The Worthy Girl's Guide to San Francisco's Resources
By: Roya Sabeti
If you’re bootstrapping or on a low budget I highly recommend getting your creative hustle on and tapping into your network to utilize your resources by following these tips:
1. Add value whenever possible. Instead of going into a meeting with solely your agenda in mind, think of the others person's problems and try to find a solution.
2. When asking others for help always make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to help you. (I.E. If asking them to promo your event - Give them tweetables + photos)
3. Find people who have already done what you're trying to do and set a coffee date. Have an agenda of questions to ask them, so you can be efficient and respectful of their time.
4. Find creative ways to connect to your target audience that doesn't require spending a dollar.
Things that I did that could help you along the way include:
Once you know what you want to do, you should move as physically close as possible to wherever that vertical/industry is flourishing and make friends with the people who have already done what you’re trying to do.
I had a dream of working for a startup and I knew in order to highly increase the odds in my favor I needed to be in the right environment, and that meant moving to SF or Silicon Valley. By positioning myself in the right environment I came across many opportunities and people I never would have met otherwise, including the opportunity to work at Galvanize.
People that I follow and find inspiration from within the city include but, aren't limited to:
I’ve found a lot of inspiration from my friend Heather Morgan, she build her own business SalesFolk from nothing to a robust and and successful company in only a few years. She is the queen of cold email. She has major hustle and is extremely creative in finding ways to get responses from the cold emails she sends.
I’m also very inspired by Ritika Puri, she started StoryHackers with $0 investment and over the course of 7 years, Ritika and her co-founder grew the company to a team of 23 employees and hundreds of customers ranging from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 brands. I always leave a conversation with her with fresh ideas, actionable to-dos and a renewed sense of energy.
Roya Sabeti is an advocate for female entrepreneurs, photographer, DIY vintage lover, & contest queen. Her mission is to empower women in entrepreneurship by providing a place to share their stories, and advance their careers and companies. She is happiest when eating, creating something from nothing, or sharing experiences with others. She currently lives in San Francisco and when she’s not planning her next event supporting entrepreneurial women or scheming about how to win the latest contest, she can be found planning her next photoshoot. You can see some of her work at royasabeti.com
More Resources:
Co-Working:
Galvanize - Main focus is bridging the gap between technology and education by building a community of entrepreneurs and students under one roof. By creating this unique scenario Galvanize is able to provide their community with the resources they need in order to learn, grow, and reach their milestones in their careers and businesses. Galvanize members have access to resources including member programming where we bring in industry experts to facilitate conversation among members, host workshops, and provide mentorship. This allows everyone to learn about the challenges other entrepreneurs are facing and strategize via open conversation and dialogue.
Other SF co-working spaces include: WeWork, SpherePad, Ziploft, and Makeshift Society
Networking:
Starting a business and networking events go hand-in-hand. There are many places in San Francisco that can help jump start your business through networking (and even some places geared specifically toward women!) This will help you eventually turn your connections into $$$! Check them out: Girls In Tech, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial, and General Assembly