Emmie is a mum of 4, a serial exited entrepreneur and the founder of Female Founders Rise, a community of over 6000 female and non-binary founders in the UK.

She is also a micro angel investor and has invested in over 30 female-led businesses over the last few years. Emmie is passionate about entrepreneurship and helping women to build long-term sustainable companies. 20 years ago she went on Dragons’ Den and got the biggest single investment at the time of £200K from Theo Paphitis.

Liza Tullidge is a seasoned non-executive director, advisor, and serial entrepreneur dedicated to redefining “business as usual.” Her work focuses on integrating sustainability into the core of business operations, transforming how companies operate and thrive. Through her ventures, Maven + Co and Netā, Liza empowers leaders and organisations to adopt sustainable practices that drive both profitability and positive impact.

Laura Elvin is the founder of Iusegenius, engineering compound positive impact through systems change. For startups and corporates, Laura leads on impact investment, blending business strategy, development, data strategy, AI, technology, and growth-focused partnerships. Iusegenius’ cross-sector impact is mapped to impact KPIs in areas including Fintech, Health, Sustainable Consumption, Edtech, Energy, Water, and Quantum. Formerly lead counsel at an impact family office and an entrepreneur from 17, Laura’s experience includes launching UK solar innovations inaugurated by the energy minister. She champions positive impact on platforms like Microsoft, CogX, and the London Stock Exchange.

Hannah’s Tech life started by co-founding Rowe IT in 2008 – a company with one customer, one employee and one simple purpose – make amazing stuff with tech, treat people like people and do all of this without sacrificing its commitment to its people or its community.

Rooted in Cornwall, Rowe has grown to provide interesting jobs and opportunities and has a portfolio of clients across the public sector. In 2024, Rowe IT joined CACI’s IIG group.

Hannah is happiest getting stuck into things she is passionate about – a skill she learned as one of the first woman to train alongside the men when she served as a Royal Navy Officer.  She believes that work culture and environment are what will ultimately define the success of a business.  An advocate for social values, she continues to focus on projects which help raise aspirations and promote equity within business and the wider community.

Emma Osman is a Google Cloud startup success manager dedicated to helping startups achieve their business objectives. She collaborates closely with startup sales teams to identify customer issues, respond to inquiries, and onboard startups to programs that accelerate their growth. Emma‘s goal is to drive startup growth by delivering compelling narratives and innovative solutions.

Jonny Clark is a founder and angel investor, coming from a background in technology policy and economic development. He has worked alongside senior politicians and bluechip industry leaders to drive forward technology entrepreneurship in the UK. He has backed category-defining SaaS businesses throughout the entirety of the UK, and served on a range of boards and steering groups dedicated to advancing the tech economy in order to spread wealth and improve people’s lives.

Stella is the Expansion Lead at Slush, supporting over 20 Slush’D teams across the globe with their events.

Rob’s mission is to empower others to create a better future for the next generation, with impactful venture capital investment as a key pathway. An entrepreneur turned VC, Rob began his career in the British financial sector before founding his first venture capital firm in California in 2012. He later established a subsequent fund in New Zealand. He has invested in almost fifty seed-stage startups globally, achieving multiple exits, and seed-funding his first Unicorn. His focus has been on machine learning, media and gaming convergence, and innovative consumer products.

In 2024, Rob and his family returned to the UK, where he aims to help the local startup market reach its potential. Passionate about Celtic culture, Rob enjoys passing it on to his two sons, Arthur and James. He’s also an amateur palaeontologist, an average snowboarder, and an avid video game enthusiast, much to his wife’s frustration.

Rachael Malthouse is a physiotherapist and current part-time PhD student at the University of Plymouth. Rachael has worked in a range of clinical and project management roles in the UK and Australia. She initially created Jam Up! to support her autistic son with dressing before realising its positive impact for many other autism families. Using a co-production approach, involving over 200 autistic children and their parents/carers, Rachael and the team at Spectrum Tailored Technologies Ltd. have expanded Jam Up! Into a digital platform to empower autistic children with everyday tasks, whilst providing education and support to parents/carers. Jam Up!  has recently been awarded an Innovate UK grant and was winner of Cornwall Slush’d 2023 pitch competition, Runner up in the Essex Care Tech challenge and winner of the University of Birmingham N-CODE Neurological Technologies Pitching competition.

Inspirational, heart-led leader, pragmatic manager, visionary doer. Passionate about businesses succeeding, business leaders being happy, achieving their dreams, fulfilling their full potential and creating brilliant environments for their teams.

Ally is on the Advisory Board for Cornwall Slush’D and will be hosting the ‘From Seed to Success – Cornwall Founders’ Journeys from Start to Exit’ panel discussion. 

Paul is the Founder and Director of Bluefruit Software, an embedded software outsourcing company built on Lean-Agile principles. In 2019, Bluefruit became employee-owned, with employees owning 51% of the company through an Employee Ownership Trust. Paul is a passionate advocate for developing local tech talent and has contributed to initiatives in Cornwall’s tech sector. He is a Founding Director of Tech Cornwall.