Big news from Leap!!
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I’m excited to share some big news about Leap:Leap is spinning out of Y Combinator to become an independent company with a new name: Elpha!Moving forward, I will be working on Elpha full-time. We will be focusing our energy on making Elpha the most powerful network for women in tech.In the coming months, you can expect to see much more public content from experts (like our AMA series) and a transformed directory that will make it easy to find and connect with members with specific skills and experiences. We’re also going to explore how best to provide access to information about companies that prioritize a culture that’s welcoming to women.We want Elpha to be your go-to place for accessing industry experts, learning from your peers, and finding answers to your most pressing personal and professional questions. Creating this space is a team effort and we can’t do it without you! It’s made me so happy to hear about the amazing experiences you’ve already had here: the relationships you’ve built, the job offers you’ve earned, the money you’ve raised, and the thought provoking conversations. My co-founders and I are beyond excited to take the leap with you and Elpha and see this vision through!Background storyFor those of you who don’t know me, my name is Cadran, and up until today I’ve been a Tech Lead at Y Combinator. For years, I looked for a place where women in tech could openly talk with one another online, but never found one. So in 2017, I decided to build it myself. With the support of YC, I started Leap as a side project with the goal of building a community for women in tech. I worked on Leap mostly on nights and weekends, and I’m proud that there are 7,500 incredible members in this community.Over the last two years, I’ve witnessed Leap support its members through everything from becoming parents to building startups, and it’s become increasingly apparent that this community deserves my full and undivided attention. Today is my last day at Y Combinator, and it is also the day that Leap will become Elpha.Will Elpha and YC be associated with each other in the future?I am grateful to have had YC’s support starting Elpha as a side project while I worked there; not every employer encourages its employees to take ideas and run with them. However, it is time to build Elpha at the pace and scale of a startup.While Elpha is spinning out of YC as an independent company, we will be participating in YC’s Summer 2019 batch. YC is making its standard $150k investment in Elpha for a 7% ownership stake.Introducing my co-foundersThe three of us are actually an Elpha success story. :) We came together as a result of this community and are a testament to how powerful Elpha can be. Abadesi and I got to know each other on Elpha, and she was Elpha’s first Community Lead. Abadesi is an expert community builder from Product Hunt, and as the founder of Hustle Crew has been thinking about inclusion in tech for years. I’m excited to have her join Elpha to focus on community.Kuan and I met years ago when we both lived in New York City, and we reconnected when she joined Elpha. Kuan is a startup veteran and previously led the design team at Cockroach Labs before building a retreat for women leaders in tech (called For The Women Retreat). Kuan will be focusing on product, design and operations.The more I talked with Kuan and Abadesi, the more clear it was that we should work together on Elpha. What does Elpha mean?We chose the name Elpha by riffing on the word alpha and the idea that we wanted to create a place where women come first. We combined alpha with the French word for she (“Elle”) to create ellepha. We shortened it to elpha from there. Plus, the .com was available. :-)The future of ElphaElpha started as a place where women in tech could openly talk online, and has since grown into this thoughtful community where we share knowledge and resources to help each other excel in the workplace. Elpha is going to be the most powerful network for women in tech. We are excited to see this vision through and hope you are too!Asks: Please help us spread the word!!1. Share Elpha with your networks. Here's a suggested Tweet.2. Invite all the women you know to join us here.
bossnayamoss·Feb 04, 2019bossnayamoss·Feb 04, 2019I am so excited for this! Huge congrats and appreciation to you three - Cadran, Kuan, and Abadesi! I really do love that Elpha is a space myself and others feel they can come to be candid about their experiences and questions. There is no other community right now that I can say the same. I also love that this has become the first place I check in the morning for women in tech related news.I can't wait to watch Elpha grow and change the industry. Thank you ladies for coming together and creating this space! 😀Naming the community Elpha was brilliant. I'm also glad I didn't pursue my instincts to go on twitter and ask why leap was rerouting to Elpha a couple of seconds ago! p.s. @abadesi, I figured your news had something to do with Elpha(leap) 👏🏾. I wish I would have bet on it lol.
