My name is Felicia Terrell. I am the event marketing manager at Founder Institute and Founder Institute is the world's largest pres start up accelerator. Having helped launch over 4000 companies in 9100 and 90 cities worldwide. It would be very upset if I said 90 cities.Uh But we're also a longtime partner with the Woman Second Network. Um And if you're interested in learning more about the Founder Institute, you can and learn more at F i.co forward slash enrolling and to learn more about the woman tech network, which I'm sure many of you are already familiar with. Please visit women at tech.net. So again, thanks everyone for joining us today. And again, please let us know where you are joining it from in the audience today. Um If you are, if especially if there are any men as well joining us today, it's not just for women. This panel is open to all genders um because we have a great dis discussion set up for you today. Um And as you can see on today's panel, we're gonna have an exceptional um group of women today who are very experienced in tech. They're all from around the world and they will share some of their best practices um and tips to avoid for breaking into the world of tech as a female founder. So thanks for everyone for joining us today.

And again, our um amazing producer V you will be here in the background to help queue up any questions that um anyone may have in the chat and just a quick housekeeping, we're gonna have um just brief introductions um a quick panel discussion and uh if we have enough time, we'll have some open audience Q and A questions.

So again, please uh let me start just right away and introduce you to our first speaker today. Her name is Marjana Perkovic and Maja Marjana is a serial tech entrepreneur, uh business mentor in both public and private sectors and she's been a serial entrepreneur. She's led, she's led her to becoming a member of Forbes Business Council where she also rights for Forbes. Additionally, she's the Benelux managing director of Founder Institute and she's currently the CEO of Look styler. So you definitely have to check that out. Uh Look in the chat.

We'll we'll leave um links to her company in the chat and looks styler is a global marketplace for fashion tourism that connects international luxury shopper, shoppers and travel partners from around the world. So, Marjana, did you have anything else you wanted to share if, if I missed anything?

Yeah. Hi. Every everyone so nice. To see you. Um No, I think you covered everything. So happy to be here.

Awesome, awesome, so happy to have you guys. Uh Ladies, I keep saying guys. Um and then up next, we have uh speaker Christina Mellon. Christina is the co-founder and Ceo of Psych Pion, a forward thinking platform with a suite of innovative solutions to simplify the journey when addressing major life events. Christina is also very passionate about revolutionizing the realm of employee well being, which is a great mission.

Um Her ambition is to advance the scope of solutions to address employee well-being via well packaged products that are tailored to the masses so that employers can invest in the life cycles of their employees in a way that's never been done before. So Christina that I capture that pretty well. Um

Yeah, you got it spot on that. You're well done. Thank you.

And again, last but definitely not least is our speaker for today Rachel Dowling. Rachel is the founder of Equaliser. It's a platform that uses machine learning and A I to provide more effective and inclusive virtual meetings. So this is very excellent since COVID. Um and she's also a strategic start-up leader in B to B and B to C technologies with 12 plus 12 plus years in software product and people management. Her decorated career also includes being at Stanford University and Oxford of Oxford Alum and she's also a founder institute mentor of 2020 2020 21. And uh she's also a believer in diversity, equity and inclusion and she speaks regular regularly on these topics uh on tech for good.

So Rachel, did I miss anything there as well?

No, thank you. Very kind introduction.

Uh You, you ladies are amazing. So again, this is the chief in tech conference because these women are exceptional, um have decorated careers and high education as well. I was very impressed as well when I was researching you ladies in your background. So again, I'm very honored to be here, but again, I know we're running a little short on time. So I just wanna jump right into our first topic for today. Um And just wanted to highlight so we can kind of start on a positive note is that my main observation is that we as, as women have come a long way, you know, for sure in the past, you know, we weren't able to work, you know, and so World World One, right, when we were kind of forced into the workforce because the men had to go to war.

