Victoria Wejchert founded a fast food company in Poland in her early 20s.Later, she created Kinship, an app for wealth managers, in the US.Polish people respected her title, and she encountered more biases in the US, she said.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victoria Wejchert, partner at Copia Wealth Studios and founder of Kinship. It has been edited for length and clarity.I grew up in a family that did business around the globe. My parents were Polish, but they fled the country during communism, so I was born in Ireland. When I was about 7, we returned to Poland.My parents ran a media company in Europe, and I learned about entrepreneurship from them firsthand. They rarely had a day off, and it was typical for them to attend board meetings during our family holidays.Once, as a teenager, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life during a drive. My dad pulled the car over to look at me. "Your skill is entrepreneurship," he told me. He died only a few years later when I was 20, but it turns out he was right.Now I'm 35, and I've successfully founded and exited two companies one in the US and one in Poland. I've learned a lot about the differences between being a female founder in those markets.In Poland, people respected my title and toughnessWhen I was in my early 20s, I was visiting a family member in Warsaw and noticed that there was nowhere to eat. At the time, I was working in London, where lunch options were endless. In Warsaw, people were still selling sandwiches from baskets that they brought to office buildings.I saw an opportunity for more dining options. At the time, Starbucks was just starting to come into Poland, and the idea of a restaurant chain was new. I cofounded Friends Taste Your Time, a healthy fast food option, and grew it to 12 locations within three years before it was acquired.Although I was young and female, all I needed to do to earn respect in the restaurant industry was show up and be tough. Culturally, there's a lot of respect for the boss. People always referred to me formally by my title, which translates as "Ms. CEO." They took those seriously once colleagues knew I had expectations and boundaries like not allowing workers to drink on the job.In the US, I was more likely to be overlooked as a founderBy comparison, I felt like an outsider at a boys' club when I started a tech company in the US in 2019. Recently, a European asked me if it was harder starting a company in the more patriarchal, conservative Poland. He was surprised when I said no there are biases against women everywhere, especially in the US.Once, I was presenting at a conference, standing with a man. Another gentleman came up and started talking to him, assuming he was the founder of Kinship, my wealth management software. That sort of thing happens everywhere.I overcame that by working extra hard. Before I started fundraising, I read that it typically takes a man 100 meetings to close a round of funding, while female founders need 200-300 meetings. So, I doubled down, knowing I'd have to do 2-3 times as much work. Luckily, people in America were also much more generous about sharing their contacts, which helped me get those extra meetings relatively quickly.It's easier to grow a company in AmericaOne major difference is the pace of work in the US versus Europe. In Europe, it's typical for people to take all of August off. I didn't take a vacation in the US for five years because I was constantly working on the company.To be honest, that was fine with me. America's faster pace makes it easier to get work done, and companies can grow more quickly. Plus, I was raised by parents who rarely took time off despite their European roots. They taught me to prioritize the responsibility a founder has to employees, their families, and customers and to celebrate once the hard work pays off.I did that last year after Kinship was acquired. I took a two-week vacation to Mongolia, my first real time off work in years. Knowing that my hard work had paid off made it extra enjoyable.