Lifted Ventures sat down recently to chat to Debra Leeves, CEO at Vertual and Chair of the Lifted Project Newcastle board after her great insight at the Athena Festival in October on leading the Lifted Project, navigating challenges in business, and empowering female founders.
So Debra, what inspired you to lead the Lifted Project Board in Newcastle?
I had to laugh when Jordan asked me, because I was so busy already sitting on boards and running my own company. But it’s something I feel really passionate about – I know how difficult it is to raise funds. It’s become even more difficult in the past 12-18 months. I mentor a number of women around the country who are trying to raise money or have just raised money and I’ve heard their stories of how hard it has been.
I thought about it, and then I just thought, go for it. I brought in Fozia as vice chair as well, because we’re both so driven and want to change things.
Can you share a bit about your own journey in business?
I’ve been in business for about 40 years. My first degree is pharmacy. For the first 20 years I was in pharmaceutical companies. I ended up in three of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. This taught me a lot about business.
Then I started doing startup companies. I’d gone from companies that had thousands of people to my first startup. There were five of us. That was a bit of a culture shock. You suddenly realized that you’ve got to do this really broad job as opposed to having a quite narrow one. I’ve done five startups in total – All sort of life, science, biotechnology, robotics, medical technology, all of that sort of thing. And along the way, I was investing in companies. I’ve been investing for about 35 years.
What challenges did you face early on in your career, and how did you overcome them?
I’ve generally been the only woman at my level. Science then was quite male dominated. Business was quite male dominated. So my challenges were trying to work out not only how I fitted in, but trying to find and navigate a style that worked for me, but also fitted the culture of the company.
And then later when I was doing startups, the challenges were where do I find this information? How do I register the company? How do I go about filing patents? I knew these were the things that had to be done, but not exactly how to do it. But it’s a small world, the life science and biotech world. So I telephoned loads and loads of people and said, ‘I’ve got to do this. How do I do it? I think having a good network of people really helped.
What do you think is the key to your success?
I think it’s drive and the determination to achieve something. I came from a typical working class family in Hull. My dad was a market trader, my mum worked for Marks and Spencer. Nobody had ever gone to university, I was the first.
Then at university I met people who had these massive ambitions, who were going to do all these grand things, and I thought, yeah, I’d like to do that as well.
It was also curiosity. Each time I did one role I was looking over my shoulder, thinking, well, marketing looks interesting. Finance looks interesting. Mergers and acquisitions looks interesting. I didn’t have this 40 year plan. It was trying to find things that would stretch me. I just kept aiming for the next bit. I wanted to run a team, I wanted to be a manager. Then I thought could I be a director? Could I be a vice President? CEO?
What do you see as the biggest barriers female founders face today?
One of the barriers is that VCs don’t have any females or don’t have a high proportion of females on the investment committee. This is a challenge because when the businesses that women set up appeal to women, so they might be looking at menopause or gynaecology. Then technology or the products don’t resonate with the investment committee because they can’t see a need for it or they don’t fully understand the market.
I’m an investor. I invest in things I understand. If I can see that something sounds like a really good idea, because there’s a gap in that market, and all the competition doesn’t hit the mark. So this new technology or product could meet that need. So if you’re on the investment committee and you’ve got absolutely no idea about heavy menstrual bleeding or menstrual caps you don’t have the experience to understand.
How does the Lifted Project help members navigate challenges like access to funding, networking, or scaling businesses?
It will help women who are either wanting to start business or are in the process of raising funds. At a local level that’s where I think we can help – supporting other women in whatever business challenge they’ve got, because although the businesses are different, the challenges are the same. You can waste a lot of time trying to work out who you need to talk to and time is money. So if you’re wasting a couple of months just trying to get that information because you can’t find it anywhere, then you’re using your cash flow. So you’re not growing your business.
We can help with grants, writing applications. We’ve all written loads of applications in the regional board. We’re helping women founders who are already on that journey, but also with women starting their own business.
They might have a really good idea. How do you take it from an idea to a business? What do you need in terms of resources? Whether it’s cash, people, advice, contacts, etc. It is challenging, starting your own business. It’s hard, but it’s really satisfying as well.
What advice would you give to women who were starting their own businesses?
I think you’ve got to be brave. Put yourself forward, and if you’ve got this fantastic idea, and you still got the same fantastic idea in a year’s time, ask yourself ‘what the hell am I doing about it?’ and just go for it.