Ben's List

This week is all about community and marketing. Good news, we're about to launch our very own community with Sesamers :)

Following our last Coffee with Sesame, I went and shared my concern on Twitter about the current practices of some virtual event vendors towards event producers. In a nutshell, if your business growth and valuation relies on events' weakness during a pandemic, you're not building a sustainable edge.

The founder of SaaStr replied back with an interesting comment - follow him for juicy tweets and business advice:

I think what will happen is overall pie for events spend will go up because "digital events" will survive & grow ... for communities

And a tech co can spend another $100k-$200k year on its community easy

But the software as is today will struggle as an IRL substitute post-Covid
— Jason ✨BeKind✨ Lemkin ⚫️ (@jasonlk) March 23, 2021

We wrote about the importance of communities in the event industry and the trend is only accelerating.

This week's reading list features a bunch of interesting articles about community and marketing. I hope you'll enjoy them.

We also spotlight consumer, femtech and foodtech news, together with a couple of crazy scientific pieces.

Enjoy!

Community

Moderating in moderation

slack.com/intl/fr-fr/blog/collaboration/moderating-in-moderation :: Tylar Dykman

A tactical guide to kickstarting your community

orbit.love/blog/a-tactical-guide-to-kickstarting-your-community/ :: Patrick Woods

Why Executives Should Care About Internet Communities

"Communities aren’t social media, you cannot broadcast your message and expect to succeed. Imagine if you went to an event, got up on stage, and yelled “buy our product” over and over. It wouldn’t work, and your reputation would take a greater hit than if you said nothing at all."

ianvanagas.com/2021/03/03/why-executives-should-care-about-internet-communities/ :: Ian Vanagas

Marketing

50 Best Marketing Books for Beginners and Life-Long Learners Alike to Level-Up in 2021

"Shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2020, Carlos Gil talks about how to use new features and platforms that immediately engage with your customers — all through a humanistic approach."

mobilemonkey.com/blog/best-marketing-books-for-beginners :: Virginia Nussey

web-strategist.com/blog/2021/03/11/20-ways-businesses-will-engage-social-audio/ :: Jeremiah Owyang

FemTech

Femtech in France

Femtech has historically been segmented into four main categories: reproductive health (including menstrual & fertility solutions), pregnancy & nursing care, pelvic & uterine healthcare, general healthcare and wellness. But we believe the industry today can be better understood by breaking it down into the following categories:

Menstruation
General healthcare
Wellness & sexual life
Fertility
Pregnancy
Motherhood
Menopause

speedinvest.com/blog/femtech-in-france :: Shiraz Mahfoudhi & Marine Wetzel

Consumer Tech

Consumer Technology Report 2021 (Edition #2)

High5 to our friend and Startup Sesame Season 4 alumni Joao, CEO of Lovys!

(report) heartcore.com/insights#report

FoodTech

80+ Female FoodTech Founders, Leaders And Investors You Need To Know

"🤔Food for thought: Celebrating women and gender-equality only 1-day a year isn't nearly enough. We all need to work towards a future where highlighting female leaders isn't a necessity."