Building products for customer support teams (as a solo founder) and developing relationships with investors w/ Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, the Founder of Surfboard

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠. This week, I spoke with ⁠Sara Larsson from a Swedish startup Freshsound who recently raised a €2m Seed round led by Zenith Venture Capital and Aligned for its self-service platform to license commercial music. (see: Week 69). In the episode, we talk about how the music industry works and why having a straight mind when innovating is necessary, how to get the best out of your investors and your board and how to keep your investors in the loop. Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠. This week, I spoke with Yvonne Nagawa from London-based Black Seed, a London-based emerging VC fund focused on investing in black founders, who recently announced the first close of its target £10m fund. In the episode, we talk about why investing in black founders matters, the meaning of the Black Seed community, how to form relationships with LPs and how to deal with their "No"s, and about how Black Seed evaluated founders. Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠. This week, I spoke with Melody Lang from London-based MPA, a syndicate with the mission to back purpose-driven companies focused on the future of learning & work. In the episode, we talk about the meaning behind investing with impact, why investing in the future of learning and work matters, what are the current trends driving the investment opportunities in those spaces, including the impact of ChatGPT on learning, and the strategies for sourcing investors for syndicates. Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠. This week, I spoke with ⁠Liz Beatty⁠ from Paris-based ⁠Inato⁠ who recently raised a $25m Series A round from Cathay Innovation to scale her global clinical trial platform that brings research to patients where they live. (see: ⁠Week 64⁠). In the episode, In the episode, we talk about building marketplaces, metrics for proving user engagement, how to facilitate an efficient Series A due diligence process, thinking big, and why the future of medtech innovation will be powered by clinical trial data. Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: femalefoundry.substack.com. This week, I spoke with Amanda Maiwald from Berlin-based Codary who in September last year raised a €3.5m Seed round from Speedinvest, FJ Labs, Educapital, and Sparkmind.vc for her platform that teaches kids 21st century skills through gamified and adaptive coding content (see: Week 36). In the episode, we talk about why teaching kids coding is a future-proof business opportunity, how to manage customer acquisition when your paying customer is not your user, how Codary decided to approach their international expansion, and leveraged university grants, angel investments, and its focus on unit economics to close the latest €3.5m Seed round. Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: femalefoundry.substack.com. This week, I spoke with Sara Stephens from Rest Less who recently raised a €6.8 million Series A round from Moneta Venture Capital for it’s platform empowering over 50’s to live their best lives (see: Week 51). In the episode, we talk about business opportunities driven by the aging population, why networks matter in the fundraising process, how to strike a balance between meeting investor expectations and delivering impact as a business with a social focus, and how to overcome fears of starting a family while building a business. Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: femalefoundry.substack.com This week, I spoke with Zuzanna Stamirowska and Claire Nouet from Pathway, who recently raised a €4.5m Pre-Seed round from Inovo and Market One to help companies better handle streaming data (see: Week 49). In the episode, we talk about how an economics internship led to the business idea behind Pathway, building products for maximising value from data, current challenges for AI adoption, how to build technical teams with commercial mindset, what's exciting in the data science development beyond Chat GPT and why ability to forget can prove crucial for decision making. Check Pathway here. Connect with Zuzanna here and Claire here . Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: femalefoundry.substack.com This week, I spoke with Natasha Ratanshi-Stein from Surfboard, who recently raised a €4.8m Seed round from Speedinvest alongside Fly Ventures and Seedcamp (see: Week 47) to make planning of customer service teams more collaborative. In the episode, we talk about what it means to be a solo-founder and a VC investor-turned founder, why building relationships with investors ahead of fundraising matters, hiring tips, and why team planning comes with many problems to solve. Check Surfboard here. Connect with Natasha here. Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

Subscribe to our weekly news: femalefoundry.substack.com This week, I spoke with Esther Richardot Reynal de Saint-Michel, the General Partner of Thena Capital. Before becoming a General Partner at Thena and raising her fund, Esther spent years advising startups and investing in them as an angel investor. In this episode, we talk about various aspects of raising a new VC fund as an emerging manager, strategies for managing the key challenges, medtech-specific evaluation criteria for founders, and why medtech is a hot investment category.  Check Thena Capital here. Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

Subscribe to our weekly news: femalefoundry.substack.com This week, I spoke with Jas Schembri and Jo Goodall, the Co-Founders of Luna, an app helping female teenagers face the challenges that come with transitioning to puberty. Jas and Jo met during their MBA program and that's where Luna was born. Jas and Jo talk about their mission to break taboos, raising capital from angels, and developing early MVPs to learn from users and prove traction to attract capital. Connect with Jas here and Jo here. Check out Luna here. Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co