Sam Cooper-Gray has been building something. Last week she launched it.
The event was an evening in London. Around 80 women doing amazing things. A luxury venue at Condé Nast home to the world’s most influential magazine publishers, such as Vogue and GQ.
Sam opened with a number. Not to show off. To make a point.
Women make the majority of consumer spending decisions. Female businesses have better returns, lower bankruptcy rates, and repay debt more reliably. Yet fewer than 1 in 5 UK businesses are female-owned. That is not a diversity argument. That is an economic one. And it is being left on the table.
Award-winning Poet, Keynote Speaker & Therapeutic Wordsmith Peju The Spark stood up and performed.
The room went quiet with the theatre style performance as she appeared from the back of the room. What resonated with me was the Queen in chess. The most powerful piece on the board. The analogy wrote itself.
The panel that followed put faces to what that gap actually costs.
Sophia Jarvis left her job to start Mia Wealth. The next day she found out she was pregnant with twins. She chose to be open about it with investors throughout her raise. She received nos with pregnancy cited as the reason. At 24 weeks, on bedrest with a high-risk pregnancy, she was not supposed to leave the house. A major UK bank asked her to come in to discuss a significant investment opportunity. Her husband was working. Her mum drove her. She waddled into reception, bump first.
That conversation is still ongoing. Her twins also became the reason she built Mia Wealth. When they were born, gifts piled up and were outgrown. She wanted loved ones to give something lasting.
Her app makes it easy to buy investments for children instead of toys. She has been told by VCs her market is not big enough. Her market is families. Women are 51% of the population.
Karen Rudich is on her third business Sherloc - The real‑time decision engine for the SME ecosystem - my demo request will be with you shortly. She has raised institutional, VCs, and venture funds before. For this one she made a deliberate decision to go a different route and raise from angels. Her first investor was someone she had hired, who turned around and said they wanted to put money in.
The people who already know what you are capable of are usually the first ones willing to back you. She also made the case that what needs to change is not just who gets funded but how capital is allocated. The current institutional model is built around a three year exit and 60x return. Most of the businesses in that room are not built for that and do not need to be. The research backing long-term performance of female-founded businesses is coming. Sam is commissioning it.
The panel also spoke about advisory boards with a clarity I do not often hear. Know exactly where your business needs to be in 18 months, find someone who has already navigated that terrain, and do not settle for good when great is the difference between a raise and a rejection. Karen described her advisors as bodyguard, door opener, mental health specialist. Sophia described her first board meeting as part therapy session. In the best way.
After the panel the room opened up Sam shouted out as many people as she could. Founder after founder stood up and said what they were building. A bank integrating financial education for Gen Z. A probiotic for IBS that works when others fail. A disposal bag solving a problem nobody talks about publicly but affects every woman. A bra fitting service addressing what she called a hidden health crisis. A wine company bringing Sardinian producers to the UK. A non-alcoholic wine brand built on the idea that wellness choices should not feel like sacrifice.
Every single one was solving a real problem. Every single one had a story behind it.
Then came Refuge. The chair Hetti Barkworth Nanton of the organisation stood up and spoke plainly. 110 women killed every year. 115 taking their own lives because they see no other way out. A £55 million gap in funding for emergency accommodation across the UK. 75 of those 110 women killed in their own home. The ask was simple: if any part of what you build can contribute to ending that, it will save lives.
The chair of Refuge said they are actively trying to get black women onto their board but are struggling. The reason given was that black women are not getting the experience in the first place, so when Refuge looks for people with board-level experience they are not finding them.
Her ask to the room was direct: if you have a smaller business, create the opportunity. Give black women the chance to sit on boards and demonstrate what they can do. That pipeline then feeds larger organisations like Refuge.
I was in that room because I was invited to support it. CameThru helped the connections happen quietly in the background. But I also believe men have a responsibility to show up for spaces like this. Not to take up room. To support, amplify, and make sure the economic case for backing women founders reaches people who control capital and have not been paying attention. It was great meeting some brilliant women in the room huge shout out to everyone I spoke to and connected with.
The numbers do not lie.
What CameThru saw in the room
There were around 80 women in the room. 56 of them joined the live attendee graph by scanning a QR code on their printed invite. No app download. No screen. No queue. Just scan and you’re in.
That is 70% of the room choosing to be visible to each other, voluntarily.
Here is the part that matters most: 55 of those 56 wrote down what they were looking for. People did not just check in. They told the room why they were there.
A quiet snapshot of what was being asked for that night:
A founder hunting for a CTO and investors for a fintech business
A non-alcoholic wine brand creator looking for smart partners to scale
A financial coaching app for women seeking communities to partner with for distribution
An investor there to meet growth-stage companies needing advice and capital
A consumer health founder looking for investors and routes into retailers
A scale-focused community seeking founders, investor partnerships and speakers
Investors and founders, in the same room, declaring intent before a single conversation started. That is what the connection layer is for. The networking happens between people. CameThru just makes sure the right people can find each other.
If you’re a female founder and you’re not in Sam’s network yet, it’s time to change that… trust me
Share your story with her today.
Sam - “We want to spotlight your journey, your lessons, and your learnings in business to educate, inspire, and encourage other women building their own path.
Send over your story and a picture, and we’ll create your own Women Are Good Business digital assets for you to share online.”
One more thing. If you are a female founder building something and you want eyes on it, use the comments and promote what you are doing, go to town!
Tell us what you are working on. This is a CameThru audience and we are here for it.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.