cadran·Feb 04, 2019cadran·Feb 04, 2019:)
kuan·Feb 04, 2019kuan·Feb 04, 2019Thank you! :D
Abadesi·Feb 04, 2019Abadesi·Feb 04, 2019Aw thanks for always being so supportive 😊
WOW, such great news! Great job!I came online today and was wondering what the hell happened. So many questions, haha! What is Elpha, what is this teal madness, where is the announcement post...etc :) Personally, I feel this is a wonderful progression for this community and please let me know if you need any help or support. I've been here now for a few months and this community was a crucial part of helping me establish the foundation of Healstack. To get motivation, contacts but also just some damn good ol' time :)Now, I have to go work on that YC application real hard so we can all hang in summer in person. :)
:) :) :)
Thank you, Jelena! We're so excited.
Thank you 😊
Amazing! Congrats to the entire team, that's such a great news!I can't wait to see this community grow. Keep up the fab work, it really matters and impacts the tech space.
Thank you!!
Amazing, what a fantastic team! Happy to collaborate with Femstreet :)
Would love that, Sarah! Thank you.
Amazing Cadran! Congrats!
YOU! ARE! AMAZING!! congratulations to you cadran, on seeing your passion all the way through with this giant and scary and COMPLETELY RIGHT next, natural step!! and congrats to abadesi and kuan on joining you and building something brand-new and absolutely necessary for the world.GO ELPHA!!
Oh this is awesome news! ^^
Woohoo, that's amazing! So glad to see Leap becoming its own startup. And I really, really like the new name. (maybe I'm biased being French) Massive congrats Aba, Cadran and Kuan!
Thank you, Anne-Laure!
That's amazing! Congrats!!
Thank you!
This is amazing news!! Leap is one of the highest-quality networks that I'm a part of, so I'm very excited you're taking it big time!
Congratulations Cadran, Aba, and Kuan! Love this community and grateful to be part of it. I foresee BIG things ahead <3
Thank you! <3
That's awesome! Congrats! Do you need any help? I am happy to volunteer!
Thank you. We will be sure to let you know when we need more help! :D
Fantastic! So excited to be here and see where you take this community!
What incredible news! Congratulations to Cadran, Abadesi and Kuan! I'm pretty new to this community and appreciate it existing so much! Thank you so much!
Thank you! We're so excited, too.
Congrats! And thank you! And I can't believe that url was open!
Us either. :D
Congrats!! This platform is so powerful and unique- excited to see it grow more!
Thank you! :)
Congrats. Excited to see Elpha grow and take a place in helping women in tech network, grow and prosper. Thank you for starting it!
Congratulations to you all! I've loved being part of the Leap community for almost a year - I've learnt so much from the community and have appreciated having the space to speak civilly, openly and intelligently on issues around women in tech. So excited to see how Elpha develops and grows!
Thank you! What you described is exactly what we hope to support and build forward.
Way to go girls!It was much needed and I highly appreciate it!
Thank you! We're so excited!
Congrats Cadran, Kuan, & Abadesi!
Thank you!
Congrats ladies, and thank you! Excited to see the future of Elpha.
Thank you, and we are too!
Amazing news! Congrats Cadran, Abadesi and Kuan!
Thank you! :D
Congrats super team! I have loved being a part of this community for over a year now - It definitely feels like home for a lot of reasons. I am excited about this new development, and look forward to being a vital part of the next phase of growth and excellence! Cheers ladies :)
Thank you, we're so excited too!
Congratulations!!!! I am so happy for you all, and for the community. Appreciate all you have done and supporting your growth! Thanks to YC for supporting you!! And love the Elpha name!
Yay! Glad you like the name. And thank you!
Congrats! I'm so excited about all the changes and updates you three have made on Leap/Elpha in the past few months. This is awesome, and exactly what we need. Thanks!
Thank you!
Congratulations and good luck. You have created a great community. Just out of curiosity what is your business model?
Thank you, Shelly! Since we're so early, we're focusing on building the community right now, and we will be using what makes our members happy as a guiding light to figure out the next steps.
Congrats! Exciting news!
Thank you!
congrats and happy to be part of the community!
Thank you!
Wonderful news! Shows the power of community. Wishing you the best with this endeavor.
Thank you!
Wow, congratulations! I also just saw the article in TechCrunch, way to go! Thanks for your hard work creating and fostering this community, it's definitely my go-to for my daily dose of advice! Good luck going forward, I'll absolutely spread the word!
