Female Founders Rise

Female Founders Rise is a community of 10k female and non-binary founders.
Join here > https://swf5gwq3cbv.typeform.com/Join-FFR

Our purpose is financial freedom for women through entrepreneurship and we work across 4 pillars

1) Community
2) Business Fundamentals
3) Getting More Women Funded
4) Awareness of Female Entrepreneurship

Our mission is to provide advice, connection, networking, and support to help female founders succeed.

We have partnered with London Business School, Google, Lloyds Bank, British Business Bank and many other great communities and organisations supporting founders.

We'd love to have you join us - click on the link below or in my bio.

Founder + CEO

Female Founders Directory

+ Working on initiatives to promote diversity in supplier lists by encouraging SME’s and corporates to buy from women-led businesses in the UK.

+ Facilitating collaborations among women selling B2B to create meaningful opportunities for growth.

+ Building a supportive community within Female Founders Directory.

Founder

Faust House

An experienced exited entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den winner with over 20 years in digital marketing, I’ve personally scaled and sold three businesses.

I work with scaling service-based and tech businesses to help them get the most out of their marketing spend to enable growth, funding and successful exit.
Typical ROI x 10

Founder + Advisor

RunYourself

Angel Investor

Mamma Wellbeing

Advisor and Angel Investor

ONEWAYX

ONEWAYX is Shaping the Future of MetaCommerce, providing a plug-and-play Metaverse Operating System that empowers brands and retailers to integrate immersive experiences and Web3 capabilities.

Ventures Together

Ventures Together is a curated community of 130+ of Europe’s leading tech entrepreneurs and operators who angel invest and help companies together. We’re responsible for building some of the biggest startups like Wise, Klarna, Beamery, Onfido, Citymapper, Huma, Monzo and Deliveroo. 

“VT has provided us with unique access to influential and strategic business operators. I am amazed at the pace, efficiency and feedback provided to us by the VT community” - Anna Brailsford, founder and CEO of Code First Girls.

ZINC

Zinc backs exceptional talent to build new commercial solutions that solve the most pressing societal issues. As a Zinc Visiting Fellow, I support the cohort of 70 talented Founders to build commercial, scalable businesses that tackle one of the toughest problems society faces today - Financial Resilience.

Visiting Fellow

Country & Town House 

I worked with Country & Townhouse since Jan 2020 helping them with growth strategy and raising funds. I later joined as an advisor to the board. I stepped down from this role as I paused most of my consultancy work to focus on Female Founders Rise

Board Advisor

Freelance Marketing Club

Bringing together marketing freelancers for networking, collaboration + fun  
We handed this networking group on to a new leader because I need to focus my time and energy on Female Founders Rise full time.

Free networking + masterclasses for marketing freelancers.

Co-Founder

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 Alternative Funding Show.


At FFR, our purpose is to enable financial freedom for women 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 difference in funding, I was shocked and decided I would 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 or paid speaking engagements, please enquire at hello@femalefoundersrise.com

Emmie Faust

Last week I felt a bit low

I’m sure you know that feeling 

Working hard and not seeming to get the traction you hoped for

(this is the life of an entrepreneur I know!)

I embarked on this mega survey for The Rise Report

If I’m totally honest I thought getting 2k respondents would be super easy

And it wasn’t 
It’s been hard 

Every day whatsapping Debbie and getting the updated numbers

Was in the valley of despair for a few days
As the numbers grew 
But in my eyes too slowly!

And now we are at the point that we’re nearly done and that feels great  🙌🙌

Looking back I can feel that worry of the task being too big

The stress of the responsibilities 

I imagine it’s akin to a fundraise
Or any important campaign

Trying to gather everyone together to get  involved in your mission when it’s a new thing! 

To get the early adopters to believe in what you’re trying to do!

