S3 Ep7: Women Founders and the 2% Funding Gap with David B Horne

Why are women still receiving only around 2% of venture capital funding in 2026 — despite the evidence showing that businesses led by women consistently outperform?

In this eye-opening episode of the She Leads Collective Podcast, Mary Gregory speaks with entrepreneur, investor and author David B Horne about the systemic barriers women continue to face when seeking funding for their businesses.

David has raised over £100 million, supported more than 30 acquisitions and exits, and works directly with founder-led businesses on growth and funding strategies. But after being challenged on why so little funding goes to women, he decided to investigate — leading him to write his book Funded Female Founders.

Together, Mary and David explore:

•  why funding bias still exists 
•  the subtle and explicit ways it shows up 
•  the difference in how male and female founders are questioned by investors 
•  why relationships and warm introductions matter 
•  the realities of venture capital culture 
•  practical advice for women seeking funding 
•  what meaningful allyship looks like in action 

The statistics in this conversation are startling. But so too is the opportunity being missed.

This is an honest and important conversation about power, bias, business and the changes still needed to create a fairer funding landscape for women founders.

Connect with David on Linked in- https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-b-horne/

Visit David's website: https://addthenmultiply.com/

Purchase Funded Female Founders - https://amzn.eu/d/09iBv8B0

🔗 Connect with Mary: marygregory.com

📣 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marygregory

 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mary_gregory/

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 ✨ Produced by Mary Gregory Leadership Coaching

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to She Leads Collective Podcast. I'm Mary Gregory and I'm so glad you're here. This podcast is a space for honest conversations about what it really means to lead as a woman today and how we can all show up with more courage, care and clarity. You'll hear from inspiring women, powerful allies, and bold truth tellers who are changing the game not by playing tougher, but by leading smarter, softer, and stronger. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the She Leads Collective Podcast. Why in 2026 are women still receiving around 2% of venture funding? And what would it actually take to change that? Well, today's conversation is one that I've been wanting to have for a while. Because we talk a lot about confidence, visibility, and leadership for women, but not enough about some of the things that women frequently face, which can detract from that. And one of those is the access to capital. And the truth is, without funding, many brilliant ideas simply don't get the chance to grow. My guest today is David Horn, and David sits right in the heart of this world. He has raised over a hundred million pounds, supporting more than 30 acquisitions and exits, and works directly with businesses looking to scale through funding and growth strategies. But what makes David particularly interesting and relevant to this conversation is that he's also taken a very deliberate stance on the imbalance in funding for women. He's a real role model of allyship for evening up gender equity because he takes action. After being asked a question, why is it so hard for women to get funded? He didn't just answer it, he went away and he researched it and he wrote a book, Funded Female Foundation. So today we're going to explore what's really going on in the funding landscape, where bias shows up often invisibly, and crucially, what can women do to navigate it? David, a very warm welcome to you. Thank you for joining me. Thank you, Mary. Delighted to be here. Well, it's great to have you here, and I'm really looking forward to this conversation. So I think because the world of funding can be a bit of a mystery for people, I would like you first of all to tell us what do you actually do when you're working with businesses?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

So I mean, very quickly, um, my background is finance. I trained as a chartered accountant with PWC, qualified a long, long time ago, 1987, originally from Canada, moved to Zurich, Switzerland in 1987, moved to London in 1993, and have been here ever since. And I was the CFO of a couple of listed companies during the noughties for eight years. Um, and then I've been running my own business since uh the end of 2010. And today, what we do, I have a team of eight people, and we do two things. We put fractional finance teams into entrepreneur-led companies because many entrepreneurs finance is a uh an area of the business that they don't always understand um or don't feel comfortable with. Uh, and so we support them with that, and and and I've trained up my team to understand the way entrepreneurs think and speak. Um, and then we support them in growth strategies through a methodology that I've developed called Face, F-A-C-E, which stands for fund, acquire, consolidate, and exit.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Excellent. And is this all this you've also got another book which is the same name as your business? So tell us add then multiply, which is the name of your business.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

And this is the one that sets out the face methodology.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

That's all in that's all in your book. That's great. And we and that's obviously available on Amazon and other and the other bookshops and things as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

And on on um on Audible for people who like to listen to rather than read.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yes. What do you think? You know, entrepreneurs, very creative people, lots of energy. What is it they don't necessarily understand about funding? You know, it's it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

