SheFi Summit Istanbul Recap

SheFi Summit Istanbul Recap 🇹🇷 

About a week ago in Istanbul, over 200 leaders, builders, investors and community members came together for our second SheFi Summit. It was a an unforgettable day of impactful talks, panels, workshops and networking opportunities inside a historic wine house from the 1800s. The vibrant energy was palpable from the minute the doors opened at 10:00AM to closing at 6:00PM.

I am grateful to everyone who supported and participated in this event. Every single person, including the organizers, speakers, sponsors, attendees, nail chip activators and staff members, co-created the SheFi Summit experience. After the event, countless people commented that they’ve never attended an event where everyone was actively engaged in the programming throughout the day.

Even a week later, I am still energized from the SheFi Summit. I find myself reflecting on the thought-provoking talks, high-quality panels, and the fun of onchain experiences like NFC nails and live NFT mints. When starting the SheFi Summit series, I wanted it to be a meaningful and unique experience that’s different from your average conference event. After Paris and Istanbul, I can confidentially say that the team has executed on that vision.

I look forward to expanding this series for 2024 and including even more of our community in it. The locations for SheFi Summit 2024 will be unveiled shortly. Until then, let's revisit some of the highlights from this exceptional event.

As people walked into the SheFi Summit, they were greeted by Evin McMullen, Winny.eth, and Jules Worring, who applied NFC Chipped Nails to their fingertips. These NFC nails were linked to their wallet addresses and enabled others to collect their addresses or Ethereum Names like shefi.eth, creating a list of contacts through verifiable credentials. This was powered by Gossip Protocol, KIKI World, Disco.xyz, and ensō. Did I mention these are four female founded companies? 💅 

We started the programming with two members of SheFi Turkiye, Zeynep Ecenaz Altınok and Leyla Kut, sharing the history of Turkiye, women’s financial empowerment in the region and why crypto and blockchain technology is important to Turkiye.

Then we heard from pioneers, Paris Rouzati, Jana Betram, and Maz about how their protocols and projects are accelerating the creator ecosystem. The discussion covered building new Web3 experiences with creatives in mind, enabling a “people powered Internet” and the challenges of attracting creators to this space.

Next, I hosted a fireside discussion titled the “Challenge of Change” with Simona Pop about risks we must take to build thriving and sustainable decentralized systems. We have to give up our traumas, fears and control to make decentralization a success. You won’t want to miss this conversation, and I highly suggest subscribing to our YouTube so you can hear it as soon as it comes out.

Networking and building authentic, deep connections was a critical part of the day so we focused on allowing participants to have plenty of time to connect with one another over a catered lunch.

The afternoon consisted of hearing about how to secure that first pre-seed check from investor Dani Osorio and two amazing co-founders, Sandy Peng of Scroll and Seren Sandikci of Index Network. After this, we rebranded account abstraction with WalletConnect and Mean Girls memes, and did a live NFT Mint with Kay and Abi of Zerion.

The fun didn’t stop there. Evin McMullen, Winny.eth, Jules Worring, and Grace Guan kept the energy high with their panel around onchain experiences that are anchored around relatable consumer experiences. Recently, Grace’s company, unlonely, did a livestream of a crypto dating show that included betting too and now is hosting a show titled “The Rizz Olympics”. The main takeaway from this crew is that is product-market fit will come when Web3 is fun.

We wrapped up the day hearing from four SheFi members about their journeys in the during SheFi program, how SheFi advanced their careers, and insights they’ve gained from working in Web3. Thank you to Jana Betram, Abena Asante, Corina Dolghier and Susie Batt for sharing your SheFi experiences and wisdom. I am always inspired by our SheFi community and the impact our members make as active contributors to the space.

The SheFi Summit was not just about listening and learning but also engaging with the programming and each other. At the SheFi Summit, 518 POAPs minted by 143 unique addresses. Every interaction from participants contributed to the overall vibrancy of the Summit. We gifted NFC chipped hats and bear market shirts, to say 'Thank You' for being an essential part of our SheFi community.

We hope to see you all at a future SheFi Summit, and be on the lookout for more content, especially videos of all of the programming so you can take advantage of all the incredible knowledge shared at the Summit. Subscribe to our YouTube to find the talks as soon as they are uploaded to it.

Thank you to our SheFi Summit Sponsors: PayPal, Lens Protocol, Tachyon, Zerion Wallet, WalletConnect, RARI Foundation, Token Proof and ensō.

SheFi Grants: Donations Open

SheFi is excited to announce the launch of our very own SheFi Grants Stack program, a cutting-edge initiative designed to support and fund the brilliant female and non-binary founders within our community. This program, powered by the Gitcoin Grants Stack, is a testament to SheFi's commitment to empowering femmes to succeed in frontier technologies.

Now, we need the community to donate and help us allocate the funds from our $5,000 matching pool.

How does it work? SheFi Grants leverages quadratic funding, a mechanism of allocating funds from the $5,000 pool based on number of contributions to a grant not the dollar amount donated to a grant. This means a SheFi grant with five $5 dollar donations will be allocated more money from the matching pool than a grant with one $100 dollar donation. Quadratic funding empowers small contributors, and a large number of small contributions outweighs a few large ones.

Even if you only donate $1 to a SheFi grant, it will make a difference. Please see the projects here, donate to the ones that resonate with you and encourage your friends to support our female founder community.

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