What an event is behind us! On 19 March 2026, Prospera welcomed a full room of women to Impact Hub Vienna for “Invest Like a Woman – Starting Smart, Staying Calm, Investing with Purpose” — an evening of fireside chat, open discussion, and networking dedicated to demystifying investing for women in Vienna. The turnout alone said a lot: this is a topic women are hungry to talk about, openly and without judgment.
Our speaker: Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst
We were joined by Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst, CEFA, founder and CEO of Dragonfly Finance, who brought more than 20 years of investment experience into the room. Before founding Dragonfly Finance, Susanne served as Head of Sales in Austria at Fidelity International, sat on the board at Fondsfabrik, and worked as a portfolio manager at Volksbanken Invest. She is a member of CFA Society Austria, Fondsfrauen, and the Female Investors Network, and she lectures and contributes to the development of the Financial Communication studies at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences.
Susanne walked the audience through the key principles of investing and shared candid, real-world experience from two decades in the industry.
What we covered
The fireside chat, moderated by Romana Wochl, co-founder of Prospera, worked through the essentials of investing in clear, practical terms:
- ✅ Time horizon, risk, diversification, and compound interest
- 📉 Inflation and the erosion of purchasing power
- 📊 Markets and uncertainty
- 🚩 How to recognize investing red flags
- 👌 Why it’s okay to start small
Susanne also introduced the concept of dollar-cost averaging, and the room learned a simple but powerful framework for spotting red flags: the triangle of income, liquidity, and security. If an investment promises all three at once — high returns, easy access to your money, and no risk — that’s the moment to be skeptical.
Q&A and networking
The fireside chat was followed by a lively 40-minute Q&A, where attendees brought their own questions and scenarios to the table, and the evening wrapped up with informal networking — plenty of new connections, and a lot of continued conversation about money, confidence, and long-term thinking.
Part of something bigger
This event was organized by Prospera with the support of Dragonfly Finance, as part of the first cohort of Prospera’s COINVERSATIONS project. With this event, we also joined the celebration of Global Money Week.
A big thank you to Susanne Lederer-Pabst for sharing her expertise so generously, to everyone who joined us at Impact Hub Vienna, and to Dragonfly Finance for supporting this event. If this topic resonated with you, keep an eye on our events page — this is just the beginning of the conversations we want to keep having.
PS: If you’d like to be part of what we do next, you can become a Prospera member. Here you can find more information and apply.