What’s holding you back as a leader? Something underneath the surface is blocking you, causing you to lose confidence and be less impactful than you could be. When I work with leaders on these issues, I start by identifying what I call the “Big Leap.” The Big Leap isn’t an excavation into the past but a clear-cut definition of your goals. What’s your ultimate goal? What do you want to achieve? What impact do you want to create? Often, when I ask a leader these questions, the answers are vague, generic, or a regurgitation of what their organization has said their goals should be. That’s unders ..read more

Below is an excerpt from Anat Rapoport’s new book, Woman Up!: Your Guide to Success in Engineering and Tech, which chronicles her experience climbing up the corporate and startup ladders in the primarily male-dominated field of engineering. In her first position as VP of R&D, Olivia stayed completely silent during management meetings. She tolerated rude and aggressive behavior like yelling and pounding on tables, and she didn’t share what her department was working on or what problems R&D was facing. As a result, when R&D missed deadlines, other departments saw this as failur ..read more

Below is an excerpt from Coline Monsarrat’s new book, You Are Not an Imposter: Unlock Your True Potential So You Can Thrive in Life. Part memoir and part guide, Monsarrat’s book reveals how imposter syndrome can infiltrate all areas of our lives, from our careers to our health, without us even realizing it. She delves into the science behind the condition, discussing how it can bring self-doubt, perfectionism, low self-esteem and confidence, and people-pleasing, to name a few, and how it can ultimately hold us back from achieving our full potential. One of the beliefs that commonly leads ..read more

There is a long-running belief that things grow or die. In startups and in business, growth tends to mean more topline revenue. But growth doesn’t have to mean more topline revenue. Growth can also mean improvement, better; better product, better systems, better processes. Here’s the thing (I always have a thing), better almost always leads to bigger, naturally. The challenge with focusing exclusively on topline revenue when you want to grow is that problems nearly always scale faster than solutions.  When you throw dollars into marketing and sales, without a hea ..read more

Being a woman in tech and engineering comes with a unique set of challenges. Earlier in my career, I didn’t have examples of female leaders to model my management style after. So, I created my own. I decided that I wanted to be honest and direct, saying hard things to employees and other managers when I believed they needed to be said. I still always give my perspective, even if the feedback is unpleasant—though I do my best to give the unpleasant feedback in the most pleasant way possible. My path of advancement was only possible because I was willing to reframe my mindset. I used my fa ..read more

Last week, the team at Ada Ventures released a report examining where £6.6bn of Limited Partner Capital has been invested in the UK over the last six years, between 2017-2023. The aim was to produce data on gender diversity of the leadership teams in UK VC firms. It highlights some stark realities, showing that even with all the progress in the last six years on diversity, equity and inclusion, there’s still a very long way to go, especially in regards to where LPs have allocated their capital and the differences between job titles and management company ownership (and therefore share of the ..read more

Have you ever stood on the precipice of success, gazed into the bright expanse of your potential, and thought, “What if they find out I have no idea what I’m doing?” If you just nodded, welcome to the club. In the early years of my career as I climbed the corporate ladder taking on roles of increasing responsibility, my mind spun a bizarre narrative. I perceived myself as a pretender, a fraud, an imposter, about to be exposed at any moment. After wrapping up an important meeting, instead of basking in my success or critically evaluating my performance, I’d wonder, “How long before they realiz ..read more

Leadership qualities are not inherently masculine or feminine, but a blend of traits and skills that can be harnessed by anyone. However, there’s been a growing appreciation for the unique strengths often associated with feminine traits and their impact on leadership effectiveness. At this point, the benefits of women in leadership are undeniable (though we’re biased). We won’t list the research that points to that. But we do want to talk about feminine and masculine traits, and specifically the power of those in the “feminine” category. Commonly cited “masculine” traits are Assertiveness, In ..read more

Securing VC funding is not a guaranteed path to success and founders often make common mistakes that can hinder your fundraising efforts. Here are the big ones I’ve seen in my decade of investing in early-stage companies, and a few suggestions on how to avoid them. Putting your eggs into one investor basket Many founders rely on just one or two investors to come in and lead their round or to write a big check. Like most things, you need to diversify who you’re targeting. You can’t assume the investor is an investor until the money hits the bank account. I’ve seen many times where the founder ..read more

Hey! We’re trying out a few new AI-generated photos for our headers. Let us know what you think! Simone Biles, the US gymnast who famously left the 2021 Tokyo Olympics voluntarily, recently returned to competition and won the 2023 US championship. Biles is an amazing example of how our ultimate competition is with ourselves. To compete with ourselves we must learn how to influence ourselves so our best instincts can triumph over our circumstances. Biles was heavily criticized for removing herself from the Olympic competition. People wondered if she was being too easy on herself. After all, do ..read more