Eugenia Maria Di Marco

First and foremost, my family. My family was the one - is still the one who is always supporting me and encouraging me to keep on fighting, to keep on doing what I love. Then, of course, my education was something that is super important in my career, not only because of what I learned, but also because of who I met and the connections I made. And then, of course, my personality. I am a person who never gives up. Every time I have a challenge, I just keep on going. Something that really encouraged me to keep on going was being able to ask the right people for help. When I was not able to keep on doing my work or keep on going by my own means, or the tools that I was able to build back at the time, I was able to gather more tools with more specialized people. So that was something - the fact of being able to ask for help and being super brave - something that is pushing me to keep on being the person that I am right now, and keep on shining and supporting other people.

When I was studying at Berkeley, one of my mentors is the Vice President of American Airlines. I remember that I told him in class that I wanted him to also give examples from other countries, or people who are in the U.S. facing the same challenges as international people, because the class had international founders. When the class finished, he called me over, and I was worried I had been disrespectful. But he told me, 'Eugenia, thank you very much for this. I want you not to be sorry, on the contrary. When you have something to say that will help others, be brave and say it. In the way you just mentioned it, with respect, but say it, speak up. Speak up. Always speak up.' And that was the best advice.

Be brave. My field is full of men. Every time, for example, that I travel to the Tech Weeks, we rent an Airbnb with all the founders - I'm the only woman and eight other men. So sometimes it's difficult. When you go to events, to networking events, for example, they see you as a woman, they see you in another position. Many people, not all of them, but my advice is be brave. Many people are going to see you differently because you're a woman. But just empower yourself, because you can do it. You can do it, definitely. You just have to be brave, you just have to trust in yourself, because you have the guts to do it properly.

In my case, finding another lawyer with my same mentality was a challenge. Building my team is still a challenge for me, because law schools are still training lawyers the old style. Trying to find a lawyer that is able to work fast-paced, that is able to be more human, to be more near my founders - that was one of the biggest challenges for me. It was a challenge, but then when I found the right people, they are rock stars in what they are doing right now. Another very big challenge when I started building my company was asking for help. When you're a lawyer, there's this thing in every country where lawyers are powerful, like powerful machines. They know everything, and they have to do everything super correct. So asking for help for me was also a barrier, because not many people were seeing me like, 'Are you asking for help? Are you a lawyer or not?' And as a founder, I discovered that if you don't have the skill to ask for help, you are doomed. But for me, that was also a very big challenge in my field - being able to ask for help and don't be judged.

Empathy is super important. Kindness - kindness for me is one of the most important values. I don't know if this is a value, it's a way of being, but also being able to listen to the people, to being able to ask how they are, how they are feeling, and try to support them in any way I can. That's another very important value, but I think that the most important one right now is kindness.