The Break: not only a business accelerator

Be always a student, never stop learning!

That simply, yet beautiful and full of wisdom phrase has been my motto since I can remember. Growing up, my grandma will use any occasion to say: El saber no ocupa lugar!;?something that you can translate like: knowledge does not take up any space! She has always been a woman ahead of her time and thanks to her I take any opportunity I get to learn new things.

That was the case when in February, I applied to #thebreakfellowship , a fellowship programme for female entrepreneurs funded by the European Union ?#nextgenerationeu , designed by Escuela de Organización Industrial and powered by The Break Alliance (Impact Hub, Mentor day and Startup ST).

I applied to the programme because I thought I could learn new skills and it will help me grow as an entrepreneur and make Xylo Sweden AB a strong business.

What I didn′t know at the time, was that this programme will be one of the most enriching and transformative experience of my life. I have taken my time to process everything that has happened from the moment I applied to the moment I came back home after the 27-days’ work retreat in Spain as part of the programme, but I think I still need few months to digest all that I learned during these 12 weeks.

The programme was extremely Intense (yes, with capital I) to say the least. We got top-notch trainings in strategic design for business innovation, Lean start-up, marketing strategy, sustainability, etc. to name a few. Mentoring was also part of the on-line programme, thank you for your guidance Lord Juancar Sánchez Iván Rodríguez and ★Ester Sanz

Mentoring can be incredibly powerful and Alba Fernández Arias knows all about it! What a privilege to have you as my principal mentor Alba, your endless generosity and support is something I take with me and hope to replicate in others. Thank you for introducing me to Josefa D. and Idoia Cuesta ! These brilliant women took time from their busy agendas to meet with us to share their knowledge and experiences. Their kindness and openheartedness are beyond me. I′m so grateful I had the chance to meet you all!

Once in Spain, part of the programme, was to work on a local challenge during our time there. Our challenge was to help ECOS, (Empresarios e Comerciantes de Silleda) a local association which mission is to promote buying locally to keep the businesses alive and help them grow in Silleda-Galicia.

We did research, created a strategy and marketing plan based on a set of visits and interviews of the businesses, made tutorials, with photos and videos to create a plan with different ideas for ECOS to promote their shops.

And… thanks to my wonderful team, we won the 3rd place on the local challenge among 22 communities!

Part of my wonderful team was made up of 15 fantastic, inspiring, and talented women from 13 different countries that worked tirelessly to deliver the best outcome possible to ECOS. The other part of our team was made up of incredible humans that supported us wholeheartedly and took care of us on a daily basis, making sure our mental health was prioritised and we could have the best experience in Galicia. I cannot thank you enough Virginia Bailón , Alicia Jover , Xavier Fontcuberta Estrada , Olga Rivas Iglesias from Fundación Roberto Rivas for the monumental job of taking care of us during our stay in Silleda. Your energy, passion, engagement, positivity, and wisdom made a huge impact in me and is something I would like to recreate in my own business.

Thank you Adrián Caama?o Pensado , Vanessa Loureiro Fernández , and Eliana Bouzas Collazo , for sharing your co-working space La Moda - Rural lab and giving as such a lovely welcome and stay in Silleda.

This experience made me realised the importance of building communities, especially communities for female entrepreneurs and investing in them. Why? Well, because female enterprises get only 1% of venture capital investments compared with their male counterparts. This is not an exaggeration. Since there is not enough support for female found enterprises, women are often not fully aware of how to get funds, lack support, and miss on opportunities.

To be an entrepreneur can feel very lonely and only when you surround yourself with people in the same situation you feel that you are not alone, and many others are going through the exact same things you are going through. This gives you strength and helps you keep going.

That’s why I have being blown away by how The Break was planned and executed. I′m still amazed and deeply touch by Eva Curto ′s vison and mission, Eva, you are a Queen Bee!

I′m extremely grateful that the European Union approved The Break under the NextGenerationEU. If this article reaches some of the decision makers, I would like to say HUGE Thank you!

This experience is the result of many months of hard work of a tremendous team, I would like to say thank you to all of them, but I don′t know all their names. Thank you Maria Solano G and Cristina Pan García , please extend my gratitude to the whole team!

#TheBreak has changed my life for the better, gave me a whole new perspective, a network I could only dream of, lifelong friends, a new approach to my business of and SO much more!

This programme has not just accelerated my business, that is more ambitions than ever before but more importantly, has accelerated a personal growth: I learned the importance of being true to my values, say no and to put and keep boundaries.

Huge shout-out to all the beautiful human beings that makes The Break possible!

A summary of our work for the local challange in Silleda, enjoy!

My brilliant team:

• Jela Ravnjak,?https://www.lele.hr
• Patricia Belickova, MBA
• Birgit van Duyvenbode,?REEDuce - noise protection technologies
• Ioana Gabriela Muntean
• Paola Balduzzi,?Inesto
• Kseniia Laura Berg,?https://knittomaniac.com
• Petra ?u?ínová,?GIVILI
• HELENA STAMOU, MBA,?Swaplanet
• Kinga Nagy Rev. Cynthia Keating,?https://cynthiakeating.com
• Johana Ja?ková,?https://www.moji.sk,?https://www.iskrea.sk
• Amy Charnay, MS, CNS, RYT,?https://amycharnay.com
• Claudia Schonter Tania Makiese Areias

#sustainability?#community?#team?#business?#coworking?#womenentrepreneurs