Women Who Scale unveils speaker line up for April Scale summit
The female founder initiative Women Who Scale has announced its speaker lineup for its sessions at the Scale Expo and Summit in April.
The summit will take place at London’s Business Design Centre on 22 and 23 April, in partnership with Morning Wire.
The Women Who Scale initiative brings together the UK’s most influential female founders, investors and ecosystem leaders to champion the next generation of women building and scaling high-growth businesses.
Both established and emerging founders will take the stage at the summit, alongside women entrepreneurs, angel investors, VCs, and industry leaders.
Amy Knight, co-founder of Women Who Scale, said: “Women Who Scale was established to address the persistent funding challenges facing women founders at the scaleup stage.
“We need to go beyond awareness towards meaningful action, to unlock greater participation and investment outcomes for women.”
Speaker line up
The event will address critical hurdles in scaling, from talent acquisition to founder wellbeing, with Sam Smith, co-founder of The Superscalers, delivering the keynote. The Superscalers works to give unrepresented founders the tools for growth.
Founder fireside chats at the Women Who Scale sessions involve Jordan Brompton, co-founder of Myenergi, in conversation with Frankie James, founder of Ideas Community.
Louise Hill, founder of popular fintech company Go Henry, will also be in conversation with Ayesha Ofori, founder of Propelle.
Panels will dive into topics including creating conditions for more women to scale and invest, personal branding and thought leadership and building a business without burnout.
Elizabeth Sergeant, founder of Well Nourished and co-founder of healthtech startup FLAIR, will also join the panel discussing burnout on 22 April.
Sergeant said: “For founders, I want women to build boldly, without shrinking their vision to fit outdated expectations.
“For investors, I hope for deeper curiosity about how women build, lead and scale and a willingness to back them earlier and with conviction.”
Founders of Maiden Cricket, Honor and Cat Black, will also join the speaker line up.
Live pitch event
Women Who Scale is part of Scale’s platform of support for entrepreneurs, which includes Scale Ventures, also be present at the summit.
Andrew B Morris, chairman of the £300,000 entrepreneur-led investment fund, will be on the lookout for female founders pitching live to investors at the expo.
Morris said: “Women Who Scale exists to accelerate access to capital, visibility and strategic opportunity for women founders ready to scale…Scale Expo and Summit will propel Women Who Scale into the spotlight at a pivotal time for the UK economy.”
Liz Barclay, former Small Business Commissioner, will be head judge of the female founders competition, and will be joined by Xavier Ballester, director of Brokerage at the Angel Investment Network.
Xavier Ballester said: “The UK doesn’t lack talented female founders, what’s missing is consistent access to the right rooms, relationships and capital at the moments that matter most… Scale brings together founders, investors and operators who genuinely understand what it takes to grow, and that makes it a powerful environment for ideas, relationships and confidence to compound.”
Attend SCALE EXPO for free or upgrade to SCALE SUMMIT to unlock invite-only sessions,VIP speakers,founder-investor networking and roundtables.