the z list 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻 #53

my first b2b event in over a year & the last of my large scale events till september!

Author

Zehra Naqvi
June 11, 2024

NYTW was a blur last week! The week ended with just over 800 events scattered across the city. I spent a good amount of time between larger scale and smaller scale events.

What I appreciate most about weeks like this is maximizing time for IRL catch-ups with friends — everyone expects to spend a majority of time in-person anyway.

I hosted 5 “secret” consumer events. “Secret” meant I planned them in 24 hours and didn’t have any sponsors; it was great to see the enthusiasm across founders and VCs alike to attend.

June’s edition of 1 GP Allowed will feature Terri Burns and July’s Edition will feature Turner Novak. We have GPs slotted till February of next year (1 GP/month). Subscribe!

For context, I’ve just conducted the first few interviews and they’re typically 1.5 - 2 hour long discussions in-person with the GP focused on learning about them, their career history, advice they have for junior VCs, advice for founders, and more. I am so excited to share the first edition in 2 weeks.

Z List IRL hosted by Zehra

Last week I hosted two impromptu breakfasts for 20 and 25 folks — I would love to host a few more before summer ends.

These events are “curated”, meaning that I’ve met every attendee who has come once 1 on 1 irl or url. If we haven’t met or spoken on Zoom yet 1 on 1, reply to this email so we can get scheduled :)

tuesday 6/18

thursday 6/20

monday 6/24

tuesday 6/25

thursday 6/26

post nytw later in june!

monday - wednesday 7/15 to 7/17

VC Ecosystem News (No GPs Allowed)

If you haven’t yet subscribed to No GPs, below is what you can expect delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning.

Fundraising News

Consumer-Specific News

Friend’s of The Z List: Events & Projects
Wanna feature your event? Fill out this form.

tuesday 6/11

wednesday 7/17

Wanted to dedicate this edition of The Z List’s friend’s section to the Inside Summit, happening on July 17th in NYC. As a part of The Room Podcast community, I’m super excited to extend 20% off tickets for a limited time (use code: ZEHRA20) Inside Summit is going to be the tech event of the summer - and very different from any other conference you've been to. Here's some of what you will experience at Inside Summit: 

  • Founder & funder matching for those fundraising or looking to build their network

  • Founder-to-founder buddy matching for founders to make new friends and mentors (make founder friends that are a stage ahead of you)

  • Vendor & customer warm introductions

  • Small-group conversations & workshops oriented around tactical topics that aren’t happening anywhere else

  • Free headshots

  • Goodie-bag full of products from some of the hottest DTC brands

  • Consumer brand “market” access

  • After-party with open bar & bites

saturday 8/17

Jobs (investor, operator, founding opportunities)

The Z List job drop, powered by Parallel.

Draper University - Silicon Valley's training ground for future tech titans. Launched in 2012, they've trained 4,000+ entrepreneurs who built $4 billion+ companies (think Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter).

Favs - A Los Angeles startup, is rethinking social media with an app focused on close connections and authentic interactions, minus the distractions of traditional platforms. ✨ Zehra’s portfolio company ✨ 

Doorlist -  DoorList is a social platform for campus events and group communication, enabling users to manage social calendars and facilitating over 1 million event invites.

Thingtesting - Ditch the shopping struggles! We're your one-stop shop for honest reviews and brand discoveries, empowering informed purchases and a more thoughtful shopping experience.

Pin - A platform that makes it easy for people to pool their money together & invest in startups.

Disco - A post-purchase ad network for Shopify brands, helps top brands like Caraway acquire new customers by recommending products to interested shoppers after they purchase from similar brands.

Friends of Zehra

Zenie AI - Zenie is an AI app for women to press pause in their day and reflect on how they’re feeling. Say you’re preparing for a first date, job interview, or big presentation at work, you can journal with Zenie to process what you’re going through and get expert advice on how to tackle these challenges head on.

SWSH - swsh is a social app for your friends not followers

Kulfi Beauty - Kulfi Beauty celebrates South Asian beauty & culture with fun beauty products and content created with our community.
✨ Zehra’s portfolio company ✨ 

Doola - Start your US business from anywhere and keep it 100% compliant.
✨ Zehra’s portfolio company ✨ 

Soundmap - Soundmap is a gamified consumer social app for music fans. We have scaled to 100k DAU in less than 90 days and we are consistently top 5 in the iOS music game chart.

Merazine - Turning online shopping into an immersive, social gaming experience.

Carry - Carry is an all-in-one platform for tax-advantaged accounts, investments and strategy for business owners and high earners.

Want to get your jobs featured on the Z List? Sign up for the Parallel waitlist here.

Z’s Consumer Investment Theses: Fan Behavior

After a few weeks of writing, rewriting, and unnecessarily fine-tuning every other word in my first public consumer investment thesis, I’m finally ready to share it

I love putting my ideas pen to paper. This is a super high level idea of what you can expect in the first edition of fan behavior :) if you made it all the way to the bottom of the newsletter to see this: I salute you!!! ✨🕯️👀⚡️🧿💭🔮

Friend’s of The Z List: Announcements

Founder friends’ apps were featured at Apple’s WWDC24

Founder friends’ fundraises were announced! Both in consumer-y fintech and both for Gen Z :)

Resources

Discounts

  • Kulfi Beauty, use code “zehra” for 20% off. I use their concealer rose rush and their kajal eyeliners in nazar-no-more everyday.

Want to work with Zehra?

  • If you’re interested in working with me in any capacity I have some bandwidth and would love to learn more :) fill out this form. 

Please reply to this email if you'd like to amplify your events with the z list community or if you'd like to collaborate on an event together.

Have fun! 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