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Episode 16 - Lisa Meissner, Co-Founder & CFO at Mersor
39 Plays1 year ago
Back again with another fantastic episode of Women Talk Tech. This week, Sade sat down with Lisa, Co-Founder & CFO at Mersor. They talk all about her co-founding journey so far and her main motivations for wanting to pursue this.
Lisa also shares her advice for other women who are interested in beginning their founding journey.
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Transcript
Lisa's Journey to Co-founding MERSO
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Women Talk Tech. Today, I'm joined by Lisa Meinsner, co-founder and CFO at MERSO. Lisa and I chat all about her co-founding journey, an interesting one to say the least, and her main motivation behind this. We discuss how MERSO was financed in the very beginning compared to how they are financed now and the main differences. Lisa also shares her advice for other women who are interested in beginning their founding journey. I hope you enjoyed this conversation.
00:00:42
Speaker
So, Lisa, tell me a little bit more about yourself.
Transition from Automotive Sector to Entrepreneurship
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. So basically I'm the co-founder and CFO at Mezor. And as you can tell, my professional background at least is completely into finance. So I started my career a couple of years ago, originally in the automotive sector, which is something completely different as what I'm doing right now, but I'm sure we will come to that later. And, um,
00:01:09
Speaker
And right now, I'm not only the co-founder of Mesur, but also the ambassador of the German Startup Association. So I'm fully digged into the startup scene. I love that. I love that. And just before we get into the whole topic of DNI, and of course, we'll discuss it later on, just very briefly, because of course, from doing the podcast, I've soon realized that DNI means so much, and it can mean so different to everyone else, right? So what does DNI mean to you, and why do you think it's particularly important?
00:01:39
Speaker
Um, I think why it's important, it's like easiest to explain by my personal experience that I made. So, um, coming from the automotive sector, I've decided to be part of an industry that is like mainly main, um, uh, main driven.
The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion at MERSO
00:01:56
Speaker
And I mean, you basically have like this old gray white man in front of you. It's like, honestly, like that's just how it is like in many parts of it.
00:02:06
Speaker
And if you then choose something specifically like finance, it even gets like extreme. And what happens like many, many times where that actually people in a meeting would assume that I would be the assistant and not a finance manager, for example. And I was like, okay, I think there's something going wrong right now. And I mean, that are just some experiences that I made myself multiple times, but also I have like one example in my friend network.
00:02:36
Speaker
um, that is like really significant showing the problem. She's a doctor, uh, for medicine here in Germany. And what happens is that all of the time she's like getting addressed as a, uh, as a mister when they drive, write emails, for example, they always write something like mister, even though she's a female. And I mean, that shows how, um, how, what kind of pictures we have initially from what kind of, um, professional backgrounds.
00:03:05
Speaker
that we're having and I think diversity is like the main point that we need to implement and to focus on to change that kind of, yeah, visions that people have.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's like I saw like an exercise where they asked schoolchildren, like draw a picture of a doctor and they just draw men. So it's like things like that, right? When you associate a person with a profession, most times it is a male or, you know, some sort of, you know, that sort of figure. So it's crazy. Yes. So, I mean, obviously diversity is a lot more than just the gender, but it starts with the gender because it's like the population can be easily split into men and women.
00:03:48
Speaker
But after that, there's like so much more to
Empowerment Initiatives and Lisa's Automotive Background
00:03:50
Speaker
come. I mean, looking onto the age, onto the ethics, the religion, the sexuality, like there's like so many things that you need to focus on. And my experience is that, and I mean, there are like many studies about that, that teams that are diverse, not only in the parts of gender, but everything else, are like more successful because they are able to cover more kind of their perspectives, which is great because
00:04:16
Speaker
If you have a product that goes to a customer, there will be many perspectives. So that's what you basically need. Exactly. Especially when you think about solving a problem, right? If you've got everyone in the room that knows or come from the exact same background, you're all going to go out the problem from the same angle. And that means, you know, you may not solve it in the best way possible, whereas diversifying the team and the people there, you can solve problems so much better. Yeah. So that's basically why it's like very important. And specifically I'm focusing on female empowerment.
