Agata Nowicka, Female Foundry: Letting imposter thoughts take over could make you miss opportunities

Could you please give us a top layer of your journey? 

I’m Agata Nowicka and currently, I’m the founder of the Female Foundry. The platform is our mission to bring more female entrepreneurs and investors into the startup ecosystem. I also am an investor and sit in on a couple of boards and I’m a mentor at Techstars. Techstars is a pre-seed investor company, accelerating entrepreneurs with investment, mentoring, networks, and more. I began my entrepreneurial journey around eight years ago. I was an architect and lived in the US, London, and then Hong Kong where I set up my first e-commerce platform. After selling that business, I moved back to London. I joined a fintech company before going on to do my MBA in France and set up my second venture, where my co-founder and I set up a capital market startup focusing on optimising capital for investment banks. For the past 5 years, I have been a mentor and a startup advisor at several accelerator programmes and I eventually moved to the venture capital side. Venture capital is financial or resource investment placed into startups and young businesses that show promise for long-term growth. This led me to founding Female Foundry to help bring diversity into the startup ecosystem.

What drove you to begin The Female Foundry with a focus on female investors and entrepreneurs? 

I would say two things motivated me – the first was my personal experience. As a founder of a fintech startup in capital markets, I realised there was a difference in how I was perceived by investors while pitching our business. My co-founder also noticed it, so I began to dig deeper and the statistics were shocking. For example, only 2% of venture funding currently goes to female-only founder teams, and I think the statistic dropped last year.

The second factor that motivated me was the fact that I have always been surrounded by incredible women, so it was inconceivable to me that these truly incredible women wouldn’t be given the same opportunities. So I decided to do something about it. One thing that has helped me, is to realise that I am not alone, which is important to solving the problem because we are offering support and providing women with tools that they can use. 

Balancing so many plates, how do you stay afloat of your responsibilities and shifts in the industry? 

I often get asked this question, and the answer isn’t as succinct as people may think. One thing that helps me the most is the fact that I love my work, so it acts as a driving force behind anything that I do. The fact that I not only build ventures but help other ventures to be built and succeed is great. I think it is important to address the fact that even though I am doing many different things, it is easier to stay abreast of topics as they relate to the same industries and each of my roles. For example, my mentorship work gives me a unique insight into where the startup industry is, where the innovation trends are moving, and so on. I also write a weekly newsletter on the European venture industry read by over 6000 entrepreneurs and VC investors. This weekly task keeps me on my toes and pushes me to stay ahead of what is happening in the industry. 

It’s important that in startups and investments, we are keeping afloat of what is happening.

Have you experienced imposter syndrome, or encountered individuals who doubted your capabilities? How do you overcome those moments? 

I still experience imposter syndrome, and I don’t know whether this is unique to being a woman, or just being a human. I can relate to that feeling. We all have areas to work on and resolve. When I experience feelings of self-doubt, I see it as an opportunity for self-improvement. Over the years, I learned to deal with it by coming back to myself and realigning with my values – which often means that I will participate in ventures that expand me as a person professionally or personally. I regularly try to push myself out of my comfort zone. 

So while those moments of doubt are inevitable,  remember what you bring to the table and who you are, with all of your experience. Everyone’s experience is truly unique, and that in itself is a benefit. Wherever you are, whatever your situation is – that shapes you, giving you a unique perspective that gives you a competitive edge and unique value that only you will be able to realise. 

Recognise that others doubting your abilities comes from their lack of knowledge of you or they don’t want you to see yourself in a certain way. Don’t take it to heart. You can prove everyone and yourself wrong because if you let imposter thoughts take over, you might miss the right opportunities. 

What advice can you give others about finding an area of interest and learning more about it, when we are saturated with options?

Start exploring and taking risks early because when you are young the risks will be less impactful. You need to listen to yourself and find what works and aligns for you and with your instincts. This way you can build a picture for yourself of what you want and what career paths resonate with you. Learn from your experiences and trust your instincts! Sometimes the realisation can happen very early and sometimes it can take years to discover the path you want to be on – but there is nothing wrong with that. The most important thing is that you are doing what you love and finding what works for you. And I believe that if you do what you love, the rewards and compensation for your work will follow.

How do you think other organisations can benefit from the presence of more women in the venture capital industry? 

Here, we are touching on the topic of diversity and gender diversity in particular, and I’m a great believer in promoting diversity. I believe that the best business ideas are built by truly diverse teams. Having more women around the table brings a different dynamic to the conversation, and I’ve seen it time and time again. That is something that I feel organisations, startups, and teams overall can benefit from. But there is also diversity of thoughts and perspectives that can be achieved not only by bringing more gender diversity but also by having diverse experiences.

I’ve largely seen diversity bring a positive impact. I think it’s difficult to talk about the specifics because it’s such a massive conversation. I do think however that we are seeing that more people are on this mission to create more diverse teams. With Female Foundry, even though the name has ‘female’ in it, I want to express that it is my mission for it to be a completely inclusive platform. So, for example, 30% of our community are men and I have been working systematically to bring more men into our ecosystem. 

What are the main challenges in the venture capital industry for female inclusion, and what changes do you expect in the next 5-10 years?

When I look at the financial market, I’d say it is split into different areas – one being the corporate investment banking/institutional side, and the other being innovation-led financial services/fintech. There are gaps and challenges in investment banks which we see driven by a predominantly male-led environment. From what I have seen, investment banks have a very unique culture that is very results-driven and this causes challenges in itself as it doesn’t necessarily accommodate the needs of women. Moving on to the fintech and innovation-led services, we see that start-up culture has offered greater inclusivity because it offers more flexibility. Currently one of the best ways to compete for great talent is to offer a rewarding and inclusive culture at work. The market is changing currently – it’s very positive and I think it will continue. In the next five to ten years, I don’t think that we will see any major revolutions, but we will continue to see positive strides being made. 

What advancements are you most excited to see in the venture capital space? How do you think that they will impact society’s way of life currently?

It’s a big question! I’m going to talk about the next couple of years because we don’t know where the world is going to go. So, I’m very excited about generative AI and its potential and application of these technologies. They have great potential in society, especially in things like MedTech and other industries where the adoption of the technology has been slow. Another area I am excited about is quantum computing – how it will accelerate the adoption of other technologies and have a knock-on effect on investing opportunities in the venture capital space.

The other area of great interest to me is climate tech which is already starting to pick up. Last year it was the fastest-growing category for the venture capital space. Startups will find creative ways to address climate change. Climate tech is used on a corporate level, but I want to see how it is used to change our lives beyond the corporate world. These are the few areas that I am most excited to see evolve, and we will see real-life applications that will make an impact. Let’s see what happens!