Um And then, you know, we weren't able to get an education even though we were allowed to work. Um We weren't allowed to vote in the past and present day. We have women like yourselves who are CEO S of top companies. We have women who are prime prime ministers as well as we have our first vice president who's a woman in the United States. Uh One day, we'll have a female president maybe one day. But you know, if there's still work to do, we still have a lot of work to do. Um especially in certain industries like tech where women are still um un underrepresented. So the first topic today I wanted to highlight, you know why the tech industry needs more women and the value that we bring. But I wanted to start with some quick statistics. Um A first study by Lehman Brothers C Center for Women in Business found that gender balanced teams are more creative and more likely to think outside the box and share knowledge. A similar study also found that teams with women were better at staying on schedule and had lower project costs. Also, over 20% of engineering graduates are women, but nearly 40% who are engineering degrees, quit the profession or never enter the field.

And the reasons that they noted were that it was poor workplace environments, mistreatment by male colleagues and managers. So my first question to the panel is how do we fight these statistics to attract more top women in tech? And specifically, do you have any tips and insights that you can share any best practices that you're already implementing at your companies? And I'll, I'll start with you Christina on that.

Um I get involved in pretty much everything. So I'm I'm involved in in this network. I'm in the women in incentive network. I'm in the women in property tech network. So I'm all about getting involved in stuff and really putting yourself out there. Um PWC did some research um and they, they highlighted that there's a gender gap in technology and that starts at, at school age. So um particularly at a level age in, in the UK, which is, you know, the round of the ages of 16 to 18. So for me, it starts really, really young and that's where we really need to start reinforcing the value of women getting involved in technology. Really. So, yeah, but for me, um in terms of technology, I was, I was always into computer games from a very, very young age. So I kind of really liked the realm of technology from that perspective. And then I started to learn about fintech and property technology and then, yeah, it, it started from there. Really? So.

Right. No, I totally agree. I think starting very young, I read some articles that said similar to the same tone that you're, you're stating is that you need to start like in grade school level instead of waiting to like we're grown adults to try and incorporate women into tech. Uh What about you, Rachel? Any, any insights or thoughts on that on the question as well?

Yeah. Um Well, from my experience, I think I, I found it really helpful. I mean, I went through the fi A program which is a community which is really supportive. So I think for any women who are interested in getting into tech, whether it's founding your own start up or just getting a job in technology, I think community is really important. So that could be a formal group, like something like women in tech or it could be informal as well. It could just be like some friends getting together for dinner and you talk about jobs you're applying to and um you know, salaries that you're trying to negotiate. Um pay equity is another issue that I think is super crucial and women shouldn't avoid. Um So, you know, compare notes, compare offers if you're looking at you, you know, have a job offer on the table. Um and you know, try to make sure that your initial entry point is is on par. Um but yeah, basically seek out friends and and your support network would be a little bit of advice. Yeah,

absolutely. Absolutely. And of course Marjana like love to hear your insights. Yeah,

I mean, do you, can you hear my echo? No, it sounds good. It sounds good. I can hear myself. I will lower the volume. So basically on what you said about uh women in tech, I think it's important to have mixed themes because uh just like that you can cover all the skills and I think women, we have particular skills like emotional intelligence and everything else that is important for building a successful start up.

So I think that's why it's important to include more women. And I would say about my advice on how to do that. I think it starts with women themselves being more confident. And then I would say the second layer is help among women, you know, building female communities. And the third layer is about attracting more men who would be supportive of women. And just yesterday, I was mentoring an architect, a female architect, a member like a minority group in California. And she was telling me that in architecture, uh it's mostly male architects.

If you look at the university, it's like 5050. And then when it comes to, you know, 20 years down the line, like top architects, it's all males, it's like um the, the female percentage drops down to 10%. And I told her it's the same in tech start ups and where do all these successful women go? I mean, successful or smart or like best students. Where are they? So I think this is something that we need to tackle. Like what happens to the 40% of the top female students? Where are they? I mean, what, what happens uh in this process? So I think this is something to address.

Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. Uh Same thing, I was wondering when I was reading the stats like, well, where did these women go if they didn't enter their field? Especially after investing. So much in tech and engineering, it's not like an easy field. Um But along the same lines, I kind of feel that one, like, I agree with Christina, like starting very early having school programs that incorporate business and tech very early on, it should be um you know, encouraged so that we can kind of address this, you know, and not have the same conversations 20 years from now.

