“Fascination Entrepreneurship, Fascination Sustainability”

“Fascination Entrepreneurship, Fascination Sustainability” was the title of the lecture given by CHOM Capital founder and Managing Director Martina Neske on 4 March 2024 at Frankfurt School. She spoke as part of the “FS Women’s Society” series, in which experienced and successful women exchange insights from their professional lives with female students, alumnae and friends of Frankfurt School.

Martina Neske founded CHOM Capital, an asset management boutique with a focus on sustainable equity investments, in 2011. She emphasised the importance of linking entrepreneurship and sustainability and encouraged the audience to pursue self-employment. “The most important thing is simply to get started, because the right time to found a company is always now,” said Martina Neske.

Reflecting on her own company, she highlighted her fascination with entrepreneurship. Her motivation: with the right passion, an entrepreneur can create new products through their own company, inspire others, and achieve positive impact for the economy and the climate – without being bound by the constraints of a large corporation.

According to Martina Neske, there is never a perfect moment to start a business, and even as a woman and a mother, success is possible with the right team and a clear vision. Unfortunately, many start-ups never materialise because the fear of failure is too great. Women in particular tend to be more cautious in this respect than men, which contributes to their underrepresentation as entrepreneurs. One of her key lessons learned has been that a willingness to take risks is essential and that particularly challenging times offer valuable learning opportunities.

In the second part of her lecture, Martina Neske explained how complex the topic of sustainability is within capital markets and that ESG ratings are only of limited help in identifying truly sustainable companies. CHOM Capital has therefore developed its own model to identify companies that are sustainable in practice. The focus is on “real-world sustainability” rather than “prospectus sustainability.” She illustrated this approach with several examples.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. At the subsequent get-together with snacks and drinks, participants had the opportunity to continue their conversations and exchange ideas.