And my biggest learnings

1/ there is always a valley of despair 
That’s where most people give up

2/ Consistency is everything 
You have to show up time and time again

3/ relationships is what it’s all about
Always has been always will be 

The people that have been :

> checking in on how it’s going 
> promoting the survey
> sharing the survey
> partnering on the survey
> Getting people to do the survey

They’re the ones making it happen!!

So THANK YOU 
All you lovely people 
Like Sam Smith messaging me on a Saturday morning to make it happen

Vic Peppiatt tagging in everyone in her address book!

Debbie for giving me at least daily updates and telling me ‘we’ll do it!’

all our ambassadors (you know who you are)
And our community partners who have taken the time to share with their communities 

And our friends and members who have done the same

To everyone who send me a DM and told me they are on it and sharing!
Or emailed me
Or tagged me in a post
Or came to a meetup to hear about the reported 


We’re going to do it
To get 2000
Women to fill in a thorough, robust survey that we can slice and dice in so many ways to give us reliable annual data

Thanks to our partners who have all been brainstorming with me these last few weeks 

And my FFR Dinner crew
On the end of a WhatsApp 

Checking In daily

And to the team at Barclays UK for believing and wanting to be part of this study in the
First place!

It’s very clear the need for an independent report.
The government’s priorities change each time someone new comes into power

But our priorities are always the same - creating opportunities for everyone In entrepreneurship and having the data to back it up.

Get involved (link in bio and comments)
Tag a fellow female founder
spread the word
We’re about to close the survey so it’s urgent so take part
If you want your voice heard!

>> https://lnkd.in/eYVAA3S8
And follow Emmie for more updates and stories when we get there

2009/2000 responses ✅ | Mega Report incoming on female entrepreneurship | Sharing the Real Journey of Entrepreneurship + Growth |

No alternative text description for this image

A love letter to the woman I once was
.
If I could sit down with 25-year-old me, I’d tell her 3 things:

1/ Be kind to yourself
You can be ambitious and gentle - both are allowed.

2/ Sometimes you have to do hard things
Growth isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it.

3/ Wellbeing is everything
You can’t pour from an empty cup - take care of your energy first.


I wrote this as a love letter to my younger self 
But also to anyone still figuring it out 💜

You don’t need all the answers yet.
Just curiosity, courage, and a little self-compassion.

Save this for the days you forget how far you’ve come.
What would you say to your younger self?

Follow Emmie for more on building businesses in a sustainable way

3 pieces of advice to 25 year old Emmie

Women owned startups are a better bet

Startups Founded or Cofounded by Women Garner Less in Investments but Generate More Revenue, research shows.

This data is quite old (over 7 years) 
But it’s often quoted because less face it there is SO little up to date resesarch on women-led businesses

(This is why we’ve embarked on a mega survey of 2k female founders with The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship)

Anyway back to the findings 👇

According to their research, when women business owners pitch their ideas to investors for early-stage capital, they receive significantly less (a disparity that averages more than $1 million) than men. 

Yet businesses founded by women ultimately deliver higher revenue (more than twice as much per dollar invested)
than those founded by men, 

👉making women-owned companies better investments for financial backers. 

And yes I’m invested most of my disposable cash in women
Not just for this reason but also cos I want to see the funding levels become more equal

🎉 And I just had my first exit 🎉

What is missing in the UK right now is an up to date regular and robust report and that’s what we are trying to do.

Of course we can’t cover off everything on day 1 but slowly over time we will gather it all and get an independent yearly review on the state of female entrepreneurship


Save the to read later
Share with someone who might like to read it
And let me know if you’re part of the mega survey 

And check out 
Arāya Ventures 
Alma Angels 
Sie Ventures 
Two Magnolias Venture Capital 
Lifted Ventures 
The Gender Index 
All doing good work in this space 
(Along with many others!)

