Enterprise Tuesday – Inspiration: The Journey from Zero

Inspirational stories from four female founders

With guest panellists Soulaima Gourani, Co-founder Happioh; Neha Tanna, Investment Partner of Joyance Partners & Social Starts; Tracy Chou, Founder and CEO of Block Party; Leila McKenzie Delis, Founder and CEO of DIAL Global and Managing Director of LMA Search and Research

What inspires founders to start up their ventures? Inspirational stories of successful founders can give hope and motivate entrepreneurs starting out. But the entrepreneurship journey is far from smooth. At this session, a diverse group of female entrepreneurs will share their powerful stories of how they overcame obstacles on the road to success. They will explain the ideation process, what motivated the decision to go it alone as sole founders or how they chose co-founders and how they navigated the start-up ecosystem to raise funding. The panel will include women founders in under-represented sectors e.g., tech industry and venture capital, as well as women from ethnic minorities. The entrepreneurs will discuss how they used social capital to build their businesses and discuss their experiences with accelerators/ Incubators vs being independent. Finally, we will hear their views about women’s networks and mentoring.

Chaired by Anino Emuwa, Founder and Managing Director, Avandis Consulting.

Registration: 18:25-18:30
Panel talk: 18:30-20:00
Networking: 20:00-20:30

This event is one of three Enterprise Tuesday events, that focuses on female founders who will recount and share insight on their inspiration, motivation and realisation on their journey.

Ticket booking is essential for the February series. Please note: main registration closes 24 hours prior to the event. The event will take place on Zoom.

Register

Enterprise Tuesday introduces budding entrepreneurs to the world of business, aiming to inspire people to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions. The talks are open to everyone but prior registration is essential.

Have a question? Please email the team at [email protected].

Find out more about future guest speakers and topics

Speaker bios

Soulaima Gourani, Co-founder Happioh

Soulaima Gourani is the CEO and Co-founder of Happioh, a tech company backed by some of the most prominent Silicon Valley Angels. She is a Danish/Morrocan immigrant living in Palo Alto. She has been rewarded with the prestigious YGL, WEF Young Global Leader title, Thinkers50 Ideas into Practice Award 2019 and the “Thinkers50” Radar 2020 Award. She is also “40 under 40 Europe”, “Nordic Thinkers 20”, Entrepreneur Of The Year ® Judge, a TED Mentor and UN Women Ambassador Advisor. She is a contributor to Forbes Leadership channel and an author of several bestseller books. She has contributed to more than 14 books on how to get success in life, life design and the future of work. One of her books sold more than 350,000 copies. Soulaima was motivational speaker at Big Speak with more than 2,000 international talks under her belt. She studied Executive Education from ISB, INCAE, Yale, Harvard and MBA from Copenhagen Business School.

Neha Tanna, Investment Partner, Joyance Partners & Social Starts

Dr Neha Tanna Investment Partner, Joyance Partners & Social Starts
Neha is an Investment Partner at Joyance Partners and Social Starts. She is a medical doctor in London. Neha spent years as a general practitioner (GP) before transitioning to the life sciences industry, where she held various roles in pharmaceutical companies. She holds an MBA from London Business School, where she fell in love working with entrepreneurs and startups. She has since worked with a startup medtech company, as well as several accelerators and VCs in the healthcare space, most recently with a global venture builder with a focus on early-stage tech companies. Neha is an angel investor, loves tennis and dance, and is a strong advocate for personal fitness and nutrition. She also has a soft spot for wildlife and conservation.

Tracy Chou, Founder and CEO, Block Party

Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer and diversity advocate. She is currently founder and CEO of Block Party, working to solve abuse and harassment online. Tracy is most well known for her tech diversity activism. In 2013, she helped to kick off the wave of tech company diversity data disclosures with a Medium post titled “Where are the numbers?” and a repository collecting data on women in engineering. In 2016, Tracy co-founded the non-profit Project Include, which works with tech startups to improve their diversity and inclusion, and in 2018, Tracy co-founded the non-profit #MovingForward, which works with venture capital firms to promote inclusive and equitable fundraising.

For her advocacy and activism work, Tracy has appeared on the covers of The Atlantic, WIRED, and MIT Technology Review; been named Forbes Tech 30 under 30, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35, and Fast Company Most Creative People in Business; and been profiled in Vogue, ELLE, and other media outlets.

Leila McKenzie Delis, Founder and CEO, DIAL Global, Managing Director LMA Search and Research

Leila holds a first-class honours degree in business management and international business. She is a passionate business owner and entrepreneur, born in Hong Kong and adopted and brought up with her younger brother by British parents with a mixture of Scottish, Welch and British heritage. She is married to a Greek American who spent over a decade in China and speaks fluent Mandarin. The running joke in the family is that he is more Chinese than her! Leila leads multiple businesses including DIAL Global, (Diverse, Inclusive, Aspirational Leaders) a peer learning network designed to move the dial on diversity, inclusion and belonging, in addition to Leila McKenzie Associates, an executive search business appointing diverse and inclusive candidates at executive and board level. Leila has been proactive in her external engagements and has spoken previously for blue chip companies including KPMG, Verizon Media and Britvic. She was previously interviewed by BBC journalist Clive Myrie on the subject of diversity and benefits of intergenerational leadership. Leila is an experienced presenter and chair and hosts the twice weekly DIAL Global podcast “Diverse & Inclusive Leaders” on Apple podcasts in addition to the DIAL Global Lounge focused on thought leadership. She is also an author and recently published the book Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging – A leadership guide about why everyone matters and how to make them feel like they do. Leila’s’ vision is one in which all are welcome to the boardroom in business and beyond and a world that harnesses the power of intersectionality and difference in moving the dial.

Anino Emuwa, Founder and Managing Director, Avandis Consulting

Dr Anino Emuwa is the founder and managing director of Avandis Consulting, a strategy and finance advisory firm in France. She started out her career in corporate banking at Citibank and specialises in financing entrepreneurial finance. Anino is an award-winning advocate for gender balanced leadership and convenes business communities for women in business. Anino is a member of the global advisory board of 20-first and a grant advisory committee member of the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is an international public speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation and diversity, and her articles have appeared in publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur and Business Chief. She mentors high-achieving women entrepreneurs including Cartier Women’s Initiative. Dr Emuwa received her Doctorate in Business Administration from Nottingham Business School where she is an alumni fellow. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and member of the Institute of Directors.