Happy Tuesday!

A recent string of networking events has inspired me to reflect on how we're building relationships in the startup world — and frankly, most of us are doing it wrong.

I've been to too many "mixer" events that feel more like performative networking theater than genuine connection. Meanwhile, I've watched founders get terrible advice about everything from email communication to co-founder "requirements" simply because we're not creating spaces for authentic conversations.

Long story short, from intimate dinners to detailed emails to reimagining what "solo" really means, there's a clear pattern emerging: the most successful relationships happen when we ditch the startup playbook and get real.

From my browser to yours, Aria

⏰ TL;DR

• Networking Event: Boston startup community summer mixer on Sept 7th @ 11AM featuring potluck brunch, problem/solution speed dating, fireside chat, and win celebrations - designed for founders, operators, and investors to build authentic relationships and share industry insights.

• Communication Breakthrough: Founder learned that startup-world brevity doesn't work universally - detailed, genuine emails to wellness partners yielded 100% response rate vs. short emails, proving the importance of understanding your audience's communication style and staying authentic to your values.

• Solo Femxle Founder Dinner: Solo femxle founder noticed male-dominated startup events create uncomfortable spaces that exclude women, creating a circular problem. She hosted an intimate dinner for solo female founders to build genuine relationships and validate that despite industry pressure to find co-founders, being "solo" (with strong advisors) can work - her company turned profitable in just 4 months. The authentic conversations and peer support were so valuable she's hosting another dinner in September and offering to help others organize similar industry-specific gatherings.

🔖 Bookmarks From Mine to Yours

• Join the free Streamline to Scale Fundraising Summit on August 20–21 (tomorrow!) and discover how to simplify your tools, reduce admin overload, and build stronger donor relationships. With 13 sessions and 18 speakers, you'll walk away with the templates, systems, and strategy you need to scale your impact—without scaling your stress. I’ll be presenting on building intergeneration pipelines! Register for free here

• Venture capital is the future of women’s health

• 100K Small Business Grant competition hosted by IFW

• Female funding recap across UK & Europe, $3.4M dollars last week

• Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it)

YOU’RE INVITED: Summer’s End Soirée

Unconventional meets relationship building. You're invited to a summer mixer like no other.

Join us for an evening curated specifically for the Boston startup community to build relationships, share knowledge, and celebrate wins from the season.

As an official Boston Startup Week side event, this is for you if you’re looking to meet people within your industry and explore lessons learned behind closed doors. Founders, operators, investors — all are welcome.

🥙 Potluck brunch spread to warm up the day

🙌 Problem /\ Solution speed dating with pre-matched industry pairs

🧘‍♀️ Blanket-styled fireside chat (👀 speakers TBA)

📋 Celebrate wins of the season

Be there or be ⬛. September 7th @ 11AM.

Event registration here. Spots limited. Share with anyone you think would benefit (:

Breakthrough Moment: Authenticity

As part of scaling my D2C company, I’ve been exploring B2B partnerships to generate sales.

In the past, I’ve been scrutinized for how detailed and long my emails are. I’ve learned that in the start-up world, everyone doesn’t have enough time to give your email more than a 10 second skim, so my emails became shorter. Curt. No personality.

I’ve been cold emailing potential partners in the past two weeks, and I’ve learned this method DOES NOT work outside of the start-up industry (which seems pretty obvious, right?

I’ve been cold emailing potential group acupuncture places for referral partnerships and here’s how it worked out:

Emailed 5 places, 5responded, 4 rejected outright, 1 asked more questions

My initial email was 2 paragraphs, not providing a ton of detail on why jadewell started, what our values were, and how appointments worked

1 asked more questions and I wrote a HEAVILY detailed monologue

Just got his reply and he feels 10000% more comfortable engaging with us, looks promising for a partnership

I thought these places would appreciate me being concise because I’m used to this preference in communication in the startup world, but these are not startup people.

They have their own hesitations, delineations, and skepticisms. Especially in the health and wellness space, they’ve learned to say no more often than yes because the hype is truly outrageous and dangerous.

The first lesson: Understand how your audience communicates.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve explained this, heard this, even given talks about this. Communication is incredibly important. Learning how to talk to the type of person you’re negotiating with will help you in the long-run.

The second lesson: Being genuine, detailed, and honest goes a long way.

I’ve gotten shit before for being detailed so I cut my explanations. But that’s not being genuine towards myself, and doing a disservice to my patients, so you need to be authentic to attract the partners you jive with

I didn’t focus on the emails being perfect, I was sending them in batches so I can make the next batch of emails better.

Once I got a response, I changed the email to cater towards what I believe other people would be happy to look at.

Maybe if I was a professional in this industry I would’ve known this already, but these sequence of events really opened my eyes. Better late than never.

Solo Femxle Founders Dinner Recap

I was at an event this summer that had the panelists hyping up a pitch that would make it easier to bomb people.

Very frat bro, very much "if you're not laughing, you're not in the cool kids club."

It became clear to me that these uncomfortable spaces always had a lack of womxn attendees.

Was this because there was a lack of womxn in this space or because womxn don't come to these events because they're generally uncomfortable?

I think it's a circular issue.

Not enough intimate events to build out comfort, rapport, and genuine relationship building.

I took some inspiration from prominent community builders in the space and hosted a solo femxle founders dinner with Alesia Razumova, Madison Page, and Anastacia Yefimenko.

I felt called to host this dinner because as a solo femxle founder, I've felt scrutiny for my decision to not "chase" a counterpart for jadewell.

But as a company producing profit just 4 months after launch, why is it necessary to forcibly look for someone who doesn't see the problem as their own baby, like I do?

Despite this, I still get weird looks and an tense feeling in the air when I say I’m “solo.”

But I’m not actually solo, I have amazing advisors, both on the board and off the board, who are indeed my partners in crime.

This was a common topic of discussion during dinner, and it further validated the fact that the "hype," "statistics," and everyone being an "expert" on what you "need" to succeed," is not reality.

A co-founder could accelerate some work, but I've hired people before who ended up doing more harm than good.

It was honestly heart-warming to have an intimate get-together. The conversations felt real. We gave each other feedback without feeling pressured to be poignant.

And it was incredibly satisfying to bring 3 strangers together, and leave as peers and supporters.

I’m hosting another dinner in September. If (you) or you know someone who’d benefit from something like this catered towards their industry, reply to this email and I’ll help set something up.

📰 Random Recommendations

• Hilarious commentary on the newest season of Love Island. Are you going to be watching the reunion?

• The set that closed out my weekend at an electronic music dance festival in Pennsylvania. Maybe this’ll inspire you (:

Powering down, Aria ✌️