Thanks so much!
Congrats on the well-deserved CEO gig Cadran! You've done a stellar job creating a place for discussion from diverse viewpoints, and I imagine it will only get better from here. Also congrats to the rest of the founding team!
Thank you so much! It's been so nice having you here since the early days. Always appreciate your perspective and look forward to many more great conversations.
@Cadran congrats on the reveal! It would be interesting to watch how Elpha transforms from community to a viable business.
Congrats Cadran! Onwards and upwards!
Congrats. Excited for you all!
This is amazing and most exciting news so far this year !!! Hearty Congratulations to the founding team and the Elpha community ! Onwards and upwards...
Wow! Congrats and best of luck for three of you. This is super exciting. I hope the community grows even bigger this year!
congrats Cadran, Abadesi and Kuan! So excited to be an early member and can't wait to see what you have in store for us :)
Huge congratulations Cadan, Abadesi and Kuan! 🙌🏻 This is huge, I wish you all the success in the world. I'm so excited for y'all! I'll definitely share this with my networks.
Thank you so much! And thank you for sharing Elpha with your network!
This is great news! I have mostly been a silent member, and have immensely benefited from this community learning from other women with similar experiences. Kudos for taking it to the next level!Onwards & upwards
Thank you!! We are so glad to hear it's been a great experience so far. Excited for the future!
Congratulations! Huge news. Looking forward to seeing how this goes :)
Congratulations! So happy for you all!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate all your fantastic contributions to the community so far and excited for the future!
Thank you!! :)
Woot woot, congratulations to the team!! Love the name and new design!
Thank you so much!! Glad you like the new name and design :D
Congratulations to the team! This is such fab news. I am thrilled to be witnessing this community grow. I am learning so much here and look forward to continuing to see Elpha grow. Well-done ladies!
Thank you so much for the support!!
Hey Cadran, so this AM the usual Leap summary email was sent via Leap Y Combinator, when I clicked on it, it led me to the main page of Elpha -- and asked me to sign up again. This may have been by design to weed out folks or unintentional. From user experience perspective, it is clunky. Seeing a % of reaction being a bit on the sour end on the FFC page, the UX to transition and sudden change may have added to the sour feelings.
hi! Ah sorry for the confusion. I actually sent the email from Leap for an extra day to reduce confusion. My thought process was that the new elpha.com domain is new and is more likely to go to spam or the promotions tab and I wanted to make sure existing users saw the notice at the top that our name had changed and we rebranded. I can see how it's confusing though so I'm updating the emails to send from Elpha now. Thanks for the feedback.Re the links: right now they are configured so that if you are currently logged into Leap, you will automatically be logged into Elpha. Sorry to hear your experience was jarring. If you have thoughts about better ways to do this, I would appreciate the feedback. Also feel free to email me at [email protected].
Congrats!! so exciting!
Thank you!
This is amazing news! I CANNOT believe it has been two years already! Is it weird that I feel special for being part of this community from the very beginning? 😂Huge congrats to you and the team, can't wait to see what's in store moving forward!
No that is not weird that is fantastic!!! Thank you so much :) :) Really glad to have you here and that you've been a member all this time.
Fantastic news #togetherwerise
I’m thrilled! This community has offered such value! Thank you
Awesome! Happy to be here. :)The name similarity with Elphaba--a happy coincidence, then?
You know I hadn't thought of that, but someone else mentioned that to me today, too. Happy coincidence indeed!
I want to buy an Elpha T-shirt. Can we have merch? If I spot one of you out there wearing one I'm going to bear hug you!
This is amazing!! You just made me smile. Thank you :)
Congratulations to the Team!
Congrats Cadran! This is so exciting and I love the name!
Congrats! Super exciting. As a new member of Leap I'm curious about the leap (haha) to be become a separate company -- how does Elpha plan to make money?
Thank you! We're going to start by exploring revenue streams that provide members with access to information about companies that are female friendly. We'll probably start with paid job listings. We're going to be extremely mindful of privacy and build out revenue streams we'd be comfortable with as users ourselves.
Very cool, thanks for the reply.
Amazing news! Congratulations!!!
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