2 weeks ago, Her Time Romania started the competition "Her Business: Social Entrepreneurship Competition", who came to the aid of young aspiring entrepreneurs. They were given the opportunity to present their plan that could win them the grand prize of 500$ offered by Bennington College to start their business. 

The stigma that "it's a man's world" it still comes up in the minds of some when it comes to entrepreneurship or leadership positions, and many of us can be put off by it. There is a fairly sharp difference between the number of men in leadership positions and the number of women. Romanian women cover 38% of the total number of entrepreneurs (source: Apr 11 Portrait of the Romanian businesswoman: Professional, higher education, mature age). Diversity in the workplace has several benefits: more talent and different perspectives, better collaboration thanks to women's communication skills, increased productivity. That's why we need female representation on this side, for our voices to be heard. The business world is big enough for everyone who has good ideas and intentions, is ready to put in the effort and doesn't give up easily. The purpose of this competition was to provide the support that is needed and to show that it can be done. 

How was the competition organized?

With the emergence of the initiative, preparations began. From December to February, approximately 30 female ambassadors dedicated themselves to the organization of this competition, from press releases and poster creation to a two-week promotional campaign. We also organized a series of live shows and introduced mentors to our community: Giulia Dinu – 12 senses; Andra Maria Veduvă – HIBOO AI; Irina Alionte – Bodyshape Romania; Ada Galeș – We Are Phoenix Shop, in a series of posts we learned about their story, which you will also discover in the following lines. Following the promotion and getting to know the mentors on our feed, we had over 120 sign-ups, with applicants aged between 18 and 26, of which 3 lucky teams had the opportunity to work with the 4 mentors over two weeks.

Discover the pitches of the teams

The first team created a business plan for an interactive fashion application, BeeU, with the help of mentor Giulia Dinu. For their presentation, the girls created 3D animations, a prototype app and came to the judges with a complete concept package.

The second team, Youth-Ink, came up with the idea of an online informal education platform that would fill in the gaps of public education in Romania: personal branding, anti-racist education, how to enter the labor market. They were helped during the competition by mentors Andra Văduvă and Irina Alionte.

DoubleDot, the third team, developed the idea of an online platform for music freelancers who could be contacted by companies or businesses looking for their services. The idea also contains extra options within the platform, such as a buy/sell section for instruments; the team was mentored by Ada Galeș.

How was the competition?

The participants benefited from 2 sessions with mentors, where they received an introduction to entrepreneurship, advice on strategy, concept, promotion and budget, then vis à vis feedback on the progress of the first week and tips for a successful pitch.

The final consisted of each team presenting, after the 2 weeks of competition, a business pitch in English with interactive elements: animations, logos, market surveys, application and website models. Susan Sgorbati, the director of the CAPA department at Bennington College, the sponsor of the competition, was also present at the finals. 

Meet the mentors:

Irina Alionte, Body Shape Romania

Irina Alionte, young Romanian entrepreneur with multiple awards, empowerment coach and speaker. He founded Bodyshape Transformation Center in 2015, a center that not only helps people on their fitness journey, but also to have more confidence and love themselves even more, which earned him the award for "Most Innovative Startup" . The BodyShape Transformation Center concept promotes complete body transformation programs that combine personalized training with personal trainers, nutrition and motivational techniques for real and lasting results.

Giulia Dinu – 12 Senses

Giulia Dinu is 23 years old and the founder of 12SENSES, an eCommerce – monthly fragrance subscription. 12SENSES is the perfect way to discover new fragrances without buying a whole bottle. Every month you will receive a reserve of 8 ml of an original perfume that you choose yourself. You replace the reserve in the personalized device, received in the first month of subscription, and enjoy new perfumes from your favorite brands.

Ada Galeș – We are Phoenix Shop

Ada Galeș is an actress at the National Theater in Bucharest, personal development advisor, founder of the I Admire Women community. She recently became an entrepreneur, creating the business We are Phoenix, a brand of products for the body and our personal space (because "home" is wherever we are happy and safe).

PHOENIX represents the quality of the self to change and transform. "You are the heroine/hero of our products, they are meant for you." says Ada. We are Pheonix Shop is an organization through which women will be able to support each other and create sustainable jobs for as many people as possible. PHOENIX creates pampering products: for home (scented candles) and body (soap, salt and bath bombs) and often launches something new. 

 Andra Vuduvă – HIBOO AI

Andra is a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee in the field of Emotional Artificial Intelligence and Software Innovation for industries focused on women. Her mission is to cultivate and spread empathy through artificial intelligence (AI). Andra is the founder and CEO of Hiboo, an Artificial Intelligence engine that recognizes and understands emotions through language. Hiboo is also developing the first assistant that uses artificial intelligence to solve the challenges of women and minorities in the workplace. She is an ambassador for the WomenTech Network in North America and an activist for empathy-based technologies.

Hiboo makes AI empathetic through a unique technology based on empathic conversation patterns. Hiboo is also developing the first assistant based on this emotional artificial intelligence, which is built as a workplace ally for women and COPD (an American term that describes minorities in the US). Furthermore, Hiboo works with organizations around the world to build "human" assistants that require empathy and improve the experience of users using these platforms. This artificial intelligence engine "injects" empathy into digital products at every stage of technological development.

Who won?

The Youth-Ink team, mentored by Irina Alionte and Andra Văduvă, won the grand prize of $500; the team mentored by Ada Galeș, DoubleDot, was awarded with $300 for 2nd place; and the team mentored by Giulia Dinu, BeeU, was awarded $150 for 3rd place, thanks to the generous sponsor, Bennington College, represented by Susan Sgorbati.

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Both the participants and the mentors were delighted by the opportunity to form a team with other ambitious and hardworking young women, to meet professionals in the field and to accumulate knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship, "in 2 weeks more than in 2 years of school" according to a participant.

Subscribe to the newsletter https://lnk.bio/hertimeromania to read an exclusive interview with representatives of each participating team in March and keep an eye on our social media pages as we will keep you updated on the progress of each team, but especially the winning one.

Thanks to the participants, mentors, sponsor, media sponsors, the Her Time team and the Her Time community for being with us.

We hope to see you next year, why not, with a second edition.