MEWEM: Mentorship Empowering Female Entrepreneurs

In a world where equality is still a daily struggle, some associations stand out for their commitment and concrete action. IDOL is proud to support MEWEM, a feminist initiative dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs in the music industry. This program is making positive change in the music industry by empowering women and gender minorities through mentorship and entrepreneurship.

We interviewed Hélène Larrouturou, Managing Director of MEWEM France, who tells us how the project was born, the daily challenges they face, and the outlook for the upcoming seventh edition.

MEWEM’s mission is to encourage women and gender minorities to become entrepreneurs in the music industry. It’s a free program for women entrepreneurs who want to boost their careers and grow their businesses.

Today, only 10% of cultural enterprises are founded by women. To change these numbers, MEWEM chose mentorship as a pragmatic and positive way to support entrepreneurship in the music industry.

Mentorship is a powerful tool that connects a mentor, an experienced professional in the music industry, with a mentee, someone with an emerging business project.

MEWEM was born from an observation: women’s presence in the music industry is low, and the numbers plummet when looking at leadership positions. Mentorship emerged as a very effective tool to address this. The team benefited from a knowledge transfer from VUT, our German partner, which already had its own mentorship program.

The first edition of MEWEM was launched in 2019, and we’ve just completed the 6th edition! The project was initially incubated by FELIN (National Federation of Independent Labels) and now operates independently through a dedicated association.

From 2020 to the end of 2022, MEWEM expanded to six countries thanks to seven European partners, under the name MEWEM Europa: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Romania.

The goal was to facilitate the exchange of expertise, share feedback, and foster cooperation between different European mentorship programs. Today, this cooperation continues more organically, and MEWEM keeps expanding, notably with the SEWEM program, which has launched in China.

Generally speaking, what’s striking is that the challenges are similar across countries. The numbers remain low, and access to leadership positions for women and gender minorities is very difficult. However, and this is what’s exciting, each country has its specific market conditions, budgets, internal and international challenges, etc.

The main challenge of the collaboration was to provide tools while being flexible, allowing each network leader to create a custom mentorship program adapted to their national industry.

The three main initiatives are:
• Mentorship: Every year, a new group of 12 talented mentor-mentee pairs is formed.
• Training: Alongside the mentorship pairs, the association organizes monthly workshops, masterclasses, and a MEWEM CAMP (a day of training, networking, and consultations).
• Building a strong network: MEWEM now brings together over 300 professionals from the industry, creating numerous business opportunities.

Here are some very positive numbers from the latest edition :
• 75% of mentees increased and/or stabilized their revenue (a big win considering the challenges of sustaining a business and/or escaping precariousness).
• 92% achieved their goals during the program.
• 100% gained confidence in themselves.

We have many success stories, and it’s a joy to see the mentees grow, but also the mentors in their careers.

A few notable examples:
• Lucie Sabatier handled the VIP packages for Taylor Swift, Green Day, Jul, and Hamza through her company (mentee 2022 – Founder of Oxi Music).
• Katarina Timotijevic produced the latest music video for The Avener (mentee 2021 – Founder of Matière Première).
• Céline Garcia is now the manager of singer Pomme (mentor 2019, Vice President of MEWEM – Founder of PupperMaster).
• Camille Émilie now has a segment on the morning show on Mouv’ radio (mentee 2024).
• Camille Doe signed with Fatboy Slim’s label (mentee 2021 – Founder of GogoGreen).
• Binetou Sylla is now the head of Def Jam Africa (mentor and board member).
• Barbara Butch was booked for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (mentor).

And to finish, a striking quote from Fiona Attiogbe (mentee 2024 – Founder of Sssuperstar):

Currently, one of our major challenges is managing a growth peak, which requires improving our financial stability to build a solid and sustainable team. Another challenge is bringing together as many organizations and professionals from the music industry as possible because we need allies to push things forward.

Finally, working concretely on the businesses of entrepreneurs by helping them, for instance, raise funds.

It’s a long-term effort, but we are determined!

The 7th edition is already in preparation, with applications open until November 10, 2024.

I’d rather not reveal too much, but we’re also working on training and fundraising support projects, as well as national and European collaborations with key industry organizations. We’ll be announcing everything very soon!

• Aurélie ULLRICH
  President & Founder – Slo Slo
  Audiovisual producer and agent – Yann Orhan
• Binetou SYLLA
  Director – Def Jam Africa
  Founder – Wèrè Wèrè Music
• Cécilia PIETRZKO
  Co-founder and CEO – Grown-Kid
• Flore BENGUIGUI
  Singer / Songwriter / Composer / DJ
  Founder – Cherchez la femme
• Hylda GBENOU
  Artistic Director & Programmer – Solidays / Solidarité Sida
• Marie GODICHEAU-HAAS
  Marketing Director – Because Music
• Marie-Laure BEBEY
  Artistic Manager – Youtube France
• Narjes BAHHAR
  Journalist & Senior Rap & R&B Editorial Manager – Deezer France
  Founder – D.A
  Coach, Media Training for artists
• Nathalie BIROCHEAU
  Managing Director – Ircam Amplify
• Oriana CONVELBO
  Founder – Volta+

Applications are open until November 10.
More information on the MEWEM website.