Inspiring Female Founders

From Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre.

We are proud to bring to you stories from inspiring female founders of ventures around the world who are striving to make a difference. This series is founded and led by Professor Pinar Ozcan and written with the aim to inspire and equip future generations of entrepreneurs, particularly women, to tackle pressing challenges in the world through innovation. The stories are for anyone to use freely and share widely.

We are proud to announce that the Inspiring Female Founders series has won the Educational Impact Award 2024 by Strategic Management Society, which recognises excellence in contributing to the teaching mission in strategic management.  

GoHenry

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In the fifth case of the series, we profile Louise Hill, the founder of GoHenry. Started in the UK in 2012, GoHenry is a prepaid debit card and financial education app that teaches children and teenagers ‘to be smart with their money’, whilst also providing parents with a ‘tool to nurture healthy financial habits for children'.

In 2024 the company completed a strategic merger with Acorns, a saving and investing app for everyday people. Today GoHenry (along with its US parent company, Acorns, and European arm, Pixpay) has nearly six million subscribers across the UK, US and Europe. Louise provides some key pieces of advice to future entrepreneurs in our case study.

Starling Bank

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The fourth founder that we feature is Anne Boden, the founder of Starling Bank. In the keynote address she gave at the 2023 Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Forum, run by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre, she describes key qualities of a successful entrepreneur, how technologies such as AI are disrupting business, and what it takes to create gender balance in entrepreneurship and beyond. 

Rise and Xare

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In the third case of the series, we profile Rise and Xare, two platforms helping migrants improve their financial wellness. The case features CEO, co-founder and Oxford Saïd MBA alumna, Padmini Gupta, CPO, co-founder and Oxford Saïd MBA alumnus, Milind Singh, and CFO and co-founder, Mandeep Singh.

PensionBee

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In the second case of the series, we profile PensionBee, a platform that allows users to collate pension plans into one, carefully selected plan. The case features CEO and PensionBee Co-Founder, Romi Savova.

Stepladder

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We profile StepLadder, a platform aiming to help people achieve the dream of owning their first home. The case features Chief Operating Officer, co-founder and Oxford Saïd Executive MBA alumna, Lucy Mullins, and CEO and co-founder, Matthew Addison.