Nataschawegelin, aka Madame Moneypenny, has been successful with personal branding for a decade. She reveals how this strategy works and what risks come with it in “How Startup Works”.
Nataschawegelin became known as “Madame Moneypenny”. The multiple founder relies on personal branding for her company. Jacqueline Häussler
Turning a blog into a company – Nataschawegelin has achieved it. Under the brand “Madame Moneypenny” she has been providing financial education specifically for women for around a decade. Today,wegelin’s company scales through paid mentorship programs. The entrepreneur now also employs a team of 20.
In the start-up scene podcast “This is how Startup works,”wegelin talks about how she became Madame Moneypenny, how she turned it into a business and why she still relies on herself as a personal brand to this day – even though that also involves risk.
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“I felt like a detective who had uncovered a crime.”
The topic of finance caught up with her when she first founded the company, sayswegelin. At that time she was in her mid-20s and founded the startup WG-Suche. “And suddenly I was self-employed, so I no longer paid into the statutory pension insurance and inevitably had to ask myself the question: What should I actually do now to make provisions for old age?”
Wegenin then came across a financial advisor from an insurance company who sold her various products. It wasn’t until three years later that she found out that these products came with high fees – which ate up a large part of her deposit. “And that was the last push I needed. I was really angry with myself that I hadn’t thought about the topic enough beforehand,” sayswegelin in the Gründerszene podcast. So she started to get comprehensive information.
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She then quickly realized that she wasn’t the only one who had been sold on overpriced financial products. She has also learned more and more about problems such as the pension gap and poverty in old age – problems that affect women more often than men. “I really felt like a detective who had now uncovered a grievance that many people were already aware of, but not top of mind,” sayswegelin on “This is how startup works”. “And so I said: Well, okay, if no one does it, then I’ll tackle the issue now. And then I started writing the blog.”
Madame Moneypenny remains loyal to women
The Madame Moneypenny blog not only produced several books, but also a large community and online courses. Wegenin always aimed directly at a female target group – until today. Although their content is not necessarily gender specific. Wegenin says that this specification is crucial: “It grew out of need.” On the one hand, because she had the experience back then that women in particular had not given much thought to the topic of finance. And secondly, because from their point of view there were no rooms for it. “When I started to inquire about stocks and the like, I was also in various Facebook groups and they were all very male-dominated,” sayswegelin. In response to questions from investors, she has also been given the tip that it would be better to look for a rich man. “And it was such a disgusting, strange feeling that I thought: Okay, you better keep to yourself here,” sayswegelin. When it came to Madame Moneypenny, it quickly became clear to her: “What we do is by women, for women. And only women are admitted.”
In recent years, she has been repeatedly advised to open her programs to men, sayswegelin. But for the entrepreneur, that’s out of the question: “As I’ve often been told: Do the same thing for men and you can make twice as much money. But I am firmly convinced that if I do that, the thing will actually be dead. Because then this safe space will be lost.”
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Risk: Personal Brand
To this day, Nataschawegelin remains the focus of her brand as Madame Moneypenny herself. Podcasts, books, mentoring programs: everywhere not only has Wegelin’s face on it, but alsowegelin in it. Last year the entrepreneur took a break for six months because she had a child. She bridged this time with pre-produced content. This is also possible becausewegelin’s company now has 20 other people who keep the day-to-day business running, even when the face of the brand is not there. Nevertheless, the question arises as to what happens ifwegelin is unplanned.
Nataschawegelin answers these and more questions in the current episode of “How Startup Works”.