Shy bairns get nowt: How 50 North East female founders took Downing Street by storm

Fifty ambitious women entrepreneurs from the North East made history last week, becoming the first such delegation to be hosted by a Chancellor at 11 Downing Street. 

Last Wednesday, female founders from Northumberland to Tees Valley strode purposefully toward Number 11, stopping only for the obligatory selfie outside Number 10 – and who can blame them. I did the same! 

Inside, superbly cold white wine was poured. Canapés circulated. And on every wall in the room, paintings either of women or by female artists. "Very fitting," noted serial entrepreneur Sam Smith, co-founder of The SuperScalers. 

Rachel Reeves, Britain's first female Chancellor, looked around the packed room with a wry smile:

"When you said you'd invite 50 women, I'm not sure if your maths were a bit wrong!” 

"Not a scam, apparently" 

Sophie Milliken MBE, super connector and personal brand strategist at Moja and co-founder of City Ladies Networking, orchestrated the unprecedented gathering in her role as Female Founder Champion for North East Mayor Kim McGuinness. 

Sophie told the assembled crowd:

"I actually had two founders get in touch when the invites went out asking if it was a scam. 

"Which probably tells you everything you need to know about how often opportunities like this come along." 

The delegation represented a cross-section of northern ambition: tech innovators, creative industry leaders, professional services firms, and social enterprises. Among them were household names like Dragons' Den star Sara Davies MBE, TV presenter-turned-founder Steph McGovern of businesses including Climbahub in Newcastle and Gootopia in Wandsworth, along with dozens of women whose businesses are reshaping their communities. 

Steph told Business Cloud:

"The North East is famously underestimated and yet it is full of people with great ideas and strong business sense. All we need is a bit more support." 

The 2% problem 

Just 2% of venture capital funding goes to female founders. Move north of London, and that figure plummets further. 

Charlotte Staerck, co-founder and CEO of The Handbag Clinic, remembers her 2015 launch vividly.

She recalled:

"I was told not to call myself the CEO because it would hinder us, and that I needed a man to front the busines."  

A decade later, her company has repaired more than 100,000 handbags, employs 35 people, and turns over £6 million annually.

Charlotte said:

"The North East is full of amazing talent and great ideas. So why do we see such little investment?" 

"We are unapologetic" 

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness was characteristically direct:

"We know the money that is in London. We are unapologetic about wanting to bring it North and create more enterprise. We are innovators. We take what we have and we double it and we treble it. This should be normal. 

"The North East is famously underestimated and yet it is full of people with great ideas and strong business sense. All we need is a bit more support." 

Investment follows awareness 

Tech pioneer Kelly Whitfield, founder of Stockton-on-Tees-based software firm KLIK SaaS™, valued at £6 million, said: 

“Events like this matter because investment follows awareness, and growth follows investment. The more that government and influential networks understand what is being built in our region, the faster we can close the gap between ambition and opportunity. 

“Being invited to a special reception at Downing Street, as a female founder from the North East, was both an honour and a responsibility. I wasn't just representing myself or my new venture, KLIK SaaS™ , I was representing every founder from our region who is building something remarkable and often without access to the investment infrastructure, networks or visibility that exists further south.  

“The North East produces extraordinary talent. What it lacks is access to rooms where important decisions are made and serious capital gets deployed. Last week felt like a solid step towards changing that. 

"Take KLIK SaaS™ as an example. Software that transforms an existing website into a membership community and a space for connection and collaboration, and, where membership is paid for, a source of recurring revenue too. 

"It was designed and developed in the North East by me, a solo female founder and someone who believes it to be a regional solution to a national problem with skills. Before it was built or had generated a penny in revenue KLIK was valued at £6 million. That alone should speak of the potential of what it could become.” 

Word of the day – access

That word – access – dominated conversations throughout the evening. Access to networks. Access to capital. Access to the rooms where decisions are made. 

Alexandra Depledge MBE, entrepreneurship adviser to the Chancellor, was explicit about solutions:

"We need more women managing directors of venture capital firms. It makes economic sense because women make up 50 per cent of the population." 

The reception deliberately avoided panels, pitches, or lengthy speeches. Instead, investors mingled with founders. Policy makers listened to operational realities. Strategic connectors, including representatives from Buy Women Built and Enterprise Nation, made introductions. 

