fIVE Startup Stories: Recent Episodes
Strascheg Center / HM
For us, entrepreneurship is not necessarily about starting or running a business. It’s a state of mind, a principle of life and an approach to dealing with problems. This is fIVE, your university podcast on female entrepreneurship by the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship.
We strongly believe in diversity! It’s just so much more fun and exciting; diversity in food, in cultures, in places, ways of living, learning, creating and doing things. It’s this desire to explore – that we all have in us, to see new things, and yes, to be curious to look what’s behind the next corner.
Aimie-Sarah Carstensen, Gründerin und CEO der Realtainment-Group, veranstaltet mit ihrem Unternehmen seit sechs Jahren das Format ArtNight sowie in der Vergangenheit erfolgreich auch PlantNight und ShakeNight, mit denen sie Kreativität in den Alltag ihrer Teilnehmer:innen bringt. Mittlerweile hat das Unternehmen 67 Mitarbeiter:innen in Berlin und über 500 Workshop Hosts in fünf Ländern (Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz, Niederlande, UK). In dieser Episode spricht Franziska Mattner mit Aimie über Female Empowerment und Diversität, ihre Erfahrung bei der TV-Show „Höhle der Löwen“, welchen Mehrwert analoge Produkte in der heutigen digitalen Welt liefern und warum es sich lohnt, Gründerin zu sein. Außerdem erzählt Aimie, wie sie von einer „klassischen“ Karriere in einem DAX-30 Unternehmen zum Gründen gekommen ist und wieso es manchmal wichtig ist, Langweile zu haben.
Lisa Ihde ist Informatikstudentin, Autorin, Gleichstellungsbeauftragte, angehende Gründerin, Teil der Forbes 30 Under 30, und vieles mehr. In dieser Episode spricht Franziska Mattner mit Lisa über ihren Weg zum Informatikstudium, über den (noch) geringen Frauenanteil in dieser Studienrichtung, und wie dieser erhöht werden kann. Lisa erzählt, wie sie sich trotz verschiedenster Hürden als eine von wenigen Frauen im Informatikstudium behaupten konnte, und warum besonders weibliche Vorbilder, Netzwerke und mehr Sichtbarkeit anderen auf ihrem Weg helfen können. Dabei betont sie, wie wichtig es ist, Kinder schon im jungen Alter spielerisch an Informatik und Technik heranzuführen, um einen natürlichen Umgang in diesem Bereich zu fördern. Lisa gibt wertvolle Einblicke in ihre Erfahrungen als Buch-Autorin von Informatikbüchern für Kinder und Jugendliche, ihrem Engagement am Hasso-Plattner-Institut, und von CreateF – The Female Founders Show.
How can we design and build better digital spaces and what can we learn from public spaces to do so? These questions are at the forefront of Natalie (Talia) Stroud’s research on platform design principles. Talia is the founding Director of the Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Journalism. Through the Creative Mornings Community and newsletter, I learned about Stroud’s interesting research and invited her to speak on the topic on our podcast show. The pandemic further catalysed the digital component in our lives, but questions still remain on how to design digital spaces to foster community, humanity, and respectful behaviour rather than resentment and hate.
Due to an autoimmune disease for Molly, flexible working hours was not only a ‘nice-to-have’, but an absolute need. Yet, confronted with a pre-pandemic situation, where remote work or flexible hours were the exception rather than the norm, it was a hard and time-consuming process to find employers offering flexible work environments. In 2019, Molly Johnson-Jones co-founded the start-up flexa.careers with the ultimate goal to bring more transparency to the global job-hunting process and to portray and evaluate employers not only by ‘what they offer’ but especially, which working environment you’ll be able to find there.
Venture Capital, Bootstrapping oder wann ist der beste Zeitpunkt in ein Start-up zu investieren? In dieser informativen Folge mit Penny Schiffer, tauchen wir ein in die Welt des Risikokapitals und worauf es Investor:innen ankommt, wenn sie in Start-ups investieren. Penny Schiffer, die gemeinsam mit Thomas Schulz, Raized.ai gründete war davor selbst als Investorin tätig und weiß, worauf es im Screening-Prozess ankommt. Penny erklärt alle Fachbegriffe, leicht verständlich und teilt mit uns spannende Eindrücke aus ihrer eigenen Investoren-Roadshow im Silicon Valley.
Anastasia ist eine der jüngsten Gründerinnen Deutschlands. Mit 20 gründete sie ihr Start-up FeMentor – eine Reverse Mentoring Plattform von Frauen für Frauen, die heute mehr als 1000 Frauen (Mentorinnen & Mentees) umfasst. Sie selbst wurde auf ihrem Weg von einer Vielzahl an Mentor:innen begleitet und unterstützt. So steht sie heute mit 22 an einem Punkt, der ihr es ermöglicht sich für das einzusetzen, was ihr wirklich wichtig ist: Gleichstellung, Empowerment für Frauen, Schaffung von Vorbildern und ein Netzwerk, in dem alle voneinander lernen!