Follow Emmie for more on entrepreneurship

Why women owned startups are a better bet

Breaking news for B2B female founders

If you're a B2B founder looking to 
build deeper relationships, 
shared learning, 
collaboration, 
and referrals, 
then this is for you 🙌

(Not to mention our mega virtual Christmas meetup) 🎄

Co-created with 25 founding members:

You told us you wanted is a Community WhatsApp with groups for different things (referrals, promotions, knowledge sharing) 

and monthly virtual meetups to help connect with others for referrals and collabs

We officially launched this week with 125 B2B members, and we’re opening up to 300 max initially 

If you have a generous mindset and love giving this is for you 💜

Sign up here >> https://lnkd.in/eJN2yv8B

And if you have already joined let us know below 👇 

Ps should we even have a summer festival?
How cool would be!

If this sounds like fun come and find out more Female Founders Rise or follow Emmie for more 👋

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

Are your favourite brands female-founded? 👀

These supermarket staples were all started by incredible women:

🍿 Cassandra created PROPERCORN in 2011
👶 Joanna founded Childs Farm Ltd in 2010
🐿️  Pip launched Pip & Nut | B Corp in 2013

Female founders aren’t just building brands 
They’re launching and redefining everyday products we love
And I'll be highlighting many more....

Who else deserves a spot on the shelf next to them?  👇

Follow Emmie Faust for more on entrepreneurship 

PS These photos are from my little trips to Sainsburys and Morrisons scooting around trying to find female-founded brands and doing little videos.

You need to know about these 3 female-founded brands

Everyone talks about starting a business

No one talks about staying sane once it works.

I learned that the hard way - after scaling my businesses, I realised burnout doesn’t come from doing "too much"…
It comes from doing the wrong things
Without systems that protect your brain.

Most founders don’t need more 'hacks'
They need ways to clear their brain and get perspective

I was talking with a founder friend yesterday about exactly this 
We both have so much on how do you keep a clear head
To prioritise and work on the mission-critical?

So sharing some thoughts in a carousel

These are systems used by me and other founders who’ve learned that: 
→ Recovery is a business strategy
→ Managing your energy for the win
→ Emotional control is leverage

These 7 habits really help me focus 
Do any of them resonate with you?

Your focus is your equity 🙌
Protect it like it’s the most valuable asset you own

Take 10 mins this weekend to rebuild your focus.
When you wake up on Monday you'll be glad you did

Follow Emmie Faust for more on entrepreneurship and growth

7 Habits to Keep Focus and Give you Clarity

We're led to believe we need to compete

But there is a different way

Coming together to create change

When I read this the other night in bed
It spoke to me
(absolutely love Rupi's poems)

And this is the reason I set up FFR
(https://lnkd.in/eqwmPK4F)

↳ to bring women together to collaborate and connect
↳  to refer each other business
↳  to share learnings and ideas
↳  to be part of something bigger than themselves
↳  to trade competition for collaboration
↳  the more the merrier

It's working....
we're seeing so many businesses benefit from the generous mindset of our members

Looks it's not easy
It's built inside of us to feel the fight 
to win the race
to be the best
And there is nothing wrong with ambition 
We all need that

But also connection + collaboration feels so good
We're made for it

Thank you to ALL my collaborators who have supported us on this project the last few weeks
And for being open to do things a different way
We're so nearly there now.

And let me know do you know the wonderful Rupi Kaur?

-------------------------
Follow Emmie for more on entrepreneurship and behind the scenes stories of building a community of 10K generous founders
If you haven't already done the survey find it here > https://lnkd.in/eYVAA3S8

You know one of the hardest things?

Getting buy-in to an idea or project before it’s a thing!

You have to 
✅Sell the dream 
✅ Sell the big vision
✅ Sell the mission

This has been my life for the last 2 weeks.

No one wants to fill in another survey…
We all have survey fatigue

And here I am asking women to fill in ‘another survey’
(This will be the last time for sure!)

And many have said no
And I understand why
(That’s another post)


Of Course next year will be so much easier
With momentum
And trust and 
The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship will be a thing.

Next time it will be easier to get people to share their time and data and insights
Because they will see the impact.

