Founder-led · Non-profit

Helping women founders
stay in power & succeed.

Your success is our success. When you win, you give back your wisdom, networks and experience to lift the next generation. We shout about you. We share our networks together to build the strongest worldwide community for women in business.

London · Cambridge · Paris · Dubai
Super-connector network — warm intros, co-working, curated events
Free AI agent — build with AI, get feedback, connections & support
Always free — aligned with founders, transparent about our own funding
Research-driven — measurable outcomes, tracked metrics, published results

Your success is
our success.

We take your privacy seriously. Your data is securely stored, never sold, and only used to support your experience on the network.

Application received.

We review every application personally
and will be in touch within 2–4 weeks.

£5M+
Raised by our founders
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Successful exits
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Founders in network
4
Cities worldwide
She Leads community
The community
Founders who show up
for each other
She Leads events
In-person events
Curated. Intimate.
Real conversations.
Our Mission

We're making it
equal at the top.

Women disproportionately face barriers to capital, networks and power — not because of capability, but because of a system not built with them in mind. We track every outcome. We measure every intervention. We publish the evidence. And we never stop until the numbers change.

2%
of all UK VC goes to all-female founding teams
British Business Bank, 2023
1 in 3
women in mixed-gender teams report being sidelined as investor pressure grows
Founders Forum / Rose Review, 2023
£250B
added to the UK economy if women started businesses at the same rate as men
Alison Rose Review
Women who co-found with men are more likely to be pushed into operational rather than strategic roles — and less likely to hold the CEO title at exit.
First Round Capital, State of Startups
Female founders receive lower valuations for identical pitches, are asked different questions, and held to a higher standard than male peers.
Journal of Business Venturing
What we do

Research. Advocacy.
Community.

We operate on effective impact principles: set measurable goals, track outcomes rigorously, publish what works and what doesn't, and double down on the interventions that move the needle.

We're a registered non-profit — and we commit to full transparency on our own sources of funding, always staying aligned with founders' interests, never investors'.

⚬ Registered Non-Profit · Funding sources published

Measurable Impact

We track capital raised, exits achieved, board seats held and jobs created by our members. Every metric published openly — no vanity numbers.

Free AI Agent

Every member gets access to a free AI agent to help build their business — feedback on decks, research, connections and strategy, available 24/7.

Radical Transparency

We publish our own funding sources and governance structure. We will never take money from investors that conflicts with our founders' interests.

Research & Advocacy

Evidence-based studies briefed to government and investors. We don't just name the problem — we bring the data that forces change.

Where we meet

In-person in four cities.

🇬🇧
London
Flagship chapter
🇬🇧
Cambridge
Where it all began
🇫🇷
Paris
New chapter
🇦🇪
Dubai
Overseas chapter
Who we are

Founded by women founders.
Run for women founders.

IRIS was created because women founders kept hitting the same walls — not because they weren't good enough, but because the rooms where decisions get made were closed to them.

We're a community built on the belief that the best way to change a system is to build a better one alongside it. A super-connector network where success is shared, knowledge flows back through the community, and no founder has to figure it out alone.

We're a registered non-profit. Every penny we raise goes back into the community. We publish our funding sources and governance — always.

£5M+
Raised by founders in our community — and counting
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Successful exits from our network
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Founders currently in the network
4
Cities — London, Cambridge, Paris & Dubai

What we believe.

01

Your success is our success

When a member exits, raises, or scales — we celebrate it, shout about it, and ask them to bring that knowledge back into the room for the next generation.

02

Measure everything

We operate on effective impact principles. Every intervention is tracked, every outcome published. No vanity metrics. If it doesn't move the needle, we stop doing it.

03

Radical transparency

We publish our own funding sources, governance and impact data. We will never take money from investors whose interests conflict with our founders'.

04

Access for all

Free membership, subsidised programmes, open-access research. Cost should never be a barrier to belonging to this community.

05

Evidence over narrative

We commission rigorous research and brief policymakers and investors with data — not anecdote. Change comes from evidence that's hard to ignore.

06

Build the network together

Every member is a connector. We share our networks openly, make warm introductions generously, and build the strongest worldwide community for women in business.

Transparency

Aligned with founders.
Always.

We commit to publishing our sources of funding, how decisions are made, and what our money is spent on. If we ever receive funding that creates a conflict of interest with our members, we'll say so — and turn it down.

Funding sources

All sources of funding published openly. We don't take money from investors whose interests conflict with our founders'.

Impact metrics

Capital raised, exits, board seats, jobs created — tracked and published quarterly. The numbers are real or they don't go up.

Governance

Registered non-profit with a founder-led board. Decisions made by and for the community, not outside stakeholders.

Join us

Ready to join a slightly unhinged
(in a good way) crew?

Founders who've got your back, plus a super AI agent that works harder than your last co-founder. Free membership. Four cities. No catch.

IRIS
IRIS AI

AI you can trust.

IRIS AI is the AI we are building for ourselves — designed to support how female founders connect, grow, and access opportunity.

The problem

Access to networks, capital, and intelligence systems remains concentrated — reinforcing the same patterns of exclusion. The system was not built for us.

Our approach

We are not waiting to be included. We are building the infrastructure ourselves. IRIS AI is part of that shift — designed within a female founder-led network, for the needs, realities, and ambitions of the founders it serves.

What IRIS AI does

It is designed to support founders, not extract from them.

Why this matters

If AI systems are built without us, they will not serve us. IRIS AI ensures that the intelligence shaping the future of this network is aligned with our priorities, shaped by our data, and built with our perspective at the centre.

Open participation
Shared intelligence
Distributed opportunity
Founder-led systems
Resources

Everything you need
to beat the odds.

Free tools, research, frameworks and connections — built for women founders navigating a system not designed for them.

Funding Tracker

Live data on VC firms actively backing women founders, updated by the community. Who's writing cheques, at what stage, and what they're looking for.

Community-maintained

Research Library

Every study we've commissioned and published — on investor bias, board dynamics, and what actually moves the needle. Open access, always.

Open access

Founder Stories

Honest, unfiltered accounts from IRIS founders — the fundraises, the failures, the exits, and what they wish they'd known. No PR spin.

Members + public

Legal Templates

Founder agreements, cap table guides and term sheet explainers — contributed by lawyers and founders who've been through it. Free to use.

Free to use

Adviser Matching

Get matched with an exited female founder in your sector. A curated, personal introduction to someone who's navigated exactly what you're facing.

Members only

Impact Dashboard

Our live metrics: capital raised, exits achieved, board seats gained, jobs created. We track every outcome and publish the data. No vanity numbers — ever.

Live · Public
Free for all members

Your AI agent.
Always on.

Every IRIS member gets a free AI agent trained on founder knowledge, investor patterns and business-building frameworks. Available 24/7 — it helps you think through decisions, prepare for fundraises, review decks and find connections.

Pitch deck feedback & investor prep
Investor research & warm intro suggestions
Term sheet & legal document review
Strategic sounding board, 24/7
Connection recommendations across the network