GatherVerse’s Post

Here is the stark reality I faced when raising capital whilst pregnant. In 2022, I needed to raise a small angel round for Bloomful. However - I was also pregnant 🥴 Whichever way you cut it the statistics don’t lie: regardless of metrics, raising capital is more difficult for some than for others. Looking objectively, I was already: 👉🏾a black female 👉🏾of child-bearing age (and a mum already!) 👉🏾a first time founder 👉🏾a solo founder 👉🏾building in a notoriously difficult and regulated space Falling into any ONE of these categories meant I needed to be very strategic about raising capital. Falling into ALL of these categories meant I had to ask myself some very uncomfortable questions - the most significant of which was: ”To tell or not to tell?”🤰🏾 Did I have room for another “strike” against me? It’s sad that this is what I and other female founders have to consider. Even sadder is that I didn’t think twice about it: there was absolutely no way I would be telling. And I never did. I got my angels, hired the team and had the baby. Then I continued with the job at hand (thanks to a husband with 6 months parental leave!), and no-one was any the wiser… —- Should I have been brave and openly shared I was having a baby? Perhaps. The question is, realistically, where would I be now, had I confessed all to every investor?🤔 It should NOT be the case that female founders feel the need to hide a pregnancy. Nor that as a black founder I felt I needed to hide it even more. However, that’s the reality: there is a very real fear of being discriminated against - and a need to therefore protect your best interests. If the stigma around working mums was reduced, and if we had infrastructure to support female entrepreneurs through motherhood, then maybe women would feel more empowered. I really hope this is what the future holds for women, female founders, but especially for my daughter, who’s now 19 months old. #founder #startup #femaleentrepreneur #bloomful

This week saw the incredible launch of the Female Founders Rise and YeahNice. ‘You’ve got what it takes’ campaign and I have loved seeing my LinkedIn feed full of purple and amazing female founders. 💡Did you know that 81% of young people aged 11-18 can’t name even ONE female entrepreneur? This highlights the importance of visibility - you can’t be what you can’t see. And unfortunately, the number of women starting businesses has dropped to just 15%. ❓So why does it matter? Up to £250 BILLION could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. By supporting women-led businesses, we empower not only the women behind them but also the economy and society at large. To show my support, I wanted to highlight some female founders I know: 💜The amazing Emmie Faust, the founder of Female Founders Rise. Known in our house as the Bob Marley for Female founders. A pioneer, inspiring millions of founders and generations to come. Making a real difference in the world! 💜The power co-founders Jas Schembri-Stothart and Jo Goodall, building luna, the fastest growing health and wellbeing app for teens. Enabling teens and their parents to access safe content and support. 💜The change makers: Andrea Berchowitz and Dr Rebecca Love from Vira Health, on a mission to support more women access the care they deserve. With Stella for menopause, the online menopause clinic 💜The finance community queens Holly Holland (Financielle) and Laura Pomfret (Financielle) 💸 who have built Financielle. They are on a mission to help people take back control of their money and have a community of over 200,000 like minded people. 💜The wonderful Camilla Rogers, the founder of fifty50, the award-winning mental health coaching, therapy and training for workplaces. Breaking down stigma and providing tailored and personalised support to people when they need it - quickly. 💜My local founder, Alexis Poole who is building Screen Squirrel which helps build healthy screen time habits for children. Their vision is to help parents raise children with a balanced, healthy, and productive relationship with technology. 💜The amazing Judy Leung, the founder of Sweqlink. Who are changing the way founders and talented people connect. Helping entrepreneurs go further without investment and unlocking asset ownership through sweat equity. If you want to support and celebrate female founders, you can find many more in the Female Founders Rise directory: https://lnkd.in/eMUuwGJp The directory has a clear mission, to connect female founders throughout the UK for collaboration, support and growth. ❓Which female founders would you highlight? 💜 -------------------------------------- I’m Gemma, I offer fractional sales support to Founders, CEO’s and Business Owners. You can find me in the directory: https://lnkd.in/eGcX7w4C

