the z list 💥🧿✨👩🏻💻 #57

+1000 Aura Gen Z Founders & VC NYC Events

Author

Zehra Naqvi
August 15, 2024

Writing this to all of you from Yogyakarta (Jogja) in Indonesia! Have been playing tennis, visiting 9th century Buddhist temples (Borobudur, the largest in the world), eating Nasi Goreng, and writing (first edition of Fan Behavior will finally be out soon).

Left: tennis, middle: Borobudur Temple, right: my mom and I!

I’m back in NYC next Monday - who’s in NYC before labor day? Also I’m in SF from September 9th to 12th. Who wants to hang out IRL? Host an event?

P.S. Created a page for The Z List on LinkedIn! Follow the page!

Z List IRL hosted by Zehra

I’m bringing back larger events but also pursuing smaller, activity-based events. Fill out the forms below, and I’ll email you the details!

REMINDER: As such, I’m making a commitment to meet 5 new founders, 3 new VCs, 2 new operators, and 1 new angel investor IRL a week. Maybe it's far-fetched, but I’ll be writing monthly updates on The Z List with the numbers + lists of everyone I meet so you can follow along.

wednesday 8/21

🚨 NEW EVENT monday 8/26

tuesday 8/27

  • Soirée

    • hosted by: Zehra & Ruben

    • for who: anyone!! operators, builders, creators, founders

wednesday 9/4

tuesday 9/17

wednesday 9/18

tuesday 9/24

wednesday 9/25

  •  Breaking into VC: Fundamentals P2

    • hosted by: Zehra 

    • for who: folks interested in breaking into VC. last time I hosted this, one of the attendees got a job at a $400M NYC based fund after attending this event and listening to one of the speakers who worked at said VC firm.

thursday 9/26

friday 9/27

VC Ecosystem News (No GPs Allowed) 

I’ve interviewed an incredible group of VCs on No GPs Allowed thus far, and I’m super excited to continue. If you’d like to be featured on No GPs Allowed, reply to this email or nominate a friend via a reply as well.

Weekly editions of No GPs Allowed have paused as I’ve been traveling, but we’ll be back again next week. In the meantime, here’s a high-level of the VC news from the past few days:

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

ttrreenndd report is a weekly round-up on consumer + brand investing, covering news headlines, fundraises, and brand activations, published 2x a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Authored by Johnnie Yu, investor at Listen, a consumer vc firm investing 100M+ in brands at the tipping point of behavior shifts.

saturday 8/17

🚨 NEW EVENT wednesday 8/21

🚨 NEW EVENT thursday 8/22

🚨 NEW EVENT monday 8/26

tuesday 8/27

🚨 NEW EVENT thursday 9/12

Founder Feature: Natalie at Rella 

the TLDR on Natalie: Natalie is a content creator with 380k+ followers, podcaster, and cofounder of Rella. 

What is Rella? Rella makes it easy to collaborate and manage content for social media teams and managers.

Fundraising advice for founders? Have the mindset of "when" not "if." Fundraising is a numbers game, so it's not IF it's going to happen, it's when.  There is a lot of rejection when fundraising, but have 100% conviction in your business and remember that you know your business better than anyone else and you will get it done. 

Advice for VCs investing in founders? Do research on who you are reaching out to - don't send a generic email where it's obvious you don't know much about the founder or their business.

Quick note from Zehra: If you are obsessed with future of work + the creator economy definitely check out Rella.

Jobs (investor, operator, founding opportunities)

The Z List job drop, powered by Parallel. I swear by listing jobs on Parallel + finding new jobs on Parallel.

Northstar - a CA-based design & sourcing powerhouse, helps footwear & apparel brands scale by streamlining supply chains & offering end-to-end design & production.

Pearl Edison - Pearl Edison simplifies the transition to efficient electric heating and cooling, making it affordable for homeowners and profitable for contractors, while reducing emissions and energy costs. We're building a win-win solution for everyone involved.

Astronaut Monastery - Astronaut Monastery is a creative powerhouse shaping the future of art, culture, and commerce. We partner with industry pioneers to deliver exceptional, multidisciplinary solutions.

Xano - Xano: build apps fast, no coding required.  Their no-code platform simplifies creating backends and connecting to data.

DTCo - A high-performing boutique growth agency, helps businesses achieve growth through strategy, media buying, ad creation, and advanced analytics. Their experienced team builds strong client relationships to deliver impactful results.

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

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)

  • Looking for a high profile speaker for your company's next event? The Trailblazers Agency is a speakers bureau that represents leading, diverse AAPI talent. As your companies organize events for Heritage Months, ERGs, Diwali(!), the Agency can connect you to inspiring, expert speakers across a broad range of industries. The Trailblazers Agency was born out of Z-List partnering organization, South Asian Trailblazers. The Trailblazers network has welcomed the likes of ClassPass Founder Payal Kadakia, Actor Kal Penn, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, and Legendary Investor Anjula Acharia, and many other top speakers. For more information, please contact South Asian Trailblazers here.

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, 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! 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