Flavilla Fongang

This week on Diaspora.nz ... the one and only Rachel Carrell !! Founder & CEO of Koru Kids - the UK's largest childcare network, responsible for training, matching, and providing ongoing support to over 10,000 nannies across London, to date. Joined by special co-host Phoebe Harrop, we discuss: ▶ Rachel's journey from New Zealand to the UK: hustling chocolates and home-grown lottery schemes on the streets of Invercargill; strategising her way into a Rhodes scholarship to “find her people” at the University of Oxford. ▶ The transition from consulting to entrepreneurship, and unique challenges of operating in the healthcare and childcare sectors. Which learnings from consulting transfer over to startups, vs. where she needed to invest in personal growth. ▶ The founding and early days of Koru Kids: addressing the critical need for quality childcare solutions, how the lack of accessible and affordable childcare has profound consequences for individuals and society. ▶ Scaling marketplaces: solving the “cold start problem” … building the supply side of a marketplace when the service provided requires specific qualifications, how to think about (and avoid) “de-platforming” risk. ▶ Insights into fundraising in Europe, particularly for companies in traditionally difficult sectors. Approaching fundraising with a mindset of learning and strategy development. ▶ Raising venture capital while pregnant, advice for other female (and- pregnant) founders who may need to do the same! ▶ Being a non-technical founder building a technical business has its challenges, but both approaches (tech-first or ops-first) can work with trade-offs. ▶ Rachel’s upcoming book! micro interventions with children to shape how they learn and grow. If you weren't already seeing enough of her in your feed — you'll want to hop over and give her a follow after this! Subscribe + listen, share it with a friend... links in comments 👇👇👇👇

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I definitely went full steam ahead about my journey and WHY in this article! Thank you Kristianne Benn (ACILEx) for recommending me to be interviewed for this publication which focuses on inspiring entrepreneurs and creatives. Appreciate you , your resilience, ambition and drive in your journey and how far you have come. #ISeeYouToo 💜 This is my WHY and WHY I think it's important - https://bit.ly/4b7RZRz #WhatsYourWhy #Advocacy #BuildingEachOther #Resilence #YouStory #MarketingConsultant #RiadaConsultancy

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Colin Charles is the UK-raised petty criminal turned multi-award-winning Creative Director of Ghana’s most iconic ads for over a decade. Only Colin can connect the dots but here is what I know. With literally just four months of copywriting experience, Colin landed in Ghana with hotel money for one night and secured a job as the head creative at Ghana’s then-leading advertising agency, Lintas, in a country where he did not speak the language, had never been, and knew almost nothing about. Yet, he managed to become the most respected and awarded Creative Director of that time. What kind of person can pull that off? Colin is not what you would expect. He is by nature more of a storyteller than a copywriter; more of an observer than a designer; and more of a contrarian than a strategist. He champions people over products and cares more about leaving you with a feeling than a message. In the early 2000s, Colin was exactly the kind of unorthodox creative that the industry didn’t know it needed. He broke the rules because he never learned them and didn’t care to. Case in point: Colin once made seven "Only in Ghana" Club Beer ads with not a single product shot in them until he was overheard bragging about it. You see, Colin noticed the Ghanaian quirks that Ghanaians took for granted or were even ashamed of. The commercials he came up with stole our hearts because they made us feel good about our shared cultural eccentricities. He amplified and mirrored our flaws and quirks back to us as something to celebrate and laugh about. He reframed our most common experiences and challenges as lovable moments. He reminded us what we liked about ourselves and each other. Cut to the present day, and I hear he just won an international award for the very first documentary he produced. There is so much to unpack here! This will be a chance to hear a master storyteller break down his experience and process. If you are as curious as I am, like, share, and comment, "Tell your story!" #peakperformancehabits #storytelling #creativity #defiance #learn2thrive

