With this post I am willing to open a new space in my blog to share, every Friday afternoon, a quick review of books I have read. Hopefully good food for thought. On Twitter #myweekendreading #foodforthought *** What do startups need to succeed? Indeed, the startup journey is full of obstacles and many factors could ease or hinder its success. In The Role of Ecosystems in Developing Startups. Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research, edited by Pierluigi Rippa, Cyrine Ben-Hafaïedh, Agnieszka Kurczewska, Mario Raffa and Mirela Xheneti (Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, £80 or £25 ..read more

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“I mean, you think about even traditional, people still go to the movies, they still sit down, they watch a two hour movie, and that hasn’t changed in decades. So I think the way we connect and how we tell stories kind of is the same, just the medium’s a little different.” (Marvin Chow, VP, Global Marketing, Google about how building a brand has changed over the last decade ..read more

“Our growth at all costs mindset is no longer viable.” (Tom Wehmeier, Partner, Atomico ..read more

Whilst waiting for the regulatory approval, Invesdor, an equity-based crowdfunding platform based in Helsinki, Finland and Oneplanetcrowd, a sustainable crowdfunding platform based in Amsterdam announced a merge. As a leading investor in Oneplanetcrowd, the venture capital firm Unknown Group, welcomed the merger, “Both Oneplanetcrowd and Invesdor share the ambition to bring together impact entrepreneurs and investors from across the European Union,” a press release states. The merger signs a phase of consolidation in the market as a consequence of the new ESCP regulation in the European Union ..read more

A recent study titled Women Angel Insights: The impact of female angels on the UK economy found that female business angels have backed businesses that have gone on to reach high growth and scale over the 10 years of tracked deals contributing to the creation of 10.3k jobs, with this cohort of companies reporting an average headcount growth of 24.8%, facilitated by the investment they have received. This confirms, as pointed out by Jenny Tooth OBE, Executive Chair, UK Business Angels Association and Co-Chair of the Women Angel Investment Task Force, “the huge contribution that female angel inv ..read more

“Gen Z is expected to account for more than a quarter of the world’s workforce by 2025 and this trend is likely to accelerate. The changing tide is particularly acute in emerging markets such as Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, where youth account for more than one billion of the entire population.” (APCO Worldwide ..read more

Investors are spending 24% less time looking at pitch decks in 2022, compared to 2021. On average, you have just under three minutes to convince them to take a meeting with you.  Find out more here ..read more

How can intellectual activism transform work and organizations? How can we support women entrepreneurs historically marginalised in the Global South? These are some of the questions the 2023 Gender, Work and Organization (GWO) conference will try to address. Hosted for the first time on African shores at Stellenbosch, South Africa, the conference theme is Marginalised gender identities – how can intellectual activism transform work and organization?  Among the others, Stream 22 focuses on Women entrepreneurship: sustainable and inclusive economic growth ..read more

 “Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper; inequalities are growing wider; challenges are spreading father… we need hope… we need action across the board.” (UN’s Secretary-General, António Guterres ..read more