D.Starting an innovative startup is a challenge for anyone and, in particular, for women: «Creating your own business means be master of yourself, your decisions and your life», Explains Teresa Valerio, founder of AssoDonna 25 years ago, a non-profit association that promotes gender culture and female entrepreneurship:« Female entrepreneurs have made great strides in recent years. However, we cannot forget that women carry with them two millennia of history in which the man who found the resources was the woman and the woman who offered services to children and families “.
Teresa Valerio, president of AssoDonna (Press Office)
The road to new female models is therefore still long. A greater presence of women in the most technologically advanced sectors it is indispensable. “In the field of artificial intelligence, for example, it would help avert the danger of programming done only on male models.”
Culture and entrepreneurial spirit
Prerequisites for being entrepreneurs, Teresa Valerio suggests, are «a‘instruction that it is the best possible, curiosity, enthusiasm, courage to jump and risk, and of course entrepreneurial spirit which develops from childhood and which should be a teaching theme in all schools “. Growing up with an entrepreneurial spirit means “knowing how to manage in every situation: from the search for the most suitable job, to relationships with one’s superiors, up to the entrepreneurial or political choice”.
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Good ideas, how to recognize them
The innovative startup according to Put is a young company, with a high technological content, with strong growth potential. The question is: how and where to find a good idea that can give life to a company of this kind? First of all it is It is essential to deepen the sector in which you want to enter.
It can be useful to attend dedicated fairs, have relationships with people in the sector, browse the web non-stop, travel, study and investigate, in short, explore that world far and wide and always be very curious. Winning ideas can be born only from a long search.
But even more than the idea «execution is important. A revolutionary idea without a competent team capable of implementing it effectively will not find credibility with any investor ”, explains Valerio.
No capital? Use the 3 Fs
When you create a startup you need to be aware that the gains will not be immediate: you have to take into account at least a couple of years of investments with no economic return, and it will be tough. “While waiting to make yourself more credible with real investors, you can use the 3 effects: Family Friends and Fools, that is to say family, friends and some crazy people who believe in your idea in embryo“. says Teresa Valerio.
The right team to attract investors
The skills needed to create a startup are too many for one person to have or acquire. You need a team, in which there are different skills: corporate finance, communication and marketing, commercial experience, IT and above all someone who has skills and experience in the area you are going to deal with, if you also have a financing partner you are at the top. «Carefully consider having IT skills within the team, because a good developer is always needed and is very expensive and if you keep it as a salary it could leave you at any moment “, says the President of AssodoDonna,” more than one entrepreneur has told me that she made this mistake “. The assumption is that no one can know how to do everything well and that it is necessary to have recourse to others.
Once formed, the team must of course be established in legal form and must by law be a joint stock company. Generally it was born as an srl and if it has the necessary requirements it can be registered, as required, in the Register of innovative startups of the Chamber of Commerce.
A good business plan makes a difference
Before introducing yourself to investors, you need to have clear objectives and financial needs to request the funds you need. “Having a business plan”, says Valerio, “means establishing as clearly and concretely as possible the path to be taken, dividing it into several steps and objectives to be achieved, establishing times, costs and necessary resources for each step, and pursue the objectives with patience and determination ». This plan is indispensable both for the startup itself, to understand how it must proceed, and for potential investors to become aware of the development of the company and the economic objectives it intends to achieve. All this will allow any lenders to evaluate whether investing money in this company could be profitable for them or not.
The search for investors
“Relationships are an asset”, says Valerio: “Treasure every meeting because it will come in handy when looking for funding.” There are many possibilities, public and private. Starting with Invitalia, the National Agency for the Attraction of Investments and Business Development, owned by the Ministry of Economy, on whose website various financing opportunities are advertised, especially for the first phase. And then Contest and Awards, with which you can receive small amounts: pay attention to the calls. In addition there are the Business Angels and in particular the Business Angels For Women, private investors who specifically finance female startups in the “early stage” phase, up to equity crowdfunding and investor clubs for larger-scale financing. “Keep in mind that investors will ask you for a share of capital in exchange,” recalls Valerio.
The search for investors cannot be considered a completed operation once and for all: as the startup grows, other financing will be needed. It is news these days that the entrepreneur Chiara Ferragni is looking for a “growth capital” fund for the company Fenice Srl, owner of the exploitation rights of its brand. That is, it looks for a financial group that can provide (venture capital-style) resources for development to a company that still has startup numbers despite its fame.
The pitch: what is it?
A good idea, a competent and close-knit team, a solid business plan are enough to present yourself to investors and come out on top? “No, without an effective pitch”, says Valerio: “The pitch is a brief summary of your business idea that must quickly make investors understand what it consists of, who the founders are, what you have done up to that point, what are your next steps to achieve the objectives for the which funds you ask for and how much more can it grow“. It is essential to give a fair assessment of the value of the startup at that precise moment and of its growth potential: it is better to keep under expectations than to tell a present and a future that is not entirely realistic.
Get inspired by those who have made it
The final advice of the President of Assodonna is to “read the interviews with the entrepreneurs and be inspired”. On the site of AssoDonna there are many: they can be of great help because entrepreneurs tell their experiences very concretely.
“To gain one’s autonomy it is certainly useful to do business”, continues the expert, “But to really change the condition of women, the only chance is politics. It is important to follow the policy, inform yourself and possibly be part of it. Politics is passion and necessity: women from childhood should be educated to this awareness. My dream is to create an excellent school of politics where women can train and mature as citizens and then participate in political life with competence and awareness and reach the button rooms where to really change the fate of the female condition“.
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