On Sunday, we left my parents' house after spending four months with them. As I sipped coffee on their front porch for the last time, I couldn't help but notice how many monarch butterflies danced for us in their garden. The entire time we were in Florida, I saw monarch butterflies daily. They were my little God-winks that the detour we were on was the right place to be. Re-sharing this story I wrote in 2024 because the butterflies asked me to.

In 2009, I lost the person I loved most fiercely. I was 19 years old.

Her name was Mary "Sissy" DiPrima, and she was my music teacher for 12 years. She passed away shortly after my senior musical performance called "Seasons of Love."

I was her third daughter, and I loved her. I was so fiercely loyal to her because she was the first person I remember outside of my own parents who believed in me. I moved to the Chicago area in the first grade, and I struggled with that move until Mrs. D discovered I could sing.

She changed my life with both her discovery and her unwavering belief in me. Not only did I spend 7 days a week singing and dancing from that point on, but I really believed I could do anything I set my mind to. Every time I asked her if I could be in a Broadway show or go to Northwestern like her two daughters, she said of course. With her and my parents as cheerleaders, I was unstoppable.

I was one of six non-family members that was allowed to be with Mrs. D the summer she battled ovarian cancer for the second time. I remember how unfair it felt that I was going off to Northwestern University, a plan we hatched together when I was only in the fourth grade, and I wouldn't have my ultimate cheerleader and confidant to share it all with.

I wouldn't know it until 10 years later, but during that summer where I spent most days at her house, I learned about how Mrs. D would show up in my life after her earthly death as a monarch butterfly.

Fr. Bob, our high school principal, came over one afternoon. He presented a card showing a monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis on a milkweed plant. He then explained how monarchs, once unable to handle the plant's toxins, evolved over millions of years to feed exclusively on milkweed, which imbues them with its toxins, making the butterflies unpalatable to predators. Much like how chemo is poison but it would hopefully transform Mrs. D from sickly to healthy. I still have the card with this imagery on it from Fr. Bob.

10 years later, in 2019, I promised a friend I'd go to Burning Man. As it got closer, I realized I didn't really want to go, but I ended up going anyway–I always keep my promises. I didn't pay attention to the theme or any of the hype, I just made sure I had my tent, water, costumes and a few other items to survive the unknown in the desert.

It was a year of transformation for me – the year I started SheFi. But when Burning Man came, I wasn't feeling particularly inspired about the idea that was to become SheFi. Crypto was in a prolonged bear market. I was going through a tough break up, and I was mostly confused about my life choices. The Burn was more challenging than fun. I was in a literal and spiritual desert.

Toward the end of Burning Man, I was helping my camp with a party, putting on my best smile to encourage people to join us. A man came up to me and said, you embody the spirit of Burning Man so I want to give you a gift: 1 of 10 silver necklaces with the Burning Man theme that he'd made to gift to strangers.

On one side of the necklace was a chrysalis with a man in it. On the other was a man with butterfly wings. He explained to me that the theme of Burning Man that year was metamorphosis. I went into a state of semi-shock as I knew in that moment, Mrs. D was speaking to me through a God-wink. She was letting me know she was here for me during my moments of transformation, and she believed in me.

Shortly after that experience, I had my divine download to start SheFi. Even though I had no traditional finance or teaching experience, I never doubted myself. I had my talisman that reminded me to believe in myself. I had reconnected with Mrs. D, my ultimate cheerleader. And now I saw that she was everywhere. I encountered butterflies frequently in 2019, a constant reminder that I was on a path to transformation.

Now when I see butterflies, I see Mrs. D. Butterflies that are the little God-winks that she's with me. I am reminded that our connection transcends the physical world, and that I can always turn to her when I need belief in myself.

We all need someone who believes in us, especially when during times when we feel like we're in a spiritual desert. I hope by being in the SheFi community, you know that I believe in you and the community believes in you.

My Favorite AI Tool This Week

AI gives me back 8 hours a week so I can be present with my daughter. And here's the stack I use to do it:

• AI Chat: Claude with my entire context of relevant documents loaded, organized in projects, instructions, and md files.

• Connectors: MCP to Gmail, Calendar, Slack. AI can actually read my emails, check my calendar, pull from Slack threads. I use this to build automated reports and recurring tasks.

