Why aren’t women the ones building period-tracking apps?🩸

We’re passing the mic to you and would love to know: 

• 🎙️ How do you like The FQ Newsletter?  

• 🎙️ Something you’d like to see in a future edition? 

• 🎙️ Want us to interview a troublemaker you look up to? 

Take 2 minutes to tell us here. 

WHAT’S ON DECK

• Tell Me More: Women’s Health Tech Is Less Likely to Get Funding if a Woman Is on the Founding Team

• Troublemaker Spotlight:  Erika Ayers Badan, CEO of Food52, Author of NCAYC, Former CEO of Barstool Sports

• Dear FQ: Can I Skip My Office Happy Hours?

• Poll the Pack: Money Equates to Confidence for Some, Stress for Many

TELL ME MORE

Male founders are winning hundreds of millions of dollars in femtech investments — so where are the women founders?

In August 2024, the “femtech” (short for “female technology”) app Flo made history when its founders, brothers Dmitry and Yuri Gurski, raised over $200 million for the menstruation and fertility tracking app, at a valuation of over $1 billion. It was a monumental moment for women’s health and cemented the startup’s unicorn status. 

While more femtech apps are a welcome development after decades of women’s health being understudied and ignored, why aren’t women leading the charge? They are. Unfortunately, investors still favor male founders. 

By the numbers: 

• 70% of femtech companies are founded by women

• Here’s the breakdown of VC investments:

  • 38% went to femtech companies founded by men

  • 28% went to femtech companies founded by women

  • Just over one-third went to companies with mixed-gender teams

• Women-founded startups overall received less than 3% of all VC funding in 2023

The numbers don’t lie. The lack of funding for female founders is not a femtech problem; it’s an everywhere problem. Bias in funding is holding women back from serving women on what they know best: women! And while it’s maddening, it’s not necessarily surprising. 

Kirsten Connell, who leads a venture capital firm, put it this way: “Femtech might be for women, by women, but the funders are still largely men who don’t understand the scale of the problems femtech sets out to solve or the incredible financial returns on offer.”

In the world of venture capital, only 18% of the decision-makers are women. Bottom line: We need women involved at every step of the funding process, from VCs to incubators to pitches. 

TROUBLEMAKER SPOTLIGHT

Erika Ayers Badan, CEO of Food52, Author of NCAYC, Former CEO of Barstool Sports

As the author of Nobody Cares About Your Career, it’s clear that Erika Ayers Badan doesn’t have a problem with challenging the status quo. The CEO of Food52 and former CEO of Barstool Sports raised a few eyebrows when she joined Barstool’s team of 12 people, churning out content for 5,000 followers. A few months later, nobody was questioning her. Erika turned Barstool Sports into a media juggernaut with 250 million followers and an incubator for leading pop culture brands, including Call Her Daddy (which moved to Spotify in a $60 million deal). 

FQ: What’s the worst career advice you’ve gotten?

EAB: Be quiet and accept the status quo. It will be easier that way.

What’s the best piece of non-obvious career advice you’ve gotten?

Just say yes. You never know where it will take you.

What was a “heartbeat moment” for you in your career?

Getting the Barstool Sports CEO job. I wanted it so terribly and really felt that it was meant to be mine. My heart jumped when I got it. 

I’m proud of so many things at Barstool Sports—it’s hard to pinpoint just one. In 2016 I had the goal to drive $25M in revenue by 2020. We hit it in 16 months and only climbed from there. 

There were a lot of challenges in that role. 

• A fast-growing company that went from $15M in 2016 to $300M in 2023 and from 12 to over 400 people. 

• A company that went from 2 lines of revenue to over 6.

• A company that found itself in the crosshairs of politics, culture, and controversy. 

This kept my head on a swivel. I set out to tackle all these challenges one day, one crisis, one opportunity at a time, and by empowering people to solve things for themselves.

Imagine you just received the marketing version of an Emmy award. Who are the three people you’re thanking that aren’t at your current gig?

So many! Way more than three. 

Joanne Bradford: She is the scaffolding of my career. She was strong, decisive, forceful, and creative—just as I was learning to be all those things at work. 

Wenda Millard: She taught me relationships, the network, and the importance of creating a tribe of women around you. 

My women’s mafia Dyllan McGee, Kim Kelleher, and Betsy Morgan: They are all the right things at all the right times.

Where have you caused trouble?

Everywhere! We disrupted a lot at Barstool—how content gets made, where it gets published, how sports are covered, and the way ads are created, packed, and sold. 

It’s good to cause trouble. Trouble means you’re starting something. Trouble means you have a plan. Trouble means you are disrupting the status quo. Trouble means you aren’t buying into how things should be. I love trouble. 

DEAR FQ

Your burning career questions answered

Heather Flemming of The Female Quotient weighs in:

The old adage goes, “Your network is your net worth." The relationships you cultivate can be key to your success, and these after-hours events can be a great way to strengthen those relationships. 

That said, you don’t need to attend everything to make meaningful connections. The good news is that after-hours events aren't the only way to build relationships in the workplace. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

• Try to make key events, but don’t feel pressured to attend everything. 

• When you do engage, make it meaningful—it’s about quality over quantity. 

• If you can't make it to an event, look for other ways to continue to build relationships throughout your work day (a quick DM, a chat over coffee, or making the most of your days in the office, for example). 

In the end, it’s about fostering relationships in ways that work for you, and I guarantee that showing up as your authentic self will always speak louder than just the number of social events you attend. The strength of your relationships is not defined by your after-hours calendar.

P.S. Got a burning career question? Serve it up here to Dear FQ to score advice from a powerhouse leader in our network.

POLL THE PACK

Money Equates to Confidence for Some, Stress for Many

While most employees (61%) feel in control or at ease with their money, nearly 40% are feeling the stress—or even shame. 

Negative feelings of financial stress can lead to employees taking more sick days, experiencing feelings of anxiety, and not being able to focus at work. One study even found that employees spend an average of four hours per week at work dealing with financial stress. 

So what can employers do? First and foremost, provide financial education opportunities with either an in-house expert or an unbiased third party so employees feel comfortable asking questions and trust the information they’re given. 

As an employee, it’s important to understand and ask questions about your benefits. When in doubt, start with the numbers. One study found that 45% of employees simply guess how much money they’ll need for retirement. The more you know, the more you can turn financial anxiety into action. 

Keep asking questions, defying the status quo, and investing in women. And don’t forget to let us know what you think of The FQ Newsletter here. 

Xo,

The FQ