Wendi X. Zhang

🙋🏽‍♀️ 𝙄'𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩. 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙. Networking as a concept still causes my introverted spirit to shrivel up just a little bit inside. Cultivation is much easier but leveraging my amazing web of folx remains 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱.  I contrast my job seeking experiences during two pivotal moments in my career: 🎣 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗝𝗼𝗯 When I was first trying to gain an entry point into tech, I had no network (and no connections in the tech industry) and applied to nearly 100 jobs before getting the first interview that changed the trajectory of my career. 💥 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗩𝗖 Years later when I was again at a career inflection point and felt in my bones a need for change, I resigned myself to the application slog once again. I had a network but I didn't know how to use it and I wouldn't have even considered VC. I couldn't imagine what I had no exposure to. Jerry Nemorin, my manager & CEO at the time, planted the VC seed for me. And then he went one further and recommended me to his investor. 💥 Thank you, Jerry 🙏🏽 . 👀 𝗠𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲 A series of chances. Yes, I worked my butt off, too. Timing played a big role. I committed to my growth and left roles that were no longer aligned and pursued roles that were. But I would not be here in VC collaborating on programming for startup job seekers without that referral and that is a privilege and a gift. 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙬 & 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 💗 Whether you are: 🤜🏽 trying to break into a new role or industry with a limited network 🤝  looking to nurture and grow your professional connections in meaningful ways 🕸 wondering how to call upon your web of connections to support you in your next career move 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨 💪🏽   Join me on 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟱 at Initialized Capital's 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 for some tactical advice on networking and so much more. 💫 In her talk, "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙀𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩: 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨," Eleanor Morgan, founder & ceo, of a stealth social platform for job and talent matchmaking, will share insights for how to 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵.  🏋🏽‍♀️ 𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙪𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙗 🧗🏽‍♀️ This 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 is open to all SF Bay Area talent looking for their next job opportunity at an early stage startup. Sign up here 👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/g_nDPjWi Space is limited. #StartupJobs #JobSupport #StartupReadiness

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Thoughtful Monday read from Kellogg Insight -- We're all familiar with the concept of the gender pay gap at this point since the 1990s. However, new research from Nicola Bianci, assistant professor of strategy at Kellogg suggests that the relationship between men's and women's average #wages did indeed change in past four decades. The average man in the U.S. used to make 80% more than the average woman in 1976, and past over four decades, that gap has fallen to a 33%. Interestingly, there was no stark drop but rather a steady decline that has remained active for the long-term. So what's going on here? Some theorize that #older workers are retiring and newer workers are taking their place, relinquishing some higher paid positions. The reason why the 33% remains stagnant though, is because there's still a disproportionate amount of women in more "traditionally feminine" job positions rather than "male" careers. What do you think about this? Do you have any personal theories about the way the pay gap minimized and then #stagnated?

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Inspired by what we’re building at Build Momentum. We realized tech recruiting is broken—non-technical recruiters struggle to find and attract the best talent. That’s why we’ve flipped the script and developed a community-based recruiting approach: a trusted network of elite engineers, embedded within Latam’s top tech communities. The best engineers know the best engineers, and we tap into these deep, authentic connections to deliver top talent faster and with better fit. Want to see how we’re doing it differently? Check out our post

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Super helpful article and accompanying doc with a #Startup #Equity Calculator to determine the equity for early hires, thanks to Pear VC head of talent Matt Birnbaum! Thanks for sharing Pejman Nozad! 🙏🏼 You can read more here How to structure startup equity for early hires: https://lnkd.in/ggmpT5-Y Google Doc: https://lnkd.in/gjsvths6

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Origins is a good podcast series for us venture nerds to dig into. This one featuring Wesley Chan in convo with Elizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson + Nicholas Chirls had the following 3 takeaways for me: 1/ For the great founders, Steve Jobs, Page + Brin etc., it is not a as much about priving someone wrong so much as proving you are right! "Larry and Sergey never felt they had to go fight the man, even though a lot of people doubted them at the beginning. They felt they had to go change the world, right? And like prove themselves that there was something better if Google existed than if it didn't, right?" 2/ Timing / why now is an important aspect to their evaluation process. Wesley: “we ask the question, why now? Or why does this make sense now? Why not start it at 10 years from now? And usually, the founders who understand why now, they thought about their whole lives or like, no, this is the one moment in time. They have a really wonderful answer for it, which is these are the things, these are the tailwinds that are blowing." This resonated with me, because in my writings on PMF, the first part of PMF is getting 'the pick' or problem space right, and one of the three elements of 'the pick' is why now (others are founder problem fit or why you) and large attackable market). Increasingly I am incorporating 'why now' into my evaluation process of startup pitches as well. 3/ Doesnt believe in platform; says the best founders dont need recruiting help. Wesley: “A lot of people mistake Venture Capital for being some sort of tuition check for like training and helping founder learn on the job, and while we're willing to help them learn, in fact, we provide a lot of help with coaching, especially through our coach and founders network, but the best founders don't need their VCs to do the work for them.”

