How to ignite your female startup — from Vienna to the world within five weeks
WeDO5 launches its first Women Impact Virtual Incubator “The GoodStartup School”
Thousands of startups are founded everyday around the world aiming to solve new and unsolved challenges. However, there is still an acute shortage of women in the startup sector: In Austria, only 9 percent of startups have a female founder and even in Silicon Valley, the quote is just around 20 percent.
We believe in the power of female startups. That’s why we at WeDO5 have developed “The GoodStartup School” — to boost startup and entrepreneurship education for women and girls. We focus on a very early stage of female impact startup ideas in order to help them early enough to develop their ideas and help them to shine. All startup-ideas have to be aligned with at least one of the Global Goals (officially known as the Sustainable Development Goals — SDGs). These goals have the power to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change.
The first IGNITE “GoodStartup School” started on Monday 15th of June 2020 supported by the Infineon HUB Vienna.
Ignite your idea!
Within IGNITE “GoodStartup School” the participating fellows will be able to develop and redefine their business idea within 5 weeks. The business ideas can arise from sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Edutech, Greentech or Mobility. The activities cover trends like green travelling, women health, social inclusion, financial literacy, economic empowerment, green foods, human resources and diversity, pharma and cosmetology, nutrition — just to name a few. All ideas that have one common denominator: They all have to be aligned with at least one of the SDGs.
“5 weeks” for female start-ups
The programme is structured on 5 core topics — one for every week: Discover, Validate, Impact, Build and Shine.
The incubator, which is conceptualized on experimental learning, is a merit-based, blended program conducted through two virtual hands-on workshops per week, weekly tasks, milestones and one group- or personal mentorship-sessions every week.
The 5 weeks, which are based on the lean startup approach, are full of co-creation, design thinking and business model and customer discovery session. A final “Pitching to win” session will take place at the end of the fifth week. The final day on the 16th of July 2020 will be a Demo-Day for all participants with theme “Find Your Female Cofounder”. The event is also open to the public.
Week 1: Problem-Solution-Fit “DISCOVER”
In this week the participants will work on the question: Is there a need for my product/service and a potential market? With the help of the lean canvas the participants will discover their customers — who they are and what particular problems they are faced with.
Week 2: Product-Market-Fit “VALIDATE”
The participants will work on the question: Do I offer something people want and are they willing to pay for it? They will learn, how to interview potential customer and how necessary it is to adopt their needs and requirements into the startup idea. Get out of the building and validate your ideas! Test, pivot and adopt your idea!
Week 3: Impact business focus “IMPACT”
In this week, participants will understand how to design purpose-driven ideas and impact business models and focus on solutions that solve real problems. We will learn how to design purpose-driven ideas and impact business models. We will look at the “Theory of Change”. In the economy of the future, being good will not be nice-to-have, but a core value. We will have a deep dive in the SDGs and see how to align your start-up with the SDG framework.
Week 4: Build your MVP “BUILD”
„A picture is worth a thousand words“. Build your idea — make it visible and understandable! You will learn, what an MVP/MVS is and how to create mockup Homepages/apps or sample products. Create something you can present to further go testing your idea.
Week 5: It’s showtime! “SHINE”
The final week is focusing on pitch training to feel confident and presenting proudly your business idea. What are the keys to design and deliver a winning 3 minutes startup pitch? How to address all the issues that concern investors/clients/partners? During the Demo-Day all participants will have the chance to practice a 3 minutes pitch.
Women for Women
“The GoodStartup School” by WeDO5 is designed and delivered by women for women. The Facilitators and mentors are startup- founders and startup coaches with profound experience in business and technology.
· Dipl.Ök. Mag.Asetila Köstinger CMC CEC — The Innovation Economist and networking superwoman
· Mag. Astrid Weikmann — The digital whizz and customer advocate,
· Franziska Nemmer, MSc — The efficiency superstar and design thinker
The tireless effort of all the bumblebees of WeDO5 like Maria Martinez, Amarilla Nirmala, Claudia Fasching, Stacy Schlicht made all this possible
For more information on upcoming “The GoodStartup School” events, click here.
About WeDO5
WeDO5 is a platform to support female startups throughout their journey from Vienna to the world. Our aim is to empower women and girls to rise and start solving problems by building tech and non-tech impact startups.
We provide women with the resources and necessary support to turn their impact idea or early-stage startup into a successful, commercially-viable business idea. Our Vision is to create a society where startup businesses are half-led by female founders.
Following our Mantra “There is a special place in heaven for women who help other women grow, rise and shine!” we want to point out some of our flagship activities:
- we are organizers of the “Find your female cofounder” in Vienna since 2018 (2–3 times a year).
- we are community leaders of “Techstars” for Austria by organizing the startup weekend “Women Vienna” (Sept 2019) and startup weekend “FoodTech Vienna” (Feb 2020)
- we are also community leaders of “Zebras Unite” for Austria
- we were invited by the Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen on the International Women Day 2020 (5thof May) as a role model and as one of the 5 organizations supporting women in business and entrepreneurship in Austria.
- we are recognized partner of several startup ecosystem players in Austria and central Europe, CEE and MENA Region
- our own flagship education is called “The GoodStartup School” by WeDO5
About Infineon Hub @TU Wien
“The GoodStartup School” takes place at the Infineon HUB, located at the TU Vienna. The innovation Hub of Infineon Technologies Austria connects industrial and tech experts, students and graduates as well as young professionals and science specialists.
The hub is an ideal networking area, tech platform and event location which is free for everyone, who is in need of a a representative place to work, present, meet and forge ideas to shape a smarter future.
Infineon HUB Project Manager Kornelia Geiger:
“I am convinced that opportunities for women have never been as good as they are today. It is time for them to be more courageous by taking those chances. We at Infineon have long recognized that diversity — whether by gender, nationality or age — is a key factor for success and we are truly committed to it. There is no way around diversity in the modern working world. Of course, traditional roles in society cannot disappear overnight, but the more companies recognize the importance of diversity and create framework conditions to increase the harnessing of women’s potential, the more likely that equality will no longer be something extraordinary.”
Useful Links:
§ Austrian Startup monitor 2019: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/eoy-2019-diversity-report-20-percent-of-newly-funded-startups-in-2019-have-a-female-founder/
§ www.WeDO5.io
§ Infineon Hub
§ Infineon Technologies Austria