Marking female founders separately is wrong, says Maraja Fistanic. Here she shows how people should react confidently to stereotypical views.
The founder Maraja Fistanic was first overlooked in a meeting and then sent to fetch coffee – because she is a woman? Getty Images / Hector Roqueta Rivero
In this guest article series, founders of the Digital Hub Initiative share their perspective on the start-up scene and show how they have mastered key challenges and driven their growth. Contributed by Maraja Fistanic, Founder and CMO of LegalTegrity.
In my private and professional everyday life I often come across the label “Female Founder”. First of all, I understand that, because that’s what I am: one female founder. And of course there are differences between men and women who start a business. However, I am convinced that we do not need these categories.
I am part of a three-person founding team. We are two women and one man. In this constellation I have experienced strange situations several times. At one point my co-founder had to point out that I was one of the founders. Until then they had initially overlooked me and then wanted to send me to fetch coffee.
In such cases, I stay calm and think carefully about whether a discussion is worth it. Experience has shown that humor and friendliness get you the furthest. Reservations are usually resolved in a personal conversation. Once you’re face to face and have found your way into the conversation, you can play to your personal strengths – and these are completely independent of gender.
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Together instead of against each other
Women are still underrepresented in the German startup ecosystem. This has long been recognized and reacted to. There are currently many opportunities for female founders to get involved and be supported. However, men do not always react positively to this. I have heard comments several times such as, “You are only being reported on because you are women.” This is unnecessary and only increases the existing discrepancy between male and female founders. We have to work much more with each other instead of against each other. Everyone should wonder why we women are always referred to as “Female Founders” but this is never an issue for men.
In my opinion, there is still a stereotypical way of thinking among founders. Women’s networks are wrongly assumed to only support the interests of female entrepreneurs. Or that you benefit from more support programs if you are a woman. That’s nonsense. Anyone who starts a company has to be busy, convince investors and find their own leadership style. The challenges are the same for all of us. However, according to studies, men still have an advantage: In Europe, startups run by women only receive a meager two percent of the money provided by investors. German female founders receive almost nine times less funding than startups with male founding teams. In order to change this in the long term, we have to permanently banish thinking in pigeonholes from our heads.
Respond confidently to stereotypical views
It’s not just us women who encounter prejudice. My co-founder has also experienced situations in which he had to refute this. We are a diverse team, not only in terms of gender but also age. I’m half the age of our co-founder. Investors often smugly question whether he joined forces with us women in order to be more successful.
My credo now is: Don’t let yourself go crazy. Even in my previous job at a law firm, resilience was often necessary. Without a legal background and as a woman, you faced many challenges. My co-founder is a lawyer. As an IT company that specializes in corporate compliance and working with whistleblowers, this is essential. Technically, we are both experts in what we do. This is immediately confirmed to him. I, on the other hand, sometimes have to fight to get this to be granted to me as a woman. What makes me happy is that something is happening in this regard among German medium-sized businesses. Our software solution is aimed at this target group and we notice that it is positively received when a team consists of people of different ages and genders.
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Personality wins
During my time as a founder, I learned that individuality and your own personality are the crucial aspects. My quality, my charisma, my values or my leadership style have absolutely nothing to do with my gender. These things are my personality, they make me a person. Men, just like women, have to find their own style with which they want to fulfill the role of founder. It is clear that there will always be differences between the sexes. Accepting this makes it easier to deal with and respond confidently to prejudices. I realized that I have my own style when my former boss tried – with good intentions – to teach me his leadership style. It started with little things, like writing emails in his writing style. I realized it just wasn’t coming through my fingers or lips like he would have wanted. And I came to the realization: That’s a good thing. I consciously chose my own path. Because I lead differently and found a different tonality more appropriate.
As a woman, you always have to be aware of the fact that in order to lead successfully, you don’t have to act like a man, but rather define your own leadership style. This will always be more successful than a copied one. I, for example, am not a fierce decision-maker and never will be. It doesn’t suit me. But that doesn’t mean I can’t express my opinion.
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In order to learn and continue to develop, the exchange with others is most important to me. I advise everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to gain added value for themselves from the experiences and learnings of others. It can also be helpful to look for role models. Look for women and men whose work and leadership styles inspire you. In the long term, together we will create a diverse startup ecosystem in which stereotypes are a thing of the past.
Maraja Fistanic, MBA, is the founder and CMO of LegalTegrity, the digital whistleblower system for medium-sized businesses. Her area of expertise is the interface between marketing, digital business models and the legal industry. Previously, she was managing director of a European law firm association and project and marketing manager of a law firm in Frankfurt aM. With her passion for digital, she completed her MBA in digital transformation management and focused on the success of business model innovations in legaltech companies. Today she is also a board member of the Legal Tech Association of Germany.