Post by Olena Obukhova, PhD🇺🇦

There is a pattern I keep noticing in conversations with women founders across CEE and Central Asia. It isn’t a lack of ambition or ideas. More often, the constraint shows up elsewhere in how strategic decisions are made under conditions of uncertainty. When to enter a new market? When to raise capital? How to think about pricing not through competitors, but through value? Which market signals actually matter, and which are just noise? These are not abstract questions. They directly determine whether a company grows or stagnates. Knowledge isn’t simply “access to information”, it’s the ability to interpret reality quickly and accurately enough to act on it. When access to information is limited or not properly used, this becomes an even more critical factor. Expertise does not just improve decisions it changes how trust is built with investors, partners, and the market. This topic is the focus of my latest article, developed with the support of Emerging Europe and Reinvantage , and published on the She’s Next by Visa platform https://lnkd.in/dknmmkuc I would also like to thank Alina Abakumova for the collaboration and the opportunity to share knowledge and insights. In it, I explore why closing the knowledge gap is not only an educational issue, but also a structural lever for building stronger companies and more resilient ecosystems in the region. If you are interested in how, in emerging markets, outcomes are shaped not only by capital but also by the level of capabilities, I would be glad to hear your perspective. #WomenEntrepreneurs #Startups #CEE #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #BusinessStrategy #Leadership #mentor