Last Friday, 19th November, the first meeting on the occasion of the Day of the Enterprising Woman took place in the Palau de la Alameda, organised by Valencia Activa, with the aim of making visible the female talent that we have in our city. And at Bounsel we didn’t want to miss this important day for the female entrepreneurial sector.
“Today is a special day because we are going to showcase the great projects of women entrepreneurs, but what we really want to know today are the stories behind these great projects, we hope that today we will inspire each other and that we will all leave here with a lot of experience”. These words kicked off the day at the Palau.
The room was full of women who had never met before, but were all eager to get to know each other. More than 200 women queued together to get into the talk that would “change their professional lives”. Once inside, they all sat on different sofas and listened to talks about entrepreneurship, the difficulties that can arise and, above all, they participated in the positive message that was present throughout the event: to go ahead despite the difficulties that may arise.
Eva Blasco, President of the CEV, took the stage to welcome all the women at the event and gave an encouraging message to those present: “Today we are here to make women’s empowerment visible, to highlight those women who have chosen to take the reins in the labour market, who have opted for entrepreneurship and for making the decision to be entrepreneurs rather than employees”.
Eva Blasco has repeatedly denounced the risk involved in venturing into entrepreneurship if you are a woman, and that is that access to finance is much more difficult for them.The data show that “in Spain only 1 in 5 entrepreneurs are women”, confessed the president of the CEV.
That is why empowered women, founders of companies who wanted to give visibility to “female leadership” came up to the talk. In the Valencian Community, the Startup Observatory puts the percentage of startups whose founders are women at 39%.
To the collective applause of all the women in the room, faces of emotion and a feeling of togetherness on the part of all those present, the presenter of the event gave way to the women entrepreneurs in the initial phase to tell us about their first experiences. However, she wanted to introduce them with these words: “for women who are starting out as entrepreneurs, your experience begins here and today, because together we will continue to fight to break the glass ceiling”.
At the first table we had the pleasure of listening to the stories of seven women entrepreneurs whose businesses are in the first stage and thanks to entrepreneurship “we have gone from real strangers to true friends” says Raquel Serón, the director of TACKYON Logística SL.
They all sat down to tell us their stories. Stories that, like that of Rosa Martínez, founder and CEO of IntegrAZAFAT@S, close to the hearts of all of us who were there below the stage listening. “In our company, we want society to start looking more at people’s abilities rather than their disabilities,” said an excited Rosa Martínez, who runs an inclusive agency that was born after she had a son with Down’s syndrome.
We also had the pleasure of hearing from four successful female entrepreneurs who already have many challenges for the future in the digital sector. They were: Pilar Prados, CEO of Bounsel, Sonia Pérez, CEO of Proyecto A, Angela Pérez, CEO of Imegen and Regina Monsalve, Technical Secretary of the Mesa de Ingeniería Valenciana. They revealed their most personal stories as women entrepreneurs and encouraged all those who attended the event to become entrepreneurs through the headlines they launched. Pilar Prados wanted to encourage the future entrepreneurs by telling them: “Go for it, because it’s worth it, what’s the worst that can happen to you?” Angela Pérez also encouraged them with the words: “you can always go back to what you were doing. Yes, there is always a way back.
Pilar Bernabé, Councillor for Economic Development and Head of the Department for Innovative Development of Economic Sectors and Employment did not want to miss the event either, and joined in to give a message of encouragement to all women entrepreneurs, as well as to talk about the Administrations and their work in “to make female talent visible, to support what has always been invisible”.
We were also able to enjoy a workshop on how to position your personal brand with Irene Milián and learn more about the latest interventions in the Programmes of Services for the Promotion of Female Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship.
Although the finishing touch was provided by Cristina Aristoy, CPO and co-founder of Singularu, who showed us how to achieve our goals. Aristoy explained that “the values of his firm are to offer the best quality at the best possible price and also to contribute to the country’s wealth”. Cristina is an example of success and she wanted to say goodbye by giving the best advice to the 200 women who were listening, “the important thing is to know where you can contribute the most value and find people who do something better than you so that you can grow and learn”. The event was coming to an end and as the co-founder of Singularu closed her speech she wanted to remind us once again that “the fundamental thing is to work, believe in what you do and surround yourself with good people who accompany you”.
Finally, we were able to interview three of the protagonists of the day. Here is what Pilar Prados, CEO of Bounsel; Ángela Pérez, CEO of Image; and Cristina Aristoy, CEO and co-founder of Singularu, had to say. Press play! 👇
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