What do you do when your startup has outgrown the academy but is still too small for investors? At the latest Women in Tech meetup at Technology Park Split, two founders and one woman from sales shared their answers, with no fluff and plenty of real experience.

We opened the evening with a short introduction to Technology Park Split, Split Tech City and our membership, after which each speaker presented herself and her story.

Three speakers, three different paths

Andrea Čeprnja talked about her path from frontend developer to founder of the startup Coffer. Coffer offers a simple, beautiful and safe way to gift cryptocurrency through gift boxes.

Emanuela Milina presented LemonsLemons. Her closing message was that LemonsLemons is what comes after influencers, and whoever jumps into the new model first is the first to earn.

Ana Grgantov, account manager, brought the sales perspective and explained how she ended up in tech sales in the first place.

Mistakes that teach you more than success

We opened the panel with mistakes from the early days of their businesses, and there were all kinds. Emanuela talked about details that seem unimportant at first, such as delivery services’ procedures. Those are exactly the things that can block you at the very last step.

Andrea shared a different kind of mistake. She wanted everything to be branded and perfect from day one, so she had to bring her high ambitions back down to reality.

Investors, first clients and the power of community

We also discussed when it makes sense to enter a relationship with an investor at all, given that it also means giving up part of the ownership.

Then we moved on to first clients: how they found them and how much the local community matters. As it happens, two of the three panelists went through the Startup Academy at Technology Park Split and are also members of Split Tech City.

Energy to remember

The energy was fantastic, and we even had a baby on the panel. Emanuela had nowhere to leave her little one that evening, but at an event where women are the majority, that was no problem at all. In the end, the baby was the best-behaved participant of the evening. 🙂

The socializing continued at the Technology Park café over soparnik and drinks. Most of the audience stayed for networking, exchanging contacts and getting to know each other.

A recording of the panel will soon be available on the Split Tech City YouTube channel. Still, we always recommend coming in person, because we all know the important conversations happen after the official part.

That same evening Split was bidding farewell to Mišo Kovač, so many people could not make it. That is why we opened the evening with one of Mišo’s songs. The forty or so people who did come showed once again that growth, progress and expanding your business network sometimes require sacrifices. Thank you for that, we believe it was worth it. Thanks also to Andrea, Emanuela and Ana for their honesty, and to the Technology Park Split team for co-organizing.

Another successful edition of the Women in Tech meetup is behind us. See you at the next one!