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We talk a lot about how difficult it is for female founders to secure funding for their start-ups, and the academic research explaining why this is the case (see HERE , HERE and HERE for examples).  To counter this gender bias, women are often advised to "tone down their gender," they are told that they have less success in industries typically thought of as male, and they tend to be conservative in their fundraising ask (which is also one of the reasons their businesses are more successful, but I won't get into that here).   So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled onto this research from Swiss and Finnish (male) economists Wesemen and Wincent that seems to flip the narrative when it comes to raising funds via crowdfunding. It turns out that when women founders participate in crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds for their businesses, they should actually ignore the traditional advice they're given when fundraising.   Wait, what? Let's break down the surprising findings:   1. Embrace your identity as a female founder Contrary to the old advice of downplaying your gender, the study found that women who proudly tagged their campaigns as "female founder" raised significantly more money. It turns out that in the crowdfunding world, your gender can be a powerful asset rather than a liability.   2. Speak to your female perspective Forget about trying to sound "gender-neutral." Using more female-centric language in your campaign actually correlates with better funding outcomes. This suggests that authenticity and connecting with your audience through shared experiences can be a winning strategy.   3. Tone down the promotion talk Here's a shocker: using less promotional language led to better results for women. While traditional advice often encourages female entrepreneurs to be more assertive, crowdfunding investors seem to respond better to a more measured approach.   4. Venture into male-dominated sectors Buckle up for this one: the study found that women who started businesses in male-dominated industries actually performed better in crowdfunding. Instead of sticking to traditionally female-oriented sectors, consider how your unique perspective could disrupt a male-dominated field.   5. Dream big with your funding goals Contrary to the tendency to set modest goals, the research showed that higher funding targets correlated with better outcomes. So don't be afraid to aim high – it could signal the quality and ambition of your project to potential backers.   What does this mean for female tech founders?   These findings highlight how the crowdfunding landscape operates differently from traditional venture capital. The diverse pool of casual investors in crowdfunding platforms appears to be more open to supporting women entrepreneurs, especially when they authentically showcase their identity and perspective.   For investors, this research challenges unconscious biases and suggests that backing female-led ventures in crowdfunding could lead to promising returns.   (A word of caution from the researchers: whilst these strategies showed success on some crowdfunding platforms, they may not translate directly to equity crowdfunding or traditional VC pitches. Always consider the specific context of your funding environment.)   The big takeaway?  The crowdfunding arena might just be levelling the playing field for female tech founders. By embracing your identity, speaking authentically, and aiming high, you could tap into a powerful source of support for your venture. --------------------- Everything we do at Breakthrough Labs to support female founders is based on research, whether it's academic research like this or our own conversations with female founders. If you want to be part of a community that is built to support your needs, join us! Applications for the community open again in September.

June 1st marked a significant milestone for us at Breakthrough Labs as we closed our waitlist, welcoming 88 remarkable female founders into our community. Our focus now is on understanding these founders, their businesses, and their unique needs to customize our content and programs to support them effectively.   This week, we integrated these founders into our community platform, witnessing the fruition of our dedicated efforts. Throughout June, we will concentrate on onboarding and creating opportunities for founders to connect and collaborate, fostering a true sense of community.   The Journey Here: Driven by Research and Dedication   Our journey to this point, though challenging, has been underpinned by extensive research and a commitment to understanding the needs of female founders. Here’s a glimpse into the research that has shaped our approach:   2023 Survey: We conducted a survey asking female founders about their experiences with online communities. 2024 Survey: Another survey focused on gathering feedback about features we were proposing for the Breakthrough Labs online community. Advisor Insights: We surveyed female founders who have previously worked with advisors or advisory boards to understand the most effective collaboration styles. Continuous Engagement: Through numerous questions in WhatsApp founder groups and extensive desk research, we explored which online community platform would be most suitable. Ultimately, on the advice of a trusted supplier, we decided to build our community on our existing web platform to monitor and refine its functionality. Engaging with Our Founders:   Upon finalizing our waitlist, we initiated conversations with these founders about their businesses, challenges, priorities, and needs for service providers and advisors. This interaction ensures that our community is shaped by and for its members.   Our Commitment to Empowering Women in Business  Everything we do at Breakthrough Labs is centered around our members. Our goal is to bring more women-founded businesses to market, secure funding for female entrepreneurs, and introduce greater balance to the marketplace.   We are on a mission to change the world together. If you are interested in getting involved or supporting our community, please reach out to us at info: breakthroughlabs.net Photo by Tim Mossholder  on Unsplash