"Shy bairns get nowt" 

In her opening remarks, Sophie invoked a North East saying to encourage strong conversations:

"Shy bairns get nowt" 

But for these women, it truly wasn’t needed! 

She added: 

"My absolute dream for this event is that in the months to come, I hear from every founder of at least one incredible thing that happened that pushed their business forward."

TV personality and founder Steph McGovern, left and Kelly Whitfield, founder KLIK SaaS™

Beyond the postcode lottery 

Polly Dhaliwal, COO of Enterprise Nation, attended as both observer and advocate.

She reflected:

"Wednesday's reception was a powerful reminder of why we must continue to dismantle the barriers female entrepreneurs face.

"At Enterprise Nation, we know that when we connect local talent with national visibility and the right investment, the impact on growth and jobs can be transformative." 

Hannah Zora Strong, founder of Zora Marketing, a Newcastle-based advertising consultancy, brought 14 years of marketing expertise to the gathering. As an expert in residence at the BIPC, she sees the growing demand for access to business support to scale their operations.  

She said:

“The sheer demand for both the Citylife Grants and local networking events (held from Northumberland to Sunderland) demonstrated just how much entrepreneurs are clamouring to take advantage of North East Combined Authority opportunities.  

"I chatted to Kim McGuinness about this very topic, pushing for the schemes to be rolled out to Durham and Tees too.

"I'm from the Lake District originally, but an honorary Geordie! Being invited to spend the evening amongst such an esteemed group of women was incredibly inspiring." 

She even bumped into Abigail Reid, whom she'd last met four years earlier at a Whitley Bay stay'n'play with their toddlers.

Hannah added:

"Proof that many women in the room are also mothers out to change the world around, changing nappies!"

Her key takeaway?

"Hope. That investment and belief in the capabilities of Northern women has been ignored for too long, but change is already afoot." 

Dr Lucy Reynolds, founder and director of Newcastle-based CIC We Are All Disabled, said:

“My mission is to challenge and change perceptions of disability and to create a culture where inclusion is a mindset, not a tick-box.

"My lived experience of disability shapes everything I do, from driving social change to empowering organisations to think differently. The North East is the perfect place to grow this work: a region full of ambition, collaboration, and female founders who lift each other up. It’s an ecosystem where lived experience is valued and innovation thrives.” 

What happens next 

The founders who travelled south are clear-eyed about both the opportunity and the obstacles. 

Nicola Wood, founder of the Wonderful Wig Company and CEO of Sunderland hair salon Kitui, knows something about turning adversity into innovation.

In 2016, she was already running a successful hairdressing business when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36. Though she didn't undergo chemotherapy herself, she recognised a critical gap: affordable, quality hair solutions for young women losing their hair to cancer treatment. 

Nicola explained:

"I decided that a really good thing to do would be to start a business that could come up with solutions that would work regardless of age, race, or religion." 

Crucially, she wanted to make them affordable, securing NHS tenders through the national framework to ensure access for those with limited means.

She said:

"Cancer makes you poor."

It worked, and her business now covers the region for the NHS, with people travelling from the other side of the country to access her services. 

For Nicola, the Downing Street visit held profound personal significance:

"I wanted to make new connections outside of the North and I wanted to be taken seriously outside of the North, that felt really important for me." 

She made a video about her visit specifically for young people in the North East.

She said:

"I wanted them to understand that ordinary working-class people like me get to do extraordinary things if they work hard."

The response was overwhelming:

"I had so many messages afterwards and people were coming up to me saying 'I went to school with you and you've been to Downing Street!'" 

The intimate nature of the session also mattered. Nicola reflected:

"That's how real connections are made." 

"The whole event was transformational for me, and I am so grateful that I was able to go and showcase my business." 

As the reception concluded and the founders emerged onto Downing Street, photographs were taken, business cards exchanged, and follow-up meetings were scheduled. 

For one evening at least, collaboration felt less like aspiration and more like inevitability. The question now is whether the system will finally bend to accommodate the talent that has always been there, waiting for its moment. 

As Sophie reminded the Chancellor when she pitched this "cheeky ask": sometimes you just have to be bold enough to knock on the door. 

Even if it's Number 11. 

Image: (L-R) Nicola Wood, (quoted) founder of the Wonderful Wig Company, Anne Graham, Resolve Care director and Melissa Chapman, founder and MD at Darlington-based Rite People.

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