Um And I also think that it's good to have like mentorship programs as well. I noticed that some companies don't really highlight their culture as much as they do their perks, you know, especially in tech, it's like, oh, you can bring your dog to work and you can, you know, skateboard at work. It's like, well, why not highlight like your diversity that you also have like a mentorship, mentorship program for women um by the women leaders at the company because that would make more women, I think apply and think that the organization is great. And then it would just, you know, naturally, I think organically kind of um grow into having more women and companies um globally. So II I just thought that was an interesting statistic to kind of start off with, to see, you know, the value that we do bring because we do, I think definitely need more women in tech. Um And just again, keeping with time, I want to kind of switch to transition into another topic. Uh is again, like similar similar themes like but unique challenges that women face as start up founders and how to overcome them.

So for instance, like I know becoming a founder, male or female, I know for you ladies is is no easy feat, right? Um But when it comes to building a company, I know women we face very unique and then you know, circumstances that are male kind of parts don't have to or they don't necessarily have to consider, for example, like starting a family, like a woman can't just walk away from her baby when she's carrying it for nine months where her husband can still kind of be, you know, the same.

Although he's not, you know, after the baby is born, it's a different situation but they don't have to sacrifice the nine months success to their career or whatever or for instance, like fundraising for your start up as a woman. I, I've noticed that women tend to get it, ask different questions than men do when they're fundraising. So can you share like any unique challenges that any of you had to navigate through your career as a founder and how you overcame them? Or alternately alternatively, if you had to make some ma major sacrifices in order to continue growing your start up? Um um Rachel, I'll start with you.

Cool. Um Yeah, I mean, on one hand, I think I feel somewhat fortunate. II I haven't directly experienced. I don't think some of the biases that are super prevalent um in fund, in terms of fundraising or in terms of um outright bias. But I think there may be implicit things at work. Um So for instance, I mean, I know women raise only 2% of venture capital um globally. So which is atrocious, I mean, just really mind blowing when you think about it. Um m my start up is still um at the precede stage. So we've raised um from angel investors so far. Um One of the really helpful ways that um I connected with some angel investors was in person through like personal networking and also through women angel investors. Um I'm, I wouldn't say that's a silver bullet for every everyone. But um it was great for me and um in particular finding, you know, women who wanted to support other women who were doing a start up. So, um a small piece of advice, um I haven't crossed the childhood or having a child a moment yet. Um I, I think it will be challenging. I'm kind of like mentally preparing for that. Um And I also think it's kind of something that you have to plan for your start up to be at a certain level of maturity um so that you can take a few months off.

Um So I think preparing and trying to have a team around you and co-founders who are supportive um can, can help

definitely. Um and great great answer. Um And Marjatta, any insights you like to share?

Yeah. Uh I think that basically, I see also a comment about what I said about women being confident. I do believe that actually I mentor a lot of women and unfortunately, I do think that men are much more confident when they, when they start their businesses. And I think it's linked to how we are raised. I was watching a woman on Instagram who has like a neutral looking baby and sometimes she dresses her baby as a girl and sometimes as a boy and she made a video about this and she said that when her baby is dressed as a girl, everybody says how pretty she is. And when it's a boy, everybody says, oh how strong he is. So I think it's linked with how we are raised and there's a, it's a whole, you know, systematic issue about why women do not push themselves more. But the, the truth is that you have to push yourself because nobody will do it for you. And I think there's a lot of biases. I mean, I've been in tech now for almost 10 years and I think there's huge, huge problems with how investors perceive women. So most of the investors probably more than 90% of them are middle aged men. So young females, we are very different from them.

We have very different interests, very different circles of friends and that's why the most successful women, you see these days, they're usually either married to successful men or their daughters of successful men. And if you look at Forbes rankings, the richest women in the US, they have inherited their wealth or they have built it with their husbands if you're not in that category. And for example, I'm not, if you're just a woman on your own, self-made building yourself, you're gonna be perceived uh very differently than male founders. Why is it like like that? I don't know, but this is how it is. And I think it's because 90% of investors are males and those women that are out there there. I don't think they are supportive of women as they should be. So there's, I think there is a generic lack of support towards female founders. This was my impression after 10 years. And I think in fundraising with, we can especially see that when it comes to larger sums of money. I actually do think it's, it's not that difficult to raise an angel round to do some crowd funding. But where the differences become extremely big is when it comes to a series A series B, series C and it's also the ticket sizes that are given to, to women and men. And I feel, I mean, I've analyzed this, I've been analyzing this issue.

