Female Founders Rise 💥| Advisor | Mum of 4 | Digital + Media + Marketing | Exited Founder

I'm on a mission to make entrepreneurship more accessible.
I set up my first business at 25, and since then, I have successfully set up, grown and sold multiple companies (and had a few failures on the journey too!)
Entrepreneurship is what I love.  

Most recently, I’ve been focused on Female Founders Rise [FFR] - a community of 10K female and non-binary founders 
>> https://femalefoundersrise.com/

I’m also a micro-investor in 30 women-led businesses, a speaker, and co-host of The Fundraising Grind (a podcast about helping you get your business funded with my friend Mae Yip)

At FFR, our mission is to empower women to achieve financial freedom through entrepreneurship.  

We do that through 4 pillars:

➕ Community - we come together for connection, collaboration, and support.  Being a founder can be a lonely journey, and we want to be there for each other

➕ Funding - we've launched Cohort 4 of our fundraising accelerator - a free 8-week program to help 60+ female founders at a time on their fundraising journey

➕ Business Fundamentals - we run regular sessions and masterclasses on all things fundamental to growing a successful, sustainable business

➕ Awareness - we celebrate female founders and help them share their voices.  So far 700+ women have taken part in our personal branding challenge

We have partnered with brands like London Business School, Lloyds Bank, and Google, and hosted events for 100's of women all over the UK.  We have been featured in The Times, Sifted, and Forbes.

Come and join us on our mission 👉 femalefoundersrise.com


Why do I care?

I want the same opportunities for women entrepreneurs as their male counterparts. 
When I heard about the funding gap, I was shocked and decided I'd try and do something about it.  
In the last few years, I have found my "Why" and a great deal of joy from being around so many incredible women doing amazing things.   

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👋 Follow me for daily posts on entrepreneurship, female founders, and my journey investing in women-led businesses.

👉 Join Female Founders Rise free and connect with 10k
female founders >>femalefoundersrise.com
Curated resources, fundraising support, business fundamentals + connection

👉 Find Female Founders Rise on LinkedIn >> https://www.linkedin.com/company/female-founders-rise/

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For paid consultancy/speaking engagements, please enquire at hello@femalefoundersrise.com

Emmie Faust

All go at Female Founders Raise

Kicked off with a brilliant session from Dan Bowyer 

And now hearing from some fab investors 🙌

Jasmin Thomas 
Martin Carruthers 
Rodney Appiah 
😃 David Fogel 

Thank you all for joining us today! 

Let’s go and get more women funded 🚀

Serial Founder building a community of 10K Founders | Sharing the Real Journey of Entrepreneurship + Growth | Join ⤵️

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Founder/CEO at Better You and Friends - The future of Mental Health Care AI + Community + Compassion Driven💰 Raising SEIS Seed | Community Builder | Project Administrator at UN Women UK

We have more tools than ever, yet people still think alone when the stakes are high. Under pressure, clarity disappears, decisions get heavier, and the words we need most are the hardest to find.

I’m building AloYou, a thinking partner designed to help people get precise clarity in the moment, then keep what matters so it compounds over time. It’s not generic AI. It’s built for mental mastery: clearer decisions, cleaner language, and continuity across real life.

AloYou began as a personal journey through mental health. It’s now a company pioneering a more personalised and preventative approach to wellbeing, combining neuroscience, storytelling, and technology.

Over the last eight years, I’ve led digital growth and product strategy across tech startups, wellness ventures, and global non-profits. I’ve also built thriving online communities that engage and empower thousands. Beyond tech, I’ve grown a hospitality and property investment portfolio, creating spaces designed for rest, connection, and belonging.

Everything I build sits inside the same belief: innovation should have soul, and it should make people more human, not less.

I’m open to connecting with investors, collaborators, and partners who care about building technology that genuinely helps people live and build better from the inside out.

Tessinita Okoye

One of the most defining things about my neurodivergence is this - My brain does not bend to systems that aren’t working.

If something feels broken, unjust, or inefficient, I don’t have the ability to “just go with it.” My mind immediately asks: why is this happening, and how do we fix it?

When I was raising in 2024, I went through things I still struggle to put into neat sentences. From endless chasing, to power imbalances, to behaviour that crossed into outright inappropriateness. And I know I’m not alone. Early-stage founders, especially, go through far more than people are willing to say out loud.