You know how passionate we are at Breakthrough Labs about transforming the start-up world for women. That's why we are beyond excited to announce the launch of our new online community, created specifically to support female founders of technology start-up companies. This community is for you – the women-identifying founders or co-founders of early-stage start-ups (pre-Series A) who are in the crucial building phase of your business and seeking initial investment. Who We Are Up until now, we’ve been dedicated to championing female founders through our successful accelerator program , which has the mission of helping women founders develop strong, investible business propositions as they pitch for pre-seed equity investment. We know the hurdles women face in the tech industry, and we’re committed to providing the resources, support, and community you need to overcome them and succeed. Our accelerator isn't going away, but the online community allows us to reach more women, outside of our local area, outside of the UK, and who may not have fundraising as their focus . Our Independence, Your Advantage As an independent organization, we have the freedom to shape our programmes and offerings based on thorough research and the specific needs of female founders. Our focus is entirely on empowering women in tech. We draw from our own research as well as academic studies to understand why women aren't getting funded and what can be done to change that. We've adoped the same evidence-backed approach in building our new community. What We Offer Our new online community is more than just a network – it’s a comprehensive support system designed with your unique challenges in mind. Here’s a glimpse of what awaits you: Matching to Advisors We know how valuable it can be to be able to pick up the phone and ask a seasoned pro for advice. It can also be expensive, with founders often paying dearly or giving away precious equity in order to engage advisors in the early days. That's why we hand-match founders with executives from large companies who volunteer to be advisors for a year - at no charge to start-ups! These experienced professionals offer invaluable insights and guidance as you navigate the ups and downs of building a tech start-up. Trusted Supplier Directory One of the biggest worries for early-stage start-ups is finding reliable and cost-effective services. Our directory of trusted suppliers offers services at agreed-upon pricing, so you can be confident that you're getting quality work without breaking the bank. Community and Peer Support Building a start-up can feel isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. Our community brings women together with their peers, providing a space to celebrate wins, share challenges, and learn from each other’s experiences. This peer support network is an essential resource for both emotional and professional growth. Learning Opportunities We believe in continuous learning. That’s why we offer a wealth of educational resources, including: Webinars and Recorded Courses : Learn from industry experts and successful entrepreneurs. Pitch Practices and Demo Days : Polish your pitching skills and present your start-up to potential investors. Downloadable Templates and Articles : Access practical tools and expert-written content to support your business growth. And much more! Join us! We warmly invite all woman-identifying founders of early-stage tech startups to join our community. At Breakthrough Labs, we’re dedicated to helping you build a sustainable and successful business. Our waitlist is open until 1 June , when we'll be closing the community to new registrations for the summer so that we can work with our first founders and trusted suppliers to make this space even better. We'll open back up in September for new membership. If you can't join now, mark your calendar and join us then. So what are you waiting for? Let’s break through the challenges and build the future of tech, one female founder at a time. Together, we can break down barriers and create a more inclusive and equitable tech industry. We can’t wait to welcome you!