Why are we treated like this for? I think almost 10 years. And I would say one thing is lack of reference, I think there's just lack of data that there's successful founders out there, female founders. So I feel like almost investors lack trust in women. Another thing is the whole historical issue, as you were saying, Felicia thirdly how we are raised. Um And I think it's a very complex issue but we are not treated the same way women, we have to be 10 times better and, and still it's not good enough. This was my personal experience, maybe it's just me. But I hear it also from many other women and just to end, I would really recommend you to watch. Um, there's a TED talk, uh and it's also for the person who made the comment about confidence and it's about, it's called teach girls to be. Uh how is it? Teach girls to be, I think, confident, not perfect. I, I'll look it up when Christina speaks. I look it up but it's actually very interesting. Nice.

Well, Erica in the chat, she agrees with you. She, she said that so societal biases um are for, we've grown up with definitely push, you know, she wants to push for more change, but totally agree with that. It is hard if you're, you, you don't have these, you know, this leverage from a rich husband or you're not from a wealthy family that you don't have the access to certain opportunities that women don't have that, you know. Um But definitely, I totally agree with you. On that as well and maybe um beta in the chat, she can probably maybe find that link to the, the, the doc that you mentioned so that people can also use it. Um uh Also sorry, I just want to jump really quickly to Christina to share your insights on the um the top the question as well.

Yeah, so I, I agree with um with Rachel Rachel's comments initially and that I didn't, I've not really experienced anything like that yet. However, I am ST starting to embark on the funding um side of things. So I'll let you know on that front, my backgrounds are in law and financial advice. So I've worked in two very male dominated industries before coming into tech. So in some ways, that's really good in some ways, it was bad because one, I was already used to working alongside a lot of men. Um But on the other side of it, I was also used to working alongside a lot of men. So when I started up my tech business, um what I found was an issue for me is that I didn't have a role model in tech, I did not have a role model and I in the other industries that I worked in, I had that. So it was kind of going into something really blind and not having a sort of mentor really. And then I quickly learn, you know, statistics like 78% of students cannot name a female, a famous female working in technology. So there's a lack of female role models and that's also reinforcing really the perception that a technology career isn't necessarily for them. Um And 16% of females have had a career in technology suggested to them, which is really, really low.

So yeah, when I first went into the tech industry, it was like a bit of rabbit in headlights. But um I decided to become my own role model and through that, become really confident in my approach to dealing with whoever and wherever I needed to be. So, yeah, that, that's just I just adapted this really confident approach and that's how I tackled it really. But yeah, I've never really thanked God experienced any um strong biases as of as of yet.

No, that's awesome to hear. I mean, it's great to hear everyone's perspective, but I think Marjana gave some awesome insight into, you know, some of the challenges that women do face and of course, working at Founder Institute, I've seen it as well. Um That founders, female founders have, you know, far more challenges to, to get funding um and support in general. So we want to touch on that topic as well. But I did also stick into the same theme challenges that we face as women and start up. Uh I wanted to touch quickly on like work life balance. Um And like, how do you manage even like your mental health and wellness. Because again, as a founder, it seems like the journey is 24 7. And like, you know, sometimes it's not always, uh you know, in the predominantly male environment, it's not always, you know, welcome to talk about your feelings or your stress or if you're having a hard time, it's kind of like, oh, you can't hack hack it. So I'm just curious, like, what tips do you have to kind of help, you know, maintain your, your work life balance and your, your mental health and wellness for aspiring female founders. Oh, I'm sorry, I can start with um uh You Marjana.

Yeah, I mean, I currently don't have Children, but I see the difference between my girlfriends who have Children and those who don't. Uh I think if I just compare after like 20 years of career, I would say that in general those that haven't had Children are way ahead of those that have. This is just my circle here in Belgium and New York. So I think there is uh again, a systematic issue about women who do decide who have Children. And I think the system is probably not adapted to that. So I think uh women like that do face challenges. It's not my case. So uh I haven't had those issues and I'm, I'm pretty organized and I always manage to balance, you know, my private life, public life and uh like professional life, I mean, but uh, I do see the difference with my girlfriends and as I say, those who haven't had Children are, like, higher up in their career.