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I was invited to discuss how to build loyalty amongst Gen Z🥹. Yesterday at was invited by Pion to sit on a panel and discuss all the ways to build brand and loyalty amongst Gen Z alongside Simon Squibb & Charu S. hosted by Harriet McCulley 🖤. Simon Squibb was actually someone who I met as a supporter of his work 2 months ago so was a real privilege to share the stage with him just 2 months later. As someone who has built brand loyalty with thousands of Gen Z through my company The Gen Z Club I felt right in my element. Here are my favourite takeaways from the session and no I’m not going to share the boring stuff about being transparent and authentic you have already heard 1 million times. 1. Simon Squibb has millions of followers on Instagram and tikok and has generated millions of views on his YouTube channel. He shared that it took him 4 years of intentionally posting every single day to reach this point. Most people give up after 3 months of posting once a week, Patience is one of the fundamental tools for social media success. 2. Simon Squibb shared that he has the most viewed business YouTube video ever made at 4 million views. This is a long form video. With the rise in YouTube shorts and the organic reach it’s easy to get caught up into only doing short form content. However long form content is really where you are going to build your brand loyalty and connection, it’s also an opportunity to truly show yourself as an expert. 3. I shared on the session my favourite marketing strategy and the most underrated is trial and error. Too many people spend their time and resources trying to make the perfect content, instead of putting content out there and learning what works. 4. There was a really interesting question around the fact Gen Z have been painted as one massive community and not enough is spoken about he sub community’s within Gen Z. I LOVED this point. A black Gen Z will likely have different interests to a Latino , Asian or White Gen Z. Charu S. shared A pregnant Gen Z will have different needs to another Gen Z. It’s important you really understand the person you are trying to speak to and what drives them, what are their pain points. This is why diversity within your organisation is also important. Diversity and inclusion being a buzz word or something that is a charitable act is nonsense. Diversity within your team is the only way you’re going to be able to connect with people from different communities who have different needs and interests as you need diversity in your team to be able to speak the language of the various communities. Your team needs to represent the people you are trying to speak to. If you’re targeting London for example. Your team should be as diverse as London is to reach all the different sub communities effectively. All in all a great session and I hope it was valuable to those that tuned in! Harriet McCulley 🖤 did a great job hosting🔥

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Want to help improve the business environment for #WomenEntrepreneurs around the world? Answering this survey by the World Bank's @Women Business and the Law team and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women would be a great start!

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🔥 Exciting news! Many of you know me as a brand consultant, partnering with global organisations to tackle complex business challenges. But there’s more to my journey than that — I’m also passionate about side hustles! They’re not just for extra income; they’re powerful avenues for personal growth, creativity, networking, and self-confidence. Over the last 18 months, I’ve ventured into property investing, a transformative experience that has deepened my love for learning and allowed me to make a positive impact as a responsible landlord, and provide quality homes for people. Drawing from my years of renovating homes, I launched Victor + Rose, a property sourcing practice designed to help busy professionals like you find exceptional investment opportunities. We specialise in sourcing, analysing, and negotiating below-market-value properties, simplifying the buying process so you can focus on what truly matters. 🌟 Whether you’re a first-time investor or looking to expand your portfolio, we’re here to support you at every step. Visit victorandrose.co.uk to learn more, sign up for exclusive investment opportunities, and stay updated on our special reports and events coming in 2025. Let’s unlock the potential of property investment together and build a community of informed, empowered investors!  💪🏡 #PropertyInvestment #PropertySourcing #Entrepreneurship #VictorAndRose #CommunityBuilding

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Battery and energy storage innovation is key to reaching climate and sustainability goals 👏 so with that in mind - looking forward to supporting the Faraday Battery Challenge and the 18 founders participating on everything #fundraising and #investor related.

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🔈NEWS - I’m joining the Newton Venture Program 2024 cohort to start my VC journey! We know the facts. Less than 2% of VC money in the UK goes to female founders and 0.02% for Black women. But as for the cheque-writers? In Europe, only ~16% of general partners are women. We need more investors that look like me. I want to formally support and advise VC + PE firms: 💵 I’m good at spotting talent + trends 💵 I’ve got a strong network to introduce founders and their businesses into 💵 I’ve got 10+ years in beauty, building community and brand so can mentor brands on how to start, scale or stay relevant 💵 I LOVE a good negotiation and deal I’m the kind of person that wants to understand the whole ecosystem so I’m excited to start this journey. If anyone from a VC or PE firm reads this, please say hello so I can introduce myself too 👋🏽

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Join our Masterclass to discover grant opportunities, learn how to demonstrate your impact, and expand your business. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eFpTreR6 🕔 2 July 2024, 5:30 - 7 PM ( London Time) #socialimpact #changemakers #OnlineEvent #community #makeadifference #socialchange #MakeImpactHappen #SocialImpactGame