In the past year, I have met scores of new people and have shared my vision for Breakthrough Labs. Many of you may be familiar with this already. The vision always included three parts, as depicted in the nifty graphic below. You know about the accelerator already, as it's basically all we talked about in 2023. (If you haven't read about it yet, check out our evaluation here , or any of our other blog posts from 2023 .) We have just started talking about our plans for an online community to support female founders. This is under construction, but we will tell you more about it in the buildup to launch. You can also join our waitlist for membership here or follow us on LinkedIn to hear regular updates. Connecting female founders with investment And now it's the third pillar, something I always knew needed to happen, but the biggest question mark for me. So many people have told me that what female founders need more than anything is money, but without a background and in finance or independent wealth, I wasn't sure how I was going to provide it. Until now. As an Ada Ventures Scout! I've been keeping my eye on Ada Ventures since before I launched Breakthrough Labs, and they share many of the same values that we do. They are inclusive. They are all about teaching and learning. They want more -- and more diverse -- people to be investors and to get investment. In their words: Ada Ventures is the inclusive venture firm. Ada Ventures finds and funds extraordinary talent building breakthrough ideas for the hardest problems we face. We are investing out of our second fund, and we invest £250,000 - £1m in UK technology companies across climate, economic empowerment, and healthcare & ageing. So what does this all mean? I couldn't be more excited to have been accepted as an Ada Ventures Scout. For me, this means professional development around investing in tech as well as insight as to how a venture capital firm works. I am loving it already. For the female founders supported by Breakthrough Labs, being an Ada Ventures Scout means that I'm your quick route to getting your pitch deck reviewed by the team at Ada Ventures. I know what they're looking for, and if you and I submit your pitch for investment, you'll get feedback from the team quickly (in two weeks!). No ghosting, no reaching out blindly with no hope of reply, no "you're too early for us" with no other feedback. Interesting...what do I do next? Reach out to me on LinkedIn if: You believe that you have a breakthrough idea that will address the hardest problems the world faces: the climate crisis, ageing society & ill health, and economic empowerment and inclusion Your idea aligns with Ada Ventures' investment thesis, which you can read all about in a post from co-founder Check Warner here ; You have an MVP, at the least; Your business is registered in the UK, and You believe you can scale. I would love to speak with you about your idea.** What if I don't fit these criteria? If you're not ready for venture investment, don't worry. Breakthrough Labs works with a lot of investors, including angel syndicates and other funding organisations. Our online community will have many opporunities for you to meet and hear from investors. Join the waitlist now as we have great plans for the investment pillar of Breakthrough Labs in the future, and you don't want to miss out! ** To be clear: I am not an investment decision-maker for Ada Ventures. While having my name on your submission guarantees that the team will review it, it does not guarantee an investment by Ada Ventures.

Breakthrough Labs is all about using evidence, as we have discussed in this blog before . And as an organisation, we practice what we preach. Thus we are thrilled to be able to share the evaluation report of our first Breakthrough Labs accelerato r, which you can download at this link . Our objectives for the Breakthrough Labs accelerator are 1) to support women to successfully raise early-stage funding, and 2) to create a community of women who can rely on each other for support and guidance beyond the four months of the accelerator programme. We collected data throughout our first accelerator cohort to show evidence of whether or not we had met these objectives. Further, as this first cohort was our proof-of-concept for the accelerator, we also needed to understand whether and how everything worked. We had developed a curriculum based on research, validated by investors and delivered by industry experts. We needed to know whether each of the workshops individually and the programme as a whole delivered what female founders needed in order to reach the overall programme objectives. An analysis of the data collected from the 10 start-ups who participated in this first cohort and our key findings can be found in our first Breakthrough Labs evaluation report . The report provides an overview of the challenges facing female founders and a detailed description of our how accelerator works and why it was structured this way. The feedback we received from participating female founders was overwhelmingly positive. Our key finding in the report is that 92% of the time, our founders felt that the content of the Breakthrough Labs workshops was helpful to their businesses. We have also been thrilled to see our founders form a real community, from which they still benefit even after the programme has ended . My big learning: Breakthrough Labs needs a home As a first-time founder, I have learned a lot about what it's like to develop and run an independent accelerator; i.e. one that is not affiliated with or supported by a larger organisation. (This is also discussed in the evaluation report .) There have been definite positives to working independently, such as being able to design a programme to meet founders' needs rather than the business objectives of a larger organisation . The obvious negative is that I am Breakthrough Labs' only employee and I bootstrapped the business with no salary for the past year. Putting money aside, I have learned enough in the past year to know where my own strengths and weaknesses lie. And there are definitely areas of the business that would be stronger if they were run by someone more skilled than me. Thus my biggest learning is that for Breakthrough Labs to continue, it needs to find a home. I have loved every moment of developing and running this accelerator. What's more, I know we have a model that works. I believe in our objectives and want to continue helping female founders. But I can no longer do it alone. If you believe in what we're doing and want to join us on our journey, let's chat. There are a number of partnership models that could work. I have some thoughts, but I'd love to hear yours. Get in touch with me .

