the z list irl 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻 #43

curated events, resources, startup jobs, & more

April 02, 2024

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Z List IRL hosted by Zehra

april

wednesday 4/17

May & June

As some of you know, I’m on the Steering Committee for All Raise’s NYC Chapter and will be hosting a few events for the community in early summer. Would love to have more Z List folks there. Engage on the tweet below for automated reach out :)

I’ve been hosting a little less but I promise I’ll be hosting more large-scale events soon! Stay tuned for NY Tech Week :)

Founder Feature: Austin at Howie

the TLDR on Austin: He’s been building internet products for a long time. Most recently started Capiche, which was acquired in 2021 by Vendr. He’s also an active angel investor with pre-launch investments in Lattice, Mercury, Superhuman, Varda, and 40 other startups.

What is Howie? Howie is the fastest and most responsive scheduling assistant on earth. You can email him anytime to set up meetings and coordinate your calendar.

Fundraising advice for founders? Momentum is by far the most important factor in fundraising (and in startups). Spend less time thinking about your pitch and more time building momentum. The pitch is easy when you have momentum.

Advice for VCs investing in founders? Build relationships with them online first. Asking for a call right away often just feels transactional. The coolest VCs are the ones that want to actually get to know you.

Quick note from Zehra: I’ve been using Howie for just over a month and am in love with the product. It makes scheduling super easy and unbelievably reliable. Definitely recommend testing it out (if you join now you’re locked in at $15/month before price increases…)

Want the best AI assistant out there? Try Howie 

Jobs (investor, operator, founding opportunities)

The Z List job drop, powered by Parallel.

XANO - A no-code platform that allows you to quickly build a scalable backend for your app. It provides a server, database, and API builder to integrate and manage data from various sources. Xano is used by over 30,000 people globally for apps ranging from consumer to enterprise applications.

DTCo - Your In-House growth team. DTCo is a top flight, boutique growth agency, delivering on growth strategy, media buying, ad/landing page creation and advanced analytics. DTCo has made and changed businesses over the last 3.5 years and continues to differentiate by building a team that evolves and elevates our clients.

DoorList - DoorList is filling the void in social networking by creating a platform of the things you do and the people you do them with, starting with campus events and group communication.

Mistral AI - Fast, open-source and secure language models. Facilitated specialisation of models on business use-cases, leveraging private data and usage feedback.

Friends of Parallel

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

Breezi - Breezi is a next-gen consumer internet startup based in NY. On Breezi, you can create, share and discover lists about your life; from your current thoughts, half-baked ideas, advice and recs, quirks, memories and more.

Youthforia - At Youthforia, we believe that makeup is an extension of your skincare - and we’re bringing innovation into the market with makeup you can sleep in, and makeup formulas that have never been done before. We love the mix of elevated playfulness, and high quality innovative products. A dose of fun without compromising on performance, or skin health.

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

Want to meet more amazing founders?

Mercury recently launched Investor Connect - a platform to connect active investors to vetted, high quality, thesis-relevant founders.

Once approved to join, you’ll select your investment criteria in your portal. You’ll receive a curated, monthly drop of relevant fundraising founders, all pre-qualified by a panel of volunteer investors. 

  • Request to join the hundreds of investors already finding their next investments here. 

  • Learn more about Investor Connect here.

The Sports-Biz: Events & Opportunities

Are you a sports investor/working with athletes & sports teams? I’d love to invite you to a series of events (sit-down dinners, curated happy hours, etc.) that I’m hosting in June as the ICC World Cup makes its way to NYC. 

Resources — a lot of folks reach out to me for recommendations of engineers, website devs, designers, & more. This new section of The Z List will feature recommendations from folks I’ve worked with.

Z List Market Maps (coming soon)

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

sunday 4/7 San Francisco

monday 4/8

tuesday 4/9

monday to thursday 4/8 - 4/11 Miami

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! 💥🧿✨👩🏻‍💻