Female Founder In Focus: Elisabeth Steiger — Creative Tech Entrepreneur and Citizen of the World
This is the first post in a new series I’m launching on the blog called Female Founder In Focus, which essentially celebrates women blazing trails in different areas of business, tech, art, entrepreneurship, fashion, beauty etc.
I hope by sharing the stories and journeys of other women you are inspired to chase your dreams, work hard and never give up.
In today’s Female Founder In Focus, I interviewed Elisabeth (Liz) Steiger — a good friend and incredibly creative tech and lifestyle entrepreneur. Here’s her story:
Tell us a little about yourself and your background
I was born and raised in a small town near Austria’s capital Vienna. During my Master’s studies, I spent one semester in Beijing, China, and fell in love with Asia. I returned to Austria and knew I wanted to pursue an international career. Therefore, I obtained a postgraduate degree in International Relations and worked as a trainee in the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Next to my job, I worked on my PhD-thesis about Austrian companies in China which brought me back to Asia in 2011. After my graduation, I joined Siemens, a German conglomerate, as an associate of a program which was directly supervised by the global CFO. I lived what everybody else considered the dream life – moves to Germany and China, job positions with a lot of responsibility and high visibility and a related salary.
However, I always felt that I wanted to become an entrepreneur and kept brainstorming about potential business ideas with friends. In 2014, I took the leap, quit my job and started a tech-company in Hong Kong – we successfully launched, marketed and operated a fitness app targeting the Chinese market. On the side, I launched my blog The Pink Lookbook as a creative outlet where I started sharing my travel advice. Over time, this hobby evolved into a more serious project: a media platform for career women; for women like me, for those who want to explore, pursue their dreams and enjoy the beautiful things in life. It is strongly linked to my latest venture Pelagona – an e-commerce platform delivering luxury products supporting artisans from all over the world.
Tell us about your business(es). How did you get the idea(s) and how did you start?
When I lived in Shanghai in 2013, I started to suffer from back pain. I spent most of my time sitting at the office and rarely exercised. I used to be a runner in Europe but due to the air pollution, climate and lifestyle in Shanghai, I needed to find an alternative. For the first time in my life, I signed up for the gym and booked a personal trainer. When I asked her about advice to improve my cardio performance, she suggested using the Power Plate. I was not a fitness expert but I knew this device was used to strengthen muscles rather then cardio.
I started observing people at the gym. At this point in time, most of the gym members were either foreigners or Chinese men. I hardly saw any local women. One day, a guy next to me ran on the treadmill without shoes. I thought it may be a special way of exercising and asked him about it. But he just replied: “I thought that’s the right way to do it.” In addition to a lack of knowledge about sports, my Shanghainese girlfriends told me they did not like to exercise. They considered it too much effort and time. Most of them juggled their careers and family. Furthermore, they felt uncomfortable going to gyms and being judged as beginners. Instead, they took medication or avoided carbs to stay thin. I realized that health was not in their minds as yet.
Exercise improved my health and it also made me more confident. I really wanted to share this experience and empower others with sports. And this is how my first venture Imperial Glamour Club was born: easy and short exercise routines which could be done anywhere – at the gym, at home, at work at a hotel. The concept was completely localized and adapted to the local tastes and needs of China’s market.
I wanted to share what I learned as an entrepreneur with other career women and started my blog The Pink Lookbook roughly at the same time. I wanted to empower other women to believe in themselves, be ambitious and pursue their careers. Therefore, I started sharing my personal stories as a founder and also interviewed other women with interesting career paths. Over time, The Pink Lookbook has evolved to target career women who also appreciate the beautiful things in life – travel, art, fashion and design.
My online shop Pelagona was born out of my passion for fashion, design and travel. I am inspired by the places I’ve been and experiences I’ve had to discover unique pieces of decor and lifestyle accessories; each item on Pelagona is hand-picked and sourced by me. My goal is to support local artisans in different corners of the world and prevent local handicrafts and arts from dying out. On my travels, I find beautiful products and discover there are so many local art-based industries that are fading. This is a result of the younger generations not carrying on the art and tradition because they are leaving towns and villages in search of jobs with better pay in bigger cities. I built Pelagona with the hope to support the livelihood of female artisans and keep local arts and crafts from around the world alive by bringing their products and stories to life online.
How did you fund these projects?
All of my projects were or are bootstrapped, which means I invested my own money. When I started Imperial Glamour Club, I invested my savings I had built up during my corporate job. I always try to stress that external investment can be a great way to scale a business but it is no “holy grail”. If you are thinking about raising funds, also think about the related obligations (and potential) pressure. Moreover, your objectives as a founder and those of your investors might not always be the same.
What are the most useful skills you have learned for your business?
I would say that being an entrepreneur requires me to learn very quickly, to wear many different hats and to not be scared of entering unknown areas. YouTube and Google have become my best friends. I expanded my Corporate Finance and International Relations background with skills such as creating apps, websites and digital customer journeys, Marketing and Branding, videography, video/photo editing and illustration.
However, the biggest learnings were and still are those about myself. I learned to not give up, keep believing and pushing myself – even when things looked really bad.
Tell us about some unexpected challenges you faced and how you overcame them.
Apart from the obvious hurdle of founding a business, one of my biggest challenges was to start a business in a foreign country. Most founders I know agree that founding a business itself is a tough task. Doing it abroad adds more dimensions such as intercultural differences or the necessity to build up a network from scratch.
I knew Hong Kong very well before I moved and I had built up a network. Nevertheless, starting a business in a foreign country and with a limited social network can be even more challenging and lonelier than at home. Nevertheless, I had a reason to be in Hong Kong and tried to make the most out of the benefits. Hong Kong is a city where it is very easy to meet interesting people and network.
Tell us about your career highlights.
My highlights are when people actively approach me with interesting ideas for my projects. Recently, I had quite a few friends and followers on Instagram who suggested some NGOs and local initiatives for potential collaborations with Pelagona. Furthermore, I consider all the people I met along the way as highlights. I always love to connect with likeminded people and hear their stories.
Advice for aspiring women who want to launch their own business
Stop doubting yourself! Stop listening to the mean voice in your head. Imagine your inner voice was a friend in real life. If this person doubted you and made you feel bad, would you spend time with this “friend”? It may be challenging, but believe in what you are doing. There is a reason why you ended up where you are. If you sow positive seeds, good things will happen in the future.
Dare I ask — what next?
I am currently working on more content for The Pink Lookbook – there will be more style guides for (business) travel, for example. On Pelagona, there will be many new additions to the store – a new collection of baskets by a female weaving community in Kenya just went online and more partnerships are in the pipeline.
Connect with Liz
Instagram: @lizsteiger
The Pink Lookbook: www.thepinklookbook.com / Facebook: @thepinklookbook
Pelagona: www.pelagona.com / Instagram: @pelagona / Facebook: @pelagona