00:04:44
Speaker
So what we're doing with Mesor is we're enabling very small businesses founded by women as well. I mean, not exclusively, but with a focus on as well. And we implemented our own roundtable, which is called the Fempreneur Roundtable that we host twice a year where we invite up to 30 different female founders into a safe space where they can share experiences to just push more female founders and push
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, a few minute empowerment within the startup scene. Wow, wow, wow. And you know, take us back to the beginning. I know that you mentioned that you started your career in finance, which like I said, is very male dominated. How was that? And kind of tell me about, you know, before founding Mezor, tell me a bit more about your experience in the finance world. Yes. So basically, before I chose finance, I decided to go into the automotive industry,
00:05:38
Speaker
Because back then, like during my school, high school time and studies, um, the automotive industry were basically freedom for me. So I imagined that a car means freedom and I want to have freedom. So I go into the automotive industry and just from the beginning, I was hugely inspired that the car is actually something that is impacting everyone. Yeah. Doesn't matter if he likes it or not, but everybody's going to be touched by mobility and cars and
00:06:08
Speaker
And that was very inspiring for me. So I chose, um, during my studies to do like multiple internships, like at Ford, um, motor companies, for example, but also with, um, automotive suppliers in the USA. And what I found out during the time there is that all this kind of, um, attributes that I was mentioning, like freedom actually doesn't come from a product, but rather from the way we work.
From Discovery to Co-founding MERSO
00:06:34
Speaker
And so I.
00:06:36
Speaker
It constantly moved away a bit from the automotive industry and what really made a change where I started at Daimler Mercedes-Benz daughter company, which was called Ambition. I was part of one of the first employees, so number, I would say 10, 15, something like that. We ramped up the company within one and a half years to 250 employees. I was part of the finance and the administration team, so I basically ramped up
00:07:05
Speaker
all this kind of processes, but also not finance, but also HR infrastructure and everything that comes with it. And what I found out is that I'm not passionate about mobility, but rather about speed and building a company and having growth, generating growth, generating a product. That's something that's really truly motivates me. And when we became like the size of 250, I was also the responsible person for guidelines.
00:07:34
Speaker
And I knew that there were more and more guidelines coming from Mercy Dispense, obviously, which totally makes sense. But I found out that my sweet spot definitely is like in a company where I do not have as much guidelines, but more freedom to just grow wide. That was basically like the point where I decided to, yeah, switch. And what happened was that basically at the same time,
00:08:01
Speaker
Um, my parents were co-exidentally one of the first customers of Mesoix. And that's such a funny coincidence because my mom were living in German, Cologne in Germany. And she just drove one week into Berlin, saw a pop-up shop and bought like this little key charm. And she gave this key charm to my father. And then I on Christmas saw, okay, well, that's a cute idea. That's a cute product. Let me check this out. I don't know this brand. And I googled Mesoix and found this very cute website for personalized leather wear.
00:08:31
Speaker
And then I saw an application for a co-founder and CFO position. I was like, okay, well, that sounds interesting. And I think there's like much that you could do. And I decided to actually apply. And then I applied for the co-founder position and yeah, from there it actually starts.
00:08:52
Speaker
Wow, wow, wow. And let's go back a bit. Cause you mentioned that you realized you liked the freedom in Daimler or in that part of the kind of working world. But of course in those sorts of companies, there's lack of, there's a lack of freedom. When did you kind of, I hope so. When did you kind of think about, Hey, maybe founding a company is probably the best step for me. Like, what did you, what were your motivations then? Of course, I know that you came across Mezzo in a very peculiar and very authentic way, but when did you realize, okay, maybe founding a company could be a good idea for me?
Challenges and Building the Co-founding Partnership
00:09:21
Speaker
or being part of the company. Exactly. Because founding a company actually always was an idea. So already doing the studies, I was thinking about ideas. And I always came to the point that I don't have like the idea that's like the game-changing thing and it's going to be a unicorn. I never had this. And I mean, to mention with my finance background, I'm obviously also not like this kind of crazy idea guy that has like, I mean, I'm not like the creative
00:09:50
Speaker
person. So I always had troubles to imagine that the idea that I'm having is like the next shit. And so I didn't do it. And what was like very sad is that I had a business plan during my studies about an app for HR. And I didn't do it because I wouldn't believe too much into it. And a couple of years it went like, the same idea went super successful here in Germany. I was like, damn, that's like, stupid. And so I
00:10:20
Speaker
basically was open to found something, but I realized that I do not need to be like the initial founder, yet that I can also join. Wow, wow. And that's so interesting. I'm sure there's probably so many other people out there, men, women, whatever, that probably have that idea to want to be at that kind of early stage in a founding company, but don't have the kind of creative side. I mean, I could imagine me being like that as well. So yeah, that's quite interesting.
