View this email in your browser

Hi Sifted Reader,

We're delighted to introduce Sophie Zhang, our new editorial assistant who's going to be regularly leading our flagship newsletter and bringing you everything you need to know about Startup Europe.

Today, we cover the UK's gender pay gap data and it’s not happy reading for the country’s unicorns. Only one startup had a gender pay gap in women’s favour, and just six reported a gap below the national average. Plus… 

• The four Polish grandpas fighting cybersecurity threats
• The new startup backed by Maisie Williams
• What to do when the CEO wants you out of the C-suite

 — Sophie, editorial assistant & Tom, digital editor

With a combined age of 284, five grandchildren and dozens of patents and published research between them, the four founders of Polish deeptech startup Randaemon aren’t your typical tech bros.

But their random number generator might help save us from a quantum cybersecurity threat that could cripple digital identity, online banking and ecommerce. 

So how are they making us hackproof?

Google Cloud has all the practical advice you need to get your business up and running. Check out its resource centre — and soon, its report with Sifted, where founders and investors spill the beans about their startup adventures.

Read the resources here.

In 2017, women working at Monzo earned 52p for every £1 men earned at the company. Since then, the neobank has narrowed its gender pay gap, but problems in European tech persist.

Of the 20 UK unicorns that were required by law to submit gender pay gap data, only six reported a gap that was smaller than the national average — just one had a gender pay gap in women’s favour.

So who are the worst offenders? 

An anonymous COO got in touch with Sifted asking for help: they’ve been told to pack their bags because of a disagreement with their CEO. 

They face losing the majority of their equity and being booted from the company they helped grow. So what should they do?

Sifted rounded up some experts — from lawyers to VCs — to get some advice. 

Do you also need some (startup) advice? Let us know about your startup problems — anonymously if you like — and we’ll ask tech experts what you should do. Simply fill in this form or email kai@sifted.eu.

Cards have been the staple way of making payments for decades. 

But with the rise of alternative payment methods like open banking, digital wallets and buy now pay later (BNPL), could that dominance be coming to an end?

Here are four charts that capture the future of payments.

Time is money. So for creatives, administrative tasks like chasing payments can be a drain. 

However, startup founder Reuben Selby is hoping to change that with Contact, a new platform that streamlines the process of booking, scheduling and paying creatives. 

It's just raised £3m and has Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams on board. 

So what does Selby have planned?

The real estate world remains tied to old technology, but proptech promises to shake things up.

Though it’s far from an easy ride. At the launch event for our Proptech report we spoke to several experts about the obstacles and opportunities facing Europe’s proptechs as the industry grows.

Here’s what they said.

💡 How to hire disabled candidates. From using more inclusive language to making workplaces more accessible, there are several ways your hiring process can be more accommodating towards disabled candidates. In this week’s Startup Life newsletter, we spoke to Parma Sira, a small business disability adviser at Smarter London SMEs, who consults startups on how to hire disabled candidates and help them settle in. Here are his top tips.

Join us tomorrow for our members-only event when experts from Entrepreneur First and HV Capital will demystify the founder diligence process. They'll reveal what top funds look for in founders and explain how rigid evaluation methodologies can be improved. Not yet a Sifted Member? Join here.

Raising your Series A? It’s all in your network | Online | May 25

Series A round sizes have skyrocketed, and there’s even more to gain from investor meetings. But how best to prepare? And how do expectations differ from seed? Find out on May 25.

Sifted Sessions \ Vienna | Austria | June 3

We're heading to Vienna for the next Sifted Sessions, a series of live events hosted in some of the most exciting startup hubs on the continent. It's free to attend as part of ViennaUP, so grab your ticket here.

Sophie Zhang

Editorial Assistant

Get in touch with them at sophiezhang@sifted.eu

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor 

Get in touch with him at tomnugent@sifted.eu
Or tweeting at @TJNugent92

Copyright © 2022 SIFTED (EU) LTD, All rights reserved.

Want to tailor what you receive from us?
You can update your preferences to manage your newsletter subscriptions,
or you can unsubscribe from Sifted if you never want to hear from us again.