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Women are Trending in Brussels Tech Leadership Conference
Clo Willaerts, Woman in Tech
This is an article by Misae Richwoods, Event editor of The NextWomen and organizer of #140conf meetup in London
Brussels is the seat of Europe and as such it has some unusual dynamics, such as:
- The population is multi lingual with the Flemish and French divide being bridged by English.
- The national mobile operators charge for handsets instead of providing it free with a contract and unlimited mobile internet hasn’t happened here yet.
- At the same time there are world renowned global brands based here like Stella Artois.
- The architecture of the city marries the most delightful stone worked terraces of yesteryear with the stark modern lines of post-war reconstruction and the towering offices that deal with the endless red tape of globalisation.
Yes, Belgium is a more traditional country than the UK and yes, many things seem old fashion. Yet there was nothing backward thinking about the first #140conf meeting in Brussels which paneled an all female speaker line up!
An all female speaker line up at #140conf meetup in Brussels!
Having organised the #140conf meetup in London since last year, it was my pleasure to introduce the concept that real time media is a game changer for business and that we need to get a dialogue started about the changes it’s going to create so that we can use them as a force for good. Read more
A Unique Group of Mentors set to Advice the Next Generation of Female Internet Heroes
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Although women count for over 15% of UK entrepreneurs*, they represent less than 4% of start-ups with access to investment funding** in the country. This Gender inequality not only limits the growth of women-led SMEs, but it could also slow women’s enterprise in the post recession years. Following the Women’s Enterprise Task Force Report recommending to enhance the benefit from women networks, particularly in terms of business mentoring and coaching, a group of experienced men and women, all entrepreneurs or involved in SME enterprise, have decided to join forces and take action to trigger change.
Simone Brummelhuis, founder of The NextWomen, has today launched the NextWomen Mentoring Programme, in which over 20 outstanding male and female technology entrepreneurs from across the globe have committed to help the future of online enterprise.
“The Angel and VC investment game is still a very masculine environment. We believe that, with guidance from experienced players, many young female entrepreneurs can help change that, just as the past generations have helped change the corporate environment.” says Joana Picq, COO of The NextWomen.
The programme is unique in the way it manages the commitment to the relationship between the mentor and mentee. NextMentees, as they are called in the programme, commit to one of three different packages ranging in value, while NextMentors choose their NextMentees.
“To be a good mentor you must set your heart to it. I need to know my experience, connections and skills can really help my NextMentee launch or grow their start-up before I accept them.” Added NextMentor Sarah McVittie, co-founder of Texperts which was sold to kgb giant, 118118, at the end of 2008.
Launched to give female entrepreneurs ongoing support and advice, the programme has an impressive line-up of internet heavyweights including Michelle Dewberry, founder of Michelle Dewberry ltd and Chiconomise and winner of the second series of The Apprentice; Andrea Nacmias, former CFO of iBazar which was sold to eBay; Judy Piatkus who has set up and sold two publishing companies over the last thirty years including one of the UK’s top 25 publishing companies, Paitkus Books.
NextMentees will be able to gain insider knowledge and expertise on starting, growing and exiting a business, while they build confidence around the daily decisions they must make as business leaders.
The scheme is primarily aimed at female entrepreneurs, but is also open to men and other professionals seeking entrepreneurial advice and support from its NextMentors.
