Claudia Sauter is the co-founder of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company Xentral alongside her husband, Benedikt Sauter whom she met at university. Her entrepreneurial career began shortly after Benedikt completed his studies, when they co- founded their first company, embedded projects GmbH, in Augsburg in 2008. embedded projects focused on producing and selling microcontroller boards through an ecommerce store.

The idea for Xentral was born directly out of the operational challenges Claudia & Benedikt experienced with their hardware business. Unable to find a suitable, modern, or affordable ERP system to manage their growing processes, Benedikt began programming a custom solution. This internal software soon caught the attention of their hardware customers, who expressed interest in buying it. Recognizing that the demand for their software was outgrowing the demand for their hardware, Claudia & Benedikt made the pivotal decision in 2017 to shut down the hardware business and focus entirely on the ERP software, which became Xentral.

Xentral has since become a major player in the ERP market for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) taking on SAP, offering a lean, cloud-based platform that helps companies automate and manage processes like e-commerce, warehouse management, accounting, and sales. Central’s growth has been significant, expanding from over 1,000 customers in 2020 to over 2,000 by mid-2024. With a team of over 300 people, Xentral has raised close to 100m to date including a $75M Series B in August 2021 with a valuation of close to €800m.

A Few Noteworthy Achievements

• Claudia Co-founded and scaled multiple technology companies, establishing herself as a serial entrepreneur. Her ventures include embedded projects GmbH (2008), WaWision GmbH, and Xentral ERP Software GmbH, demonstrating a consistent track record of building businesses from the ground up.
  

• She engineered a strategic pivot from hardware to a pure SaaS model, a crucial decision made in 2017 that redirected the company's focus exclusively to its high-demand software product. This move laid the groundwork for Xentral's subsequent rapid growth and venture capital backing.
  

• Established and maintained an equal co-founder partnership by structuring the business on a 50/50 basis from its inception. This was a deliberate choice to ensure both she and Benedikt Sauter could make decisions equally, creating a stable leadership foundation through all stages of the company's growth.
  

• Led fundraising efforts to secure nearly €100 million from top-tier global investors. As co-founder, she was instrumental in closing a $20M Series A round and a $75M Series B round, attracting backing from prominent firms like Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Meritech Capital.
  

• She helped shape the foundational company culture from the earliest days of the business. She has emphasized a culture of trust and decision-making freedom, which has been credited with retaining employees since the original hardware company and scaling the team to hundreds of people.

Claudia is described as a hands-on, problem-solving founder. Originating from a need within her own hardware business, she co-created a software solution that would become the core of a multimillion-dollar, venture-backed technology company. Her role has been focusing on the company's operational needs and culture, which was fundamental to the successful pivot to a pure software model and scaling the business to serve thousands of customers across Europe.

📣 #TheRant

No-Code Platforms: New Fundraising Leverage

No-code platforms like Lovable and Replit are shifting the power dynamics for founders looking to fundraise.

They allow founders to:

• Build and Ship MVPs on Your Own Terms: Instead of hiring a full engineering, design, and product team, you can now launch functional MVPs yourself or with a tiny team. This drastically reduces burn and means you can bootstrap longer or raise smaller early rounds—think £100K–£150K instead of the typical £250K+.

• Delay Fundraising, Improve Your Terms: With a live product and real users, you don’t need as much capital upfront to prove traction. Founders gain leverage: rather than pitching ideas, you show actual traction. This shift means you can raise later, on better terms, or potentially skip fundraising entirely if early revenue is strong.

• Breaking Down Barriers: For women, minorities, and other underrepresented founders, these tools are game-changers. No-code platforms democratize access, no gatekeepers, no permission needed to demonstrate market-fit, product vision, and user growth.

The Power Shift

• Founders can control their fundraising narrative with real results—not just an idea.

• You get more time to refine your product, gather feedback, and acquire customers before sitting down with investors.

• You’re positioned as a ‘proven builder,’ not just a dreamer. That means more negotiating power and potentially more favorable terms.

Caveats

While no-code lowers the barriers to starting… it’s not a replacement for hiring na actual team.

• Scaling Still Costs Money: You’ll eventually need capital for developers, infrastructure, and growth.

• Technical Limits: Complex products can hit the ceiling of no-code capabilities.

• Skills Are Essential: Even with these tools, product, UX, and growth skills matter.

• Investor Perception: Some VCs may undervalue no-code MVPs, assuming they aren’t scalable (a perception that’s quickly changing).

No-code platforms offer founders the opportunity to buy time, ship, learn, refine, and grow, before fundraising. Enter investor conversations with leverage, not dependency. Or perhaps, thanks to customer-driven revenue, discover you never need to fundraise at all and can avoid that circus all together.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇪🇸 Paola Pardo Co-founder of Qbeast
🇩🇪 Gyri Reiersen Co-founder & CSO of Tanso
🇬🇧 Tiffany Tuor, PhD Founding AI Scientist at Unbox
🇩🇪 Dr. Susanne Dickhardt & Stephie Niemann Co-founders of roadsurfer

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Elisabeth Rizzotti is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of newcleo, bringing a unique blend of scientific expertise and extensive business leadership to the nuclear energy sector. A physicist by training, Elisabeth earned her degree in Nuclear Physics from the Università degli Studi di Torino before transitioning into the business world. For 30 years, she built a strong managerial career, first at international consulting firms like Accenture and later at several Italian commercial banks. In 2021, she co-founded newcleo with Stefano Buono and Luciano Cinotti, returning to her physics roots to revolutionize the nuclear industry.

newcleo aims to generate clean, safe, sustainable, and economically competitive energy by developing Generation IV lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs). Newcleo takes an innovative approach, involving using mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel derived from reprocessed nuclear waste from existing power plants, thereby closing the fuel cycle and addressing key industry challenges of waste, safety, and cost. The company has achieved rapid growth, raising an initial $118 million in 2021 and reaching a total of €400 million in funding within its first year. Total private funding has since surpassed €570 million, with a workforce of over 1,100 employees across offices in the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Slovakia. Newcleo is one of only three European female-founded companies to achieve unicorn status in 2024, with a valuation of €1.5B.

Noteworthy Achievements

• Co-founding and Executive Leadership: Elisabeth co-founded newcleo in September 2021 and serves as Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director for Italy. In her role, she is responsible for global operations, supervising activities across the UK, France, and Italy, leveraging her unique background combining nuclear physics with 30 years of business management.

• Spearheading Rapid Growth and Fundraising: As COO, she has been instrumental in newcleo's rapid expansion. Within its first year, the company secured €400 million in funding and grew to over 100 employees. Under her operational leadership, the company has grown to over 1,100 employees and raised over €570 million in private capital.

• Driving Corporate Strategy and Public Vision: Elisabeth plays a central role in articulating newcleo's business model, which includes providing localized energy for the industrial sector, and its capital-raising strategy. She has publicly outlined the company's ambition to become a European nuclear leader and its plans for a potential IPO after achieving key regulatory and financial milestones.

• Overseeing Multi-National Development Roadmap: Elisabeth manages the execution of newcleo's ambitious development plan, which includes building a non-nuclear prototype in Italy, commissioning a 30 MWe LFR-30 reactor in France by 2030, and deploying the first 200 MWe commercial LFR-AS-200 unit by 2033. Her operational oversight is critical to building out the company's supply chain and internalizing technical capabilities.

As a physicist-turned-business executive, she co-founded newcleo by uniting her scientific education from the University of Turin and CERN with three decades of high-level managerial experience. She has been instrumental in executing the company’s strategy to commercialize its advanced lead-cooled fast reactor technology, which is designed to provide sustainable energy by using existing nuclear waste as fuel. Her leadership is foundational to newcleo’s mission to establish a new nuclear industrial field, guiding the company from prototype development to creating a full supply chain and preparing for a future public offering.

📣 #TheRant

Female Founders Fund: 2025 Review of Funding for Female Founders

I typically focus on the European market with this newsletter, however with the Female Founders Fund dropping their 10th anniversary edition of their Review of Funding for Female Founders report, I wanted to share some encouraging stats.

Despite a decade of clear outperformance by female-founded companies in terms of exits, efficiency and innovation, overall VC funding for all-female founding teams remains incredibly low, hovering around 2%. Let’s dive in …

Key Highlights:

• Female-led exits nearly doubled in 10 years: from 13% in 2014 to 24% in 2024 of all U.S. VC exits.

• Female-led IPOs jumped 7x: from 2 in 2014 to 14 in 2024 (≈9% of all IPOs).

• Female-founded unicorns accelerated: timeline to reach $1B dropped from 7 years (2023) to 4.2 years (2024).

• Revenue efficiency: Women-founded startups generate 78 cents per $1 raised, vs. 31 cents for male-founded (BCG, McKinsey).

• Capital efficiency: Female founders burned 15% less capital on average over the decade.

Shifting VC Trends:

• Women in VC tripled: from 6% in 2014 to 17% in 2024 at firms managing $50M+.

• Over 250 women-led VC funds are now actively investing.

• Angel investor base shifting: women rose from 34% (2021) to 47% in 2023.

Continued Barriers:

• Bias in “founder fit”: Women building in male-dominated industries are funded less due to perception, not performance.

• Access gap: 70% of deals still originate from closed investor networks.

• Risk aversion in downturns: Tight markets cause investors to revert to traditional (male-dominated) patterns.

• Anti-DEI backlash in U.S. markets is cooling institutional appetite for diversity-focused investing.

4 Key Takeaways:

• Funding stagnated, but exits soared – performance is not the issue, access is.

• Female IPOs are rising, women are scaling and going public at record rates.

• Series A shows progress & bias – access improved, but valuations reveal systemic discounting.

• More women writing checks, tripling in female GPs is reshaping who gets funded.

So while the percentage of capital flowing to female founded teams is frustratingly stagnant, overall female founders are winning! They are breaking barriers, doing more with less and proving that no matter what, we are Unstoppable!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Jennifer Schneider CEO of Centauri Therapeutics
🇬🇧 Isabel Greenslade Co-founder of Structured AI
🇱🇹 Laura Martinkute Korsakova Co-founder & CEO of Psylink
🇬🇧 Mariana Oliveira Prazeres Co-founder & CTO of Mee-ting
🇱🇹 Giedrė Rajuncė Co-founder & CEO of greï

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Dr. Manuela "Ela" Rabener knows exactly what it feels like to stare at your investment portfolio and feel completely lost. Despite her finance PhD and seven years at McKinsey & Company, she found herself holding a random collection of funds and individual stocks, knowing it wasn’t enough for her retirement, but lacked the time to manage her money properly. Unless you had a million pounds or more in your account, private banks weren't interested in supporting you.

So in 2015, Ela co-founded Scalable Capital with the radical idea that sophisticated, institutional-grade investment management shouldn't be reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Scalable Capital is a digital wealth management platform that uses advanced algorithms and dynamic risk management to automatically adjust portfolios based on market conditions, the same technology that billion-dollar sovereign wealth funds use, but accessible to everyday investors. Scalable Capital started as a solution to a personal problem for Ela and has grown into a €1.4 billion unicorn serving over 600,000 clients across Europe, fundamentally changing how an entire generation approaches wealth building.

Career Highlights & Accomplishments

• Co-founded Scalable Capital in 2015 as CMO and UK co-founder, transforming a personal pain point into Europe's leading robo-advisor and achieving unicorn status with a $1.4+ billion valuation

• Pioneered democratized wealth management by bringing institutional-quality portfolio management and dynamic risk adjustment technology to retail investors for the first time in Europe

• Secured €30 million Series B funding from BlackRock, with the world's largest asset manager recognizing Scalable's proprietary risk management technology as industry-leading

• Built regulatory infrastructure across Europe, successfully obtaining FCA licensing in the UK and BaFin approval in Germany to enable seamless pan-European expansion

• Scaled from zero to €20 billion in assets under management while serving as CMO and brand ambassador, establishing Scalable as the go-to platform for digitally-savvy European investors

• Launched Cornus Holding in May 2025 with co-founder Michael Widowitz, applying digital transformation expertise to acquire and modernize profitable SMEs in traditional industries across the DACH region

Ela is once again another great example that the most successful startups are ones built out of a personal frustration or problem. By taking the sophisticated investment strategies previously available only to institutions and making them accessible through intuitive technology, Ela created an entirely new category that has inspired dozens of competitors and changed how millions of Europeans think about their financial futures.

📣 #TheRant

European VC funds backing Female Founders

The funding landscape for female founders remains challenging to put it lightly, with women-led startups securing less than 2% of total venture capital deployed annually. However, there are more and more funds putting an emphasis on funding female founded startups in the recent years. For example, AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund was the first female focused VC fund Germany founded in 2019. Run by Dr Gesa Miczaika, Bettine Schmitz and Alena Redeker, this week AUXXO announced their new €26M fund to back more female founded startups across Europe!

Funds such as AUXXO, understand that female founders often demonstrate stronger capital efficiency, build more resilient businesses and tap into underserved markets that male-dominated investment committees might overlook.

The reality is that we need more female VCs writing checks and more funds with explicit mandates to back women. When female investors are at the table, funding patterns change dramatically. Studies show that female VCs are twice as likely to invest in companies with at least one female founder. The funds I've compiled below represent some of Europe's most forward-thinking investors who are actively seeking to back exceptional female founders. Whether you're pre-seed or Series A, these VCs have demonstrated real commitment to closing the funding gap. Don't just bookmark this list—if you're currently fundraising, research these funds thoroughly, understand their investment thesis and reach out strategically

Auxxo

Berlin, Germany | Pre-Seed and Seed Stage

Auxxo is a leading European VC fund that focuses exclusively on investing in startups with at least one female founder holding a minimum of 20% of the founding shares. The firm offers hands-on coaching, mentorship, and access to a strong VC network. Notably, more than half of its Limited Partners (LPs) are women, reinforcing its commitment to a female-centric ecosystem.

