Women Entrepreneurs @ Tufts holds first conference

The Women Entrepreneurs @ Tufts (WE@T) held its first conference in the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (CLIC) on Saturday, Nov. 16. This conference was open to all female-identifying students across both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering as a forum for multiple speakers and workshops to give women an area for study as well as presenting an opportunity to claim space, according to the WE@T website.

Co-presidents Emma Cerda and Camille Shimshak revived the WE@T club this semester with weekly meetings where students lead lessons on different topics within entrepreneurial, tangible skills and industry-specific lessons.

"We also plan events where we find Tufts alums or other cool women to speak to the club, and those are really or mentorship because we think a really important part of mentorship is seeing people who are similar to you in places you want to be," Cerda, a junior, said. 

The fourth floor of CLIC buzzed with the activity of the conference. Tables were set up all through the hall for registration, and local women-owned businesses tabled to sell their products and merchandise from the conference.

"Members make a product or merchandise where we can test and sell it, and that’s a cool thing because we get to do market research and actually see what it is we’re talking about in real time," Shimshak, a sophomore, told the Daily.

As the event progressed, the attendees filed into the conference room after the breakfast and networking event. Inside, a panel of CEOs and recent Tufts graduates reflected on their own personal journeys with entrepreneurship.

"Men are genuinely apologizing to me for not realizing I was a partner. You receive all these stereotypes of being human resources and recruiters all the time, compared to men where their experience is a little more standardized," panelist Millie Liu, founding and managing partner at First Star Ventures, said. 

The panel dealt mainly with the difficulties women face breaking into the investing and entrepreneurship industries.

The panelists agreed one of the most difficult aspects of their experience breaking into a new market is that it is something women must do together.

"Bounce ideas off people who really want you to succeed, you really can't do it alone," panelist Quinn Fitzgerald, co-founder of Flare Jewelry, a company which designs jewelry that helps prevent sexual assault, said in her parting words.

Later in the conference, the panelists broke out into smaller workshop groups where attendees could meet one on one or in smaller groups to discuss topics from building a brand to choosing the right partner with whom to found a company.

"Planning this conference was another way we tested our entrepreneurial skills by being proactive and reaching out to people and seeing what potential attendees would wanna see, going through the process of planning a larger event" Cerda said. 

After a quick lunch and networking session, the conference wrapped up with a fireside talk with keynote speaker and CEO of Wanderu Polina Raygorodskaya.

"[The conference] was kind of just something that we wanted to happen, and when we got [Raygorodskaya] to come and speak, we couldn't believe it," Shimshak said.

With a broad range of experience from the workshop leaders and speakers, attendees had opportunities to network and gain knowledge about entering the field.

 "I appreciated hearing from a number of female entrepreneurs about what their career trajectories have looked like and what advice they'd give their younger selves,” attendee Sonia Groeneveld, a junior, told the Daily.

With the conference over, Shimshak and Cerda are already looking ahead at expanding their presence throughout campus.

"[We@T] is a great way to learn to work with other people and learn to support each other," Cerda said.