NextMentees can ask to be matched, or can apply to the NextMentor of their choice:
- Alicia Navarro – Founder and CEO of Skimlinks
- Andrea Nacmias – Director of Sunfive and the Cannonball Group
- Bindi Karia – VC/Emerging Business Lead for Microsoft UK
- Christina Vaughan – Founder and CEO of Image Source
- Emmanuel Noirhomme – Managing Director of Letsbuyit.com
- Jana Eggers – CEO of Spreadshirt
- Joana Picq – COO of The NextWomen
- Judy Piatkus – Founder of Piatkus Books
- Katarina Skoberne – Founder of openAd
- Lesley Eccles – Marketing Director and co-founder of Hubdub ltd
- Michelle Dewberry – Founder of Michelle Dewberry ltd and Chiconomise and winner of the second series of The Apprentice
- Natalie Turner – Founder and CEO of Entheo
- Paul Grant – Founder of The Funding Game workshop initiative
- Polly Gowers – Founder of Everyclick.com
- Sarah McVittie – Founder of Texperts
- Simone Brummelhuis – Founder and CEO of The NextWomen
- Stewart Townsend – Manager Sun Startup Essentials, UK, Ireland and Europe
- Tom Harrow – Co-founder of Findababysitter.com
- Ashley Ward -
- Collette Dunkley – Founder of XandY Communications
- Sophie Neary -
More information about individual NextMentors and the various packages can be found on the site and applications can be done by simply filling in The NextWomen Mentoring Programme survey.
For industry professionals interested in joining the scheme as a NextMentor, contact jo[at]thenextwomen.com
Press contact: Joana Picq – 07530057536 – Jo[at]thenextwomen.com
Launch Interview: Motivating Mums Launches their Mumpreneur Mentor Scheme
Clare Oliver, Laura Tenison and Alli Price
After mumsnet hosted live webchats last month with Gordon Brown and David Cameron, it is believed that the site can greatly improve people’s participation in politics. So it seems the Prime Minister has recognised the rising power of geek mums as they work together in communities for the greater business good, and just looking at the wealth of support coming from, and going to mums on the net, he is spot on.
Today Alli Price, Founder of Motivating Mum, launches the Motivating Mum Mentor Scheme for businessmums. Aimed to prevent the reinvention of the wheel, the scheme is amazingly cost effective and has some high-profile mentors already signed up, including Laura Tenison of JoJo Maman Bebe. Here, Alli Price talks to The NextWomen about the potential isolation when starting a business on your own, the importance of mentoring in the 21st century and how people should learn to ask for what they want.
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Tell us about yourself – your background and education
I have a Bachelor of Business in Hotel Management and Catering and initially worked in the marketing department of a 4* hotel in Melbourne, working my way up to Marketing Manager. After a few years, I returned to school to study Film and TV and then worked as a Production Manager in a Production Office, also in Melbourne, making TV commercials, corporate videos and pilots.
After years of talking about wanting to travel, I finally left in 1998 aged 28 for a trip to Sweden to edit a film for a friend. The film didn’t work out but the backpacking bug had well and truly bitten and five years later I had been to much of Western Europe, America, India, Nepal, Fiji, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Slovenia and Poland. Although I had worked a lot in the corporate sector, I realised that I was only truly fulfilled when helping people so trained to be a life coach. I completed my training at the same time as giving birth to my daughter and launched Motivating Mum.
What is Motivating mum? When did you launch and what are your objectives for the next three years?
Initially, Motivating Mum was a coaching service for mums, whatever stage of pregnancy, launched in 2006. However, running a business from home, coupled with looking after my daughter full-time quickly revealed how lonely and isolating it can be, being a Mumpreneur. In the belief there must be other mums out there like me, I launched the Businessmums’ Networking Lunch, a chance for mums to get out of the house, network and rest assured they weren’t the only crazy ones. The first lunch attracted 45 mums!
Following three years of mixing with Businessmums, I recently relaunched my service as a website offering support and advice to Mumpreneurs. The site consists of mentoring with established businessmums, a forum, articles and features and details of events now being held across London.
My objectives for the next three years are to provide Mumpreneurs with a service tailored uniquely to them. This includes providing mentoring and events for an exceptionally good price (as mums in business traditionally don’t have a lot of disposable income), having events offered across the UK (as although online support is great, it doesn’t combat the isolation), developing the forum to a point where mums can connect, network and help each other succeed and have each and every visitor to the site or an event walk away with whatever it is they need: a connection, information, inspiration. Lastly, it is to always be accessible. My pet hate is trying to contact businesspeople and their websites offer plenty for you to buy, but no details for contact.
