Silvina Moschini is the first Latin American woman to lead a company valued at one billion dollars through a Global Private Offering that granted her unicorn status in 2020. She founded TransparentBusiness and SheWorks! , Organizations that capitalize on the cloud , for which she received the EQUALS award in Tech , which is awarded to the world ‘s most innovative projects focused on shortening the gender gap. She was named “Woman of the Decade” by the Women Economic Forum and recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Women in Tech Global Awards 2020 and in the Hispanic Digital Awards 2020 as Digital Leader.
BY: Leila Ovando
- Tell us about SheWorks!, how was it born?
SheWorks ! was founded in 2017 as a subsidiary of TransparentBusiness , the leading worldwide remote work management platform. It was launched within the framework of the Forum of the Principles of Empowerment of Women 2017, organized by UN Women.
TransparentBusiness
Platform designed to increase remote worker’s productivity, protect customer budgets from overbilling, enable coordination and monitoring of your remote workforce, and provide real-time information on the cost and status of all tasks and projects.
SheWorks! appeared because the labor market uses outdated models that make the talent of women to be lost, who, according to Ernst and Young, 43% leave their jobs due to lack of flexibility when they become mothers ; on the other hand, there are still many companies that continue with rigid and analog work schemes, who end up losing female talent. Our aim is that thousands of women do not have to choose between their family and their professional careers , and can have a job that fits their needs.
Our tool is a comprehensive solution that connects the dots between digital education, talented women, and job opportunities in the cloud . We create a job market with qualified professionals so that companies can find them and have no excuses that there is no female talent for management positions or diverse teams because there are no women in the job market. We also provide them with the tools to make remote work much more productive and efficient than working in the office.
Also, through SheWorks! Academy we train women in the skills most required by companies and then connect them with job opportunities for local and international companies. Today, more than ever the new “normal” implies education and remote work, our vision makes clear sense and is a tangible reality
How does it work and what is the mission of SheWorks !?
From the beginning our intention has been clear and consistent: to generate compatibility between the lifestyle that women lead in their role as mothers or caregivers and professionals, and technology is an optimal facilitator of this purpose since remote work breaks those rigid models from 8 to 5 that require physical presence in the office.
Our platform works very simply: any woman interested in being part of SheWorks ! you must go to www.wheresheworks.com and generate her profile. She must complete it with all her data, skills and take the available assessments: English and Logic.
Once the profile is approved by our recruiters, companies interested in hiring talent will be able to see the profile based on the skills they are looking for for their projects.
The match process between the company and the talent works as follows: when one of the companies that are part of SheWorks ! needs an expert for a project or to incorporate someone by the hour, you get in touch with our talent team to confirm the requirements and scope of the work. The talent specialist will share the requirements with a selected group of contractors on the platform. We will review all the proposals for your job position and we will invite the freelancers who best suit the interview and there they will be able to incorporate talent from anywhere.
Figures:
- 20,000 women currently work through SheWorks!
- Users in 93 countries.
- 65% Latin American users.
- $ 0 cost for users.
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/lifestyle/creo-plataforma-online-le-dio-trabajo-mas-nid2328546/
We centralize the talent of women from around the world and give companies the opportunity to reach through our platform qualified, super talented women from around the world who want to work with flexible and remote models.
- In an interview you said “The job market is broken”, what do you mean by this?
I am referring to the flaws in the system: talent is equally distributed, but opportunities are not . There are a significant number of unemployed people in the world – especially in this context – but companies complain that they cannot find talent.
We continue under obsolete models that require face-to-face work as a requirement and this, for example, leaves many women who are mothers out of the labor market. There are two problems that impact on the economic development of women, on the one hand the lack of flexibility in the labor market and, on the other, the lack of access to training that promotes a gender gap in technology.
SheWorks ! aims to work on these two issues, on the one hand connecting qualified women to remote work opportunities with companies seeking to expand their teams. We lead innovation in the US and Latin America focusing on the use of technology to empower women allowing them to be financially independent whilst having the flexibility to work remotely. We are determined to close the gender gap through technology.
- What does the following phrase mean to you: “a real princess builds her own castle”?
It means that women can fend for themselves, that we can do everything. Culturally there is a saying “educated, but in wrong careers” and from when we are girls they educate us to be little princesses; You have to be pretty, smile, and don’t drop an overly clever idea. So what would happen if we change this dynamic that women study the wrong degrees because it is what is expected of them by social or cultural mandate? We have to manage to be the builders of our own castles or , if you like, princess engineers . Many times we believe that we are not suitable for certain careers, but it is by mandate. For example: up to six years old, little girls know themselves as good at math as little boys, then not so much afterwards. Why?
There are fewer women in technology , which creates a talent problem available in the market. But thanks to initiatives like SheWorks! Academy , focused on providing digital skills in disruptive technologies for employability, we believe that this situation will change because it allows women to be educated in technology and create a good talent partner for the future. Today, skills are more important than college degrees.