This week we marked the end of the first cohort of the Breakthrough Labs accelerator with our first investor pitch day. This event was part celebration, part graduation and part final exam, as eight of our ten superstar start-ups pitched for investment in front of a room full of investors. From l to r: Faye Ingram of Smile, Stiliyana Minkovska of Matrix Health and Care, Jennifer Mathisen of KiDSiE, Rita Hendricusdottir of Reg-Metrics, our founder Dr Kristen Weatherby, Rheo Nanton of The Fload App, Amanda Bell of SeparateSpace, Janine Matho of ExponentialChangemakers and Eleanor Wright of Tel x AI. We had been working toward this day for the entirety of the 4-month accelerator programme. Every workshop the start-ups participated in helped them build a stronger, more investible business, which in turn influenced their pitch. We provided the founders with multiple opportunities to practice their pitches, receiving feedback from investors and other advisors along the way. And they heard from a panel of investors as to what is important to have in the pitch deck itself. We were fortunate to host the evening at UCL's home for entrepreneurship , Base KX. And we had a fantastic panel of investors asking questions and providing feedback to the start-ups, from a range investment organisations representing well over 1000 angel investors and exceeding £100M in investment potential. We are extremely grateful to Oxford Innovation Finance , Angel Academe , South East Angels , Octopus Ventures , Queen's Park Equity and UBS for suppporting us on the day, as well as all the other investors, partners and academic institutions in attendance. It was a fantastic evening, but don't just take our word for it. We have had nothing but positive feedback from attendees and founders alike, and there have been multiple follow-up conversations between start-ups and investors regarding possible investment. While this pitch evening marked the end of the formal programme for our first accelerator cohort, it is not the end. Breakthrough Labs is a community, and we will continue to offer opportunities for this group of female founders to connect and learn with each other. We have opened applications for our second accelerator cohort , which starts in September, allowing us to add to our growing community of innovative, passionate women who are looking bring their great ideas to market. Join us! Together, we're out to change the world! *Special thank you to Kathryn Fell Photography for these spectacular photos!

The objective of the Breakthrough Labs accelerator is to help more female founders get funding. It is at the heart of everything we do in all of our programmes. Pitching for funding is hard, regardless of your gender or ethnicity. I heard someone say recently that every time a founder pitches, they leave a little bit of themselves behind at the pitch . This is the perfect description of what founders go through while pitching for investment. Founders have to have a thick skin, separating themselves from their businesses, which seems all but impossible when you have nurtured and built a business from the idea stage. They have to be prepared to hear "no" at least 90% of the time and receive a lot of negative feedback on top of that. Some founders have to deal with uncomfortable personal questions and commentary on their qualifications or suitability to run their business. They might be ghosted by investors or told that they are going to fail. Founders have to be resilient , reaching inside themselves to find the strength to persevere and calling on people around them to build them back up again. This is why the focus on community at Breakthrough Labs is so important; we want our female founders to be part of a sympathetic group of women who are going through the same thing at the same time and can offer support and advice. Reaching out to investors and researching their individual investment theses is also incredibly time-consuming for founders. We try to take some of this legwork away from our cohorts, bringing together groups of investors who are interested in the types of start-ups we work with. Our research with female founders also indicated that women aren't just looking for any money; they are looking for "the right money". In other words, they want investors who "click" with them, understand their business, and are committed to offering ongoing guidance to help their businesses grow. We are friendly with angel networks and VCs and other investors who not only want to invest in women, but want to help them succeed. What's more, we introduce women to investors who can help them in years to come, as their businesses start to scale. Our latest newsletter talks about all of the work we do with our cohorts to help them connect with investors and get investment-ready. Register to subscribe and stay up-to-date on all we do for female founders.

