The event which took place during the last week of February is implemented under the Erasmus program of the EU, together with UNWE – the University of National and World Economy.
DIGI WOMEN is aimed at developing a curriculum that offers training and mentoring sessions tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs digitizing their business and helping them overcome the obstacles they face. Marco Filippi, CEO and Founder of Volvero, being one of the invited mentors, shared his experience in the interview for the Bulgarian National Radio:
3 min read
Marco, how did you find out about the project?
I found out about Digi Women because I was already in touch with one of the organizers of the program since it is not the first time for me to take part in similar events organized by the EU, and I am happy to be here because I can share my international experience with the other participants.
The seminar is about educating women entrepreneurs, so you are now on the side of educators. What have you learned being on that side and what is your impression of the event?
Being a woman is difficult and being a woman entrepreneur is even more difficult. So, first and foremost, congrats to all of the women striving to innovate and being entrepreneurs themselves. Based on that, every time someone is having some trouble or has to solve some challenges, women need to fight more against the system rather than men. This put women in the condition of being able to have more weapons, more tools for becoming better entrepreneurs. When women innovate, they do it differently from men, they do it with new tools and new business models. That is because of the different mindset in which usually women grow: it is like left-handed people against right-handed people. So, you are growing in a world that is going in one direction and you need to always be different and try to solve challenges in a different way, that is why women are often more innovative than men.
What do you think about what women entrepreneurs shared during the seminar?
I have to be honest, during the week of the event, there were both women and men attending. And I have to state that usually women are more active and interested in what we are sharing. They also come with some very relevant experience and expertise. During the seminar, we met women from Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Greece, and they definitely showed more participation and interest in the topic, and they were more willing to learn. I think this is very connected with what I said before, indeed, it shows that women are trying to take advantage of this opportunity that is very relevant.
Since the subject of the seminar is digitalization, what is the level of digitalization in Italian SMEs?
In Italy, we are quite laggard. There are countries that are doing better than Italy. But in some way, we are lucky because right now, most SMEs in Italy are run by young managers, and with young management, digitalization is coming in a faster way. And it is very important as digitalization is adding efficiency to the execution of the business, and with it, we can not only reduce costs but improve the business model and delivery of the service to the clients. Finally, it allows us to open new business opportunities and markets.
As we have little time left, do you want to say a couple of words about your business?
Volvero is a tech start-up born around four years ago. Volvero is an app for connecting owners of vehicles with the community of drivers. It offers a better car rental experience in which private owners can share their vehicles with the drivers who need to rent one for a day or more. As of today, our team is composed of seventeen people, and I have to say that more than half of them are incredible, amazing, talented women.
