Four female Irish founders taking advantage of their networks and leaning into the power of connection

Among the issues female founders in Ireland Curham highlighted that changes are also needed in the following areas:

Removing systemic and structural barriers which are ingrained, systemic challenges in the ecosystem and structures that hinder women’s progress and access to resources, particularly in investment.

Investment bias and risk perception. Women are more likely to be asked risk-limiting questions by investors, unlike men who receive growth-focused questions. This means women must be better prepared to handle such queries and find ways to flip the script, this shouldn’t be a factor!

Underrepresentation. The participation of women in tech and as founders is notably lower, especially in high-growth and investment-focused areas.

The need for tangible networks. Lorraine stresses the importance of networks that provide business results and impact, rather than just community or social support.

Support for founders with families. Tackling the issues of childcare in Ireland, looking at how other European countries provide childcare and introduce better structures for families. Fierce has addressed this issue with its members by introducing free childcare for many of its events.

Investor relations

“The chance to chat with people and really learn about them, rather than what they do professionally,” says Jo Cheng co-founder of EarthViso.

EarthViso is a start-up focused on solving the problem of inaccurate underground utility mapping for construction and infrastructure projects. Cheng’s past experience as a product manager at Google Fiber gave her direct access to the issues facing utility companies and construction teams when it comes to precisely locating and avoiding critical infrastructure, such as fiber optic cables, water, and electricity lines. EarthViso uses geospatial intelligence and advanced mapping technology to make construction projects safer.

Talking about the opportunities that presented from the recent investor intro trip to London she says “I actually just had a coffee with one of the investors that was sat beside me during the dinner. It’s fantastic – it’s like having a friend and advisor in the investment world. She’s in London, she was in Silicon Valley and she gets what I’m doing. It’s far beyond an intro to an investment company, it’s a deeper relationship.”

“Raising money as a female is very, very difficult – so getting exposed to tier one investors is insane. It’s like a huge opportunity,” says Aisling Browne, founder of Glitch.

Glitch is an ‘agency in a box’ solution. It helps start-ups and lean marketing teams scale their marketing by using online ad platforms, eliminating the need to outsource to traditional advertising agencies.

“Being given the opportunity to talk to [investors] and being exposed to them, it’s incredible – I’m not raising money at the moment – so this is my opportunity to start building out my network for my next round,” explains Browne.

“It’s great also to be around other female founders – I just sat down with seven or eight founders in a round table discussion with a big fund earlier on today, and I was the only woman there,” she adds.

India Healy O Connor is co-founder of Linda AI is an AI receptionist for dental clinics to manage their calls and appointments. Linda is an ‘extra person on the team’ at the dentist’s reception.

Speaking about the opportunities that the Fierce female tech founders network provides she says, “I think it’s really nice being part of a community where you can share the highs, the lows and actually give each other help.”