Diversity & Female Entrepreneurship
Anyone can start a business! – that is our guiding principle in the “Startup-Port” association, which we carry into the world with our offers and contributions. But some trends can still be seen in the startup scene today that point to unequal opportunities. For example, women are still significantly underrepresented as founders of startups and are correspondingly less perceived by the public.
The causes of this imbalance are complex. On this page you will therefore find offers that are explicitly aimed at women as well as our positioning on diversity, with which we invite potential partners to network and develop synergies.
Discover the founding spirit in yourself and inspire others with your founding story! We are happy to support you in this.
Our attitude
As a university network, we see our contribution to strengthening diversity in the start-up ecosystem of the Hamburg metropolitan region in particular in tackling existing access barriers in a solution-oriented manner and making role models visible. Disadvantage thrives best where it is concealed or overlooked. With our offers, publications and official positioning, we would therefore like to take action against such blind spots in start-up support and offer access to all those who have a desire to start up.
We represent a broad understanding of diversity and do not limit our concern to the consideration of only one particular category. In our public relations work and program design, we pay attention to diversity-sensitive communication and deal not only with the significance of gender or so-called migration background in the context of founding, but also, for example, with the professional diversity among founders.
In our internal strategy, we have nevertheless decided to set a focus. The share of female founders in Germany remains low at 18% (source: German Startup Monitor 2021 – regional breakdown Hamburg). Even though we in Hamburg have been above the national average since last year and female founders make up 21% here (ibid.), this is a ratio that indicates an imbalance and signals an urgent need for action. Wherever women are underrepresented, their specific perspectives fall short and much potential is lost that could benefit everyone in the form of innovations and economic as well as overall societal developments.
Founding remains an individual decision, but must not be prevented by structural discrimination and stereotypical role models. For this reason, we are committed to strengthening female entrepreneurship and valuing social diversity with our work and networking power.
For those interested in founding a company
Here you will find our offers for female founders as well as current events on the topics of gender and diversity. If you have any questions about the offers or suggestions, please contact the responsible colleague Rafael Jancen: rafael.jancen@haw-hamburg.de
