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.
