A quick recap and takeaways from #FFC2017

June 29 2017, about 1,000 women were invited to Female Founders Conference 2017 hosted by Y Combinator. The conference was hold at Herbst Theater in SF and started with Jessica Livingston talking about being a female founder and Y combinator. Overall I had great encounters with an amazing lineup of speakers. After the sessions, I was asked from some friends about speeches so I am writing up some recap and takeaways from the conference. My friend Gwen Cheni also wrote great summaries of noticeable speakers on her Facebook and let me quote them on my Medium post. Here are the full video version of FFC2017 and recap of the conference below.

1. @23:58 — Jessica Livingston (Co-founder, Y Combinator) — Opening
2. @38:39 — Avni Patel Thompson (Co-founder & CEO, Poppy) — “A Tale of Two Startups”
3. @1:07:50 — Amy Buechler (Y Combinator) & Emily Weiss (Founder & CEO, Glossier)
4. @1:34:50 — Laura Behrens-Wu (Co-Founder & CEO, Shippo)
5. @1:58:25 — Padmasree Warrior (CEO & CDO, NIO USA) — “Queen of the Electric Car Business” INTERMISSION
6. @2:45:20 — Kirsty Nathoo (CFO, Y Combinator & Aileen Lee (Founder & Partner, Cowboy Ventures)
7. @3:11:56 — Y Combinator Alumni Founders Panel — Elizabeth Iorns (Co-Founder & CEO, Science Exchange), Vanessa Torrivilla (Co-Founder & CCO, Goldbely), Erika Jensen (Co-Founder, The Flex Company)
8. @3:39:24 — Morgan DeBaun (Co-Founder & CEO, Blavity)
9. @4:04:50 — •Diane Green* (Senior Vice President, Google Cloud) —
10. @4:17:35 — Q&A with Diane Green & Jessica Livingston
11. @4:41:45 — Final Panel with Y Combinator Partners

JessicaLivingston ‘s talk — Difference between Massive successful vs successful
1. Timing — best ideas are not always deliberate, but organically through founders’ lives.
2. Right motives — fanatically interested, infectious enthusiasm.
3. Hit a big need — a lot of people will pay for it, or a few will pay a lot for it. Airbnb only knew that enough people would pay for it, but didn’t know how big the market would be. But start local or smaller.
4. Do something basic — explain in 5 words to a 5 year old.
5. Willing to work on a dubious idea — independent minded not caring what other people think, maverick, nonconformist.
6. Ambitious, not be afraid of a big idea — small ideas sometimes turn into huge ideas. This moment turns into fear for most people. But a few people are more excited than fearful at these moments.
7. Driven and resilient — drive can be suppressed when people are over you. A few expand into the lack of authority.
8. Focus: life’s work, thus work harder, less willing to sell.
9. Be able to evolve into a manager — be able to learn it, like it. Rare person to be great at both managing product and people

Summary: Unpromising idea blossom into a frightening big one, and driven founders see that opportunity and run with it.

Poppy CEO, Avni Patel Thompson

1. Simplify problem and solution: f(Trust fit available) = f(Vetting matching schedule)
2. Driven by curiosity (ask questions) and frustration (which is what keeps you going), not passion (which leads to overconfidence)
3. Not about product, but about solving problem, so the initial product doesn’t need to be pretty
4. Money is for running experiments, not a budget to spend
5. Not about product launches, but weekly growth. Pick your one key kpi to grow consistently
6. Every morning, choose to be a founder, choose to keep going
7. Find your people, so you can create the space to be a founder and keep going

EmilyWeiss Glossier — into The Gloss

1. Put yourself out there, even if you get rejected, ask.
2. Know what’s the key to your product/service: Glossier is about direct one-on-one relationship, have customer data, know the customer
3. Have the discipline to say more no’s than yes’s
4. CAC: Make amazing products that people want to talk about
5. Customer’s always right and she’s always BEEN right. More options than ever currently
6. If things evolve quickly, old playbills may not work, experience not the best indicator of success, so took a huge bet on VP of marketing

Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of Shippo

1. No magic formula to entrepreneurship, just be persistent
2. Confidence is like cash, you have to have some to get some. — Phil knight
3. The most important decision is to get started and eventually you’ll land on something good
4. During ups and downs, remember your company worth is not your self worth
5. Failure might lead to new opportunities
6. Know your strengths and weaknesses, find complimentary cofounder
7. Better a hole in the org than an asshole in the org. Hire slow, fire fast
8. Customer choose the best, regardless of who the founder is.
9. “If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.” — Phil Knight

Blavity founder, Morgan DeBaum

1. Fail fast. Be agnostic about how you reach your customers.
2. Never about us, always ask how does this help customers, listen to your customers.
3. Get out of the way, not about your vision, but about building the community.
4. Be unapologetic about having a big vision, don’t slice it down. When you act out of fear, you limit yourself. Surround yourself with people that believe in you will keep pushing you.
5. Don’t ask for permission or wait to be validated. Don’t wait for someone to tell you that it’s ok to be great, just go out and do it

DianeGreene, founder of VMWare

1. Independent thinking
2. Identify changing wind carefully
3. Plan and re-evaluate in real time, if wind changes, if competitors stronger than thought
4. Let go of self doubt, but keep questioning your decisions
5. Limit number of cofounders, too many cooks, need the right mix
6. If puzzle can’t be solved one way, there is always another, it’s merely a question of navigation
7. Never take eyes off creating value for customers and partners
8. Respect for the goal and enjoy the process. Enjoy creating value. You may lose this race or that, but you’ll enjoy the sail.
9. Find investors that deeply understand what you are doing. VMWare investors were wealthy tech individuals, Dell, banks that wanted to do the IPO
10. Importance of Board: VMWare sits btw intel and Microsoft monopolies, so knew needed someone who can structure deals, so got the power broker from Sonsini. Went in and explained what he knew how to do was a unique fit for what we were trying to do.

It was wonderful to hear all speaker’s stories and advices for everyone starting a company as a woman CEO. I hope my post helps someone who missed the event to get any inspiration or tip. I look forward to seeing the result from #FFC learning into my startup product Cosme Hunt and into yours too! Good luck and happy 4th of July!