23/09/2022

The Emprèn Entrepreneurship series gives the keys to what it means to be an entrepreneur today

The third session of the Emprèn Entrepreneurship series, held on Thursday, 22 September, and organised by the Alumni & Careers department and the vice-rectorate for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Research, has addressed entrepreneurship in women. Three women entrepreneurs have explained their experience as entrepreneurs in different fields.

There is a general consensus that business and society benefit when a woman participates in decision-making at all levels. However, only 14% of companies in Spain are created or led by women, according to the "Female Digital Entrepreneurship Report." Furthermore, according to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, companies where at least 30% of managers are women show a 15% increase in profitability, compared to companies in the same sector that do not have any women in these positions.

Why does this happen? “Do men receive more funding?” they asked themselves. “Yes, because there are more men, not because we are excluded,” according to one of the three speakers, Talia Bonmati, director general and founder of Dinbeat. Claudia Pierre Trias de Bes (Bachelor’s Degree in Law, class of 2008), CEO and founder of Meeting Lawyers, and Marta Gimeno, general manager and co-founder of the Uolala, Masgrupos and Twilala platforms. The three encouraged women to engage in what really appeals to them, “because it is a very vocational matter.”

Another question is the big issue of reconciliation of family life. The three speakers agreed that involves two parts, and that, in the end, as Gimeno said, “where there’s a will, there’s a way: being an entrepreneur is something very vocational and, with the will, you will find the way.”

The purpose of the Emprèn Entrepreneurship series is to promote entrepreneurship in the university environment and thereby encourage the creation of start-up companies, spin-off companies and innovative businesses. The series has five sessions in all; the next ones will take place in October and November: “Social entrepreneurship” and “Success stories that have ended up for sale.”