Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Joy Foster, TechPixies. After equipping over 100 women with digital skills, through a mix of online and in-person training, Joy realised she needed to get external investment to take the business to the next level. Her extraordinary funding experience started with feeling stressed from trying to manage the business witho...

Jenny started the business as a passion project, creating small batch chutneys and jams from surplus ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. She went from selling them at farmer's markets to then scaling her business by creating condiments that are now available in supermarkets. Jenny took her time to realise she wanted to turn this conscious venture into a nationwide business. She raised in...

Louise Doherty left her career in strategic consumer marketing to create an app start-up that simplifies any kind of social event, after realising how complex it can sometimes be. Yoller has been featured by Apple and Google as one of the best apps for socialising in over 100 countries. Louise successfully raised £380K via Crowd Cube. She found the crowdfunding process much easier to understand co...

A major challenge in her funding round was facing skepticism from potential investors and some women who didn't believe in the product. However, Sophie pushed through and made it work by finding an Angel investor with an emotional connection to the company’s mission. Her Angel gave her the confidence she needed to secure her £500K round of investment. In this episode you’ll discover… Why having co...

Lina worked in private equity before she started Adia. She soon realised that funding an early stage start-up is completely different to the world of private equity. From getting her foot in the door of a mission-driven accelerator, to hiring her first technology hire, Lina explains how the tables turned from a career in private equity to being the founder of a FemTech company. In this episode you...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Emma Sayle, Founder and CEO of Killing Kittens. Emma is on a mission to push the boundaries of female sexual expression. Best known for its hedonistic parties, KK is also host to a global online community of over 100,000 members. In 2018 the company became the first of its kind to crowdfunding publicly, raising £600,000...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Amanda Thomson, Founder and CEO of global wine brand Thomson & Scott - the first wine company to let consumers know exactly what they’re drinking. Last year, she raised £1 million on Crowdcube to fuel the growth of the business. She unpacks the concept of "stupid questions", the importance of a strong team...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with entrepeneur Bonnie Lister Parsons about her journey to opening a female-only investment round for empowering dance-class company Seen on Screen. Finding male investors impossible to crack, former dancer Bonnie raised £100,000 from female investors in a matter of weeks. Hear her talk breaking down investor stereotypes, knowi...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Emily Bendell, Founder and CEO of international lingerie brand Bluebella, about raising £2.1 million through angel, government-match and crowdfunding. Emily talks raising on a pivot, hustling to find an investor audience and reframing the question of having a family. Lingerie entrepeneurship may not be the traditional c...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Celia Pool, co-founder of sustainable care brand DAME, about raising £120,000 to finance a pivot into product-based business. Celia highlights the highs and lows of a rewards based raise, the importance of narrative in B2C PR and driving a purpose-led enterprise. On a mission to make our bathrooms green, Celia co-created...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter the Arena, talks with Riham Satti about raising £500,000 to launch MeVitae, an innovative tech company working in the recruitment arena. Riham carefully planned an investment round, practiced pitching at events and realised the importance of creating dynamic dialogue with potential investors. A self confessed ‘accidental entrepeneur’, Riham...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Daisy Hill about the ins and outs of crowdfunding over £2m for Zzish - an international Edtech platform that matches educational apps with student needs. Daisy takes us behind the scenes of crowdfunding and talks other countries' attitude to risk and the importance of networks. In just five years, Zzish has grown to sup...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliot Brown, The CEO of Enter the Arena, talks with May Al-Karooni, founder of award-winning B2B giving platform Globechain, about why she won't flaunt her £500,000 fundraise, the right time to go for a VC round and why its time female entrepreneurs recognise their authority in the boardroom. Former financial industry expert May Al-Karooni bootstrapped for three years, wi...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Cecily Motley and Ilana Lever, co-founders of Motley London, about raising £365,000 of angel investment to fuel the growth of their design-led jewellery business. Questioning the traditional fundraising narrative they discuss the pros and cons of VC investment, financial planning and networking close to home. Motley Lon...

Fundraising expert, Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Bea Warner about raising £360,000 to get her innovative logistics company off the ground, the strategies she learnt for getting commitment from angel investors, the importance of formal advisors including those she found on the John Lewis accelerator programme and why fundraising horror stories are best avoided. Exaact...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Emilie Vanpoperinghe from OddBox about how she raised £530k through crowdfunding for her mission driven wonky fruit and veg business, how she used clever commercial terms to fund the business in the early days and how offering advanced subscriptions helped her get cash in the bank fast. Oddbox is London’s first wonky fr...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Kate Briscoe of Legal Beagles, who spent seven years building her business as a side hustle, before successfully raising £1m from angel investors to fuel the growth of her free legal forum, that has to date helped over 1.7 million consumers. But it nearly didn't happen, when a single angel investor almost scuppered her...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Cecily Mills of Coconuts Naturally, who won investors over on Dragons Den, before closing her £180k round via angel investors. Not easy when she lives in Cornwall with two young children. This is a story not to be missed. Coconuts Naturally is an exciting new brand of award-winning organic, non-dairy ice-cream. After an...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Diana Greenhalgh from MyBespoke Room.com about how she bootstrapped her business for 3 years before successfully raising £800,000 to fuel the growth of her online interior design business, bringing in her customers as investors, and stress testing her pitch before going to investors. MyBespokeRoom is the UK’s first affo...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena, talks with Sarah Bertram from Smile Tribe about how she kick-started her personal life coach app business by raising £50,000, including how she effectively used a convertible loan pre-valuation, how she sustained her energy during her fundraising campaign, and the dilemmas on what to wear for investor meetings. Smile Tribe's produ...

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Martha Silcott of Fab Little Bag, who reveals how she successfully raised £400,000 to fuel the growth of her period disposal bag business, including how she secured one of her suppliers as an investor, how to pitch a 'period' product, and how not to waste time on the wrong funding route. FabLittleBag is a period disposal...

Kate Hofman, GrowUp Urban Farms raised £1.9m at pre-launch stage to launch her vertical stacked hydroponic farming business; she reveals how she secured an innovation grant for the significant capital she required at the beginning, overcame the challenges of raising money when pregnant, and really focused on developing professional financial forecasts. GrowUp Urban Farms produce sustainable salads...