Women in leadership: profiles of UK founders to follow
Climbing an existing ladder is one route to leadership. Building your own is another, and it is the one that gets talked about least when people list female leaders in the UK. Founders do not inherit a seat, they make one, which means their stories tell you something different from the usual boardroom profiles. This is a short, deliberate look at UK women founders worth following, and what their very different paths teach anyone thinking about leading on her own terms.
A list like this is a starting point, not a ranking. The point is not to copy a biography, it is to notice which of these women makes you think, that could be a version of me.
Why women founders are worth following
Founding a company is still far harder for women than for men, and the funding gap is the clearest proof. The government-backed Rose Review, led by Alison Rose and commissioned by the Treasury, found that less than one per cent of UK venture capital goes to businesses founded by all-women teams. Women who build anyway, and build well, are working against that headwind, which is exactly why their routes are instructive.
Following founders rather than only corporate leaders also widens what leadership looks like. Not every woman wants to run someone else’s company. Some want to solve a problem no existing employer is taking seriously, and the women below did precisely that.
Six UK women founders to follow
1. Dame Stephanie Shirley, the original women-first employer
Long before anyone used the phrase women in tech, Dame Stephanie Shirley founded a software company in the 1960s staffed almost entirely by women working from home, many of them mothers pushed out of conventional jobs. She signed early business letters as “Steve” to get past men who would not reply to a woman, and she later gave away most of her fortune. Her story is proof that flexible, women-first working is an old idea that was ignored, not a new one.
2. Anne Boden, who built a bank from nothing
Anne Boden founded Starling Bank, one of very few UK banks built from the ground up by a woman. She has written candidly about raising money as a female founder in finance, a field where women receive a tiny share of investment. Her example matters most to women who do not want to climb an existing ladder but to build a new one in an industry that was not expecting them.
3. Sahar Hashemi, who changed how Britain drinks coffee
Sahar Hashemi co-founded Coffee Republic in the 1990s, helping create the UK high-street coffee culture that is now everywhere. She has since written and spoken widely about entrepreneurial thinking inside and outside big companies. Her path is a reminder that a founder’s real product is often a behaviour change, not just a shop.
4. Romi Savova, who took on the pensions industry
Romi Savova founded PensionBee after a frustrating personal experience trying to move her own pension, and built it into a listed UK fintech. Founders often start from a problem they lived through rather than a market study, and hers is a clean example of turning personal friction into a company.
5. Tania Boler, who built technology the market ignored
Tania Boler founded Elvie, a company making technology for women’s health, a category long overlooked by investors and product teams alike. Building in a space that others dismiss as niche is one of the quiet advantages women founders have, because they see demand that a mostly male investment world keeps missing.
6. Sharmadean Reid, who moved from salon to software
Sharmadean Reid founded the nail salon WAH Nails and later moved into technology, building platforms aimed at helping women work and connect. Her path from a creative, service business into tech shows that founder journeys rarely run in a straight line, and that the skills transfer further than people assume.
What their paths have in common
Look across these six and a few patterns repeat.
They started from a problem, not a plan to be a boss. A pension that would not move, a health need the market ignored, mothers with nowhere flexible to work. The company was the answer to something real.
They built in rooms that were not expecting them. Finance, software, pensions, each of these women entered a field where few founders looked like her, and that scrutiny was part of the job rather than a sign she was in the wrong place.
They made the next woman’s path more believable. Visibility, mentoring and plain stubbornness widen what younger women think is possible. If you are weighing whether to step up yourself, our guide to stepping into your first management role and the broader set of female leaders changing UK workplaces are good companions to this piece.
How to follow founders without copying them
You do not become a founder by imitating one. Borrow the principle, not the biography.
Notice which of these women resonates and ask why, because that instinct is data about you. Follow a few of them where they actually write and speak, on LinkedIn, in interviews, on podcasts, rather than only reading the tidy headline version. And find founders one or two steps ahead of you, not just the famous names, because a woman who raised her first round last year will teach you more this quarter than any household name. If you are thinking about the support side of the journey, whether executive coaching for women is worth it weighs the honest trade-offs.
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Frequently asked questions
Who are some UK women founders worth following?
Widely documented examples include Dame Stephanie Shirley, a software pioneer who built a women-first firm in the 1960s, Anne Boden, who founded Starling Bank, and Sahar Hashemi, who co-founded Coffee Republic. Each built a company in a field that was not expecting a woman to lead it.
Why do so few women get startup funding in the UK?
The government-backed Rose Review found that less than one per cent of UK venture capital goes to all-women founding teams. The causes include investor networks that skew male, bias in how founders are judged, and fewer women in the investment decisions themselves. Women who build successfully do so against that gap.
How can I learn from female leaders and founders?
Borrow the principle rather than the path. Notice which founder resonates and why, follow a few of them where they write and speak, and find mentors one or two steps ahead of you rather than only the famous names. Their routes rarely run in a straight line, which should reassure anyone whose own path has turns in it.
Do I need to start a company to be a leader?
No. Founding is one route and climbing is another, and both are leadership. Following founders simply widens the picture of what leading can look like, which is useful whether or not you ever start a business of your own.
This is educational information, not business or financial advice. For impartial guidance on your rights at work, contact ACAS.
Last reviewed: October 2026