Female founders in the UK need greater support

AllBright, a network co-founded by Debbie Wosskow OBE and Anna Jones, recently conducted a survey of over 500 women to ascertain the barriers that are holding female entrepreneurs back from creating new startups. They found that overwhelmingly the responses were in the three areas of funding, skills and networks and that many founders need access to a mentor. The co-founders hope to meet some of the entrepreneur’s aspiration gaps by forming the AllBright Academy, addressing the lack of skills and with the creation of the AllBright Fund to provide angel investment for women-led businesses.

Funding

The AllBright research found that an overwhelming number (over 75%) of respondents need funding to launch or grow their businesses, and 22% of survey respondents who have had trouble seeking funding in the past said that they felt as if they weren’t being heard.

Skills

A third of respondents would like to take a formal class or course to better-prepare them for entrepreneurship, but of those women, more than half feel like they aren’t able to do so because: they don’t have enough money for the right courses (54%), they don’t have time (42%), and they don’t know where to go to access the resources they need (42%).

Network

90% of women who have started their own businesses know someone else who has started his or her own business. 21% of aspiring female founders have said that not knowing anyone else who has launched his or her own business has expressly kept them from launching their own businesses, and that they didn’t even know where to start.

About AllBright

AllBright was launched in October 2016 by co-founders Debbie Wosskow OBE (CEO and Founder of Love Home Swap) and Anna Jones (former CEO of Hearst UK) with a mission to fund and support female entrepreneurs across the UK and to ultimately make the UK the best place to be a female founder.

AllBright developed the AllBright Collective, an ecosystem to deliver capital, business skills, connections and confidence to female founders across main business areas including the AllBright EIS Fund, the AllBright Academy and AllBright Events.

For further information visit AllBright Collective