Hi there,
I’m hoping we’ll get to see you at the fundraising meetup in May.
A chance to meet IRL with other female founders and hear from a panel of investors on May 7th. And then in June, we’re bringing our fundraising meetups to Manchester!
Also in other news, Rupa Popat, founder of Araya Ventures, a VC fund, and an exited founder, will be joining us for the live launch of The Female Founders Rise Show - a perfect opportunity for those raising to hear Rupa in action.
Sending love,
Emmie
IN-PERSON & ONLINE EVENTS
[London] Fundraising Meet Rescheduled (Due to Strike Action) > Join us at Shoosmiths on May 7th from 9 am to 11 am to explore all things fundraising with our panel: Emma Steele, Ascension VC, Dan Bowyer, Superseed VC and Catalina Schveninger, Emerge Education >> Register here
[London] AI Workshop for Female Founders > Join Emmie Faust and Siddhi Mittal for their second AI workshop on May 11th, focused on growth
from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. FFR members can use FFR25 for a discount >> Register here[London] Launch on Female Founders Rise Show > Join Emmie Faust and Mae Yip for the launch of their new podcast, kicking things off with a live recording at a gorgeous female-founded venue, The Fable, on May 21st from 5:45 pm to 8:45 pm >> Register here
[Manchester] Rethinking Productivity for Women > 30th April, 5:30 pm to 8 pm - join the Manchester Chapter leads with speakers Maggie McDaris (Founder & CEO of Phase) and Emma-Louise Fusari RGN (Founder of In-House Health) for a fireside chat on all things women’s health >> Register here
WORD FROM DAN
AI and Jobs - What’s Really Happening?
As a heartless VC, I spend most of my time exploring how I can crush people's livelihoods and make unreasonable amounts of cash investing in AI, while waxing my moustache.
This weekend, I stumbled upon the Iceberg Index by MIT and had the rude awakening that I'm already too late to the party.
It's a super interesting paper if you fancy a geek out. In essence, it explores how AI will impact employment and labour markets by simulating 151 million American workers and 13,000 AI tools across 32,000 skills.
Note (as this is important): their methodology looks at tasks, NOT jobs.
TL;DR: 11.7% of US wage value, roughly $1.2 trillion, sits in roles where AI can already do the work, and already is in many instances.
It's just not being tracked.
What we see in the press, the visible stuff we already know, e.g. software engineers, DS, analysts, etc., is just 2.2%. The rest is underwater, hence the Iceberg - these are roles across finance, admin, legal, prof services, etc.
What we're not measuring is five times larger than what's on the surface.
So, AI has already taken your job, you just don't know it yet, because the way governments track "employment" and the way the media portrays the topic - is redundant.
What does this mean for startups, investors, our ecosystem?
More in this article
PS, where there’s gloom and doom, there’s opportunity.
With love
Dan x
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/
FOUNDER WINS
We’ve just kicked off Cohort 8 of our Fundraising Accelerator, and our successful founders have already been sharing the excitement on LinkedIn.
Welcome to Sumeeta Ahluwali, Rhianne Hogan, Ilaria Biancacci, and Alexa Fernandez, a few of many who have made it onto the cohort. We’re excited to see what you achieve!
Jennie Bayliss has secured 20% of her round for LetterBox Cocktails, award-winning premium cocktails at home.
RESOURCES & EVENTS
1 . Fundraising Ask Me Anything with Carmel and Dan > Rewatch the AMA for mega learnings on fundraising at the crossroads of tech and impact >> Watch here
2. Finding investors and Nailing your Valuation > Great learnings from Sam here on finding investors, start-up evaluation, and valuation agreement >> Watch here
3. Founder Catalyst > What's Changed: EMI and EIS Reforms from 6 April 2026 >> Read here
4. Upside Podcast with Dan Bowyer > A year ago, Anthropic was doing $1 billion ARR. Now they're doing $30 billion. $600 to $800 billion of capex is going into the ground this year. To justify that you need AI revenue to hit a trillion >> Watch here
5. Latest research from Lean In (Sheryl Sandberg) > finds that women are less likely than men to have ever used AI on the job -and less likely to have made it a daily habit >> Explore our research hub here
6. Barclays Eagle Labs > Get your business visible to 800 + investors and corporates by sharing your deck on their Demo Directory >> Join here
7. If you haven’t yet read The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship 2026, download the report directly here
Have a great week,
Love from Emmie, Dan & Lea
Who are we
Emmie - Founder of FFR
Dan - VC leading on the accelerator/ fundraising content
Lea - Runs all things fundraising at FFR