Meet The Ladies in the Girls Up Program!

It’s the time to girl up!

Featured in the Girls Up Programme, these girls share a lot about their companies and their ideas, but if you want to know more about how they thought of their companies or the hardships they faced, read below!

Following the girls’ and their stories, here is a sneak peak of what the Girls Up program is all about!

At ECosì we are a team of two – Deimante & Gabriele. I, Deimante, live in Krakow for over two years. I have always had passion for fashion and took part in fashion events, worked as a fashion stylist in several projects. A desire to start an ethical underwear brand emerged when passion for fashion met my increasing awareness about destructive practices in the fashion industry. And when two friends shared the same values – attention to quality, healthy lifestyle, desire to create and make a difference. Gabriele is a product engineer with a passion for martial arts, who lives and works on our dream in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Olivia Plum brand was influenced by travel and a love for nature. The idea of Naturally With Love conveys having love for both yourself and your environment. Olivia Plum beauty products aim for this precise, harmonious, and often elusive combination of heart and nature. Our simple, natural products are created without compromise, using carefully selected ingredients, so we can be sure of their purity and effectiveness. We encourage women to take a moment out of their day to create and own their own daily beauty rituals. As such, we provide them with a suite of beauty products to help them define and enjoy their ritual. The full Olivia Plum portfolio includes natural soaps, serums and oils for the face/body, balms as well as several accessories.

Marketing Professional with more than 13 years experience within FMCG and e-commerce. For almost a decade, worked in one of the biggest food industry companies in Poland on a highly recognizable juice brands. This included a period of living and working abroad for an international product launch in Turkey. Shifted career to e-commerce and the more female-oriented business of fashion where ran five international markets and managed distributed teams. Currently owner and founder of natural cosmetics brand Olivia Plum..

My natural cosmetics and beauty accessories allow my clients to spend some time with themselves, to make some home spa, to treat themselves with love. Showing them that using cosmetics is not obligation but it can be a ritual they offer themselves. I believe that in every person is unique and we should not follow what media, and especially nowadays, social media create and feed us with. We live in very hectic and busy times and it is super important to teach girls from very young to accept themselves as they are and that cosmetics can be used , but not in intention to cover who they really are.

We create software for professional dietitians and nutritionist to create diet plans and managing their workspace. This kind of tool is a must in this profession, because it’s impossible to create well balanced diet without advanced calculating. In short, it is an indispensable tool for nutritionists that speeds up their daily work. We are already on the market and for now, everything is going well. With this program I would like to get to know the startup’s environment better and finally show our project to the others. I have been in IT for a year, but I haven’t meet too many people in this field yet. From the business side, I would like to get to know more about management from more experienced than me and improve my business skills.

I have decided to take part as I do not get too much opportunity to meet people in this field, because we work remotely. I’m gaining business experience from the internet, books and more experienced business partners, rarely from other entrepreneurs. In my opinion, getting knowledge from the others is very valuable. I would like to be mentored, because I want to get knowledge from more experienced entrepreneurs.
I, especially, hope to receive support in business operation and content marketing topics. I would like to get to know other women entrepreneurs and share experience with them. It’s a great opportunity to meet people with similar mindset.
I always wanted to have control over my life and establish my own business, that’s why I decided to start working on my own. I was always more thinking outside the box and
creative person, I’m not good at working on schematic job. Moreover, I love to travel and running my business online gives me possibility to work remotely. I feel much freedom working on my own. For now, we are still small company, but in the future, we hope to be first software choice for dietitians. We believe that we can achieve it by our hard work, making the most competitive product on the market.

Liza is passionate about understanding how societies can foster the best on individuals. In this path she has worked for 10 years in social impact projects on companies, governments and NGOs, with an academic track in Law, International Relations and Public Policy.

‘I see you’ is a social fintech, combining aspects of a social media platform and a digital marketplace. It has 3 main features designed to encourage individuals, companies, NGOs, and governments to be more engaged in social and environmental causes, donating and volunteering better. The first feature is the smart matching system, that reduces costs and time needed to find causes in need for exactly the resource you can offer at the moment. The second is a trust score, generated by peer reviews. And the third is the online ledger to track contributions confirmed by both who gave and received in order to enhance transparency and accountability.
‘I see you’ brings concepts of the current reputation, circular and sharing economy to cause engagement, addressing social and environmental problems as it contributes to repurpose, reuse, and recycling of material resources and for individuals finding a sense of community, purpose. It’s about better connecting individuals and organizations to social and environmental causes related to their own interests, values and purpose. It’s about bringing technology in to reduces costs and time needed to find organizations that need exactly the type or resource you can provide at the moment either by donation or volunteering. It’s about transparency, accountability and trust building.

