Female Founders Rise -

Our founder Julie recently joined Female Founders Rise, a brilliant networking group run by Emmie Faust, and attended their event in London on International Women’s Day on 8th March.

This was a really buzzy and impressive event, and one that wasn’t just paying lip service to the concept of IWD. It had a proper purpose behind it, which is to get more UK female founders funded. The British Business Bank found that for every £1 of venture capital (VC) investment in the UK, all-female founder teams get less than 1p. People talk about this so much in our industry that it’s easy to gloss over what a shocking statistic this is.

There were angels and VCs mingling with around 140 female founders, and unusually it was the investors who were pitching to the founders which was a good way to let people know what they’re looking for right now, when funding might feel out of so many people’s grasp.

It was a real bonus to unexpectedly bump into some fellow startup and scaleup experts too who we’ve only connected with previously online. I thought it was worth shouting out a few women founders here who also help scale-ups grow through marketing and other ways. Do check out their Linkedin profiles.

Shiv Brodie – who helps find exceptional talent for growing businesses and organisations in the UK.

Lucy Woolfenden – a female powerhouse marketeer and founder of the Scale-up Collective

Nonie White – a coach for female business owners with a specialism in social entrepreneurship and positive psychology.

Ayo Abbas – another marketing aficionado and podcast host, working with built environment and engineering firms.

Maybe in a few years’ time we won’t need a networking event for women only!