Sistafund

Paris, France | Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A/B

Sistafund has an explicit mission to combat societal biases by investing in startups with female founders or gender-balanced teams. The fund requires that women hold at least 30% of founder shares and leverages the extensive entrepreneurial network of the Sista NGO, which provides bootcamps, mentoring, and systemic advocacy for female entrepreneurs. Portfolio companies also benefit from hands-on expertise from LPs like L'Oréal and BNP Paribas.

La Famiglia/General Catalyst

Berlin, Germany | Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Stage

A prominent female-led VC firm, La Famiglia actively seeks to support underrepresented founders. The firm drives various mentoring programs for female founders at the earliest stages. Its senior leadership team is 60% women, fostering an inclusive ecosystem and providing diverse perspectives.

Unconventional Ventures

Copenhagen, Denmark | Pre-Seed and Seed Stage

The firm has an explicit thesis to invest in startups led by diverse founders, including women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. It runs a digital European accelerator program specifically for underrepresented founders and has built an ecosystem to provide a robust support network that offers mentorship and tangible company-building assistance.

Crowberry Capital

Reykjavik, Iceland & Copenhagen, Denmark | Seed and Early-Stage

As an all-female-led VC, Crowberry Capital provides a unique perspective that helps it identify potential in businesses often overlooked by other investors. The firm explicitly aims to support untapped opportunities in inclusivity and states it wants to "invest more in women entrepreneurs." In its first fund, 33% of supported companies had female CEOs, demonstrating a clear commitment to backing women leaders.

Fund F (by Female Founders)

Vienna, Austria | Pre-Seed and Seed Stage

The fund invests exclusively in gender-diverse teams with at least one female co-founder. It emerged from the Female Founders organization, which provides access to a European network of over 60,000 individuals. The organization also runs "Grow F," a 5-week investment-readiness accelerator for gender-diverse startups. Fund F often acts as a lead investor, offering operational support and strategic connections.

January Ventures

London, United Kingdom | Pre-Seed and Seed Stage

Run by an all-female team, January Ventures invests in "visionary, female-led technology companies." It aims to replace the traditional "friends and family" funding round for diverse founders who may not have access to such networks. The fund also runs a Venture Fellow Program designed to create pathways for women and people of color into venture capital careers.

Pink Salt Ventures

London, United Kingdom | Pre-Seed and Seed Stage

As the UK's first VC firm for female founders, Pink Salt Ventures provides both financial capital and advisory support to female-led technology companies. The firm was established by former entrepreneurs and operators to help build lasting companies, with a belief that women build more consciously and sustainably.

Borski Fund

Amsterdam, Netherlands | Seed, Series A, Series B

The fund invests in companies with at least one female founder holding a minimum of 5% equity or in companies that actively contribute to reducing gender inequality. Beyond capital, the fund's team provides active support by leveraging their expansive network and entrepreneurial experience to help portfolio companies with strategic guidance and market knowledge.

CapitalT

Amsterdam, Netherlands | Seed-Stage

This female-led firm uses a proprietary data-driven model to identify promising founders, a method designed to remove common human biases related to network, confidence, and appearance. As part of its commitment, each portfolio company is required to adopt an "inclusion rule," ensuring that at least one woman or member of an underrepresented group is interviewed for every open executive position.

Revaia

Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; London, United Kingdom | Growth Stage (Series B to IPO)

As Europe's largest all-women-led VC firm, Revaia provides significant operational expertise to help companies scale. The fund actively works to improve board diversity in its portfolio companies and supports female networking organizations like Sista and initiatives such as Diversidays.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇫🇷 Sophie Rivoirard Co-founder of MagREEsource
🇪🇪 Nemailla Bonturi Co-founder of ÄIO
🇨🇭 Natacha Gaillard Co-founder & CEO of Astra Therapeutics
🇩🇰 Paola Cacciatori Co-founder & CCO of Aretlize
🇬🇧 Ahrum Pak Co-founder & CSO of Win-Win
🇮🇹 Daniela Meroni & Ermelinda Falletta Co-founders of VisioNing

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Thirteen years ago, Carlota Pi Amorós was sitting in a Barcelona bar with two friends after finishing their MBA, discussing how they could use technology to make the world better. After a few beers, she pulled out a piece of paper from her backpack with a simple phrase: "Connect people to green energy." That napkin idea has become Holaluz, Spain's most valued energy company with over €500 million in revenue and a team of 700+ people.

Holaluz has been recognized as the number one ESG company worldwide by Sustainalytics thanks to Carlota’s leadership. The company has systematically dismantled the traditional energy industry by building technology that makes green energy accessible, affordable and simple for everyday consumers. As an industrial engineer with 15+ years of international experience across Spain, the US, and Germany, Carlota transformed a casual bar conversation with friends into a force for energy transition across Southern Europe.

Her Background & Career Highlights

• Pioneering Business Model: Created Europe's first major cloud-based energy management platform that connects independent green energy producers directly with residential customers, bypassing traditional transmission networks and reducing costs

• Scale and Impact: Built Holaluz into Spain's most valued energy company serving nearly 500,000 customers across Spain and Portugal, with the platform processing energy for 12,000+ home solar installations

• Workplace Equity Champion: Achieved a 50/50 gender split across her 700-person team, implemented equal maternity and paternity leave, and established a company nursery in 2015, years before these became industry standards

• Technology Innovation: Led development of the first 100% cloud-based dispatching center in Europe through a partnership with Amazon Web Services, earning industry recognition for technical advancement

• Customer-Centric Approach: Learned through trial and error that customers don't want energy education, they want trust and simplicity, leading to the revolutionary "zero bill" offering that guarantees five years of no electricity costs for solar customers

• International Vision: Successfully expanded from Spain into Portugal and secured European investors for future growth, with ambitious plans to lead energy transition across Europe and eventually Africa

Carlota finally realized what customers truly wanted, for Holaluz to take the complexity out of accessing green energy rather than educating them about it. This revelation came after four years of trying to teach customers about energy systems, only to discover they simply wanted a trusted partner to handle all of the technical details. This insight led to products that let people "become heroes from the comfort of their couch" by making sustainable choices effortless. Today, she's building what she calls the most impactful green energy community in Europe.

📣 #TheRant

Europe is stuck at Series A

Many EU backed startups face challenges scaling beyond Series A despite strong technical depth and early traction. Last week I wrote about the lack of late stage capital available for European based startups, which is one of several reasons.

The Problem: Europe's "Series A Wall"

While EU-backed startups tend to outperform in terms of technical depth and early traction, many still face challenges when scaling beyond Series A. This creates what researchers call a "double valley of death" ; the first occurs when innovations fail to become marketable products, while the second happens when companies struggle to scale up, a challenge that's particularly acute in Europe's fragmented market landscape.

Why This Happens in Europe Specifically

Market Fragmentation: Unlike the US with its unified market, European startups face 27 different regulatory environments, languages, and business cultures. A startup that succeeds in Germany still needs to "re-prove" itself in France, Spain, etc.

Risk-Averse Culture: Founders need early teams willing to take risks, corporates must be open to working with startups, and the broader ecosystem needs to reduce the conservative approach that often characterizes European business culture.

Capital Gap: While 60% of global scaleups are based in North America, only 8% are located in the EU, partly because later-stage funding is harder to secure in Europe.

Strategic Actions You Can Take

Build for Scale from Day One

• Team composition: Hire entrepreneurial minds over "safe" corporate refugees

• Geographic thinking: Recruit across multiple EU markets early, not after you need them

• Equity comfort: Find people excited about upside, not just steady paychecks
  

Corporate Partnerships That Actually Matter

• Start structured pilots during Series A, not after

• Focus on measurable business outcomes, not innovation theater

• Negotiate partnerships that can scale; revenue-sharing, white-label opportunities

• Use corporate validation as Series B proof points
  

Cross-Border from the Start

• Test in 2-3 markets simultaneously during early validation

• Understand regulatory differences before they become roadblocks (especially with new AI Act requirements)

• Build local partnerships before you desperately need them

The Opportunity

The new EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy acknowledges these challenges and aims to resolve why many startups still struggle to bring their ideas to market or grow at scale within the EU by supporting startups through their lifecycle. The timing is perfect for founders who implement these strategies now, as they'll benefit from improved regulatory frameworks and funding mechanisms being put in place.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Caoimhe Murphy Co-founder & CEO of Anam
🇳🇱 Kathy Vredeveldt 莫凯希 Co-founder & CFO of InPhocal
🇫🇮 Milja Hannu-Kuure Co-founder & Managing Director of Brightplus|
🇩🇪 Annika Rahm & Charlotte Dehnert Co-founder of HEY HOLY
🇪🇸 Carla Gómez Cano Co-founder of THEKER Robotics
🇹🇷 Özgür Arzu Barbaros Co-founder of VIRGOSOL

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

This week's Unstoppable Female Founder is Estonia's youngest patent holder and inventor, Karoli Hindriks, Founder & CEO of Jobbatical. At 16, she developed reflective pedestrian accessories as part of a student project. This early win taught her that age and resources matter less than identifying real problems and solving them decisively.

Her career trajectory took her into Media, becoming MTV Estonia's youngest CEO at 23 and launching seven television channels across Northern Europe. She then went on to study at Singularity University in Silicon Valley. Here she observed how a high concentration of talent created competitive advantages and began developing the thesis that would become Jobbatical: global talent mobility is constrained by immigration friction, not availability.

Karoli’s Career Highlights & Key Insights

• Serial Entrepreneur from Day One: Founded her first company at 16, creating safety reflectors that quite literally saved lives while establishing her as Estonia's youngest inventor, proving that age is no barrier to meaningful innovation.

• Media Industry Leadership: Led the launch of seven television channels across the Baltic states, including MTV and National Geographic, becoming the youngest MTV CEO globally at 23 and gaining invaluable experience in scaling operations during economic downturns.

• Pivot Master: Made the bold decision in 2019 to pivot Jobbatical from a recruitment marketplace to an immigration technology platform, walking away from nearly half a million users to focus on solving the more fundamental problem of talent relocation.

• Global Recognition: Named one of Europe's 50 most influential women in startups by EU-Startups, recognized as one of 8 most inspiring women in Europe by the EU Council, and featured at Fortune's Most Powerful Women International Summit and TED.

• Policy Influence: Directly contributed to Estonia's digital nomad visa policy after pitching the concept to the country's president, with over 60 countries now adopting similar programs, demonstrating how entrepreneurs can shape global policy.

• Crisis Navigation: Grew Jobbatical 3x during the pandemic year of 2020, proving that the global talent shortage trend is resilient and that companies with strong "change muscle" can thrive even in uncertainty.

It was clear from a very young age Karoli was destined for entrepreneurship, focused on solving real world problems that help people in their everyday lives.

📣 #TheRant

The lack of late stage capital

It’s nothing new, Europe has a growing startup ecosystem, but it still significantly lags behind the U.S. and China in terms of late-stage capital. Over the past decade we’ve seen early-stage funding explode across Europe, however we’ve yet to establish significant capital for ambitious startups to scale beyond Series B. This often leads startups to seek capital from U.S. investors, or worse, relocate their entire operation such was the case for 11x .

Late Stage Funding Stats:

• Only 8% of global scale-up funding goes to European companies, compared to 54% to U.S. companies.

• Europe has more unicorns than ever, but only a fraction grow into category leaders or global IPOs due to capital constraints at the growth stage.

• Sectors most affected include AI, semiconductors, climate tech, and biotech, which require long-term, capital-intensive investment.

In an attempt to combat this, the European Commission recently announced a new €10 billion “Scale-Up Europe” fund. The fund is part of the EU’s Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and will focus on bridging the capital gap for high-potential tech companies in Europe, particularly in deep tech, green tech, healthtech, AI, and quantum.

What impact will this have?

• Retention of Innovation: High-growth startups frequently exit Europe to access capital elsewhere. This initiative is designed to keep scaleups in Europe and strengthen sovereign tech capabilities.

• Economic Competitiveness: The EU wants to better compete with SVB-style networks, U.S. growth capital, and Chinese industrial backing.

• State & Private Blend: The fund will blend public funding with private LP capital, mobilized via the European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Innovation Council (EIC).
  

For founders, it’s a positive signal that Europe is finally getting serious about supporting more soonicorns become unicorns while keeping their roots planted here.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇮🇹 Irene Giani Co-founder & CEO of Deeva
🇮🇪 Naomi McGregor Founder & CEO of Movetru
🇩🇪 Tamara Ciullo Co-founder & COO of Cariqa
🇪🇸 Clara Bernardes Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Biorce
🇩🇪 Dana Aleff Co-founder & CEO of Circonomit
🇬🇧 Claire Trant PhD FRSA Co-founder & CEO of Untap Health
🇬🇧 Danai Antoniou Co-founder & Chief Scientist at Gradient Labs
🇪🇸 Eva Romagosa Co-founder & CSO of BusUp
🇦🇹 Susanne Haspinger Co-founder & COO of Hololight
🇬🇧 Jodie Sinclair Founder & CEO of Theo Health
🇳🇱 Petra Doelman Co-founder & COO of Novenda Technologies
🇨🇭 Leila Jaafar Founder & CEO of NUCLIDIUM

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Claire Novorol is a co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Ada Health, a digital health company founded in 2011.

Claire was working night shifts as a pediatrician in London when she realized something was missing. Despite the medical training, the PhD in Neuroscience from Cambridge, she felt disconnected from the creative side that had always driven her.

"I'd always been really creative at school. I loved doing art projects and technology projects and building things. I missed those aspects when practicing medicine," she explains. That restlessness led her to entrepreneurship events at Cambridge, where she met people spinning businesses out of the university. Within a year, she knew she wouldn't be returning to clinical practice.

