Founding females are continuing to make advances in the startup scene. Even though the numbers of female entrepreneurs have been rising in recent years, still only 3% of tech startups worldwide have been founded by women. To not only promote and heighten visibility, but also the interaction and networking of female entrepreneurs, the latest foundress breakfast, #Frauen_gruenden, given by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) took place this year at CeBIT 2016. On Wednesday 16.03.2016, Brigitte Zypries, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, and Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, Germany’s Digital Ambassador to the European Commission, extended invitations to the Networking Lounge in Hall 11 to discuss entrepreneurial growth.
Besides Messrs. Zypries and Joost, also invited were Andera Gadeib, entrepreneur and executive at the Federal Association of IT-SMEs, Dr. Ingrid Hengster, Executive Board Member at KfW Banking Group, the t3n editor Lea Weitekamp and our founder Carina Röllig. Moderation of the podium talk was provided by Cornelia Klaus from Gründerinnen Consult/ hannoverimpuls. During the talk in Hanover, the main topics of discussion were about providing future growth opportunities for women, about challenges that founders need to meet in order to grow further entrepreneurially and about potential support programs for assisting startups by women and their growth as an enterprise.
On one point, however, all those present were united. More women power is needed across the entire German founder spectrum, especially in the areas of mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology. That a startup in the IT sector can be worthwhile was made clear by Carina in particular during her presentation, “Business Growth. From 3 to 40 in Three Years”. Carina, after all, was invited to the foundress breakfast not only because she, together with her founding team of Dr. Hanna Köpcke and Sabine Maßmann, represents a peculiarity in the IT sector. She was also present because Webdata Solutions/blackbee, according to EY / Gründerszene, HORIZONT, Deutsche Startups and CB Insights, is among the fastest growing and most interesting startups in Germany.