LET’S END SHOW OFF SHAME 🚨I’m on a mission to end show off shame 💥 This is something that specifically affects midlife women in the entrepreneur space because we have to put ourselves out there and because we were conditioned to not be a show-off in the 70s & 80s when society had different ideas about parenting 😱 🔥 WE’RE POWERFUL AF GEN X WOMEN 🔥 WE’RE ENTREPRENEURIAL QUEENAGERS We have to be the visible face of our online business. We have to embrace video content on platforms like Instagram, TikTok & YouTube. We have to get on stages and speak. We have to do all of this☝️because we are… 🪩 DRIVEN 🪩 FREEDOM FOCUSED 🪩 TRAIL BLAZERS 🪩 VISIONARIES 🪩 ON A MISSION TO CHANGE LIVES We deserve to be SEEN & HEARD My family doesn’t understand what I do. I often hear comments like… “She’s just showing off on the internet” or “Video Queen - omg that’s so embarrassing” or “I feel sorry for your kids, they must be mortified”. Who can relate? My kids are actually proud of what I’m striving to build. They often share TikTok trends with me and they follow me too 🥰 If YOU are ready to say f*ck off to the naysays and embrace being the VISIBLE AF face of your business, then I invite you to join our community on Facebook. Search for THE ENTREPRENEURIAL QUEENAGERS We are STRONG, FUN-LOVING, COURAGEOUS & HERE FOR THE RIDE TO CLAIM OUR MILLIONAIRE RETIREMENT - WITHOUT ANY GUILT OR SHAME. Love Mel 📹👸🏼xxx P.S I love this rave-y audio currently trending at around only 1k users. Jump on it now - head to my instagram and tap the audio on the bottom then tap use audio 👍

What do Early-stage startups, strategic pre-sales, birth rooms have in common ?   💨High stakes.  💨Emotional rollercoaster.   I did the first two.  I wanted something different. Found resonance in birth work.   Advocacy highs, Birthroom highs.  Addictive!   Recreating the hormonal rollercoaster I thought I was getting off.   Brain craved slower, intentional pace.   Body had other ideas.    Sought the familiar.   Burnt out again.   It was scary to acknowledge.     It turns out I needed to rewire my nervous system. Like re-learning driving after years driving F1 cars on racetracks.   To family sedans on busy city streets.   So I faced my fears, and invested in nervous system work.   My body found play, rest, pleasure.   States my Indian immigrant body hadn't felt in a long time.   Productivity without cortisol floods ? Nourishing.   Clients mirrored my calm, safe energy. Big transformations followed.   Birthrooms to boardrooms.  So many similarities!   I then trained to became a somatic practitioner. Developed my own body of work. Focused on female, immigrant neurology.   Result? More visibility, authenticity, growth.   Think of it as slowing down to speed up.   My journey taught me:   Listen to my body. Confront fears. Embrace intentional pace.

Are you ready to 'be the change'? We are looking for #investors. But not just any investors. People committed to making a difference in the world. You might be focused on healthcare, or early years, or mental health. You might know what it's like to have a child that cries a lot, or want to support female founders. We have a unique opportunity for you to help bring a new solution to market. A challenger brand, bringing science and support to parents and caregivers. We've done the hard part - we've made The Qudo. What we want to do now is make more of it, and tell everyone about it. And that's where you could come in. DM us here to find out more. #QudoBaby #investment #angelinvestor

Our mental health crisis is a financial health crisis. 🧠💰 Did you know 1 in 3 of us are stressing over money more than anything else? Millennials and GenZ are looking to their jobs for help because we never actually learned anything about managing money in school. At Aura, we're teaming up with companies that get it - that caring for their team means caring about their financial peace of mind too. 🤝 So, where do we start? With the money stories we've been carrying around since we were 7. Wild, right? Money's a big deal early on, but somehow, we're still not talking about it. 🤫 And this silence is costing us BIG, especially the women who are missing out on an estimated $2.1M over their lifetime. 😱 If we're not talking about money, how can we fight for what we deserve or ever hope to close those massive gender/racial wealth and investing gaps? Good news, though! In just 3 weeks, over 50 women have joined Aura ready to shatter the silence and own their financial futures. 🚀 And we're just getting started. Thank you to all of our corporate partners for stepping up and supporting this important cause. Together, we're making financial wellness and mental health the priority they should be. Let's do this! 💪 #FinancialWellness #BreakTheSilence #WomensHistoryMonth

