Female Founders Rise Show

Honest Talk From Female Founders. Each week, Emmie Faust and Mae Yip break down what it actually takes to build a business - funding, growth, burnout, parenting, and everything in between. Regularly joined by founders, investors and operators who've either raised a million, made a million or raised millions.Just the conversations female founders need, every week. Brought to you by Female Founders Rise - a community of 11,000+ female entrepreneurs.

Female Founders Rise Show is a business podcast hosted by Hosted by Emmie and Mae, with 11 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Hosted by Emmie and Mae hosts Female Founders Rise Show, a business show with 11 episodes published.

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  Female Founders Rise Show

  A Multi-Million Pound Events Empire, Survived COVID & Created Glastonbury of Business | Frankie James

  Jul 21, 202634 min

  Frankie James co-founded Ideas Community - the team behind the UK StartUp Awards, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Ideas Fest - now a multi-million-pound turnover business. This week Frankie sits down with Emmie and Mae to talk about building a portfolio of businesses without losing focus, closing an investment round three days before the world shut down, and the networking question that will completely change how you work a room. Honest, warm, and full of things you can actually use. In this episode: → Why over $4.5M got raised in a field — and how you engineer serendipity → How to test demand with a waitlist before you commit a penny → Surviving COVID as an events business and the pivot that became Ideas Fest → How to build a portfolio of businesses without losing the thread → The one networking question to ask instead of "what do you do?" → Why the founders who win go deep on AI and deep on human connection Download the free one-page playbook for this episode at https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ RESOURCES MENTIONED → Ideas Community: https://www.ideasforums.com/ → Great British Entrepreneur Awards: https://greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com/ → Ideas Fest: https://greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com/ideas-fest-sign-up/ → UK StartUp Awards: https://startupawards.uk/ → Daniel Priestley: https://www.danielpriestley.com/ → Female Founders Rise: https://femalefoundersrise.com/ CONNECT WITH US → Join Female Founders Rise Free: https://femalefoundersrise.com/ → Emmie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust → Mae on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mae-yip-9017b238 → Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ → FFR Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ffr.show → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@femalefoundersriseshow ABOUT THE SHOW Honest talk from female founders who've made a million, raised a million, or exited for millions. Hosted by Emmie Faust and Mae Yip. New episodes every week.

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  Female Founders Rise Show

  From B2B SaaS to Fashion Tech: The Serial Founder Who Exited 33 X & Is Doing It All Again | Vic Peppiatt

  Jul 14, 202620 min

  She raised just under $5 million, built a B2B SaaS company powering brands like eBay, Facebook, Netflix and Sephora, and exited in 2022 - delivering a 33X return for her earliest investors. In this episode, Emmie and Mae sit down with third-time founder Vic to unpack the exit playbook most founders never see. From building Phrasee (language models before ChatGPT existed) to hitting the $10M ARR sweet spot that makes a SaaS business sellable, this is a masterclass in building with the exit in mind. Then Vic flips the script and shares what she's building next: Hey Savi, a B2C fashion tech startup that just partnered with PayPal to launch the UK's first agentic commerce platform. She opens up about the candid conversation she had with her husband — "I can make us rich, you look after the kids" — and why she's betting on consumer tech after a decade in B2B SaaS. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: → How Vic turned a £5M raise into a 33X exit → Why she built Phrasee to sell from day one — and what that actually means → The $10M ARR sweet spot that makes a B2B SaaS business sellable → What angel investors really look for (from someone who's been on both sides) → Why Vic is pivoting from B2B SaaS to B2C fashion tech with Hey Savi → Inside the PayPal partnership: the UK's first agentic commerce platform → The "I can make us rich" conversation: navigating partnership and parenting as a founder → The moment the exit process nearly broke her — and what kept her going KEY MOMENTS: → 00:00 - The hat trick: made, raised, and exited for a million → 01:29 - 33X returns: one angel turned £12,500 into £900,000 tax-free → 02:16 - Building to exit vs waiting to be approached → 03:49 - Angel investing: what Vic looks for now → [+] - Hey Savi: Vic's B2C pivot and the PayPal partnership → 15:53 - "I can make us rich — you look after the kids" → 19:05 - Best investment: believing she could do it → 19:40 - The exit process nearly broke her → 20:08 - Eat that frog: her one piece of advice for every woman founder RESOURCES & MENTIONS: → SEIS tax relief scheme → Vic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriapeppiatt/ → Hey Savi x PayPal — UK's first agentic commerce platform: https://heysavi.com/ → Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ ABOUT THE SHOW: Honest talk from female founders who've made a million, raised a million, or exited for a million. Hosted by Emmie Faust and Mae Yip. New episodes every week. CONNECT WITH US: → Join Female Founders Rise Free: https://femalefoundersrise.com/ → Emmie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust → Mae on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mae-yip-9017b238 → Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ → Female Founders Rise Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ffr.show

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  Female Founders Rise Show

  The Entrepreneurial Mindset: What It Is & Do You Have It?

