Blossom Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund , is launching a €4.6 million ($5 million ) angel program targeting European technology startups.

Cultivate will bring together 30 angels investors — including Des Traynor (Intercom), Guillaume Pousaz (Checkouom), Nilan Peiris (Transferwise), and Shakil Khan ( Spotify ) — and look to make 20 investments of  €230,000 ($250,000) per startup over the next 12 months.

The network will be sector agnostic but will focus on seed and pre-seed startups .

Ophelia Brown, the founder of Blossom Capital , said in a press release : “ Europe ’s tech ecosystem continues to thrive and is home to some of the greatest, most ambitious, most courageous founders in the world.”

“We set up Cultivate with the aim of giving these founders as much access to capital and experience in Europe as they need to scale. Our ambition is to democratize this access and continue to help tech founders punch well above their weight on a global scale ,” she continued.

Aside from the capital, founders will get access to angel members who will be on hand to provide insight and advice .

Timing is key

Cultivate’s launch couldn’t come at a better time. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has raised several questions about businesses ‘ future and the viability of venture capital investing in the era of government-led lockdowns.

Just last month, technology investors warned that the number of investments into UK startups could fall as a result of travel restrictions and the instability of financial markets .

Inside Blossom

Blossom Capital made headlines earlier this year when it announced the closure of a €170 million ( $185 million ) fund .

The fund , based in London , typically backs series A rounds and has to date invested in several well-known startups including Fat Llama and Checkouom.

Speaking to Growth Quarters last month, Brown, who previously worked at Index Ventures and LocalGlobe, spoke about some of the biggest misconceptions founders have about venture capital investors .

“I think founders too quickly forget that they are the customer . Raising capital is not just about financing, it’s much more important to choose the right partner,” she said.

6 beefy bits of advice for the recently self-employed

Through choice or by necessity, some of us are becoming self-employed for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence from multiple countries suggests that self-employed workers are one of the groups hardest hit by the pandemic. Support offered by governments varies .

Yet, for some, self-employment may represent the only way of earning a living and remaining active in the labor market. The self-employed are a diverse group that includes everyone from independent consultants, hairdressers and dog walkers, to executive producers and part-time delivery drivers.

What can those transitioning to self-employment do to protect their well-being? We’ve got six tips.

1. Protect boundaries

For self-employed people, boundaries can be blurry. This includes those between work and the rest of life, working for different clients, and working on personal business and on clients’ businesses. This can be caused by the income insecurity inherent in self-employed work, clients’ expectations for availability around the clock or renegotiation of agreed work, which creates complications in competing demands.

Long working hours and difficulty in disengaging from work contribute to potential conflicts between work and family and burnout. However, research suggests that learning to say no and protect boundaries creates room to rest and recharge. It helps with taking on new opportunities, improving performance (by focusing on only one task at a time), and having a life and identity outside of work.

There are several things that can be helpful: turning off wifi, deleting the email app from your phone, and scheduling all tasks – including family time and leisure – in addition to making an effort to be mindfully present with loved ones.

2. Learn

Self-employed people have more responsibilities and less support than employees. They are in charge of every aspect of their business, without access to admin and sales teams, databases, stationary and so on, which can be stressful . To manage this stress, self-employed people can learn the ins and outs of their business through enrolling in free online courses tailored to them, or using the knowledge of peers and mentors.

Additionally, research shows that finding and using personal strengths can reduce stress, while boosting productivity and well-being. Indeed, learning itself is a route toward well-being .

3. Understand potential unknowns

Self-employed workers face many insecurities, such as variable workloads , changing client demands, cash flow issues and insecure incomes. These cause fear and uncertainty and take up valuable mental and emotional resources.

Not knowing whether work will be available in three months or whether a client will pay on time aren’t only scary on their own, but also bring the possibility of experiencing pain and loss if everything crumbles and impacts loved ones.

People can learn how to build emergency funds , manage slow paying clients , and develop a growth mindset to cope with unexpected challenges.

4. Nurture relationships

Self-employment is often a lonely journey because others may not understand what the role involves. There are no formal co-workers around, and making time to socialize can be challenging . Loneliness is detrimental to well-being, with associated risks that exceed the danger of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

Nurturing relationships is essential and self-employed workers can develop positive relationships a number of ways. Sending thank you letters to clients, seeking out and working with mentors and peers, and prioritizing time to connect with family, friends, and significant others all help create meaningful connections.