00:10:46
Speaker
and then talk me through the application process because again when you when we spoke about that before I was like how I always imagine being a co-founder means you have the idea you start it from scratch and that's how it works I can't ever well I've never seen an application for a co-founding role so that's quite interesting. Well honestly I've never seen someone as well I never met anyone that has like this kind of okay cool it's actually a very fun story because um
00:11:13
Speaker
I mean, the step applying away from the automotive industry was actually a huge step for myself because I've prepared my entire career being in the automotive and I've achieved like a very nice level and had like very good career options afterwards. So I was like on a safe space and then deciding to even apply for a startup was like, okay, what am I doing? Is this great? So what actually happened where I were.
00:11:43
Speaker
I thought, I think three weeks, I took like the time and always saw the job description and thought about it. And it really took like time to getting warm with the idea of even applying. So it took me quite time. And I was thinking like the company through, and I talked to my family and my boyfriend, what they are thinking about this company. So at the time I applied, I was mentally already like.
00:12:07
Speaker
Um, in, because I thought so much about it. And then, so I took like the time and I wrote my CV and made it like very profound, send it to like the, um, a job email address. And then actually nothing happened. And I was like, okay. I was like, honestly, okay, no, it can't be it because it must be a match. I'm like, so sure it's, it fits like the description fits so good. And I liked the company so much. So, um, I thought, okay, well, maybe like, um,
00:12:36
Speaker
applying through email is like not proper for a startup. That's what I thought. So I decided to go like stalking the co-founder on several social media platforms and then
00:12:49
Speaker
talk to them on like a pledge via LinkedIn and sing as well. And I mean, after being like so annoying, I would say she definitely came back and it turned out that she was just like the only one in this company so far and doing like everything herself. And obviously, if you're doing like everything from marketing to finance to the product development to the launch of the new website and everything like by yourself, then you'd
00:13:18
Speaker
most of the time don't have the possibilities to answer every email and you probably don't even see it. So it was more like, yeah, it wasn't her intention to not answer. And so we basically then met and where our first meeting was actually like in a coffee place here in Berlin. And from there on it was like,
00:13:43
Speaker
research other we spoke and it was like, okay, it's a match. It's going to work out. We both had like an incredible good feeling. And what we did afterwards where, um, we, um, organized a couple of workshops together. And I remember her setting all this kind of invasion, uh, and mutations on Sundays, for example, like blocking the entire Sunday, just to see if I'm like willing to work on a Sunday. Um, and she was like, kind of testing me.
00:14:09
Speaker
And that's okay. That's like really no problem at all because I love working. I've used to work on weekends and that was like, no, no worries. That's no problem. And during the workshops, the main focus was on figuring out whether we share like the same vision, if we have like same attitude and work, like have the same ideas for Mazur and the journey. And, um,
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, it basically turned out, yeah, we do have, and so we decided to, um, intense the work together into like, um, I don't know how you call it in English, like it's provision time, probably, that we're basically.
00:14:53
Speaker
two months where I was then working like just on a voluntary basis to get the company to know. And it helped me actually also to make my decision because I mean, I so far told you that I applied, but also afterwards to really become a co-founder, I bought myself shares. And I mean, taking a loan and buying shares from a company in this stage is kind of risky. So it was very important for me to
00:15:23
Speaker
not only get to know her and then say, okay, here's my money, take my money. I don't know who you would take it. But you need to understand the financials, whereas she had what's the real thing about it. So it was like both sided to get more security. I mean, it's hard to say security in this kind of field, but that was basically the process.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah that's really interesting as well because I think you know when you do found a company and with someone else it is somewhat like a marriage right you have to make sure you're both the same page you're both gonna not work the same because I think opposites do attract in all aspects of relationships but yeah I guess the workshops you did really helped you both to see is this actually going to be a great fit or is it you know is it going to work long term or is it just like a little fling? Yes
00:16:11
Speaker
And for us, it was really important that everybody, that we basically complement each other. So she's responsible for everything that comes with creativity, marketing, branding, the product. And then I take over as soon as it comes to internal processes, structures, financials, HR, IT, for example, but also the tech know-how I'm usually managing.
