Holly Liu

Sarah Nahm explains how her nonlinear path from design and Google led to co-founding Lever and becoming its CEO. She describes how startups can compete for talent through proactive recruiting, long-term relationship building, motivation-fit interviews, and job postings focused on impact. She also shares ways Lever worked to make its culture more inclusive, from rotating office chores to employee resource groups and manager coaching. Her central advice to founders is to treat recruiting and team building as a core part of the job.

A series of talks and panels at the Female Founders Conference shares practical lessons from building companies, finding product-market fit, fundraising, and scaling. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins describes founding Promise to address pretrial incarceration and explains how her labor and operations experience shaped its mission. Founders from Vanta, Remix, and Gemnote discuss validating demand, doing manual work early, measuring customer value, and setting boundaries with customers. Alexandra Zatarain, Jess Lee, and Holly Liu reflect on building Eight Sleep, Polyvore, and Kabam, emphasizing persistence, learning from setbacks, and creating inclusive company cultures; founders of PadPiper and Nifty also receive live feedback.