Office romances, funding female founders, trusting your gut, Canva's new acquisition

Listen to your gut and trust it, says Bree Kirkham from F5 Collective, a venture firm backing women-led startups. Kirkham, who worked for pioneering tech brands including ClassPass, Uber and Airbnb, had plenty to say about women in tech on episode 18 of Startup 360 this week. Cohost Simon Thomsen asked the mother of two what advice she'd give to classroom of young girls. "I think a lot of girls and a lot of women question themselves all day, every day and question their path and question their role in society and question what they should do based on the mark they got or their parents expectations or just what society is throwing at them," she said. "And I think my biggest thing is trust your gut, because I do think if you follow your passion and you follow what you're good at, then a success will naturally flow your way. I genuinely think that. The second thing I would say is that there's no wrong turn... I encourage girls and women to not put that pressure on themselves that they have to get every step right and to know that there isn't a wrong turn and you can always pivot and move into something else and actually take value from what you learned in a previous step." It was a spirited conversation about women founders and what F5 Collective has learnt from studying their success and how it falls outside traditional VC models. Looking at the data around why women aren't receiving funding led them to write A Theory of Change, their thesis on backing women. Simon and Majella discussed the big news of the week, including Canva's acquisition of Magic Brief, Sally-Ann Williams stepping away from Cicada Innovations after six years at the helm, and the latest twists in turns in Blackbird-backed short-term rental startup Kiki, which is shuttering in New York for a second time. Their 10x guest this week is Sam Garven from Hello Canopy, a workplace reporting app that allows employees to raise issues in a way they can trust, as well as giving employers the ability to see issues and trends and respond. The former environmental scientist was also a cofounder of Grapevine, the workplace harassment advice site launched last year. The conversation spanned everything from office romances to red flags in the workplace and setting culture in startups, as what gives Sam the shits about dealing with HR. Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.