And it shouldn’t be this way. 

Building a company from nothing is already one of the hardest things a person can choose to do. Late nights. Financial pressure. Emotional isolation. Obsessing over product, users, team, and survival. Then we add fundraising on top of that, as if it’s a casual side quest.

Cold emails. DMs. Endless decks. Chasing meetings.

It’s not working.

I genuinely believe the system should be reversed.

Founders who are ready to raise should be visible. Clear. Grounded. And investors should be the ones requesting for decks from Founders they think might be a great fit for their portfolio.

Not because investors don’t add value. But because founders’ time, energy, and nervous systems are already stretched thin. Every hour spent chasing capital is an hour taken away from building something that actually matters.

So instead of just talking about it, I decided to do something small but practical.

I reached into a few communities I’m part of and found founders who are currently raising

If you’re an investor who is genuinely deploying capital, here’s a list of some really cool Founders you should check out and request for their deck if it might be a good fit for you

Dean Day  
Founder, XP Brew
Cleaner energy drinks for gamers

Monica Otten  
Founder, Peruda
100% natural bioactive skincare for skin recovery, powered by wild-grown Amazonian botanicals

Cristian Bogdan  
Founder, YUY
Solving subscription fatigue and privacy risks in professional AI through one-time local ownership and real-time AI coherence monitoring

Silvia Tallon  
Co-Founder & CEO, SHEDRIVES
A global mobility platform designed by women, for women, addressing safety in ride-hailing through vetted drivers and proprietary trust systems

Susie Kilcoyne  
Founder, Locket AI Labs
An e-commerce engine that creates an individual storefront for every customer based on life circumstances, not clicks

Dirk Pauw  
Founder, Tavas
Democratising energy access through autonomous AI-powered energy management systems

Aditi Ayare  
Founder, Femved Wellness
Supporting women’s holistic wellness and longevity by bridging credible expertise with care, depth, and continuity

Darya M.  
Founder, TrustFrame
Helping the aesthetic and beauty industry build consumer trust through verified before-and-after imagery

Part 2 coming SOON!

Founder, AloYou™ | Building the Cognitive OS for high-performing minds - A thinking partner that helps you find your next move | No Fluff | AI + Neuroscience

I am honestly tired of living in a society that keeps telling women it’s either-or…

You can have the career or the relationship.  
The business or the family.  
The dream or the softness.

But who decided that?

And what happens when you refuse to live inside that either-or?

I’m especially excited to reveal 🥁 our first panelist for The FALSE Choice: Katrien Grobler  

Katrien is the Founder & CEO of AI KAT , former Head of Brand at Vodafone, with 20+ years in global brand and commercial leadership, a lupus survivor and an ultra mountain finisher (100km)

As someone who understands ambition in the real world, not as a slogan, someone who’s lived through the kind of seasons that force you to redefine strength, pace, and what “having it all” even means - Katrien will bring very insightful and meaningful perspective to this conversation and I can not wait for it!

More speaker reveals coming SOON

If you’re an ambitious woman who’s tired of being told to choose, I think this night will feel like a deep exhale.

📌 February 11th

Come join us - invite link will be in the comments

cc: AloYou App

This morning I saw a post on Essence of Black Culture celebrating Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade and Feyi Ayodele  - the mother and daughter duo that just raised $14 Million to advance a Doctor led startup that uses AI to support early detection of cancer.

I was literally thinking about this a few days ago!

Not “how do we use AI to write faster” or “make content easier”.

But more - there are problems we’ve been stuck on for decades. 

Cancer. 
Accessible Healthcare. 
Climate. 
Education. 

Systems that are too complex for the human limitation to hold all at once, and too slow to move with just human processing.

So when I saw this, it felt like a reminder that this is what AI looks like when it’s pointed at real stakes. 

Early cancer detection changes outcomes. It changes survival, which in turn changes families, so YESSSSS 👏

Honestly celebrating them and I also hope stories like this pull the whole industry back to centre.

Generative AI is impressive. But impact is the point.

Definitely go follow these incredible women, they deserve the visibility.

taplio

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Tessinita Okoye

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taplio

The Battle

Emmie Faust

Tessinita Okoye

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Emmie Faust's LinkedIn Performance

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