A lot of them um a lot of them feel the need to keep control of 100% of what their business is. And um so a lot of them feel just instinctively I I can't I can't let any external funding in because I need to have control. And that's fine, but it will limit their ability to grow because that means they're growing by bootstrapping. And bootstrapping means, you know, how much cash have you got that you can put into the business? How high up can you max out your credit cards that you can put into the business? And how much revenue can you generate from whatever it is that you sell to put into the business? That's the limit that they have. Whereas if they're more open to the idea of taking on funding, whether that's grant funding or debt funding, which is borrowing money, or equity funding, which is selling a stake in their company, then they can open up so much wider to pools of capital that will enable them to grow much, much faster. And you know, you can start small if you're if you're an early stage business. One of the greatest things in the UK is something called startup loans that are administered by the British Business Bank and Virgin Money. Um, and if your company is less than two years old, you can apply online, startuploans.co.uk, and you can get a loan of 25,000 pounds at attractive interest rates, repayable over, I think, five years. And for a lot of people, that's enough to get them off the ground to buy a bit of kit, to invest in a bit of marketing, to do some of the basics that they can get a business going. So that's when when people are first starting out, that's something I always recommend. Yeah, so just get yourself going. Just get yourself going. Just it just give yourself a little boost. If you've got a little bit of money, you can do things. You know, you can you can hire a virtual assistant. That's one of the first things I tell startup people to do once they've got some money flowing. Hire a virtual assistant because you can't do everything and you shouldn't do everything. You should focus on the high value things.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Great. Okay. So you wrote your second book, Funded Female Founders. And I understand that was on the back of someone who asked you a question. You were speaking at a conference, and someone came up afterwards and said, Well, what about funding for women? That's much more difficult. And that sparked a curiosity in you. So it did. So tell me what happened on the back of that.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

So I looked at her and I said, I have no idea why, but I'll find out. And about a week later, I had a meeting um with the chief executive of the British Business Bank. She and I had met at an event at the Institute of Directors, and this was a just a follow-up meeting, you know, went to her office. This is pre-pandemic, so went to her office like we used to do. Um, and we sat down and had a very interesting conversation. And towards the end of the conversation, I just dropped it into the call into the discussion. I said, Do you know anything about this issue of low funding to female founders? And she smiled and reached down to the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a bound research report that the bank had published maybe six months prior, that looked at all of the venture capital deals in the UK in 2017. And they found that um all male teams, sorry, all female teams had submitted 5% of the pitch decks and got 0.9% of the funding. Mixed gender teams had submitted 20% of the pitch decks and got 10% of the funding, and all male teams had submitted 75% of the pitch decks and got 89% of the funding.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

My goodness, that is quite I'm I'm I'm trying hard not to gasp here.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

I know it's and and also in 2019, um Alison Rose, who at the time was the chief executive of Nat West Bank, had been commissioned by the UK government to do a research study on female entrepreneurship. And that's available online. It's called the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. And she determined with a lot of research, it was really, really very well done. I've read the whole report, it's like 200 pages. Um she determined that if women started businesses and were funded to the same level as men were funded, it would generate an in an additional 250 billion pounds of GDP to the UK economy. Wow, that is there goes all of Rachel Reeves's problems, and we can start bringing tax rates down if we fund female founders.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yes. So it's in everyone's interest that female funders get funding. That is absolutely remarkable. So um let's then explore a bit more about this, uh, the reality of the system. Because I think I don't know what the figure was back in 2017, but to me, 2006, we're nearly 10 years. 2026, we are nearly 10 years on, and it's women are still only getting 2% of the finance.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

There is data through a investment research company called PitchBook that goes back to 2008. And in 2008, the level to all female teams was 2.4%, and since 2009, it has never been more than 2% in the UK and Europe. And in the United States, it has never been more than 3%.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

So, what from your perspective, you work with these women, you work with businesses, you're out there in the funding world. What is getting in the way?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

I think there are three primary reasons for this. Uh, number one is just inherent gender bias. It's a lot better than it was when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, but it's still there. Um, number two is that there are not enough women in senior decision-making roles inside the venture capital and investment firms. And two pieces of data to just bring that to life. Uh, one of them, just before we ran our first funding focus event, which is my my social enterprise that that is addressing this or trying to address this, just before we ran our first event, um, Morningstar uh came out with a study of all of the listed open-ended investment companies in the UK. And there were just under 1,500 of them, and they've discovered that there were more funds run by men named David, which I thought was kind of cool, but more funds run by men named David than funds run by women. Intriguingly, the most pop the most common name of a of a woman running a fund was Katie, which is my wife's name.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Oh, right. Yeah, you're obviously the perfect pair there, but but it is absolutely shocking.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

