Posts Tagged ‘AdiCash’

These women want to do it their way. They started a company and run it the way they think a company should operate. In today’s „Top 5“ edition we introduce five bold female entrepreneurs and their promising internet startups: Kerstin Schilling with Intershop/AdiCash, Dania Gerhardt from Amazee, Danielle Grossi with smeepe, Marina Tognetti with Myngle and Tina Aspiala from eat.fi:

Kerstin Schilling - CEO of cash bonus program AdiCash and co-founder of Intershop Communications - says there are important style differences between male and female business leaders. She is convinced that women are „better in investments because they are more focussed on output“ and finds that „like in nature women are ‚the grey ones’, those who are doing the job behind it.“

Dania Gerhardt is co-founder and „operational and financial wonderkind“ of Social Collaboration platform Amazee.com. „Women really do talk more than men“ Dania says. „It is crucial that they use their inter-personal communication skills to get in contact with the right people and to approach them in a different way by using their female side.“

Danielle Grossi was a normal employee in IT for ten years before she co-founded online portal smeepe.net. She describes herself as somebody who has what it takes to be an entrepreneur and states that persistence more than anything else is responsible for success. „A woman should follow her dream and do what she feels is the best for her“ she says. „Whatever it is, if it’s starting a company or starting a family.“

„E-Learning Queen“ Marina Tognetti left the corporate executive track to become entrepreneur of global language e-learning marketplace Myngle.com. Marina is a passionate traveler, spent one year backpacking through Asia as well as traveling to many different countries around the world. She says she always tried to maintain a healthy balance between mind and heart, working with her mind, making choices with her heart.

„Women need to get over their fears of being not qualified enough. More men are willing to do things they aren’t ‚technically’ qualified for“ finds Tina Aspiala, founder of Finnish restaurant search and review site Eat.fi. She encourages women to feel the fear and do it anyway. Says Tina: „Those who say you can’t be doing it should get out of the way of those who are getting it done.“

Stay tuned! Next Monday we’ll be looking at „The Five Most Promising Grown-Up Startups“.

Men are not only from Mars and women from Venus, but the genders are also really different in doing business. That’s at least what Kerstin Schilling, CEO of cash bonus program AdiCash and co-founder of Intershop Communications, thinks: „Like in nature women are ‚the grey ones’, those who are doing the job behind it. They are better in investments because they are more focussed on output.“ Kerstin founded eCommerce pioneer Intershop together with Stephan Schambach and her twin brother Karsten Schneider shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall. She recounts: „It’s best to start really free as an entrepreneur. At the start of the New Economy we were in a good position, started with new knowledge and couldn’t loose anything.“ More than 15 years later, she is convinced that running a business with a sibling creates great value: „You can trust the other, have no fear of saying the wrong things and although it sometimes gets very emotional you know better than anyone else what’s behind it. With competition more being between networks than between companies, a network in your family is a good thing to have.“ While Kerstin and her twin invest in other companies and found new startups, she points out that they primarily invest in people: „We are both very open minded and like to get in contact with independent people – people with sometimes crazy ideas who like to do something before they ask for money.“ Kerstin and Karsten are involved in startups like GreenApo, Uniturm and FORMBLITZ, just to mention a few. For further interviews from webinale 09, please click here.