The start-up center of the Landshut University of Applied Sciences hosted an event for young women on 15.06.23 in the café of the LINK Start-up Center Landshut. The aim of the event was to sensitize female students to start-ups and to give them the courage to start their own business. The incubator with Eva Rohrmüller (project management) and Christina Steckermeier (organization) were pleased about the lively participation of the participants in the exchange following the presentations of the two invited female founders from Landshut.
Encouraging women to start up
It is a well-known fact that men found companies more often than women. The start-up center of the Landshut University of Applied Sciences also experiences this in its daily work. But the importance of why women should found more often or take on decisive leadership roles in companies is seen by the incubator not least in the greater success of gender-mixed teams. "Men and women often have a different perspective on certain things. It's the mix that makes the difference," says Christina Steckermeier. That's why women should be encouraged to take the step into their own business and not leave the field exclusively to men. The reasons for this are very diverse and certainly not easy or quick to solve. Women, however, simply lack the courage to start up. With the format "Fempreneur Talks", the incubator wants to offer women a platform to freely ask all questions on the topic of founding.
Women founders share their knowledge and experience
Melanie Wachter, who described her personal path to her children's event agency Entertainment for Kids, first encouraged and whetted the appetite for founding a company. "Founding a company and being self-employed fascinated me for a long time," she reported. In search of self-fulfillment, she said, she took the plunge into self-employment as a mother of two after successful years in a variety of employed circumstances. Although the start was not easy due to Corona and other challenges, she said she always believed in herself and remained motivated. "It was like an entrepreneurial fire," which was ignited in her and continues to this day. She received the greatest appreciation just three years after starting the company by winning an award at the Wedding Award 2021. This means that the company is now one of the best service providers in the German wedding industry. Meanwhile, it receives numerous inquiries and orders from customers all over Germany.
Bianca Kujath, presented her start-up RECREWT GmbH afterwards. Together with her sister, she had developed the idea for a matching app for trainees and training companies. During the further founding process, the two sisters realized that permanent professional support was needed in the team for the app development. Two brothers have since joined the team. "The need for better "matching" on both the company and trainee side is great," says Bianca Kujath. The company works closely with schools to offer more efficient trainee recruiting in their region for young people and companies. Bianca Kujath emphasized the importance of working together as a team, where everyone can contribute their personal strengths but also have their creative freedom: "The compatibility is greater than you often think. We complement each other well, but always have a common goal in mind."
Personal exchange with female founders possible
Following the entrepreneurial impulses, a discussion took place in which questions were asked from the audience. Exemplary for this were questions like: "Are you already able to make a living from it?", "Have you already hired employees?", "At what point did you start making profits?", "How did you manage the financing?" and "What were your biggest challenges?".
The lively interest encourages the incubator team to continue promoting women's empowerment at the local campus and its startup culture.
Photos: Landshut University
