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April 29 2023
We are happy to have won our second APPOLINE ambassadrice with the startup founder, Alessia Schrepfer. Alessia is the founder of AS20 and WeNurse, two startups with which she is rocking the healthcare industry. We are excited about her entrepreneurial spirit and drive.
Here are our "three tricky questions" for Alessia:
Alessia, you dared to start up - what is your motivation and where do you get the energy to build and develop your businesses?
Even before I graduated as a healthcare professional, I knew I had to do something that would positively impact the healthcary industry. Initially, I thought I would do this by climbing the career ladder. Self-employment and thus building my own business has always been my dream. However, I was not sure for a long time whether I would go for it in reality. I finally took the step into self-employment because I found a very suitable co-founder, namely my former boss 😉.
My daily motivation is the status quo of our healthcare system. To put it mildly, it's chronically ill. But the good news is there are cures! We have lots of ideas for it. But it takes a stamina and a lot of energy. I take this from my great private environment, which consists of many entrepreneurs. Talking to such people gives me courage and motivates me. Moreover, I am married to a venture capitalist, and he believes in me and our ideas. At the same time, however, he also challenges us from a potential investor's point of view. This is very helpful and provides orientation. Ultimately, the main motivation is that there is no day that is the same as another. In addition, it is a great pleasure to work on topics that matter to me and that I am fully convinced of. Even if it really is a roller coaster ride of emotions 😉.
At WeNurse, a freelance model for nurses, employees are given shares and co-determination rights. This also makes many women who work in nursing better off. Is the issue of 'equal pay' a driver for you or a very welcome side effect?
At WeNurse, equality and equal rights (no matter what) are not only important values to us, but we truly live them. For example, we have no salary gap between women and men. Admittedly, this is just a "side effect". We have never actively considered this, as we understand gender equality as a given. Even more importantly, we aim at rewarding those who perform and are willing to go the "extra mile." Namely, our co-entrepreneurs. It doesn't matter to us what education (minimum training FAGE), age, gender, or hobbies someone has. Share and ESOP participation are dependent on self-selected workload, and free riders are not welcome. However, we deliberately want to encourage women (and men!) that are hard workers: The vesting period can be extended from 3 to 4.5 years. This assures, for example, that no one is disadvantaged in case of maternity or paternity leave, so nobody has to choose between job and family.
What do fashion and sustainability mean to you?
Fashion and appearance are important to me. In the past, I often "rewarded" myself with new clothing or accessories. Accordingly, sustainability was not always granted. On the one hand, sustainability lies in the production process and in quality, on the other hand, it lies in a closet's lifetime. Often, new looks, at some point and sometimes rather quickly, are no longer liked. Increasingly (perhaps this is also due to age 😉) I live by the motto "less is more". For me, good quality is important, and my focus lies on solid basics that are never out of style and can be combined easily.
