Pitch Practice + Google + IWD connections
Female Founders Rise
Growth resources + community for female founders. Register free >> https://swf5gwq3cbv.typeform.com/community
Insights + events to grow your business on Friday >>?Female Founders Rise
This newsletter is Behind the Scenes at Female Founders Rise
Musings, Insights, Challenges + Highlights....
?? Week ending 10th March '23 - 1755 members and 3727?LinkedIn followers.
This was a super busy week - I was doing too much. Next year I will be better planned! None the less I loved it all ??
Challenges at FFR
1) Our event on IWD was amazing, a little bit overwhelming, and exhausting ??. I was blown away by the turnout. Despite the snow ?? and the fact that there were so many events that night we somehow managed to have a full house.
Having never run an event like this before I hadn't envisaged what 180 people in a room would like (amazing + way bigger than I thought). Originally I had planned for it to be around 80-100, but every time it got full I couldn't say no to the female founders that wanted to come and celebrate with us!
We should have had a mic for me and the VC showcase, I hadn't prepared a speech so I had to ad-lib on the spot, but I am quite used to that. People turned up earlier than we expected, which was totally fine but I didn't have a plan for that.
The badge setup didn't work. This is where it was clear I was a novice. I'd tried to allocate people to tables in advance based on their stage of business and sector, but because not everyone had got the emails, provided the info in advance and due to the sheer volume of people arriving at the same time, we struggled with this bit. Also, my kiddies on the desk seemed to be writing out new stickers willy-nilly. Oh and don't get name stickers from Rymans - they weren't sticky at all!
Last of all didn't have a plan for the end of the evening. Everyone was having so much fun that they didn't want to go home. But the venue closed at 8 ish, so I ended up sending my 9-year-old with goodie bags around to everyone to get them to leave. Note to self, need a better system to let everyone know about arrival and leaving times. Thank god I had about 10 trusty helpers on the night (big shout out to Liza Levy and Ozlem Tuskan who came super early and left late).
However, despite the challenges, everyone had the best time ever so it seems those little things didn't really touch the sides. At the end of the day the venue, the people, and the energy in the room makes it!
Highlights at FFR
1) We're going to start monthly pitch deck reviews with Dan Bowyer from SuperSeed VC. Each month 3 of our FFR members will be able to meet Dan and a few other investors in person and review their pitch decks together. This is so valuable and the first three members to benefit are Jo Spolton Nohelia Rambal and Shifra Cook so look forward to hearing how that all goes.
If this goes well we will look to start the process with other VCs.
2) We had about 40 female founders join the waitlist for the PODS. I have managed to pull together 2 PODS of female founders that are a good fit and hope to get that started this week. Looks like we have a sustainability one and a health tech one. Members of the pods will meet together to form stronger bonds and really support each other with their growth
3) Hosted an event to kickstart IWD week for 40 women from various networks including DREAM FACTORY , I LIKE NETWORKING , Female Founders Rise Female Techpreneur and Diversity-X .
We had such a great time with breakfast, panel, and networking. Thanks, Sade Omeje Isabel Sachs Bukky M. Babajide and Kevin Withane (FRSA) for coming together to host this - so much fun. Way less stressful doing it as a team!
Super excited to get this event for female founders that are raising organised
领英推荐
We'll have about 100 people coming, and invite some VCs and angels as well as female founders that are raising. Mainly tech ones. Set up a waitlist here which is almost full since launched 3 days ago.
5) Other IWD events included a panel with KPMG talking about getting more female founders funded. My closing words were I want to see people taking ACTION. It's all well and good signing up for the Investing in Women Code but that is intent not Action. ACTION means turning up to Female Founders Rise networking events (and similar ones), tracking everything at every stage, and actually investing in women.
And by the way, there is a massive difference between investing in female founders and investing in a business with one or two women in a leadership position. 100% of businesses should have a woman in a leadership position otherwise they're missing out.
So shouting that you have invested 25% of your portfolio into businesses with a female in leadership is not really the announcement we're hoping for!
6) The party was an obvious highlight - added to that the unexpected cakes that arrived from one of our members Nicola Ward at CakeDrop . Literally THE best cupcakes and brownies ever.
I was exhausted after the party but the deluge of VMs, DM, stories, posts, comments, and emails made it all worthwhile! Apparently, lots of great connections were made with VCs (both the founders and VCs told me that). And many people told me that they hadn't ever experienced energy quite like it ???? It was so wonderful to see SO many incredible women in one room. Who said that there was a problem with deal flow?! ??
Member Events
?? Check your Friday AM emails and if not already registered do so here?Female Founders Rise. A few listed below
2. Investment Legals with?Sam Marchant?from?Hambro Perks
3. Pitch Deck Review with Dan Bowyer + team
4. Online networking for bootstrapped businesses with Emmie Faust
Have a fab week and love to know any thoughts or feedback on LinkedIn.
Emmie
A few things before I go....
1)This is a LinkedIn newsletter I send on a Monday highlighting behind-the-scenes at FFR - if you want to comment, share (thank you), or unsubscribe,?here is the link.
2) Come and say hi here?Emmie Faust?
3) If you want?the Female Founders Rise?member newsletter which is full of info to help you grow your business?then sign up here
Co-Founder at Unravel Health changing women's health through data
1 年What a total pleasure. Was great to be in a room full of people open to discussing their businesses, warts and all, and genuinely seeing how they could help each other.
LOVED this newsletter and ofcourse shout out now to Lucero Tagle who is already connected with you and Joanna Mollo as PitchNinjas female co-founders in the hope they can attend one of your events in whatever role, need, suits all involved. Thankyou for showing the way with #femalefoundersrise