Plans for 2024

Last night we had our 2023 Wrap up at 谷歌 - a chance to bring founding members, supporters, advisors, and investors together in one room and celebrate the first year of Female Founders Rise .

As Matt Jonns said last night - this is just the start! And it is and I appreciate all the people that have joined us on our journey.

Sharing a few thoughts for what we want to work on in 2024.

1) Get more female founders funded. We are going to segment our members in our paid membership into different segments based on the type/stage of business so that we can better support them, either at the earlier stage of funding (angels) or later on with VC, or for those not needing/ wanting funding. Do more events and masterclasses focused on each segment.

2) Do more regionally to connect our members throughout the UK. We have meetups planned in Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Edinburgh and would love to do a big conference in the North in Manchester at some point (if we can get sponsors)

3) Do more for underrepresented female founders - we are working on a few initiatives including a Marketing Accelerator with Lydia Amoah FRSA , founder of the Black Pound Report. This will be a 12-week program to supercharge their marketing, media, and advertising and give these founders additional resources and support. We know from research that this is an area much needed. Always LOVE to talk to people who want to support this project.

4) Continue to find ways for our members to support each other, open doors, and collaborate.

?? Given that a lot of what we do is free for our community we need help from sponsors and partners who do genuinely want to support female founders (not just say they do). This is the hardest part for me of running FFR - finding sponsors to support the work we do. It's probably a bit like fundraising... ahhhh ??

Please do DM me Emmie Faust if you have any thoughts or ideas to share on the above.

Personal Branding and LinkedIn Challenge

This was the hot topic of conversation in Leeds ?? and in Jan we will be launching our 30-day challenge for our members. Join here.

More than ever, your personal brand is vital to the success of your business. A strong personal brand helps you share your vision with the world, attract the right investors and partners, and make people want to buy from you.

?? Learn the fundamentals of SEIS + EIS

There's still time to register for our online masterclass on Friday 15 December with Sam Simpson from FounderCatalyst . Sam will run through the benefits of EIS and SEIS for founders and investors, Advance Assurance, and everything else you need to be aware of before seeking funding. Sam will then be joined for a panel Q&A session with Philip Hare , one of the UK's leading EIS and SEIS tax advisors.

Sign up here ???? https://lu.ma/FFRSEISandEIS

Women-led scaleups on the up

We took a look over ScaleUp Institute 's Female Founders Index and were encouraged by the news that there were 454 visible female-led scaleups (businesses crossing the threshold of ￡10.2m turnover and/or ￡5.1m in assets) in 2022 - a 70% increase on the previous year. In addition, there were 169 pipeline scalers, (businesses growing between 10-19.99%) triple the number of the previous year.

Read more on our blog

Last of all there have been hundreds of people supporting me on this project and I can't list them all, but I can't end the year without showing my gratitude to

My board who challenge and support me like I've never had before > Elissa Grey and Dan Bowyer Victoria Armstrong

My informal advisory board > Ozlem Tuskan and Liza Levy Natasha Marie Ahmed and Nonie M C White ACC PPGDip FRSA

Ambassadors in Scotland and Newcastle Jo Forster and Lisa Eaton

The freelancers who have helped keep the wheels turning Karolina Ba ?? Meera Mawkin Shakira Maria Mustafa and Leanne Ford

Advisory members always on the end of the phone > Lottie Unwin (she/her) and Lucy Woolfenden and Ruth Fittock

Kimberley Loudon and Eleanor Baker from Lloyds Business & Commercial and Neil Lock from 谷歌 who have partnered with us in a really meaningful way and helped us achieve many of our 2023 goals.

We can't wait to get cracking on our 2024 impact goals, but now it's time for a bit of a break.

?? This is our last edition of The Rising - until next year.

Have a wonderful break.

Emmie

?? PS Female Founders, Investors, VCs, and Supporters join our community here > Community sign-up

Waitlist for our paid membership next cohort > RISERS waitlist