An important lesson I learnt from the wondeful Seth Godin 👇

In business the hardest work is getting the first users onboard.
The early adopters 

Getting people to buy into something new and unknown is hard but 
Once you get the early adopters on board 
It all becomes so much easier.


I’m happy to say we are very close to having our first 2k early adopters for this report survey and it feels 
GREAT to say that.


If you resonate with being an ‘early adopter’ you have a few days to get involved.
Otherwise you will have to wait til next year to share your insights, data and stories.

You’ll find the link in my featured section or in the comments below 👇

Two words changed how I think about success.

(I used to believe talent was fixed) 
That you were either born with it, or you weren’t.

Then someone told me about the Growth Mindset
And everything changed.

This mindset doesn’t just shape how we grow
It shapes who we become as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a person

The difference between “I can’t do this”
and “I can’t do this yet”
is EVERYTHING

People with a fixed mindset:
→ Avoid challenges
→ Fear failure
→ Quit when it gets hard

People with a growth mindset:
→ See struggle as data, not defeat
→ Embrace feedback
→ Persist until they improve

The thing is every 'expert' started somewhere
Every success comes after a dozen failures

One of the top tips from Harvard Business Review is to surround yourself with growth-minded people
(you can find them in FFR > https://lnkd.in/eqwmPK4F)

On my journey to building Female Founders Rise I embrace this mindset daily.
And it's made a huge difference to my work and life 
When something doesn't go to plan
It's not failure it just data.

→ Save this for when progress feels slow - or when doubt creeps in.
And ask yourself the question 
How can I embrace the Growth Mindset this coming week?

🔔 Follow Emmie Faust for daily entrepreneurship support


>> More Resources
1/ Psychologist Carol Dweck coined the concept of growth and fixed mindsets in her 2006 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
2/ And check out the HBR article that inspired this image > https://lnkd.in/eN5g3yg5

Female founders: stop guessing about fundraising

Every Friday at 6 AM, we’ll drop a short, sharp newsletter for women who are fundraising from Female Founders Rise

We’ve been building our fundraising list quietly for months 
Now, it's at 2500 founders, we're going to launch.

With Dan Bowyer and Lea Rozencwajg Henry - Who have  sat on both sides of the table we'll  translate investor-speak into action

↳ Facts + stats that actually move a round
↳ Templates + resources to support you
↳ Term of the week (in plain English)
↳ Open Q&A: send your blockers

As well as access to our fundraising accelerator, meetups, and other bits and bobs.

If you're a female founder, fundraising or thinking of fundraising, comment RAISE and we'll share the link 🙌

Sometimes my mind can play games

Tell me I’m not enough

That I’m going to get cancelled 

That people don’t like me

That it’s not going to work out


And other days my mind is kind and compassionate

And says ‘I’m so Proud of you’

‘You’re smashing it’

‘You’re doing so well’

And on this crazy journey of being a mum to 4, an entrepreneur, running a community and learning on the job I sometimes forget to stop and prioritise my mind

And this made me smile
It was a little message that stopped me on my scroll

A reminder to rest
Work on my mental fitness
Come back to my breath 


We’re all in this together
Agree?

Ps spotted on insta candidly.carky

The Branding Fox

In an age of information overload, it pays to have a focused brand and a clear brand identity that uniquely represents your business and connects with your target audience. I primarily work with ambitious entrepreneurs and business owners who want to grow their brands and value the impact that a strategically aligned brand can have on their business.

The Courageous Collective

Funding for All

Funding for All is a charity that exists to mentor small to medium charities, voluntary and community groups and social enterprises across Kent (and Medway) in bid writing skills, funding strategy, business planning, tendering, legacies, social media and developing budgets.

My role is to mentor on best practices in social media and train charities and not-for-profits to manage their own profiles.

Brand Messaging Support

Creative Minds

Creative Minds needed a logo and brand refresh to help implement consistent visual identity across all their communication channels and touchpoints. I have been working with them to create new guidelines and designs for all their marketing materials, that help to communicate their brand values with clarity and professionalism.

