Eric Hal Schwartz - Staff Writer 05/18/14 @11:26am
Giadha De Carcer, a serial entrepreneur based in Washington, D.C., knows intimately the conflict between finding success as a businesswoman while trying to find love and a happy personal life. Now she wants to show the world those difficulties and maybe learn some lessons about finding a good balance with a new, unscripted documentary series, Love & Business, 90 Days to Launch, raising money on Kickstarter until the end of Sunday.
"It can be like an identity crisis for businesswomen," De Carcer said. "The female journey is different today, there's not only a gender gap but a generational difference in things like gender roles and what women should be doing with their lives."
De Carcer will spend the 90 days of filming the series launching a new tech startup business while exploring the startup landscape for women in D.C. through discussion with other businesswomen. At the same time, she will be working with a dating coach and using a lot of the modern tools for finding a relationship to try and find love.
"It's all about trying to figure out what we want and what it means to be successful for women today," De Carcer said.
The series is designed to educate and entertain people about those kinds of questions. De Carcer said she wants to bring to life the endless dilemma women in her position face, a growing population of women who succeed in business but still face the internal and external pressures of expectation to have to commit entirely to business or family but not both.
"It's not conscious or malicious but many women have told me about how they feel they have to choose one or the other," she said. "It's a choice men struggle with too, but it's different."
It's not just big, philosophical questions under examination in the series. There will be a lot of practical discussion on how to take a business from concept to funding with a look at the extra difficulties for female entrepreneurs and how to get around things like the glass ceiling and the conscious and unconscious stereotypes of women in male-dominated industries like technology. There will also be plenty of practical dating advice too and probably some good lessons in how the dates shown for the series go.
"The romance part adds a fun twist," De Carcer said. "I want to do all of it in a fun way."
Even if the Kickstarter campaign doesn’t reach its goals, De Carcer said she’s had plenty of backing offers, it would simply delay the filming, which is currently planned to begin at the end of the month from what she described as very enthusiastic sponsors. Not that everyone has been totally supportive of her ideas. There's been some criticism as well, both of the idea and the execution, calling it a publicity stunt or worse.
"I've gotten some harsh feedback from men and women too," De Carcer said. "One called it 'public masturbation' even."
But DeCarcer certainly isn't one to give up easily and is eager to start learning and more importantly sharing what she learns with others like her.
"There's always more questions than answers," she said. "I just want the series to start asking some of the right questions."
Check out the trailer for the series below and visit the Kickstarter page before midnight if you want to find out more and donate.
Read More: DC Tech, Kickstarter, entrepreneur, DC film, Giadha De Carcer
