Female Founders in a Male-Dominated Tech Field

IE’s Entrepreneurship Club and Women in Business Club teamed up to create an evening featuring IE Business School alumni sharing their entrepreneurial journey in the tech sector as women.

The evening, backed by Campus Life, featured Eleanor Manley and Helena Oettingen, creators of Metta-Space, a B2B deep-tech platform helping companies erradicate sexual harassment from the workplace via innovative solutions.

Manley graduated with a Master in Business Analytics & Big Data and Oettingen with a Master in Cyber Security.

“For any entrepreneurial journey you should always try a fast product even if it is very basic,” advised Manley. “When you start a company, especially if you are going down the same road as we are, it is really encouraged to do accelerated programs.”

Oettingen spoke about the greatest challenge they faced on their entrepreneurial journey-- being women.

“Currently only about 2% of European startups are founded exclusively by women. So the challenge was walking into a scene where most startups were founded by a team of three men.”

Manley agreed and said that it also excited them to be original.

“You have to choose your challenges and prove them wrong.”
Eleonor Manley, Co-founder at Meta Space

“In the end, female-led startups are generally more successful, which has been proven by statistics,” said Oettingen.

Manley highlighted how important networking is and how IE professors helped in this journey.

The event was followed by a Q&A from the audience about how the entrepreneurial environment is changing for women, how to end patriarchy and the ways tech brings people together.