Yes actually we do make it harder for female founders
Plus ChatGPT has more personality, Wes Andersons new project in Paris & Charli's on Substack
Grace Beverly posed the question on her TikTok last week—
Are we not worried that we are creating a world where women can’t take any risk?
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It hit me like a punch in the gut that I’m sure felt the same to many women who are building/thinking of building something. This sentiment was sparked from the launch of popular The Girls Bathroom founders Sophia & Cinzia launching their own homewares range which their audience deemed the price of too high. They weren’t just critiqued they were eviscerated. The kind of pile-on that makes you wonder if the crime is really just a higher price point or daring to try something new.
Risk has been central to my thoughts currently. Not the venture capital kind. The smaller, more insidious kind: the risk of being imperfect in public.
As someone who has her face plastered all over our social feed currently, I can tell you my anxiety has never been higher. I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes operator in marketing—that’s where I’m comfortable. When we started Ponnd, I felt cringe even reposting our own content. Fear of being perceived, honestly. I got over that. But a new fear took its place: the fear that trying something, making it slightly clunky, or getting one detail wrong means getting absolutely raked over the coals for it.
We currently have a TikTok climbing in views as part of our career lore series. Objectively, this should be exciting—it’s the most traction we’ve ever gotten. Instead, I’m afraid to open the app every morning.
The comments roll in between the genuinely engaged responses:
“music is way too loud — amateur creators”
nitpicks about specific word choices
people arguing whether our subject comes from wealth or not
These aren’t death threats. They’re not even particularly cruel. But they sparked something in me: Should I have noticed the music? Did I research enough? Did I use misleading language? I told Bella “Is it bad that I don’t want it to get any more views?”
My fear of imperfection is actively limiting my ability to build.
So what is it about women and polish?
I think we’ve been trained, by years of watching women torn apart for to believe that credibility is contingent on perfection. Men get to iterate in public. Their MVPs are “scrappy.” Their pivots are “bold.” Their mistakes are “learning experiences.”
When women do the same, the language shifts. We’re “unprepared.” We “didn’t think it through.” We’re trying to “cash in” on our audiences.
The criticism isn’t always gendered on its face, but the pattern is. The speed at which minor errors become character indictments. The way a pricing decision becomes evidence of greed rather than just... a pricing decision. The assumption that if you’re going to ask for attention, you’d better have earned it by being flawless first.
And here’s the cruelest part: women enforce this too. We’ve internalized the standards so deeply that we hold each other to it. We expect polish because we’ve been taught that’s the only way women get taken seriously.
We’ve created a world where women founders are expected to build publicly, but punished the moment they look human doing it.
The Girls Bathroom founders didn’t just launch a product at a more premium price point. They committed the crime of trying something that wasn’t for everyone in their audience. And in the attention economy, that’s enough to become a cautionary tale.
I keep coming back to Grace’s question because I think the answer is obvious, and terrifying: Yes. We should be worried. We’ve built a system where women are building like the floor is lava. One misstep and you’re cancelled, clipped, or added to someone’s “girlboss to villain pipeline” TikTok.
This isn’t about avoiding accountability. It’s about the fact that the bar for what constitutes a “misstep” is so much lower for women that it functionally restricts our ability to experiment, pivot, or fail forward.
So where to now?
I’m trying to unlearn the instinct that tells me a successful post is dangerous because it exposes me to more scrutiny. I’m trying to let the work breathe, even when it’s not perfect. I’m trying to remember that the point of building something isn’t to survive public opinion, it’s to create something that didn’t exist before and hopefully make the world a better place.
And not to wrap this in a v cliche way, but that’s alot of what we are trying to do with Ponnd. To allow us the space to show the messy parts too. The drafts, the experiments, the ideas that are still finding their shape. If we’re building a community around modern work, we can’t pretend the process is tidy.
So I’m going to keep posting. Keep trying things before they’re perfect. Keep choosing the experiment over the fear.
If you’re building something too, I hope you give yourself the same permission. Not because it’s easy, or because the criticism isn’t real, but because the alternative is worse.
The only way any of us get braver is if we stop treating every woman’s first draft like it’s her final exam.
Written by: Remi
The Headlines -
Charli XCX is writing on substack
Wes Anderson Brings Joseph Cornell’s Eccentric Workshop to Life in Paris
Women of Vanity Fair Consider Ross Douthat’s Question: Did Women Ruin the Workplace?
OpenAI says the brand-new GPT-5.1 is ‘warmer’ and has more ‘personality’ options
Resource Shelf -
Set Yourself Experiments & Document The Process
In life & in work. Not happy with something? Run an experiment. Track the outcomes and change accordingly. Honestly we have just started tracking monthly experiments in the business and I don’t want to speak too soon, but possibly life changing.
Diary Entries -
Australia
You Can Just Build Things Syd - Nov 19
The first-ever replit event in australia. Gathering a room full of builders, dreamers, and the simply curious to explore what’s possible.
London
Notch Magazine 003: Currents London Release Party-Nov 15
New issue launch with readings, presentations, and video installations.
Substack: A New Economic Engine for Culture - Nov 20
A workshop in collab with Substack on how writers, creators, and cultural voices are using the platform to grow their audience.
New York
Fabrik Breakfast Club x Make Art in the Morning - Nov 14
A a special edition of the Fabrik Breakfast Club featuring art gurl and Fabrik Founding 50 Member, Meagan Mahaffy.
StarQuest by Maya Man - Nov 18
Triple Canopy and Feral File are pleased to present StarQuest, an installation and performance-lecture by the artist Maya Man.
Loose End -
We can’t stop thinking about this “farm is table” concept/artwork/installation/experience by by Allan Wexler and Michael Yarinsky. Read more about it here.
Lots of love,
Bella & Remi xxx
This hit home, been struggling and thinking about this exact thing lately. I find myself perfecting every single word I put out so that no one finds a hole to poke at in them, and it leads to, well, getting way less done everyday. Sometimes i think that should i start posting half-ready things and try to get myself used to the comments that come 🙃😂
Big up trying and failing