Minc Capital Day: Why inclusion and diversity matters

At Minc, we work actively with inclusion and to get more women interested in investing and entrepreneurship. Therefore, we are proud to be able to say that for the first time ever, 50% of the pitching companies at this year’s Minc Capital Day had female founders and CEOs!

However, today only 1% of all invested venture capital goes to female-founded companies, and even though male entrepreneurs are in majority, the number is nowhere near 99%. To highlight the need for equality and diversity in the startup industry, we’ve asked three of the CEOs who participated in Minc Capital a few questions about their experiences.

Hi! Who are you and what does your company do?

Alice: I’m Alice and I’m the CEO of ComVal Research, and we’re optimizing business strategy through internal communication analysis. We target 250+ employee organizations that want to improve their performance by utilizing the power in internal communication. I have a background in the tech and innovation system, being an Lund University Innovation employee, and I’ve previously been the managing director of Pink Programming.

Charlotte: My name is Charlotte Persson and I'm the CEO and co-founder of Awaio. Awaio is an app for office sharing. Awaio wants to transform the way we go to work with the vision of a freedom in terms of where, how, and when you work.

Louise: My name is Louise Wrange and I’m the CEO and co-founder of VoiceDiagnostic. Our team combines cross-sectional research in medicine, speech language pathology, and mathematical statistics to enable a more objective and evidence-based speech therapy. We develop a speech therapy platform through which speech therapists can create, adapt, and asses treatments while patients get support and guidance in carrying out their voice exercises from home, and get instant feedback on their development toward their target voice.

What does diversity and inclusion mean to you? Why are they important?

Louise: It means to acknowledge and celebrate differences as strengths and seeing that without differences in educational background, in socioeconomic background, in culture, in ethnicity, and in gender, our ability to thrive and innovate as a society is limited - because we only see a fraction of the challenges and possibilities. More importantly, it means to review our conscious and unconscious actions and thoughts to identify our own, our company’s, and our society’s built-in bias and prejudice, and take action.

Have you participated in similar events before, and if so, how does the gender ratio generally look?

Alice: Not in the role I’m in now, but I’ve been to startup events before where there’s usually a lot of men pitching.

What impact do you think that a 50/50 gender ratio among the participants had on the event?

Charlotte: The fact that there was an equal number of men and women at Minc Capital just made me extra happy, and I felt that the event was extra powerful and important from that perspective - signaling value, inspiration, and hope for the future.

Lastly, what was the best part of Minc Capital Day?

Louise: Without a doubt, the best part was meeting other startups and interacting with investors in a relaxed yet highly professional environment.

Alice: Everything from the support during the preparation phase, the actual event and the meetings we got out of it. I really loved the entire journey and hope I’ll be able to take part again in the future.

Charlotte: The best part of Minc Capital was the experience and the collective power to make the world a better place.

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About Minc

At Minc, we believe in creating something bigger than yourself. We offer everything an entrepreneur needs to go from concept to market in-house. Our international network of advisors and award-winning programs will help your startup scale faster and smarter. Welcome to the startup house of Malmö.

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