Today, Claire is Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Ada Health, which has raised $189.5 million and serves 13 million users globally. Ada processes over 32 million health assessments, with someone turning to the platform every three seconds for health guidance.

Career & Leadership Highlights

• Medical Foundation: Trained as a pediatrician in London before specializing in clinical genetics, with degrees in pathology and medicine from University of Bristol and a PhD in Neuroscience from Cambridge

• Entrepreneurial Catalyst: Founded Doctorpreneurs, a non-profit global community connecting doctors interested in healthcare innovation – this became her stepping stone into the startup world and how she met her co-founder

• Strategic Fundraising: Led Ada through multiple funding rounds, culminating in a Series B that raised significant capital from strategic investors including major life science companies

• Global Impact: Launched Ada in over 160 countries, making the consumer app freely available in multiple languages while building enterprise partnerships with health systems and insurers

• Thought Leadership: Regular Forbes contributor, featured in Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech (2018), and active mentor in programs like Oxford's Creative Destruction Lab

• Diversity Advocate: Publicly addresses the funding gap for female founders in healthtech, noting that only 1% of UK VC funding goes to all-female founding teams and championing systemic change

• Scaling Expertise: Transitioned from a small founding team to leading medical affairs across a global organization, learning to balance medical expertise with product development, regulatory affairs, and business strategy

• Network Builder: Emphasizes the power of relationship-building in entrepreneurship, demonstrating how early community building through Doctorpreneurs created the foundation for Ada's success

Claire's approach to leadership centers on hiring people smarter than herself in their respective areas and empowering them to excel. Her advice to aspiring female founders is straightforward and practical, start building your network early, focus on relationships, and have confidence that success is absolutely possible – even if the path isn't always linear.

📣 #TheRant

Why GTM Isn’t Optional

Your Go-To-Market strategy is one of the most important aspects of launching your startup.

It’s how you connect your product with the right people, at the right time, through the right channels, with a message that lands. However, your GTM and wider marketing strategy, only works when it's built on a deep understanding of your customer.

Your entire strategy should be underpinned by your customer and market research. Questions you should aim to answer:

• Who is your ICP?

• What problem are our customers actively trying to solve?

• Where do they hang out, and who do they trust?

• What would make them say “Take my money”?
  

A Simple GTM Playbook

Here’s a high-level GTM framework to get you started::

1. Understand Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
Conduct interviews with your target customers. Understand the problem they are looking to solve and what their objectives are.

2. Nail Your Positioning + Messaging
What are your unique points of differentiation? What are your USPs?
Identify what the l

3. Choose 1–2 Strategic Channels
Where does your ICP spend time online and offline? Start there.
Test small, learn fast. Avoid the spray-and-pray trap.

4. Build in Feedback Loops
Build in feedback loops, both with your current customers, but also the wider market to ensure you’re constantly iterating on your GTM.

5. Align Internally
Your entire team, engineering, product, sales, marketing, etc. should be crystal clear on who you’re building for and why. Your GTM should include teams from across the wider business, not just marketing.

Like most aspects of building an early stage startup, each is unique and no two GTM plans will look the same. However there is a right way to approach your plan, be customer obsessed, have sharp focus, and a willingness to adapt. If you're in the early stages and not sure where to begin, start with your customer. The rest will follow.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇳🇱 Linda Zandt-Sloot Co-founder - Head Data Science & Research of Tibo Energy
🇨🇭 Nathalie Stransky von Heilkron Co-founder of Adiposs
🇫🇷 Laura Huguenin Co-founder & CHief Biology Officer of Cosma
🇮🇪 Lucy O'Keeffe Co-founder & CEO of CroíValve
🇳🇱 Karina Peña Co-founder & CEO of FieldFactors
🇬🇧 Ferne McCann Co-founder of Shoorah
🇳🇱 Anne-Marije Zwerver Co-founder & CEO of Groove Quantum
🇬🇧 Murvah Iqbal Co-founder & CEO of HIVED

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Poppy Gustafsson is the co-founder and former CEO of Darktrace, one of the UK’s most prominent AI cybersecurity companies. With a background in mathematics and finance, she helped turn Darktrace into a global leader in autonomous cyber defense. The company scaled rapidly and became one of the few British tech unicorns to go public on the London Stock Exchange.

As CEO, Poppy led the company through rapid growth, international expansion and a successful IPO. She became a key voice in the sector, frequently speaking about the geopolitical implications of cybercrime, AI’s role in security, and the urgent need for collaboration between governments, companies, and individuals.

Key achievements and highlights:

• Co-founded Darktrace in 2013 and grew it to over 1,500 employees with nearly 5,000 global customers, including Coca-Cola and the NHS.

• Led Darktrace to IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, reaching a £1.7 billion valuation on its debut.

• Championed the use of AI in cybersecurity, positioning Darktrace as a pioneer in autonomous threat detection and response.

• Oversaw the company’s global expansion into the US, Europe, and Asia, with offices in over 40 countries.

• Built one of the most gender-diverse companies in the cybersecurity industry, with 40% female staff compared to the industry average of 15%.

• Awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to cybersecurity.

• Appointed as the UK’s Minister of State for Investment in 2024 and granted a life peerage as Baroness Gustafsson.
  

Poppy has always been focused on impact over image. Navigating geopolitical risks, countering misinformation, or addressing systemic gender imbalance in tech, she has consistently taken a pragmatic, forward looking approach to everything she’s done.

📣 #TheRant

The Impossible

There’s a group of individuals who actively choose to take the road less travelled, the people who see the world from a completely different perspective. Those that have an innate ability to think big and in unconventional ways. They defy societal norms, are not held back by structural limitations and tend to be the people who go on to leave their mark in the world in a very big way. They see opportunity where most see challenges. They almost thrive on being told something can't be done, motivated by the opportunity to prove someone or something wrong.

Their views are always fresh, energetic and most of the time hopeful for a better future. They do not conform to traditional ways of thinking or doing things, they not only 'color outside the lines' they are blissfully unaware that there are even lines and a box. I always find myself drawn to these types of people, likely as I feel a bit of my rebel self reflected in them.

I’ve encountered several people who embody this mindset over the past few weeks and each of them has left me so inspired. So this is simply a thank you, to everyone who has made a conscious effort to not fit in, but to stand out. To not go with the flow, but against the grain. To build something everyone told them was impossible. Keep having conviction in your thinking, in your ideas and what you're building. The world needs more of you!

‘It always seems impossible until it’s done!’ - Nelson Mandella

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇫🇮 Julia Sabitova Co-founder & COO of CloEE
🇮🇹 Giorgia Palazzo Co-founder of Tuduu
🇫🇷 Sarah Bouleau Co-founder & COO of Stairling
🇳🇱 Alena Valovaya Co-founder & CMO of Finom
🇮🇪 Dr. Simone Seiter Co-founder of Priothera
🇩🇰 Isabel Álvarez-Martos & Deby Fapyane, Co-founders of Cellugy
🇧🇪 Claire Cherelle Co-founder & Chief Regulatory Officer of Axiles Bionics
🇬🇧 Chang Lu Co-founder & CSO of OutSee
🇬🇧 Wynter Karo & Alice Parmiter Co-founders of Pimentae
🇳🇱 Sofia Hidalgo Co-founder of AIko Health
🇫🇷 Amira Erokh Co-founder of Ever Dye
🇪🇸 Mireia de Mas Romeu Co-founder of Ocean Ecostructures
🇬🇧 Nadya Yaremenko & Alberta Asafo-Asamoah Co-founder of Liquify

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Pearl Wealth Summit hosted by The Evangelistas, Scéal & AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. Pearl is your shortcut into the world of female-led investing. A transformative one-day summit for women with capital. Secure your spot!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Meet Victoria van Lennep, Co-Founder of Lendable, one of Europe's fastest-growing unicorns now valued at £3.5 billion. Lendable has revolutionized consumer finance through AI-powered lending.

In 2014, Victoria co-founded Lendable with a vision to create a truly tech-first consumer finance platform that connects institutional investors with borrowers. What started as a simple idea has grown into a powerhouse financial institution, offering personal loans, credit cards, auto loans and buy-now-pay-later services. With over £700 million in lending facilitated over 5.5 years and a team of 120+ employees, Lendable is now expanding into the US market, a move that could unlock 10x growth potential.

Victoria's Career Highlights & Achievements

• Bootstrap Brilliance: Built a billion-dollar business with just £4 million in total funding, starting with only a £750k seed round, she cites capital efficiency as a driving factor.

• Profitability Pioneer: Achieved profitability after 3 years and broke even after just 2, making 6-7x their equity raise back in profit while maintaining 100%+ year-over-year growth.

• Technology Trailblazer: Created true fintech automation rather than just "a finance business with a website," with instant decision technology that gets customers money in minutes.

• Go-to-Market Genius: Pioneered full integration with aggregator websites in UK lending, using performance-based distribution where partners only get paid when loans complete.

• Culture Champion: Maintained a family feeling across the company with all employees receiving equity, proving you can scale without losing your values.

• Strategic Visionary: Focused on 10-year thinking and sustainable unit economics rather than chasing growth-at-all-costs, positioning Lendable for long-term success.

Lendable represents one of the most impressive bootstrapping stories in fintech history. Victoria’s philosophy of "strategic naivety," approaching problems with a beginner's mindset, free from industry preconceptions, combined with relentless focus on technology, frugality and sustainable growth, has propelled Lendable to Unicorn status.

📣 #TheRant

Qualifying Questions VCs Ask Founders

VCs face an overwhelming volume of investment opportunities, often receiving hundreds of proposals annually. In this high-velocity environment, the ability to quickly assess and filter opportunities becomes paramount. VCs meeting a Founder for the first time must determine quickly whether they should allocate more time and resources on this opportunity. They ask a series of discovery questions around the fit with their fund’s investment strategy, potential returns, execution risks, and whether the funding round size is appropriate.

The VC process operates as a systematic funnel, where each stage requires increasingly deeper evaluation and resource allocation. VCs must balance two competing forces: the fear of missing the next unicorn against the pragmatic need to avoid investing in startups likely to fail. The exploratory phase is a personal, discretionary process where VCs rely on expertise, intuition and strategic questioning to try and identify a potential winner with minimal data.

Top Questions VCs Ask During Initial Meetings:

Assessing Potential Returns

• "How large is your market?" - Determines total addressable market and scalability potential

• "How do you make money?" - Examines revenue model sustainability and margin potential

• "What are your exit plans?" - Tests strategic foresight and founder commitment timeframe

Managing Execution Risk

• "Tell me about the founding team" - Evaluates leadership dynamics, experience, and skill breadth

• "What is your competition?" - Tests market awareness and differentiation strategy

• "How does your solution work?" - Assesses product complexity and customer adoption barriers

• "How much revenue will you generate in [X] years?" - Validates funding-to-milestone alignment

Identifying Red Flags and Deal Breakers

• Questions probing founder motivation and co-founder relationship strength

• Inquiries about company structure and capitalization table health

• Assessment of visible exit routes and market interest from other investors

The best way to ensure your startups success is to navigate the VC investment funnel to be as prepared as you possibly can be. Start by systematically reviewing as many standard VC questions as possible. Once you've compiled this comprehensive question bank, craft thoughtful, authentic answers that genuinely reflect your business understanding and strategic vision.Finally, rehearse your answers extensively until they flow naturally in conversation, avoiding a robotic delivery.

Being prepared for these questions, transforms high-pressure VC meetings from feeling like an interrogation into a conversation where you feel confident and can focus on building rapport rather than scrambling for answers.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇸🇪 Stina Larsson Co-founder & CTO of Studio 555
🇹🇷 Nazlı Uyanık Yıldız Co-founder & CEO of Nebyan
🇪🇸 Maria Taberna Founder & CEO of Steryon
🇫🇮 Loredana Moimas & Suvi Haimi, Co-founder of Ovido
🇳🇱 Bibi Jorissen Co-founder & CEO of umob
🇩🇰 Mette Dahl Co-founder of Droplet IV
🇫🇷 Delphine Groll Co-founder of Nabla
🇫🇷 Jeanne Volatron & Amanda Silva Brun, Co-founder of EVerZom
🇫🇮 Karita Kinnunen-Raudaskoski, Co-founder & CTO of Fiberwood
🇩🇪 Ann-Christin Gah Co-founder of Alago
🇱🇺 Genna Elvin, Co-founder of TadaWeb
🇫🇷 Salma Bakouk Co-founder & CEO of Sifflet

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Meet Linnéa Kornehed Falck, the Swedish co-founder of Einride, who's proving that the future of transportation is electric, autonomous, and absolutely achievable.

Growing up in Stockholm with a computer science background, Linnéa has stated that she didn't see many female entrepreneur role models. She was told girls shouldn't compete in business, that heavy-duty electric transport would never work and that a young woman couldn't possibly co-found a company focused on autonomous vehicles. She said, watch me and co-founded Einride in 2016 with her husband Robert Falck and Filip Lilja. Their "freight as a service" model is now transporting goods for industry giants such as Lidl, Heineken, PepsiC, and Electrolux while dramatically reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90%.

A few of her accomplishments:

• Einride achieved unicorn status with a $500M Series C funding round

• Tripled company revenue from €1.5M to €5M in just one year (2021-2022)

• Built customer contracts now valued at over €3bn, with 700% annual growth rate

• Scaled the team from double digits to nearly 500 employees in just a few years

• Led Einride to become the first company approved for autonomous trucks on US public roads

• Named Forbes' 30 Under 30 All-Star Alumni

• Recipient of the Les Margaret Award and Future Female Leader recognition

Early in her career, Linnéa stayed quiet, feeling insecure about speaking up; she has clearly transformed those early feelings of not having a voice into a superpower. She learned to focus on output over endless planning, embracing what she calls the balance between "order and chaos" to deliver results. Her approach to challenging industry narratives is a brilliant example of proving the haters wrong, sometimes the most powerful thing we can do as founders is simply to show up and prove that something is possible. She is also a fantastic example of why we need more women role models across STEAM, Entrepreneurship, VC, etc. to inspire the next generation of women.

