"The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing"
- Walt Disney
Hello!
I'm Lauren, senior business leader and former startup founder. For the majority of my career I’ve been focussed on innovation, commercial delivery and creating exceptionally high performing teams.
I started my career founding two technology businesses, Zealify & Incredibli, raising funding and working with some exceptional clients along the way, from DueDil to OneFineStay. Alongside founding my own business I also ran a blog profiling high impact Women in Tech to build role models for the next generation of female leaders, Female Founder Fridays.
Following Zealify, I chose to move into Venture Capital and joined Techstars leading the global operations team for Techstars Community programs (Startup Weekend and Startup Week). Over the next 3 years I grew the operations team to deliver 1,000+ events globally with over 4,500 active volunteers and 180,000+ yearly attendees. Companies such as Rover ($1.35bn) and Zapier ($5bn). Subsquently, I took over the Community business unit, commercially the team to help bring entrepreneurial education to every corner of the world.
Since Techstars, I have moved on to lead Marketing and Alliances at AND Digital. Building alliances with globally recognised organisations such as AWS, Snowflake and Contentful. Whilst also managing marketing activity driving revenue for existing and new clients as well as brand awareness. Additionally, I have led the innovation of our proposition in the market; specifically focused on our Equip proposition for Clients to help close the digital skills gap.
Aside from my day to day work, I’m deeply passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation I started my entrepreneurial journey when I was 7 selling apples by the side of the road from a rabbit hutch, and that was just the beginning! I'm passionate about innovation, operations and strategy whether that is working on my own projects or working within companies. I’ve recently written an passage for the book “Find Your 9others” focused on how to surround yourself with great people. You can read more about me here.
For speaking enquires contact me here or for any other reason head over to the contact page or find me on social media.
AND Digital
AND Digital accelerates the development of world-class digital capabilities. Currently running an award winning team scaling operations supporting revenue generating lines of business.
TECHSTARS
Within my work at Techstars I've been able scale entrepreneurial education through Startup Weekend and Startup Week. Leading the business unit responsible for those products.
Zealify
Zealify helps high growth startups showcase their culture & build an employer brand through our SaaS platform. We gained investment and worked with world class clients.
Female Founder Fridays
Whilst running Zealify I began to search for ways to engage with successful female founders to understand their lessons learnt. The interviews quickly grew into a platform to showcase female role models.
Speaking & Mentoring
I've enjoyed speaking and mentoring at various events across the UK.
press
As featured in the Guardian, Radio 5 Live, Evening Standard, Startups.co.uk and more
More about Lauren
Read more about what has inspired me and my entrepreneurial journey.