This October at The Fintech Times is all about the incredible women working in the fintech industry. With women still forming only around 30 per cent of the workforce, it’s important to spotlight those who are working to make a change and blazing a path for those to follow. Some influential women in fintech give their advice to aspiring women in the sector.
Eve Picker, Mariana Bulic, Melissa Frakman, and Chanelle Pattinson, share their advice for aspiring women in the fintech industry.
Eve Picker, founder at Small Change
Be realistic about the good and bad aspects of building a business. I’ll start with a negative: You’ll probably have a tough time raising money. After all, only 2-3% of VC funds go to women. You can let that stat depress you or you can move forward and refuse to give up. If you persist, you might very well become a trailblazer for other women. And that brings me to another positive: It’s an amazing experience to build a business, especially one that is forward-looking and future-thinking. Fintech is the future and so are women.
Mariana Bulic, product owner at Zumo
I would advise them to be curious, to ask questions and to have a voice. It’s important to learn as much as possible from the experienced people in the room, but they must also instruct themselves; knowledge is not magically granted, especially in a field that constantly changes – one must work hard to catch up with it. Finally, I would just say to go for it and be part of something great!
Melissa Frakman, CEO and founding partner at Emphasis Ventures
Roll up your sleeves and dig in. Map out 5 fintech companies you admire or products you love using as a consumer, and find ways to help out their team, even starting with a cold email if needed. My career started by finding ways to support the launch of Asia’s first handheld mobile ATM as an intern, and years later I still reference some of those early learnings when I lead investments in digital fintech apps today.
Chanelle Pattinson, co-founder and chartered financial planner at Money Means
Be yourself. So incredibly simple but I spent so long trying to ‘fit in’ in the finance and fintech world. As soon as started being myself my career accelerated quicker than it ever has. Also say yes to opportunities, you never know where they may lead.
