The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 shone spotlight on dynamic, female-led enterprises: Greg Wright

The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 awards proved the perfect tonic for anyone seeking reasons to be cheerful about Yorkshire’s economy. For a few hours, the region’s most dynamic enterprises shared the same space, to mingle, swap stories and celebrate their triumphs away from the daily grind. The keynote speaker – Zandra Moore, the CEO of Leeds-based Panintelligence- delivered an address full of empathy, passion and insight; she knows what it’s like to co-found a technology business in Yorkshire, at a time when all the financial roads seemed to lead to London.

But Zandra’s speech showed there is much work still to be done. As a female co-founder of a fast growing business, she is part of an exclusive group. She’s also a member of the Government-backed Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce, which aims to encourage venture capitalists, the wider investment community and the media to recognise the value of female entrepreneurs.

Zandra said she was, in effect, fighting a battle on two fronts. As a woman, she knew she had to work harder than any man just to gain an audience for her ideas in a male-dominated world. The second barrier was geographical. Almost 45 per cent of England’s high growth enterprises are based in London. As the taskforce report notes, only 13 per cent of the UK’s population lives in the capital, so the regional imbalance is glaring.

In order to achieve her ambitions, Zandra has had to “sell” her home city as a place to grow and scale a business to people who may be unfamiliar with Leeds and its innate strengths.

These revelations could make us feel gloomy. But hurdles are there to be jumped over. Last year, a pilot project was launched in Leeds to encourage more women to establish a business. It has proved so successful that it could be rolled out across the UK.

The inaugural Leeds Female Founders lunch took place at last year’s Leeds Digital Festival, along with the launch of the female founders dashboard.

To quote the taskforce’s report: “The event energised the female founders of Leeds to continue a peer community, with the core aim to create a safe, trusted environment in which to learn from each other.”

One female founder said: “Being a female founder can be lonely, sometimes it can feel you’re the only one. This community will give us a licence to be vulnerable, which is a powerful way that women build connections.”

It must be a source of pride that Yorkshire could play a major role in breaking down the barriers that stop female entrepreneurs from achieving their potential. Action to destroy these obstacles will unleash entrepreneurial endeavour that benefits us all.

Greg Wright is the deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post.