"The female founders are missing"

Bettina Engert helped make Flixbus big, worked for venture capitalist Acton Capital and has now joined the non-profit organization Startup Teens. A conversation about the career aspirations of young girls, the desire to start a business, giving up big salaries and what all this has to do with TikTok.

Startup Teens wants to reach young people via their own channels. The new boss, Bettina Engert, is currently having TikTok explained to her and has already produced her first video. Meanwhile, Engert has no shortage of plans, especially when it comes to her favorite topic: promoting young girls.

Ms. Engert, you gave up a job at Acton Capital for Startup Teens. Why did you do that?

Many people asked me that, including how I could turn down the money to switch to non-profit. Of course, I had a pretty secure job at Acton Capital, an extremely good salary and worked with really exciting companies. But we constantly complain in Germany that we have too few female founders and that women don't have the confidence to lead. I have always observed this, earlier at Flixbus, later at Acton, but I was primarily on the sidelines. At Startup Teens, I can shape things myself and have a direct influence.

The scene has been lamenting this phenomenon for some time, but little is happening. Is the problem with the investors, who are less likely to back women?

I don't think so. There are initiatives at all the major venture capital funds on how to invest in more female founders. Because the will is there to promote diversity and get women into top positions. But the female founders are missing! There are also structural problems, such as a lack of childcare, that prevent young women from doing so. What is much worse, however, is that many young girls lack the self-confidence to implement ideas on their own. And I deliberately say girls, not women, because it's also about age. If young women have already signed up for university, it's hard to get them to start their own business later on and jump in at the deep end. This change in attitude, that entrepreneurship and self-employment can be an alternative to being an employee, has to happen earlier, in their teens at the latest.

Most young people can probably be reached via TikTok. Do you have an account?

I have to say, I was already off Instagram and have three followers on TikTok. I've always preferred reading texts and I'm one of those strange people who still physically borrow books from the library. But it doesn't help. If that's the only way to reach the kids, I have to get to grips with the channels too. I shot my first video for our next Startup Teens Challenge and two 14-year-old girls are currently giving me a few TikTok tips.

Does social media reach people who are also interested in start-ups and everything to do with them?

There is no other way. We have two target groups: Some are interested in start-ups anyway, are active on our YouTube channel and also exchange ideas there. The others don't know us yet and have nothing to do with coding, so you have to pick them up on their channels. If they spend an hour a day on TikTok anyway, then they should ideally learn something useful or become curious about the opportunities we offer instead of watching the tenth video by a fitness influencer. There is so much more to learn and everyone can discover this, regardless of whether their father is an entrepreneur or their mother is particularly tech-savvy.

How successful are the attempts by startup teens on platforms like TikTok?

Quite successfully. Our last #CEOofLife challenge had over 35 million views with participants such as Lea-Sophie Cramer, Daniel Krauss and Florian Heinemann. Even if only a fraction of them became aware of Startup Teens and our content, we have already achieved a lot. In the second and third steps, we want to help them present their ideas, develop them and give them the right tools to do so. For example, we have a 14-year-old who has built a platform to select referees in youth soccer more neutrally. That's amazing! Although she is rather an exception.

Above all, we need real role models. Reading Elon Musk's Twitter account doesn't help girls, it's far too far removed from the reality of their lives.

Bettina Engert, CEO Startup Teens

What do you mean by that?

Many of the girls who apply for the annual Startup Teens Challenge are often still hesitant to implement ideas on their own. The boys often compete on their own, whereas the girls tend to work in teams.

So is it more difficult to inspire young women?

I don't think so, once they've tasted blood. It was the same for me: I wanted to be a vet when I was 14. Then I finished my A-levels and after two internships including three inseminated cows, I realized: 'that's not it'. The fact that I ended up in the start-up sector was more of a coincidence because my brother recruited for Flixbus among family and friends. I don't think it was bad for either side in the end, but otherwise I would probably be doing something completely different today.

What does it take to inspire more girls and women?

Above all, we need real role models. Reading Elon Musk's Twitter account doesn't help girls, it's far too far removed from the reality of their lives. They need approachable women, realistic role models that they can see on social media or at events and to whom they can ask specific questions. That's what we're currently trying to do in the regional live streams, for example.

Do you actually want to turn everyone who comes to Startup Teens into entrepreneurs in the end?

Most of the teenagers we work with are 14 to 19 years old. It's not about scaling a business idea to make big money and that's not what we want to teach them. We want young people to learn to think for themselves, to learn the necessary skills, for example to become programmers and then active problem solvers. Whether they then apply these skills in their own company, as employees or in the family business is of secondary importance.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Bettina Engert (36) has been Managing Director of Startup Teens GmbH and Deputy Chairwoman of Startup Teens Netzwerk e.V. since 2021. Together with the founders of Flixbus, she has built a company from an idea to an international mobility provider. Most recently, she advised startups worldwide on brand development at the Munich-based VC investor Acton Capital.

About the company: Startup Teens is a non-profit initiative founded in 2015 that teaches students between the ages of 14 and 19 how to think and act entrepreneurially and how to code. Startup Teens operates the YouTube channel with the widest reach for entrepreneurship education for young people in Germany. In the mentoring program, almost 1,000 well-known personalities support teenagers in turning their ideas into reality.