Interview with Bukola M Babajide, Founder of Female Techpreneur

We caught up with Bukola M Babajide, founder of Female Techpreneur to talk all things from closing the gender pay gap to her top tips for female entrepenurs…
 

Tell us about Female Techpreneur

 
The aim is to change the gender investment gap and provide a platform for female tech founders to network and collaborate. The social enterprise hosts forums, conferences and events and facilitates innovation through community and resources for women in tech.

Issues experienced by a majority of women regardless of race or educational background have been tackled thanks to the Equality and Diversity agenda, and that has helped. The uniqueness of the tech membership to offer access to resources, people, funding, coaching and mentoring is also a real plus for the business.

In age terms, FTP is still an infant, but one that has found its legs remarkably quickly. It’s live launch attracted more than 50 tech founders, and international attention followed.

FTP has been designed to help tech businesses learn how to launch, scale-up and exit effectively. Also helping to alleviate all sorts of biases and challenges for females in tech. We aim to connect the underrepresented BAME female, cutting across different age groups across the various tech landscape.

We are a subscription-based membership group with provisions for tech professionals, founders, investors including allied businesses to provide wrap-around support. We want to be the go-to hub for female-led and owned tech start-ups providing an end to end tech start-up platform for both non-tech and tech founders, using our 4 step Framework of Education, Invest, Build & Nurture.
 

How did you come up with the idea for Female Techpreneur?

 
Frustrated by the male-dominated business market, I started Female Techpreneur as a vibrant members club to support the business needs of women. When women start businesses they bring innovation and activate a more equitable, inclusive economy.

I was part of group of ladies that organised a Women In Leadership program – Whilst preparing for my Keynote speech on Tech & women I discovered the gender disparity & lack of representations cutting across the globe. Although the idea was birthed late 2017, we didn’t officially until March 5th 2020 shortly before the lockdown.

With news of not enough female tech founders at the table and many being passed over for funding in a male dominated environment and with me being an ethnic minority what chance do I have?

It excites me to see FTP helping others flourish. Helping businesses succeed is why I started this, it’s my passion, and it is thrilling that this new chapter is being embraced so widely. I knew it was a much-needed business tool, but the response to Techpreneur so far has been overwhelming.

We want clients to be treated as equals, and that doesn’t happen when you segregate. We will welcome any male-led tech businesses who would like to be involved.

What advice would you have for women looking to start their own business?

“If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together” – African proverb.

 
Starting a business is not an issue, staying in business is. Don’t work in isolation, entrepreneurial journey can be exciting and equally challenging and lonely. Join a community of like minds where you can draw strength when you need support and who can cheer you on when you have your WINS. I recommend female techpreneur…for both tech & non-tech founders.

There is no better time than now, some successful businesses were launched during a recession. You may not have it all figured out yet but take the leap, sometimes when we have it all figured out things still do change so why wait forever? The time is now!!! Don’t forget your 3 Ps’ of business product, people & process for success.

Minimise your risk exposure – don’t build a product/service because you think people need it, do your research, launch on an MVP to test the market, make sure you try the idea before you launch big, listen to the feedback and tweak. Identify your target market, ensure there is a problem worth fixing, and focus on using human centred design for your MVP.

Go for it and start small using the MVP approach to minimise risk exposure. Our soon to be launched accelerator program will help to support this.

Believe in yourself – this might sound like what you’ve been hearing but it’s very important for ladies to have self confidence to put themselves and their idea forward in the first instance. If you don’t believe in yourself who else would? You have left people with no choice. Ignore the self-impostor syndrome and be your authentic self.

What can we hope to see from Female Techpreneur in the future?

The future looks bright for community led platforms and we are excited to be one of the few Niche platform focused on supporting females founders in the tech industry.

Introductions, funding access, partnerships and mentoring are a few of the benefits of joining our subscription based membership. We also have a free tier for Professionals’/Interns/Volunteers’ who would like to join our talent boutique.

There are plans for the launch of regional chapters in the UK, and the brand will begin work in the US next spring. A start-up academy is planned for Oct/Nov this year, together with a boutique, which will serve as a job placement and consultancy.