# The Frontier Is Feminine: How SheFi Empowers Women to Build in Web3 | Jules Worring, Maggie Love

- Channel: [Ethereum Denver](https://streameth.org/ethereum-denver)
- Date: 2024-10-09
- Duration: 31:38
- Topics: blockchain, web3, ethereum, Entertainment
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-riq5lSWovBQ
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riq5lSWovBQ

## Description

SheFi success stories. Since inception, SheFi has empowered 2,500 women and non-binary folks to reinvent their careers in Web3. The Founder Maggie Love will interview 3 women about their journeys in SheFi and post SheFi successes building in Web3.

## Transcript

hats in the audience this is wonderful we're going to keep this panel pretty casual just have a conversation uh we are all a part of shifi and we'll get started for those of you who don't know what shifi is shii empowers professional women and non-binary folks to reinvent their careers in web 3 so today I'm joined by three shifi members and I Maggie love and the founder of shifi I'll let them do quick introductions and we're going to talk about the program their own professional Journeys what they're up to now and I'm going to try to keep my voice throughout this panel z um good morning everyone um it's Zep um I'm currently marketing and growth specialist at clay the main Mallet sponsor of this year and I have been in chifi since the cohort 7 and now it's been almost a one year for me that I'm also contributing the community as a turkey chapter lead and it's so amazing to be here at this panel right now hi everyone I'm Michelle I'm head of marketing at Octon we are project started by Golem Foundation we've staked 100,000 eth and the rewards go to public goods and grants funding um and we give out grant funding every 90 days and I'm on the grants Council for Rari Foundation um gg20 for get counil for getcoins Grants Council and on arbitri oversight Council for uh I think that's their grants program by plurality Labs um and also the co-author of the state of web 3 grants report that came out last year and I was part of cohort 7 and she hey everyone I'm Jules I am the founder of Enzo Collective it's basically the quest platform that we launched for the Shi Summit and it's all about bringing offchain actions and providing you proof through socials um I was part of of cohort 7 as well I did not plan that I'm pretty sure um and yeah I have been helping Maggie organize the shii Summits absolutely love it love meeting so many of you guys this is my third eth Denver um so very special to be here and happy to see all some familiar faces yes all cohort 7 lucky number seven so I wanted to learn a bit more about your journey before joining web 3 and chifi so if you could kind of tell us a bit more what that was like and what compelled you to join a program like shii okay I can start um I was in the web tree like since 2020 but like I joined um shifi like 2022 like between uh those milestones in my life um like I mean before joining cifi I mean I already know some basics but um my main motivation to join shifi was actually learn more from the professionals and also the community which is also super um crucial for individuals that um Community engagement and like Community Learning helps us to um comprehend the topics or like I don't know the fundamentals more easy for my experience and also um I didn't have that much friends in web Tre as a woman friends what I mean because um it's just a still a bit male dominant ecosystem um and after I joined shifi like I met hundreds of wom maybe all around the world and like this is my um sixth um atum conference in one year I guess and like um I have been touring uh with all of my sheire woman friends so far and like it's just so nice to see each other in different cities and get together with the she roof and do many activities um I mean yeah I I can say that briefly I think I love that um my jne where did start um I'd say like so I've got a security background so I did have a technical background in uh security but I ended up becoming a Founder was a media founder for a couple years and had a very web to Startup founder Journey um and it was at the end of 20 it was actually in 202 won when nft started popping and I felt like there was so much happening but a lot of it I couldn't understand and the culture side of it um in the language and it felt like a lot of what I knew technically wasn't really what people were interested in or were talking about so it kind of felt like I didn't really know where to go and it was my partner actually who told me about chifi and said I think you should join this program so I joined Shi and I was part of Defcon Scholars those were the two programs that really got me into the space i' say um um and a lot of it was just getting comfortable with asking silly questions I guess um and just like that walkth through of like the you know just being able to understand the tech better from a lens that helped my understanding like that was super cool getting into the technical side was also just really fun to be able to nerd out um and yeah I just I don't know I loved my shifi experience I think it really helped to have a lot of other folks who are learning um and in having like like a very diverse range of people in terms of experience and how new they were to the space and there's so much about the culture side that you can't understand unless you've got a community around you um so that's how I started then I went into dawing into the space and then that was a whole different Journey I'd say as well um but yeah that's that's how I got into the space and it was quite different because back in 2015 we were giving Bitcoin workshops and I was part of that experience but I guess only college students were stupid enough to uh you know give workshops on bitcoin and not put any money into it so there is that um but yeah I'd say like Shi still been one of my favorite communities because so I am the the buy chapter lead and the Middle East lead I'd guess in in some ways um but there's so much about the space at so fastpac and so being able to still attend a lot of different sessions with each