Sophie Winwood’s Post

🎪 Glastonbury festival is one of my favourite places on earth. It is magical. But this year felt extra special. For the first time in the festivals history, the pyramid stage had two female headliners - Dua Lipa and SZA. The legend slot was Shania Twain. The only acts to shut down their stages were Avril Lavigne and the Sugar Babes. Peggy Gou was the first female DJ to headline the park stage. And the best thing? No one even commented on it. It didn’t feel exceptional, unfair or odd. It felt right. When Shania Twain played “man I feel like women”, I turned round to see a group of guys hugged in a circle, jumping up and down and signing at the top of their lungs. A friend turned to me and said “is this equality?” While it’s still mad that this is only just happening in 2024, I’m going to take the win. If we can achieve this in a farm in the south of the UK, maybe there is hope we can achieve it anywhere.

🚨 LAST CALL 🚨 WVC:E Maternity Research We’re conducting research into the experiences of women in VC across Europe having children, taking parental leave and returning to work. We already have 94 responses 🤯 so we only need a few more to hit our target. Please take a few minutes to fill it out if you haven't already, or share and comment on this post to increase reach. We will OF COURSE be sharing the results and insights back to the community, so the more responses we get, the richer the data will be. Have your say. Link in comments. Thank you! 💜

Excited to announce that I'll be speaking at Turing Fest 2024 (July 9th-10th, Edinburgh)! I’m looking forward to joining like-minded leaders, founders, and innovators for great conversation, speaker round tables, networking, ”mind meld“ sessions, and maybe even a party or two. See you there! You can book tickets and find out more more about Turing Fest here: www.turingfest.com #TuringFest #tech Also I have a special discount code for women in VC, please DM me!

We are half way through the year HOW 🤯 Check out the awesome wins from the WVC:E community and help me celebrate 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Missing someone? Comment with their name and achievement and I will update the post Funds Breega launches $75m African fund Italian Founders Fund, backed by 100 Italian founders, closes a €50m fund. People Alessandra Mazzilli joins Earlybird Venture Capital’s Digital West investment team. Alena Schollmayer joins Allianz Investment Management. Magda Posluszny joins Partech as Principal.

Excited about this. Get involved 👇

WVC:E Maternity Research - 2 mins appreciated! 🙏🙏🙏 We’re conducting research into the experiences of women in VC having children, taking parental leave and returning to work. We will be gathering insights on industry issues and best practice, which will be shared back to the community. We’d 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 if you could take 2 minutes to complete this anonymous form if you have any views on this topic. Link in the comments.

I love being an investor in Opply. Not only is it a catagory defining company, distrusting a huge industry, run by the best founders (Helen Murphy & Martin Postel). BUT ALSO when I’m invited to speak at an event of theirs, I leave with loads of amazing food (+ Opply flowers 😍) If you are a food or beverage brand and couldn’t make it to this mornings sessions on raising funding, don’t forget to check out Opply who can help with your sourcing and supply chain needs!

Wohooo 1k babbieeeeee

When I saw Alma Angels were doing a Summit, I knew I wanted to support. I have been admiring the work Roxane Sanguinetti 😃 David Fogel and the team have been doing from afar, and have been so impressed by the progress they have made. It's so aligned with our mission at WVC:E and such an important part of the ecosystem. Shout out to my check in buddies Rachel Drapper and Hanadi Jabado DL, we crushed it 💪🏻 So so lovely to catch up (even if very briefly!) with Deepali Nangia Chenelle Ansah Triin Linamagi Folake Shasanya June Angelides MBE Abi Mohamed And very fortunate to get a last min call up to sit on a panel with Pip Jamieson and my absolute fav Nina Mohanty, to discuss how to get the most value out of your investors (which I feel both Roxane Sanguinetti and I could keep discussing for hours!). If you are interested in angel investing but want to learn more, do get in touch with me or Alma Angels - it's very fun, and potentially hugely financially rewarding. We need you!!!