📣 #TheRant

The Rise of ‘Seed-Strapping’

You might have seen the term ‘seed-strapping’ popping up recently, it’s been getting some attention across several publications and a few founder circles I’m a part of. Basically, it’s the idea of raising a single round of funding to achieve profitability, rather than jumping on the hamster wheel of multiple VC rounds.

From a founders perspective, unless you are building something incredibly complex, requiring tons of R&D and upfront investment, it makes a lot of sense. Most founders dread fundraising. It’s stressful, it takes forever and it pulls your focus away from building your business. And today's startup environment is vastly different from a decade ago. With low-code/no-code tools, affordable infrastructure and direct-to-consumer distribution channels, many founders can get to market faster and with less capital than ever before. Why sign up for round after round of fundraising when you could focus on customers and growth instead?

Seed-strapping is about being smart with your first raise and using it to build a solid business.

Why Consider ‘Seed-Strapping’?

✔️ Fewer & more discerning VCs
European VC activity dropped ~30% from 5,704 to 4,044 active investors between 2022 and 2024

✔️ Cheaper startup infrastructure
Modern tools and automation reduce initial capital needs

✔️ Focus on profitability over fundraising
Founders restoring control and discipline, emphasizing lean operations and real customer demand

✔️ VCs aligning with capital efficiency
Investors also benefit from Seed-strapping, for example, one round with low dilution at a €500M exit beats multiple rounds with diluted ownership

I see this as part of a deeper shift across the ecosystem away from standardized investment rhythms and toward strategic, founder‑led capital decisions. It’s prompting VCs to lean into value, traction, and efficiency, and encouraging founders to define success on their own terms.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Lydia Franks & Sophie Murray Co-founders of Ruly
🇩🇪 Ann-Kristin Balve Co-founder & CTO of Omnisent
🇫🇷 Anne-Carole Coen Co-founder & CTO of Kolet
🇪🇸 Sílvia Frutos Co-founder & CTO of SpliceBio
🇩🇪 Delphine Charvin, Jocelyne Caboche & Mélanie Rouillier Co-founders of Elkedonia
🇬🇧 Morgan Fitzsimons & Kelly McCabe Co-founder of Perci Health
🇮🇹 Elena Paola Lanati Founder & CEO of Lionhealth

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

From refrigerator invoices to a £125m successful business, my Unstoppable Female Founder this week is Louise Hill, Co-founder and CEO of gohenry.

You know that moment when you're going through your credit card bill and something makes you do a double-take? That's what happened to Louise Hill one Saturday morning in 2010 that set her on her founders journey. Her kids had been going wild on iTunes, and she was staring at charges she definitely didn't authorize. Her solution was brilliant and petty (I’m wondering if she’s a fellow Gemini?) : she started sticking invoices on the fridge for her kids. When her son came for his £4 weekly allowance, she'd hand him 80p and pointed to the iTunes receipts.

At school pickup, Louise began chatting with other school parents and discovered nearly every one was dealing with the same thing. One mother had a full-size car delivered to her house because her 9-year-old thought he was buying a toy car on eBay. Another discovered her daughter had blown £400 on My Little Pony scrunchies. Louise then realized kids were living in a digital world, but nobody was teaching them how money actually worked. With 25 years of e-commerce experience, she decided to build the solution herself. She knew digital, she knew retail, and she definitely knew this problem needed solving.

But when she started looking into creating debit cards for kids, everyone told her it was impossible. Banks, advisors, partners - they all said kids couldn't have cards. In 2012, she launched gohenry, the first fintech to offer cards for kids. Today, 1 in 5 British children aged 10-12 has a gohenry card. The platform has helped kids earn over £108 million and contribute £95.7 million to the digital economy. During the first lockdown, kids using gohenry increased their charitable giving by 59%. Now, Louise has become an advocate for financial education policy, pushing the UK government to actually enforce financial literacy in schools. She's giving evidence to parliamentary committees and using her business success as a platform to fix the system.

Some of Louise’s Notable Achievements

• Created an entirely new category - gohenry launched in 2012 as the first prepaid card and financial education app for kids, pioneering a market that didn't exist

• Set crowdfunding world records - She raised £4 million in 2016 (breaking Crowdcube records) and £6.2 million in 2018, with over £1 million coming from existing customers who became investors

• Proved regulatory assumptions wrong - When everyone said kids couldn't have debit cards, Louise asked to see the actual regulations. There weren't any - just assumptions she successfully challenged

• Built through the pandemic - While most businesses struggled, gohenry's revenue doubled in 2021 as the world went cashless, validating Louise's vision from a decade earlier

• Achieved measurable impact on kids' behavior - University of St. Andrews research showed kids using GoHenry's gamified "Money Missions" saved 30% more after just one month

• Scaled internationally before exit - Grew from just a UK startup to serving three continents, raising over £125 million total before merging with US company Acorns in 2022

Today, GoHenry serves nearly 6 million families across the UK, US, and Europe, with 1 in 5 British kids aged 10-12 carrying a gohenry card. Louise has evolved from frustrated parent to policy advocate, using her platform to push for mandatory financial education in schools and proving that the most powerful business ideas often come from the most ordinary parental moments.

📣 #TheRant

Communication Equity for Startup Success

Have you ever caught yourself saying "Sorry, but..." before expressing your thoughts or opinion? What about finishing your comments with, "Does this make sense?" I was guilty of both before I became aware of why I was doing it and the fact it was diminishing my respect and communication with others.

As female founders, not only are we diminishing our own voices, but the real issue is that these communication constraints are innovation killers. This leads to narrow communication norms that silence diverse voices across your organization and the entire startup ecosystem. The introverted CTO with breakthrough insights who never shares their ideas. The culturally diverse team members whose consensus-building approach could prevent costly pivots. The younger employees with fresh market perspectives, too afraid to speak up.

This is why open and effective communication is vital for early stage startups. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you need that direct, no-nonsense approach. But other times, that thoughtful, qualifying approach builds crucial stakeholder buy-in.

For Founders:

• Recognize your natural communication strengths—they're assets, not obstacles

• Develop flexibility without losing authenticity

• Stop apologizing for thoughtful, strategic communication

For Building Teams:

• Value different communication approaches in hiring and team meetings

• Create formats that let introverts contribute (async brainstorms, small group discussions)

• Recognize consensus-builders and collaborators as strategic assets

As founders and as leaders, it is crucial we set the example, especially for the next generation of young women. We’ve got to embrace our voices, include those with diverse perspectives and different communication styles and most of all, never shy away from or diminish ourselves with ‘Does that make sense?’

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇫🇷 Alix Zeitlin Co-founder & CEO of Zenior
🇬🇧 Danae Shell Co-founder & CEO of Valla
🇩🇪 Flore de Durfort & Erika Degoute Co-founders of Atmen
🇬🇧 Emilė Radyte Co-founder & CEO of Samphire Neuroscience
🇬🇧 Caroline Grey Co-founder & CRO of Treefera
🇩🇪 Miriam Wohlfarth Co-founder & Co-CEO of Banxware
🇬🇧 Naomi Hulme Co-founder & CCO/MD of Skyral

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

Romi Savova , Founder & CEO of PensionBee, is the kind of founder who turned her personal frustrations into an IPO. After leaving her investment banking career at Morgan Stanley, she experienced somewhat of a nightmare trying to transfer her pension. From unresponsive advisors, confusing systems, and a process that felt deliberately designed to discourage people from moving their own money. Coming from a finance background, she knew there was a massive market opportunity which led her to launch PensionBee in 2014, making managing pensions as simple as managing your bank account.

Over the course of her founder's journey, she’s very much taken the non-conventional route. For example, she raised over £30 million from 130+ angel investors instead of chasing VCs. To top it all off, she had three children while scaling her business and still managed to take PensionBee public in 2021, making her one of the few female founders globally to achieve an IPO. Her approach was quite refreshing, putting stakeholders at the center of everything PensionBee stood for: every employee gets equity, customers star in the advertising, and the business genuinely serves everyone involved rather than just maximizing returns.

A few key milestones in Romi’s journey:

• She built her financial foundation at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before founding PensionBee in 2014, armed with an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker Scholar

• She launched with conviction in 2016, confidently setting a £24M valuation and building toward product launch while most investors questioned if there was even a market

• She revolutionized her fundraising approach by welcoming 130+ angels of all sizes instead of chasing VCs, creating an inclusive investor base that aligned with her stakeholder-first philosophy

• Achieved the rare female founder IPO in April 2021, raising £55M at a £346-385M valuation and becoming one of the few women globally to take her company public

• Expanded internationally in 2024, launching into the US market (80% of the global pension market) while dividing her time between countries and maintaining PensionBee's remote-first culture

• Became an industry leader who advises the UK government on pension policy and consulted on US legislation, proving that solving customer problems can reshape entire industries

You hear it often, but Romi’s founder journey exemplifies it. She experienced a pain point as a frustrated pension customer and built a wildly successful business out of it. Most recently Romi and PensionBee have begun expanding into the US market, so I think it’s safe to say we’ve only just seen the beginning of her founders journey.

📣 #TheRant

The 10x growth hack hidden in plain sight

Have you ever worked with someone where not only does the working relationship feel easy and enjoyable, but your working styles are so complimentary that things just flow effortlessly and efficiently? Momentum builds, progress is gained and overall the business feels like it's flying.

I was having a catchup with Dimple Patel last week, who has built and scaled her fair share of companies over the years, and we got to talking about the benefits of hiring former teammates. She has recently hired several former teammates from her Trouva days and I'm also in the process of bringing on board a former teammate to scale Unstoppable. We both recognize there is a multiplier effect that comes with hiring individuals you have a strong historical working relationship with. For founders and executive leaders of early stage startups, it can also become a growth and productivity hack for your business.

If you think about it, you’ll spend months recruiting, getting new hires up to speed, figuring out their working styles and them navigating the company culture and policies with no guarantee this person will work out in the long run. So where time is money for early stage startups, if you could circumvent all of this and get straight to work, why wouldn't you?

Benefits to hiring a former teammate to help you scale:
✔️ Instant productivity: No honeymoon period or no learning curves. These individuals already know your communication style, decision-making process and your standards in terms of quality of work and output. They can contribute meaningfully from week one.

✔️ Cultural acceleration: Former teammates become culture carriers who help establish the right behaviors and expectations. They can onboard new team members faster because they already understand "how things work here."

✔️ Multiplier effect: When you hire multiple people who've worked together before, they function as a unit rather than individual contributors figuring out how to collaborate. The team chemistry is already there.

✔️ Reduced hiring risk: Early-stage hiring mistakes are brutal, they cost you time, money and team morale. When you know the quality of work someone produces and their reliability, you dramatically lower the odds of a costly mishire.

✔️ Strategic translation: People who've worked with you before understand not just what you want done, but why and how. They already have a baseline context and can make better independent decisions because they know how you think and what your expectations are.

✔️ Honest feedback loops: There's pre-established psychological safety built up that they'll push back constructively and offer their contrarian opinion when they believe there could be a better way. New hires often stay quiet even in situations when they should speak up.

✔️ Complementary skill matching: You know exactly where their strengths align with your skill gaps. No guessing whether their experience translates to what you actually need.

But I caution when hiring former teammates, be strategic about it. Don’t simply try to recreate your old team, you have to be thoughtful about those whose skills complement your current needs and who can grow into bigger roles as you scale your company.

So if you’re looking for a growth hack for your startup, hidden in plain sight, think back to your former teammates whom you had a great working relationship with, whose work you respect and whose skill sets lend well to your current business needs. Pretty soon you’ll be on your way to building your dream team and building an Unstoppable business!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇫🇮 Tiia Turunen Co-founder & CDO of RNatives
🇧🇪 Natalia Khamraeva Co-founder & CEO of auditstage
🇱🇻 Inga Pinka & Santa Sauliņa Co-founders of POSfinance
🇸🇪 Eleonora Cavani Co-founder & CEO of Alba Health
🇬🇧 Ash Penley CEO of ZOEX
🇫🇮 Charlotta Topelius CEO of CurifyLabs
🇬🇧 Karolina Löfqvist & Jasmine Tagesson Co-founders of Hormona
🇨🇭 Manuela Mally & Veronica Gambillara Fonck Co-founders of GlycoEra
🇫🇮 Jarna Hyvönen Co-founder & CCO of Volare
🇫🇷 Emilia McLaughlin Co-founder & CEO kyron.bio
🇬🇧 Tamar Gomez & Wiem Gharbi Co-founders of Ankar AI
🇪🇸 Maria Lepetiukhina Co-founder & CMO of Dencanto Community

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

💻 {Virtual} Unstoppable Healthcare Demo Day - June 13th - Join us we showcase the female founders powering the future of Healthcare. In our first Healthcare Demo Day, we will feature founders building across Healthtech, Biotech, Femtech & Medtech within Europe. If you’re a founder, Investor or ecosystem partner focusing on these sectors, join us! Grab your FREE tickets here. Interested in presenting your startup? Apply here!

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Get in touch!

This week, my Unstoppable Female Founder is Nina Mohanty, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Money - a woman who is a force for change!