What is your business model and how do you differ from your competitors?
My business model is to help Mumpreneurs. Everything I have done to date has been a case of trying to help fill a need or offer a service and I have had success with this approach as a result. I feel I differ from my competitors in that I always try to maintain approachability no matter how busy I get, I don’t charge membership fees for my services and I encourage face-to-face meetings in addition to online connections. I like to feel that my site is set up to offer support and advice, first and foremost, not to simply make as much money from people while I sleep.
What were your start-up costs and how were they funded?
My start-up costs were minimal as I only needed a website and business cards. The re-launch of my site and other investments have all been funded through money raised by the business. I am lucky in that the most expensive thing required of me for the success of my business was my time.
You are about to launch your Motivating Mum mentor scheme for businessmums and already have some great names onboard like Laura Tenison of JoJo Maman Bebe. How important do think mentoring is in the 21st century and how have you secured your mentors? Read more
Business Dating for Entrepreneurs: FounderDating.com
It’s a conundrum that many people face when starting a business – how to meet the right partner. For those lucky entrepreneurs amongst us, this has never been an issue. You had a friend or a business associate who shared the same passion or business idea as you and your venture was born. For some of us, however, beyond the great idea is the need and desire to have that partner who shares the joint vision.
The solution:
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Co-Founders, Jessica Alter and Saar Gur, recognised the hole for this new niche in the dating industry:
‘Like so many good ideas, FounderDating was born out of a cup of coffee (or maybe it was diet coke) and personal frustration. We have met countless uber talented people who want to become entrepreneurs, but haven’t yet found the right co-founder(s)/team or idea to work on. We started FounderDating to help introduce smart, dedicated and inspired people, start making matches and lower the hurdles to company creation.’
Identifying a person who brings with them a killer combination – say, coding skills or other the traits that would make a strong co-founder – is challenging, especially for people without established connections from say, previous work in business development at Bebo or business school. So in partnering with venture capitalist Saar Gur last year, Jessica co-founded an event series that works to bring people passionate about starting their own endeavours together with other entrepreneurs displaying complimentary skill sets.
The process is very simple, with three basic rules:
- Be Committed
- Don’t Meet and Tell
- Be Prompt
Currently running in San Fransisco and Seattle, they are soon to go global, starting with Israel.
Female Tech Start-up, Completely Novel, Shortlisted for the Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award 2010
The British Council has just announced its shortlist for the UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award 2010, in which 3 of the 6 finalists are female and one from a technology start-up – Anna Lewis of Completely Novel. Launched in 2004, the British Council’s Creative Economy Unit first pioneered the IYCE awards – International Young Creative Entrepreneur – to ‘celebrate the achievements and develop the potential of young creative entrepreneurs from emerging economies.’
The International Process
Initially focusing on publishing, they have since announced awards for design, music, screen (film and television), fashion, communications, interactive, performing and visual arts. Run annually, and open to young creative entrepreneurs from emerging economies, 8-10 countries are selected each year to take part from which one national finalist from each country is selected to enter the international competition. Once finalists are selected, they visit the UK on a 10 day tour during which they learn from their UK sector and judgement is made on the overall winner.
Born from the Success of an International Programme
Since its inception, over 45 countries have taken part – including Oman, India and Yemen – and as a direct result of this success, the UK compatriot programme was launched in 2007 with its initial award, again in publishing. In partnership with NESTA and The Cultural Leadership Programme, the list of awards is now equal to that of the International Programme. As for finalists of the International awards, the UK finalists take a tour of their sector in an emerging economy after which they share their experiences at a number of events.
