Your first customer is in the room
Nobody at the Women Founders Summit landed a first customer from a perfect funnel. They came from a room. How to find yours, or build one.
Insights
Notes from the work.
Short, specific, and written by Sondra Connor. Go-to-market, positioning, marketing leadership, and what women founders are learning the hard way. Every figure is sourced and every source is listed at the bottom of the piece.
Finding your voice after years of being someone else's
For every marketer who sounds great for clients and freezes when it is time to talk about themselves. What a panel of founders said about building a voice you can keep up.
Your loudest critic lives in your head
What a panel of founders said about the nos, the comparison trap, taking action without the feeling, and why rest is a strategy, not a reward.
Go where the money is
Greater Phoenix startups raised well under 1% of US venture capital from 2020 to 2024. That is not a complaint. It is a map. Build here, raise everywhere.
Write the prenup before the pivot
How do you know when to pivot? Open your ears, then write the terms before you test. A five-line template from the Women Founders Summit.
The pitch room still plays by different rules
Women-only startups got 1.1% of US VC dollars in 2025. The research on why, and six moves to use in your next pitch.
Built by us, for us: what a room full of women founders taught me
I almost talked myself out of the room. Five lessons from the Women Founders Summit in Tempe on money, pivots, confidence, and finding your voice.
The first marketing hire, and when to make it
What a CMO actually costs, why the statistics everyone quotes about bad hires are made up, and the signals that say it is finally time.
Your product isn't confusing. Your category is.
Six percent of B2B marketing leaders think their brand is distinctive. Here is a one week test for whether you have a messaging problem or a market problem.
When your sales cycle outlasts your marketing plan
Ten month buying cycles, twenty two people in the room, and what that does to your budget, your attribution report, and the patience of your board.