It is, and and the the other piece of evidence around this this was a study done by a woman who's now a professor at London Business School, and she did her PhD at Columbia University in New York, and she studied the um TechCrunch New York City startup battle pitching competitions from 2010 until 2017. She downloaded all of the videos and into some analytical software that analyzed all of the presentations in the QA sessions. She found no material difference between the way men and women pitched, but she found a significant bias in the type of questions that they were asked. Where 67% of the questions asked of male entrepreneurs were what's called a promotion question. How are you gonna double your market share? Where are you gonna hire your next hundred employees? And 66% of the questions asked of female entrepreneurs were what's called prevention questions. How are you gonna stop the competition from stealing your business? What happens if some of your key people leave? And what was really interesting was that same level of bias was demonstrated by both male and female investors.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

That is absolutely remarkable. And what in what fantastic research to be able to pinpoint that. Yeah. And I mean, what I get a sense of is, you know, we've got to be very careful not to point the fingers at individuals here because this sounds like a really systemic.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

It's a very much a systemic issue, it really is. And then the third reason is that women tend to be very conservative in their financial projections. And if you're going for venture capital, if you understand the way the venture capital model works, they are looking for the next unicorn business, the next business that's gonna be worth a billion dollars. And just to set it out, let's say you raise a new venture capital fund of 50 million, and you're gonna invest half a million in a hundred companies. As the venture capitalist, you know going in that 15 to 20 of them are gonna go bust, that 75 of them are going to become what they call zombie companies that just kind of trickle over but don't generate any cash, and nobody's gonna invest any more in them, and they usually get sold off cheaply to restructuring people. And that leaves five. And of those five, one or two might return the investment, one or two might return 2x, 3x, 5x, and one of them is gonna shoot the moon and is gonna pay back all of the losses, return all of the money, return a fantastic return, and the venture capitalists get all their fees and happy days. And literally, that is how the venture capital game works. The more honest venture capitalists admit that they are sophisticated gamblers. And so if you're going in, if you're going in to pitch for venture capital, you must demonstrate that you have the potential to, you know, not not 2x or 5x, but 20x, 50x, 100x your business, or they're just not going to be interested.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Okay, okay. And women tend to be more reserved than that. Women tend to be very much more reserved. It might be quite scary for women to um therefore predict and project in such a big way. That might is that also what's putting women off from asking for funding too?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yes, it is. And and and and it's really interesting. I've run I've run workshops on on building financial plans and things like that. And you know, you'll you'll come up with a financial model that says you need 850,000 and a woman will ask for half a million, and a man will ask for two. So you you you you need to have it's really important to have the confidence and the belief and the grit and determination that you're gonna do this. And if you're not gonna do this, that's okay. If you want to build your business into something that's gonna be five or ten or twenty million, that's great, but don't go after venture capital because you're just wasting your time. Look for other sources of funding.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Okay, okay. Well, that's good advice in itself. I want to mention though, because we had Julianne Ponen on in in in season one of this podcast, she's the CEO and founder of Creative Nature, which is a hugely successful uh business that's that's that's got venture, she got capital, capital and and finance, but um it was a horrendous process for her. She talks about being completely blanked, even though she was the CEO and the founder, she got completely blanked by financiers when she was in the room. They wouldn't talk to her, they'd only talk to her male counterpart. Yeah, so many times. So, how do you navigate this? It's I mean, it's not just subtle bias, that is really explicit bias, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Explicit bias, and it's it's it's you know it's boarding on bordering on misogyny, really. Um I don't know the answer. Um it and it's it's it's kind of worrying with those those stats I was giving to you earlier. What where we have seen movement is is that the level of funding to mixed gender teams has increased. So the data would suggest that the route you want to go down is bring a man onto your team. But I hate that as a you know, that's that's not the right solution to the problem. That's simply addressing the data. Um, but it does, I I've had many, many stories, and I'm I mention a number of them in the book of women that have gone to pitching competitions, and you know, they get questions like, Well, what does your husband do? Is he supporting you? Um, or you know, when are you gonna have babies? Or um, I mean, there was one case that a friend of mine brought to my attention. Uh, this is no lie, it's it's in Australian media. There's a reference to it in the book of a woman in Australia who had lined up an investor, and just before he signed the investment documents, he looked up and said, You will sleep with me, won't you?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

