the z list 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻 #55

Events are slowing down over summer but I’ll still be hosting small dinners + breakfasts throughout July & August! I’m in NYC till mid July then will be back in late August. Reach out so we can catch up IRL :)

Also just created a page for The Z List on LinkedIn! Would love if you could follow the page!!!!

listening 🎧 Girl, so confusing remix (Charli XCX & Lorde)

reading 📖 The Great Empires of the Ancient World

watching 🎥 Om Shanti Om

fav nyc spot of the week 🗽 Kettl Tea

Famously, most founders are told not to raise in the summer because VCs are “out” through July & August, but, are VCs really out for the summer? Carta’s data shows otherwise!

Z List IRL hosted by Zehra

thursday 6/26

• Female Founders & Investors Breakfast

  • for who: female founders + VCs

  • hosted by: Zehra

• The Future of Consumer Social: Panel

  • for who: consumer social nerds

  • hosted by: Zehra 

monday - wednesday 7/15 to 7/17

• Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2024 Conference

  • for who: founders, investors, operators

  • hosted by: Fortune 

  • I’ll be speaking on a panel at this conference! It’s in Park City in July :)

friday 7/19

• Gen Z VC Summit (Chicago) - details soon!

  • for who: founders, investors, operators, Gen Z enthusiasts

  • hosted by: Gen Z VCs (Meagan Loyst)

  • I’ll be speaking on a panel at this conference!

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VC Ecosystem News (No GPs Allowed)

Whittling down the most important pieces of VC news is exceptionally difficult! Here’s 10% of what I covered in last week’s No GPs Allowed.

Most important!

• What went wrong at BeReal and what comes next: BeReal wanted to be the next Instagram. What happens now that it has been acquired? An interview with Alex Yazdi CEO of Voodoo (acquirer of BeReal)

  • Techcrunch’s Rebecca Szkutak POV: BeReal got its best-case scenario exit

  • Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle: The riddle of the BeReal deal

• Tubi had more viewers than Disney+, Peacock, Max and Paramount+ in May + Why Tubi CEO Anjali Sud thinks free TV can win again: Tubi isn’t just competing with Netflix for your time — it needs to beat TikTok, too.

• Excuse Me, Is There AI in That? Businesses and creators see a new opportunity in the anti-AI movement.

• Brex announced that they’re shifting away from their co-CEO model to a sole-CEO (people on Twitter have thoughts)

  • read an exclusive interview with Techcrunch here

• GitLab, DocuSign: Two Software Companies That May Not Stay Public for Long by Anita Ramaswamy for The Information

• Pinterest Is the Latest to Offer an AI-Powered Media Buying Tool, Called (Naturally) Performance+

• OpenAI Doubles Annualized Revenue to $3.4 Billion, The Information Reports

Fundraising News

• Flock AI announced their pre-seed fundraise: using AI for visual commerce

• OpenAI's Japanese Rival Gets $1 Billion Valuation From Silicon Valley Investors

• Index Ventures Raising $2.3 Billion for Pair of Funds

Consumer-Specific News - subscribe to my other newsletter Fan Behavior.

• Netflix House Will Let You Experience Your Favorite Shows, Movies in Real Life: the first two locations will be in Dallas and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

• Instagram Is Not a Cigarette: the surgeon general’s recommendation to add a warning label to social-media apps is not as straightforward as it seems.

• Shopify’s gains with big retailers is setting up a nearly $1 trillion opportunity, according to this legendary Wall St. analyst

• Court documents reveal YouTube star MrBeast expects to make $700 million in revenue this year, three times what he made last year

• Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ Scores Biggest Opening Weekend Since ‘Barbie’

• How $500 became the norm for highlights: inflation has hit hair salons — and their customers — everywhere as the cost of colouring and other services soars

• Hello Kitty Island Adventure Might Be Your Next Favorite Cozy Game

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

wednesday 7/17

• Inside Summit

  • hosted by: Madison & Claudia (The Room Podcast)

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

• The OOO Summit: For Owners, Operators, and Outliers

  • hosted by: Ankur (Carry) & Andrew Yeung

Jobs (investor, operator, founding opportunities)

The Z List job drop, powered by Parallel.

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 ✨ 

• Favs Ambassador - Apply Direct

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.

• Founding software engineer - Apply Direct

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.

• Senior Full Stack Software Engineer - Apply Direct

Friends of Zehra

Posh - POSH is a venture-backed startup democratizing access to the world of live experiences. Our tools have helped thousands of curators manage and scale incredible events for over 1 million users.

• Chief of Staff - Apply Here

• Director of Performance Marketing - Apply Here

• Sales Manager - Apply Here 

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.

• Social Media Content Creator - Details Here

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

• Summer Intern - Details & DM Ali Here

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

• Social Media Coordinator - Apply Here 

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

• Head of Product Marketing - Apply Here

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.

• Backend Engineer - Apply Here 

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

• Founding Engineer - Apply Here

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’ fundraises were announced! Congrats Manvitha!!!!

Resources

• Looking to hire & pay talent abroad? Deel allows you to easily hire, pay, and manage contractors and employees in 120+ countries. Get 20% off + a free HRIS by booking a demo at the link above.

• Need a graphic designer? Celine has been a friend for 4 years and is an incredible designer. She’s worked on brands that you’ve definitely seen on Twitter.

• Figuring out how to manage your money as a founder or wanna learn how to maximize your tax return?  Sign up for Carry.

• Need an EA but can’t afford one? Howie is the fastest and most responsive scheduling assistant on earth. You can email him anytime to set up meetings and coordinate your calendar.

• Hiring as an early-stage company? Parallel is the all-in-one hiring operating system, designed to convert top talent & maximize your hiring efficiency. Sign up for a free trial.

• Want to make more money on your Shopify store? Platter is offering free website audits to identify opportunities to boost conversion rate and average order value. Grab a time while you can by clicking here.

• Wanna start a newsletter? I use Beehiiv for all three of my newsletters. Cannot recommend enough (you get a discount)

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! 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