When I called my dad in 2017 to tell him I got a job at a blockchain startup, he said two things:

One: I had to be able to pay my own rent. Two: If it didn't work, I could come home.

I was 26. Leaving IBM. Nobody knew what blockchain was. I had a roommate, a tiny apartment, and enough money to cover rent—as long as I kept getting paid.

He wasn't going to fund the experiment. But he'd catch me if I fell.

I never came home. But I couldn't have taken the risk without knowing home was an option.

That's the thing nobody tells you about courage. It doesn't always come from having nothing to lose. It can also come from knowing what will catch you if you fall. I could take the risk of joining Consensys because the floor would hold. I could leave IBM because I had people in my corner. I could start SheFi because even if it failed—and believe me, there were nights I was sure it would—my foundation wasn't going anywhere.

The safety net isn't a trap. It's a launchpad.

I used to think autonomy and community were opposites. Independence on one side, dependence on the other.

I was wrong.

Knowing you can always come back is what lets you leave. And the inverse is just as true—when you've been taught that nobody's coming, that asking for help is weakness, that you should be able to figure it out yourself, you can't take risks. You can't write down the 10x number. You can't say the dream out loud. Because what if you don't hit it? And then what? You're exposed and alone.

Here's the other thing nobody talks about: no adult on earth actually does it “by themselves.”

When you're sad, you call a friend. You get ice cream. You watch a movie. You hug your dog. You pour a glass of wine. You always reach for something outside of yourself. And this is normal! This is healthy.

So why do we expect women to open a laptop, navigate an entirely new financial system, and figure it out alone? With no support, no community, and no one to ask. Just Google and grit.

We demonize asking.

SheFi has a curriculum. There are skills to build and I take that seriously. But the reason women come back season after season—the reason you can go from what's a wallet? to head of digital assets at a major institution—is not information. It's because everyone here shows up for you. It's because here you can find a room full of women who say go—and mean it.

You can have whatever you want. Write down your wildest dream and find the people who won't make you feel insane for wanting it.

You can have whatever you want.

I believe that with my whole chest. But you don't have to want it alone.

If you know a woman who's gritting it out—learning alone, building alone, dreaming alone—forward this to her.

Meet Our Season 16 Sponsors 💫

Season 16 is shaping up to be our most ambitious cohort yet, and we’re proud to build it alongside partners actively shaping the forefront of crypto innovation, culture, and real-world adoption.

Thanks to our Season 16 sponsors: Base App, Trezor, RootstockCollective, and Decentraland — for supporting this cohort and helping us bring real tools and real access to our community.

Classes kick off March 17. Applications are still open!

Crypto + AI Roundup — SheFi Edition 🏇

• Crypto.com’s CEO spent $70 million in crypto on AI.com. Launching an AI agent platform at the Super Bowl. Same playbook as when he bought Crypto.com cheap, then dropped $700 million renaming the Staples Center.

• Robinhood’s crypto revenue dropped 38% to $221 million. Stock’s down 50% since October, tracking Bitcoin. They’re betting prediction markets and tokenized stocks pull them out of crypto dependence.

• Citadel bought LayerZero’s token—not equity, actual $ZRO tokens. Cathie Wood did too and joined the board. When the firm handling 35% of US retail trades starts buying crypto assets instead of just investing in crypto companies, pay attention.

• Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.6 and software stocks lost $285 billion. Markets finally did the math on AI replacing $500/month subscriptions with $20/month tools.

• A crypto engineer launched RentAHuman.ai where AI agents hire real people to do physical tasks they can’t do themselves. 200,000 people signed up in a week to get paid by bots to hold signs, take photos, pick up packages. We’re watching AI become the boss in real time.

• OpenAI started running ads in ChatGPT for free users. Anthropic’s staying ad-free, going enterprise. Two completely different plays on monetizing AI.

SheFi & Crypto Events 🌎

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

SheFi Events:

• 02/12 HKG: SheFi Hong Kong x Ta Zhi Dao: Matcha Social @Consensus 2026: RSVP here

• 02/17 Denver: SheFi Investment Club at ETHDenver 2026: RSVP here
  SheFi Investment Club is taking its weekly roundtable offline for a special, hands-on Web3 workshop during ETHDenver. This in-person session is designed to help women understand how Web3 investing actually works, with practical learning, real use cases, and space for honest questions—no hype, no pressure.

• 03/17-19 São Paulo: Merge São Paulo: RSVP here

Other events:

• 02/13 Virtual: LOVE, MONEY & SELF-CUSTODY: RSVP here

• 02/13 Bengaluru: The Future Series #2: RSVP here

• 02/15 Hawaii: Proof of Sweat: Galentine's Edition: RSVP here

• 02/19 Istanbul: Akca x Solana Türkiye Roadshow: RSVP here

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