Last June I hosted a lunch for female tech founders in London which is where I first met Nina and learned about her passion and near obsession with the problem Bloom Money is solving. Since then, I've had the pleasure of getting to know her on a more personal level, and she has very quickly become a woman I have tremendous admiration for. She is fearless, resilient, ambitious – and funny as hell! She is that fierce warrior you always want to have in your corner, armed with a high intellect and relentless determination.

Born and raised in Silicon Valley and never saw herself becoming an entrepreneur. Rather she trained in ballet for 17 years, considered becoming a paediatrician at one point and even considered becoming an astronaut, but never an entrepreneur. Until she did!

After graduating University from CEMS in France, Nina struggled trying to find her first job, until a friend suggested she apply for a role at Mastercard. ‘ "I grew up in the 90s, I knew the Mastercard ads, but I didn't actually know what they did. I thought they were a bank.’ Nina landed the role that would spark her love of Fintech. From Mastercard to launching Starling Bank's first current accounts, from Bud during open banking's initial launch to Klarna during the birth of Buy Now Pay Later, Nina has consistently been at the forefront of the industry.

As she worked on these groundbreaking products, she couldn't help but notice that most of these financial products were being built for a white majority, and she couldn't help but think, 'but what about everyone else?'"

Nina is also the daughter of immigrant parents, her mother being from Taiwan and her father from India, her knowledge and experiences with money always included a ‘hui’ or a community finance pot.

“My grandmother was a trusted person in the village and so she would run the chit funds there. So I had seen this behavior in my family,"

But it wasn't until a British-Jamaican colleague mentioned their own "pardna" system that she realized the universal nature of these community finance practices. For example, in Taiwan it’s called ‘hui’, in India it's called ‘chit funds’ , in the Caribbean it’s called ‘pardna’, in Nigeria it’s ‘ajo’ and around the world a large majority of cultures have a similar community finance component.

The concept is beautifully simple: a group pools money together monthly, and each member takes turns receiving the full amount. It's microcredit built within communities, born from necessity when traditional banks wouldn't serve immigrant populations.

The more banks and investors told Nina her idea wasn't for them, the more obsessed she became with solving the problem. And that's how Bloom Money was born, a digital platform that honors traditional communal money practices while providing the security and convenience of modern fintech.

Bloom Money is creating financial infrastructure for communities that had been systematically excluded. They are now helping to build users' credit profiles and developing investment products specifically designed for diaspora communities who are "straddling countries" – making it as easy as clicking a button to invest circle payouts into pensions or other wealth-building vehicles.

Taking from Jack Dorsey’s quote, Nina is quite literally building what she wishes to see in the world and being recognized for it. She has been named to Forbes 30 under 30, Innovate Finance's Women in FinTech Power List, and most recently a nominee of Veuve Clicquot's Bold Woman Award. She is a powerhouse and absolute legend!

Interested in learning more about Bloom Money and how you can get involved?

Check out their newly launched Crowdfund or download the Bloom Money app!

📣 #TheRant

Having the Strength to Walk Away

Over the past few weeks, I've spoken to and heard about several female founders who've made one of entrepreneurship's hardest decisions, to close their businesses.

These are women who are extraordinary, they took a leap of faith and they backed themselves completely. That within itself deserves recognition! Creating something from nothing, building, leading, taking that first swing requires absolute audacity and I commend them for it.

However in entrepreneurship, we rarely acknowledge, let alone celebrate the courage required to step back and say, "I've given this my all, but it's time to close this chapter."

There is so much profound grief that comes with making a decision of this magnitude and the mental fortitude it takes to face this reality. It's a courage that should be acknowledged and celebrated. Making the decision to wind down isn't waving the white flag and surrendering, it's demonstrating executive leadership at its most difficult time. It requires tremendous bravery.

Yes, we know the statistics. Roughly 90% of startups don't make it. We understand the odds intellectually. But when it's your late nights, your sacrifices, your team looking to you for answers, it all becomes deeply personal. The emotional weight of letting go is substantial. Likened to the loss of a loved one, your business is your brain child brought to life through sheer will and determination.

For the founders who have recently made this decision, remember that trying and not succeeding will always require more courage than never trying at all. It wasn't a failure, it was a learning experiment. You took a calculated risk, gathered invaluable data, and made a considered business decision. For the founders navigating this transition right now, please know you have my deepest respect.

We need to normalize celebrating these stories alongside the big milestone successes. The women who recognized when something was no longer serving them. Who had the vision to start something meaningful and the wisdom to know when to redirect their energy toward new opportunities.

Your willingness to share your experiences openly makes the path easier for the rest of us. Whatever your path may take you next, you’ll always have a cheering section backing you and supporting you.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇺🇦 Iryna Sukhomlyn Co-founder & CBO of RMachine
🇪🇸 Anna Bedmar Co-founder & COO of Habitacion.com
🇪🇸 Inés Arteaga Artiz CEO of BIOM Bioinspired Materials
🇩🇰 Mette Louise Vestergaard Carstensen Co-founder & CEO of Augmented Hearing
🇬🇧 Prof Kate Black FREng Founder & CEO of Atomik AM
🇨🇭 Jean Marie Duvall & BingMei Hao Co-founder of ReproNovo
🇨🇭 Sofía Radley-Searle Co-founder & COO of Axmed
🇫🇷 Dominique Costantini Co-founder of OSE Immunotherapeutics
🇳🇴 Karin Gilljam Interim CEO & CSO of Regenics
🇪🇸 Valeria Bellani Founder & CRO of Shalion
🇸🇪 Cathrin Johansson CEO of MedVasc
🇹🇷 Irem Sumer & Simay Kahraman Co-founders TaleMonster Games

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

💻 {Virtual} Unstoppable Healthcare Demo Day - June 13th - Join us we showcase the female founders powering the future of Healthcare. In our first Healthcare Demo Day, we will feature founders building across Healthtech, Biotech, Femtech & Medtech within Europe. If you’re a founder, Investor or ecosystem partner focusing on these sectors, join us! Grab your FREE tickets here. Interested in presenting your startup? Apply here!

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} unlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This year unlock vc are bringing 30 exceptional female founders to meet 400+ active female investors - Applications are now open until 1st August!

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you a female founder just getting started and not quite how to structure your go to market, build your brand frameworks or what to expect from the fundraising process? Drop me a note, Id be happy to hop on a call and help!

"Energy should never be a luxury, it's a necessity." - Somayeh Taheri, Co-founder & CEO of UrbanChain and this week’s Unstoppable Female Founder!

Somayeh studied architecture in her home country of Iran, sustainable urbanism at UCL, and eventually earned her PhD in planning and data science at the University of Manchester. While working as a research scientist, she identified a huge gap between renewable energy costs and what we're all paying for our electricity bills.

So in 2017, Somayeh launched UrbanChain with her two co-founders Mo Hajhashem, and Ayesha Naureen. Their idea was to create a marketplace where renewable energy producers and consumers connect directly using AI and blockchain technology. No middlemen, no wild price swings from the wholesale market, just simple and fair prices for everyone.

So far to date:

• UrbanChain grew their revenue 10x to £25 million just last year

• They are currently working on raising their £50 million Series B round

• The Sunday Times ranked them as the 3rd fastest-growing tech company in Britain

• They were recently named one of the 25 new entrants into Tech Nation’s Future Fifty

Somayeh and UrbanChain have already had a real world, practical impact. Their consumer customers are seeing at least 25% lower energy bills while energy producers see 25% better margins – all while providing truly carbon-neutral energy.

Currently they are focused on the UK market, however post Series B they have expansion plans for both the US and India bringing cost efficient clean energy globally.

"We want to make energy affordable for all, not just in the UK but internationally."

-Somayeh Taheri

📣 #TheRant

Shout out to the female founders who are building their businesses solo! Whether you made the decision consciously or that’s just how it’s turned out, I applaud you!

I was speaking to another solo female founder earlier in the week about what it really takes to be a solo founder and admittedly it is an absolute emotional rollercoaster. There are days where you feel Unstoppable and then there are days where you question absolutely everything you’re doing.

Personally there are two areas I struggle with;

One is the brain drain I experience in having to make all of the decisions, create the strategy and also execute on the work while also still trying to manage to stay on top of all of the incoming messages, emails and opportunities. There are days where I feel about as sharp as a marble.

The second, is creative blocks and lack of creative ideation. Mainly due to the brain drain mentioned above, I find I struggle with having time to just think and explore, allowing the creative side of my brain to be engaged without the pressure of having to execute and rush to get everything done. As a lifelong marketer, it really frustrates me.

However, this is also why I believe having a strong network is vital. Being able to lean on those around you for advice, mentorship and in many of my cases creative brainstorming. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve started a WhatsApp message with ‘Can I run a marketing question past you?’ to many of the marketers in my network - thank you Charlie Harris & Jenna Herman!

So for those of you who are solo founders - huge kudos for carrying the entire weight and enormity of the business your building. I know there are days where it feels impossible, but that feeling is only temporary and the reward at the end of it will be well worth it.

There are a number of examples of successful solo female founders we can look to for inspiration:

✔️ Anne Boden (Starling Bank) - Left traditional banking at 54 to disrupt the industry. Starling is now expected to hit a £10B valuation in the next few years.

✔️ Whitney Wolfe Herd (Bumble) - Created a billion-dollar company with women-first approach and IPO’d in 2021 at $2.2B.

✔️ Janice Bryant Howroyd (ActOne Group) - First Black woman in the US to build a billion-dollar business with ActOne Group estimated to be generating over $1.1B in revenue.

✔️ Joanna Griffiths (Knix) - Declined all investors who questioned her ability to run her company while pregnant. Sold for $320M in 2022.

Although the journey might be a bit more treacherous for solo founders, it’s testament to your conviction, resilience and determination. And if you ever find yourself in need of advice, support or just the feeling of camaraderie, we’ve got an incredible group of Unstoppable female founders happy to help!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Lulu O'Connor Founder & CEO of Clothes Doctor
🇬🇧 Jade Batstone Co-founder & CEO of Zeno Energy
🇺🇦 Anna Lissova Co-founder & Chief Therapy Officer of Pleso Therapy
🇬🇧 Olivia Parkes Founder & CEO of Persi
🇬🇧 Judy Hornigold Co-founder of Everybody Counts
🇬🇧 Wizz Selvey Co-founder of Valerie
🇩🇰 Ella Smoraczewska Harris Founder & CEO of UVISA
🇩🇪 Catherine Leser Co-founder & MD of Penzilla

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

💻 {Virtual} 23rd of May - Nailing the perfect investor pitch, an online Masterclass with 4x founder & angel investor, Emma Rees! Spaces are limited, grab your spot today and learn how to frame your pitch, tackle investor Q&A like a pro and successfully secure investment.

🇩🇪 {Berlin} Raise with Grace - 19-20th of May at The Delta Campus in Berlin. This event is a 2-day roadmap, all about: giving early-stage founders the knowledge, insights, and network to start their fundraising journey strong. Get 10% Off your tickets with this link!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

💻 {Virtual} Unstoppable Healthcare Demo Day - June 13th - Join us we showcase the female founders powering the future of Healthcare. In our first Healthcare Demo Day, we will feature founders building across Healthtech, Biotech, Femtech & Medtech within Europe. If you’re a founder, Investor or ecosystem partner focusing on these sectors, join us! Grab your FREE tickets here. Interested in presenting your startup? Apply here!

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you fundraising? Looking to boost your customer acquisition? Just looking for mentorship or advice? Happy to help - drop me a note and let’s chat!

In Feb. we hosted the first ever Unstoppable Founders Summit. The experience was nothing short of electrifying if I do say so myself! We’ve received hundreds of pieces of feedback from attendees, partners and speakers. So after a very short debate, we’ve decided to not only bring back UFS as our flagship virtual event, but we’re taking it up a notch and introducing new virtual event formats to continue sharing knowledge, information and inspiration for female founders!

Join us as we showcase female founders building the latest innovations across Healthtech, Femtech, Medtech and Biotech on the 13th of June!

Register Now

There’s no better way to guarantee your success in an investor pitch than by having a clear strategy, feeling prepared to answer challenging questions and knowing the key points investors want to hear. Grab your spot in our upcoming Masterclass, Getting Funded: Pitching 101 with Emma Rees!

Register Now

Thanks again for being part of the Unstoppable community, we’re just getting started!

👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder

This week, I'm thrilled to introduce you to a founder whom I admittedly wasnt aware of, but quickly realized is nothing short of inspirational. Her life and career journey exemplifies resilience, innovation and forward-thinking leadership, all defined by one pivotal moment. Please meet Olga Megorskaya, Co-founder & CEO of Toloka, a global AI data solutions company that's quietly powering some of the most transformative technologies we interact with daily.

When I started researching Olga's story, I came across an interview she gave to Women in Tech where she described how a personal setback became the catalyst for her entrepreneurial journey. At just 18, a serious spine injury forced her to find remote work options long before remote work became mainstream post Covid. This requirement led her to securing a role at Yandex the search engine, where she worked as an in-house data labeller. This is where she very quickly realized, this should not be anyone’s full time job, that there had to be a better, more efficient way.

In 2014, Olga launched Toloka and over the past decade, the company has evolved from a crowdsourcing platform into a global AI data solutions company specializing in high-quality data labelling. The company now connects over 200,000 experts across more than 100 countries, providing critical data labelling and human-in-the-loop services to tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthropic. Just this week, Toloka secured a $72 million investment round led by Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos's investment arm, with participation from Mikhail Parakhin, CTO of Shopify.

With her background in mathematical modelling from St. Petersburg State University, Olga brings both technical expertise and human-centered leadership to her role. She's a passionate advocate for responsible AI development, emphasizing the critical importance of human oversight in AI systems to ensure safety, reliability, and alignment with human values.

