PWN Rome's Female Founders Share Their Knowledge

PWN Rome recently hosted a round table event that featured a group of female founders who shared their powerful stories with a view to supporting would be entrepreneurs. 

On 28th November at the renowned Pick Center in Rome's Eur district, three Start-up owners, a Business Angel and a pre-seed Accelerator shared their personal and professional experience with PWN Rome members and friends during the “Female Founder Roundtable. How to get ahead in Entrepreneurship".

In partnership with the Founder of pre-seed accelerator, Institute of Rome the objective of the session was to explore the female startup ecosystem. 

Over the last few years, the number of startups founded by women has been on the rise, and in 2017 it passed the one million mark.  Italy ranks 2nd in Europe for the number of female founders. Women are not only founders - demonstrating extraordinary entrepreneurial acumen and trust in business ideas - they are also growing in the Business Angels’ role. Currently 11% of Italian Business Angels are women.

Giulia Rossi from Women & Technologies highlighted the importance of having a sparring partner that could support start ups in transforming an idea in a business plan.

 Virginia Tosti - Head of Growth Start2impact - insisted on the importance of seeking advice and following it, even though it might mean refining the original business idea to be more appealing to the market. 

Anna Benini – Founder of Liana and PWN Rome Board President – gave insights on the fact that creating and running a start up is a tough business where you with experience many ups and downs. Ultimately, she says, the emotional roller-coaster is eventually worth it.

The Business Angels point of view was represented by Carolina Gianardi – Business Angel & Counselor Italian Angel for Growth (IAG) and former PWN Rome President. From her experience, women are more skilled but are usually less bolder and therefore looks less interesting to the eye of investors. Flexibility, ability to listen to the investor’s advice and determination are key factors to succeed. 

“A very inspiring and interesting event” the overall comment of the attendants…with a special follow-up, in line with our motto “Learn, Share, Connect”: PWN Rome gave the possibility to 2 PWN Rome members to win a scholarship with the Founder Institute of Rome to attend its pre-seed intensive program. 

Want to find out more about PWN Rome, get in touch today. 

Author: Maria Alessandra Cavestro, PWN Rome
Editor: Rebecca Fountain, Head of Marketing and Communications, PWN Global
Date: January 2019