Why the Enra founders have to fight against prejudice

Lara and Lena Farwick founded their start-up Enra together with their brother Arne. They see many advantages in founding as siblings - even if some people are puzzled by their division of roles.

There are moments that you don't forget so quickly as a founder. The first customer order, for example, is one of them, as is the first pitch to an investor. For twin sisters Lara and Lena Farwick, there are a few more. "For example, there was one man who rang the doorbell at our office, I opened the door and the first thing he asked me to do was to get my boss," says Lena Farwick. "Another time, my brother was declared my husband because people couldn't imagine that we were siblings." And on Linkedin, she sometimes receives messages in which she is written to as "Mr. Farwick". "People don't even look at the profile, they firmly assume that they are dealing with a man when they write to the head of technology at a start-up."

Although Lara and Lena Farwick themselves have to smile a little when they tell such stories, it is precisely cases like these that make it clear that things are still going wrong in the start-up world. The Female Founders Report 2021 already shows that less than twelve percent of all founders are female. Women are also significantly less likely to succeed in closing a financing round. So there is still a long way to go before there is a diverse start-up scene.

Profitability achieved after just one year

Lena Farwick is CTO of the Paderborn start-up Enra, while her sister Lara is CMO and responsible for marketing, among other things. Her brother Arne is CEO. They originally wanted to make trade fairs more digital and efficient with their start-up. For example, they provided machines with a barcode that customers could use to view further information. They also developed a system to automate contact with stand visitors. This is because lead capture, i.e. the recording and strategic classification of newly acquired contacts, was often still carried out using pen and paper. "I used to have to enter sheets with a business card stapled to them into an Excel spreadsheet," Lara recalls her time in the marketing department of a medium-sized company.

Enra was profitable just one year after its launch. Then came corona, the economy shut down, trade fairs were canceled - and the siblings had no choice but to reinvent their start-up. Enra is now a digital marketing platform. Companies can present their products in a virtual space and then follow up with contacts digitally. This saves a salesperson travel time and costs. Enra offers six different versions of its platform. The more a company pays, the more functions are activated.

Fighting outdated ways of thinking

The siblings have identified three major trends for the coming years that they want to focus on intensively. The metaverse is already an absolute hype topic in the technology world, says Lara Farwick . "However, our customers often haven't even heard of it or can't relate to it." They also want to help companies save CO2 with their digital sales. "No-code platforms will also become increasingly important in the future. Users should be able to customize their digital workspace as they need it without programming skills," says Lara Farwick.

It's a world that you have to delve deep into in order to develop the right digital marketing tools for companies, and you also need a fair amount of programming knowledge. Brother Arne Farwick, an industrial engineer and tax specialist, takes over the commercial management. Lara Farwick has the necessary knowledge in marketing and Lena Farwick, as a former mechanical engineering student, brings the technical knowledge.

For a long time, they were unaware that their story was unusual in the start-up world. "I've been passionate about technology for as long as I can remember, even as a child I wanted to understand why something worked and how. I wanted to look under the hood and not just accept that it worked," says Lena Farwick. It was only when she was automatically addressed as "Mr." by many people on LinkedIn that she realized this. "This way of thinking is absurd, gender has nothing to do with what job you do," she says.

The sisters hope that other female founders will not be influenced by such experiences. "Do what you enjoy, because only then will it be good," advises Lara Farwick . She herself would like to help empower other female founders, even if she doesn't like the word. "We don't just need more women in technical professions, we also need more women to found and run companies."