"The environment doesn't necessarily make it easier for mothers"

Margarete Koch is a mother of two and founder of mapadoo, a learning platform with online courses for expectant parents. In this interview, she talks about what it's like to take the plunge into start-up founding as a mother, the advantages that come with it, and where there's still a lack of support.

How did you come up with the idea of founding your start-up?

I incredibly enjoy continuing my education. Actually, I always just have an online course on a topic where I learn something new. I really appreciate the freedom to learn when, how long and where I want. I'm also very IT-savvy and love digital innovations. When I was pregnant with my first child and had no idea what to expect, I wanted to find out more about having a baby. Unfortunately, there is a lack of well-founded digital offers. Non-fiction books and on-site courses are in the foreground. On-site courses are quickly booked up and when the baby arrives, you run into the challenge of having to organize childcare. An emergency course for babies, which was very close to my heart, was fully booked when I wanted to register in the 4th month of pregnancy. The next available spot was after the delivery date. Babies not allowed. So my husband went alone.

What happened next?

At that time, the thought had already arisen that there was a great need for digital catch-up in this area. It wasn't until my second pregnancy, when I was confronted with the problem again, that the decision was made to take matters into my own hands. During my pregnancy, I continued to work on the idea and was then able to convince my founding partners of it. Mapadoo launched in 2020, in the middle of the Corona crisis. What was it like to found during the crisis?

Certainly there would be better circumstances. Formally, everything was no problem. What we lack as a team is this joint start-up phase: . Sitting together, brainstorming on flips, team building, laughing together and just thinking up crazy ideas. We've been working remotely since we started our company. That works too, but developing a "we" feeling is much easier in a shared office. Economically, we're not suffering from the crisis, rather the opposite: parents are certainly booking an online course with us that they would otherwise rather have done on site. The increasing general digitization and its acceptance is also beneficial for us. If anything, our business model is a winner from the crisis.

You founded your start-up mapadoo during your second pregnancy. What is it like to start up as a mother?

For me, this combination is perfect. I have maximum flexibility and can arrange our family life and self-employment as we need it.

The challenge as a mother is not the actual founding itself. Mothers are used to improvising and being flexible. It's more the environment and what's on offer that's hard to take in as a mom. Founders' meetings at 8 p.m. in the evening, nice, but not possible as a mom. Not with such small children anyway. I'm also doing advanced training in sales psychology right now. Many of the calls are at 5:30 pm. Sure, convenient for anyone who might want to listen in after their work day. As a mom, 6pm is usually when the evening program with the kids starts. The environment doesn't necessarily make it easier for moms.

What advantages do founding mothers have?

Statistically, it's the moms who go on parental leave. This time is very special. During parental leave you take distance from your previous job, you are confronted with thinking about your priorities in life, your child completely reflects your emotions to you and you are forced to think: What values do I want to pass on to my child? What kind of world do I want for my child? How do I want to be co-responsible for the use of resources in the world?

What else would you wish for the future of Baden-Württemberg as a location?

I was a student and lecturer at the University of Stuttgart myself, and unfortunately I didn't even come into contact with the topic of start-ups. And I studied business administration. I think that's a real shame. I would like to see more activities here so that students are made aware of the topic of founding.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Margarete Koch completed her doctorate in economics and business informatics at the University of Stuttgart. During this time, she worked as an academic assistant at the Chair of Business Informatics and dealt with the topics of Business Intelligence, Big Data and Industry 4.0. After working for five years in the private sector as a project manager, she decided to start her own company.