Fake it Til You Make It.

Impostor Syndrome, Harpie Sponsors SheFi, Summit Speakers!

Author

Maggie Love
June 19, 2024

Fake it til you make it.

A classic mantra, and one piece of advice I gave on the She Hodls the Future Panel at this year’s New York Tech Week where I joined three other incredibly talented women in crypto to answer questions about the challenges of fundraising for women founders. 

But after my pithy recommendation, I was called out. A crowd member asked, “You keep saying fake it til you make it. But what part of it is fake? When does it become real?”

In an instant, I was brought back to 2018.

I was 27 years old, working at ConsenSys for only 2 weeks, when two investors came to the company with a proposal: create a Web3 infrastructure joint venture between ConsenSys and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). 

The new entity would combine ConsenSys's blockchain expertise with AMD's hardware expertise. It was a visionary idea, right down to the name: W3bCloud. Truly ahead of its time. 

And which 27-year-old, whose job included incubating new businesses, was in charge of creating the deck?

You guessed it. 🙋‍♀️

Using my consulting skills, I put together a presentation on GPU infrastructure and Ethereum for CEO of AMD, Dr. Lisa Su. Since there was no Ethereum website, I had to literally use Reddit for much of my research, scrounging through posts Vitalik had made there.

Once finished, I sent the deck off, not thinking much of it. I had made hundreds of these before.

I didn’t know this one would be life-changing.

Next thing I know, Joe Lubin, CEO of Consensys is turning to me and saying "Great job on this presentation, now go close this deal."

Suddenly, I was negotiating with two men in their 50s, convincing them with my limited talking points and unbridled enthusiasm that ConsenSys was the perfect partner for this venture. 

I had almost zero knowledge about hardware and I had never negotiated a deal so large. I felt like a total impostor, but that didn’t stop me.

Why? Because in 2017, no one knew that much about GPU mining.

It was an emerging market! If I was an impostor, so was everyone else.

So I kept leading negotiations, as prepared as possible, and turned myself into a crypto hardware expert. The thing that kept me incredibly sure of myself was: “I might not know much, but I sure know more than these other guys.”

"The deal" progressed from just an idea and a consulting agreement to a full-blown joint venture. The opportunity was huge: Provide compute and storage for the new Internet.

I worked tirelessly to make things fall into place, and eventually, I got them to come to my deal terms.

In 2018, at 27, I became a co-founder of Web3Cloud—a joint venture between Consensys and AMD.

I had made it.

And look: I had also “faked” it. 

I’d never “closed a deal” before. I wasn’t already overflowing with knowledge about crypto infrastructure.

But I out-worked the other people around the table. As a result, I had more self-belief, more diligence, and more pain tolerance than these old men.

That part was never fake.

No matter what point you’re at in your career, you’ll never know everything. But if you’re committed to out-learning and out-working everyone else, you can easily make it.

Ultimately that’s why SheFi exists. You can learn anything. You can do anything. You just have to believe in yourself enough to make it.

Harpie Joins Season 11!

Security is sexy. 🫦 

So we are ecstatic to announce another SheFi Season 11 sponsor: Harpie!

Harpie is on a mission to make crypto more secure. Backed by trusted names like Coinbase and OpenSea, Harpie is the solution you need to safeguard your crypto wallet. Learn how below:

🔍 Monitoring: Harpie detects your security vulnerabilities and helps you address them immediately. They notify you if an issue with an on-chain service's security arises, compromising the assets in your wallet.

🚑 Recovery: In case of emergencies, Harpie can respond before hackers get their hands on your crypto. If Harpie detect that you're accidentally sending money to a scammer, they prevent that transaction from ever hitting the blockchain!

🔑 The Vault: The last line of defense. Harpie sees pending transactions on the blockchain, and if you've signed and sent your money away to a scammer, they can intervene in real-time, preventing that transfer from ever happening.

Hot girls protect their crypto.

Join our Wallet Security Class with Harpie on June 27th at 9 AM EDT!

SheFi Summit Speakers Announced

On July 7th, we're bringing the best ̶f̶e̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ speakers to Brussels! 🇧🇪

Meet these incredibly talented builders at SheFi Summit by securing your spot with a ticket:

Want to learn more about SheFi Summit Brussels? Take a listen to our Twitter Spaces with our Sponsors: here

Thank you to our PR Partner: YAP Global

All tickets are to secure your spot and reimbursable if you show up to SheFi Summit!

SheFi Community Wins

  • Shailee and Radar sparked innovation as co-leaders of the DC DAO, hosting EthDC—a builder-centric event that attracted 10-12 SheFi members!

  • Claire joined THENA as Growth Lead!

  • Aelia has moved to Seoul to explore the Web3 space after four years of studying Korean!

    👉️ Share your wins so we can celebrate them 👈️ 

  • 1,516 professional women and non-binary folks joined SheFi Season 11!

SheFi Events

  • 6/20 NYC: New Internet City-003: RSVP

  • 6/27 NYC: Bring Your Career Onchain w/ Uniswap & SheFi: RSVP

  • 7/7 SheFi Summit Brussels: Get Tickets

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