00:16:36
Speaker
So we're complimenting Inch, but we're sharing like the same values and we're sharing like the same kind of humor and that's actually very important.
Benefits and Dynamics of Co-founding
00:16:48
Speaker
And that also allowed us both to be like quite free because we are like in the lead for several topics. We're not fighting the marketing strategy because she's the lead for marketing strategy. If she decides, I obviously have my feedback.
00:17:03
Speaker
But if she decides, then she can go into the same place for me if I want to change something within the communication and the company and that kind of stuff.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, no, totally. And you mentioned that you, of course, thought about it a lot before even applying, right? And also, I'm sure, John, your probation. So I'm guessing you probably had a few reservations about going for this. What were they? And I guess why, how did you kind of overcome the reservations that you may have had? Because I'm one of those people that will probably talk myself out of what you did. So I'm wondering how you managed to just go for it. Yeah, I mean, I didn't,
00:17:38
Speaker
Or, I mean, there are like so many reservations that you are having, but I was mainly focusing on there's like this chance right now. And if it fails, then I'm like young enough to start again. It's not going to like a huge problem for my career if I fail. And also, like taking the loan and buying myself on, I thought, okay, if that's not going to work out, then it's basically like a
00:18:08
Speaker
highly paid experience, but it's not compared if you study in the USA, for example, and you enter your studies and have like 200,000 of debts that you need to work off. So I always took like this example of, okay, compared to a US student, I'm like, very good level. And if a US student is able to pay back this huge loans, and then I will also be able to deal with the loan taking off.
00:18:37
Speaker
And so I basically were focusing on this idea and I was not looking on the negative things, but more on the positive things. Like what's kind of indicates that it's going good. Yeah. And yeah.
00:18:53
Speaker
And I guess weighing up the pros and cons, right? Because yes, there may be, there's going to be cons and negatives for everything, but if the pros do outweigh it and it does do amazing, you know, look how great it could actually be. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess what's it like being a, you know, being a co-founder or having a co-founder, what's the biggest challenges or what's kind of the biggest benefit of doing it with two people, right? How have you found that part?
00:19:16
Speaker
Oh, yes, I did because I mean, what did fit me into the automotive industry were that I was like a single fighter myself my entire life. So I was basically this kind of kid in the school that was doing all the work, did it myself, not really a group player. So that's me. And when I met Stella, it changed because what I learned were that we were much, much more stronger together.
00:19:45
Speaker
And that was an experience that I never made in my life before. So basically the work with my co-founder Stella really made me turn into a team player because we are so strong together because she has different ideas. I have different ideas. And she's basically the one who has like a thousand ideas. She comes every day. She's like, okay, let's do this. And I'm like, not this kind of guy. So I'm always saying, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. And at some point I'm saying, yeah, yeah, that sounds great. And then it works.
00:20:14
Speaker
that's like the secret sauce of us that she's always giving in like crazy ideas and at probably one percent I'm saying okay let's do it and it works out and I think that's like that's really really nice and also what we experience is that during the years of being a co-founder you definitely have your ups and downs I mean
00:20:35
Speaker
It's like a very emotional topic. Sometimes something happened or you get like bad feedback. It then still touches you, for example. And what we experienced is that usually never two people are affected the same. So if I'm having like a bad day, it's not very realistic that Zella has like on the same degree, the bad day. So usually one of us is like above. And so this person is able to really help the other person to overcome it.
