Women for businessVenture Capital and Networking: “Women who can make a difference”

Networking is a mindset that has to be a part of us and our way of relating to people.

Our journey in the world of women starts with Alessandra Lomonaco, a consultant for companies that create innovation. Her work focuses on relations with entrepreneurs, investors and professionals who want to invest in new business opportunities or manage their own role in an agency better. Alessandra also works as an assistant to startups and SMEs that want to take part in the European financial program Horizon 2020. And for the investment sector, Alessandra will represent Italy at the European Summit of Women in Venture Capital (VC) on October 8-9th in Berlin.

Mother, consultant and innovation enthusiast. How do you balance it all?

We women have infinite resources that stem from the fact that we have to clear many hurdles to be able to balance work, family and personal life. Alone it would be impossible. Support from our families is fundamental, and so is support outside the family from colleagues. More and more, I’m realizing the importance of collaborating with other women, friends and colleagues – often people I meet through social networks – with whom I share my professional goals and projects. They say that women are not great friends for other women. I think that this is is changing, because we’re starting to see that collaboration among ourselves is often our trampoline helping us reach seemingly impossible heights. Support from other women is extremely valuable, and I consider it a precious gift.

What does networking mean for you and for your work?

The chance to create a network has literally changed my life, both professionally and personally. In fact, today the barriers between personal and professional have lowered considerably – everything is much more fluid. It’s getting harder for me to establish where my personal life ends and my professional life begins. Networking has allowed me to widen my contacts exponentially. Contacts start on Twitter or blogs and continue offline, becoming collaborative relationships. I should highlight that networking is not something to start doing only if you lose your job or find yourself in a difficult situation. Networking is a mindset that has to be a part of us and our way of relating to people. We need to start doing it when we go to university, in companies with colleagues, at the gym, at a convention. In general, at any moment of our personal or professional life.

Let’s talk about Venture Capitalists. Is there an emerging movement of female investors?

There is a movement of women who are aware that they can make a difference, in the world of business as in the work of venture capital and angel investing. I’m sure that this awareness will lead us to having bigger, more vibrant roles, I hope, both in the economy and in society. To this end, the event in Berlin could be a great opportunity for Italian women, among others. It will be an amazing moment for meeting, sharing and networking among women who work in VC investing and other women and entrepreneurs who have received VC financing.

I invite all women who work in Venture Capital or who have built successful businesses with VC funding to participate (link to register: https://europeanwomeninvc.evenea.pl). It’s an important moment for Italian women, because we need to make it known in front of an international audience, that in our country too, there can be a movement of women Venture Capitalists who invest with courage and determination.