For the past few weeks, this Christmas event – #KTCInvestinHER was a top priority and if you’ve been following along, you would know all about it.

As a recap, our aim was to crowdfund the sum of £1,000 to support a growing female entrepreneur in the UK and help her scale in the new year. We thought of it like a mini “Dragons Den”.

Thanks to the generous contributions of supporters, we hit our target of £1,000. We received 11 pitches from awesome female entrepreneurs and all the entries are on our Instagram page.

I started off the day with a brief introduction about the KacheeTee Circle and all the events we’ve had so far, as well as the reasons for opportunity.

Our Speaker Panel

With introductions out of the way, it was time to hear from our panel of amazing speakers – women who are building businesses in the UK and totally smashing it. We spoke to Tokunbo of Tokunbo’s Kitchen – bringing Nigerian food to the world, and Eulanda of Hey, Dip Your Toes In – a travel & food platform

Tokunbo spoke passionately about finding her passion for cooking, obtaining finance and credit facilities to scale as well finding the right opportunities. Eulanda shared so many valuable nuggets on positioning yourself as a business, attracting incredible partnerships and finding your audience/clientele.

The Pitches!

Four finalists were to present on their ideas and proposals. Helena of FAAYDE, who created a travel size cloth stain remover; Zaynab of ZeesChops who was looking to scale her food business; Juditha of JD Speaks – a YouTuber and content creator and Ibukun of The Outliers Circle – a community for international students.

Each of their pitches were excellent – delivered with clarity, personality and emotions!

Judging

Well then. With all the pitches done, it was time for the judges to decide who goes home with the grant. It definitely didn’t look like an easy decision and I had no desire to be in their shoes!

While the judges deliberated, our final speaker Deborah Ajaja, Founder of Colour Celebrations – a luxury gifting company for babies of colour spoke to us passionately about starting her company and product line, finding mentors and the challenges of running a business alongside a demanding day job. So many nuggets that we wish we had more time!

Feedback & Key Note

It was now time to hear from the judges. Before announcing the winner, they gave very encouraging feedback to each of the candidates — highlighting the strengths of their pitches and their business proposals.

In addition, Mrs Elizabeth Ozua one of our judges and our keynote speaker rounded up their thoughts with her own journey in being part of a business for over 24 years. She highlighted her struggles and experience in starting out at Mary Kay UK Ltd and now rising to the role of first Independent National Sales Director.

The Winner!

And finally, the moment many had been waiting for. The winner of the £1,000 and 12 month business coaching and support was Helena Osei-Bonsu of FAAYDE! A well deserved win and we all look forward to seeing her travel size stain removal products in stores shortly.

A Little Something…

Putting yourself forward for such opportunities often demands a lot of courage, and we wanted to encourage these awesome ladies and make sure they left with something tangible for their businesses.

Thanks to our supporters, we were able to gift (i) a free website design (ii) business coaching session and (iii) one year software subscription of choice. These went to Ibukun of The Outliers Circle, Zaynab of Zee’s Chops and Juditha of JD Speaks respectively.

It’s a Wrap!

What a packed day it had been. It was now time to network, eat and mingle.

This event undoubtedly has stretched me the most. I’m super grateful for such a lovely outcome and wonderful feedback. There’s so much that can’t be put into words.

My sincere appreciation goes to everyone who was a part of it in some way. This includes our crowd-funders, speakers, judges, attendees and other supporters and helpers behind the scenes who believed in this vision and made it a reality. Special thanks to Mercy of IMMEIKO for the wonderful photos and being behind the camera.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a joy-filled 2020!