00:21:05
Speaker
So whenever someone is like, yeah, feeling bad, then the other one can cheer up. And also if it's like, if you're too cheered up, then you're losing like the ground. So the other person can like pull you down and level it. So we're taking care of each other that we are like on a very healthy level to create growth.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's the main benefit, right? Because like you said, right, there's never, or hopefully there's never going to be time that you're both having a terrible day. There's going to be at least one time where one person's okay, one person is absolutely amazing. And I guess that's the real benefit, right? It's not that the business will suffer when you're both down, because there's not going to be a time where that's going to be the case. Exactly. And honestly, and I never expected me saying something like that, but I don't see any negative aspects of having a co
Funding Strategies: Bootstrapping to Seeking Investment
00:21:56
Speaker
-founder. And I would highly, highly, highly recommend finding someone
00:22:00
Speaker
that is with you in this kind of journey, because there are so many experiences that nobody of your friend's own and network can share. Nobody knows this feeling. Nobody is really responsible for employees in this kind of degree. Because for example, if a financing round fails, then you have to deal with insolvency, but also, I think that was pronounced wrong. It doesn't matter, insolvency, but also
00:22:27
Speaker
Um, firing like the entire team and losing the, like the foundation of your work. So that's like some kind of stress. Usually nobody has, even if they are like managing people in their companies, they have to risk their own financial, um, wealth, but also like they do, they have nothing to lose besides losing their job and finding a new one, which is like very good compared to if you have like a huge amount of loans.
00:22:56
Speaker
you will have to maybe be suited and that kind of stuff. Yeah, no, definitely, definitely. I'm keen to kind of go into the finances, of course, not too much on the details, but I know that when we spoke last time, you said that you'd bootstrap Mertur, which, you know, is in control. How was this and kind of, yeah, taught me through the process of that and how did you find actually like using your physical own money for that? Yes. So as mentioned, we took, I took a loan and Sarah herself as well.
00:23:25
Speaker
to give all our private money into the company. And so we decided to bootstrap first and we would strip the company for over two and a half years. And during the time, for example, we never paid each other any kind of salary. So basically what we did were whenever we had like money left, we decided to onboard a new team member, like a intern, for example, or a working student or like a, um, um,
00:23:55
Speaker
Temporal stuff, for example. And what also was part of that was that we started our journey as D2C brand for personalized leatherwear. And after two and a half years of bootstrapping, we said, okay, now we have like this kind of data amount to analyze. And what we found out where that basically 70, almost 80% of our customers were buying our products as a gift.
00:24:21
Speaker
And so we saw, okay, then it probably doesn't really make sense to stick as a brand, but rather open up our established brand, sharing the same values to a marketplace for gifts. And so we decided to go to the next level. And when we decided to think bigger, let's say that and evolve into a marketplace, we decided to also invite investors to push this growth.
00:24:48
Speaker
That was basically the time when we then started our first financing round. And first of all, we onboarded business angels, and then we found institutional investors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess from your side, why did you opt against raising funding in the very early stages, in the very beginning? Did you, I mean, do you regret doing it, not doing any sooner? Yeah. Why did you go down the bootstrap route? Yes. I mean, starting with your second question first.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yes, I wish we would have done this sooner. A lot. That would have saved us so much long learnings. I'm still proud that we're having them. And I think right now it's like a huge benefit that we have them. So I don't regret anything, but I would have done it sooner. And why we didn't initially were that we basically were not enough in this setup scene, I would say. So, I mean,
00:25:45
Speaker
coming from this very established financing world, my perspective was mainly focusing on growing through our own cash flow at the same time as taking loans from banks. So we really had to slowly get into the VCs because back then we had like, it's like if you Google, oh, what are the financing options for startups? And you obviously find also investors, but
00:26:14
Speaker
if you don't know this kind of part and you know all the other parts, then it's much more convenient to go with the parts that you know. And so we were focusing a lot on extending our liquidity, growing through our cash flow, trying to negotiate our payment terms, for example. And we were really looking on every cent and trying to get the most out of it. And I think that is actually
00:26:42
Speaker
attribution that's like very strong of us that we know how to do this, but it also takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of speed, which you need at the beginning. And that's the reasons why I would say, okay, it might have been better to get investors on board earlier. And back then we really had to get or earn every kind of learning ourselves. I mean, at some point you're always doing things the first time, like shipping something without out of the EU, for example.