Brand Support

Artskickers Awards

The #Artskickers Awards recognise and reward individuals and organisations whose hard work, dedication, passion, slog and effort inspire communities to engage in and with the arts in East London. 

My role was to  design and brand the whole event, which included: flyers, posters, video graphics, stage visuals, invites, web assets and social media visuals. As well as managing the social media strategy and output on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Brand Designer and Social Media Strategist

The #Artskickers Awards recognised and rewarded individuals and organisations whose hard work, dedication, passion, slog and effort inspires communities to engage in and with the arts in East London. 

I designed and branded the whole event, which included: flyers, posters, video graphics, stage visuals, invites, web assets and social media visuals. I managed the Twitter part of the social media campaign which was to engage and inspire the East London arts community and entice them to enter or nominate someone for the awards.

Social Media highlights were: 87,700 impressions in the week we ran a tweet chat, a jump in follower numbers from 710 at the start to 1,086 by the end of the campaign and weekly likes went from 117 to its highest at 489.

Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer

Vardeep Edwards

I’ve led social media strategy and execution for purpose-led and creatively driven organisations, blending design thinking with data-driven insights to deliver content and campaigns.

This has included day-to-day social media management, campaign planning, paid advertising, and content creation across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I developed and implemented strategic content plans, ensured brand consistency across platforms through strong visual design, and used analytics to measure and optimise performance.

One standout project was a Europe-wide digital awareness campaign for Atomium’s REIsearch initiative. I developed and ran a multi-platform strategy to drive participation in an interactive survey exploring digital readiness. The results were:

- Reached over 1 million people
- 240K+ ad impressions
- 8,300+ Twitter link clicks
- 29,000+ website page views

Strategic Social Media Manager

Vardeep Gahir Design

- Excellent organisational and project management skills
- Regularly liaising with existing / potential clients and maintaining good working relationships
- Creating briefs and interpreting aims and requirements for each project
- Confidently leading on a variety of design projects and providing effective solutions
- Bringing in new business and pitching for new work
- Working on creatively-led projects with leading design studios: ODEON, Pentagram, Marie Curie & EMAP
- Having had the opportunity to work for a range of high profile clients including: Co-op, Akzo Nobel, RIBA, DLR, Persil, Puma, CNBC, AXA insurance, Samsung & Vodafone
- Reliably and continuously meeting deadlines whilst working on several projects simultaneously

Senior Graphic Designer

Print About Town

- Managing & running a small business
- Marketing and selling products to public & local businesses
- Research & awareness of market trends
- Creative copywriting for products
- Attention to detail
- Identifying gap in market for potential products
- Excellent typographic skills

Joint Business Partner

EMAP

Worked with 10-12 of EMAP's event teams to create branding and marketing materials for their events

Freelance Graphic Designer

Pentagram

Whilst at Pentagram, I worked for a number high profile clients developing their branding
and identity, as well as contributing concepts towards tenders and pitches for new business.

ELEVATE YOUR BRAND AND MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION

Hi, I’m Vardeep, founder of The Branding Fox and creative partner to purpose-led founders, consultants, and small teams who are ready to stop blending in and start showing up like the experts they are.

You’ve built something meaningful, but your brand no longer reflects the depth, clarity or direction of where you’re headed. It feels off. Outgrown. Not quite you anymore.

That’s where I come in.

Through thoughtful strategy, intentional design and a collaborative process, I help you create a brand that feels aligned, distinctive, and quietly powerful, like you’ve finally come home to it.

This isn’t about a surface-level rebrand.
It’s about clarity, cohesion, and credibility, as well as building a brand that does justice to everything you’ve worked for.

With 20+ years’ experience, I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, from ODEON, Pentagram, EMAP and Marie Curie to independent founders and creative teams, always with the same goal: to turn your brand into something you’re proud of and feels like you.

Visit www.thebrandingfox.com or email me at vardeep@thebrandingfox.com to find out more.

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