Video Of The Week: Femtech

We have had fintech and now we have femtech.

Ida Tin, founder/CEO of our portfolio company Clue, explains it in less than two minutes.

USV has several femtech investments and we would love to make even more.

#hacking healthcare

Comments (Archived):

  1. JimHirshfield

    “FemTech on the rise”

  2. LE

    One thing I have always noted is the amount of tech and innovation that surrounds things that men are interested in and have do (work, hobbies, or just fun) vs. traditionally women have done in the past. [1]For example men, who traditionally ran companies, and had the power and decision making or final say, would always have all sorts of gadgets and things that seemed obvious to them made and designed then they implemented, tweaked and made those things happen.Otoh, things that were traditionally ‘woman’s jobs’ lacked the same type of effort and innovation.An example is clothes washing. Most houses only have 1 washer and 1 dryer. Anyone who has had to do wash will quickly see how much more efficient it is to have 2 washers and 1 dryer or even 2 dryers. (Ever hog the laundry room at an apartment or condo?) If I had the space I’d put in 3 washers (hot cold and medium).Home laundry rooms aren’t designed to fit those extra pieces of equipment because the architects and the decision makers in purchasing were traditionally men. And the men simply didn’t have the seat of the pants feel for the importance when it wasn’t their effort that went into getting the laundry done or the aggravation involved. So if the man didn’t do the wash then he didn’t see it as important to have more efficiency. And didn’t think about solutions or a way to make the process faster, easier or better.[1] With women it is now changing.[2] Part of this could also be that it’s been said (not sure if it’s true) that men are simply more into gadjets and solving problems, even when those problems don’t even exist.

    1. creative group

      LE:Great observation. Washing clothes isn’t regulated to women only.Having two washing would be more efficient but homes are not designed to fit two washers. Change is good.

  3. jason wright

    Perhaps you would already have more if USV had a Femvest partner on the team. So white, so male.

    1. LE

      Femvest is a great name that you coined for this purpose. Could be an venture firm, an event for woman’s investment (femvest 2017) to name only two uses.

      1. jason wright

        my minor contribution to womankind.

    2. fredwilson

      I could not agree more

      1. Twain Twain

        Post-Trump, tech will have to become more feminised…Christopher Graves, Chairman of Ogilvy’s, view on where ad+marketing tech needs to move: “Instead we need to move into a more empathy based approach of understanding. We know from Trump and Brexit that the traditional measures (socio-demographics surveying) will fail time and time again.”* https://www.holmesreport.co…Which platform has more socio-demographic data than anyone? FB.As for Google’s version of adtech and AI and emotions …July 2016, Ray Kurzweil of Google: “Emotions and human language are the most cutting-edge of human intelligence. Emotions are not a sideshow. Consciousness is subjective. And, fundamentally, that (i.e., subjectivity) is not a scientific concept.”Nov 2015, MIT Technology Review: “We’re at the Commander Data stage,” staff research engineer Pete Warden said in a reference to the emotionless android in the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation. “But we’re trying to get a bit more Counselor Troi into the system”—the starship Enterprise’s empathetic counselor.”* https://www.technologyrevie…Oct 2012: Twain asks Amit Singhal then SVP of Google Search, “Does and will Google’s Star Trek Engine have a heart?” to which he answered, “That’s very deep for a first question … No, we’re focusing on facts and figures. Things that are measurable and quantifiable.”Jan 2012: Forbes syndicated an article in which I wrote —“It’s worth knowing that IBM Watson, arguably one of the most intelligent and fastest processing systems in the world, was said to be “like a human autistic savant” by its male inventor. If women had contributed 50:50 to its build, it’s not just faster processing of huge volumes of data that IBM Watson would have achieved. It would also be able to express, identify and parse sentiments in that data that would help it make sense of inputs and the “Who, what, when, where, why and how” of information in more dynamic and relevant ways.After all, that’s how the female brain thinks and connects naturally. Emotions, making sense of information and relative associations are special skills and strengths of women. Combined with the male special skills and strengths of logic, spatial reasoning and prioritisation ranking we could reach remarkable tech frontiers for our species.”So, yup, Silicon Valley needs FemTech to save it in the post-Trump world.

  4. creative group

    CONTRIBUTORS:TWITTER vs LYNCH.

  5. Pete Griffiths

    Dollar Tampon Club

      1. Pete Griffiths

        Of course :)thanks

  6. Laura Spiekerman

    Would love to tell you more about my company, Fred. We’re going to start raising another round soon.

  7. RichardF

    Hmm…. in the interest of equality I think you need to invest in mentech too…..

  8. Vendita Auto

    Femtech is plaster over a mindset, just stop buying your kids a pram & give the child the option before the day one pear pressure “because your worth It” “People ought to think more about who wrote the software that’s running in their head (sigh). It probably wasn’t them.” [Elon Musk] So very true.

  9. awaldstein

    Been following this company for awhile.Smart.Interesting that of the four founders the CEO is a women, the others not.Usually I don’t pay attention but because of the company itself and what it does and who it services, it jumped out at me.

  10. Pete Griffiths

    So agree with her and it’s a great name.

  11. pointsnfigures

    Will be interesting to watch going forward. 50% of the U of I Engineering freshman class, female. As long as women have the freedom to choose the entrepreneurship path, or not we are better off.

    1. PhilipSugar

      That is Great! So happy to hear that.