00:27:13
Speaker
And right now it's just a call away. I just need to call one of our investors. He probably knows someone or has done this with the other portfolio companies and then it's going to be solved. So it's a matter of a day. And back then it sometimes took like a week or so to figure something out and wait until feedback. So it's definitely like a booster to have an investor on board and not only financially.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And what's been the main benefit since having invested on board? And I guess, yeah, why do you kind of like it? Why do you like it now? But yeah, what's been the main benefit and also what's changed? Like what's really changed for you? Yes. I mean, the real benefit is that it allows you to give speed. Yeah. And you have much more rooms for learnings and this kind of learnings allows you to create better products. My assumption, at least in a short timeframe, you could probably get the same results.
00:28:08
Speaker
on a long, long vision if you bootstrap it, but it takes much, much longer. And that's basically the main benefit. I mean, having like speed, but also the network that comes with it, that is definitely that's very important. And what has changed, there are several things. Obviously the kind of vision that you are having is also shaping together with the investors because obviously investors are not giving money as a bank to share like this
00:28:38
Speaker
Hey, you can do like your own business and it's going to be like a small, small sized cute business in the heart of Berlin. Um, but actually that was never like the approach that we were going for. So that were fine for us, but we, um, are also considering like, what kind of needs are investors having? Why are they investing? What kind of return do they want to have when we get there? So that is actually a thought that after having investors on board was implemented also in our view.
00:29:07
Speaker
And actually I like it because the main message is go big. That extra push to, of course, not to just please the investors and get them a return, but of course, the better they do, the better you do, because of course you benefit from that as well.
Challenges Women Face in Entrepreneurship
00:29:21
Speaker
Exactly. And you really get encouraged to think bigger. And that's something, I mean, I think being careful, but many women are like always going too low with their visions and saying, okay, no, that's going to be enough or no, let's get there and then look from there.
00:29:37
Speaker
No, like with investors on board, it's like, go big or go home. And so we really started to become bullish about our idea and it always gives like such a great energy and such a great motivation because it's like, back then we were like, okay, we want to become like the number one in Germany for personalized either way, which is like very small niche. And now we're like, okay, let's become like the number one in Europe for the entire gifting process. Yeah. Like a totally different approach.
00:30:07
Speaker
with the huge market and it's so much more fun. So yeah, yeah. And you mentioned that, you know, not all women, but in some cases, right, women do kind of shy away from that kind of bigger picture or the bigger goal, they kind of aim small. And I think that is the kind of whole point of entrepreneurship, right? You aim big, you want to kind of not make as much money, but that's why people go into this. So why do you think women, you know, do shy away from aiming big and kind of entrepreneurship as a whole? Yes.
00:30:36
Speaker
I mean, I think, I think that it's basically several aspects. One thing definitely is that you don't have like this kind of huge role models in this scene. We have like some specific ones, but like not as much, not like as implemented and deeply rooted as May. I mean, for example, talking about Elon Musk or Zuckerberg and that kind of names that's, or the founder of Microsoft and that kind of stuff. It's always May. So you're basically used to it.
00:31:06
Speaker
It's like not part of me. That's not part of your vision. It's not part of a story and that needs to change. And I think the next thing about it is that like all this kind of having like a family as well, combining it with like a startup definitely also is challenging. So if you plan a family, then you definitely need to cut down several needs. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker
That's, I mean, looking on the convenience decision that you need to do. And for example, I personally decided not to create a family, even though I'm getting married to my future husband, which I'm very happy about. I decided to not get a family because I've for myself said, okay, it's like, I never could be enough for both. Because I mean, it's not a secret, you do not work 40 hours as a founder.
00:32:06
Speaker
I'm like so far away from those kind of 40 hours that even if I would do part-time, then I maybe would come up with 40 hours, which probably doesn't help a child. That's like something. And last but not least, and I think that's actually one of the most important things that the access to funding, especially through VCs is like super limited. And we do not have many female-founded
00:32:35
Speaker
VC funded startups. If you see the statistics, at least for Germany and the dark region, only 1% of the VC funds goes into female funders, 1%. That's basically nothing. Talking about larger tickets, not 10,000, but up, I think 500K, something like that.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think the topic of motherhood and funding are the most prominent reasons, I think, why many women do not shy away. I mean, the topic of motherhood, I also couldn't agree more. I mean, I'm not a founder myself and I probably work 40 hours, probably more.
