Female founders gathering at Cambridge Judge Business School ‘truly amazing’
The second ‘female founders’ gathering was “truly amazing”, said organiser Xann Schwinn.
More than 40 women entrepreneurs gathered at Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) for the event, titled ‘Enduring Innovation: Women Founders Leading the Way’ last week.
The event was billed as promise “to redefine ‘disruption’ through real stories of endurance and resourcefulness from Cambridge’s leading women entrepreneurs”.
“There were representatives from across the cluster wanting to support female founders, including St John’s Innovation Centre, Barclays and CJBS,” said Xann, founder and CEO of singing platform Bilah.
“The panellists were extremely thoughtful, and there were mums who brought their children, they were so happy we could provide care and they said that meant they could ‘show up as our full selves’.”
There were two panels, one on ‘navigating a market crash’ and the second on ‘scaling up’.
“The speakers were more honest than panels usually are, said one t worked because attendees were encouraged to bring their authentic selves, so a lot of learning came out of this.”
Emmi Nicholl, managing director aka deal sorcerer at Cambridge Angels, made the introductory remarks. Afterwards she said: “It was a great event, bringing together some of the exceptional female talent in our region. I was delighted to give the opening address at this event. It’s always a privilege to be in the room where excellence is the default position.”
Xann added: “I feel that there is more enthusiasm to support female founders than there ever has been; the journey is still arduous but mechanisms like these create additional support. We’re looking forward to hosting more of these.”
Mo Kosar, CEO of ConsneAI, said: “I loved the event, hearing how the other panellist found raising investment, losing team members and how they kept their businesses moving forward was informative, it was hard to hear at points, I can't imagen how difficult it must have been to lose your team due to financial constraints.
“The second panellist group was really helpful, we are just starting to look at strategic partnerships so hearing their insights and pain points has helped me with some of the risk management.”