- You are a woman, a leader and an entrepreneur in the world of technology, an industry that is generally led by men. How did you experience your beginnings in the area? Did you feel any difference due to gender, did you experience the famous “glass ceiling”?
Obviously there are more difficulties for women than for men, because women are considered based on evidence and not on potential, so we have to work much harder so that by sheer force of demonstrating we have better and greater considerations to be able to access leadership positions in different organizations.
In the workplace it was not particularly difficult for me as a woman, in fact I was the youngest vice president of Visa in Latin America. But at the entrepreneurial level, the challenge of raising capital was much more difficult. As a woman, the biggest challenge that one has, as an entrepreneur is that they invest in your company because of the perception regarding the world of women entrepreneurs is that small-scale projects are carried out by women.
In general, there is a cultural bias , a predisposition to think, that it is not going to be a large-scale business, which is what makes it difficult for women entrepreneurs to raise venture capital, that is, to raise investment.
How did I solve it? In various ways, working super hard, making my project my top priority, many hours, many sacrifices, a lot of time, many things left behind in order to create a company that can impact the lives of potentially millions of women. Never taking a “no” as an answer, even when they told me no or that I was crazy, I insisted on taking that energy, as they say in Japanese, is called kushashi , which is the inspiration that one takes from those people who think not you are going to achieve what you set out to do, turning it into inspiration and strength to keep working, keep going and be able to achieve what we believe we are going to achieve as a team.
The key to breaking through is trusting our talent and encouraging ourselves to defy the rules. Precisely with a focus on empowering the talent of women, we recently announced the launch of Skirt the Rules , a global movement that encourages women entrepreneurs to build great businesses.
Skirt the Rules includes a community focused on collaborative learning that will facilitate access to tools and best practices to help women achieve their business goals and accelerate their growth. We will train women and help them strengthen their talents with a focus on three pillars: personal development, how to deal with impostor syndrome; business development: thinking big and outside the box; branding: how to tell your story and spread your message.
We want to build the largest community of women entrepreneurs in the world where we can all be instructors and learners. We are preparing for a new economy, and women are the key to success and post-pandemic recovery .
- How do you see the future of work in terms of gender equality?
Companies are increasingly interested in working towards gender equality in all aspects. To achieve this, it is key that companies generate agreements and commitment to employ female talent with equal pay and access to management positions. In our case, as facilitators of remote work and greater labor inclusion for women, we have strategic agreements with companies around the world.
In fact, a McKinsey study indicates that you cannot risk being left without women in the work teams of the future since a company that has women on its board of directors can earn up to 50% more.
Women by nature have the ability to do more with less. We are naturally better administrators and in many cases we have more academic training. Women are the ones who make 80% of purchasing decisions. From a business point of view, it would be very unwise for a company to not take into account the experience and talents of women when thinking and designing products.
Hiring women is a business’ must, it’s the smart thing to do, and I think companies began to see the importance of moving towards gender equality, although we still have a long way to go.
- What advice did they give you in the past that you would NOT give and what advice do you feel marked a before and after in your life?
The great man that my father was ,taught me that, for a woman, true empowerment begins with financial independence , with our ability to secure and earn our own money. Women must be determined, cunning, persevering and break with old imposed paradigms. Women can do it all!
Since I was little, he taught me something very important: told me that I could be whatever I wanted and he taught me that talent has no gender and that there are no limits.
Women have to make our talent known to the world. We can do it even if we don’t have engineering degrees or know how to write lines of code.
The main challenge we women have is breaking down the glass ceilings. Overcoming the impostor syndrome, something that women often go through and face: that little voice that tells you that you got there by pure chance and that you are not capable of achieving anything. It affects us all regardless of position or role.
Set our goals and strive to achieve them. It is a path of sacrifice, but we arrive because we are capable and we have to overcome that limit that we often impose on ourselves. Reaching success is a path of effort, motivation and permanent courage. It helps me to think that I am transforming the industry to provide flexible work opportunities for millions of women.
That advice that I would never give and that I always rejected was when they told me to give up, that my aspirations were very substancial and that perhaps it was better that I put my energy into a smaller-scale project. They should never accept that others lead them to give up their dreams, those projects that they started with so much sacrifice.
- If you had to say something to Silvina Moschini who had just finished her undergraduate degree in Argentina, what would you say to her?
I would tell you that with effort and dedication you can achieve what you set out to do. Never take “no” for an answer. Show your talent to the world and don’t feel like you have to apologize for your achievements. Reaching success is a path of effort, motivation and permanent courage.
Ping pong
A role model: Arianna Huffington
A place in the world: Tulum
A phrase/word that defines you: “Think BIG, only large companies HAVE BIG impact”
A movie: I haven’t seen a movie in a while, but the Silicon Valley series amuses me a lot.
A book: Thrive , by Arianna Huffington, I really liked because it is a book that redefines the metrics of success, which has nothing to do with money. Like her, I believe that success is being able to change people’s lives for the better, not money.
Silvina Moschini | CEO and founder of SheWorks! and Founder and President of TransparentBusiness
https://silvinamoschini.com/