Women Entrepreneurs from Puerto Rico and Spain Webinar (WFWP Spain)
Written by: Marcia de Abreu Rodrigues
A crucial key to women’s development lies in the world of entrepreneurship. The goal of the “Women Entrepreneurs from Puerto Rico and Spain” Webinar is to give a voice to women and improve the obstacles that women face when it comes to establishing a business. WFWP Spain and the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) of Aragon (Spain) invited four women entrepreneurs, two from Puerto Rico and two from Spain, to share their experiences in a virtual webinar on July 2, 2021.
By inviting experienced entrepreneurs, WFWP Spain aims to give visibility to courageous women who have successfully brought their creative ideas to the market.
Mabel Lasalle, Founder and CEO of Connecting Paths in Puerto Rico, shared her insight that “empowering a woman is to empower a community.” In Lasalle’s programs, women are trained in creative sewing, which is used to develop clothing aligned with the principles of circular fashion.
The next speaker, Clara Fernandez Porta, Co-Founder and CEO of App Rosita, shared about her first business experience related to healthy aging strategies. She noted that “...in education for health, women are the most important beneficiaries as they learn not only to take care of themselves but take that learning process to their families.” This further supported the statement that empowering women is a worthy investment because women also raise their communities.
Martha-Sylvia Torres, Founder and CEO of Blessed for Blessing, established an academy to educate women to become real estate agents. Torres hopes that in this way, she can help them to become self-sustaining and financially independent. Due to the success of her business, Torres founded and now manages an NGO called Blessed to Blessing, which trains women and girls to develop a resilient attitude towards life.
Our last speaker was Lola Priego, Founder and CEO of Base, and a former engineer of Electronic and Telecommunications with Facebook, Amazon and Instagram. Priego passionately shared about her interest in maintaining a healthy body, which drove her to give up her job and establish a startup called Base. Base raises health awareness for people by creating an analysis of people’s health conditions through blood samples. One of her most interesting insights she shared was, “it’s important to know exactly what you want to share with others, what is your story and how to tell it, in order to connect with other people emotionally.” Priego also gave practical advice on starting a business, such as “find supporters who use your services and investors for your project.”
By providing a platform for creative women with wise expertise to share their experiences, we hope it serves as a source of inspiration for the community. Through this webinar, WFWP Spain hopes to encourage those who wish to establish a business, to take the first step in making their dreams come true.