Anna-Katharina Pelzel gründete gemeinsam mit Nico Hauschke 2020 ihr Start-Up new work campus. Mit ihrem Kollektiv wollen die beiden Bildung und Wirtschaft verbinden, um wirksame und nachhaltige Vernetzungskonzepte für gemeinsames Lernen und Entwickeln umzusetzen. So entstand auch die Idee für ihr Produkt „trabayolo“, einer digitalen Plattform, die junge Menschen dabei hilft, ihren Lebensweg selbst zu gestalten. Dabei werden sie am Strascheg Center für Entrepreneurship von Jana Hollmann unterstützt. Jana arbeitet als Start-up Beraterin am SCE, wo sie Einzelpersonen und Teams im Gründungsprozess begleitet. In dieser Podcast-Episode erzählen Anna und Jana von ihrer Zusammenarbeit und ihren Erfahrungen mit Gründungsberatung, Herausforderungen im Gründungsprozess, und Selbstbestimmung im Berufsalltag.
Carolin Kunert,started her company Knister Grill in 2017 while studying Industrial Design at HM – Munich University of Applied Sciences and Syddansk University in Denmark. The sustainable brand produces a compact and transportable barbecue locally in Germany. With her company, Carolin has won prices such as the RedDot and ISPO Award and was added to the “Forbes 30 under 30 Europe” list in the category “Retail and Ecommerce” in 2020. In the same year, Knister Grill opened its first showroom and shop in Munich. Currently, the company consists of a team of eight employees, who support Carolin with her vision to create more awareness for responsible and sustainable production and consumer behaviour. The focus on sustainability is reflected in short transportation routes, durability of the products, and dedication to social responsibility. In this podcast episode, Carolin talks about how to start a company with no background knowledge, how to deal with issues founders are facing, and her own vision for Knister Grill.
Svenja Lassen finds her passion and thrive in how to enhance the proportion of women entrepreneurs and female investors in Germany. #25to25 – The Female Founders Pitch, is opening a call to action, namely to increase the portion of women entrepreneurs from 16 to 25% by the year of 2025. In recent years this number has been stagnating, and thus, it’s time to set clear goals and make change happen. The increase of women entrepreneurs positively contributes to both economic, as well as sustainable development. By initiating the Female Investors Network, Svenja aims to enhance the number of female investors, which would also positively impact the number of start-ups led or co-led by women. Diversity matters!
Building bridges: arcs audio, founded in 2017 by Saskia Riedel, offers interactive and participative audio guides for museums and exhibitions to make ‘art more accessible’ to all people. Saskia is driven by her passion to ‘open up’ the seemingly exclusive art scene, by exploring and experiencing what is displayed ‘through the voices of others’. These stories, and narratives of ‘everyday people’, what they perceive and see when looking at a specific piece of art, are recorded and put together in an interactive audio guide format. A start-up at the intersection of culture, digitalization, humanity and art.
‘Develop the HERO within you! I still remember these words from Dianne Welsh, when I met her for the first time shooting her video on Entrepreneurial Personality, included in our MOOC on ‘Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation’. Dianne is a great role model, when it comes to academic research, and research on positive psychology in the context of entrepreneurship. In this episode she talks about how she found her way into the field of entrepreneurship, what is fascinating to her, and what the ‘HERO’ within you actually stands for.
Franziska is a film director, composer and entrepreneur herself. She strongly believes in empowerment, and making great stories visible. This is how her current project – createF came to life. createF – The Female Founders Show, is a series of 12 episodes and shows the ‘real’ process of becoming an entrepreneur. 10 aspiring start-ups, 3 potential investors and +50 supporters on a mission to thrive and grow the amount of women entrepreneurs in Germany. Janina Mütze, Mona Mayr, Aya Jaff, Fränzi Kühne, Svenja Lassen are some of the inspiring role models supporting create F.
Martina Panchyrz is a journalist and professional storyteller. She started her carreer in the media industry, working as a chief reporter, before she decided to make a move. Instead of traveling the world, Martina took the chance of a sabbatical to found her own business, M.STORIES. Martina and I talk about her journey of becoming an entrepreneur, the upcoming female business festival and who she thinks are great rolemodels to follow and get inspired.
In this episode Lisa and I talk about her double role as a female founder and DBA (Doctor Degree Business Administration) student. Naked Minds is an expert network for digital transformation projects, ‘shaking up’ the classical consultancy area. From her motivation to the challenges, failures, fears and ups and downs, but also to what ‘being an entrepreneur’ means for Lisa, this episode is the perfect inspiration for you whether you think about starting your own business or a DBA program.
Jesango is an all-female start-up team of 3 co-founders in the field of consumer goods and e-commerce. They are dedicated to ‘create a fair future together’ by making beautiful, yet fair fashion easily accessible to everyone. To date, about 6% of all female founder teams start their business with ≥ 3 co-founders, in comparison to 41% of male teams. However, especially in the early stages of venture creation, additional people represent important resources that create “decisive momentum for growth” (FFM, 2020, p. 34). This interesting talk with the two co-founders highlights their motivation, paths and why despite hurdles and failures they think that ‘starting a business’ is the right way to not only talk about change, but actually make change happen!