The International Day of Women Entrepreneurs brought together this Wednesday in Barcelona dozens of directors, founders and professionals who share a common diagnosis: the challenges of entrepreneurship remain valid, even in sectors where female leadership is increasingly visible. The conference, organized by Juno House, seeks to promote the entrepreneurial mentality and connect figures from different sectors in a context where, according to recent studies by Ecosistema Startup, approximately 18% of projects founded in 2024/2025 have a woman as CEO in Catalonia. Among the testimonies shared by the participants, the common perception has appeared that women entrepreneurs feel that they must arrive more prepared than men before presenting themselves to investors, clients or potential partners. The different trajectories coincide in the same diagnosis and helps explain why the confidence gap (external and internal) continues to be an obstacle for so many women. Entrepreneurial women: the challenge of obtaining financing to carry out a project
Three trajectories, the same speech
Beatriz de Vicente, with more than two decades in leadership positions, has experienced situations well known to other entrepreneurs and that reveal persistent inequality. From Juno, where she supports initiatives and works to generate a platform of opportunities, she has detected a pattern: projects promoted by women are usually classified as self-entrepreneurship, while those by men are directly identified as a company or startup. For her, this contrast reflects that many women promote themselves poorly and that a lack of self-confidence influences how they present their ideas. Eli Bernal’s experience moves in the same direction. After years working in a sector as masculinized as cybersecurity, she lived with imposter syndrome for a long time. Today she is directing her third project and has managed to form a team with 46% women without the need for quotas and, as she emphasizes, after “a lot of effort.” 70% of Tranxfer’s leadership positions are also occupied by women. Bernal affirms that this balance transforms internal dynamics, because teams are better supported, conflicts are managed more agilely, and problems are resolved faster when there is diversity. Stephany Oliveros’s story tells how difficult this path can be. He comments that distrust increases especially when he talks to investors. His worst experience was when a manager at a large company told him that the best thing to do was to lie, say that the product was ready to get financing, and then admit that it was still in development. She also explains that, in another investment search, she was unable to close the deal because she was very honest with her company’s data. She did not promise impossible things and feels that many men do and that, many times, this receives more support. The three agree that, before launching themselves, women tend to train and meet a high standard of skills, which delays or prevents public exposure times or the first rounds of investment. In Spain, according to a recent Mastercard study, 39% of Spanish women would like to start a business, but lack of financing is the main barrier. This preparation, they maintain, is mixed with a more persistent sense of insecurity than that usually shown by male entrepreneurs.
