Notes from More Women in Tech meetup #cphftw

notes.txt

Sponsors
Rainmaking Loft 
- how do we look at startups, not only funding and practical stuff
- looking at diversity as a metric when deciding who can stay at the loft

IBM
- contributing in a wide capacity
- Women in Tech 51% overall, 26% in IT
- 3% tech companies are funded by women, 6.5 % have female ceo, venture backed 
- 12% of CS degrees, in the 80s same fig was 37%, 2012 18%
- Runs a startup programme, how to grow? can we match w bus partners, help from experts, tech, take out cost, ibm.biz/cloudstartup
- ability to integrate with analytics engine, create selling points??
- what's the catch? apprarently none, 21 oct, business connect, enterprise clients

Louise Ferslev, @lferslev
- MyMonii
- For families, 7-16 yrs old, pocket money app
- manage kids' allowances and pocket money
- exp for kids to earn money, and save money, virtual kids bank
- put on debit card, getting money out of the account
- mobile pay / partnering 
- In beta, with 100 families, 10 of them using them and have replaced existing solutions, getting feedback from investors

Looking for a third partner

You don't need supernatural powers to start a company. Patience. Courage to reach out those who can help you with the things you are not as comfortable with. Remember low periods, remember fun times. 
Surround yourself with mentors. 

Credit or debit card that parents could set a limit on. Feedback. Developed over time. The debit is an addon. No idea where it is going to end up. 

You learn more from beta testing. Don't necessarily go for your own feeling / vision. Realised it after release. Contacted finance groups, did that before I even started building something, wasted so much time. Talked to all economy exports. Had nothing but PP. 

Told investor "This is a very good idea if you give me $3m." Don't do that. 

Start early, don't wait a year. 

Most confusing thing, takes a lot of patience to stay focused. You have a vision that you want to reach. Focusing only on the end result it resulted in crap. Have to focus on all the intermediate steps. Golf metaphore. Enjoy every single step. 

Comment: Struggle with perfection

Q: 3m, how did you finance frontend. A: Put in 30k self. Angel w 60k, another partner w 60k. Invest smaller amounts for starters. 

Q: Crowdfunding? A: Thought about it, but went with easy option. 

Q: Idea developed, sounds radically different now, how did you get to this point? A: Many several steps, all the people I've talked to have contributed, feedback all the time. Talked to actual customers. Process. 

Q: How do you monetize? A: Virtual bank is for free, adding services may be monetized, also monetize on tracking data, age/gender/spending, ewallet w/ gift cards

Gulnaz, easysize, @gkhusainova
"Find my size", correlate with sizes from other brands
data driven algorithm + personal style, 
fits body and style
help stores minimise returns
300k+ unique users
500+ brands
Startupbootcamp
2yrs in cph
3rd company

Over-hyped SV companies
Chilling, hanging out with
24/7 work, most thoughts are about your company, spending all your energy thinking about working, startup life
No stability, "How does investors work"
Emotional roller-coaster, "OMG Everything is AWESOME" to "OMG Everything is falling apart" 
Stressful, not really cool to talk about stress, "Irrespective of who you talk to, everyone says it's going great", keeping everyone up to date, this is how it works, showing up in the office, 
You might fail. More likely in the beginning. 
YouReserve "Wasted someone's money", no matter what we think about failing, emotionally it is super hard, took a long time to get back on track. Failing is cool, but not when you're there.
"Feeling lost in offline shopping", Russian post doesn't work that well, tool w/o having to return things, buying things while at the office, fix fashion e-commerce
Be a better version of yourself, being a ceo is a lot of things, salary to toilet paper, improving skills you didn't think you had
Thinking about making people around me happy

Make a difference, 60% women, I can influence this
WiT = diversity, having different people, different background, foreigners (if we cannot solve this we wont be able to solve the broader problem)
3% female founders in denmark
Role models, getting access to role models
Sharing experiences
"Really great idea, but where is the tech guy" Investor reply
Connected with Sofia

Digital marketing, building team
"Decrease competition"

Q: Getting a realistic story, if you don't enjoy it, don't do it. 

Q: Landing investor? A: 2 related to Startupbootcamp. Showing the traction after startupbootcamp. "Girlfriend challenge" 

Q: Apps targeting men

Camilla, @camillaley
Queue-It.com
Placing virtual queue
There is no super natural power 
Countries, Industries, Sizes
Website should be available at all times, but that is not the reality
650m+ users, all continents, ops from dk, mainly export
dk is great test market
Important for us to prove that we can keep HQ in DK, on the side working with politicians to influence

International marketing model, built in marketing (What is this?), takes you to landing page, free trial, industry trade shows (ticketing, retailer), 

Giving up career and doing a startup? Corp vs Own. Life choice, you can go back and forth. Corp career queens were deeply concerned (at height of fin crisis). Maybe it was a bad idea. 

Loose/give up personal financial stability. Sacrifice is not necessarily permanent. Started in late 30s. Changing lifestyle.

From having 30 employees to having to do everything on your own. Wake-up call. Being accustomed to having a team around you changes when you're the jack of all trades. 

Some of the reasons why being an entrepreneur rocks: Self determination, success, financial gain, knowledge, freedom, energy, innovation, positive attention, flexibility, job satisfaction, results, network, dynamics, influence, make a difference. 

Downing Street 10 w/ Ada Lovelace, International Women's Day, moving Europe forward with WiT

People and women are coming together to support each other. Bring innovation forward. Diverse companies. 

Network for (young) women founders. Should be open to anyone who is interested. Including your employees. Next generation of founders are going to come from startups that exists today. 

"You're not going to stay in my company forever anyway, and that's OK!"

@queueit

Q: How do you manage stress balanced with family? A: It's no diff than exec career job. Conscious about personal time (ironing, cleaning, etc, paying others to do it) It's OK to shovel things around. Don't waste time on meaningless tasks. 

Q: Investors' reactions to being a women and having kids? A: Had two cofounders, sole founders more of an issue, not PK to talk about. 

Q: Experience raising money when pregnant? A: Always a concern for an investor, irrespective of gender. Talk about it, don't silence it. Present a plan for how you think you will handle it. /// this is a question women get, Europe behind comp to S. America

Q: Did you feel intimidated by a male dominated world? A: Worked in the shipping industry before. Turn it into an advantage. They are going to notice me and include me in their events. For better or for worse, you get a seat at the table. "You may be thinking about it more than the guys are." 

/// Turns into open discussion

Worries about invitations. checking up with others. All in your head (??). 

Leaving if you feel uncomfortable.

Travel, pitching in other cultures, what's appropriate and not. 

Q: What do you think men would say? 

Keep going.
Take more risk, be bold, think bigger.
Helped my bf with some code, he was surprised. There's a lot happening. 

Q: Activities in #cphftw?
Multi-modal, all organisations taking on this problem
Recognize the 25% companies owned by women in DK
Ambassadors at e.g., DTU, ITU, etc. 
Interest groups on specific topics
What are others doing in this room? "I need help with this."
Becoming more vocal 
Giving opportunities to each other, "get a foot in the door", strengths
Love to see online profiles, quick exchange
First women programming club at ITU
Supporting graduates, existing forums?
Access to developers and designers / alt. outsourcing mvp to e.g., Kiev 
LinkedIn group

On-going task
Mapping challenges and needs

"You guys"

Business first.

Existing groups: femaleTechies/Ruby groups