5. Give up unhealthy pressure

Self-employed people put unhealthy pressures on themselves. It can be easy to compare ourselves to highly visible entrepreneurs and feel guilt, shame and disappointment from not meeting personal expectations. While these self-imposed pressures can have, to some extent, a motivational effect to work harder , they also act as stressors and impair well-being .

Such unhealthy pressures might also make it more difficult to open up, express vulnerability, and seek support because of fear that this may be perceived as a weakness. Acknowledging the multiple reasons why something may not be going well and practicing self-compassion is a simple, yet powerful technique.

6. Establish routines

While self-employed people have greater autonomy and flexibility than employees, they also lack the structure and support of organisations. This unique combination of working conditions makes it more difficult to remain motivated, to avoid stress and to manage time, creating a spiral of negative emotions that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, impairing performance through procrastination .

One way to cope with this challenge is by establishing routines . In addition to reducing some of the negative emotions and improving productivity, routines can promote a sense of well-being and meaning . Routines can also make it easier to incorporate the steps mentioned previously into daily or weekly schedules, including time to look after oneself, not just the business.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a difficult time to become self-employed. But when the challenges inherent in this type of work are addressed, self-employment can actually contribute to well-being. It can create flexibility, autonomy , a sense of meaning , and opportunities to be creative and express one’s values.

Like all change, this transition will likely require time and self-compassion. But in the long term, self-employment can be sustainable and rewarding, provided we look after ourselves.

This article by Andreana Drencheva , Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, University of Sheffield ; Kristin Hildenbrand , Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behavior, University of Sheffield , and Mike Duffy Jr. , Doctoral Researcher, University of Sheffield , is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

10 mistakes you’re making as a startup employee

Are you considering taking a position at a startup? Or are you already working for one, and it’s nothing like what you’ve experienced at a more established company?

I know this sounds like the intro to one of those “you may be entitled to compensation” commercials. Sorry to say, no compensation here — but I would like to share with you some mistakes that are easy to make when you work for a startup.

How do I know? I’m currently a startup and small business consultant, but much of my career was spent making these exact mistakes.

1. Letting a small budget hold you back

I always struggled with this one. I had big goals and ideas about what needed to be done to get there, but I’d put them on the back burner until there was more room in the budget. The problem: there’s almost never more room in the budget.

Think outside the box: what tools do you already have available that you can adapt? Are there less expensive tools or platforms you could use? Could you build what you need yourself?

I remember the first time I was introduced to Zapier, years ago now, by the CEO of the startup I was working for. Our budget was what Flo Rida would call low, low, low, low, and I had been begging them to bring another person on to help with the workload. The CEO’s response? My very own Zapier login. I entered the world of automation and never looked back.

The answer won’t always be automation, but chances are there are tools out there that are within your budget and will give you the nudge you need to follow through on all those big ideas.

2. Using your voice incorrectly — or not at all

At a startup, you already have a spot at the table, so use it.

A wise man named Erik Hatch once said, “Your best employees are your biggest pains in the butt.” So be (like I am) a pain in the butt. But when you’re speaking up, make sure you’re not coming across as a know-it-all.

I often had an aggressive style of communication; I would let you know what I was thinking, when I was thinking it, and exactly how I was thinking it. Not surprisingly, most people are put off by this type of communication and will just tune you out. So, as you can imagine, this didn’t get me very far. It was about as good as not using my voice at all.

What I came to realize — the hard way — was that everyone has their own communication style. I started asking people what theirs was, and anytime I wanted to raise a point about something or share my opinion, I would try my best to communicate it in the way the other person would be most receptive to it. It’s all about using your voice effectively so it drives your desired impact.

3. Waiting to have things handed to you

At a startup, you have the ability to pave the way for astronomical growth — for both the company and yourself. But not everything will be laid out for you: you’ll have to put your Nancy Drew hat on and find those growth opportunities.

Now’s the time to get creative and take initiative. This can feel uncomfortable; it did for me at first, mainly because I didn’t want to overstep any boundaries.

Here’s my advice. Spend some time observing what’s going on at your startup. Are there any pain points you’re noticing? What are your company’s goals for the quarter?

Write out a list of things you’ve noticed. Include what could be done to solve these problems or gaps you could fill — it doesn’t matter if you have experience in it or not. Then, present that list to your leader, and ask which items might be good for you to go after.