This year’s publishing finalists, who are set to tour South Africa at the end of February, are:
• Anna Lewis, Co-founder and COO of Completely Novel Read more
Expert Interview: Opportunistic Female Entrepreneur Georgia Hall On Mixed Marketing Strategies
In a rapidly growing Digital world we shouldn’t forget the powerful marketing tools provided to us by offline mediums. People still walk past buses, sit on tubes, read the paper and watch television. Here, self-proclaimed ‘opportunistic entrepreneur’ Georgia Hall, formerly of Zinc Digital Agency, Yo! Sushi and now Searcys, highlights how on- and offline marketing strategies are not mutually exclusive, and how her first child was the catalyst she needed to make a very dynamic career move.
I am definitely an opportunistic entrepreneur, I like to take an existing project on and then really make it work.
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When you started Zinc in 1996 did you ever think the business would grow to over 100 staff and have clients such as Virgin, Microsoft and Vodafone?
When I first started Zinc, I set it up in partnership with one of the UK’s leading direct marketing agencies, Evans Hunt Scott, who had clients including Microsoft, BMW, Tesco etc. So my brief was to introduce their clients to digital media and the business plan was to organically grow the business. Within the first 6 months it became very apparent that the business was on a fast moving curve, in tandem with the digital revolution beginning back in 1996, and yes I absolutely knew that the company would be successful with such a great business backing and access to a great portfolio of world class clients.
You originally studied fashion before running advertising campaigns for the likes of Max Factor, joining Tower Records as Marketing Director and finally selling touch-screen music kiosks with Ken Frakes. Where did the idea for Zinc eventually come from? Were you fuelled by a desire to be an entrepreneur or by the online revolution you could see ahead of you?
I was fuelled by the desire to push this new medium into a major interest. My first job ever after completing my fashion degree in Newcastle was as a designer for a trend prediction company in New York. I have always wanted to do new things, work in untried areas and work on projects that are ground breaking.
I first met Ken Frakes when I was Marketing Director for Tower Records, I was his client and he came to see me with an idea to launch interactive multimedia kiosk systems into retail stores. He was working, as a designer, with multimedia designers and an IT company who had a range of touch-screens. This was back in 1993 and it was so exciting, internet and email was still only an academic communication tool and the concept of showing video, audio and information on a touch-screen to the mass market via the internet had not been conceived at all.
I started talking to all the record companies I knew about this idea and they all expressed a huge commercial interest. I joined forces with Ken and we set up some prototype kiosks in Tower Records, soon after Coca Cola, HMV and other major corporates wanted to trial this technology. I resigned from my day job at Tower Records to market and launch digital media and was then asked by Terry Hunt, the chairman of Evans Hunt Scott, to set up a digital agency for him which I named Zinc.
Did you have an extensive online and/or technical background before setting up Zinc – an interactive consultancy – or were you a forward thinker who could see the need?
I am simply a marketing person who can identify a gap in the market and likes to work on new concepts and challenges. Digital growth over the last 15 years is one of the most exciting communication revolutions we have ever experienced and I am very proud to have been one of the innovators.
Considering you had only just had a child, did you think twice about entering the world of start-ups or did the agency Evans Hunter Scott provide you with financial security and support you required? Read more
Founder of Zinc Digital Agency, Georgia Hall Joins Catering Giant Searcys
Georgia Hall – of Zinc digital agency and Yo! Sushi – has joined Searcys as their Sales & Marketing Director.
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Georgia Hall cc: mad.co.uk
After successfully starting Zinc, a leading digital agency whose clients have included: Virgin Atlantic, Microsoft and Vodafone, Hall sold to Havas advertising in 2002 before moving to YO! Sushi as Head of Marketing. Proving that success online can lead to success in equal measures offline, she helped build the Asian fast food brand to £52m worth at March 2008.
Searcys, one of the oldest established catering firms in the world, was founded in 1847 and now runs iconic catering and retail establishments at locations including The Gherkin, St Pancras Grand, Pavilion Road Knightsbridge, the National Portrait Gallery and the hugely successful Searcys Champagne Bars at Westfield and St Pancras.
With the brand already well established at the most socially glamorous venues in London, the company has briefed Georgia to focus on its core brand as well as launching a series of champagne bars to attract a younger clientele with large disposable incomes in a challenging economic climate.