One point I’ve noticed Olga addresses often in interviews, is the barriers women face in tech careers, particularly at crucial decision points like education paths and family planning. She advocates for transparency, fairness, and women’s empowerment in the workplace.

"Women don't want special treatment in the workplace, just a fair crack at success."

In addition to running a highly successful business, Olga is also a mom to her daughter, two cats and a huge Newfoundland! More proof that women are the real superheroes! 🦸‍♀️

What female founder would you like to learn about next week? Drop me a note and let me know!

📣 #TheRant

Teaser Pitch Decks

You don’t need a 15-slide pitch deck. You just need a great teaser.

I speak to a lot of founders weekly, most of which are either actively fundraising or preparing to start. One thing they all have in common, and Im even guilty of this myself, they obsess over what should go into their pitch deck. They’re obsessing over financials, GTM mechanics, or trying to build the “perfect” 20-page deck before speaking to investors. A word of caution, investors DO NOT want to see a 20 page slide deck landing in their inbox!

Let me hopefully save you a lot of time and stress.

At the early stage, most investors aren't evaluating your business on the same data points as they would a later stage company. They understand you likely have very little traction, if any at all, you probably haven’t cracked your CAC, LTV or ACV just yet.

Instead they’re looking to understand:
Do I believe in this team?
Do I believe in the market?
And is the idea compelling enough to learn more?

This is why I’m a fan of using a simple teaser deck when running your initial outreach to investors. Nothing overly engineered, just a short, sharp teaser deck of 6 or 7 slides designed to spark interest and open a conversation.

1. You don’t have (or need) a mountain of data

Early-stage is all about vision. You may not have deep traction or CAC metrics yet and that’s expected. A teaser deck lets you tell a clear, focused story without overexplaining what doesn’t even exist yet.

2. Investors bet on people

When there’s limited product or revenue, the founding team and problem being solved, becomes the pitch. A concise teaser deck gives space for your story, clarity of thought and ambition to shine.

3. It opens the door to conversation

You’re not trying to close the deal with your pitch deck, you’re simply trying to get the meeting. Teasers work best when they create curiosity that can lead to a deeper discussion.

What should go in your teaser deck?

1. Problem – what pain exists and for whom

2. Solution – what you’re building and how it solves it

3. Market – size of the opportunity

4. Why now – what makes this the right moment

5. Team – why you’re the team to solve this problem

6. Traction – any early signals of progress

7. The ask – how much you’re raising + what’s your next milestone for growth

So no need for a 5-year forecast or detailed marketing plan. Those will come later.

For now, just focus on telling your story in a clear, concise and compelling way!

Let your vision and your sparkling personality do the heavy lifting!

For a little teaser deck inspiration, the Caya and the guys at Slidebean have compiled 35+ successful investment decks!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Lucy Stewart Founder of PEARL
🇪🇸 Beatriz Martín Morell Co-founder & COO of LiveLink Motor
🇪🇸 Esther Riambau & Isabel Puig Borreil, PhD Co-founders of Oniria Therapeutics
🇧🇪 Alycia Purcell CEO of Pilario
🇱🇹 Gražina Mykolaitytė CEO of VUGENE
🇳🇱 Olga Megorskaya Co-founder & CEO of Toloka
🇪🇸 Carolina Aguilar Co-founder & CEO of INBRAIN
🇳🇴 Ingrid Dynna- Co-founder & CEO of NoMy
🇬🇧 Jane Ollis Founder of Mindspire
🇬🇧 Meryem Arik Co-founder & CEO of Doubleword
🇬🇧 Katherine Chan CEO of Juice
🇩🇪 Nadine Wilke Co-founder of Particula

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

💻 {Virtual} 23rd of May - Nailing the perfect investor pitch, an online Masterclass with 4x founder & angel investor, Emma Rees! Spaces are limited, grab your spot today and learn how to frame your pitch, tackle investor Q&A like a pro and successfully secure investment.

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerly LTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

{Berlin} Raise with Grace - 19-20th of May at The Delta Campus in Berlin. This event is a 2-day roadmap, all about: giving early-stage founders the knowledge, insights, and network to start their fundraising journey strong. Get 10% Off your tickets with this link!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

💻 {Virtual} Getting Funded: Pitching 101 Masterclass with 4x Founder & Angel Investor, Emma Rees. Nail the perfect investor pitch by understanding what investors want to see and hear, learn how to handle Q&As like a pro, and how to reply to a prevention question with a promotion answer.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you fundraising? Looking to boost your customer acquisition? Just looking for some guidance and advice? I’m now taking on clients for May & June and have a few open spots - drop me a note and let’s chat!

Grab your tickets today, as spaces are limited and tickets are going quickly!

👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder

Every now and then, you meet someone whose energy lingers long after the conversation ends. Umaima Ahmad is one of those people. I recently had the pleasure of speaking alongside her on a panel at LSX World Congress, where we discussed the barriers women face as founders & executive leaders, the role Investors play in mandating diversity across their portfolios and most importantly, what can be done to add more seats for women to the table.

Umaima is the CEO and co-founder of 52 North Health, a medtech company on a mission to make urgent care safer, starting with acute oncology. Their flagship product, NeutroCheck®, is a portable blood test and app that helps cancer patients quickly assess their risk of neutropenic sepsis, a life-threatening complication of chemotherapy. In short, instead of rushing to A&E every time a patient feels unwell, they can take a simple at-home test to determine the severity of their symptoms. To date, 52North has raised over $11 million, was accepted into both Cedars-Sinai and Novartis BIOME accelerators and was the first-ever venture investment by MacMillan Cancer Research.

She’s a vocal advocate for getting more women into STEM and shifting how we raise the next generation of leaders, not teaching girls to be “nice and pretty” but teaching them to be strong, brave, bold, and confident, just like we do with boys. She believes deeply that representation matters, that young girls need to see women in positions of power, building companies, leading industries, and shaping policies for future generations.

She’s been named one of Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35, is a Non-Executive Director at Health Tech Enterprise and the Pharmaceutical Licensing Group, and somehow still finds time to give back as a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge. She is an absolute powerhouse, building an impact driven company that will no doubt change lives for the better.

📣 #TheRant

What’s your next move?

I was scrolling through LinkedIn yesterday when a post stopped me mid scroll. Professor Andreas Kuckertz from the University of Hohenheim shared some data from a research report he had conducted:

1 in 4 venture capitalists think women's participation in founding teams is overrated and 1 in 10 say they don't want to invest in women.

I’m pretty sure if my mother had seen how hard I rolled my eyes, she would have scolded me for it. Seeing those stats evokes a mix of frustration and resignation that comes when data confirms what we've already known all along. However, rather than getting outraged (yet again) I thought, actually this is an opportunity.

Take a strategic game like Monopoly for example. The players who win aren't necessarily the luckiest, they're the ones who best understand how to play the game in terms of knowing the rules, the board layout and the patterns of other players.

So similarly, if we already have this data going into fundraising, then it can also help inform how we build our strategy.

Understand the Board Before Making Your Move

Professor Kuckertz’s study surveyed 361 international VCs using anonymous questioning techniques designed to bypass social desirability bias (that tendency to answer questions in a way that will be viewed favorably). The results-

• 26.9% of VCs believe women's participation in founding teams is overrated

• 15.3% perceive women as poor entrepreneurs

• 11.9% admit they would not invest in women-led ventures

In summary, we’ve surpassed unconscious bias and it's now just open discrimination, as Professor Kuckertz noted.

So how does this information inform your fundraising strategy? Just like in Monopoly, where knowing which properties offer the best return helps guide your investments, understanding which VCs might be predisposed against you helps you avoid wasting precious time and emotional energy.

Finding the Right Players

The research revealed patterns about where bias runs strongest:

• Corporate VCs showed significantly higher bias than independent VCs

• Seed-stage investors demonstrated more gender bias than early-stage VCs

• Women VCs exhibited substantially less bias than their male counterparts

This suggests that seeking out mixed-gender investment teams and perhaps focusing on independent, early-stage VCs might improve your odds.

Alternative Routes Around the Board

As I speak about a lot, Venture Capital isn’t the only route to funding your startup.There are a number of alternative funding options that are likely a better fit for your startups business model and strategy.

• Crowdfunding platforms, where studies show amateur investors actually display less bias or even preference for female-led ventures

• Angel investors, particularly women angels who innately understand your value proposition

• Revenue-based financing models that focus on your business performance rather than founder demographics

The Game-Changing Move

Professor Kuckertz's research points to one particularly powerful solution: increasing the share of women in venture capital itself. Women VCs show significantly less bias, diverse teams make better decisions, and mixed teams perform better. Thankfully there are a number of initiatives at the VC level to support getting more women into VC, such as unlock.vc and European Women in VC to name a few.

Fundraising without a doubt, has its challenges, but armed with this information, you can develop winning strategies that leverage your strengths, bypass unnecessary obstacles, and connect with the right capital partners who recognize your potential as a female founder.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Basak Baykan Co-founder & CEO of Rundle
🇳🇱 Joyce Knappe Founder & CEO of Pro Parents
🇨🇭 Samantha Anderson Co-founder & CEO of DePoly
🇬🇧 Samantha Perona CEO of Spotlight Pathology
🇩🇪 Jana Krotsch Co-founder & CEO of Ubimaster
🇬🇧 Iris Anson & Raluca Crisan Etiq AI

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

💻 {Virtual} 23rd of April - Nailing the perfect investor pitch, an online Masterclass with 4x founder & angel investor, Emma Rees! Spaces are limited, grab your spot today and learn how to frame your pitch, tackle investor Q&A like a pro and successfully secure investment.

{Berlin} Raise with Grace - 19-20th of May at The Delta Campus in Berlin. This event is a 2-day roadmap, all about: giving early-stage founders the knowledge, insights, and network to start their fundraising journey strong. Get 10% Off your tickets with this link!

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerly LTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

👑 UNSTOPPABLE FOUNDING MEMBERSHIPS Now available! Inside the Community Hub you’ll gain access to the resources, networks and capital you need to build and scale your business. From helping you secure capital to building traction, everything you need as a female founder, all in one place!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you fundraising? Looking to boost your customer acquisition? Just looking for some guidance and advice? I’m now taking on clients for May & June and have a few open spots - drop me a note and let’s chat!

👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder

Unconventional, unfiltered, and unapologetically ambitious - she is a new generation of tech founder. My next Unstoppable Female Founder is Lucy Guo, Co-founder of Passes and Co-founder of Scale AI.

Lucy Guo’s journey to becoming the US’s youngest self-made female billionaire, a title previously held by Taylor Swift, began with early entrepreneurial instincts. As a child, she sold everything from Pokémon cards to colored pencils, which frequently landed her in the principal's office. By middle school, she was teaching herself to code, building bots and hacking the system selling Nanopets and building complete websites.

After being accepted into the Thiel Fellowship, Lucy left Carnegie Mellon University to pursue hands-on experience in the tech world, despite her parents’ disapproval. This path took her through internships at Facebook and Snapchat before joining Quora, which is where she met Alexandr Wang. Together they founded Scale AI in 2016, transforming a straightforward API for human tasks into an essential company for AI training data for large LLMs. Despite leaving Scale in 2018 following differences in vision with her co-founder, Lucy maintained approximately 5% equity that now has a value of approximately $1.25 billion with Scale’s impending valuation of $25B.

Her exit from Scale exemplifies a concerning pattern in Silicon Valley, where women, particularly Asian American women, often find themselves sidelined or pushed out all together. However this seemed to simply be a minor road bump for Lucy and her next move was to co-found Backend Capital, funding engineering focused projects. In 2022, Lucy got the founder itch once again and launched Passes, a creator platform that blends elements of Patreon, OnlyFans, and Twitch to enable direct fan monetization through personalized engagement. Passes has secured over $66 million in funding, including a $40 million Series A round in 2024, embodying Lucy's vision of creator ownership in an industry where platforms typically control user data.

When she’s not building billion-dollar companies, Lucy's competitive spirit drives her borderline obsession with Barry's Bootcamp. If you follow her on Instagram you’ll have seen just yesterday she completed four back-to-back classes in an attempt to top the leaderboard after 6 days off for Coachella. Speaking of, Lucy also enjoys music festivals and has added DJing to her repertoire what makes her happy rather than convention.

You can follow Lucy’s crazy adventures on Instagram here.
Check out Passes here.

📣 #TheRant

Your Brand- A Startup Superpower

Last week I hosted a workshop for several female founders and we got chatting about the importance of brand for startups. A few questions came up; What does brand even mean? When should I invest in my brand? And what does that investment actually look like?

As a lifelong marketer, the idea of what brand actually means has been grossly misunderstood. Brand isn’t just your logo, color palette or website. It’s your company's reputation, your story, your voice, and your promise to your customers. When done right, it compounds. The impact building brand loyalty amongst your customers can not be overstated enough!

I believe that investing in your brand as early as day one isn’t a luxury, it’s a growth advantage. Founders who treat brand as seriously as they treat product and go-to-market strategy will grow faster, attract better talent, command higher valuations and ultimately deliver more value to the world.

Unfortunately, far too often many founders think about brand late in the game and end up with brand debt. The pressure to deliver immediate results often pushes long-term thinking to the back burner. Brand becomes the output of disconnected campaigns, in-consistent messaging and copy, and we won’t even get into the visual mismatch. The result is your CAC goes up, retention drops, and you’re constantly firefighting instead of building momentum.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start, start with building a simple Brand Strategy. You don’t have to start by spending huge budgets or hiring a fancy branding agency right away. You can simply pull out a white board and a few dry erase markers. Laying the foundations for your brand starts with being intentional and deciding what you stand for, who are the customers you serve and how you’ll show up in a way that’s both consistent and compelling.

