be on a dating app, break up with someone, and buy a wedding dress all at the same time, but we have the whole ecosystem covered. So when we bring those people together in real life, a lot of times it does make sense to introduce all of our brands.”
One frustration for Goicochea has been that investors seem to either assume all female founders are friends or try to pit them against each other. “Women are supposed to love or hate each other, and there’s not much in between,” she says. “They almost make you feel like there’s only one seat for one woman in one category at the table.”
But the female founders boasting $1 billion valuations help prove otherwise. “They’ve built huge businesses in spaces that probably got dismissed early on,” she says of startups like Glossier and Rent the Runway. “Like, ‘You can’t build a billion-dollar lip balm.’ ‘Who’s going to rent clothes?’ But their businesses are amazing. It takes these champions and trailblazers to make it easier for all of us.”
Chronic stress isn’t good for your employees – or for your business. Here’s what you can do to reduce work stress and increase productivity. Read More
Time management is critical in business. While hard work will get you ahead, it’s important to prioritize your responsibilities. These five time-management tips helped grow my first company into a… Read More
A chemical engineer shares the key elements for her leadership path in a global corporation, including 3 critical domains for emerging leaders.
Humans and machines can make each other better.
Online job applications have taken the focus off of the cover letter, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Your cover letter is the opportunity to bring your resume to life with additional information. Overlook it and you’re missing a chance to stand out among the other candidates.
Cover letters are also important because they give the job searcher an opportunity to connect with the hiring manager, says Angela Aylward, resume expert and tutor with Varsity Tutors. “When you write a cover letter, the goal is to connect and find a common link,” she says. “A resume is an overview of your job history and skills, while the cover letter brings in your personality.”
Write a good cover letter by including these five elements:
1. It should look like a letter
This is a formal business document, and it should look like one, says Aylward. In the upper left corner put the name an address of the contact and use a formal salutation, she says.
“I recommend that you match the format and font to your resume,” says Aylward. “A cover letter and resume should be a matched set, with organization and consistency.”
Choose fonts that can be easily read, Aylward adds. “You want to personalize the resume and cover letter but fun fonts can be difficult to read and look unprofessional,” she says.
2. Use the hiring manager’s name
Instead of using “To whom it may concern,” make a direct connection by using the hiring manager’s name, says Aylward. “This can be a challenge these days since a good portion of jobs are posted on sites that don’t mention the name of the person who is hiring,” she admits. “But not going the extra step to find and mention the name of a person is one thing that people miss.”
Check LinkedIn to try and figure out the name of the hiring manager, says Merryn Roberts-Huntley, owner of Made To Hire, a Portland-based career coaching company. “Ideally, it should be addressed to the actual person who is hiring for the position,” she says. “If you can’t find the name of the hiring manager with confidence, then address the cover letter to “Dear Hiring Manager.”
3. Make a connection to the company
Find and make a connection to something the company is doing, says Aylward. If you were referred by someone in your network, mention it immediately. Otherwise, do some research on the company and find something to connect to.
“Immediately saying what about the company drew you to their job post helps create a connection with the hiring manager,” she says. “Do a Google search, visit a company’s career page, or pull up things from Forbes or news agencies that give insight into the kinds of things a company is doing and being talked about.”
4. Explain why you’re a great fit
The goal of your cover letter is to have the person read past the first sentence, says Roberts-Huntley. Quickly talk about the position and your fit for it.
“The bulk of the cover letter, which in its entirety should be about half a page, should be about your competencies and any results you can share that would help sell you for the position,” she says.
“Highlight your biggest achievements that fit the role,” says Aylward. “Take a close look at the job keywords or jargon. Your cover letter should be tailored to the job and not a repetition and copy-and-paste of your resume.”
5. Don’t forget a strong closing
Close the letter reiterating your interest in the position, says Roberts-Huntley.
“Say something along the lines of, ‘I hope to have the opportunity to make a positive impact on your business and the team,’” she suggests. “Adjust it to make sense for the position, but create a positive statement about what you’ll do or bring to the position if given the chance.”
One thing to leave out
Avoid using clichés, says Aylward. “For example, everyone says, ‘I’m very excited to see your job posting,’” she says. “Your letter should reflect your personality without being over-the-top. Be creative with your language but don’t make it look like you walked through a thesaurus.”
Also avoid clichés in your examples. “Everyone says they’re a hard worker or creative problem solver,” says Aylward. “Instead you could say, ‘I solved this particular problem when I worked at this company and was able to reduce their end-of-month open invoices down by 90%.’ Use statistics and specific examples instead of clichés.”
While you want to include these five elements, keep your cover letter short and to the point. “The letter should be one page,” says Aylward. “Recruiters are looking at 200 to 300 applications for each position. Give them all of the information they need quickly and you’ll stand out.”
I sat up and closed Tik Tok on my phone, staring in disbelief at the setting sun outside my window. It had been bright outside when I sat down to give myself a “ten-minute social media break” after work. The goal was to relax and flip thr…
Regardless of what necessitated the change, arguably the most tumultuous time for a company is when there’s a significant change to the executive leadership team. Employees at all levels in the organization analyzing the situation may ask: Will …
Being innovative can take many forms, as this look at companies across the country shows
