Female Founders Breakfast
A rooftop. Pastries. Muffins. Strawberries. And even a hint of sunshine.
It was the perfect morning for the inaugural Female Founders Breakfast at Entrepreneur First. We’ve held breakfasts for women on our cohorts before, but this is the first we’ve opened up to the wider community of technical individuals and aspiring founders, who happen to be women.
We were joined by Alex Depledge and Jules Coleman, who, having founded Hassle together in 2012, grew it to dominate the on-demand cleaner space in the UK, sell at €32million in 2015, and have now joined Index Ventures as Entrepreneurs in Residence.
They’re also hilarious.
The perfect balance of giggles, inspiration and very practical advice, Alex and Jules told the story of how they grew Hassle, and shared with us their thoughts to the future.
Alex discussed her motivation to move from consulting to starting a startup: having seen women within large corporations so often split between progressing, or have children and career breaks, it didn’t fit her vision. Starting something herself meant she could choose her own trajectory.
“I wanted a career and I wanted a child — and to me it was clear I could have both”
They discussed the highs and lows of founding Hassle — the pivots, the cash-strapped moments, versus their delight in leading their team and defying expectations. It’s a balance that’s clearly worth it — in their own words, they “can’t wait to get started again”.
What’s not documented in Tweets about our Female Founders Breakfast is the community it created. From the PhDs working in the same field of robotics and nanotechnology meeting for the first time, to the women now speaking at each other’s events. It was great to together a group of such talented technical individuals, all with the same drive and shared interests.
This is not the end of the road for Female Founders Breakfasts. We so enjoyed this one, we’re committing to one a month — we might even go wild and have a dinner! And we’re looking forward to seeing the same with our team over in Singapore.
If you’d like to be part of our Female Founders events and community, you can sign up here.
If you’re a talented technologist, applications for EF8 London, and EF2 Singapore are now open — apply here.
