Sit back, relax and let's look back on 2024 💭
As 2024 draws to a close, let’s delve straight into Fearless and Basecamp’s top 5 key achievements of the year...
Firsly - let us explain what the Investing in Women Code actually is. The Code is a commitment to advancing female entrepreneurship in the UK by improving women’s access to tools, resources, and finance from the financial services sector.
The Investing in Women Code annual report was recently released, and in this newsletter edition, we're discussing some key findings that stood out to us.
The 2024 Investing in Women report reveals mixed progress. While equity deals for female founders have increased, all-female teams still face significant barriers, securing only 3% of deals. This really highlights the need for female founders to seek diverse investor teams, as firms committed to gender diversity deliver better outcomes for women-led businesses.
Key actions:
You can access the full report here.
We are committed to creating a culture of inclusion and to advancing access to capital for female entrepreneurs. We'll let our Managing Director, Rachel McDonald expand further...
“From the inception of Fearless Adventures, we had ambitions to build a business that reflected society. Creating a diverse and inclusive culture is in our DNA, and our partner portfolio to date reflects this in their gender, ethnicity, and regionality."
We’re on a mission to break barriers and drive change. So, if you're a female founder with a brilliant business idea, contact us here.
Founders, we've put together a list of networking events to add to your calendar. Attending events is your chance to connect with investors, gain insights from industry leaders who have been in your shoes, and warm up your network for enquiring about investment and also mentorship.
Elevate's event is hosted by Bruntwood SciTech and is expected to be highly interactive, with questions and advice sought from the audience with some inspirational guest speakers.
🗓️ Wednesday, January 22, 2025 · 9:30 - 11am
📍 Bloc, Marble Street Manchester M2 3AW
💷 Free for Elevate members / £15 + VAT for non-members
In most cases, founders find their future investors through unconventional methods. Novus Capital's Padel office hours are bringing together a range of active investors and fundraising founders for 2 hours of Padel time and a quick-fire pitch session.
🗓️ Wednesday 15th January, 2-5pm
📍 Hornbeam Park, Harrogate
💷 £17.50 per person
2025 is set to be a big one for Britains Got Start Ups whose running a series of events to spotlight the best start-ups and scale-ups in the UK. Events will be held in Scotland, Wales, the North, South West, South East, Midlands, and East of England.
📍 Specific dates and venues are to be confirmed.
Lastly, this annual conference is set to discuss the tech industry and again, foster networking opportunities. Last year, this conference had more than 1,200 attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals.
🗓️ Date: 25th-26th, March 2025
📍 Location: Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London
Founders, how has your 2024 gone? We have compiled some statistics from Sifted's 2024 survey and Balderton Capital's 2024 reports.
We saw that 80% of founders agreed that maintaining a personal life outside of work positively impacted their ability to perform well at work. However...
The statistics indicate that founders can struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance. However, we noticed that 83% of founders also said they would benefit from VC-established entrepreneur networks for peer support and community.
This is why we have launched our Fearless Founder Community Platform—a space for entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and grow.
The platform is updated throughout the week with relevant resources in various areas, from marketing, wellness, recruitment, investment, and more, as well as questions to get the conversation flowing are posted.
We want to ensure that we bring you content that is most valuable to your business. Fill out the form below to let us know how we can add value to your venture in 2025.
Introducing this week's Small Business Spotlight: Sam's Social Media Club, founded by Sam Wilmot. Where better to source social media job opportunities and talent than through social media itself, right? Sam is building the go-to destination for social media professionals seeking exciting career opportunities and for recruiters accessing top-tier talent.
Like many founders, Sam’s journey didn’t begin in the industry his brand now serves; he actually started in music, spending eight years as a singer in a band. During this time, he developed a passion for growing the band’s social media following.
As he transitioned into social media professionally, Sam noticed how fragmented the job market was. Determined to create a solution, he launched a Facebook group to list job vacancies, which later expanded to Instagram and TikTok. The community took off, now boasting over 200,000 followers across media platforms and 21.2 million impressions this year, becoming the go-to hub for social media job listings with salary transparency at its core.
Sam’s Social Media Club isn’t just another job board; it’s also a trusted space for an expanding and dynamic community of social media enthusiasts to swap tips, news and experiences.
Sam started his brand with a concept built on a real problem he was facing. It was the backbone for reaching others who felt the same and a great way for him to give them exactly what they needed.
And that's all for 2024 founders. We look forward to catching up in the new year!
Merry Christmas from the Fearless Adventures team.