• Voice-to-text: Wispr Flow. I speak 3-4x faster than I type. Every email, every message, every note. I'm talking, not typing.

• Meeting recorder: Granola. Every meeting automatically turns into shared notes. Nobody's scrambling to remember what was decided. It's just there.

• Knowledge base: Notion. Every output, every workflow, every piece of context lives here permanently. AI pulls from it. My team pulls from it. Nothing gets lost.

I'm not using AI to replace my thinking. I'm using it to handle the operational load that keeps me from thinking.

My job is the strategy. The decisions. The relationships. The judgment calls that come from experience.

AI's job is making that easier.

I don't want to spend two hours on a task that could take 15 minutes. I want to spend that time with my family.

What's your AI stack look like?

Crypto + AI Roundup — SheFi Edition 🏇

Crypto Roundup.

• Coinbase cut 700 employees (14%) to go "AI-native." Engineers now "ship in days what used to take a team weeks." Armstrong flattened the org to 5 layers max, killed pure managers, and is testing one-person teams handling engineering, design, and product. The goal: "rebuild Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge."

• a16z crypto raised $2.2B for its fifth fund. Total across all funds: $9.8B. They're staying "100% dedicated to crypto" while Paradigm expands into AI and robotics.

• Aave filed an emergency motion to unfreeze $71M in ETH recovered from the KelpDAO exploit. Law firm representing families with $877M in North Korea terrorism judgments blocked the funds, claiming the hacker is Lazarus Group. Aave: "A thief does not gain lawful ownership of stolen property simply by taking it."

AI Roundup.

• Subquadratic launched SubQ with a 12-million-token context window and claims 1,000x efficiency vs frontier models at a fraction of the cost. Independent verification pending. Magic.dev made similar claims in 2024 with $500M in funding — still no public evidence of external use.

• Anthropic partnered with Blackstone, Goldman, and Hellman & Friedman on a $1.5B joint venture embedding Anthropic engineers inside companies to redesign workflows around Claude. It's consulting that owns the model — competing directly with McKinsey and Deloitte.

• NVIDIA closed fiscal 2026 with $215.9B revenue (up 65%). TSMC posted $35.9B Q1 revenue (up 39%) with AI chips now 61% of revenue. TSMC projects AI chip revenue growth at 54-56% annually through 2029. Nvidia has reserved most of TSMC's advanced packaging capacity — packaging is now the bottleneck.

SheFi Takeaway: Coinbase showed us what "AI-native" means: one person doing three jobs, managers gone, five-layer org charts. Aave's fighting in court to return $71M to exploit victims while lawyers try to seize it for decade-old judgments. Anthropic isn't selling software — they're embedding engineers and competing with consulting firms. TSMC's the real bottleneck: Nvidia can design chips all day, but if TSMC can't package them, the buildout stalls.

SheFi Global Events 🌎

Stay connected with SheFi around the world. From meetups and summits to workshops and special partner events, this is where you’ll find the can’t-miss gatherings happening across our global community.

05/06 Miami: SheFi Meetup: Consensus Miami: RSVP here
Join us for a coffee meet-up, meeting fellow SheFi-ers, grab a bite, learn more about our SheFi Investment Club and more.

05/06-07 Miami: Consensus Miami 2026: Save with the code SHEFI20
It's official—we're joining Consensus 2026 as community partners! Meet us in Miami this May, where 20K+ leaders from 100+ countries gather to shape the future of Web3, AI, and digital finance.

05/15 Virtual: SheFi Investment Club with Christine Marie Turner: Members only
Join the SheFi Investment Club every Friday at 11am EST! Find the zoom link on Mighty Networks.

05/16 Washington DC: SheFi DC Field Trip: Members only
BYOBrunch or a dish to share as we picnic, see the lambs, and tour the agrivoltaics at Carbon Country!

Crypto Events 🌎

Going to ETHCC, Token2049 or Devcon? Join our Global Events Telegram Chat: https://t.me/shefisummit

• 05/06 Miami: Heatwaves🔥Beach Yoga (Women-focused): RSVP here

• 05/07 Miami: Women of Solana Yoga Mixer: RSVP here

• 05/10 Prague: SheFi Prague Brunch: RSVP here

• 05/12 London: strkBTC Live: London Launch Party: RSVP here

• 05/18 Vienna: Global Digital Asset Week Vienna: RSVP here

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