Since graduating from UCL School of Management’s MSc Entrepreneurship programme, Ina Jovicic’s tech company eNOugh has gone on to achieve incredible success. Ina, alongside Co-Founder Gaelic Jara Reinhold, have raised their first round of investment and received a number of awards - most recently UCLs Most Impactful Startup award.
A recent BBC article highlights that violence against women and girls is increasing at an alarming rate. In this blog, Ina shares why ensuring safety is the first step in supporting the advancement of women, as well as the changing landscape of the start-up scene.
tell us about yourself and your startup
My name is Ina and I am the founder and CEO of eNOugh. I did my masters in MSc Entrepreneurship at UCL School of Management. The sentence that explains my personality probably the best is: “Balkan temperament with Czech punctuality”.
At eNOugh, we are building AI-powered protection badges to make women feel safe when walking alone at night. Currently, we are finalising another porotype which we will be beta testing soon and we’re also kicking-off our next funding round.
what have been your entrepreneurship highlights so far
Definitely closing our first funding round last year was up there but also winning the annual UCL School of Management Pitch Day 2 years ago - that day was a crucial catalyst for our journey.
how do you find the gender representation in the startup scene?
Well, I am usually in a minority. At many events there is always less women and I have been to many rooms where I even would be the only one. But I have to say it’s getting much better very quickly, there has been a lot of focus on backing female-led start-up and I have been meeting more and more absolutely impressive female founders which is super positive.
Now of course, it depends on a sector as well. For example, in hardware, it is still mainly dominated by men.
how do you hope enough will #accelerateaction for women?
We look at it in a way that we are solving the most fundamental stone of women’s potential. Safety is the 2nd most important human need. If women feel safe on daily basis, they have more power to focus on their ambition and goals. So ultimately, we want to empower all the women to just be able to “go for it” and follow their own aspirations.
what advice would you give to female entrepreneurs?
I would say try to see the fact that you are a female entrepreneur as additional super power – be bold, be direct and be ready to put in the hard work an break some necessary walls.