Women entrepreneurs play a key role in driving innovation, creating jobs and driving economic growth in the UK. According to the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, ensuring equal access to opportunities for women could add up to £250bn of new value to the UK economy. Hearing from successful women entrepreneurs can provide valuable insight, inspiration, and guidance to aspiring business owners. By sharing their stories, challenges, and successes, we can pave the way for the next generation of women entrepreneurs.
In this blog, we hear from three amazing women: Nicole Eagan, Chief Strategy and AI Officer at Darktrace, Vicky Brock, CEO at Vistal Works, and Chandini Jain, CEO at Auquan, who share their lived experiences as successful leaders around the world. Let’s hear about it. technology.
Nicole Eagan, co-founder and chief strategy and AI officer at Darktrace, shared her insights and experiences as a successful female entrepreneur. Egan has had an extensive career spanning 30 years in the technology field, working at major technology companies such as Oracle and HP, as well as early stage startups and venture capital. Darktrace is a world leader in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and in 2021 she was named one of TIME magazine’s “Most Influential Companies.”
Egan talks about his motivation for starting his own business: “If you love innovation and thrive in dynamically changing environments, you need to recognize when the career path you’re on or the industry you’re in no longer meets that standard. When to Pivot? It is important to understand this and jump proactively.”
Asked how to deal with fear and doubt, Egan recommends learning from others. “Embrace them. It’s healthy and natural to have fears and doubts,” she recommends. “For entrepreneurs and leaders, overcoming fear and doubt and coming out stronger is a formative and important experience. I want to come out stronger.”
She also shares the secret to her success.
“Three things: tenacity, lifelong learning, and strategic thinking,” Egan says. “Persistence is the unyielding tenacity that allows you to hold fast to your mission even in the face of adversity and weathering storms. Lifelong learning is about exploring, learning, and growing. Strategic thinking (not to be confused with strategic planning) comes from a natural drive to understand what’s going on in the world, in your industry, in your market, and how it affects your customers. Develop a holistic sense of how you can make an impact, so you can capitalize on future trends, become a thought leader, and create new opportunities and future revenue streams.”
Egan is excited about the role Darktrace can and will play in shaping the future of cybersecurity in an AI-enabled world. She believes the industry is at a very exciting inflection point when it comes to artificial intelligence, and new and emerging technologies require organizations to evolve and change the way they think about cybersecurity.
Vicky Brock is a serial entrepreneur and CEO and co-founder of Vistalworks, a technology company that develops AI tools to detect harmful online content and illegal products. Ms Block has won numerous awards for her innovation and leadership, and her company was named one of her ‘Most Innovative Cyber Small Businesses’ of 2023 by the UK Government. Ta.
When starting a business, Block recommends starting with a clear vision of why it’s worth existing and what problem it solves.
“Be sure to check to see if other people are interested in the same issue and have the same problem, or have different pain from the same problem,” Block explains. . “For an idea to work as a business, it needs a market bigger than you and your friends, but people like you may not be the first market or the most valuable market segment to explore. Therefore, understanding who else has an interest and whether they will pay to alleviate the problem is a step that should never be skipped.”
When asked how to be a good leader, Brock is honest, honest, focused, and aims to support his team. She also strives to have the courage to take her first step into the unknown and throw her first punch on behalf of her team. “I hope my team knows I’m always there to support them,” she says. “Their trust and support has made me a better leader.”
Brock’s success is a testament to her resilience, optimism, and determination. She believes that the only thing you can control is how you react to something, and that choosing to endure or adapt to things you can’t change is what makes you resilient. “As an optimist, I believe statistically you will succeed in the end,” she says.
Vistalworks, currently in Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace, provides unique data services to protect end users and online platforms from harmful products and content. The company is raising investment to scale its social impact globally, with the goal of removing 10 million criminal listings and interactions on the open web by 2030.
Chandini Jain is a former trader and engineer who founded Auquan, an AI company that helps financial services professionals extract intelligence from unstructured data. After 10 years of experience in global finance, Jain believes that eliminating the inefficiencies and human error of manual data work allows financial professionals to make strategic decisions faster and with better insight. He founded Auquan to be able to make decisions.
Jain’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to hire a great team, solve urgent problems, and execute exceptionally well. She also emphasizes the importance of pacing herself and maintaining her health over the long term. “Identify what you’re really good at and hire people who are good at what you’re not,” suggests Jain. “That means hiring great people is one of those skills that you have to be good at no matter what. Building a world-class team is about delegating and It cannot be outsourced or outsourced.”
When asked for advice for someone starting their own business, she believes execution is the key ingredient to success.
“Sometimes the most successful startups are those that solve urgent and critical problems in a way that is far better than other options currently available to customers in the market,” she explains. . “Execution is what separates successful startups from failed startups. It’s good to have a great idea, but a mediocre idea executed very well is better than a great idea executed poorly.” .”
Jayne’s mother, a surgeon and a leader in her field, inspired her to pursue her goals with confidence and equality. She believes that good leaders must delegate, unblock, and support their teams. “My mother is a huge inspiration to me. She is an incredibly talented go-getter who is also a surgeon and head of a state surgical department in India!”
What’s next for Oakan? Auquan launched his 2023 AI native intelligence engine product for financial services, and 2024 is shaping up to be a breakout year for the company. Jain is expanding the company’s presence in the U.S. and ensuring Auquan’s customers have a great team with everything they need to be as successful as possible with their products.
The stories of Nicole Egan, Vicki Bullock, and Chandini Jain are a testament to the power of determination, resilience, and hard work. They have overcome challenges and barriers to achieve success in their respective fields, and their experiences are an inspiration to all women aspiring to become entrepreneurs. Embrace your fears, be persistent, and remember to never stop learning. With the right mindset and support, anything is possible.
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