Female Founders Growth Summit

The dust may be settling on Thursday's inaugural Female Founders Growth Summit but I can safely say that energy levels have rocketed. Driven by the recommendations set out in the Pathways Report, the teams at Pathways Forward and Female Founders Rise decided earlier this year to act on some of the principles of the report by organising an event that would help to connect the dots for female founders planning or already scaling their businesses. The ambition was for them to not just be inspired, but be better connected and able to see what the next steps might look like for them in their scale up journey and aim bigger. Going by the massive engagement and positive sentiment on social media post-event, we have achieved that and much more. What made the day really work was not us. It was the 250+ people that made up the attendee list and put the day aside to join us on the mission to fast forward the scale-up opportunity for women entrepreneurs. A mix of sponsors, investors, finance providers, supporters and female founders at different ends of their growth journey came together to create a special and unique atmosphere. We heard from the amazing Sahar Hashemi OBE and £50m+ superscaler Sam Smith about their inspiring yet totally relatable journeys and everyone leaned in and was excited to play a key part in making the day work. We require collective thinking and collaboration to get things done and we were not short of it at the RBS Conference Centre in Edinburgh on Thursday. I'd like to say a massive thanks to Jo Forster, Emmie Faust, Hannah Thompson, Vanessa Shepherd and Shelley Jukes for putting so much time in to this during the months leading up to the day. And special thanks to Irene Graham OBE and the ScaleUp Institute for helping us realise the ambition we had for the Summit. I'm extremely grateful. Thanks too to RBS Scottish Enterprise The Scottish National Investment Bank EY British Business Bank Eos for all your support. And thanks Eloho Efemuai for helping me achieve 20 new connections and for giving me the chance to hear about your business. I hope you left the event with clearer next steps 😉 Let's keep doing more of this, please. It would be a waste not to grab the momentum now. Mark Logan Darina Garland Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE Carolyn Jameson (FRSE). Ladi Greenstreet Sascha Evans Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne Margaret Rice-Jones Ishani Malhotra Emma Macdonald Danae Shell. Ozlem Tuskan Niki Hutchison Elizabeth Pirrie Bayile Adeoti FRSA Cate Poulson Nick Freer BUY WOMEN BUILT Dr Vanessa Collingridge Stephen O'Neill Kate Forbes MSP

Wow! Thank you so much to everyone for attending the inaugural Female Founders Growth Summit on 5th September in Edinburgh! We are still digesting the amazing feedback and want to thank everyone that came along and contributed to its success. By bringing together scale-up founders with an ambition to grow, with investors, leading entrepreneurs and role models to connect and learn from, it resonated. We will share some more insights and pictures and much more in the coming days, weeks and months but for now, don't forget to tag Female Founders Growth Summit and share your pictures and experiences from the day. Pathways Forward Female Founders Rise Emmie Faust Ana Stewart Jo Forster