cohort I still randomly pop in when I see something that's interesting and seeing a lot of different projects share more about what they're working on really helps me stay up to dat around what's happening in this space and I'd say like feel a little bit less overwhelmed yeah so I have a very interesting story cuz I used to work as a VC investor in web 2 and I would work with four men um consistently hating on crypto they would look at the news they would read LinkedIn and they were like wow this is just so fake and I remember that day and I was like wow I'm really curious and this was in 2020 and I started traveling around with my sister who was very deeply involved in the space and I basically went to every crypto conference that I could and I remember going to my first eth Denver and literally there was not one woman in the room and I was thinking to myself I was like wow where am I going to make friends and I then basically I remember I was sitting there and it was like one year of traveling to a ton of different conferences and my partner who mentioned Maggie was like oh I think you should join this program it's a bunch of women um they're all trying to um gather information learn about things they have meetups at every event and he mentioned to join so I applied and then I remember I met Maggie for the first time at Devcon and she threw this incredible happy hour I don't know were any of you there CH no okay well oh you guys are all there yeah um and I remember like talking to her and saying we should do this more like this is so much fun it's so great to gather a bunch of women together um just get inside feel comfortable at these conferences because a lot of times we walk in and maybe we don't feel always like the best feeling of just going and talking to random strangers right I feel like that's not always the most comfortable thing um and I remember at Devcon I felt so comfortable made so many friends and came back with this energy that I can't even describe and and I told Maggie okay let's do another one like I would love to help and organize another one so I helped organize eth SF I don't know if any of you were there but I organized and and I think like 70 women came and I felt so ecstatic because I was like wow this is great like I just posted Aluma invites and a bunch of people came and it was incredible um but yeah that was a little bit of my journey into the space a couple things I want to pull on there is thank you to all our male allies and partners that know about shii and recommend their um Partners take it that's really helpful and it's really how we grow so we do want to give a shout out to men for knowing shifi and recommending it something else is there will be a Devcon in Bangkok this year and I believe they probably will have a Scholars Program so you should be on the lookout for that because it's really impactful and we'll make sure the shifi community knows about it and the last thing I want to pull on there is this idea of like these women joining shifi and then being the turkey leader the Dubai leader coming up to me and being like I want to throw an event in SF in the name of shifi and I just want to help out and that's a really impactful part of shifi is so many opportunities have come to the community have come to me through our members and it's really fun to just continue to grow our impact by helping each other and not being like a on to many relationship but really A many to many relationship so it's been like an incredible part of shifi to witness something else I want to ask is um You' you've all kind of shared what you're doing now but how did being in the Shi program give you confidence to get that job or how did it facilitate what you're doing now I can start again um I think one of the most um nice things about shifa is uh shifi encouraged you to ask questions publicly because um like in not in our community but we also try to create a space in web tree for uh women and non-binary people that uh feel encouraged to ask questions and not for example like not be shy about not knowing anything like uh maybe technical stuff but that could be related any I don't know web trating in general and um after I joining shifi I felt that um I feel more empowered in this community because um it also helps me to um gain more encourag to speak publicly because like last year I attended five different different etherium events including itcc Aton and I was the youngest speaker at all of them maybe I am the youngest speaker at e or two like I'm just 23 right now and um like before chifi um it was just a I don't know like it's a huge thing for me but right now I feel more are uh empowered to talk about my journey to inspire more young women like me still students or like um still trying to learn more more things in web tree and I don't feel inadequate in this ecosystem because um if you are I mean really young in this ecosystem most of us are already graduated from the good universities or like have more technical background than me but um like I am still learning and all of these amazing women and the ecosystem we are trying to create uh makes me feel like um you are doing your best and this is also kind of a contribution like whether you don't have any technical background that doesn't matter you can still um add something add your flower to the meal and like encourage the other people or like talk about your journey to inspire them and join the um I don't know not only Shi but in web Tre for example like after I became turkey chapter lead uh we were 10 people turn 10 wom um in turkey that who is a shayi member but right now we are almost 100 and like almost yeah she's a wonderful Advocate it's amazing thank you and like almost all of us are still um University student but like they are all trying to find a job in web Tre most of them like writing newsletters like contributing those and like this is also like thanks to you actually like you are all invited all all of us and like one thing I also wanted to mention is um Chi scholar program because um maybe you most of you um know the economical situation of turkey which I wasn't able to like um purchas the shifi um like