Editor’s Note: This post has been created in collaboration and with financial support from Playfair Capital. If you’re also interested in partnering with us, just reach out.
As stated by investor Simone Brummelhuis: “To tackle the investment diversity gap, we have to put weight behind it”. That is exactly what Playfair Capital, Tech Nation and 70 of the UKs’ leading venture capital funds (including Seedcamp, Balderton, Notion and Passion Capital, among others), will be doing on Thursday 5th and 12th November, with their Female Founder Office Hours initiative.
Through special one-hour remote office hours, female founders from across the UK will have the chance to meet four top investors to discuss their tech business idea, ask for advice, pitch for investment and find a mentor.
This is the 4th edition of the event, which is managed jointly by Playfair Capital and Tech Nation, as part of their commitment to hold three events a year to support female founders. Previous editions saw 290 founders and 85 investors taking part, a total of 1,200 individual mentoring meetings, and follow-up funding for many of the participating companies, such as Organise, SideQuest and Paid.
This year, each investor taking part will choose to mentor at least one founder from the event on an ongoing basis.
Chris Smith, Playfair Capital’s Managing Partner, commented on the initiative: “I’m absolutely thrilled to see our fourth female founder office hours event come together with the support of Tech Nation. Whilst our first events addressed the challenge of access, removing the need for warm introductions, we are more focused than ever on ensuring that this initiative leads to meaningful relationships and more pounds being invested in women led businesses. With every investor committing to mentor at least one founder from the event and some early examples of cheques being written into companies that attended previous editions, these ambitions are starting to be realised. We’re excited about meeting all the founders in November and making a genuinely positive impact in our ecosystem.”
Lauren Nicholson, Founders’ Network Lead at Tech Nation, commented on the benefits that this online version will bring: “We are delighted to again be partnering with Playfair Capital to launch the fourth installment of Female Founder Office Hours. Following on from the success of the events in June, we are keen to ensure that the support our attendees receive continues post Office Hours, and are thrilled that participating VCs will mentor at least one attendee post event. Building on from the last event, Tech Nation’s focus, as a national organisation, will be promoting this great initiative to all female founders, including those that are based outside of London, who may not have been aware of previous sessions or were unable to attend due to location. The beauty of an online event is that it ensures that all female founders from across the UK will have the opportunity to participate in this initiative and we look forward to working with the amazing female led businesses from across the UK.”
To extend the impact beyond the UK, Playfair has also been making its playbook available to any other fund who wants to hold events for underrepresented founders. To date, female founder focused events have been held in the US with Anthemis, Diversity VC and Ladies Who Launch and Southeast Asia with Cocoon Capital. In addition, Access All for BAME founders will be held on 30 September with Floww, Force Over Mass and Wayra UK.
Are you curious about taking part? Find out more information and sign up for the Female Founders Office Hours here.
