Emerging Europe Talks

About Emerging Europe Talks

She’s Next Talks is a podcast spotlighting bold women who are reshaping the future—on their own terms. These are not polished success stories. They’re real, honest conversations about the courage it takes to start, the resilience needed to continue, and the reinvention that happens along the way. In each episode, we speak with entrepreneurs, creators, and changemakers who’ve chosen to do things differently. We explore how they navigate uncertainty, build with intention, and define success for themselves. Whether you’re building something new, questioning the path you’re on, or simply looking

Publisher

Reinvantage

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 May 2020

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

107 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   She’s Next Talks with Natalya Klimenko

   After leading business development at Billz—one of Uzbekistan’s most prominent tech start-ups—Tashkent-based entrepreneur Natalya Klimenko felt driven to create something of her own. In late 2023, she launched STEMIO, an EdTech platform designed to teach school students STEM subjects and programming. Driven by a desire for meaningful social impact alongside commercial viability, Klimenko stepped into the grueling reality of early-stage entrepreneurship. Building as a solo non-technical founder proved to be a steep learning curve. Navigating rapid market shifts, hiring difficulties, and high marketing costs, Klimenko made two major product pivots before confronting a hard financial truth. In December 2023, she made the conscious decision to shut down the project. “I calculated all my investments and loss cost opportunities. It was more than 70,000 dollars. I could buy one apartment in Tashkent, but still it was really cool experience,” she reflects, choosing to view the closure not as failure, but as an invaluable professional investment. For Klimenko, failure in entrepreneurship is a masterclass in adaptability, emotional intelligence, and rigorous planning. She cautions founders against falling so in love with their product that they ignore unit economics or sales. Her advice to female founders is practical: “Take risks, but of course you should have ABCDE plans if something doesn't work”. Rather than stepping away from innovation, Klimenko took her hard-earned lessons into her next venture. Today, she serves as COO of an AI project delivering intelligent voice assistants for telecom operators across Central Asia, replacing outdated voicemails and filtering spam calls. Reflecting on her journey, Klimenko remains fiercely committed to using technology for good. “We are not a charity—we need to earn money, but at the same time, for me, it was very important to have this social impact,” she says, demonstrating that true entrepreneurial resilience lies in knowing when to pivot, when to let go, and how to build again.

2. 

   18 Sept 2026

   She’s Next Talks with Turana Alieva

   Growing up in a traditional, patriarchal family in Azerbaijan, Turana Alieva faced a pre-written future: her parents dreamt of her becoming a doctor. “I’m afraid of blood,” she recalls, admitting she faints at the sight of it. Refusing to follow their roadmap, she pursued politics and economics instead, eventually securing a scholarship for a master’s degree at the University of Glasgow despite her family’s initial reluctance to let her study abroad. After graduating in the UK, multiple unsuccessful job attempts led Alieva to pivot into entrepreneurship, launching her start-up, FeMight. Building a business from scratch proved draining and misunderstood by her family, who initially assumed she was unemployed. Her mother regularly sent her office job vacancies until FeMight won the UK Start-up Award regional finals. “Until recently my mom thought I was jobless,” she explains, noting how hard it can be for traditional families to grasp the building phase of a start-up. Through coaching female founders, Alieva identified the "confidence gap" as the primary barrier preventing women from taking risks, asking for promotions, or pitching investors. She views confidence not as an innate trait, but as a muscle that requires continuous daily exercise. “Once you stop training it, it goes weak again,” she observes, emphasizing that women often focus on current metrics while men pitch ambitious future projections. Entrepreneurship also taught Alieva hard lessons about pacing. Early on, she attempted to do everything at once, leaving her devastated when no one showed up to her first two events in Glasgow. Realizing she was on the path to burnout, she shifted to setting one focused goal at a time. Today, inspired by the rapid shifts in women's independence across Azerbaijan, Alieva is expanding FeMight’s global community by raising funds through B2B crowdfunding to build a dedicated digital platform for female founders.

3. 

   14 Sept 2026

   She's Next Talks with Bardha Ajvazi

   At two years old, Bardha Ajvazi moved from Kosovo to the United Kingdom, returning home as a teenager with an open-minded worldview and an international perspective that would define her career. "I think if that didn't happen in my life, I would be a much different person today," she reflects, noting how her early cross-cultural exposure shaped her approach to business. Armed with degrees in business management and IT, Ajvazi co-founded marketing and digital agency Brand Fluence in 2019—just three months before the global pandemic hit. Rather than folding, her team capitalized on the sudden regional surge in demand for digital transformation, e-commerce, and online branding. Driven to address a gap in her local market, she later co-founded Andra, the first Albanian-language platform dedicated to women’s health, menstrual tracking, and family planning, which has already surpassed nearly 30,000 downloads. Across both ventures, Ajvazi has built a leadership style rooted in open communication and strong teamwork. Rejecting the myth of the solitary founder, she actively encourages her team to propose new ideas without fear. "I've learned that I cannot do something on my own," she notes, emphasizing that long-term success requires gathering diverse perspectives around the table. Her guidance for aspiring female entrepreneurs is grounded in practical reality rather than social media illusions. She cautions founders against measuring early-stage startups against mature companies, while advising them not to wait for perfect timing. “Do not wait until you feel completely ready because that will never happen,” she urges, stressing that while passion is vital, “a business also needs demand”. As a mother of two balancing executive roles with board leadership, Ajvazi defines success through meaningful impact rather than single milestones. Looking ahead to her next chapter in digital transformation, AI, and mentoring young women across the Balkans, her commitment remains steadfast. “Success for me is... having created work that is meaningful while remaining present in other important parts of my life,” she says.

Who has been a guest on Emerging Europe Talks

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Cristina Doros
• Jovana Vulic
• Zhanna Kazakbayeva

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

333,100

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 52 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

42

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

68

Contact Emerging Europe Talks

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.