A top-notch group of female founders and mentors are coming together to share their stories at an event where over 100 people have already signed up. It’s happening in Lecture Theatre 2 at Cambridge Judge Business School.
During Female Founders Day, a panel will chat about peer mentoring and cover various topics such as:-
• Why female-led mentoring matters
• Success stories and clear results
• Breaking down obstacles in entrepreneurship
• Creating mentorship networks that can grow
• Mentoring that includes everyone and considers different backgrounds
• Best practices for effective mentorship
• How mentors and mentees both benefit from the relationship
• Tips on strategy, funding, and building teams
A group of successful women entrepreneurs will open up about what they’ve learned and the hurdles they face in business. This event is part of a series led by Accelerate Cambridge alumni and local entrepreneurs, aiming to boost the community of female founders in Cambridge.
The focus on peer mentoring shows how important it is for women to lead mentoring efforts to help other entrepreneurs, highlighting the real impact it can have. Attendees can join a panel talk diving into challenges raised through mentoring experiences.
You’ll also get a chance to book one-on-one sessions with experienced female founders who’ve hit key milestones and want to pass on their knowledge. Plus, you can connect with skilled mentors from all kinds of backgrounds who specialize in things like strategy, leadership, funding, and team-building.
The first set of mentoring sessions runs from 9:15 until 10 o’clock. Then there’s another session until 11 a. m., followed by the panel discussion from 11:15 until 12:45. After lunch, two more sessions start at 2 p. m. and 3 p. m. One exciting part of the day is Pitch & Judge #4 before networking and drinks.
The mentors sharing their journeys include Amelia Armour (Amadeus Capital Partners), Claire Gilvray (founder, Gilvray Health), Liz Zijing Li (founder of Mimicrete), Dr Jennifer Martin (Executive Director EMBA, Cambridge Judge Business School) and Liz Marston (Founder of Sotera).
Amelia came aboard Amadeus Capital Partners back in 2009 as a Partner for their Early Stage Fund. Right now she focuses her investments on AI & Cybersecurity, Photonics & Quantum tech, Digital Health & Med Tech plus Novel Materials.
She sits on several boards including Xampla-which works on new plant-based materials meant to replace single-use plastics; i Pronics that builds lossless optical switches for AI networking at light speed; Riverlane developing operating systems for error-corrected quantum computers; sprout. ai which provides fast insurance claims automation; plus SLAMcore out of Imperial College working on spatial intelligence for autonomous robots and drones.
Amelia also keeps an eye on Paragraf as a board observer-they’re the first company mass-producing graphene-based electronics. In August 2023 she joined the UK Government’s Semiconductor Advisory Panel focused on driving forward the National Semiconductor Strategy.
Liz Marston founded Sotera-an Insur Tech firm using AI alongside its own risk algorithm to give detailed risk analysis plus price checks for complex policies by adding item-level risk evaluation specifically for Fine Art & Specie as well as High Net Worth Home Contents insurance.
Sotera started at Accelerate Cambridge then accelerated further through Lloyd’s Lab-it’s now based right inside Lloyd’s of London. The company has attracted investments from Lloyd’s itself, Tokio Marine Future Fund, Ninety, Story House along with some top angel investors.
Dr Martin leads the Executive MBA program at Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) where she oversees both program delivery plus admissions and marketing efforts.
This year she also teaches Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at CJBS. Besides that she lectures as a Professorial Lecturer at Hult International Business School covering management topics like leadership plus global marketing-and really cares about courses around “the costs of doing business poorly,” usually touching Human Resource Management, Marketing, Leadership or Diversity themes.
The idea behind Gillvray Health comes from Dr Gillvray-a medical doctor with over 25 years experience across psychiatry, general practice nutrition plus sports medicine-and Lucy Hibben who coaches breathing techniques while also being a meditation teacher and senior yoga instructor. Together they aim to help guide people toward better health and wellbeing.
Zijing Li co-founded Mimicrete Ltd where she serves as COO-a company working on sustainable resilient building materials made for tomorrow’s needs. Holding a Ph D in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of Cambridge gave her deep knowledge but it was her passion for sustainability that pushed her towards starting this business after academic research focusing on biomimetic materials plus self-healing concrete technology forming Mimicrete’s core tech.
Tackling stereotypes head-on while working within construction-which is still largely male-dominated-as scientist engineer entrepreneur Zijing wants to inspire more women leaders coming up next generation alike herself.