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How do you build a brand and create stand-out communications when you're an entrepreneur or start-up on a budget? This is Tom, Alice and Mali - the awesome family behind ORIGIN, the UK’s first non-profit fashion brand. For a few years now they've been leading the way for ethical business practices, and now go further by embedding shared profit value across the supply chain; from the cotton growers to the garment sewers. For them, every penny of profit matters. I was THRILLED when they got in touch to say they had read my book ‘Influence: Powerful Communications, Positive Change’. And over the moon when they said it had provided real value to them. That’s why I wrote this book: because everyone wanting to create a positive impact deserves to have their story heard. And as a largely stay-at-home dad these days, it’s good to know I can still make a difference myself just by having this book out there. Tom and Alice used the book to reignite their value proposition, resulting in bold new brand language proudly on display at the recent Happy Place Festival, established by Fearne Cotton. Tom said: “'Influence' playfully reminded us to define why our brand is special and gave us the confidence to get our key messages back out there again. It's a fun and inspiring manual that helped us redefine our communications. This should be on the essentials list for social entrepreneurs.” If you know a changemaker or campaigner in need of a pocket communications consultant, let them know about Influence. And PLEASE check out originafrica.co.uk to buy great clothes and learn why ethical fashion choices are so important.

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Final day to apply 🕙 could you be part of our 2024 cohort? Today is the last day to apply for a place on our fully-funded Founded by Her programme for women leaders seeking #SeriesA funding.   Below is a snapshot of what to expect from the programme: ✈ Launch event: meet the cohort; learn how investors define Series A and how it differs to earlier rounds; hear from VCs on how they assess new opportunities; lunch with a female founder that has been through the process. 💬 Nailing the details understand what investment documents you need and the science behind creating them; why your narrative plays a more important role at Series A and how to tell a story that stands out.  📈 Strategies and planning: we will explore financial models and growth strategy, discuss managing inbound interest, and exit planning  👩‍🏫 Pitch Practice and Graduation: simulated pitches to a panel of top tier VCs who will provide personalised, constructive feedback on your deck and delivery. ⚖ Tailored insights from our Tax and Legal specialists – relevant to your growth plans. 🎉 Finally, we will celebrate our achievements over a private dinner with the cohort, KPMG and guests. Eligibility criteria and application info can be found here > https://lnkd.in/ercczrcx AND if you’re reading this and you know a woman-led business considering launching a Series A round in the next 6-12 months, please pass this on. #FoundedbyHer #scaleups #programme #venturecapital KPMG | Acceleris KPMG UK

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The challenge of leading creative people A new podcast episode, featuring Ekaterina Solomeina, DLX from Future London Academy. We're cutting straight to the chase on leadership in creativity. This is where the gap—knowing business and leading well—gets filled for top creatives. We discuss why designers must understand business, linking art to money and strategy, and how AI reshapes the creative scene. Enjoy the show at Unfolding — Learn From Creative Legends #businessofdesign #design #creativebusiness #business #content #marketing #sales #sellingcreativity #positioning #creativity #pitching #podcast

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Last week I was invited to a round table discussion on fashion and costume’s crossover impact on climate change hosted by Dr Jules Findley SFHEA and Roberta Mock. There were some really interesting learnings fashion can take from the costume industry, as well as challenges we face collectively. Jules and Roberta asked some phenomenal people to speak about their own practices such as Sandy Black, Ilaria Martello, Dawn Dungate and Jacqueline Shaw (BA, MA, MSC) to name but a few. And the conversations around materials, supply chain, practices and reclaim. Yet there was one singular point that was raised that’s stayed with me since. And that is costume designers design for a long and varied life of their garments. They’re designed to last for decades, and be worn by multiple people. They do this with different construction techniques to the rest of the apparel industry. As one person said; we make our trousers differently to fashion. Waistbands have a centre back seam and the rise and other seam allowances are bigger in order to ensure that it can be adapted over time to multiple bodies. Imagine if all clothes could be adapted to fit. This is something that Deploy do to a similar extent, although I think the costume industry have this nailed a little better. Resale value increases and it provides additional income for tailors. There are some other really great points that I’ll cover later. But this is something I think fashion could take from costume that would improve the lifespan of clothes immensely. Thank you Jules and Roberta for an excellent and exciting discussion. #sustainablefashion #resale #design

