SDG 5: WeDO5 is an organization that supports female-led impact Startups
"The bumblebee is a perfect metaphor for a female impact startup founder. While at times it feels impossible, with the right support group and ambition to fly, despite all odds we will conquer our goals!"
05.06.2020.
Our member WeDO5 (former KulturenReich) is an organization that supports female-led impact Startups through their journey. They provide women with resources to turn their impact idea or early-stage startups into a successful, commercially-viable business. Read their story:
How did you start?
WeDO5 was founded by Asetila Köstinger and Amarilla Nirmala as Kulturenreich in 2018. It was rebranded in late 2019 as WeDO5. Since then a lot of bumblebees joined our mission.
Our vision is to create a society where Startup businesses are half-led by female founders.
Our mantra is ‘There is a special place in heaven for women who help other women to rise, grow, and shine!’
What are your activities?
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The GoodStartup School -support to early stage Startups - We provide women with resources to turn their impact idea or early-stage startups into a successful, commercially-viable ideas.
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Impact entrepreneurs - We support changemakers which aim to make the world a better place.
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Find Your female Cofounder -Support group - We connect women with a talented and supportive network.
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Skills development - We provide training and coaching to give women the tools they need to be successful business founders and entrepreneurs.
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Scale ups - We connect woman with investors to take their startup businesses to the next level.
some pointer of flagship events we have done:
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we are organizers of the Find your female cofounder in Vienna since 2018 (2-3 times a year).
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We are organizers of the Startup Weekend Women Vienna By Techstars (Sept 2019) and we are also community leaders of Techstars for Austria
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we are also community leaders of Zebras Unite for Austria.
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our own education body is called The GoodStartup School by WeDO5
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we were invited by the president Alexander Van der Bellen on the 5 of May 2020 at the Hofburg ( International Women day) as role models and as one of the 5 organizations that support women in business and entrepreneurship in Austria
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we are recognized partner of many startup ecosystem players in Austria and central Europe like the Impact Hub, Talent Garden, Klimate KIC, Agro Innovation Lab, enpact Berlin , Infineon HUb and many more
Why bumblebees?
WeDO5 members are known as "bumblebees."
It is said...
"apparently aerodynamically and scientifically it is impossible for a bumblebee to fly. Its wings are too small to get its heavy body off the ground. The bumblebee, that either doesn’t know this scientific facts or ignores it, flips its wings much faster and much stronger and flies anyway! "
The bumblebee is a perfect metaphor for a female impact startup founder. While at times it feels impossible, with the right support group and ambition to fly, despite all odds we will conquer our goals!
„ We see ourselves as farmers of female startups for future generations. Everybody is harvesting but who is farming?
50% of world problems are women's problems. Thousands of Startup are created every day with the main aim to solve unsolved niche problems. Having said that the statistic shows us that only 6% of startups have female founders in Austria, and 18% in silicon Valley. So our aim is to empower women and girls to rise and start solving their own problems by building tech and non-tech impact startups. And we are fully aware of how hard this is. Because to change the world is much more difficult than to build an app, or to make some VCs happy „ concluded the co-founder Ms. Köstinger.
