Is Being a Tech Founder Still a Bro Sport?
18 Sep 2025
14:00 -16:30
Times are shown in local time
Open to: All
The Glasshouse, Cambridge
Botanic House
100 Hills Road
Cambridge
CB2 1PH
United Kingdom
Join our Cambridge Tech Week panel discussion
Despite decades of conversation around diversity in tech, the archetype of the entrepreneur remains stubbornly narrow, male and often from elite institutions. In addition, equity funding remains male-dominated, despite over a decade of initiatives to encourage and support more women founders. This panel asks the provocative question: is being a tech founder still a bro sport?
We’ll explore the structural, cultural and financial barriers that continue to shape who gets to innovate, who gets funded and who gets heard in the tech world. Are new funding models and accelerators helping to democratise access to capital? How are gender, race and class shaping the founder experience? And what role does media play in reinforcing or challenging the dominant narratives?
This conversation is not just about representation, it’s about the future of innovation. If we continue to build technology through a narrow lens, we risk creating products and systems that serve a limited few. Join us as we interrogate who gets to build the future and what it will take to make the founder identity more expansive, inclusive and equitable.
This event is jointly hosted by Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Black Talent & Leadership in STEM (BTLS)
Agenda
14:00-14:15
Registration
14:15-15:30
Panel discussion
Chair: Dr Monique Boddington, Management Practice Associate Professor and Director of the MSt in Entrepreneurship
Speakers:
- Dominic Peasley, CEO of Spark Capital, with deep experience in funding and scaling companies, including his time at Goldman Sachs and Funding Circle.
- Xann Schinn, founder and entrepreneur, who brings first-hand insight into navigating startup culture.
- Tyler Shores, Director of the ThinkLab at the University of Cambridge, is exploring how students and young innovators enter the entrepreneurial space.
- Dr. Winifred Soribe, researcher and thought leader on entrepreneurship and inclusion, who helps us understand systemic barriers and pathways to change.
15:30-16:30