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As I look ahead to our next Techstars San Francisco cohort,  I’m especially excited to support more female founders bringing their vision to life. If you’re a woman in tech working on something bold—whether in AI, deep tech, or any other space—I’d love to see you apply. I know firsthand how invaluable it is to have diverse voices and perspectives in the room, shaping the future of startups and tech. We’re here to support founders with mentorship, a strong network, and a safe space to grow. If you’re curious about joining or just want to chat about your startup journey, feel free to reach out. We are committed to being a place where you can build, thrive, and succeed. Let’s work together toward a startup world that truly reflects all voices. 📧 Reach out: [email protected] 👉 Learn more and Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gd5exiZ7 #FemaleFounders #TechstarsSF #DiversityInTech #Founders #Accelerator #VentureCapital #Techstars

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Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

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Check out three M13 portfolio companies currently hiring - Bento (gobento.com) & Lifeforce are making strides in the future of health, while the team at Rho is building the future of fintech. Scroll through to learn more about each and how you can fuel their missions 🚀 #hiring #brightertogether #m13 #bento #lifeforce

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RETHINKING RETIREMENT We've been investing in the Future of Work since we launched BBG Ventures, targeting underserved segments like deskless workers (Anthill, OX) and solopreneurs (Topline Pro). Over the summer we spent time digging into another deeply underserved segment of the workforce: Boomers. By the end of this decade, the entire generation will have hit retirement age and, for the first time, Americans 65+ will outnumber those under 18. This has huge implications for every aspect of society, and it mandates that we start thinking differently about retirement. The question for all of us is this: Can we re-focus healthy Americans 60+ on a new phase of productivity, a “third act” that enables them to keep learning, keep earning, keep socially-engaged and contributing to the nation’s economic growth? And what role can AI play in helping every senior identify their unique skill set and personal priorities — and connect them with the right opportunities? We have some thoughts on how to make this happen, and we'd love you to give it a read, add your feedback, forward it to a founder who's working in this arena (or who you think might be intrigued), and share it! AgeTech has been too focused on death and decay; it's time we embrace longevity and give older Americans a way to keep working -- on their terms. cc: Carol Magalhães Isaacs, CFA Nisha Dua, Claire Biernacki, Drew Silverman Fennessy

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🐺🚨🚀Three years ago, we launched Pack Fund I. Today, we launch Fund II with some big news from U.W.!🚨🚀🐺 We are now a Preferred Venture Partner of the University of Washington and CoMotion at University of Washington! After three years of hard work, during which we backed 29 startups, mentored on campus, and sponsored entrepreneurship clubs and competitions in the UW Foster School of Business and Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, we are thrilled to be taking our collaboration with U.W. to the next level! On the back of this news and early successes, we are hosting a webinar for accredited and interested L.P.s to learn about joining Fund II - https://lu.ma/pbwih7xa What Is the Latest On Fund I? - 26 companies backed in 3 years - 12 have raised additional funding at higher valuations - $135M+ in additional funding and grants - Invested alongside Madrona, FUSE, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Pioneer Square Labs, Trilogy Equity Partners, Cercano, Washington Research Foundation, and dozens of other top investors. - Supported founders in Software, Life Sciences - Recognized as a top 5 most active life science investor in the PNW in 2022 - 80+ L.P.s supported our vision How is Pack Fund II Starting? - Ti Zhao joined full-time - let's go!!!! - Agreement (M.O.U) signed with U.W., making us a preferred venture partner - 2 investments alongside top VCs - 50+ L.P.s already joined - Fund II is larger than Fund I already - Hundreds of companies reviewed already See the news from U.W. here -https://lnkd.in/girhA3BM GeekWire and Taylor Soper covered our vision masterfully here - https://lnkd.in/gHYFAxzY Thanks to all of the Pack members and founders who have been on this journey with us!

