Elena Sinelnikova of MetisDAO: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen
An Interview With Jerome Knyszewski
Being a founder is not for everyone. Not that it is hard but it is very different. For me it took a couple of years and grey hairs just to get used to the new life. But it was totally worth it. The moment you understand you can realize your own dream and not someone else’s you will never want to go back to your previous life.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elena Sinelnikova.
Software development guru and entrepreneur, Elena Sinelnikova has an extensive background of developing enterprise software solutions for government and law enforcement industries. She holds a Master of Computer Science degree and her specialties are in blockchain, cyber security and full stack programming. In addition to her position as CEO of MetisDAO, Elena has also taken on the opportunity to found and lead the CryptoChicks organization, and she has made it a success in 56 countries.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Previously a Microsoft developer in a 9 to 5 corporate job with Edmonton Police, I felt I had achieved everything I could have imagined in that career. I then moved to Toronto where I started working with blockchain technology. My long time friend Natalia Ameline also lived in Toronto and, together, we started CryptoChicks after Natalia’s son asked us to open an Ethereum crypto wallet on Natalia’s laptop. I remember we had such a hard time installing the wallet on her Windows laptop. We recognised there was an opportunity there for us to figure out how it worked and then use that knowledge to help other women to do the same. We opened up a meetup group for women who wanted to learn blockchain and that’s how CryptoChicks was started.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My move to Toronto, trading my former corporate job for a blockchain entrepreneur career path, was undoubtedly key but so too was renting an apartment via Kijiji, the online marketplace, where my landlord turned out to be one of the people on the core team that started the famous Ethereum blockchain. That was one of those Universe signs that I was in the right place.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember finding a very prospective sponsor to support CryptoChicks, and was writing an email explaining to my colleague what strategy and techniques I would use to sell this sponsorship. Unfortunately, after clicking send, I realized that I had sent the email to the sponsor and not my colleague. Needless to say, I never heard back from that sponsor. It’s always worth double checking the little things for every communication made — whether in business or personally.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Many people helped me in my life and career. I am thankful to every one of them! One particular person I most admire is my husband Andrei. Aside from him supporting me in every opportunity, every career change, every day in my life, for which I am grateful, he has also taken care of our kids, as well supporting me financially, while I was building my new career and business.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I think The Millionaire Fastlane by M. J. DeMarco gave me a major boost and different perspective. It answered my question why I felt like I was dying in my 9 to 5 job and opened a door for me into a different dimension — that of the millionaire fast lane. Since reading it, I have even messaged the author on LinkedIn with my thanks.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
Time is money. I have to say that your time is way more valuable than money. You can always earn money back, but you can’t get back the time you wasted or lost. I realized this even when I was stuck in my daily routine waiting for little things like vacations, before realizing that this is my life that I am wasting with the waiting and I better start enjoying every moment of it. Make every moment worth living. That is why I am not spending hours on the internet anymore looking for the best deals and I don’t do the work I can pay someone else to do. My time is my most precious asset.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
As CryptoChicks leader, I helped dozens of women from developing countries make their dream come true by arranging for them to be able to go to Japan for the DevCon conference with all expenses paid by referring them as representatives of the CryptoChicks community to Ethereum Foundation. I am so glad that the CryptoChicks name helped them. Some of them could never have afforded such a trip. CryptoChicks also brought education to kids in the Bahamas when we and our partner HAP organized a hackathon there. We flew kids from different Bahamian islands, and from poorer neighborhoods, and placed them into the private school and had a fun
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
You need to be pretty comfortable financially and also have some extra free time to start your own business. For women this is usually more problematic than it is for men. From my own experience unless I had a supportive partner or got the support and help with my kids and finances that I needed, I would have been too occupied with taking care of my family and earning a living to start my own business. Starting a business is time consuming and tough but without support it is nearly impossible and I think that is one of the main reasons why other women are hesitant to start their own ventures.
Can you share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
When I was starting out on my own I faced the problem that there was no programs available for the absolute beginner entrepreneurs. The ones that were offered required you to have a pretty steady revenue of a few hundred thousand dollars and charged a huge annual fee. So, we created CryptoChicks Hatchery program for the women in our community to create their own businesses. We created a basic course that guides them through the process and brought in mentors to help them on a weekly basis. I also try to empower them with my own example. If I can do it — they can too. I learned a lot while founding and leading CryptoChicks and MetisDAO and I will share my experience and knowledge to every woman that reaches out to me.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Being a founder is not for everyone. Not that it is hard but it is very different. For me it took a couple of years and grey hairs just to get used to the new life. But it was totally worth it. The moment you understand you can realize your own dream and not someone else’s you will never want to go back to your previous life.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.
To provide women with proper business education.
To provide them with regular mentorship from the founders they want to learn from.
To organize a peer support group made up of other founders.
To teach them technology, such as basic website creation they can use to jumpstart their businesses.
To help them with the legal guidelines and initial funding.
Each of these 5 things are key elements that we provide in CryptoChicks’ Hatchery program.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
To collect and recycle all plastic on Earth. Including every single piece in the ocean.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I don’t believe in idols so I don’t really have one I can name here. Instead, I would just enjoy spending time with someone very close to me — my mom.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Easily — just visit my websites https://metisdao.org and https://cryptochicks.ca
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