I can I say that membership as a student but like um thanks to the scholarship program like not only me but most of the women all around the world are able to join this community and like also learn more about the things without um I mean not only paying things but also like learning from the professionals like you I mean I really loved how thorough I'd say you were in terms of really explaining things right that was super helpful but in terms of the job hunt like last year was tough I think for a lot of people in terms of layoffs and things like that and I loved how I'd say I think you're maybe one of two people that I personally know where you were legit individually recommending so many people to different job opportunities and there are a lot of folks from different companies who specifically want to hire shifi folks who've gone through the shifi program especially um I'd say like a lot of opportunities that come to the Community First before they're also publicized and so that was really really great because there were a lot of conversation starters and interviews that I was able to to have because of that when I was job hunting essentially that was quite a tough period as well so to feel like there was a supportive Community there were a couple of other really supportive Shi members as well like Jamie who's a Chicago lead um legit was sending me opportunities and discords and different communities I'm like hey this could be a cool rule for you and just like so supportive and it can be really tiring to to to feel like you're alone in this and you feel I think there's a point where you might feel like you're not good enough and maybe like the issue is like me versus you know just like what the landscape is like and so um I'd say especially during those moments it was so helpful to have that like community support and then a lot of the council opportunity so the Rari Foundation Council uh I applied because it was on the Discord and chifi and and I hit up I'm forgetting her name I'm so sorry Jana Jana yes and so she she'd sent a message saying anyone can ask questions and the cool thing is folks don't just post opportunities they actually um really want to engage and and are there to answer question questions and anything else around because they really do want to support the community and members in the Shi community so I think that was really helpful as well um and yeah I remember even with the arbitrum council there's a few um themes is on that Council and you're one of the first people who like you were tagging everybody and just being like hey like this could be good let's have some Shi members on the count on different councils and so that was really really helpful as well because I think a lot of times it's not that opportunities aren't there but we just don't know where they exist online right and so I think even if you're chronically online on Twitter or or forecast or whatever app you're on now um it it's still like having someone just remind you sometimes can be the biggest difference totally yeah so just going back on like supportive Community when I was younger I had the biggest fear of talking in public but I knew I wanted to build something and I really wanted to be a Founder I remember telling my mom I was like I don't think any of these jobs fit me because and I was like I never wanted to be a doctor I wanted to own my own business and just have the power to create something for myself so I remember when I first joined shifi I was a newly founder and thinking about okay what can I actually build in this space and I think the most important thing to note right being a Founder in this space is very difficult you know you don't have there's not a ton of community you can reach out to but when I joined the shifi community it was almost like I could ask a bunch of bu of questions people would give me the feedback I needed but also the support right A lot of these these guys here no um are incredible investors incredible people but at times it's daunting so I thought about when I joined first shifi what an incredible way to be able to test new products um get the feedback you need and then also Network right this whole ecosystem is all about networking that's why we're all here today and we're making the effort to come early morning to to network and exact exactly um but yeah I think it's an incredible experience and having a supportive Community is what drives your growth and not only personal but also in career-wise as well yeah I really loved all of those answers and like focusing on that power of community now that Chi is going to be about 2,700 women and as Michelle said earlier there's like all ranges of members so some people who already know a lot about web 3 want to join because they want to be able to share their expertise or their Network or their jobs so you're really getting exposure to the whole ecosystem even our male allies are always making sure that we see jobs and are running accelerators and grants programs and they really want to make sure like the shifi community is included and that's really nice that we've been able as a community to build this brand that people know if they come to the community they're going to Source amazing women that actually really want to contribute to this space and we focus a lot on that in the program it's not just about onboarding that's wonderful and we need to onboard the masses but Chi is really about creating contributors to the space people who are actively shaping uh the technology the programs that we are getting involved in so if you're like I don't know if I need another course you should definitely consider just joining for the community and we do have paid but we also have tons of scholarships thanks to zerion who is our partner for season 10 another question I wanted to ask was based on your experiences now in web 3 and in shifi what is like a piece of advice or something you think a newcomer should know uh before entering this space um entering the space and also shifer right okay um I I would highly recommend to everyone to ask questions freely because um meie every week after the courses meie also like um organize