Diversity
At The Kitchen, we focus on diversity – and we believe that strong role models are key to bringing more diversity into the startup world.
The Kitchen Diversified
Greater diversity among both ideas and entrepreneurs is the goal of a new initiative launched by The Kitchen.
We believe that diversity is key for innovation to truly grow within Danish entrepreneurship, because when diversity is missing among entrepreneurs, the diversity is also missing among the ideas that are developed. Greater diversity ensures that we come up with different solutions to society’s big and small problems.
Through events, mentor networks and workshops, the two-year project will challenge conventional perceptions of entrepreneurship and break down barriers in order to attract a wider range of founders and startup projects.
The project is supported by the Tuborg Foundation and Otto Mønsted’s Foundation.
Meet inspiring entrepreneurs
Camilla Bøgh Erlang and Abdul Rahman Hasan from Mental Assistant
Meet Camilla and Abdul, co-founders of the startup Mental Assistant where they are developing a solution to help people suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues.
The idea was inspired by Camilla’s own struggles with PTSD after a deployment in Afganistan. During her bachelor of engineering in Healthcare Technology, she teamed up with Abdul, who came to Denmark as a syrian refugee in 2015.
Karin Lykke-Hartmann from Notify Therapeutics
Meet professor of Reproductive Medicine Karin Lykke-Hartmann, who has developed a non-hormonal fertility treatment for women. Her inner entrepreneur has grown gradually from the moment she received a patent. Today she is founder and CEO of the spinout Notify Therapeutics and considers herself as 50% researcher and 50% entrepreneur.
“I haven’t abandoned my academic standards. I’ve just added something new that I enjoy developing in a different way.”
Miriam Bjerg
Iværksætteri behøver ikke at være præget af lange arbejdstider og familiære afsavn. Som mompreneur har Miriam Bjerg formået at skabe et arbejdsliv helt tæt på sin familie. Hun har omfavnet sit moderskab og fundet en måde at bygge en virksomhed, der afspejler hendes værdier om balance og nærvær.
Shaeema Zaman from Science Melting Pot and QASE Tech
Meet entrepreneur and quantum physicist Shaeema Zaman, who is on a mission to improve science communication through her two startups, Science Melting Pot and QASE Tech.
“My journey has been influenced by the entrepreneurial ecosystem around me. I had no idea where to start. I was in love with my own idea, but I had no idea how to find clients or even approach them.”
Camilla Gustafsen from Draupnir Bio and Muna Therapeutics
Meet co-founder of Draupnir Bio and Muna Therapeutics, Camilla Gustafsen.
With her strong academic skills and her strong ambitions to make a difference for people who need help, Camilla Gustafsen hopes that she can also inspire other researchers to see and work with the commercial development of their research projects.
Rasmus Poulsen fra Sanders Tidsrejse
Mød founder af Sanders Tidsrejse, Rasmus Poulsen
Som historiker bringer Rasmus Poulsen en humanistisk tilgang ind i startup-verdenen – en tilgang, hvor fokus ligger på kultur og formidling. Og som alle andre iværksættere har han en helt tydelig passion for at gøre en forskel.
Marcela Mendoza-Suárez from SymbioMatch
Meet Marcela Mendoza-Suárez, an entrepreneurial researcher, who is on the verge of a sustainable agricultural revolution.
As a postdoc at Aarhus University, she has transformed her research from a budding idea into the promising startup SymbioMatch. She hopes that her biofertiliser will help create the future of sustainable agriculture.
Ida Cecilie Jensen from AgroAnt
Meet PhD student Ida Cecilie Jensen, who wrote her thesis on using wood ants as pest control in apple orchards and ended up establishing the startup AgroAnt to market her idea.
She has won two pitch competitions and four grants, totaling more than DKK 250.000 in funding to launch her startup.
Videos
Conversation lounge about female entrepreneurship
Talk about female entrepreneurship with Very Rocha
Networking tips from professor Kim Klyver
The Kitchen podcast: Diversity, women and entrepreneurship
Get inspired by cool and clever women, who join The Kitchen for a chat about everything from female entrepreneurship to networking, coding and STEM competencies.
Column: The investment goes to ... a man
Did you know that only 1.5 percent of all investments go to female founder teams?
Director of Enterprise and Innovation at Aarhus University, Lone Ryg Olsen, highlights the gender gap in a column in Omnibus.
DID YOU KNOW THAT?
Source: IRIS Group. Read the report on entrepreneurship at Aarhus University here
Curious about diversity?
Reach out to our project manager and learn more about how we work with diversity at The Kitchen.
