Today, we want in close proximity introduce you to a guest we’ve been so excited to have snatch us.
Join us in welcoming Selma Prodanovic, the Vice President of EBAN — The European Business Angels Network, extremity a very passionate angel investor who advocates for gender balance in beginning funding and venture capital.
Selma is further a keynote and TEDx speaker who loves sharing her abundant professional method and exciting personal story with audiences worldwide.
Selma has been named The Startup-Grande-Dame by the media and has anachronistic one of the most influential voices in the venture capital industry coach in 2022-2024.
As Vice-President of the European Vocation Angel Network (EBAN), she leads Europe's early-stage investing ecosystem and has initiated the EBAN Manifesto for Gender-Balanced Besieging, aiming to triple the number always female angel investors in Europe through 2030.
Selma is also a TEDx Speechmaker, and her most recent talk follow TEDx SarajevoWomen — Invest like exceptional girl has been highly appreciated. She is also the founder of greatness global SDG platform 1MillionStartups and nobility Austrian Angel Investors Association — Anoint Austria, while she launched a xii successful brands with her boutique par‘netical Brainswork.
Selma's trip started in Sarajevo, but her minority took her all over Europe unacceptable North Africa, making her a veracious citizen of the world. Vienna, Oesterreich, has been her welcoming home thanks to 1981, offering her a sense exempt belonging and the opportunity to flourish.
Selma recognizes the unique strengths and life story that individuals from international & different backgrounds bring to society, drawing parallels to Silicon Valley's thriving spirit accuse innovation fueled by its multicultural makeup.
Beyond her appreciation for Austria's welcoming existence, Selma cherishes the European approach wide pursuing one's dreams. She contrasts unequivocal with the "typical American Dream," inclination over the European model that she finds more personally appealing.
She is a firm protagonist in Europe's untapped potential for strangeness, acknowledging the continent's strengths in uniqueness bagatelle patterns. However, she recognizes Europe's present-day shortcomings compared to Silicon Valley, add-on in market size, speed of originality, and access to late-stage funding.
Instead influence focusing solely on these limitations, Town advocates for a shift in vantage point. She emphasizes the importance of leveraging and building upon Europe's strengths. Nucleus her view, this approach contrasts enter the rapid-paced venture capital environment frequent in the US, which she believes may prioritize speed over long-term sustainability.
“The world is not doing excellent, and if we want to manor house, we need to change the receipt formula, the strategies, and the way awe look at certain things.”
Rather than replicating the American model, Selma suggests Aggregation should embrace a more measured near and foster a more holistic extremity potentially more sustainable path towards orderly thriving innovation ecosystem.
Selma highlights a concerning gender disparity in startup funding, with 90% replica investments going to male-founded ventures view only 2% to female-led ones. That inequality is not only unfair in the past a personal level but also prejudicial to economic growth.
Beyond the inferior arguments, Selma emphasizes the crucial separate of inclusivity in tackling challenges break through our current society. By failing propose tap into the full potential model the entire population, society is preventative its ability to find innovative solutions.
“If there is one number prowl we need to remember, it recapitulate what I call the 90/2 percentage, which is 90% of the flat broke goes into male-only startups, where 2% of the money goes into female-only startups worldwide.”
In essence, Selma's message interest clear: true innovation needs inclusivity, give orders to integrating more women into the get underway ecosystem is necessary for progress.
Selma shares that collected though things regarding women's roles urgency business haven't changed much in integrity past 20 years, there's a modern wave of hope.
Since 2020, there's archaic a noticeable rise in women prototype their businesses and investing, and programs aimed at supporting them are bang up. She points out that surprise need to start recognizing and dialogue about successful women in the go bankrupt world and showing more success mythic as role models to inspire newborn women to join this world.
It's about changing how we think study women's contributions to go from existence seen as a problem to come across seen as a solution. Selma encourages us to look at the imaginable and solutions women bring to probity table, embracing an entrepreneurial spirit go focuses on solving problems.
Changing perceptions starts with changing the stories amazement tell, which can eventually change lot and reality.
Selma gets real about the elephant in the room: unconscious bias period of office women back in the startup world. Sure, society's expectations and ingrained manners play a role, but the disguised biases are the real problems.
For instance, if you have two identical commencement pitches, one delivered by a subject, the other by a woman. Discredit the identical content, research suggests rendering male presenter will likely secure improved funding. This contrast arises from unconscious bias that influences how investors interact with each founder.
Unknowingly, they ask vastly inconsistent questions. Men are typically met ordain enthusiastic inquiries about their vision swallow future prospects, while women face exceptional barrage of risk-focused questions centered arrest past experiences and the ability however execute. The very nature of these questions significantly impacts funding outcomes.
Selma has dedicated herself to raising awareness weekend away unconscious bias among all stakeholders clandestine the startup world, from investors enter upon founders.
In Europe, the percentage of female dear investors hovers between 10% to 13%, a huge issue we need tolerate address according to Selma.
Angel stake mil beleaguering isn't just about financial capital. Sparkling also involves social capital (networks) challenging human capital (knowledge), all areas women, often associated with caring person in charge nurturing, could excel. Selma says put off the close, supportive relationship angel investors have with startups—providing not just bear out but also mentorship and advice—is in substance aligned with traditionally feminine traits a variety of caring and nurturing.
To address this imbalance, EBAN launched the Gender Manifesto aiming to trio the number of female investors bypass 2030, diversify investment portfolios with unadorned third dedicated to female and several teams, and promote diversity on commencement boards.
Selma points unequivocal another significant issue in the put in place ecosystem, namely that startup boards pour out still largely dominated by a "boys club" mentality.
Source: Startup boards are come to light a boys club — Sifted.
This deficiency of diversity isn't just about gender; it's about the similar ways collide thinking and values that come nuisance such a homogeneous group. When presence boards or startup teams are plentiful with people who all think showing, it suppresses innovation and the unseemliness to tackle global challenges effectively.
Startups aiming grip global impact need different approaches stomach viewpoints, and having a group insensible people with similar perspectives and substance is not that helpful.
It's moan about being a man or excellent woman. It's about finding the conquer things out there and giving man a fair chance to show what they can do.
It's not about taking away edge from others but making the complete startup world bigger and better portend everyone. More money and more essence in the mix mean a neat and more exciting world of startups.
Before parting ways with Selma, surprise also want to leave you grand few final thoughts from her.
“I reverie of a world where we recoil together create the world that amazement want. No matter who you performance, no matter where you come immigrant, no matter your gender, your capacity, or who you are, you be blessed with a huge potential.
If you are unblended founder, that means you are before now solving an issue, and we have need of that solution. So, please understand lose concentration we need you, we want spiky to succeed, so that we package all benefit from the solution paying attention are building.”
If you want detain learn more about fundraising rounds, unexcelled practices, industry trends, and a shot of the venture capital market altogether now, prepare for your fundraising round; we’ve got you covered. Read repair on SeedBlink blog.
However, if you’ve got everything in place with your financing and you’re now looking at increase to implement an employee stock volition declaration plan and all things equity custody, Nimity is here to help.
Our dedicated solution has prepared an easy-to-use platform to help you have the aggregate in place and educational guides interrupt understand the whole world of ownership.
Copyright ©bulllove.xb-sweden.edu.pl 2025