00:33:18
Speaker
And I think how the hell am I meant to also be a mother and also be a good mother? How do you get home and you look after the kids and make dinner? Something has to give and that decision is hard, right? So yeah. I think actually, I mean, I've seen many, many examples where it turns out very good and it is possible.
00:33:41
Speaker
Um, so I definitely encourage everyone, also mothers to found, but what you definitely need is a totally different kind of security net. So for example, definitely also needs to step back and you need to have like thousand plan ABTC, whatever to have things covered because there are moments where it like really burns within your company, but also at home and you cannot be firefighter on two kinds of locations. So.
00:34:11
Speaker
Um, that's like, um, one challenge and it's, it's solvable, but you, it takes a lot of work. And I think that is one of the reasons why many, um, women are saying, okay, well, then I won't do it.
Overcoming Gender Bias and the Need for Diverse Investors
00:34:27
Speaker
Which is sad because you can do it, but it definitely takes a lot of effort and organization. And, um, I mean, one goal is to, um, create a company.
00:34:40
Speaker
as soon as possible that is stable enough to give you the freedom that actually helps you being a mother. Because that's actually a huge con of founding your own company is that you can give yourself freedoms and your room that you wouldn't get in a corporate. Like, for example, just deciding to spontaneously reschedule everything and take off the morning.
00:35:08
Speaker
or say, okay, I'm going to work from wherever because I've got my kid with me or taking the kid with you and taking the work that are like all options that you can give yourself being a founder. And so it has like a lot of positive aspects as well, but you.
00:35:25
Speaker
100%, right? That's one of the main kind of positives, right? You have so much flexibility. So you can do everything. You can be a mother and you can say, hey, I'm going to take the kid to school, whatever. But equally, that can be quite tricky. And the financial side as well is equally as important because you still want to provide for your family. And for many, it may not be the kind of option that they have a partner that can support the family
00:35:50
Speaker
And they can kind of then do what they need to do for the company. So yeah, that side is fun. But then I guess on the other side, the funding side, like 1% of VC funding goes to females. Like that means, I'm not a mathematician, but 99% of funding goes to male founders. And that in itself is like shocking that all of that funding goes to male founders. Yes. I mean, we have like, I don't know, I have the percentage, I think it's like 15% going in diverse teams and the risk goes to male founders just to have like the numbers, right?
00:36:20
Speaker
I mean, it's still a lot. And I mean, it comes from basically that many investors are also male themselves. And they usually invest into products that are more easy for them to understand. I mean, one, one example that I just heard in my, in my startup network, it's, I mean, it's kind of sad, but also fun. As we had a female founded company that were producing, um,
00:36:46
Speaker
and products for the period. And so they pitched this kind of product to the investors and they said, okay, how many people are using?
00:36:57
Speaker
something. And we're like, maybe half of the population that we're having, but no worries. The market is not going to be big enough. Yeah, there's no market for that. There's no market for that. I'm sorry. That's a problem nobody has. Nobody knows, period. What's that? And I mean, that's just a very good example that makes it so easy, accessible. What's the main problem? I mean,
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, so we definitely need to work on having more diverse investors with more perspectives. And I think it's slowly getting better. It's slowly looking into the numbers. You can see that it's slightly increasing, but it's like so super slow.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah. And you're right. It does take changes like that. It does take having more female investors. It does take having more female VCs and more females at the table when those decisions are made, because then it's not, you won't have those questions like, oh, how many customers do you think you'll have with that product? Like that is such, like it's funny to look back at that now, but you're now, I'm not thinking like, are you blind to the fact that, you know, there's half the population that can then use that product? Like that, that in itself is crazy. Yeah. And I mean, there might be reasons why,
00:38:16
Speaker
other reasons why they wouldn't invest. That's totally fine. But just like this kind of questions shows that sometimes they are not able to lose their own perspective. And obviously, I'm happy for them that they don't need to have period things. So lucky for them, but that's just not realistic. And
00:38:34
Speaker
I mean, we also had like with gifting, we also had like a very female topic, right? Because gifting is something females care about and many men are like, okay, I don't care. I just want to have it solved. Or according like the girlfriend, hey, can you help me with a gift? And we also had like many feedbacks at the beginning, like, okay, gifting, why is that important? Who's going to be there? Like, they're like,
00:39:03
Speaker
questions were like, okay, basically you give the occasion. Okay. And that has changed during the time. And I think that's just something, um, that's not only because in the startup scene, but in general that you have like, we need more diversity. That's more diversity in different fields. And then it's going to be more easier having funding, but also, um, yeah.