Simple actions to start building your startup brand today:

• Define your brand strategy. Write down your brand’s purpose, promise, and personality. What do you want to be known for? If your brand were a person, what would they sound like, what hobbies would they have, what music would they listen to and most importantly, what's the sentiment you want someone to have when they interact with your brand?

• Establish your visual identity. Design your logo, determine your color palette - both primary and secondary colors, and establish your font types. We are visual creatures, the more unique your brand visuals are, the more they will be noticed and the quicker you’ll begin building brand recognition.

• Align your team. Share your brand values and positioning with your team eary and bring them in on the conversation. Brand is a team sport and your goal as the founder is to ensure that each member of your team is bought in and maintaining brand continuity across the board.

• Pick 1-2 channels. Resist the temptation to set up a brand profile on every single social media platform in existence. You don’t need to be everywhere in the beginning. More channels means more work for you and your team managing them. Choose one or two channels where your audience engages and interacts and then show up consistently.

• Measure what matters. Track qualitative feedback from customers, understand brand recall, engagement, and eventually you’ll be able to map your brand efforts to your CAC and retention metrics to see brand impact over time.

So resist the urge to push thinking about your brand to the back burner. It’s a long term investment that will deliver a huge impact for your business.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to build a brand strategy or would like some help mapping yours out, get in touch I'd be happy to help!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇮🇪 Laura Meredith Co-founder & COO of Tipple
🇫🇷 Marie-Odile McKeeney & Bérengère Henrion Co-founders of H’Ability
🇬🇧 Mandy Birch Founder & CEO of TreQ

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerly LTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

Thanks again for taking the time to read another edition of Unstoppable Founders! If there’s a particular topic or female founder you’d like to see featured, drop me a note and let me know!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

PS- Are you fundraising? Looking to boost your customer acquisition? Just looking for some guidance and advice? I’m now taking on clients for May & June and have a few open spots - drop me a note and let’s chat!

👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder

This week my Unstoppable Female Founder is a woman who has a blend of deep intellect and passion to drive real-world impact, Eleonore Crespo, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Pigment.

Eleonore graduated with a master’s in quantum physics from ENS Paris-Saclay, before going on to study entrepreneurship and innovation at École des Mines. That combination alone, hard science and strategic thinking, speaks volumes. She’s always been curious about the systems that shape our world and how they could be improved for the better.

Her early career took her to New York as a project manager at JCDecaux, then back to Europe for a role at Google working directly with the EMEA president and CFO. That experience gave her a front-row seat to how some of the world’s biggest companies operate behind the scenes. She then moved to the world of VC, as an investor at Index Ventures, she backed companies like Alan, Spendesk, Swile, and Slite—gaining even more insight into what makes a startup thrive.

While at Index Ventures she met Romain Niccoli, and together they co-founded Pigment in 2019. Pigment is a Paris-based business planning platform offering an AI-powered solution that enables organizations to integrate data, collaborate across departments, and make informed strategic decisions They’ve seen rapid growth over the past 5 years, tripling ARR and doubling its global customer base in 2023 alone. Late last year, Pigment raised a $145M Series D round, hitting unicorn status with a $1B valuation.

One of the core topics Eleonore often speaks about is how important identifying your ICP is as well as who your very first customers are. She spent nine months defining PIgment’s ideal customer profile before closing a single deal. Her advice to other founders is to obsess over your early customers rather than your revenue. Be ruthless about your ICP. And don’t be afraid to refer customers elsewhere, even a competitor, if they’re not your ICP. That level of clarity and discipline is rare in startup founders.

In 5 years, Eleonore has built one of the newest French Unicorns, all while raising 3-year-old twins. When she was asked about what success meant to her, she replied;

‘"My successes are having forged lasting friendships, having healthy children, having created a great business dynamic and a great understanding with my partner. Ultimately, success consists of asking myself if I am happy and if I make the people around me happy."

Researching Eleonore and her background, reading interviews, watching conference talks and Q&As, etc., you get a very strong sense of her ambition, drive and most importantly her optimism. She radiates energy and it’s no surprise she’s built France’s newest Unicorn!

📣 #TheRant

Just F*cking Launch It!

👋🏼 Hi, I’m Jen, a perpetually recovering perfectionist. My entire life I’ve struggled with perfectionism, wanting to make sure every single tiny detail was perfect before I hit the go live button, delivered the proposal to the client or launched the product. Constantly tweaking, fiddling and refining to my own detriment.

I’ve had at least a half dozen conversations with founders over the last 2 weeks which, in summary, were me calling them and their perfectionism out, causing them to delay launching. Perfectionism is insidious and becomes a form of risk avoidance masquerading as quality control. It's often less about making the project better and more about delaying the moment of truth when the world will render judgment.

Succumbing to this fear and perfectionism creates outcomes that are demonstrably worse than if we'd just embraced imperfection in the first place. In the context of being a startup founder, perfectionism dramatically extends development cycles. What could have been a 2-week MVP becomes a 6-month project. The negative consequences:

• Your costs increase significantly while revenue is delayed

• Competitors may enter and capture market share while you're still perfecting

• Market conditions can shift, potentially invalidating assumptions you're building on

Perfectionism also creates a dangerous feedback vacuum. When you're tweaking and finishing your product behind closed doors, you're operating on assumptions and opinion rather than real user data. This means:

• You're optimizing features that customers might not even value

• You miss discovering unexpected use cases that could be your actual path to product-market fit

• Your intuition about what matters grows increasingly disconnected from reality

“If you're not embarrassed by your first version of your product, you've launched too late.” - Reid Hoffman (no, no relation!)

From my personal experience, the relief that comes from finally putting your work out into the world is immediate. The pressure valve releases. The paralysis breaks. And then you no longer have time for tinkering and perfectionism, because you’re off and running gathering real user feedback.

So what are you delaying launching? What project or business or campaign are you delaying because it doesn't feel "perfect"?

Just F*cking Launch it!

You can thank me later! 😉

And if you really need help launching, Id be happy to help coach you through it.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇨🇭 Julia Wagner Co-founder & Advisor of UNOMR
🇬🇧 Christine Davies Co-founder & CXO of Mindset AI
🇫🇷 Amira Nakouri Co-founder & CEO of Klaimy
🇸🇪 Lina Kantola & Elin Breitholtz Co-founders of SAKURA
🇳🇱 Anastasia Kuskova Co-founder & CEO of beSirius
🇬🇧 Rachel Curtis Co-founder & CEO of inicio AI
🇹🇷 Gokce Oguz Co-founder & CEO of boby.ai
🇬🇧 Emma Burrows Co-founder & CTO of Portia AI
🇪🇪 Oksana Tolmatshova & Katrin Isotamm Co-founders of Esgrid
🇮🇹 Chiara Petrioli Co-founder & CEO of WSense

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇲🇹 {Malta} April 24-25 EU Startup Summit showcasing many of Europe’s hottest startups, coming together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerly LTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

Make sure to grab your Founding Membership to the Unstoppable Founders Community Hub. We only have a limited number before we hit pause on applications! This hub is exclusively curated for female tech founders building high growth startups; a curated investor database, workshops, templates, investment tools and more to come including exclusive investor matchmaking!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

Some founders build businesses. Others build movements. My next Unstoppable Female Founder is doing both — and she's barely 30. She is Nicola Gunby, Co-founder & CMO of CLIQ. The community focused app, helping you find your people - in real life, not just digital!

I met Nicola about a year ago when she was really ramping up marketing efforts for CLIQ and launching their crowdfund raise. We went for lunch in London and I was immediately impressed with her focus and vision, but also her energy and tenacity.

Before CLIQ, Nicola turned a personal challenge into entrepreneurial success. While traveling in Melbourne, Australia with her partner Jason Iliffe, she needed to make cash and decided to use her skills as a freelance makeup artist. Great in theory, however she struggled to build a client base as most work was being booked through referrals and word of mouth. Her solution? AMB Beauty, an online marketplace connecting beauty professionals with clients. (Think Treatwell specifically for makeup and beauty professionals.) The platform took off quickly and was acquired by Revolution Beauty in 2022, becoming MY REV.

CLIQ emerged from Nicola's own experience of feeling disconnected after moving to London, something that was exacerbated due to the pandemic and multiple lockdowns. CLIQ is a social networking and community app that allows users to connect with like-minded individuals, join interest-based communities, and attend local events. Since launching in 2023, they have grown to over 100,000 users globally and raised more than £500K through crowdfunding.

Since that first lunch, I've loved watching Nicola's star rise as she seemingly is absolutely everywhere — hosting events, promoting CLIQ, and building a genuine community around her community app. A bit meta, but I'm here for it!

Most recently Nicola joined us as a speaker at Unstoppable Founders Summit, sharing her experience as a female founder both fundraising from investors as well as going the alternative funding route with a crowdfund raise for CLIQ. She's refreshingly transparent about the challenges female founders face in securing venture capital.

When you speak with Nicola, it’s quite clear that she is a founder who isn't just building a company, she's building a community and spaces for people to belong and build genuine in-person connections. And that, to me, is the kind of impact I think we need more of in this world.

You can watch the recordings from Nicola’s session on Alternative Forms of Capital from Unstoppable Founders Summit here.

Check out CLIQ - you can download it here!

📣 #TheRant

You need more traction!

We've all been there. The pitch went well (so you thought), the investor seemed engaged, nodding along as you walked through your deck. Then comes the response: "This is interesting, but you need more traction."

What does that actually mean? And more importantly, what should you do about it?

This was one of multiple topics of conversation this week in the Unstoppable Founders WhatsApp Chat as several members commented they’d each received this feedback from investors recently. So let’s break it down! What’s really behind the phrase, ‘You need more traction’?

The Gender Bias

First, data consistently shows that feedback directly related to needing more traction isn't distributed equally. Research has shown that female founders frequently face additional scrutiny while fundraising with investors more likely to focus on potential risks or demand more proof of concept before investing. Male founders, by comparison, are often funded based on potential and vision alone. (Adam Neumann anyone?)

Female founders receive just a fraction of venture funding compared to their male counterparts, and the bar for what constitutes "enough traction" seems to mysteriously rise when women are pitching. It's not just about the metrics—it's about how investors perceive risk and potential.

A Convenient Non-Rejection

"You need more traction" is very often a "convenient non-rejection." Rather than being straightforward and direct saying "no," they give ambiguous feedback that:

• Doesn't completely close the door (allowing the investor to keep their options open)

• Shifts responsibility to the founder ("it's not that your idea isn't good, it's just not validated enough yet")

• Leaves you in limbo without actionable feedback

Essentially ‘You need more traction’ is the fundraising equivalent of "it's not you, it's me" in dating terms.

The vagueness is particularly insidious because it creates a moving target. Without specifics, how are you supposed to know when you've achieved "enough" traction? Who knows, next quarter's numbers might still not be enough, and the goalposts can keep shifting indefinitely.

The Opportunity

So what should you do if you get hit with the feedback that you need more traction? Ask for specifics! For example, ask the investor, "What specific metrics would demonstrate sufficient traction for you to invest?"

Their answer will tell you everything you need to know:

• If they provide clear, specific benchmarks (e.g. "I'd want to see €50K MRR with a 15% month-over-month growth rate"), they might genuinely be interested but not ready yet. Add them to your investor update list and circle back when you’re getting close to hitting those numbers.

• If their answer remains vague or they avoid the question completely, you've likely received a soft "no." Thank them for their time and move on. Your time is finite, you should be spending it pursuing investors who show genuine interest, not time wasters.

• If they can't articulate what sufficient traction looks like for your specific business model or industry, consider whether they'd be a valuable partner even if they did invest.

Next time when you’re fundraising and you hear the phrase "you need more traction," recognize it for what it often is: an easy out for investors who aren't ready to say yes but don't want to definitively say no. Because it isn't necessarily getting more traction—it's finding the investors who recognize the traction you already have as sufficient proof of your potential.

Have you received the "more traction" feedback during your fundraising journey? How did you respond? Join the conversation inside the Unstoppable Founders Community Hub.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇬🇧 Olivia Borgue Co-founder & Director of Engineering of Exobiosphere
🇮🇸 Iris E. Gisladottir Co-founder of Evolytes
🇩🇪 Anna Bojic Co-founder of Miss Moneypenny technologies
🇬🇧 Alexandra Thurstan Co-founder of Different Dog
🇬🇧 Kinga Matuła Co-founder & CEO of QurieGen
🇪🇪 Kätlin Kaare Co-founder of Up Catalyst
🇳🇱 Ambre Eppler Co-founder of NOWOS
🇬🇧 Rita Kastrati Co-founder & CEO of Pioneering People

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇲🇹 {Malta} April 24-25 EU Startup Summit showcasing many of Europe’s hottest startups, coming together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerly LTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

Thanks again for subscribing to the Unstoppable Founders newsletter. As a thank you, I’m offering readers the opportunity to become a Founding Member of the Unstoppable Founders Community Hub. We only have a limited number before we hit pause on applications! This hub is exclusively curated for female founders building high growth startups; a curated investor database, workshops, resources, investment tools and more!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

Happy Friday! I am so excited to announce that as of today we are soft launching v1 of the Unstoppable Founders community hub. This is a result of all of the feedback I’ve received over the past year and the buzz from the Unstoppable Founders Summit last month. As a thank you, I’m offering exclusive Founding Memberships at a discounted price for my newsletter subscribers - that’s you btw! 😉

What can you expect from the community hub? Templates, playbooks and practical resources, an investor database, a private WhatsApp group, workshops and masterclasses - plus we have a lot more to come with our PitchLab, more investor matchmaking opportunities and fundraising database and more. I’d love for you to join and help us build the ultimate hub to support female founders with everything they need to build high growth businesses!

