Aloha NomadHers !

This is Irina, new member of the NomadHer team to write to you!

This week I joined NomadHer, currently based in Paris, in the Station F offices. I brought you with me during my first day on our Instagram @nomad_her, I'm back today with a little retrospection on this first week.

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Station F, what is it?

Station F is an incubator, that is to say a structure that helps new companies to develop, to make the dreams of entrepreneurs come true!

The building is an old train station, where 3500 people work - no need to tell you that it is really impressive!  The atmosphere is also quite special: you can feel the hundreds of brains innovating… or maybe I'm extrapolating, but there's a je ne sais quoi, like Start-Up Nation vibes. Also, everything is well thought out in Station F, from the hologram at the entrance to the lunch breaks with eco-friendly vending machines; kind of futuristic !  

Adaptation

Beyond the discovery of Station F, these first days at NomadHer have been a bit... how can I put it: overwhelming?  I had to learn all the new tools - whereas I had personally gone as far as using Word - and I still prefer to write my to-do lists in a notebook (old school, I know). Being an intern in a start-up goes hand in hand with learning a lot about the entrepreneurial world, which is fascinating:  marketing, networking, the "very concrete" side of business. Everything you don't learn in class (a bit sad)!

And English... phew! I’m French but we communicate in English in NomadHer team, Station F being also a rather international environment. Let me tell you: it's so different to work in a second language all day. I’m haunted by all the mistakes I make when speaking English continuously. Then, of course, it takes a lot of energy to switch from one language to another all day long. Sometimes I have trouble expressing my ideas, I don't put the s in the third person, I forget my irregular verbs: the nightmare of any English teacher.

Station F: that much international?

International, but not diverse. At first, I was very amused to see the "cliché" of the entrepreneur: young white man, in his twenties, still wearing a shirt but with sneakers. In a serious-casual mode (out of business school and ready to conquer the world!)

But beyond the cliché, there is the reality of a severe lack of diversity - and this marked me from day one. Few women, and even fewer colored women. It's a shame, especially in an entrepreneurial environment where I think you learn to come up with new ideas regardless of your education and background.

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During my onboarding, it has been said that Station F had a rate of “45% of female-founded companies”. By researching a little you will find that this figure applies to 5 programs out of 30, being L’Oréal or ADNxIFM basically beauty and fashion fields. What about the 25 other?

According to Sista and Boston Consulting group, 4% of the start-ups created in 2020 were made by women.

That being said, I could write entire articles on the mechanisms of under-representation, so I won't go into details. It's just unfortunate to make this observation when NomadHer is such a cosmopolitan team, and considering how useful it is to open up to other cultures, and how important it is to avoid the "entre-soi", meaning a homogenous vision and opinion !  

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What's next?

One thing I'd like to take further is to try to meet new people, to see how these hot brains work. It's really inspiring to be confronted with all kinds of ideas, but again it's about getting out of your comfort zone and reaching out to others more and more.  

Pushing myself and not judging me (so easy to write, less to do!)

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