Emma Bates is the Co-founder and CEO of Diem, a social knowledge-sharing platform designed for women and non-binary individuals. An expert marketer and community builder, Emma served as the Head of Global Marketing for the travel brand, Away, and was the Head of Community for Whalar before co-founding Diem in 2020. Emma is also a member of the Female Founder Collective, a network of businesses led by women.

Emma joins us today to provide insight on fundraising as a woman and the unexpected emotional toll it could have. She outlines the process of launching an app and describes how the Diem team is working on reclaiming the narrative of direct messaging. She discusses Diem’s vision for the future of monetizing ideas. Emma also shares her perspective on the metaverse and underscores Diem’s mission to create a social experience for women and non-binary individuals.

“Persistence is the most important thing. Entrepreneurship is difficult, but you have to keep going.” - Emma Bates

This week’s takeaways from Entreprenista:

Emma’s background, how her career started, and her first experiences in community-buildingHow a blog she started led Emma to work for a creator platformHow she realized she wanted to start her own companyDiem’s mission to create a social experience for women and non-binary individualsHow Emma and her business partner met and teamed upThe importance of trust in working with your best friend as a business partnerThe process of building a technology company and launching an appWhy tech start-ups should aim for creating a minimum viable productHow Diem has evolved from its minimum viable product stage to what it is todayHow the Diem launch reached a waitlist of 20,000 usersEmma’s fundraising experience and her advice on raising capitalHow Emma gauged the amount of money they needed to raise for DiemStaying organized during the pitching and fundraising processTheir monetization strategy for growing DiemEmma’s advice for Entreprenistas who are about to launch their businessWhy persistence is key to entrepreneurship and her thoughts on work/life balance

Resources Mentioned:

App: Notion

Our Favorite Quotes:

“Being an Entreprenista means building something you’re passionate about and leading in a way that feels true to you.” - Emma Bates“The market changes all the time; having a pulse on it is really important.” - Emma Bates“Men get asked promotional questions but women get asked as if they will fail.” - Emma Bates

Connect with Emma Bates:

DiemDiem on LinkedInDiem on InstagramDiem on FacebookDiem on TwitterEmma Bates on LinkedIn

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level:

Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You’ll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE!

Whether you’re looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you’re thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we’re here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step, and with whom you can share the candid reality of building a business from scratch.

Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can’t wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey!

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