I always found this was a great way to take initiative while making sure I wasn’t completely going off into left field or stepping on anyone’s toes. It also allowed me to understand what the priorities were and which big initiatives I should be focused on.

4. Staying within the confines of your job description

Unless told otherwise, your job description is probably just a general guide of what the company needed weeks or months before you came on board. Now they have even more that needs to be done — and a lot of it’s probably not within your formal job description.

Did they hire you to write social media content, but now they need someone to write sales emails? Go ahead and raise your hand for that challenge; you’ll be surprised at how much your current skills might translate into other areas.

Years ago, I was hired by a startup to facilitate their customer onboardings. I walked in on my first day, and the CEO said, “We want to see what you make of this role.” It became clear that onboarding customers was only going to take about 10% of my time; it was up to me to figure out how I was going to spend the other 90%.

I could have easily stayed within the bullet points of my job description and made it really easy on myself. Instead, I saw this as a learning opportunity that doesn’t come around often. I started listening, observing, and asking questions. What were the immediate needs of the company? Where could I step in? What were others working on?

Soon, I had my hands in pretty much every area of the company, going far beyond what I was originally hired to do. It not only allowed me to get some intense hands-on experience, but it also helped the company build a foundation in various areas and get a grasp of their needs before hiring more specialized people.

I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be where I am today if I would have just stayed within my job descriptions and not dabbled in various areas. It would be like if Taylor Swift had stuck to country music — and no one wants to imagine a world like that.

5. Not setting boundaries

Work isn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it can quickly become one if you let it. You see a lot of opportunities pop up, and you’re really hungry to prove yourself, so you want to pile it on. But pretty soon, you’re going to start getting really full and feeling kind of miserable.

As someone who used to think that lack of sleep and no days off were badges of honor, I know you can’t produce consistently good work if you’re biting off more than you can chew. My burnout reached the point where the mere thought of opening my laptop made my skin crawl. I hadn’t taken a vacation where I was offline in over three years. I had been working 12-hour days and through most weekends, I ate lunch at my desk, and I checked emails in bed.

Despite this earth-shattering realization that what I was doing to myself was completely unhealthy, I was still hoping that when I brought this up with the founder of the company, he would pat me on the back and say, “We wouldn’t be where we are without you putting in all those endless hours and weekends.” Instead, he looked at me and said, “I never asked you to do that.”

It stung, but he was right. He never asked me to compromise my sanity and my days off, but I did it because I thought that’s what would make us successful. In reality, it was doing the opposite. Moral of the story: take time off, enjoy your weekends, and set your boundaries .

6. Being inflexible

Things move fast. Like faster than Jimmy John’s delivery. One second, you’re neck-deep in an industry analysis, and the next, there’s a complete change of direction and it’s all-hands-on-deck for a sales presentation, forcing you to leave your industry analysis in the dust.

This can be frustrating, and I’ve let my frustration cloud my ability to see the bigger picture. I was always fighting the quick change.

I remember a time when I was in fact working on an industry analysis. We were pretty confident that we were going to target a new industry and needed the data and my analysis to back up why this was the best move for us.

I spent weeks compiling all the research, putting together a SWOT analysis, making presentations for the board, the whole nine yards… only to be told that we weren’t going to be headed into a new industry after all, and I needed to move on to something else. I felt defeated and angry. It was time wasted — all that work for nothing.

Once I was able to get past my emotions, I realized it wasn’t actually a waste of time. Fast forward to today, and I still use what I learned during that project to help other businesses. Me being frustrated and angry was probably the most unproductive outcome of the whole project, as it held me back from diving into other projects. Not going into that new industry was the right decision in the end, and no amount of work would have changed that.

So, don’t be me — take it in stride and think about the skills you’ve learned.

7. Being wary of feedback

Feedback just hits differently at a startup. Like having gelato in Venice, Italy instead of the local coffee shop in Ankeny, Iowa.

At a startup, feedback is typically not formal: it’s maybe a little (or a lot) blunt and oftentimes on the spot. It can catch you off guard, and if you have a tendency toward the dramatic, it might feel like the end of the world. But as it turns out, it’s most definitely not the end of the world.

I was always the person who would ask for feedback from anyone who would give it to me. Whether it was positive or negative, I wanted to hear it all. Where could I improve? What was I doing well? Am I meeting your expectations?

