Women Authors of Achievement (WAA) Podcast

From a no-name startup to a post-IPO industry giant, Katia Yakovleva joined Spotify back in 2009 as one of the first sales executives. She built out advertising sales both in Spain and Germany and was leading strategic accounts, generating millions of revenue for the company over the years. Today Katia is wearing many hats. She is the Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Beyond, angel investor and a podcast host. In this episode we speak about her wild ride at Spotify, her mission to share her experience and industry network with founders, and how Web3 opens a whole new world of possibilities to create, grow and reward communities. Join us for today’s conversation and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter via waa.berlin/#newsletter.

In 2019 Jenny Saft turned 32. With no partner and no desire to have kids anytime soon she decided to freeze her eggs. But the issues started to arise even before she found a fertility clinic. Long story short, this experience encouraged her to kick off her own startup called Apryl. According to Apryl, in Germany over 50% of women with academic education do not have kids at age of 35. And it's been Jenny’s mission to educate companies on the huge social challenges infertility may bring. Today we also speak about Jenny’s time working closely with the management board at Deutsche Telekom, her life in San Francisco and how she is planning to build more inclusive workplaces in Europe. If you don’t want to miss out on the next episode release, then sign up to our newsletter on waa.berlin.

From the German Bundestag to the tech giant Meta. Constanze Osei started her career in politics later on heading the department of economic and innovation policy at the Germany’s digital association Bitkom. Today she is the Head of Society & Innovation Policy at Meta (previously Facebook). We speak about racial justice, explore self-identification and discover the interplay between technology advancements and impact it has on our society. If you want to move things, you have to move people, so join me for today’s conversion to learn how Constanze is making a difference with her work. And if you enjoyed the episode, take a few moments and leave a review.

Are you an everyday creator? Then this episode is for you. Together with Jennifer Phan we discover the creator economy and how side-hustlers are developing the passion economy of the future. Jennifer herself left the VC world back in 2021 to build Passionfroot, an operating system that helps creators manage their financing and workflows in one place. In this episode, we speak about why Jennifer is passionate about empowering people to work and live on their own terms and how creators can get into angel investing. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or rate the show on Spotfiy. We really love reading your comments.

After studying communications and business, Stephanie Dettmann started her advertising career in 1998 at the well-known creative agency Jung von Matt. She worked with lifestyle brands such as Sixt, Mini, BMW, Ferrero and many more. Then came a change in her life as she switched to the beauty industry and co-founded organic beauty label UND GRETEL. We speak about how she selected her first business partners and built the company brand from scratch. Stephanie also shares the key success ingredient behind building a beauty label in a highly competitive cosmetic market. When you feel like you want to learn more about the show, find us on instagram at @waa.berlin.

Dora Osinde is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Granny, a creative agency with a mission to turn entertainment brands into pop culture icons. Five years before joining Granny, Dora worked as the Global Creative Marketer at Netflix where she took the DACH Netflix socials from zero to +1M followers and was later in charge of running global marketing campaigns for Netflix Originals such as DARK (DACH), Elite (ES), Quicksand (SE) and Blood & Water (SA). We speak about her times at Netflix, her plans at Granny, trends in social media marketing and why successful marketing has to be thought of as social first. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to leave us a review.

Let’s talk about SpaceTech with my guest Maru Winnacker, who is driven by the mission to build a better world by backing up founders she truly believes in. Maru is an Entrepreneur and the Managing Partner at Urania Ventures, a French-German private investment firm committed to back scientific breakthrough technology founders who strive to serve humanity for the better. Today we speak about the importance of principles and values, how entrepreneurship embodies independence and why Europe needs to bring back courage and boldness into the startup ecosystem. Don’t want to miss out on the next episode release? Follow the show on waa.berlin.

It’s the first time on the WAA show we get to welcome two guests: Nina Wöss and Lisa-Marie Fassl. Both have extensive background in the startup scene as investors, founders and advisors. In 2016 they founded Female Founders, Europe’s fastest-growing community of entrepreneurial women, where they solve the two biggest pain points in the European tech ecosystem – access to funding for female-led ventures and growing visibility of female talent. We speak about why Austria is gaining reputation as a hub for female start-up founders and how you can lead today in order to shape tomorrow. When you feel like you want to learn more about the show - find us on instagram at @waa.berlin.

In 2016 Aimie-Sarah Carstensen founded ArtNight, a platform for in person "Do-It-Yourself" experiences - with the aim of inspiring people to break their daily routines and experience creative flows. Today along with her personal journey to finding her passion for creativity, we speak about her experience participating in The Lion's Den and why she is mentoring teenagers across Germany on the topic of entrepreneurship. Let’s learn how to activate our own creative powers with Aimie-Sarah and don’t forget to subscribe to the show on waa.berlin.

Deborah Choi is the Managing Director and Chief Brand Officer at Bosque, a technology-enabled direct to consumer plant business which focuses on selling sustainably grown houseplants. She is also the Managing Director at Founderland, the first European hub for women of color, built on the pillars of community, visibility and better access to capital for underrepresented founders. In today’s episode Deborah shares how she received funding from Google twice in a row and how to thrive in situations even when you have to start from scratch.