Vergangene Auftritte
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![Swisspreneur Podcast]()
Swisspreneur Podcast
LIVE aufgezeichnet am Female Future Festival im Juni 2023, auf Englisch. Wir sprechen über kritische Stimmen, "fear of failure", die eigene Zeit, Ressourcen und Intuition wertschätzen.
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Google Founders Stories
Panelgast bei Googe zum Thema People, auf Englisch
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Dream big – wie Frauen die (eigene) Chefetage erobern
Wir Kaufleuten panel mit Anja Maurer (Co-Autorin des Buches «Gründerinnen»), die Start-up-Gründerin Melanie Kovacs, die Wirtschaftjournalistin Patricia Laeri und SRF-Moderatorin Kathrin Hönegger.
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Period Presents Video-Podcast
Über Existenzängste, die Vergleichsfalle und ein Einsamkeit. Wie können wir unser Selbstvertrauen stärken, uns trauen, unseren eigenen Weg zu gehen und die Dinge auf unsere Art anzupacken?
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Women's Hub Day
Unrecorded speech “THE PATH OF A JOYPRENEUR”, at the first Women’s Hub Day in Zurich, 2021
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Talk at TEDxHSG
“How to drive your learning experience”, 2018 at TEDxHSG. Until the day of her practical driving test, Melanie was convinced that she knew how to learn. However, that day would redefine her views on that issue. In her talk she reveals how to drive your learning experience – not in a car, but in coding.
Past ventures:
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We built and delivered the Joy Accelerator twice, a 12-week course for women who want to build a business they love, without burning out. In addition, we organized women’s circles.
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Programming academy to teach business professionals to speak tech, with their software developer team colleagues. Within 3 years taught over 1100 people to write the first lines of code, and lose their fear of tech. Clients included Deloitte (Women Tech Bootcamp), Ringier and more. Sold to Codgestalt as of 1.1.2020
More info master21.academy
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First venture right after university, developed in the Z-Incubator.
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To change the face of entrepreneurship, we interviewed 27 female entrepreneurs from different Swiss regions, industries and businesses. Then, we organized a mentoring program, matching mentees with experienced entrepreneurs. Final event, in collaboration with the US embassy to Switzerland.
My entrepreneurial journey…
...began on a Monday after Startup Weekend Hamburg in 2013. We were 25, about to graduate and my friend Silvan asked me whether I wanted to pursue the idea we worked on over the last 54h, instead of applying for a job. I thought:
"Why not?"
and so we applied and got accepted into the incubator of our university. After six intense and educational months we decided to not invest more time into that idea. Who knows maybe if we hadn't given up it would have been successful? ;)
Equipped with lots of new experiences, contacts in the startup scene and learnings, we organised and facilitated the Startup Weekend in the Impact Hub Zurich. Over the weekend teams experienced startup life as they worked on building and testing their business ideas and models. I enjoyed connecting with experienced entrepreneurs that we asked to coach, mentor and judge.
Sofia, Simon and me noticed that there was a lack of women participating, pitching their ideas and leading teams. And it was hard to find experienced female entrepreneurs who would join as coaches and judges. So we asked ourselves:
"Where are all the female entrepreneurs in Switzerland?"
Our curiosity led us to investigate that question and initiate the ASPIRE association to foster female entrepreneurship. Our first project was an interview series and exhibition with 27 female entrepreneurs leading diverse companies, in different industries throughout Switzerland. Here is the video of the launch event.
Our second project was a mentoring program where we connected aspiring female entrepreneurs with experienced entrepreneurs.
Thanks to Aspire, I was selected to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program about Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the US. The three-week program took me to Washington DC, Jacksonville FL, Seattle and LA.
Within one year of graduating, thanks to all the projects and events, I knew I enjoyed communication, building community and connecting with clients. So when the job offer from the user experience agency Ginetta came in, I happily joined.
At Ginetta, I had the pleasure to dive into the world of user experience, work with psychologists, designers and software developers who built digital products. One of my highlights, was to be part of the process of building the first landing page and web app with the startup Crowdhouse. Another was to conceptualise and launch the UX Academy to teach potential clients the process of user centred design. The third was to work closely with the founder Simon, be involved in business strategy and experience the growth from a team of 13 to a team of 26.
After my further education in Human Computer Interaction Design, I saw the need to change the way computer science is taught. I asked myself:
How can we teach coding in a joyful way, so that more people understand and speak tech?
I decided to build a coding school that would teach beginners the basics in a hands-on and joyful way. That's how the Master21 Academy was born. I setup the first landing page while still at Ginetta. As the itch to build something of my own got stronger and I saw Master21's potential, I wanted to push it further and asked myself:
If I don't push it, who will? If not now, when then?
So I took a leap of faith, left my full-time job and went all in on Master21 when I was 28. Within a year, I made a six-figure revenue.
Founding and leading Master21 was the rollercoaster ride of my life. I had my ups when clients booked us and had sparks in their eyes and AHA-moments while learning. I had my downs when needing to fire a team member or the strategy was unclear.
I had the honour of giving talks, incl. a TEDxtalk, coach entrepreneurs in Sarajevo, get on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in the sector technology and receive the Female Innovation Recognition Award.
Over three years, I built and lead Master21 to a team of 5 and designed exciting programs, like the Women Tech Bootcamp for Deloitte. In total, we taught 1100+ people to write their first lines of code.
Awards I’ve Won
Female Innovation Recognition Award 2018
Forbes under30, Technology, 2018
Top25 Women in Business, 2018
Who is who of the Digital Switzerland, Handelszeitung, 2016
In 2021, I started collaborating with my dear friend Eloiza Savvidou.
First, we held a women’s circle for female founders together. Then, the “Dare to Dream” workshop and then the Joy Accelerator, a 12-week online program for women who want to build a business they love, without burning out.
In 2022, we decided to turn all of this into Joypreneurs.org and build a community, with monthly women’s circles for female founders.
After organizing and teaching two cohorts of the Joy Accelerator with almost 20 wonderful women, it was time for some reflection.
Towards the end of 2019, while doing the THNK School of Creative Leadership I felt the need for a change. I wished to have more time to be creative and not be that involved in leading the team alone. I wanted to facilitate my own workshops, not just sell them. And I saw the need for fostering skills and build community beyond digital literacy, like creativity and entrepreneurial thinking.
That led me to make one of the hardest decisions of my life and sell my Master21 on Dec 31, 2019 to Codegestalt.
In 2020, I took time to reflect, write and explore how I can best use my strengths, knowledge and experiences for a purpose that I care deeply about.
I started to explore the question: How might I lead a creative life?
That led me to write daily and publish for more than 100 days, start my podcast “The Joypreneur” and start coaching female founders.
And the story continues with:
Building up the Collective initiative, for more transparency and collaboration among the organisations fostering female entrepreneurship and
Becoming the Education and Community Lead for Fempreneurs.
more tba soon.