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🚨 Attention: Deep tech founders in the Creative Industries! 🚨 @Digital Catapult partners with @Sony Music and Sony Music Publishing UK to support Black founders in growing their businesses closes 7 July. The 13-week programme will support up to 10 deep tech pre-seed and seed startups in the Creative Industries with: - Investment readiness expertise - Coaching & Masterclasses - Mentoring with Sony Music Group experts To be eligible for the programme, applicants must meet the following criteria: - UK-based pre-seed and seed-stage companies in the creative deep tech sector - Applicants looking to raise investment in the next 12 months - Applicants must have at least one founder who self-identifies as Black or multiracial with Black heritage - Are currently working within the creative space (for example music, arts, gaming and advertising) - Applicants must be eligible to receive £20,000 in State Assistance (De Minimis Aid) To be considered, Digital Catapult supports companies using advanced digital technologies including: - Future networks and advanced digital infrastructure (Internet of Things including low-powered wide area networks, NB-IoT, LIFI etc. and includes sensors, edge devices, wearables etc.) - Immersive technologies – extended reality (virtual, augmented, mixed reality and haptics) - Artificial intelligence and machine learning (natural language processing, machine vision, deep learning) - Distributed ledger technologies (blockchain etc.) - Quantum

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If you have any impact news or are a changemaker and would like to be on my podcast then please get in touch on [email protected] #ScaleforGood #ImpactfulFoundersClub #Impactfulbillionairespodcast #DoMore #BeTheImpact #ImpactfulBillionairesClub #podcasts #socent #socialimpact #PurposeLed #makeadifference

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I had the honour to be invited the MA Fashion Entrepreneurship and Innovation Postgraduate showcase at Fashion Business School, London College of Fashion on Tuesday. There was so much creative talent on show, I was honestly blown away, but I was drawn to this piece of work by Elliot Rickerby an MSc Applied Psychology in Fashion Graduate. The title jumped out "We're all suicidal, what's the issue?" Please note, I'm extremely passionate and fully behind the exciting business of fashion, however, we can't hide the pressure's that exist, we need to listen to our next generation of fashion creatives for change to happen. I spoke to Elliot about his research as some of the points raised we're in line with the report on imposter syndrome I co researched and launched in July this year. He sent me his key findings, these are his words :- 👉 Participants detailed a continuous narrative of toxicity and pressure, which is taught and normalised in educational institutes, and often accentuated and furthered in their professional careers. 👉 The capitalist nature of modern fashion suppresses creativity, lowers productivity and damages designers mental health - all in the name of profit. This is a consequence of the fast fashion cycle which has now become the status quo. 👉 Fashion environments are extremely complex places where the lines between comradery and competition are blurred and where those in power leverage their status to project insecurity onto those they manage - perhaps caused by imposter syndrome? 👉 Gen Z hold the future to a more sustainable, human centric industry as they are less tolerable to overworking and value a work-life balance. 👉 The findings from this study align with existing psychological research in other fields, suggesting that fashion is just like any other financially driven industry and is not special. However, before progress can be made, fashion exceptionalism (and the ego that comes with it) needs to die as it prevents the industry from being open to change. What are your thoughts on this, what needs to be done to drive things forward on this, to make the required changes? Is this also happening in your creative industry? Please share in the comments 👇

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Look how excited I am to see my logo on the Sifted Summit screen a year ago. 🙈 We had the audacity to say back then we were building the top community for Asian heritage entrepreneurs, operators and investors in the UK. Some didn't see the vision but Anisah Osman Britton MBE and Sophie Louise Rowe did. They have us a platform ❤️. Seeing the logo in lights felt like validation we could one day join the vanguard of top UK startup communities. +++ We return in a different position a year on. We're no longer the new kids on the block. The community leaders who I once studied from the outside are now peers and in many cases friends. (And we have much better logo than last year 😉). I'm leading a roundtable at #siftedsummit2024 on "Cutting to the chase when building your community" on Wednesday at 14:05. People assume we've been around for way longer than we have with way more resources than we have. There are so many people way more powerful than me who could have built the community we've now proven was needed. Let's cut the BS, you all know that. Everyone knew something should be done but no one wanted to go through the pain of doing the actual work. 🫤 My roundtable will be about how to stop just complaining about the problems and instead taking action. Many of us are powerful in our own ways but convince ourselves we're powerless. Let's change that.

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