Absolutely. Totally agree with that as well because we don't, you know, they don't have to make those sacrifices because they had, didn't have to take off a year to raise their child where men can keep continuing on. Like, as I was trying to highlight earlier when their wife has a child, they can still go to work. Um So those are some things that I know are pretty challenging and even just, you know, speaking on mental wellness in general, I think is kind of like, you know, from, you know, not always a welcome topic. So I was interested to hear some of your insights as well within the tech industry. Um I, I'll start, I'll go with you next Rachel.

Yeah. So for me, I mean, um I found that mental health and balance or physical health, um you know, sleeping well, eating well, doing all that stuff is like more important than ever. Um I, I think I kind of did it a little bit, you know, as we all try to do uh when I had a full time job and then when I became a founder and then a full time founder, I, I think it's absolutely critical. I mean, my health is directly correlated with my confidence, which is also in my energy, which is like directly correlated with what the the start of success is gonna see. So, um definitely take it seriously, get your sleep, get a sleep tracker. Uh That's, that's my really quick uh recommendation. Um Also another thing, just I saw this question in the chat, which I think is sort of related um around what can you do? Um What if you tell your younger self? I I would also recommend um just start thinking about while you still have a job before you take the leap into being an entrepreneur, start building your brand. And that doesn't mean a full time job like that just means start building your audience on linkedin or youtube or wherever you want to attract your customers, start seeing if that is something you actually really enjoy because you're going to need a personal brand and you're going to need to attract your audience.

Um So you can start that while you still have a full time job, which is a nice kind of test if you want to transition into entrepreneurship. Um And that's, that's a good way to kind of put your toe in the water.

Nice, excellent advice to totally agree. Um And, and you Christina, what would you like to share any experience with that?

Um I think when I first started this career in tech, um you're always surrounded by a, a device of some sort, whether it's a laptop, an ipad phone, there's just devices everywhere and it's a very, I found it a very sedentary lifestyle starting up a, this, this tech business.

Um, so when I started it I piled on weight so I quickly realized that it was really important to be, have a really nutritious life. So, you know, I've completely flips my lifestyle in its head. You know, I, I'm completely different to what I used to be. I used to burn myself out. I used to, you know, get three or four hours of sleep and I, because you need to get stuff done. Um I used to think that, you know, the amount of likes I got on social media was really important and that, that defined, you know, how good my business was or how good I was as an entrepreneur. And it's, it's a word I learned, I learned called um insta gratification where you constantly see searching for those likes and things like that. That's not a good thing. That's not a good mentality and realizing that the only competition is you with you as well. For me that really, really resonates with me, there is no other business like you and they never will be because they've not got you in them. So that's another thing that I tell myself every day. There are always going to be people that, you know, try and do what you're doing or are doing what you do. Um But you are the uh the driving force within your own business.

So Yeah, remembering, you know, that you're the most valuable asset in every sense of the word, whether it's in your business, your personal life or your professional life.

Yeah, I love that advice. Like you're in competition with yourself, you know. So it helps, helps you just stay focused and not worry about what everyone else is doing. And I feel like you're more successful when you do that. Like, I love, I love Oprah. right? So I watched a lot of um documentaries and stuff on her and she said she wasn't paying attention to like Donahue when he was trying to spring up and be her competition because he was like, you know, almost coming neck and neck with her. And she said, let's just focus on us, let's focus on ourselves and she just, you know, you know, skyrocketed. So I love that advice. Um And again, like how you are also sharing, like managing your, your time and your health and it's just so important even working for a start up, you know, it's a lot of work, you know, I'm not a founder, but I just noticed that it's like you said, you, you can burn yourself out because there's so much that has to get done.

But I also have learned that, you know, I'm more productive and more creative and more energized when I actually take more time off and take time away instead of like, you know, trying to burn them. And I oil you like all the time. So it seems counterproductive, but actually taking more time off, it seems like you're actually more productive and, and healthier. Um But I just wanted to shift back before we um have to wrap to join. Um take the audience questions. I wanted to touch again. Uh Marjai, you did speak to AAA little bit about how both men and women can support women in tech because I, I wanted that to be one of these, these key takeaways as well before we shift to questions from the audience. Um But again, here focusing on solutions as opposed to like, you know, bashing men or anything in the audience because I thought this topic was important because we always tend to highlight just men not being supportive. But I also wanted to, you know, highlight that sometimes we as women aren't always supportive when we're in leadership positions, we're not, you know, you know, inviting another woman to the table so that they can also be a part of it. And we're not just the only one I've seen it all throughout history, not just in start up. I'm watching, you know, certain documentary. I'm like this woman's been a leadership for like 10 plus years.

