Inspirational stories from four female founders
With guest panellists Zoe Peden, tech entrepreneur and VC Investor, FutureWorldVC; Helene Martin-Gee, Founder of Pink Shoe; and Angela Malik-Agarwal, Partner in Think Hospitality and Founder of Planet Nourish
Entrepreneur as a word derives from the French in its masculine form (f: entrepreneuse). This sets the scene for so many of the challenges women entrepreneurs faced and continue to face. The playing field is not even for all! With women only receiving one per cent of all available venture capital (VC) funding in the UK – how can it be?
In this session, we will explore the context in which female entrepreneurs operate including the impact of COVID-19 on women entrepreneurs. As women entrepreneurs and their businesses are predominantly present in the 3Cs (care, catering, and cleaning sectors) as well as retail which are among the hardest hit by the pandemic both from a health and financial perspective. And yet women are not victims! They are creative, resilient, skilled entrepreneurs, creating and scaling great businesses, many of them with a valuable social impact. What are their motivations and how do they stay resilient through the ups and downs? We will also do some myth busting around the youth and unicorn culture dominating entrepreneurship currently – which may also be putting many women off becoming entrepreneurs in the first place!
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