  Jul 6, 202621 min

  Hosts Mae & Emmie unpack the five mindset traits that separate those who think like an entrepreneur from those who don't. Not everyone is cut out for it and most people don't know which side they're on. Do you actually have the entrepreneurial mindset? And do you even know what it is? Drawing from their own journeys, from Emmie running a major Google event with zero prior experience to building Female Founders Rise using nothing but Google Forms and LinkedIn, this episode is a candid, no-filter look at what it really takes to build a business. The 5 traits every entrepreneur needs: Growth Orientation - The belief that you can learn and figure things out rather than being born with a fixed set of skills. "I can do that, and I will find a way." Resourcefulness - Making the most of what you already have. Your network, your existing skills, free tools - start there. "What DO I have and what can I make use of?" Comfort With Ambiguity - Being okay with uncertainty. Something always goes wrong. It's not a bug - it's the job. "When you're in a high, don't get too excited. When you're in a low, remember tomorrow something good will probably happen." Bias to Action - Executing before you feel ready. "Perfectionism robs you of joy. You just gotta ship it." Feedback beats perfection every time. Resilience & Reframing - You get knocked down constantly. The founders who make it are the ones who keep getting back up - and who surround themselves with other founders who get it. This episode is for every female founder in the messy middle who needs to hear: you're not alone, the struggle is normal, and the mindset you're building right now is your greatest asset. Connect with us: → Join Female Founders Rise Free: https://femalefoundersrise.com/ → Emmie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust → Mae on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mae-yip-9017b238 → Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ → Female Founders Rise Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ffr.show

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  Female Founders Rise Show

  Married Co-Founders, AI, and the Pivot That Raised $1.3m with Emily Kucharksi

  Jun 30, 202636 min

  Emily Kucharski was a director at WPP and Publicis. Then she went on maternity leave, taught herself to code, and co-founded an AI company with her husband. They have since raised over $1.3 million for Wholesum, an AI-native enterprise platform that helps organisations make sense of unstructured text data. In this conversation, Emmie and Mae dug into the fundraising playbook Emily built over three years, why her initial venture's "failure" became the single biggest asset in her raise, and what VCs actually mean when they talk about 100X growth. They also unpacked the AI trust gap - 86% of companies are adopting AI, but only 6% are seeing meaningful benefits - and the copilot-versus-autopilot framework. The second half of the episode goes deep on what it is like to co-found with your spouse: how Emily and her husband protect their personal life, why married co-founders statistically outperform, and the legal and emotional guardrails every founding team needs. Topics covered - How a failed parenting platform led to a $1.3M AI raise - Building an investor network before you need it - Why enterprise sales signal "100X" to VCs - The AI trust failure: 86% adoption, 6% results - Copilot AI vs. autopilot AI - and when each makes sense - Married co-founder dynamics: boundaries, trust, and legal agreements - Three AI tasks every founder should automate right now Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com/ Find out more about Wholesum: https://wholesum.tech/ Emily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-kucharski/ Links & Resources: → Join Female Founders Rise Free: https://femalefoundersrise.com/ → Emmie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust → Mae on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mae-yip-9017b238 → Female Founders Rise Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ffr.show

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  Episode #6

  How I Raised £1M From Angel Investors: My Six-Step Playbook

  Jun 23, 202629 minS1

  Mae raised nearly £1M from over 15 angel investors and most of it came through cold outreach. One LinkedIn DM landed her £250,000. Another cold email brought in £75,000. In this episode, she walks Emmie through the exact six-step playbook founders ask her about the most: how she prepared, where she found angels, what she said, and the parts nobody posts on LinkedIn. If you're fundraising right now - or about to start - this one covers the full picture. The rejections. The "Dear First Name" mass-email disaster. The emotional toll. And the surprise that changed everything: for most of her angels, the pitch deck barely mattered. The conversation came first. What's inside: Mae's six-step angel fundraising playbook (Prepare → Admin & Legal → Momentum → How to Find Angels → Hustle → Set Expectations) How to get SEIS/EIS advance assurance and why it makes you instantly more investable Why the "grandma test" matters more than your pitch deck Cold outreach that actually works: emails, LinkedIn DMs, and what to say Angel syndicates, networks and collectives explained (and which ones to approach) How to vet an investor with one question so you stop wasting time Why a "no" isn't a no forever - and how to keep doors open The reality behind big funding announcements (spoiler: it's usually small, bitty rounds) Hosted by Emmie Faust, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and founder of Female Founders Rise. Links & Resources: Download the episode playbook: https://femalefoundersriseshow.com Join Female Founders Rise (free): https://femalefoundersrise.com SEIS/EIS advance assurance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/venture-capital-schemes-apply-to-use-the-seed-enterprise-investment-scheme FounderCatalyst: https://foundercatalyst.com DocSend: https://www.docsend.com Alma Angels: https://www.almaangels.co.uk Connect with us: Emmie on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/emmiefaust Mae on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mae-yip-9017b238 Female Founders Rise Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ffr.show

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