She didn't, she's like every picture was just her, just her, just her, just her. I'm like, where are the other one? Why didn't she invite anyone else? So can you describe any situations where you've experienced like a lack of support. I know some of you said you haven't um from a man or a woman, not necessarily just in your career where you felt like you weren't getting the leaders um support that you needed. And then my question is in particular, like, what would you have done differently? Because I feel like sometimes leaders aren't necessarily aware or consciously aware of what they're doing and doing wrong. So I think it's important for us to kind of like in this session, highlight some of the some of these things in case we have someone in the audience so they can be also better leaders.

Yeah, I think it's very important to be self-aware. Somebody is talking about it. And uh and I think here it's important to work with mentors. So I think every great leader needs great mentors. And when it comes to support among women, I think it's about building sisterhood and about building the communities where we can help each other, where we can be there for each other. And I think it's true, I've experienced it. My girlfriends have that, you know, sometimes there is a disproportionate help among women. And I feel that again, men are better at that, they're better at brotherhood, they're better at friendships. And, you know, building a successful business is, is teamwork, it's about teamwork and uh that's why you need to work on, you know, on your people skills as well. And here it's very important. I think for us women to liaise and associate and support other women. And I, I think uh there's an issue with that. I see it um in my professional life and I've seen it with my friends. So I think it's about building sisterhood raising awareness, building communities, uh being a mentor, um seeking out mentors that can help you. So I think it's all about community building.

That's awesome. Um I'll go with you next. Um Rachel.

Yeah. Um So one really quick way uh which is tangible in a, if you're in a virtual meeting and there's another woman who had shares an idea and then the moderator or other people in the room kind of gloss over it. They didn't really hear it. You can echo that, you could say, hey um Susan, great idea like and then repeat it so that it says again and also give her the credit. That's something that happens again and again, it's like these micro moments, but it's really important for being seen as a leader, being, getting a promotion. Um I mean, I think another thing um if there are men in the audience um just be mindful and self aware about how you're facilitating meetings. Um the tool, the company that I'm building makes a virtual meeting plug in which helps you to do that. Um You don't necessarily have to use our tool, but you could also just be self aware and think like, did I hear from everyone in a meeting? Um Did, were the quieter voices actually included? And did I ask open ended questions? So there are some like practical ways. Um And of course, if you're a manager or have an opportunity to promote others, then really try to think about um giving good challenging projects um to all of your direct reports of every gender. Um So they have an opportunity to shine.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And you Christina, what would you have your thought homos topic?

Yeah, I think um encouraging people in the workplace to expand on their current specialities or um expertise areas, um you know, advancing people's skill sets by encouraging them to, you know, do extra qualifications and things like that. And I think that will really inspire and motivate, you know, new generations of, of people to um expand their knowledge in, in different, in different areas, you know, and if we can encourage people in work environments to start getting, you know, qualifications in, in tech, then we can really start to increase the higher pool diversity as well.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, I wish we can talk forever because this is a great topic and, and you women are fabulous. I just love your insights. Um But I did want to try and catch some questions from the audience if we have time. I believe we have about seven minutes left. So I wanted to cover so much more. It's just not enough time but um excellent uh uh insights from everyone. As you can see from the chat, everyone's loving uh loves your, your, your guide, your guidance and insights. But for, for the audience questions, I did want to take a couple from. The first one is from uh uh forgive me if I'm mispronouncing your name. But Rich Ru Harper, um She asked what advice around being a female entrepreneur or founder? Would you tell your younger self if you could go back in time? I'll start with you. Uh Christina,

sorry, I just missed that. What would I, what advice would I give myself?

Yeah, she says, what advice around being a female entrepreneur would you give your, would you tell yourself your younger self if you can go back in time?

