Fast track to the right people
When working in the startup space, you can’t underestimate the power and influence of a network – where someone who knows someone who knows someone, can be the next connection that advances your business forward. In recounting her journey, Merete Skov Pedersen, co-founder of MiCollect, shares how immersing herself in the community as a part of the Beyond Beta Lifestyle & Design Incubator facilitated by the Lifestyle & Design Cluster helps bridge knowledge gaps.
Merete has spent more than a decade working within data, tech, and retail, and with MiCollect, she found a way to combine her experiences to address the lack of data accessible in the furniture industry. She identified early on that there would be no quick fix – and that using data and insights to transform business would instead require a large-scale mindset shift. An ambitious task, even for the most prepared.
To help navigate the space, Merete’s incubator colleagues often provide a sense of relief, “You feel like a part of a group that’s on the same path as you, and you get access to a people who have tried something before in your same vertical.” Having that roster of startups who have built new companies within lifestyle and design offers reassurance to others starting out, and industry-specific “do’s and dont’s” that you might lack with less industry-specific incubators. “As a startup, you will always run into failures. But perhaps you don’t have to fail down the same path as someone else.”
Today, Merete continues to use her network to navigate the big, like pitching to investors, and the small, like designing a new logo – proving that we all can move forward together when we lean on the people around us.
