📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
The Female Founders Takeover is a bold and inspiring evening bringing together female founders, entrepreneurs, and allies to connect, collaborate, and share their voices.
Designed to unite and amplify the largest collective of female founder communities in the North, the event creates an open and inclusive space where women in business come together under one roof to connect, support, and grow.
Alongside meaningful conversations and honest storytelling, the event will showcase female-led businesses, giving founders the opportunity to share their products and services with an engaged and supportive audience.
The evening is about more than networking, it’s about visibility, collaboration, and creating real opportunities for women to be seen, heard, and supported in business.
In partnership with and sponsored by Bruntwood SciTech
Bruntwood SciTech is the UK’s leading developer of city-wide innovation ecosystems, specialising in environments and workspaces that empower science, tech and innovative companies to form, scale, and grow. Its network connects the UK’s most ambitious cities, regions and innovation communities through collaboration and a unique public, private, academic, clinical partner network.
Community Partner: The Better Business Network
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
An open and collaborative founder discussion focused on the real challenges behind building a startup. Share what’s on your mind, gain fresh perspectives and exchange ideas with others navigating similar journeys.
Step into a space where every conversation could spark something new. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a lively atmosphere designed to bring people together, whether you’re exchanging ideas, discovering collaborators, or simply sharing a laugh. This is the perfect moment to unwind, connect, and let serendipity guide your evening.
Enter our Founder’s Draw for the chance to win valuable founder support, including mentorship, services and startup resources. Entry is available through an optional charity donation, helping support a good cause while supporting your startup journey.
Join us before the main event to explore the Innovator Showcase, where you’ll have the chance to meet the talented startups. Be the first to experience the innovative technologies and forward-thinking ideas on display.
🎯 Open Velocity is building VelocitAI, an AI-enabled platform that helps marketing teams test and refine campaign messaging before launch. Using organisation-specific audience insight and strategic guidance, the platform provides structured feedback on clarity, relevance, credibility, and emotional resonance across target audience segments.
🏗️ AegisBuild structures the construction process through standardised job scoping, milestone-based contracts, secure escrow payments, and built-in dispute resolution. Funds are only released once agreed work is completed and verified, protecting homeowners while ensuring tradespeople are paid fairly and on time.
🤝 Clubbera is a community and events SAAS platform solving a problem affecting millions the inability to find, join, and sustain real-life communities without prohibitive fees or fragmented tools. At a time when loneliness is a global epidemic and social anxiety affects 1 in 10 people in the UK, the platforms meant to connect us are making things worse.
🏡 FuzzE™ helps people visualise and redesign their homes before they buy. Users can reimagine their space, restore existing furniture, and shop curated products and local craftsmanship in one seamless experience. Pre-launch and female-founded, FuzzE is building a smarter, more personalised way to design homes.
📈 Shiftra is a place performance platform that helps organisations assess how well locations are performing and whether they can support future development and investment.
🌿 WildEdge Worx helps founders and leaders reconnect with clarity, courage and sustainable performance through nature-led leadership experiences, transformational coaching and immersive retreats.
AI is often discussed as a technological revolution. But beneath every system are human assumptions: about success, intelligence, productivity, value, leadership, creativity and what it means to live a “good” life.
These assumptions don’t just shape culture. They shape what we build — and the futures those technologies reinforce.
This workshop explores the hidden narratives, metaphors and identity patterns that sit beneath modern systems, and asks: What happens when unconscious worldviews become scalable through AI?
Through reflective prompts and interactive exercises, participants will explore:
- the invisible assumptions shaping their thinking and decision-making
- how language subtly encodes values and worldviews
- the difference between functioning and flourishing
- whether the identities and systems we reinforce are actually aligned with the futures we want to create
This is not a technical workshop. It’s a reflective and psychologically informed exploration of the human layer shaping our future.
Introduction from Venture Café.
Sinéad Flood is the creative powerhouse behind July Child, a cult-favorite jewelry brand she successfully scaled from a 2017 online boutique into a global, multi-million pound empire. Her inspiring journey from founder to CEO is defined by a bold pivot into designing her own nostalgic collections, capturing the attention of major global stockists—including Nordstrom, Selfridges, Urban Outfitters, and Fenwick - and iconic stars like Charli XCX and Dua Lipa.
This panel discussion explores the reality of building and leading as a female founder in 2026. From visibility and funding to resilience, leadership, and balancing growth with wellbeing, the conversation will unpack the unique challenges and opportunities women face in business today. Through honest stories and lived experiences, the panel will discuss key learnings, common myths surrounding female founders, the support women genuinely need, and what is keeping founders awake at night in the current climate. More than a conversation about entrepreneurship, this session will examine how women are redefining leadership, building communities, and creating businesses that challenge traditional models of success.
Drawing on 15 years of in-house experience with blue-chip FMCG and global manufacturing giants, Alastair Swindlehurst founded EZHR to break down the barriers early-stage startups face when securing top-tier HR advice. In this lightning talk, he leverages his deep expertise in employee relations and organisational change to guide founders through the critical legal pit-falls, structural decisions, and essential strategies needed to successfully navigate their very first hire.
Join Amy Wild and Judy Leung as they unpack the origins of imposter syndrome, why women so often identify with it, and how we can better navigate the feelings when they arise in an exclusive pre-recorded conversation screened on the night.
- Where did imposter syndrome even come from?
- Why do women disproportionately identify with it?
- Is it a term that we need to stop using?
- What can we do when the feelings come up?
📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
The Female Founders Takeover is a bold and inspiring evening bringing together female founders, entrepreneurs, and allies to connect, collaborate, and share their voices.
Designed to unite and amplify the largest collective of female founder communities in the North, the event creates an open and inclusive space where women in business come together under one roof to connect, support, and grow.
Alongside meaningful conversations and honest storytelling, the event will showcase female-led businesses, giving founders the opportunity to share their products and services with an engaged and supportive audience.
The evening is about more than networking, it’s about visibility, collaboration, and creating real opportunities for women to be seen, heard, and supported in business.
In partnership with and sponsored by Bruntwood SciTech
Bruntwood SciTech is the UK’s leading developer of city-wide innovation ecosystems, specialising in environments and workspaces that empower science, tech and innovative companies to form, scale, and grow. Its network connects the UK’s most ambitious cities, regions and innovation communities through collaboration and a unique public, private, academic, clinical partner network.
Community Partner: The Better Business Network
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
An open and collaborative founder discussion focused on the real challenges behind building a startup. Share what’s on your mind, gain fresh perspectives and exchange ideas with others navigating similar journeys.
Step into a space where every conversation could spark something new. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a lively atmosphere designed to bring people together, whether you’re exchanging ideas, discovering collaborators, or simply sharing a laugh. This is the perfect moment to unwind, connect, and let serendipity guide your evening.
Enter our Founder’s Draw for the chance to win valuable founder support, including mentorship, services and startup resources. Entry is available through an optional charity donation, helping support a good cause while supporting your startup journey.
Join us before the main event to explore the Innovator Showcase, where you’ll have the chance to meet the talented startups. Be the first to experience the innovative technologies and forward-thinking ideas on display.
🎯 Open Velocity is building VelocitAI, an AI-enabled platform that helps marketing teams test and refine campaign messaging before launch. Using organisation-specific audience insight and strategic guidance, the platform provides structured feedback on clarity, relevance, credibility, and emotional resonance across target audience segments.
🏗️ AegisBuild structures the construction process through standardised job scoping, milestone-based contracts, secure escrow payments, and built-in dispute resolution. Funds are only released once agreed work is completed and verified, protecting homeowners while ensuring tradespeople are paid fairly and on time.
🤝 Clubbera is a community and events SAAS platform solving a problem affecting millions the inability to find, join, and sustain real-life communities without prohibitive fees or fragmented tools. At a time when loneliness is a global epidemic and social anxiety affects 1 in 10 people in the UK, the platforms meant to connect us are making things worse.
🏡 FuzzE™ helps people visualise and redesign their homes before they buy. Users can reimagine their space, restore existing furniture, and shop curated products and local craftsmanship in one seamless experience. Pre-launch and female-founded, FuzzE is building a smarter, more personalised way to design homes.
📈 Shiftra is a place performance platform that helps organisations assess how well locations are performing and whether they can support future development and investment.
🌿 WildEdge Worx helps founders and leaders reconnect with clarity, courage and sustainable performance through nature-led leadership experiences, transformational coaching and immersive retreats.
AI is often discussed as a technological revolution. But beneath every system are human assumptions: about success, intelligence, productivity, value, leadership, creativity and what it means to live a “good” life.
These assumptions don’t just shape culture. They shape what we build — and the futures those technologies reinforce.
This workshop explores the hidden narratives, metaphors and identity patterns that sit beneath modern systems, and asks: What happens when unconscious worldviews become scalable through AI?
Through reflective prompts and interactive exercises, participants will explore:
- the invisible assumptions shaping their thinking and decision-making
- how language subtly encodes values and worldviews
- the difference between functioning and flourishing
- whether the identities and systems we reinforce are actually aligned with the futures we want to create
This is not a technical workshop. It’s a reflective and psychologically informed exploration of the human layer shaping our future.
Introduction from Venture Café.
Sinéad Flood is the creative powerhouse behind July Child, a cult-favorite jewelry brand she successfully scaled from a 2017 online boutique into a global, multi-million pound empire. Her inspiring journey from founder to CEO is defined by a bold pivot into designing her own nostalgic collections, capturing the attention of major global stockists—including Nordstrom, Selfridges, Urban Outfitters, and Fenwick - and iconic stars like Charli XCX and Dua Lipa.
This panel discussion explores the reality of building and leading as a female founder in 2026. From visibility and funding to resilience, leadership, and balancing growth with wellbeing, the conversation will unpack the unique challenges and opportunities women face in business today. Through honest stories and lived experiences, the panel will discuss key learnings, common myths surrounding female founders, the support women genuinely need, and what is keeping founders awake at night in the current climate. More than a conversation about entrepreneurship, this session will examine how women are redefining leadership, building communities, and creating businesses that challenge traditional models of success.
Drawing on 15 years of in-house experience with blue-chip FMCG and global manufacturing giants, Alastair Swindlehurst founded EZHR to break down the barriers early-stage startups face when securing top-tier HR advice. In this lightning talk, he leverages his deep expertise in employee relations and organisational change to guide founders through the critical legal pit-falls, structural decisions, and essential strategies needed to successfully navigate their very first hire.
Join Amy Wild and Judy Leung as they unpack the origins of imposter syndrome, why women so often identify with it, and how we can better navigate the feelings when they arise in an exclusive pre-recorded conversation screened on the night.
- Where did imposter syndrome even come from?
- Why do women disproportionately identify with it?
- Is it a term that we need to stop using?
- What can we do when the feelings come up?