Fenja Vespermann

Founder / 3D Designer + Creative Director @hooraystudio / passionate about interactive fashion design, new technologies and web3

Every founder I know built the thing they were missing.
For me, that was a faster, less frustrating way to prototype 3D ideas without killing creative momentum.

I come from the trenches of digital production - building for clients, pitching at midnight, re-rendering scenes till they looked just right.
Now, I'm building Mimikry.ai with focus on integrating responsible AI into brand-specific pipelines that let brands move faster, explore more, and still own their vision.

I’m not here to automate away the craft.
I’m here to make space for it.

If you want to see more what I am currently building, check here: www.mimikry.ai

Founder, Digital Designer

hooray is a global new media creative studio with a pioneering innovator in the creative field. The studio brings together abstract, elemental, and contemporary artists with a futuristic approach, creating excellence in areas such as animation, house mapping, and AR/VR applications. Together they create a place where art and technology finally find a home. 


I got rejected by my own life 5 times.
Then I glazed ceramics for a living to pay my rent. 

Now, the biggest companies in the world pay us to build their AI.

Here's the real story:
At 19 I started my first company. At 22 I was leading a tech team in Berlin.
I had a huge run but in the end it failed. 
Then I tried again. 
Failed. 
Again. 
Failed. 
Again. 
Failed.
5 startups. 5 times, everything I built turned to nothing. 
Can you imagine what my mother went through?

2 years ago I glazed ceramics as a mini job to get some money. Not for fun. Not for "the experience." Because I had zero left. 

I remember thinking: "Am I brave or am I just too dumb to quit?"
I didn't have an answer. But I started over anyway.

This time, something was different.

I stopped building what excited ME. 
I started solving what frustrated THEM.

A brand told me: "We spend 6 weeks and €500K on product images nobody outside this building ever sees."
So we built a system that does it in 15 days. and 60% cheaper.

5 failures taught me 3 things:
• Fall in love with the problem. Never the idea.
• If you can't sell it before you build it, don't build it.
• Being busy and making progress are two completely different things.

The gap between a minijob and a Fortune 500 boardroom isn't talent.

It's getting up one more time than you fell.
If you're on failure number 2 or 3 right now, keep going.

Your story isn't over. 
You're just in the ugly middle chapter.

Connecting data, technology, and creative systems | Building vertical AI

Last month I went to a female founder dinner. A woman who used to build in tech looked at me and said:

"I quit. I'm done fighting this system." It hurts me so much to hear that people quit dreams because of that. 

Cause it's not one meeting where they look past you to the man next to you. 
It's 100 meetings.
It's not one person assuming your male co-founder does the real work. 
It's most of them. 
It's not one guy deciding "I'll do the talking part because understand their tech needs better." 

It's years of assuming you're the support act in your own company. lol

I don't want to see the same founding stories recycled by guys who started with warm intros and golf buddies. 

I'm done working 5x harder to get the same chances men get handed.

The fight doesn't have a finish line. 
Ah and yes it IS a fight. And no, not against men. 
But against a system that still doesn't understand that we are here. 

Some days you're exhausted before the morning starts. 
Some days you think maybe she was right. Maybe quitting is the safe choice.
But the more I talk about this publicly, the more I realize, i want to help changing it. 

For every person that quit.

For every fucking little girl wanting to build the next Google. 

The system doesn't change because we leave(even if its ok to do so if you want to). 
It changes because we stay and refuse to shut up about it.

To every woman reading this who's tired of the fight: 
You're not crazy. 
The game is rigged. 
Play anyway.



Where are the tech divers and female founders? I want to see you, hear you and connect with you. What are you currently building? I believe in you!

I would rather see 1000 women who don't like me win than 10 more men take another seat.
 
They gave us one seat at the table. 
So we compete instead of collaborating. 
We doubt each other before we doubt the system.
 
And it worked.
 