We have SO much more to come - thanks for joining me on this journey!
Jen

👑 #Unstoppable Female Founder

This week’s Unstoppable Female Founder is the humanist behind Anthropic's AI revolution, Daniela Amodei, Co-founder & President.

AI - an industry where most founders seem to have computer science PhD’s and a deeply technical professional background. So I was quite surprised when I began researching Daniela’s flounder story as she has neither a deep technical background, nor a PhD in computer science. Yet, she is running what is arguably, one of the fastest scaling AI companies, revolutionizing the world as we know it. Just last month it was reported that Anthropic is now valued at nearly $61.5 billion. However, I think it’s Daniela’s lack of a technical background that has helped give Anthropic its edge.

Daniela graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in English Literature, again not exactly the background you'd expect for someone now leading an AI powerhouse. But when you assess her career history leading up to Anthropic, you start to notice a theme: she has a genuine desire to make the world a better place.

She started her career in international development, working on issues like poverty assessment, conflict mitigation, and global health issues. After college, she worked at the IRIS Center before helping train healthcare workers in Uganda with several nonprofits. It’s these experiences which gave Daniela a global perspective and humanitarian view of the world, clearly proving to be invaluable while developing AI systems with worldwide implications.

In 2013, after several years of working in US politics, Daniela decided she wanted a new challenge, something where she could have more impact. She then made a career defining decision and joined Stripe as a founding recruiter when it was still a little unknown startup. Working under the CTO Greg Brockman, she focused on risk management and user policy.

Come 2018, Daniela's brother Dario whom she is incredibly close with, was already established as one of the first employees at OpenAI. With Greg Brockman having moved to become OpenAI's CTO, Daniela also joined the team as an engineering manager. She was quickly promoted to Vice President of Safety and Policy putting her right at the intersection of AI development and the ethical considerations that come with it.

However, as the company's focus shifted more toward commercialization and away from the original nonprofit and open sharing model, concerns about prioritizing safety began to bubble up among some team members. So in 2021, Daniela and her brother, along with five other OpenAI colleagues, opted to leave and launch Anthropic.

The founding team of 7 ex-OpenAI employees established Anthropic as a PBC or Public Benefit Corporation meaning, the company must legally consider social impact alongside profits. They've gone even further with "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," a panel of five experts who have zero financial interest in the company with the power to oversee and potentially remove executive board members.

Safety sits at the core of Anthropic. In many interviews Daniela references the fact that they have taken a number of learnings from studying the research on the impacts social media has had on society. Both the good and the bad. As a result, they have pioneered the concept of "Constitutional AI," which uses a written constitution rather than subjective human feedback to instill values and limitations in its models. This constitution draws from diverse sources including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, surprisingly, Apple's terms of service.

In 2023 Daniela and her brother Dario were named among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI. For a technology with such profound implications for humanity's future, having a humanist at the helm might just be humanity’s saving grace.

📣 #TheRant

Are we setting female founders up to fail?

I absolutely love the rise in awareness and conversation about the gender investment gap and the lack of VC funding flowing to female founders. This is a core component of my business and what we do at Unstoppable.

As many will be painfully aware, only 2% of venture capital goes to all-female founding teams. The number has been frustratingly stagnan and sadly even regressing backwards. And yes, bias in the system is undeniable.

But in all the rightful outrage and sharing of the statistics, there’s one component missing from the conversation — and personally I think it’s a critical one:

If we’re going to talk about the lack of VC funding going to female founders, we also need to talk about what it means to be a VC-backable business.

Without providing this context, we run the risk of unintentionally pushing ambitious, capable female founders down a path that might not be right for them or their businesses.

Despite what many may think, venture capital is not a badge of honor. It’s a funding model designed for a very specific type of company. One that is being built to scale fast, raise multiple rounds, hit target milestones quickly and return 10x+ to investors within 7–10 years. That means you need to have a massive market opportunity ($1B+ global market), a unique tech offering or operational leverage and a clear path to an exit.

But if founders aren’t given that context:

• They start believing they have to raise VC to succeed

• They spend months building decks, cold emailing investors, and chasing intros

• They get frustrated, exhausted, and disillusioned when the doors don’t open

• They internalize the rejection as a personal or systemic failure
  

When in reality, it may have simply been misalignment, not bias that has caused them to struggle to raise.

This is how a well-intentioned narrative meant to drive change ends up doing more harm than good, by not equipping founders with the knowledge to assess the funding fit before they start chasing VC.

YES! Let’s absolutely continue talking about and working to solve the gender funding gap. We have to hold the system accountable. But we also need to empower female founders with clarity and education about funding their businesses.

Specifically:

1. What it actually means to be VC-backable
   So founders can self-assess and decide if it fits their business and vision.

2. What alternative funding options exist
   So they know VC is one path, but not the only one.

It’s not enough to say, “Only 2% of VC funding goes to women.” We also need to follow up with the knowledge and education about how VC funds are constructed, how they function and assessing if your startup is VC backable to begin with.

Without this, we risk unintentionally pushing women toward a funding model that may not serve their business or their goals and then framing their rejection as systemic failure rather than potential misalignment.

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇦🇹 Patricia Klimek Co-founder of Willow
🇱🇹 Gerda Oškeliūnė Co-founder & CMO of Commody
🇵🇱 Klaudia Szklarczyk-Smolana Co-founder & CEO of Intelliseq
🇳🇱 Gabriella Gomes Branco Founder of Maps Untold
🇬🇧 Katya Lait Co-founder & CTO of nettle
🇬🇧George Fairhall Founder of WAC
🇫🇷 Marion Aubert Co-founder & Chief International Officer of WeeFin
🇫🇷 Emmanuelle Martiano Rolland Co-founder & COO of AQEMIA
🇫🇷 Laure Betsch & Camille Le Gal Co-founders of FAIRLY MADE
🇫🇷 Lou DANA Co-founder of Grâce
🇬🇧 Georgie Steele Co-founder & CTO of Maiven

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇲🇹 {Malta} April 24-25 EU Startup Summit showcasing many of Europe’s hottest startups, coming together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.

🇦🇹 {Vienna} FFX {formerlyLTST25} hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

Thanks again for subscribing to the Unstoppable Founders newsletter. As a thank you, I’m offering readers the opportunity to become a Founding Member of the Unstoppable Founders Community Hub. - only 100 memberships available! This hub is exclusively curated for female founders building high growth startups; investor database, workshops, resources, investment tools and more!

☀️ Have a wonderful weekend! ☀️
Jen

In researching this week's Unstoppable Female Founder, I couldn’t help but think back to my time working in B2B SaaS. With a high velocity release schedule, you very quickly begin to understand the importance the role QA testers play in the release cycle. If it’s not done properly, you risk unhappy customers and a miserable customer success team fielding those customer complaints and support tickets.

My Unstoppable Female Founder is Kristel Kuustük, Co-founder and former CEO of Testlio. Kristel set out to improve the QA process based on her experience as an engineer, recognizing the inefficiencies and lack of standardization across different organizations.

In 2012, while working as a QA analyst, Kristel shared her thoughts with her then-boyfriend Marko Kruustük, now her husband and co-founder, and the two signed up for a hackathon in London called Angelhack. Kristel and Marko made it to the top three and were flown to San Francisco for the finals, where they won the global hackathon and received a seed investment of $25,000 and a first paying customer.

“Never raise more money than you actually need for giving an extra boost to the growth, otherwise that risks making you too lazy to look for more creative solutions.”

Kristel & Marko bootstrapped Testilo in the early years, and only once they had decent traction and a customer base, did they decide to take external funding. This put them into a strong position to negotiate making sure their deal terms were favorable.

Over the years, Testlio has developed a methodology for testing that aims to be thorough and flexible, enabling companies to implement the sort of methodology that suits them best. Today they work with companies such as Microsoft, CBS, and the NBA, offering scalable, human-led QA. What started with a hackathon win has grown into a multi-million dollar, remote-first business operating in over 150 countries.

As Kristel has scaled the team at Testilo, one area they have worked hard on is to build a diverse workforce. The current team is made up of approximately 40 percent female. In interviews, Kristal has cited the McKinsey report of 2015 ‘Why Diversity Matters’ which showed there is a "statistically significant relationship between a more diverse leadership team and better financial performance". The report found that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity were 15 percent more likely to have financial returns that were above their industry median - and for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earnings rose 0.8 percent".

Beyond Testlio, Kristel is an advocate for female founders and helping to advocate for more diversity across the startup ecosystem. She often speaks about her own founder's journey as a woman and also highlights other successful female founders as role models.

‘I believe in the power of female leadership and the importance of increasing representation and diversity in the startup ecosystem. ‘

📣 #TheRant

Founder due diligence

So much goes into investor due diligence. As founders we prep our data rooms, triple check our financials and make sure everything is in order for investors to carry out their due diligence on us as founders. But equally, we should be carrying out our own due diligence and asking the qualifying questions of investors to ensure they’re someone we want to invite to our cap table.

I spoke to several VCs this week who notably mentioned that its rate when founders play the Uno reverse card and ask questions about the VCs, their fund, how they operate or how they feel they can help that founder on their journey. All of these VCs also mentioned that on the rare occasion they do get asked questions, it's a welcomed surprise and helps that founder stand out from the crowd.

By asking intentional questions of VCs, you also:

• Signal confidence and credibility as a founder who knows their worth

• Save time by qualifying whether the investor is in a position to invest

• Uncover alignment on values, expectations, and long-term vision

• Avoid red flags and future friction around governance, ownership, or support

• Flip the dynamic — reminding the room that you're evaluating them, too

So questions should you be asking investors during the fundraising process?

Questions to Qualify Investor Readiness

These help you assess if they're actually in a position to invest, or if they’re time wasters just taking calls for market research.

1. Are you actively writing cheques right now? If so, from which fund and how much runway do you have left?

2. What’s the typical check size you deploy at this stage? What ownership targets or reserve strategies do you have?

3. When was your last investment, and what made you decide to back that founder?

4. Who else needs to sign off before a deal goes through? What’s your internal decision-making process and timeline?

Questions to Determine Their Strategic Value

Go beyond asking about capital, understand what kind of partner they are going to be for you post-investment.

1. What does your post-investment support look like? How do you typically work with founders after the deal closes?

2. Can you give examples of how you’ve helped portfolio companies scale, fundraise, or navigate tough decisions?

3. What’s your stance on founder control, board seats, and exit timelines?

Questions to Determine Values and Alignment

Get a feel for how they operate, what types of founders they back and whether they truly align with your values and ethos.

1. What types of founders do you enjoy working with most — and why?

2. What’s your approach when a portfolio company is underperforming?

3. Have you ever backed a founder like me — in this sector, stage, or background? If so, what attracted you to them?

Time-Waster Red Flag Detectors

Cut through surface-level conversations and qualify quickly!

1. Are there any deal-breakers or concerns at this point that would stop you from moving forward?

2. Where does this opportunity sit in terms of priority vs. the other deals you're currently evaluating?

3. What are the next steps if you're interested? What's your typical timeline from first meeting to term sheet?

All in all, make sure you are qualifying and running due diligence on investors just as much as they are on you. It’s a long term commitment and partnership you’re entering in to with them. There’s a lot on the line if you get it wrong.

A huge thank you and shout out to Serena Koivurinta for the inspiration and insight for this post!

💰#HypeCorner

This is where we cover funding rounds raised by female founders and their teams across Europe. With less than 2% of VC funding going to female led startups, the HypeCorner is simply our way of congratulating and celebrating these founders!

🇨🇭 Giorgia Pati Co-founder & Chief Communications Officer at Gaia Turbine
🇫🇮 Anna Müller Co-founder & Design at Bought
🇫🇷 Marie Bedu Co-founder & COO at RockFi
🇩🇪 Dong (Xiangdong) Zhao Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Differential Bio
🇸🇪 Jasmi Thrikediswarenaden & Cecilia Langéen Co-founders at PayZlip
🇬🇧 Katie Alexiou Co-founder & Director of Level
🇬🇧 Michelle He Co-founder & COO of Abound

Huge congratulations to these founders and their teams. Wishing you all continued success!

🎤 Events for founders

🇲🇹 {Malta} April 24-25 EU Startup Summit showcasing many of Europe’s hottest startups, coming together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.

🇦🇹 {Vienna} LTST25 hosted by Female Founders is back May 8th & 9th and this years theme is ‘The Real Deal for Founders’ Early bird tickets on sale now! Grab your tickets now!

🇬🇧 {London} SXSW lands in London June 2nd - 7th taking over the city merging creativity, culture and technology. SXSW London are now taking applications for musicians, film makers and speakers!

🇪🇸 {Madrid} South Summit Madrid - June 4th - 6th brings together global innovators, bold entrepreneurs, leading corporations, and visionary investors. Early bird tickets now available.

🇫🇷 {Paris} VivaTech - June 11-14th- is the world's rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation. It's a gathering of the world's brightest minds, talents, and products.

🇳🇱 {Amsterdam} European Women in Technology is a must for your calendar, happening June 25th & 26th. 5,000+ women in tech, diversity advocates, allies and change makers for Leading the Digital Revolution!

🇬🇧 {London} Sifted Summit is back 8th & 9th of October, bringing together 3,000 founders, startup and scaleup operators and investors to celebrate the resilience of the ecosystem and how its leading players are preparing for the long-haul.

🇫🇷 {Paris} UnlockVC (formerly WVCE) is hosting its annual Summit from the 13th - 15th of October. This event brings together ambitious investors, trailblazing thought leaders, and industry pioneers for two impactful days of networking, learning, and growth.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Jen

🕵️‍♀️ If you’ve made it to the end of this weeks newsletter, you’re in luck! We’ve got a special announcement coming out in a few weeks - but I’m giving exclusive early access to a handful of founders. If you’re interested in learning more, drop me a note below.

Drop me an email