And for the most part, the feedback I received was pretty positive. Just the pat on the back I needed to keep excelling and give my ego a little boost. But whenever I received negative feedback, it always felt like a punch to the gut.

On the outside, I took it very well. I would thank them for their feedback and tell them that I would work on it immediately. What was going on inside was a completely different story: I would go into a mental tailspin. “They don’t know the full story. That feedback just wasn’t fair.” I would find all the reasons they were wrong, and it would consume me.

Eventually, my mind would win out, and I wouldn’t actually work on whatever it is I was supposed to improve upon. As much as I touted that I was open to feedback, I really wasn’t. As a result, I limited my growth potential until I decided to actively change my mindset and my attitude.

8. Not over-communicating

Everyone is so buried in their own things that it may not always be apparent that you’ve got something handled or you’ve been working on a given project. Let people know. Talk about your ideas and plans and how you’re going to tackle them. And don’t be afraid to talk about your wins, too.

At first, I used it as a way to mitigate being micromanaged. If I could fill people in on what I was doing, how I was doing it, and when I was doing it, they wouldn’t come back later to check in on me. I also used it as a way to make sure I was working on the right things.

I’d fill everyone in on what I was doing and wait for someone to tell me that I shouldn’t focus on that, or alternatively, that I was on the right track and to continue doing the thing I was doing.

I quickly realized that it also helped avoid duplicate work. With everyone wearing so many different hats at a startup, there would often be multiple hands in one project. If you didn’t over-communicate what you were doing, you would end up working on the same thing as your coworker, which is probably in the top 10 worst feelings next to wet socks.

This is a learned skill. It took me a while to understand what over-communicating is and what it isn’t. I use the term “over-communicate” instead of simply “communicate” because there’s a difference:

As you can see from the example, over-communicating is also about making sure everything’s noted in every communication channel (within reason). If you say it in Slack, someone who checks your project management app won’t see it. Keep that in mind.

9. Giving in to imposter syndrome

I can’t even remember how many times I’ve said, “I’m so not qualified to do this.” And I still let that thought bang around in my head sometimes. You are qualified .

You were hired because you’re worthy of a spot on a rocket ship. You may not know all the ins and outs, and maybe you’ll be Googling what “CPC” and “PPC” mean, while simultaneously setting up Google Ads.

All that matters is that you get comfortable with being uncomfortable and not having all the answers.

I mentioned that, at a past startup, I only had 10% of my job description clearly defined. I would love to tell you that I knew what I was doing and that I had countless years of experience under my belt to prepare me for that exact moment. In reality, I almost quit my first week.

I had a huge fear that they were going to “find me out” and realize that I was just a young kid who let the check engine light blink at me for months before getting an oil change (and only after my dad reminded me). They would inevitably fire me anyway, so why make it worse on myself, right?

I knew I was being ridiculous. I never lied about my experience or my skillset, and I didn’t misrepresent myself in any way during the interviews. So either (a) they were silly to hire me, or (b) they actually believed I could do it. The answer was a healthy mix of both. It usually is, and as long as you can fight back against that imposter syndrome , you’ll do just fine.

10. Specializing instead of generalizing

Every startup will need specialists — eventually.

But one of the best things you can do for your career (and for a small company) is to generalize your skills. That means learning and executing on marketing tasks while also juggling sales initiatives. Or onboarding users while also digging into data analysis.

Generalizing can teach you a little about everything and helps you see the full customer journey firsthand. It’s what helped me figure out what I actually wanted to specialize in and what my true talents were, while also saving the company thousands of dollars since I was tackling multiple job functions.

One area I always wanted to venture into was marketing. So, when a startup I was working for needed someone to take on the marketing initiatives, I jumped at the opportunity. Did I have experience? No. Was I really good at Googling? Yes. I dove right into watching courses, reading blog posts, and talking to professional marketers.

And you know what? I actually was successful. By that, I mean that we were making money off of our marketing initiatives and bringing in leads. There was just one problem: I didn’t like marketing.

I so badly wish I would have fallen in love with it and that it would have been a Hallmark movie moment. It wasn’t, but I still learned something immensely valuable while filling a role the company desperately needed filled.

This article by Isidora Prohaska was originally published on the Zapier blog and is republished here with permission. You can read the original article here .