I've been in rooms where I was the only woman more times than I can count. And the hardest moments weren't the men who underestimated me, it was the women I hoped would have my back and didn't.
 
That used to break me. 
It doesn't anymore. 
Cause it was never personal. 
It was the system working exactly as designed.
 
The women who didn't believe in me never stopped me from believing in them.
 
Not because I'm endlessly forgiving. 
Because I refuse to let a broken system turn me into someone who tears other women down if I like them. 

Why the fuck should I? 
 
So yes: I'm rooting for the woman who ghosted me. 
For the woman who doubted me. 
For the woman who never gave me a chance.
 
You're fighting in a system that was never built for either of us.
 
Let's fucking change it.

Tag a woman you're rooting for. She probably has no idea. 
I tag rei ‎ even though she didnt ghosted me haha

I still don't know what I'm doing half the time.

Even if: 

I've built a team. 
Six figure monthly revenue after 8 months. 
Fortune 500 clients.

But last week I sat in a hotel bed at 2am thinking this was all a mistake.
Because there are weeks where everything breaks at once.
Pitches that go nowhere.
Smiling on calls when your bank account says you shouldn't.

Before mimikry there was a 3D studio that didn't work out. Ideas that never left my laptop. Starting over at 24 with no plan B.

The hardest part wasn't any of that.

The hardest part was thinking I was the only one going through it.

Which is so stupid, I know.

The doubt doesn't go away when the money comes in. You just get better at building with it. And when I stopped pretending I had it figured out, better conversations happened. 

Better decisions too.

The founders I respect most say "I don't know" out loud.

If you're building something right now and it feels like a mess: that's not a sign you're doing it wrong. That's just what it is sometimes.

What are you going through right now that nobody sees? DM or comments.

𝟲 𝘁𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿:

1. Stop comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else's Chapter 20.
   
2. The "overnight success" you're jealous of took seven years.
   
3. Say no more than you say yes. Especially in Year 1.
   
4. Every "no" is just information. Collect enough of it and you'll find the "yes."
   
5. The hardest conversation you need to have is usually the most important one.
   
6. You'll say "this is the hardest thing I've ever done" at least ten times. And you'll mean it every time.


What's your tip?

Katie McIntyre is a Creative Director, Film Director, Industrial, Automotive and Fashion Designer,  VFX Artist, and Ivy League Lecturer.

Founder of Katie McIntyre Studio, she collaborates with artists like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Shenseea, Bebe Rexha, Latto, Normani, Lizzo, and The Weeknd, shaping iconic album designs, product designs, films, couture, and  VFX for live shows. Her feminine futurism design philosophy has earned international recognition, with keynote lectures at institutions like Harvard, Duke, SVA, USC and Carnegie Mellon.She also partners with brands like Mugler, Puma, Nike, and Amazon, leading product lines and film campaigns grounded in feminine futurism. Her innovative style of fashion design is worn by artists like Lizzo, Flo Milli, Viktoria Modesta, Cardi B and Shenseea.  Her creative 80 ft visuals were recently featured on the Coachella main stage for Bebe Rexha and David Guetta's performance.  Time magazine named her one of the “World’s Leading Female VFX Artists.” 

McIntyre was honored as a “Leader of Tomorrow” by the St. Gallen Symposium for her advocacy and  influence on design and technology. She was also honored as a "Next Generation Talent" at the Canadian Art and Fashion Awards. 

As CEO of her new brand Matriarch, McIntyre advances empowerment through innovative design and technology products. Her automotive design, Dakini, already featured in a Mugler campaign and showcased by Vogue Singapore, has created an impact in the automotive field and a global following.

McIntyre graduated from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. McIntyre has worked for and been mentored by Virgil Abloh and Joe Perez. Post graduation she worked at Google Creative Lab, and Apple. She was one of the youngest Art Directors in Apple’s history. 

She was born and raised in a small forest town near Toronto, Canada.

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