In this episode of the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard, we’re joined by Anne Stampe, co-founder of Nordic Female Founders and a professional investor. Anne has been invited into the studio to talk about mindset and entrepreneurship in Denmark.
Anne starts by saying she hates describing herself. She lives a perfectly ordinary life, like other 39-year-old women with a husband and children. According to Anne, the companies in her portfolio would say she’s extremely structured and knows every one of Nordic Female Founders’ cases inside out. Structure and family life take up a lot of room in Anne’s life, both privately and professionally, and they shape how she sees female entrepreneurship.
How a women’s community began
Anne talks about the road from the idea of a network for female entrepreneurs to becoming a professional investor and a role model. Today she has coined the term “the Anne Stampe ladies”. Anne Stampe and Mia Wagner founded Nordic Female Founders in 2020 with the vision of bringing more diversity to the Danish start-up landscape.
Anne explains that through her work at Freeway she met a lot of entrepreneurs and saw the injustices that often hit female entrepreneurs in Denmark. Today Nordic Female Founders has built a centre and a community for female entrepreneurs in Denmark, where they can gain knowledge and find a sounding board in the network and among professional investors. According to Anne, Nordic Female Founders put women in the name to give it a strong identity when they entered the market. But as Anne puts it, brave men are just as welcome in the community as women.
“The Anne Stampe ladies”
The conversation about Nordic Female Founders leads us on to female entrepreneurs. In Denmark there are significantly fewer female entrepreneurs than in Sweden and Norway, which Anne believes comes down to a lack of female role models and networks.
According to Anne, many women feel they aren’t good enough, so they’re often less sure of themselves and less willing to take risks. That, together with the high job security in the public sector, is why, in Anne’s view, the average female entrepreneur is 38. Many want a secure base before they throw themselves into entrepreneurship. Anne believes it’s important that we, as a society, put female entrepreneurs in the spotlight and encourage young women to break free of the culture of perfectionism and dare to take chances and fail.
“The Anne Stampe ladies” is a term Anne came up with as a response to the stereotypical entrepreneur who has dominated for many years. She wants to show that you can be an entrepreneur and a fully functioning human being at the same time. Anne explains that, for her, entrepreneurship exists on different levels, and she finishes by quoting Jesper Buch: “You’re a successful entrepreneur when you can pay your own salary”.
A structured mindset
For Anne, structure and health are what make everyday life work. If she’s going to perform and keep up a high pace, her body has to be in top form. That’s why she has a set of rules and rituals, including fixed bedtimes, a healthy diet and daily exercise. Her runs are her breathing space, and with clear goals for what she needs to do, she can keep the pace high for longer.