The idea to convene startup women came from Marko Russiver, one of the founders of
Guaana, a platform that unites researchers and scientists. A week earlier Marko was surprised to discover that a large number of women who have founded startups in Estonia do not actually know each other.
“Support groups where you share information do generally more good than harm. There are specific problems of both men and women, and sharing information, even about operating in different cultural spaces, is of benefit,” Russiver wrote in his invitation to female startup founders and executives.
„Communication between people in such a small ecosystem like ours in Estonia helps prevent unnecessary risks and enables us to share resources, networking and knowledge, especially towards entering foreign markets,“ he wrote in social media after the event.
One of the leaders of the event is
Kaidi Ruusalepp, founder and CEO of
Funderbeam, who says that the group has great potential in supporting the founders of startups. She adds that mental support is even more necessary than capital. „We evolve through role models and opportunities, and this group can raise a new generation of female entrepreneurs, just like
Skype and Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications
ITL have raised a generation of tech entrepreneurs,“ she added.
Communication between people in such a small ecosystem like ours in Estonia helps prevent unnecessary risks and enables us to share resources
Russiver, who invited women for the first ever meeting in such a large group, said that he will always support women as leaders and said that he will happily hand the torch over to new people to organize the following group meetings.
In addition to Ruusalepp, the group is now led by women with impressive backgrounds like
Riina Einberg, who has helped build companies like
Bolt,
Monese and
ZeroTurnaround as well as
BaltCap Growth Fund partner
Heidi Kakko, cybersecurity expert
Liisa Past, co-founder of
Tech Sisters Mari-Liis Lind, marketing specialist
Linda Zagors and
Latitude59 conference program manager
Kadri Sundja.