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Thanks to the ZIRP era, capital has become a commodity. Hence most VC funds try to differentiate themselves through their -content strategy, -thought leadership and -other auxiliary supports (hiring, etc) to their portfolio companies. These definitely play a role in differentiation In my limited, yet recent experience in raising funds for HashFame, I've seen one another major differentiating factor, COMMUNICATION Be it communicating what their investment thesis is (though this is common knowledge) or  Communicating the feedback for the call or  The time needed to respond back This very clearly sets apart the best from the rest

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🚀 Share to help get #BIPOC hired at startups 🚀 📅 Only two weeks until this IRL event. ICYMI: We’re partnering with Initialized Capital for their Startup Talent Summit on May 15th in San Francisco. The Summit is for startup-ready or startup-curious job seekers looking for their next role in an early stage startup. REASONS TO PARTICIPATE 👉🏿 Learn why it’s a great time to join an early-stage startup 👉🏾 Demystify the landscape and understand the upsides (and downsides) of startup life 👉🏽 It’s an opportunity to connect with hiring companies looking for talent like you Apply to attend here: https://bit.ly/4aSdlma #WeAreHue

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Looking forward to this discussion with a great panel Fortune Brainstorm Tech. Will share the Seattle & Madrona perspective in complement to our Silicon Valley friends!

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Insightful breakdown from my great Partner Omri Amirav-Drory on the simple factors that really separate the top 1% of investors from the rest, and how more operators should become investors! https://lnkd.in/gEiZdT2h

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My first startup story: 🙋🏽‍♀️ I answered a Craigslist ad, had an onsite interview 1 week later, and was working at my first startup 2 weeks later. 📈 With the ambiguous title of Operations Associate, I was onboarding customers in my first week ,and gradually became unofficial people ops as the team doubled in size over that first year. 🥵 Over the course of nearly 4 years, the team would 5x in size, I would have 5 different managers, & would learn what “sweat equity” really meant. 🤪 It was the best. It was the worst. I had to learn everything as I went. I cried a lot. I cared too much. I (like to think) I got a lot of people their first experience in tech. I fast tracked my startup career. It was addictive. I spent the next 8 years attempting to replicate the highs of that experience in other roles. Join me for more startup journey stories at Initialized Capital’s May 15th Startup Talent Summit. 👉🏽 Register here: https://lnkd.in/g_nDPjWi (Space is limited)

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Participating in Cohort 14 of the VC Lab has been an energizing experience so far. I am learning so much about the ins and outs of being an emerging fund manager and how to succeed in this space. Today they hosted a panel for Women in VC that provided some real world advice from some fantastic panelists. The curriculum is rigorous for sure, but rewarding. If you are curious about why this is such an exciting area check out this article. #venturecapital #vc #investing https://lnkd.in/gMMM_mwp

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A must-read for #VC and aspiring VC Platform pros >> Global Compensation Report is live. 🎩 Kudos to VC Platform and Sequoia team, esp. Anna Ott, Brianna Rizzo, and Erica Amatori for bringing a transparent view into #venturecapital platform compensation. 👏 Explore the results. The link is in the comments below.

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Our goal with the Origins Podcast is to host truly tremendous GPs and LPs to share insights on how the best do what they do. Wesley Chan FPV Ventures' founding partner is all that and more. He and I had a convo on his investment philosophy that I hadn’t stopped thinking about for over a year now… and in this episode – we get to share it. “If you’re not changing the world, you’re wasting your time.” ... this is a guiding principle for Wes learned from his time working with Sergey Brin... Wes’ founders aren’t offering something 10x better than what’s on the market – it must be 100x better – or it doesn’t even yet exist. Wes was one of the first institutional checks into companies like @Canva, @Flexport, @Guild Education, @RobinHood, @AngelList, @Gusto and @Plaid (to name a few). Another tenet of his great investment acumen is how discerning he is with how his LPs’ dollars are being used, as his base is charitable by design - children's hospitals, pensions, endowments and foundations - and he partners with founders who care deeply about being fulfilled.    “I’m not a university, and this isn’t your tuition money.” Meaning, he’s not handing out checks to experiment and test out an idea. He’s backing founders that are there to go win.    As an investor in FPV, we at Sapphire Partners are deeply appreciative of this - and a shoutout to my partner Laura Thompson who first met Wes as the origin story of our partnership. More on that in the episode. 🙏Thank you, Wesley Chan, for lending us your time. Links to listen below 👇 #OpenLP #VC #Origins

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