Staff Writer Aashita Chaturvedy uses her own experiences to reflect on the powerful progress that female entrepreneurs have made in the past fifty years, arguing for the importance of building a community of like-minded individuals.
Here’s an astonishing statistic: the current presidents of all major UK university entrepreneur societies are female this year. Compared to the number of female founders that received VC funding within the last few years (less than 2% in 2023), this statistic only gets more astounding. Is this simply a startling coincidence or the dawn of a real cultural shift?
I sat in The Wolseley on the 22 February at an event organised by the UK Female Presidents Breakfast Club. The purpose of the morning was to bring together 14 pioneering women with the aims of building a community, connecting unanimous ambition and sharing experiences on barrelling into the founding world. Co-hosted by Jenn Zeng from LSESU Entrepreneurs and Jolyn Yin of UAL Creative Entrepreneurs, women from their respective societies at KCL, Imperial, UCL, Oxford and Cambridge discussed fighting for opportunities in the intersection of entrepreneurship, tech and finance. All heads in the room nodded at Meric Sevgi Eren’s insight from Oxford Entrepreneurs that the biggest challenge for female founders today is still obtaining funding. Pitching to male-dominated boards, in male-dominated verticals, to male investors, often produces a comprehension gap that means brilliant ideas slip through the cracks – along with their female founders.
However, as part of the gradual shift in recent years with more women acquiring various seniorities of investing roles, recurring feedback from female founders in this room and beyond highlighted the importance of collective experience and understanding. Founders emphasised that interacting with female boards allowed a preservation of their authentic selves, without the extra layer of polishing credentials that is inevitable when pitching to male investors. There is no need to wear a mask; whether they be networking, pitching or gaining investment, the barrier of simply being a woman that often seems to obscure opportunities is finally breaking down. As Jenn summarised perfectly, “the anger inside of us keeps us driven and moving forward”.
Each woman was simultaneously juggling different responsibilities that extended vastly beyond being Presidents – whether that be building their own app, running side businesses, or hosting external events to bridge the gap between communities. The key method for success was described by Ally Yuen from UAL’s Creative Entrepreneurs as to “surround yourself as an aspiring founder with other incredible, driven individuals to bring yourself closer to your goals”, which Jolyn later followed up with “you only get what you ask for – I learned this lesson at a very young age”. These shared stories and experiences resonated with the incredible accomplishments of each woman present that morning. Ultimately, there was a universal acknowledgement of the crucial role which female networks and connection play, extending far beyond the founding landscape alone.
I leave you with Jolyn’s assertion that trailblazing, ambitious women should “always be comfortable with being the odd one out in the room”. Considering that the women of today wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to be in ‘the room’ just 50 years ago, we need to seize this moment, keep pushing forward, and excel in all that we do.
The full list of societies and their respective representatives can be found below:
- King’s Entrepreneurs Society – Sally Lo
- LSE Entrepreneurs – Jenn Zeng, Olivia Qian
- UAL Creative Entrepreneurs – Jolyn Yin, Ally Yuen
- UCL Entrepreneurs – Rui Rui Xie
- Oxford Entrepreneurs – Meric Sevgi Eren, Olena Didenko
- Cambridge Entrepreneurs – Jenni Morris, Seerat Bagga, Hongfei (Gloria) Cai
- LSE Women Leaders of Tomorrow – Natalie Romanova
- Imperial Entrepreneurs – Rebecca Fayad
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