Um Again, probably the same old thing that you are your own competition. Um Don't, don't be afraid of others or any anyone else around you really? Yeah, just, just go for it. You only live once.

Excellent, excellent question. How about you, Rachel?

Yeah, I, I think that's spot on like you only live once if you want to do it. Uh Now is the time like, don't wait until you have another year, five years, 10 years experience, like I think life goes by really quickly. So just try now. And I mean, founder Institute is a great way. There's other, you know, accelerator programs that you can find to support you. But um there's no time like the present.

And ana,

yeah, I think I would say to myself, start young. And actually I did because I started working when I was 18 and throughout my university until I finished my second masters, I had worked for 30 companies. So I think this is the word of advice for all young female founders or maybe male that are listening to us. I would say start young, start saving early because like that you can bootstrap your business. Um And I would say start networking as soon as you can because it's all about community building. It's about who you know, and uh and as they say, your network is your net worth. So I think uh the younger you can start with that either work experience or, you know, reaching out to people building your network the better. And just yesterday, I was mentoring this uh young founder from India. He is 18 and he built his first start up when he was 16 and he was just out there on linkedin, reaching to people. That's how he met me. And I was just amazed, like at 18, he was like uh emailing hundreds of people, you know, hustling and he told me he was emailing Peter Tho you know, the investor. And he said after eight months, he finally responded and I was just blown away.

This, there's this young boy who is 18 and, and look at him, it's just amazing. So I would say, start as young as you can. And this is what I would say to myself and basically just, you know, build your community, build your network.

Absolutely. And to squeeze in one more um from Valentina, she's asking uh she's new to the tech industry. So she want would like to know if you have any advice for someone who's transitioning from non tech to tech. So for example, from legal to tech, so I'll start with you Christina because I know you, you've kind of done that.

Um Yeah, may well do your research number one. What area of tech is it that you want to go into? Make sure that you've uh got a network of people or a few people that, you know, who have made that, that transition. Um I'm, I'm one of them and I would never go back. Um I, I love it um be, be confident in your approach. Uh Just make sure that it's, it's what you want to do and if it's something, if you're going into, you know, employment, then obviously it's, it's not as much of a risk necessarily as uh as doing your own tech start up. If you are doing a tech start up, then, you know, just, uh really address your finances. Make sure you've got, um you know, the right set up around you in every sense of the word really, but it is a completely different industry to go from um the legal industry to, to tech. So yeah, again, if you, if you are making that jump, then it's obviously something you really want to do.

So just follow your heart

and Rachel.

Um Yeah, so I was working as in product management and then managing P MS and designers um before I went and started my own company, so I was kind of familiar with tech. Um but for me, I think a lot of the new stuff was marketing, sales, um actually legal um accounting. So all the non kind of tech things which also you need to know to start a business. So I think no matter where you're coming from, maybe this is encouraging. But like if you're coming from non tech and you're trying to get into tech or start your own company, you're going to have new things to learn. So you're not so far behind, I guess is my point. Like you, you can jump into start a tech start up because you'll probably whatever your skills you have developed will be relevant in some way.

And last but not least more done before we close.

Yeah, I would suggest everyone to maybe check out the online courses because there's so many books nowadays, so many youtube videos, there's the platforms where you can attend like free courses. So I would just say educate yourself, it's so easy to access knowledge these days.

So I would say, I mean, it's always possible to learn something new, like keep learning, keep doing the courses, watch youtube, watch your mentors or people you admire. So I think it's always possible to transition to new things.

Absolutely and sorry to end so abruptly. But I wanna just say a special thank you to Christina Rachel Maja for like your, your insight and advice that you've given to the audience today because they truly love it. Um The even I've learned a lot today, so I'm very grateful to be here. Um But this is, that's it. I think we have about a minute left and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone as well in the audience for joining us um to learn more about the woman Tech Global Network. Just again, I data will be take pacing in some um links to the chat, but there are a ton of conferences that are sessions that are going on over the next three days. Some are hybrid as well. So if you are in some of those locations in person, you can actually go meet people in person. So again, the weather is nice, go out and meet everyone and I just very honored to be amongst you, wonderful women today. And thanks again and I look forward to seeing you all at the next session.

Thank you. Thank

you. Thank you. Bye bye bye

bye.