This is how I started my recent Breakthrough Labs workshop on the importance of research evidence to start-up founders. It's how my former manager at the OECD used to sign his emails. It's important to remember, especially for start-up founders who are so passionate about their ideas, yet still need to convince customers and investors to buy into them. It's also what I think about when I'm asked about Breakthrough Labs' USP. When our website and marketing materials say that what we do is "grounded in research", we mean it. But what exactly do we mean? Data, evidence and research are at the centre of everything we do at Breakthrough Labs. We use evidence to decide what to put in front of our female founders, to drive our decision-making and to inform the new offerings we create. In other words, our programmes and the work we do with women aren't just based on a sample of one, i.e., one person's experience as an entrepreneur and what they think start-ups need. Neither are we driven by the objectives of large, corporate institutions. We are guided by evidence. For example, to develop the programme for our accelerator , we reviewed decades of academic research on why female founders aren't getting funded and what the research says can be done to help. We added those finding to our own, in-house research, in which we interviewed female founders who had experience pitching for funding. From those data, we developed the topics of our workshops and took that to investors for their review. Finally, we searched high and low for the best qualified people to deliver each of the workshops. The data we collect from founders after each workshop demonstrate that this effort was worth it. We are still learning and iterating, just as the start-ups we work with are. But our evidence shows we're on the right track, and we can't wait to share our learnings to help more female founders succeed.

One of the key findings in the academic research around why female founders aren't getting funded is that women do not have access to the same kinds of quality networks as their male counterparts . Thus helping women build their networks is one of the key objectives of Breakthrough Labs programmes. We introduce women to experts, investors and partners who can help them with their businesses ( Our new "Who we are" page introduces some of the experts our start-ups will work with). Most other accelerators say they do this, too. But we take this a step further at Breakthrough Labs. We don't just want women to meet the "right" people; we want them to feel like they are part of a community. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely business (especially as a solo founder, I'm finding), and we want women to have a group of people they can turn to throughout their entrepreneurial journey for advice, support and understanding. Building a community is hard work, but it's something that is particularly close to my heart. My doctoral research was on communities of practice for teachers , how they formed, whether they could exist online, and the impact they had on teachers' work. This research has a strong influence on the way we have structured our Breakthrough Labs programmes. Communities are built on relationships, and there needs to be a level of trust between people for meaningful relationships to develop. Our Breakthrough Labs accelerator begins with an all-day, in-person induction so that founders can get to know each other and gain the trust that is essential to building community. We have seen that this works: women in our first cohort have built bonds after only a few sessions, such that they are looking for more opportunities to meet with each other outside of the scheduled workshops. Only one month into the programme, we have scheduled an in-person brunch, weekly virtual coffee chats, and informal online conversations about certain business topics. We want to bring this sense of community to more women, outside of our local area, and outside of England. Our next step is to build an online community for female founders, but we need your feedback to understand what would be most useful for women entrepreneurs. Respond to this short survey to help us create an online comunity that can support you in your start-up journey!

Almost exactly a year after I first verbalised the ideas that would soon form themselves into Breakthrough Labs, our first group of female founders met in Oxford to begin their 4-month journey with us. You can see our smiling faces below, tired and happy after our daylong workshop. (Learn more about the companies these women founded by clicking their logos on the bottom of our home page .) Each of these women has a story, and our job on day one was to help them find it. Unlike many other tech accelerators, the theme of storytelling weaves its way through the entire Breakthrough Labs programme. As our expert storyteller Jane Nash of Narrativ told us, the human brain is ready for a story. We naturally recognise stories in the speech we hear and they help us engage with content and understand it in our own context and that of the storyteller. Stories are important to founders who are fundraising. The popular book for start-ups Get Backed tells potential readers on its cover to "craft your story". The authors dedicate an entire chapter to the types of stories that need to be told when pitching for investment, whether you are tying together the ideas in your pitch deck or explaining an individual slide in your presentation. It might be easy for founders to recount their company's origin story or to tell a story of how their product helped a customer. But it isn't always as straightforward to tell your own story as a founder -- and our interview with female founders showed that it can be especially challenging for women. It isn't always socially acceptable to speak about yourself in a way that demonstrates why you are the single best person to do this work, and women are less comfortable than men in doing this. However, it's important to remember that investors aren't just investing in your company, they are investing in you as its founder. They need to be convinced that you are the right person to bring this idea to the world. Most importantly, you need to believe that you are the right person. I'm so excited to hear our founders' stories evolve over the four months we get to work together. I hope this is just the beginning of our story. I'll end for now with what I asked everyone to consider at the end of our day together: What is holding you back from telling your story? Why not you ?