Borrowing the words of a famous person who said “Being a startup founder is like chewing glass” you identify a problem that no one is fixing or you find an innovative way to fix the problem, you get so excited and even crazy enough to attempt fixing it… And with that one step - without warning, your entire life changes… You go through really low lows and high highs, living in a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty, you live this life that to those on the outside looks really cool but you KNOW it’s not, a life that some days feels like a dream and you just want someone to wake you up from it… I know it’s easy to just tell a founder to prioritise your mental health - even though we all know that it’s easier said than done, so I won’t tell you that… Rather I will say to surround yourself with genuine community, with helpers, burden bearers, supporters, people who do not see you as competition, people who fight with you and not against you, surround yourself with a strong network of incredible cheerleaders and one of the best ways to do this, is to be this person first.🫶 It’s heartbreaking 💔 that a lot of start up founders are going through this incredibly difficult journey alone, while talking to Sascha Evans yesterday, she said “I’m thankful for community” and I want to echo that and say thank you to communities like Female Founders Rise and a few other close knitted communities out there for founders that I don’t know yet (Please tag them in the comments if you do) who provide invaluable support to startup founders… Every time I meet a new female founder, I immediately try to get them to sign up to Female Founders Rise, So much sometimes they think I run it😆 but this is only because the benefit of the right community especially as a founder in your early stages is INVALUABLE. If you are a founder, please find a community, not just for support, there’s just something about being in a room where your struggles are not unique to you, a space where others put words to your feelings, there’s strength that comes from hearing someone going through a similar journey. It fills you up with strength to make it to the next day, which sometimes can be the most difficult thing.

We made it to the end of the fourth trimester! 💪 Today my little one turns three months old. She and I have already achieved a lot together, including closing an investment round! Being a founder and new mamma is not without challenge… but I reckon it’s made me a better founder, in a few meaningful ways… 🧘♀️ I’m less emotional about work. Being a founder has been an all-consuming identity for me for the last few years. Now that I’m also - and primarily - a mother, I get healthy distance from decisions, wins and challenges at work. It doesn’t all feel so personally existential any more, and that’s making me think more clearly. 🤝 I’m delegating more effectively. Routine is super important with a newborn… I can’t push back bathtime because I want to take another call. So, I’m prioritising more ruthlessly and delegating more effectively. I have built a very capable team and, with clear objectives and review points, I’m finding it easier to get out of the detail on things that don’t require me to be in the detail. This is freeing up my time and brain space for the things that really need me. 🙏 I have learnt the value and practice of patience. Chronic impatience is an important trait in founders - as building a startup is ultimately a race against time. Founder impatience has haunted my every hour over the last few years - I haven’t allowed myself to rest, as there’s always been a long list to get through. But breastfeeding has made me pause and be in the moment! And the ability to pause is making me more productive when I get going again. 💪 I have had my resilience tested and built. Having a baby is hard. And I’ve found being in a postpartum body even harder. Being a founder is a huge test of resilience, as you have to keep learning from the challenges and rejections and pick yourself up to motivate yourself and team. Being a new mother adds another dimension to that. I’m feeling more tested, but also feeling stronger and stronger, as I go. 👐 I’m building deeper connections with my network. Babies are a great leveller! Being a new mamma has helped me to find deeper and more human points of connection with investors and partners, for example, which feels great and is good for the business too. Kudos to all the other founder mammas out there - and parents in general! What a wild and wonderful ride this is! ❤️ #Founder #Mother #Parenting 

Have you heard of National #PinkFix Day? Coined by Jessica Weaver in 2018, National #Pinkfix Day is a day to help #women gain awareness not just about their #money and personal finances, but the many opportunities available that can help elevate their lives. #Pinkfix serves as a life reset button, pushing you out of your comfort zone and challenging you to live your best life. It's about achieving financial control, stability, and freedom while also nurturing your mindset, self-worth, and confidence. Whether you're navigating #financial uncertainty, planning for retirement, or juggling the responsibilities of motherhood, #Pinkfix is a day to embrace opportunities for growth. 💪💕 ✨Celebrate by reading our FREE Guide – just for women. ✨ Follow the link below to discover 3 wild truths and 2 worn out fairy tales so you can take control of your money. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ewjQgZP3 #feeonly #fiduciary #empoweringwomen #nationalpinkfixday #rwroge #freeguide #womenandmoney #financialfreedom

Isn't this funny? When we're raising money, VCs don't want to give MONEY, but when we decide not to, suddenly they want to give us MONEY. Haha! We've seen organic growth at HeHealth from the start, but many investors shy away because it's related to "sex" or because it doesn't show massive growth right from launch. The sad reality is that sexual health isn't the "sex or adult industry," and it doesn't follow traditional health parameters due to significant stigma and misunderstandings. So, it takes time. The most eye-opening part was during the Calmara launch. We saw massive PR presence, but it didn't shoot our user numbers to millions. On the flip side, it didn't drop our revenue either. It continues to grow at its own pace. As founders, we know it takes time for users to overcome denial and fear, but this is part of the psychological adoption of new, disruptive technologies. We're here for the long game and we're in it all the way. There will be ups and downs, but the final outcome is that we continue to grow. 🚀📈 Mei-Ling Lu | Michal S. | Salomi Arasaratnam | Dr Sithira A. #hehealth #calmara #aagee #founders #growth