Past event
Fireside Chat with Professor Gillian Fleming --- Breaking Barriers in Angel Investing Venture Capital
Join us for a special Innovation Week 2025 event, co-hosted by the Entrepreneurship Centre and the Women in Business Society: a fireside chat with Professor Gillian Fleming, one of the UK's most influential voices in angel investing and supporting early stage companies to grow.
As Co-Founder and Managing Director of Mint Ventures — a women-led angel investment syndicate — Gillian is on a mission to close the gender funding gap and increase access to capital for underrepresented founders. Her career spans industrial sales and marketing, launching and scaling startups, advising early-stage companies, shaping investment policy and investing in startups and spinouts.
In this conversation, Gillian will share her journey from investor to entrepreneur, including the path that led her to founding Mint Ventures and identifying the systemic barriers faced by women founders. She'll discus the realities of navigating male-dominated industries, the challenges women encounter in raising and scaling businesses and the differences in investment dynamics across sectors.
We'll also explore her work on the Pathways Pledge — a groundbreaking initiative to train more women to sit on grant and equity funding panels, ensuring diverse perspectives in funding decisions. Gillian will offer candid insights into what she looks for in founders, why storytelling and team dynamics matters so much in early-stage investing and why anyone — with or without a ‘radical' idea — can succeed in entrepreneurship.
Whether you're an aspiring founder, future investor or simply curious about the evolving landscape of equity capital, you'll leave inspired, informed and ready to make your own mark.
The session will include audience Q&A, plus networking over refreshments before and after the discussion.
Why You Should Attend:
Hear first-hand from a pioneering woman in angel investment and how others can get involved
Learn practical insights on breaking into the startup and investment world
Understand the gender dynamics shaping today's equity landscape
Gain inspiration from success stories of women-led startups
Network with students, professionals and like-minded changemakers