tl;dr: I did something weird but so far it’s worked out but yeah stay tuned because WHO KNOWS.
The Background:
Emma Sanchez Andrade Smith is a badass who started Jefa, a woman’s bank starting in Mexico. Jefa beat 2,000 companies to make it to the finals of TechCrunch Disrupt last year and has a 150K waitlist. It is currently product testing. Despite the many millions of dollars that have been given to vertical bank startups for teens, kids, parents, couples, Black people, Asian people, pet lovers, gig workers, and other groups — some valued in the billions! — Jefa is still one of the only women’s banks in the world. Investors love to tell Emma, “Why do women need a bank?”, and then, “Get a co-founder, preferably a male.”
Sadly, the hellscape of 2020 sucked when it comes to VC funding for women founders. Most concerningly, stats on funding to solo female founders & all-female teams haven’t been this bad in 13 years (or, since we started counting.) A solo female founder who’s pregnant is 100% treated as a crisis!
I’ve been Emma’s lead VC in the past two rounds and was her first check-in. I am vocal about my support of women foundesr, and my next book explores this. I also know that pregnant founders are the bottom of the barrel. When Emma told me she was pregnant, we discussed all the typical advice, which is basically: “hide your pregnancy from investors”.
(This is common in Silicon Valley.)
But we wanted to try something different.
The Pregnancy is Not a PR Crisis Videos
So I got 100+ cool people in tech to make Emma videos of inspiration telling her Pregnancy is Not a PR Crisis! Folks like Jen Rubio (Founder of Away), Eric Schurenberg (CEO of Fast Company and Inc, who showed their cover of Audrey Gelman in his video), Jenny Lefcourt (VC and Midas Brink List), Cindy Gallop, and many more left funny and heartwarming messages.
The Baby Shower
Then I hosted a Zoom baby shower.
At the shower I offered to take time off from my work as a VC at Magma Partners and step in for Emma so she can take a parental leave. (There is no legal leave for founders in the US, obviously.) Emma said yes! The point of this act is to de-risk Emma’s fundraise and generally draw attention to the massive change needed in the industry when it comes to women founders and particularly pregnant women founders.
The Handmaid’s Costume
Then I flew up to surprise Emma in a Handmaid’s Costume to really rub it in.
The Conclusion
We’ll let you know how it turns out.