00:39:32
Speaker
being rewarded for your expertise. I mean, for example, we had one investor that would only like to invest if we would onboard a male co-founder. And we were like,
00:39:50
Speaker
Okay. Is this kind of, kind of sort of criteria when you onboard mail startups, do they always need to get a female co-founder? If I look through your portfolio, I don't see that. And that's like, I mean, we're open.
00:40:07
Speaker
for every kind of gender or whatever, but we wouldn't choose a co-founder specifically because it's a male site. It's stupid. That's crazy. And I guess from your side, of course, you've been through the experience yourself, you're a female founder, you've been through the funding, you've been through so much of that kind of founding journey. What advice would you give to other women who are maybe interested in founding their own company, but they're just not too sure where to start?
00:40:32
Speaker
What would that, if you wish, if you kind of look back and think, I wish someone would have told me this, what would that be? I mean, there will never ever be like the perfect timing to start your own company. So that's basically why I would say don't wait, just do it and solve the problems along the process. I mean,
00:40:56
Speaker
women and also myself tend to be like very perfectionism. So trying to always have everything cleared and have a plan, everything's organized and that won't work in a startup environment. At least not if you have like 10 plans because everything changes so fast. And I quickly learned that it's so much better to being out with like 80% solution and then developing from that with a customer together and finding a new way rather than starting with a
00:41:26
Speaker
95, 400% solution, which is probably overthought and also far away from the extra customer needs. And we started, and that's like the best example, we started as a D2C brand for personalized leatherwear, involved into a marketplace, involved into a B2B SaaS solution that automizes the entire gifting process for corporates.
00:41:51
Speaker
And you can see that a huge involvement. And that's just something we have achieved because we were like very open and flexible and just open for the journey and didn't stack too much on the product. And if there's something you want to do and you're just not sharing how to start, then start with one thing, building your own network. That's like so super important. And there's like, no, you do not need to wait for anything. You just can go to a startup event, connect with other founders.
00:42:21
Speaker
um, go into groups, go into LinkedIn groups, um, join an accelerator program. I mean, that's like things that are like really low hanging fruits and a network it's going to be essential if you really want to grow your company. So start building it and you might get hooked from the energy and then. Yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
I guess the networking thing is so important, right? Cause that's where you could meet your co-founder. Like those, those are where your ideas may, may kind of come to light. So yeah, I could definitely, and also just do it right. I think we think about it too much. I'm one of those people. Just go for it. And I mean, you can see it with Stella. She's, she founded Mezzo during his studies all by herself because she wouldn't find the perfect co-founder. And she said, okay, I won't wait until I get someone I would just start and be open to.
00:43:13
Speaker
join and invite someone in. And there really is no reason not starting today. There's no reason. Just do it and be open to change and to adjust and then it's going to work out. Yeah. I mean, like anything, there's never a good time for anything. It just happens sometimes. It just happens and it's so much fun. So I personally really love it so much. There are like definitely hard times, but they are also rewarded big times.
00:43:42
Speaker
And just having like this environment where you're building so much, it really gives you a lot of things back. And what motivates me most is we are spending like the most time of our life at work and being able as a founder to really create the structure and work atmosphere and work culture for my team members.
00:44:09
Speaker
feels so super empowering for myself. It's also my way to contribute to the society because I can really have an impact on people, but also on the environment, on the business in Germany. So you really can have impact.
00:44:29
Speaker
Wow wow honestly and like I said I think it's been such a great I mean I'm sitting here learning from you Lisa so honestly thank you so much for for your time and and for your effort and for sharing your insights I'm sure everyone will love this episode. Thank you for having me it's such a fun.