My goodness.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Just unbelievable. Unbelievable. When when my friend first brought that to my attention, I thought, there's no way. And she sent me the link to the newspaper, and I did a whole bunch of research around it, and it was absolutely true. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

So it's the Me Too, it's the Me Too campaign happening within the world of funding. Yeah. Incredible that it's happening in this day and age, uh, to be honest. I'm finding I'm finding it, I'm keep taking gas. I hope it's not showing up on the podcast because I keep taking gasps as we're talking because I'm just continually feeling shocked by what you're sharing here. But also, it needs to be talked about. We need to have this out in the open. It does. I want to ask a couple of questions then, which might be quite difficult for women to hear the answers to. But if I'm a woman founder seeking funding, what might be the advice you would give me that I might find uncomfortable, but it is useful?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Hmm. Great question. So, number one, having the confidence in your numbers and believing in yourself. Recognize that there is bias out there and you're gonna have to deal with it. And most women are incredibly good at dealing with it because they've had to all their lives, but recognize that it's there. And one of the one of the most important things that I recommend to people, and that regardless of their gender, um, is do a little bit of research into the investors. Find out if are there any other female founded companies that this investor has backed? And and with a if if you're going venture capital, many venture capital firms have on their websites a list of the companies that they've invested in. So go in and look at those companies. Are any of them backed by a female founder? Whether they are, and that alone will give you the information. But the other thing I often recommend is reach out to one of the founders of one of those companies on a human level and just say, hey, I see you're backed by XYZ Capital. I'm looking at potentially doing venture capital. Could we have a venture capital? Could we have a virtual coffee and and just have a chat about your experience and build a relationship? Because if you are going down the venture capital route, still today the best way to get the chance of having a pitch is to get a warm introduction from someone that they know. So if you can build a relationship with someone that they're already investing in, and it might take three months, it might take six months, and be patient, but build that relationship and then make that ask of that person.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

I suppose that also gives you a sense of what the investors like and whether it's someone they want to work with. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

And and and one other statistic that a lot of people don't really understand is that, you know, in the last 20 years, the whole world of venture capital has just exploded, and there is so much more of it out there. I was talking when I was researching the book, I was talking with the managing director of uh a medium-sized venture capital firm in London, and he told me that in the year prior, they had received 8,000 applications for funding. 8,000. That's a hundred that's 160 a week, right? That's 32 a day. And if you just make an unsolicited application into a venture capital firm, it's gonna go to the junior the most junior member of the staff who's got a checklist, and you're gonna get maybe 30 to 60 seconds of their attention. Does it make the checklist, in which case it goes on, I'll look at this for five minutes pile, or does it go in the bin? Out of those 8,000 applications, they made 16 investments. Wow. Okay, so it is a so it's a numbers game. It is a numbers game. So anything you can do to bypass that filter and get an introduction to someone through someone they know, like, and trust, then you've got a much better shot at at least getting a pitch meeting.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

No, I'm I'm a real advocate for relational leadership. So, you know, leadership happens through the relationships and the quality of them that you create. And that this is another example of where relationship makes such a difference.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah. In fact, I often I often say to people, you know, you can go onto a venture capitalist website and click the button for founders, you know, upload your pitch deck here.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Well, you're just going to be one of 8,000. So don't go in cold, make sure you've got warm leads, build those relationships, do your research as well. And also do your research in perspective, is this a firm I want to do business with?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

And is this a firm that might or might not invest? So, for instance, many, many of the venture capital firms, some of them are generalists, but most of them are specialists. So they go out and they raise money from university endowment funds, pension funds, insurance companies, investment banks, and they say, This is our investment thesis. So we're a fintech investor. This is our experience. Give us your money, we're going to invest it for you. Well, if you're going, if if I'm a fintech investor, And you're a med tech founder, don't waste my time or yours by sending me your pitch deck. I'm not going to invest in medtech. I only invest in fintech.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

So some very common sense advice coming through there. And what separates those that get funded with those that don't, apart from some of the things you've indicated in how you approach the venture capitalists in the first place. But you know, thinking about going in to make the pitch. What actually makes the difference between those that actually receive the funding and those that don't?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

