Women and Startups
6 ottobre 2016 / UncategorizedWomen and Startups
Are you ready to change? Start up your #STARTUP !
And if you are looking for inspiration, then just go on reading…
How many female entrepreneurs do you know? Recently Infocamere estimated that only 13% of startup companies last year were founded by women. Are we missing something? Many opportunities, we guess.
PWA Milan decided to dedicate the first speaker meeting event of the new season to inspirational stories of women entrepreneurs and their successful case-histories of startups.
During the event Cristina Gianotti, coach and partner of Reseau-Entreprendre, the international association that supports young entreprenuers and startuppers to succed, interviewed 3 extraordinary women who founded innovative start ups: Monica Regazzi (Homepal), Carmen Bobbiesi (PerSEOweb) and Monica Cusano (Mukako) – Read their stories at the end of this article.
We asked more to Cristina about Reseau-Entreprendre and the opportunity to become a startupper.
Cristina, how does Reseau-Entreprendre help startuppers and entrepreneurs?
Reseau Entreprendre (RE) is an international network, locally based, born in France 30 years ago, where experienced entrepreneurs mentor new entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneur commitment is our trademark. Reseau Entreprendre finds its purpose in their passion for entrepreneurship and their desire to pass this on to new generation, in a spirit of economic responsibility.
Members (experienced entrepreneurs) give of their time to assess business projects, to participate in approval committees, to mentor laureates (new entrepreneurs) and to get involved in the running of their association, all of which represents over 70,000 hours of voluntary work each year.
The aim of RE members is give back part of their success to the society, know from inside the new trends in business and know people which share the same values.
Laureates – i.e. Carmen Bobbiesi of PerSEOweb – accepted to the program receive free mentoring and are supported in looking for funds.
The aim of RE is to grow up a new entrepreneur that with his/her successful venture creates new job for him/her and people in his/her territory.
What kind of services does it offer?
Reseau Entreprendre’s members mentor high-potential business starters. The mentoring programme focuses on business starters who, because of their ambition, entrepreneurial potential, experience, and project, are likely to transform their business into a high-potential SME, creating new jobs in the territory in which the company operates.
To become a laureate and benefit from the mentoring offered in the framework of Reseau Entreprendre International, the new entrepreneur must meet a number of selection criteria. .
As a professional coach, in your experience, which are the main personal obstacles and fears that women have to face when they decide to become entrepreneurs?
Thinking of obstacles and fears is not a good indicator of entrepreneurial attitude.
Said that, being pragmatic, it is a good idea to think of several aspects while deciding for an entrepreneurial venture.
I suggest several assessment:
- skills and attitudes
- financial situation of the family
- status of the relationships with the family
- needs in terms of time and energy from the original and the actual family.
All these assessments to be done alone or with the help of several professionals in order to be consciuos about money, time, energy, support (the usual causes of fear) available in the short and in the medium term.
Which is the difference between female and male? Difficult to say.
For sure women in Italy now needs more self confidence and more visibility.
How can they overcome them and finally succeed?
- One point is not considering themselves different from men.
- The second – apart from the evidence of the assessments in general – is the character that brings to the decision.
- The third – an helpful hint – is a network of fans, friends that support you and do not envy you. You have to choose those who have a good impact on you from those who have not.
STORIES OF STARTUPPERS
Martina Cusano – Mukako
Martina is co-founder and CEO of Mukako.com, an e-commerce specialised on moms and babies’ products. Previously she has been working in Privalia.com in Spain and led the startup of Groupalia.com in Spain and Italy. She also worked for UBS Investment Bank in London.
She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Bocconi University.
Martina is mother of 2 boys, Lorenzo, 4 years old, and Leonardo, 2 years old.
Mukako.com is an e-commerce specialised on baby and mom products. Mukako’s mission is to offer solutions to parents for time and money saving. On Mukako.com it is possible to purchase diapers on subscription or bulk quantities as well as a wide range of complimentary products, which have all been selected, tested and reviewed by the company for their clients.
Monica Regazzi – Homepal
Monica Regazzi, Homepal CEO since June 2015, has some 20 years consulting experience in The Boston Consulting Group, where she became a Partner in 2008. Monica was an active member of the Financial Institutions Practice, working mostly in Milan and Paris for leading national and European financial Institutions clients. She focused on Retail, Wealth and Asset Management sector.
Monica graduated magna cum laude in Business Administration from L. Bocconi University, with an Exchange program at HEC University in Paris. Monica has been nominated Young Global Leader (WEF community) in 2009.
Homepal is a start-up in the Real estate Market. It is a Peer-to-peer internet site (and related App)
for buying, selling and renting real estate properties without agency intermediation. Homepal is a one-stop-shop from getting information to closing the deal.
Market reaction – commercial KPIs, September 2016:
– 25.000 fan Facebook
– 28.000 registered users
– 110.000 visitors
– 500 meetings
– 50 offer, 15 transactions
Carmen Bobbiesi – PerSEOweb®
Carmen is the founder of PerSEOweb®, an entrepreneurial project started in February 2014 with the aim of providing Freelancers and Small and Medium Companies comprehensive support for all Marketing and Communication activities both online and offline.
She studied Foreign Languages and Literartures at IULM and has always been working in the Advertising, Marketing and Communication fields.
Carmen has been married for 21 years and has two daughters of 16 and 14 years old.
PerSEOweb deals with Social Network, Web sites, SEO, SEM, Communication, Graphics and Image, integrating the institutional presence of the site with the most appropriate social media, with real events, online and offline communications.
PerSEOweb core is the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) applied either on online and off-line communication.