Female entrepreneurs: 3 have transformed the crisis into opportunities

Stthey were capable, all three, of transforming a phase of crisis, however understood, into the flame of an innovative entrepreneurial activity and with significant value for people: it is the thread that binds the special entrepreneurs awarded by She’s Nextthe project wanted by Visa in collaboration with Corriere della Sera and iO Donna. She’s Next is Visa’s global program that aims to support women’s entrepreneurship around the world: in Italy where only 22 percent of those who do business are women – the project aimed to identify women who have stood out for innovative initiatives and contributed to the economy in the post-Covid period.

«With the launch of She’s Nextwe want to contribute to create an environment conducive to the growth and development of women’s businesses and highlight the importance of a society that promotes gender equality through the experience of Italian entrepreneurs who have distinguished themselves for the results achieved, the rate of innovation and the contribution made to society” comments Stefano M. Stoppani, Visa country manager. «The project is part of a series of actions implemented by Visa in our country and globally in favor of small and medium-sized businesses, with the aim of promoting their financial inclusion through digitalisation».

Three entrepreneurs looking to the future

The three entrepreneurs were selected by a jury which included, in addition to Stefano Stoppani, the deputy director of the Corriere della Sera Barbara Stefanelli, the director of iO Donna Danda Santini, the rector of the Polytechnic of Milan Donatella Sciuto, Anna Lapini, President of Terziario Donne Confcommercio , Valentina Picca Bianchi, president of the Donna Mise Enterprise Committee. All of them will be present at the awards ceremony today, September 9th at 3 pm, at Tempo delle Donne, the party-festival promoted by Corriere della Sera and the blog La 27esima Ora, running until tomorrow 10 September at the Triennale di Milano (via Alemagna, 6). The winners will receive a prize consisting of goods and services with a net value of ten thousand euros to grow their business, as well as training and tutoring opportunities.

Francesca Matteoni: «I make drawing and painting lessons accessible to everyone»

I can’t find any other way to talk about my life: an obstacle course, which at the worst has every time made me see an opportunity to build. But if there’s something everyone identifies me with, it’s the love of drawing. For me, drawing has been a necessity since I was a child. At 24 years old, while I was studying at the Fine Arts in Florence and trying to build a life and a career, my parents found themselves in financial difficulty: with the painful nostalgia of someone who is caught up and sent back by fate with their dreams in pieces, I left everything to help them in the business. I worked all day, dedicating everything I earned to the family economy, but the thought of drawing called to me.

So, since a salary wasn’t enough, I thought of creating an evening drawing course. I built stools and easels with my own hands, I found a room in the center of Lucca in a disused printing shop and there I launched my first course for my first 5 students. It took off slowly but well, so well that in 2018 I moved to a larger and more comfortable space: the idea was to give a high-level artistic education to the greatest number of people, even beginners, without age limits and at affordable costs. Two years later, the earth shakes again: Covid breaks out and I have to close the Academy. But could I give up? The closing of the school represented the second, important rebound in life. In two days I brought all my students online and started shooting the first tutorials on drawing and painting. They worked.

In 2021 the wonder of my son, Neri, was born, and since the time available is limited I draw a very strong entrepreneurial boost from it: theall you want is quick and I decide to create a platform for video art lessons. The Academy of Drawing Platform debuts in 2022: the project is scalable, sustainable and one of a kind in Italy. I call it the Netflix of drawing and painting because you subscribe with a democratic monthly fee – 27 euros – which gives unlimited access to all the videos. The students are growing, the reviews are all positive, by 2023 we will reach a total of 80 hours of tutorials. The confirmation that when you work on quality and to build value for people, the results arrive.

Sofia Santi: «Feeling in your own shoes to experience the most difficult challenges»

The idea came to me more or less three years ago, after my mother underwent a mastectomy, realizing how difficult it was for a woman to live, after such a traumatic experience, even with the weight of the asymmetry of her breasts. At that time I was engaged in a postdoctoral program at the University of Trentoin which I had gained experience in biomaterials, in the use of 3D printers and modeling software and, at the same time, I interacted with Trentino hubs for innovation. The idea of ​​becoming an entrepreneur was, then, a distant hypothesis: the vision of my own startup gradually won me over, as the entrepreneurs and experts I met in the innovation hubs conveyed to me all the charm, complexity and challenge of doing business. The one that made its way into me was based on clear data: 80 percent of women have breast asymmetry, more or less significant, and 16 percent of these are due to a mastectomy.

Half of those who have had the operation do not undergo breast reconstruction, preferring the use of external prostheses. The prostheses on the market, however, are not comfortable and make you sweat, as a sample of interviewees confirmed to us. Hence the idea of ​​OneBra, cups modeled on each customer’s breasts and printed with 3D technology. In practice: with our app, the person scans the breasts and sends it to us. In a few days he receives cups and a bra at home. It is a unique product because it adapts to the breasts down to the smallest detail, including weight, but also because the production process is sustainable, thanks to zero waste and the recyclability of the product. My team and I (Silvia Chiera, Giulia Faoro and Danilo Tomasoni) will use the She lei’s Next award to obtain medical device certification and strengthen e-commerce. We expect the launch of OneBra in the autumn: a community has already taken shape around the project, which includes psychological and informational supports for women and their caregivers.

Tiziana Ferraioli: «Everyone has a potential to be exploited»

We are a team of nine women, educators, psychologists, sociologists, social workers. And we are friends: first we found each other and chose each other, united by important social experiences, then we set up the cooperative. Regarding the purpose of LiberaMente Imparo, which was born in 2018, in Angri, in the province of Salerno, the ideas were very clear: to create a reality of value in our territory, creating a training center and cognitive and educational enhancement through specialized learning paths . We are convinced that we all have unexpressed potential: we just need to find the right channel to extract it. Here, we want to be that channel, we want to focus on the individual’s potential, reducing the impact of difficulties.

In our headquarters, the rooms are named after brilliant people. Agatha Christie’swhich was dysgraphic and yet was realized in writing; Mozart, who had perfect pitch, but also a deformity of the left ear. Not to mention Einstein, who as a child couldn’t learn his multiplication tables… We follow around eighty kids, and the number is growing, to the point that we plan to open another branch: we started individually with children in difficulty in primary schools, who we then accompanied up to middle school. The next step will be to open a structure to follow them to high school.

Being entrepreneurs in the social sector is a tiring challenge, especially if you are not born an entrepreneur and you aim to innovate: we face it every day with passion. We will employ the premium of She’s Next in a territory screening project, to recognize subjects with learning difficulties early and thus act in time with targeted solutions: the area of ​​investigation will in particular be the three primary schools located in Angri. Our cooperative also supports local families, helping them to recognize and accept their children’s disorders, and teachers, providing them with innovative teaching methodologies and strategies: Networking, building relationships, building bonds is a priority value for us.

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