Georgia sees this as a remarkable opportunity to raise the profile of the Searcys brand and her mission is to make sure that Searcys becomes known again as the leading brand behind Britain’s best restaurants, bars and events.
Talking of her move, Georgia said: Read more
Female Ambassador, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah Speaks at LeWeb 2009
This week saw LeWeb 2009, in which men and women from across the web addressed almost 2000 attendees in Paris.
One of the first keynotes came from Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdulla who ‘through social media has found a way to champion education and the right of every child around the world to go to school’. Introduced as the World’s most tech-savvy Queen, the enigmatic Queen Rania started her speech by promising the remainder would be in ‘140 character sound bites or less’. Her talk broached social media, its impact on people’s lives and the world as a whole, touching on the future following of inanimate objects on Twitter – think your local airport or train station, although Queen Rania was also very interested in knowing when her fridge had run out of chocolate. Her thoughts on the internet are incredibly visionary and yet intensely personal. As a Queen the internet, and in particular Social Media, has opened up her life, helping to demystify the myths of what she does.
Here, you can see the full address in which she states: ’souls will get an IP address’ and ponders the ability of the realtime web to bring about real world change.
Keynotes from other female figure heads included: Read more
Start-up Interview: Female Entrepreneur Jenny Buccos of ProjectExplorer.org
Providing cross-cultural education without the cost of a flight is invaluable to children across the globe. With the recent launch of Brightwide – YouTube for Social and Politcal Cinema – we look at what is offered to children in an attempt to make the world a smaller place. Here, The NextWomen talk to female Entrepreneur Jenny Buccos of ProjectExplorer.org about the strengths of being a non-profit organisation, the effects her exposure to many cultures has had on her attitude to business and wishing she had founded Pandora.com Read more
Start-up Interview: Female Entrepreneur Iveta Tancheva of Mums Like You
Since the advent of the Internet, networks have become an increasingly popular way by which to share knowledge and experience with like-minded people. For Mums and parents, the ease of access to such information provided by these networks has meant online communities are rapidly playing as significant a role in their lives as offline ones are. Here Iveta Tancheva talks to The NextWomen about launching Mums Like You, the merits of using social media sites and funding a business when the banks are not yet interested.
How did you come up with the idea of your start-up?
I decided to set up Mums Like You, early 2009 when I lost my job in the City and was at home looking after my baby daughter. The idea was initially to create a networking site which enables new and first time mums to stay connected and find friends .
When I did research on what is already out there and what mums want, two things quickly became clear – that a lot of mums live away from their families and friends as a result leading them to feel quite isolated at times, and that they increasingly rely on the Internet to find the support and information they need when on maternity. In addition my research confirmed my own experience as a first-time mum – that word-of-mouth is an extremely important source of information. These findings were instrumental in extending the capabilities of Mums Like You to enable mothers to share valuable information and solve real-life problems online.
The Reviews section for example is becoming a place where mums share their opinions about products and services and find out what other mums think before making a purchase. Another example is the Marketplace area, which enables mums to list and sell baby kit they no longer need or advertise to find childcare help.
How did you form your team?
Mums Like You is an Internet based business, and at the moment does not require a large team or infrastructure to support it. The team is small and selected on the basis of their expertise and ability to contribute to the growth of the site. For example my technical team works remotely but is available on a 24-hour basis if there is an issue to be resolved. I also work closely with mum bloggers who are enthusiastic about building Mums Like You into a thriving community for mums online. What’s very exciting is that most of the members of the team are other mums, with their busy lives trying to juggle kids and family. So we don’t work office hours but we know that if we need to get something done we’ll do it even if it means working late nights.
How did you fund it, with how much money, and what is the business model?
I funded the business with personal savings, as I couldn’t count on bank finance at this very early stage of the development. The start-up costs were about £10,000, and the time I have invested in setting up and developing the company over the past months. Read more
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