EmpowHerMent story: Discover how Andrea Herget, Co-Founder & COO of FINDS, is creating a more sustainable fashion industry

Our conversation with Andrea also touched on her fundraising journey, on 
what can be done to address the funding gap for women-led startups and 
on how female founders can give back when they become investors. 

Could you briefly tell us about FINDS?

FINDS was born out of the problem of unsold stock in fashion and cosmetics, an industry that overproduces by around 30%. This represents a huge economic and sustainability challenge. FINDS is actually the first system that fills a gap for brands, helping them manage their unsold stock with a data-driven approach 

FINDS helps fashion & cosmetic enterprises manage their unsold products — the ones that usually sit in warehouses or get thrown away. We’ve built technology that decides where these products should go and at what price, automatically. It saves brands weeks of manual work and prevents waste at scale. Think of us as the “smart system” behind circular inventory management.

What brought you to FINDS and how did you get started as an entrepeneur?

What brought me to this company actually goes back to my roots. I’m originally Hungarian and my grandparents used to be tailors. I grew up with fashion, my grandfather managed a huge factory back in the day in Hungary and my grandparents even created clothes for me.

When I started studying and working in the fashion industry and understood how polluting, wasteful and dysfunctional it is, my mission became to make it better and help it survive. I believe that this industry is full of dreams, beauty and aesthetics, so let’s make it beautiful again.

What has been your personal experience with accessing funding as a woman entrepreneur?

I have a male co-founder and we share our responsibilities on a 50/50 basis, since we created the company together. I have to say that, at the start of the company, I relied more on him for fundraising because as women, you have this model and mindset that it’s better for your co-founder to do the raising. I was still implementing it, but he was leading this part.

Over time, I also rose up to a position where I am fully participating in fundraising and feeling confident in it. Because, as a woman, I think it’s also about how confident you feel about yourself, and then about fully going for it.

Besides confidence, what factors do you think might influence how investors respond during fundraising? Could there be other challenges or biases involved?

Of course. The numbers and the reality play the biggest role in this because we know that only 2% of all funding goes to all-women founding teams. We are in a world in which investment and even technology companies are mostly male-led, so the context does not help.

But I do believe that a lot of things come from you. If you believe that you can do it, then you can do it. But, as women, we do not grow up like this. Our role models, maybe even the verbal messages we receive while growing up do not tell us that this is possible.

I think that the context is not in our favour. So, of course, initiatives like WomenINvestEU and others can also help accelerate female founders and help them access funds faster. As a result, we as founders can also become investors in the future. I think this is the step-by-step process to move towards equality in the future.

And what role do you think that investors themselves can play in closing the funding gap for women entrepreneurs?

I think pushing it a little bit harder and further, maybe by joining initiatives like this, that are focused on women. 

I don’t think that the problem is that men actively prefer to work with men, but that like attracts like. So, as a man, you will obviously relate more to another man, and I think that if there is extra exposure for women-led startups at the beginning, that definitely helps accelerate investment into them.

What would be your advice for aspiring female founders?

To work on your mindset and to remove everything that we heard while growing up: that women cannot do this, that we are not made for this. Because removing this thought will already do 80% of the work. It’s about putting yourself out there and not having any dark clouds in your head about not being equal to a man. This is really the big work that we have to do.

Then, as a woman founder, you also need to give back. So, if you become an investor, for example, you should maybe also keep helping other women as a priority. This is how, in the future, I would like to help other women build their startups.

About the Matchmaking on Digital Technologies 

What were the highlights of the WomenINvestEU Matchmaking on Digital Technologies for you?

We all know the percentages, so being in the room with mainly women founders and investors is very rare as a female entrepreneur. I think it was very special to see so many great projects, initiatives and investors in one place, it’s not something you experience a lot. And I think we need to have spaces in which we can experience this more and more often. Because that also motivates us as women and shows us that it’s possible – “look at this other woman, she also made it!”

I liked hearing about other amazing projects, I got inspired by other women and connected to them after the event.

 

And what were your motivations for applying to participate in the event in the first place?

I would say that my motivation was, again, to be in a space in which I could connect with female investors, because we already raised a pre-seed and are now raising our seed round, and for now we only have one woman as an investor.

It's not because we chose to, but because it's so hard to find women investors. I think we need to have more women investors, because I believe that they will bring in advice that is different from what we can get if there’s only male investors. So, that’s really important – we want to change this seed round to have more women investors or to have only women investors.

What would you say to entrepreneurs who may be considering applying for upcoming matchmaking events?

Prepare your pitch well, make it very clear and keep less text on the slides, make it more about transmitting your message. And look forward to a great event, to connecting and to inspiring people.

About the EmpowHerMent Stories

From now on, WomenINvestEU will be publishing regular stories on women entrepreneurs, women in leadership roles in the investment sector and representatives of wider organizations on gender-focused investing. 

Thorough these stories, we are celebrating the achievements of remarkable women at all levels of the supply chain and inspiring you on your journey to raise capital or become a gender-conscious investor.

About the WomenINvestEU Matchmaking Events

As a part of its effort to expand the gender-focused investment ecosystem across Europe, WomenINvestEU is organizing online matchmaking events to connect women-led startups with members of its European Network of Gender-Conscious Investors.

Representatives of women-led startups, as well as startups with women in C-level positions, can apply for the chance to participate in these events through regular open calls. The selected startups will also receive pitching support on strategic topics, in order to prepare for their interactions with the gender-conscious investors in attendance.

Visit our Events page and stay tuned for upcoming opportunities.