My immediate response is grit and determination. You've just got to keep working at it. You've just got to keep going. Um you've got to know your business, you've got to know your numbers, you've got to have a really good grip on what's going on. And you really should, where possible, bring in one or two members of your team into the pitch presentation. Because that does two things. Number one, it takes the pressure off of you. Right? So you can, and and and as a finance guy, I'm often involved in these things because it's often the CEO and the CFO and maybe one other who are in there. And so I will take all of the financial questions, I will take all of the valuation questions so that you, as the founder, are free to focus on this is the business, this is my vision, this is my drive, this is my why. Uh, the lady you mentioned beforehand, um, what was her name? Sorry. Julianne Pasman. So Julianne, because of something that happened in her life, created a business to address it that's doing really well. So so that drive, that passion, that that why. Um allow her to stay focused on that. Bring in someone in your team who can deal with all the numbers type questions. And if you're a tech thing, maybe bring your tech person along. Maybe not always, but have them available. And that does two things. It frees up your time and attention space, and it also demonstrates to the investors that it's not just you, that you've got a team of good people.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

And be prepared for bias, is what I'm hearing as well. You are gonna face it. So coming back to that then, how do you believe we can shift the system? What do you think needs to happen? Because it is a systemic issue.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

So in 2022 and 2023, um, together with one of my mentors, um, we tried to raise a fund that was going to invest in female-founded businesses, and we we couldn't get it away. Um, we had issues with investors, and we had issues with the FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority, just regulatory stuff. And it just it frustrates me to this day that we couldn't get it away because we tried so, so hard. And we were talking to major, major institutional investors. We were talking to people like Fidelity and BlackRock and Schroeder's. You know, we got we got an introduction to um Ann Richardson, who's the female chief executive of Fidelity International. We got an introduction to Hanukkah, who's the female chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon. We got an introduction to um Amanda Blanc, who's the female chief executive of Aviva, the big insurance company. And they then passed us on to other people in their companies, and we just got stuck in treacle. What is the block? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

I mean, to hear that even at the IFCA, there's there's stuff going on there that that held you up. It sounds like the um the system is, I mean, well, you describe it as treacle, it sounds completely like treacle.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I mean, part of the block is linked to the regulatory constraints. There is a piece of legislation called the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive, AIFMD. And it basically sets the rules on what is called pooled investment companies. So if it's a company that's going to go out and invest, and the company itself has multiple investors that create a pool of investment, then there are certain regulatory constraints that have to be complied with. And they are typically around um custodianship, um, administration, things like that, where it's almost like you have to bring in a whole bunch of experts around. You can't just run the fund. Whereas if you're a wealthy individual and it's only one person's money, then you don't need to comply with all of this bureaucratic red tape. And we sat down and looked at it when we we were originally trying to raise a fund of 100 million and we we just couldn't get anywhere near. And then we thought, okay, well, let's try and raise 10. And we got three we got soft commitments from people for about three. And we sat down and we realized that the administrative costs of complying would eat up the three million in three years.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Goodness me.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

So we wouldn't even be able to make any investments. So we just said, okay. Is it something you'll revisit? Do you think? I hope to one day. I hope to one day. You know, even even if it's only in my own little way, you know, if I build up my business and sell it and I can do that, you know, even if it's just in my own little way, I really, really would love to do something. Just to be able to go to the system and say, look, I did this and look at the returns. Because there are studies as well, Mary. There are studies from Boston Consulting Group, from McKinsey, uh, from a bank in Australia, I can't remember their name, that demonstrate that businesses that have at least one woman in their founding or senior management team outperform all male businesses. By some measure. The Boston Consulting Group won. Businesses with at least one female founder over an extended period of time generated two and a half times as much revenue per dollar invested.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

This is what seems so crazy. The business case is absolutely sound and solid, isn't it? And yet it's still, there's still so much bias. Just shows you how our emotions conduct, because it's because that's where it comes from. Our emotions, our reactions, our inherent biases that we've been brought up with, how that's running the show, really, rather than that logical, it makes business sense to have women on board and women running businesses.