s but that was the name name was different I forgot this right now but she answers your question about the lectures that you just took like one or two days ago and also there's guid and light program in shifi that if you are experiencing um web tree that you could be Guiding Light and answer the questions the the other Fellowship fires where you can like I mean don't don't need to be um hesitated to ask questions or learn more about about it and also um that might be the I mean my second advice would be the travel maybe as much as you can because um like there are bunch of different communities that provide travel scholarships like um we I mean as chifi helped a couple of talent protocol um Talent protocol um how can say that um members from the chi community that most of them went to ECC artist last year which was super nice because we had an uh opportunity to get together and like the other I mean foundations like uh people are so help to like uh I mean help to their acat so um like I mean as uh Jules also said that networking is super crucial in this ecosystem maybe I could also advise to like tour our around the world as much as you can maybe I'd say um be chronically online um um be on Twitter be on Discord foraster I don't know Blue Sky people are still using it I'm sure people are um and really spend a lot of time understanding the culture understanding I'd say give before you take right so before you have asked actually spend time looking at what people are talking about what they're interested in try to understand context um do put an effort uh and and I think there are easier ways to grow if you do that spend time on governance forums um look at the conversations that are happening there's so many people just within the last 6 months who've grown so strongly in their profiles just because they've been so vocal and have asked a lot of questions and added a lot of intentionality with the kind of questions they're asking and there's still a lot of space for that um the second thing would be events of course don't go to events but I do think there's this pressure to attend like a million things within a span of four to five days and I don't think it's realistic I I mean I'm introverted maybe all are super extroverted but for me I'll go to three events and my goal is you know what I'll have three conversations that aren't just like I can't do small talk so it's going to be longer conversations but I'm okay with that and and three people who you've actually had better conversations with versus like 20 people who you have no context around um for me like the three people approach just works better and I yeah it's just more sustainable just for my own energy as well and it's okay to take a little bit of time to figure out what your spaces I'd say up until end of last year I felt like the space wasn't for me even though I had I was part of so many different supportive communities and part of so many different Dows and was an active cont contributor in a bunch of them um but it wasn't until I'd say like stumble eat Singapore like these two events are really changed a lot in terms of how I felt and so realizing that like I love the public good space for me the grand space like really being able to understand it deeply that helped me figure out where I wanted to be and like I figure out figured out my space so it's okay to take time to figure out what space is going to be yours and what you feel comfortable with and you're super happy in and an interest interested in and intrigued in um and and to want to learn more I think curiosity gets you really far in this space and so if you keep an open mind um it's going to be super helpful and then there's so many people that are going to be more than willing to answer questions so even if it's a silly question I mean you can you can always DM me and reach me on any any channel but I can say that for a lot of people because that's how that's what I would do is just ask questions sometimes around specific things uh in different communities and so many community members and ambassadors who are so so helpful and generous with their time um so don't be afraid to to do that and I think that really does help and go far yeah I think agreeing to all those things being curious in this space is super important because there's so many emerging Technologies there's probably a new technology that is existing every day on Twitter that you're like oh my God what is this now I have to learn this but it's actually great right taking also it's very important to take risk in this ecosystem right but also understand your Social Capital coming to these events and booking yourself for 10 different events sometimes you get home and you're like I don't even remember all the conversations I had um I didn't keep track of anything and then at the end of the day you're so exhausted for the next day that you don't have that Social Capital to be able to take it and and be realist realistic with yourself so I always say like in this space be uncomfortable get ready for it it's great it's it's a time of growth too you understand a little bit more about yourself that maybe you didn't in in the past year and just from my experience the last last year was very hard and last year was I would say very different from what we felt already this week especially hopefully bull market Vibes but word I I can tell you like when things get rough just don't give up you know there are so many resources that shii provides and Leverage The Brand right leverage shi's name go to these events be proud that you're part of shifi network with people tell them about your experience because they understand it as well we all started here in one point and I think that it's an incredible brand to leverage totally and we do really focus on whether it's education or partnering with gitcoin or uh octant with Michelle to give grant funding to some of these Founders who are building things that maybe VCS like don't get and getting them through that extra three months of Runway to build that thing that finally is ready to get invested in is so critical and once again these opportunities come through the community