Celebrating International Women’s Day: Meet The B-School Female Founders

 

Angelica Conraths, Trinity Business School, fembites

Hometown: Cologne and Ulm, Germany

Business Degree: M.Sc. Entrepreneurship (Class of 2019)

Why did you choose to study your course at Trinity Business School?:

I chose to study Entrepreneurship because I’ve always found the idea of building a business from scratch fascinating and wanted to found a business on my own one day. The course gave me the tools and the practical experience I needed to feel more confident in getting started.

Also, Trinity was my first choice because the campus is phenomenal with its location in the middle of the city of Dublin, close to the business district, and was the only course that focused on a more practical approach, which I think is very valuable in Entrepreneurship.

Tell us more about your company/organization and what you do:

With fembites, we close the gender data gap of nutrition by combining functional snacks with the gender shift to create snack supplements catering to the specific needs of female bodies during their menstrual cycle.

We started by developing a chocolate free of nasty additives, refined sugars and supplemented with Vitamin B6, which contributes to the regulation of hormone activity and ayurvedic plant powders. This makes it the first-ever alternative to conventional chocolates for the female body. 

We were sold out in less than two weeks of launching. Our second product, fempow, is the first-ever supplement cacao powder, which uses Vitamin B6 for the regulation of hormone activity and other key vitamins and minerals, which can contribute to well-being before and during menstruation. Our third product, femgums, is the first-ever gummy vitamin made from 100% fruit purée, no nasty additives or sugars, and supplemented with key vitamins to support the female body during the menstrual cycle, specifically catering to pre-menstrual sensitivity. We started in June 2021 and are currently only operating within Germany and Austria.

Was it always your goal to found a company?:

I started out in hospitality, did my undergraduate degree in that field, and worked for several 5 Star hotels around the world. During my last semester, I had a course called “Entrepreneurship” and had to come up with an innovative idea for a hotel and write a business plan for that. I was hooked. The idea that I could create something entirely new, encouraged me to sign up for different start-up workshops and events in the following years. So yes, founding a company was a big goal of mine.

What advice would you have for other entrepreneurial women that want to found a company?:

Just do it and get started. You will never feel entirely ready and you will face a lot of challenges along the way, but you will figure everything out. The key to success is having a clear goal in mind and believing that you can reach it. With a clear focus and enough resilience (which you will build), you can take one step at a time. Be bold enough to be unperfect, trust that you can make it, and you will.

How do you think your experience at b-school will help you with your venture?:

So far, I have already been able to use a lot of what I was taught in business school. Brand Management, Finance, all the pitches I’ve got to do in front of large audiences, and the network I build, meeting up with some great personalities – all these experiences shaped me and gave me a good base of knowledge to build upon.

What are your hopes for the future of women in business?: 

My hopes are big. I am hoping that the funding gap for female entrepreneurs will narrow asap.

We already know that females outperform males when it comes to long-term success, and there are great initiatives supporting female founders in particular. But the start-up world is still male-dominated and only 15% of overall VC funding is allocated to female founders.

I know a lot of great female founders, who are struggling to get VC money. You can even see it on TV. Take Dragon’s Den for example. In one episode of the German version, a 22-year-old man presented the investors with an idea of a beer backpack and got three offers. The investors congratulated him on being so young and innovative. In another episode, two women presented their start-up, which had already generated revenue and had a great track record. Not only didn’t they receive just one offer, but they were also asked about their past business experience and family plans. Again, the 22-year-old man, who got three offers, had never even had an internship.