unknown 28:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Yeah. Yep. Okay. Well, I just want to say, keep doing what you're doing, David, because at least you're there as an ally, making a difference and supporting women with getting funding for their businesses. Let's move on then and talk to you a bit about, you know, you are a really strong ally for women and women running businesses. And you talked about your mother, you talk about your wife and your daughters. And I remember in our prep call you said it's almost like you have no choice but to be an ally, but you are surrounded by these incredible women. So tell us a bit more, particularly about your mother and your upbringing, how that's influenced you.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, so I grew up, I mean, I was I grew up, I was born in 1962, so you know, a while ago. Um, and I remember when one day when I was seven years old, I said to my mom, I really like chocolate chip cookies. And she said, Great, I'll teach you how to bake chocolate chip cookies. And a few years later, when I was 15, and I had my first girlfriend, and I said to my mom, you know, I look smarter when I'm wearing shirts that have been ironed. She says, Yes, you do. I'll teach you how to iron shirts. I still know how to iron shirts to this day. I know how to sew buttons on shirts. You know, my mom taught me all of these things. I'm the youngest of four kids, two boys, two girls. And growing up in our family, there was no gender bias. There was no, you know, this is your job, this is your job, but it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, this is your job, get on with it. And and you know, mom gave us those life skills. And um, and and then I, you know, I was so lucky. I I I met the right girl when I was 17 years old. Uh, so my wife and I will have been together for uh uh 46 years uh this summer, uh, been married 43 years. Um, so you know, and I've learned so much from her. And then we've had two daughters that are, you know, grown up and and making their own lives and in their with their own families now. Um, but I've just I've I've always had strong but softly spoken women in my life. You know, none of them was but they were there and they were they were strong, they were consistent, they were supportive, you know. You've had you've been surrounded by wonderful role models of female leadership, actually. Yeah, I have been, and I'm I'm I'm blessed because of it, you know, and I'm as as I said in in our uh pre-call, I mean, you know, I I I I feel I'm a much better human being because of it.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

And for you, what does meaningful allyship look like in the space of funding for for females?

SPEAKER_01 31:05

So I speak out a lot, I run events, I run an event once a year, um, but I also speak at a number of events. Um, and I'm I'm constantly supporting where I can. Um, you know, in my in my social media, I'm posting about issues, I'm trying to find solutions. Um, I'm I'm connected with a number of other women who are doing a lot of work to drive this. Um in a couple of weeks' time, I'm speaking on a uh when I'm chairing a panel uh that's a um investment forum for um femtech um in the healthcare sector. You know, I mean, I've I've got the book, um, I've got a TEDx talk.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

You are you are a man of action, is what I hear. That's and to me, that's what allyship is all about. It's not just about having good intention, like I'm an ally, I'll be by your side. It's like, no, take action. You are taking so many actions. It's really refreshing to hear all the actions that you're taking. And I think you'll be having a ripple effect, definitely, within the world of funding. Um, that will certainly be making a difference. And I hope, although this this the system might be set in streakle, like treacle of treacle rather than stone, so that gives us some hope. But I hope that those ripples you're making will be making a difference in some shape or form. So, my final question: if we were having this conversation in 10 years' time, what would need to be different for you to feel optimistic?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Well, the ratio of funding would need to be up quite a lot, you know. And it was it was interesting. The the British Business Bank report had one statistic in there where they they estimated that it would be 45 years before the level of funding to female teams was more than 10%. Um, I'd love to see it get up to 5%. I'd love to see it break through 2%, you know, it hasn't since that first year. And there have been you when you look at the curve on the pitch book um site, and this this is free to access, you just Google pitchbook um uh VC Founders by gender, and it'll come up. And the line is pretty much flat all the way. It actually has dipped below 1% a couple of times, which is just shocking. So, as a first step, let's get it through two, let's get it towards five, let's let's get more money. And you know, again, coming back to the Allison Rose thing, you know, 250 billion of incremental money into the British economy. Well, Rachel Reeves wouldn't have a care in the world, you know, and we'd be able to bring taxes down, and all of the all of the millionaires and successful entrepreneurs who've left the country in the last 18 months will come back.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Yeah, benefits absolutely benefits everybody. It does. Yeah. David, how can people connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Uh the easiest way is to connect with me on LinkedIn. Uh it's David B. Horn. Uh so B is my middle initial, and I I I do the middle initial B uh because if you Google David Horn, you get the chief executive of a railway company, you get a Scottish composer, um, you get a strong man, you get a guy who's written about 50 gay novels, and you get me.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

You get you.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Uh, but if you Google David B. Horn, you just get me. David B.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Horn, we that's what that's what we'll look for. And that's David B.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

Horn. And Link LinkedIn is the is the just reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to connect. Or you can go to my website, advenmultiply.com, and there's a contact form there.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Fabulous. And I just want to say a big, big thank you. It's been a shocking conversation in many ways, but a really important one to build awareness of what it's really like for women and what women can do to make a difference for themselves if they're going down that route of venture capitalism. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to the She Leads Collective podcast. If this episode resonated with you, follow the show or share it with a friend and leave a quick review below. Or leave us a comment. Change happens through conversation, so let's keep this one going. Listen out for the next episode and join me as we keep lifting the lid on the stories that matter. Take care and keep leading with heart.