we've built and I definitely agree to events um they're really powerful there's something about synchronicity that really creates human connection and this trust between humans that we cannot figure out an asynchronous communication so while it's good to be on Twitter it's good to be everywhere you have to be online you're not going to have the same impact unless you're in a synchronistic situation with another person I learned that from a huberman podcast so it must be true but I think you can actually feel that and that's why you're all here so definitely take time to meet people and then if you see me at an event and you're like oh I really want to talk to this person just I'll do it so reach out to me and I'm sure you could reach out to any of your fellow shifi members don't be shy to ask for things if you see someone that you see a shifi member talking to just be like hey I've been wanting to meet this person like please introduce me oh like in the Discord hey I've been wanting to talk to somebody at this company please introduce me or when the arbitrum Dow Council had their they like tweeted like nominate people I was like every woman in Shi go nominate yourself now and I think there's like 20 women now on that Council and that's like massive the ens Dow we love ens Dow started a bit earlier in like 2020 they have like only Simona on their Council right so as these new opportunities are coming up they are coming to shifi and if you leverage that Network in that community in person on the internet it will definitely work out for you even if it takes some time okay besides chifi what are some of your favorite resources in this space for like staying up to date and learning um like for maybe deeper uh reading ethereum.org is an amazing Resources by etherium foundation and like for maybe um daily uh newsletters I mean to be stay updated I also recommend boys club's newsletter though it's also like uh funny and comprehensive most of the time and um bankless maybe I also like follow bankless newslet letters and um shii nlet for sure I've got a few favorite newsletters I do love the shifi one um but I also really like seed club I'm a big fan of Forefront I think they're great project glitch is a new one that has started a couple months ago and they've been doing really well um web 3 with tan where he breaks down different um what's happening in the industry and just in different spaces in in in a way that's super accessible and helps you stay up to date so those are really helpful and then there's a bunch of different telegram groups that a bunch of these communities have started where people are often sharing articles and and and in a lot of updates there too so I think those are those are often my go-to I like longer format reading so I enjoy the the newsletter format quite a bit um the Bist Dow newsletters used to be great until you know the Bist publishing project got shut down um but I think they're still sending out newsletters from the Dow so those are those are helpful too and then the bankless newsletter I think sometimes uh is one that I I do read um and yeah those are those are my go-to yeah I definitely agreed to all of those newsletters are amazing Boys Club seed Club anything on consumer if you guys are founders or if you're looking to start something or try a new new app um I also agree on most of all these conferences are actually streamed on YouTube and I think it's such a great resource to go back and look at the old um streamings I think it's an incredible resource because you can see maybe um a company or protocol that is now maybe very very famous but where they started right and then learn and get understanding of like what did they first talk about and what has changed from now so I love just um analyzing or hyper analyzing a little bit more videos um but also if you can't make it to a conference like you don't you shouldn't feel the fomo right like do your research do your do your work there is so many resources out there um and also like people are always open to um talking online you know if you message someone on Twitter or on forecaster or on lens those are huge resources you know and I what I mentioned before like Leverage The Brand say like introduce what you're doing in the space or that you're new be open to that vulnerability because I think it's also very very important speak up just to add on there's another one that's amazing it's called Collective doubt archives um and they're some of the best if you want to look at how a lot of dows have evolved in different ecosystems and they've got documentation to like you can legit find everything in terms of how they've evolved and they still keep them updated so those have been amazing in terms of just like that knowledge um yeah I'd say almost like yeah it's like a min gold amazing okay we're out of time but where can people find you um at the clay boat um the other venue uh we are literally in the um entrance and next to B shop and like if you um I don't know maybe not only onboarding the clay but also want to buy something at B shop you can come find me we can talk about my shifa experience and also like how you can purchase free merch at B shop amazing I'm on Twitter a r l e r y r l um so you can message me there on telegram I'm Michelle m a l w Michelle W so yeah hit me up on either places but I'm more active on Twitter so please feel free to DM me there or if you just search my name on LinkedIn Instagram any of the socials I'm also active everywhere so yeah yeah I'm super active on telegram it's sometimes great sometimes a problem um it's juwel so J L SS W feel free to reach out for any anything if you need help on um if you're a female founder you're looking to get your first investment um if you're looking to organize your first event and need just experience in that um or if you're looking for sponsorship money for an event um feel free to reach out I'm happy to always help um yeah just message me amazing well thank you so much all your stories are very inspiring and I'm so grateful you're all part of the community if you want to find Shi on Twitter it's _ corfi thank you so much everyone thank [Applause] you