I expect to receive valuable guidance that will help reduce costs for the MVP construction and implementing. I was very inspired by the program launch as I was in that event and heard all those incredible women and entrepreneurs sharing their history to take this idea that was for some time in a drawer to see the sunlight. Applying for this felt like a natural first step. I know that raising a startup is not easy, particularly in cases like this, that the monetization is not obvious and can’t be the first focus. It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child. I believe it takes even more to raise a startup. There is an ocean of information and advices around about startups and it’s quite overwhelming. I expect in programs to have one to one conversation that can provide guidance on how to navigate. Right now, for ‘I see you’ its means support on the MVP software construction and branding.

Tadom is Cracow based startup building a web platform for a home decor market. With a team of  architects, interior designers and app developers we want to make interior renovation / fit out  process more accessible for non-professionals and friction-free for the home decor professionalists.  Our goal is creating the service platform for ecosystem of end-consumers, architects, Real-Estate  developers, shops and manufacturers, which will improve the existing experiences. Currently, we develop the simple service that makes bathroom renovation / fit-out easy for property  owners themselves: from concept design to final touch, available as a web-based  application. Tadom Moodboard application’s core functionality is to enable the user to create their  own moodboards, that is a list of bathroom fit-out and furnishing materials and accessories,  including a cost estimate. The moodboard is generated by a unique algorithmic design engine  based on an extensive database of products available on the Polish market.

Our idea is to make interior renovation / fit out process more accessible for non-professionals and  friction-free for the home decor professionalists. Currently, we develop the simple app that makes  bathroom renovation / fit-out easy for property owners themselves: from concept design to final  touch, available as a web-based application.     Networking and getting to know better the startup community, especially the female part. I’m looking  for their opinions about project and counting on their experience. I hope we can confront the ideas,  get honest feedback and as much advices as its possible.

‘No man is an island’ – networking and being the part of community is an important part of creating  your own business. Not taking the chance of knowing the experienced people in business field, would  be the act against one’s own interest. I strongly sympathize with the opinion that leader/entrepreneur weakness affects company  condition. First of all, I’m looking for personal blind-spots, way to improve it and help with creating  necessary boundaries that I cannot set for myself. I’m looking for opportunity to aptly refer to mentors experience, as well get to know their business  perspective on similar problems. On the other hand, I’m interested in their professional advice in  operation/organisation development field, good practices in company management, creating  efficient company structure.

I have always been a ‘product person’. Working with entrepreneurs and manufacturers gave me  great experience in product development. Creative environment, related to my profession, is  constantly confronting me with friction, frustration, problems to solve. This combination increased  the craving for running business of my own. Our goal is creating the service platform for ecosystem of end-consumers, architects, Real-Estate developers, shops and manufacturers, which will improve the existing experiences. We hope it will  positively affect not only the home decor industry but also raise the consumer awareness in this  field.

LIMITLESS is a new way to think about fashion within a sustainable economy. Thus, all bags and accessories are hand-made of leather collected from shoe and apparel factories. Meaning, each piece is treated individually, making each product unique. LIMITLESS is characterized by simple and timeless design, which aims to complement a variety of outfits and to reduce the need for purchasing new trends. In the production process, the company engages women and men over 50 who have lost their jobs due to the digitization and automation at their previous companies. Also, LIMITLESS encourages every woman to be herself, to be simple, beautiful, and ambitious, to be in  harmony with nature. LIMITLESS is a sustainable choice between fashion, functionality and fair production.

I wish to get mental support as an entrepreneur. Get new ideas about upcycling various materials and turn them into new fashion. Improve my marketing and selling channels.

Sometimes, I’m feeling lonely as an entrepreneur and I missing ladies that understand me. I think this programme gives me a great opportunity to share my fears and strengths and see what other girls struggle with. Also, I hope to get some positive kicks that will trigger even greater motivation and believe in my business.

With this program I wish to receive some mental support as well as to get opportunities to network and expand my reach.

Since I remember I wanted to have my own business. My parents were entrepreneurs. And, I love fashion but there wasn’t fashion with deep message so I created it myself. With my startup, I wish to cChange people’s mindset about fashion. Fashion can be both sustainable and sexy. Also, I want to indicate the problem of underestimating people over 50 who don’t catch up with new technologies. We should look deeper into our society structure.