Female Founders - Creative UK

Creative Enterprise is a bespoke set of initiatives developed by Creative UK for ambitious screen businesses to access connections, training and networks to achieve business growth. Its goal is to give film & TV, games, immersive, animation and creative tech companies an advantage in the industry by providing transformational support, opportunities and programmes.

We interviewed Sarah-Louise Jones, Project manager at Creative UK, who runs Creative Enterprise’s Female Founders programme. This is an intensive business support initiative, funded by the BFI and National Lottery, for female-led businesses within the screen industries that are aiming to reach the scale and growth stage. The programme delivers seven months of in-person and online workshops as well as one-to-one business and personal mentoring.

In our interview with Sarah, we find out more about the drivers behind Creative Enterprises’ EDI activity and learn more about the Female Founders programme, including its essential elements and some markers of its success.

What are Creative Enterprises' key motivations for addressing diversity and inclusion?

For Creative Enterprise as a whole, I think all of us, as individuals, are really passionate about this type of work and seeing those voices and people on screen - we're all eager to support representation in the industry. Especially in film and TV, when you get to top-level decision-making and C suites, how many come from a working-class background, a non-white background or from a different religious view?

As a team, we're not solely driven by having to hit KPIs or numbers, we do it because we're all genuinely passionate about it. In fact, we naturally go above the KPIs we have because there are so many amazing filmmakers and game developers from underrepresented backgrounds who just don't get that break, and we really want those voices heard and for their businesses to thrive.

At the end of the day, it's the people sitting in homes in the UK that are consuming [film, TV, games and immersive content], so it needs to be representative of the audience. Personally, that's my motivation for doing it, especially having grown up in the 80s and 90s watching TV as a child. As a working-class female, how many strong protagonist well-produced female characters did you see on TV? 90% of the time they were written, directed and produced by a male. There were rarely truly authentic versions of strong females on our screens. So, my personal view is that even though changes are happening, I want every demographic represented at the top level in the industry so audiences can see themselves, especially young children when they're watching TV.

Also it financially makes sense, recent studies show that for every pound invested, a female led company will tend to deliver more ROI, yet currently only 2% of VC investments go to female led companies. We aim to change this landscape, by providing bespoke and holistic business support to these amazing female led companies, but also through our other Creative Enterprise programmes where we help investors see the benefits of investing in these companies.

How does that embed within the wider work you do or in the wider company strategy?

Within Creative Enterprise, we have a few different programmes and initiatives that directly address these exact things. The one that has been around from the beginning is the Female Founders Programme that is now going into its fifth year now and is targeted at established female-led production companies. We also have a number of other programmes supporting that level, but what we noticed more recently was the lack of representation reaching these mid-level programmes.

So, in 2024, we started a brand new initiative called the Screen Launchpad, which was for anybody working in the screen industries from an unrepresented group. Being immersed in the landscape has allowed us to make those changes; we see what's happening in the industry, and then we're able to implement it from the ground up. Screen Launchpad is for really early-stage businesses who are trying to get the break that some other companies find easier. We give them bespoke business support, to help level the playing field and help them reach that mid-tier level.

What do you believe are the risks of not addressing EDI within the screen industries?

That everything just stagnates and stays as it is. That voices aren't heard the way they should be and things aren't written and produced by the people that should be writing them. One of my biggest pet peeves is when you have a demographic like a female protagonist or a person from a minority background written by a white, middle-class male without the life experience of that demographic - you can tell immediately. We need authenticity in the stories that are produced and told.

What are the essential elements of the Female Founders programme?

We empower female-led screen businesses to take the next steps in their businesses’ development. We have sessions on topics such planning for growth, finance, investment, and markets, but one thing we've introduced more recently is market evolution in the screen industries, because it's adapting and changing so quickly. In the film and TV industries, some companies have been around for 30+ years, some still using traditional methods, so it's about educating them on the vast changes happening, especially with the inclusion of AI, virtual production and working in game engines. We offer seven, day-long workshops and then one-to-one bespoke personal and business mentoring.

We also have two modules in the Female Founders programme that aren't in any other programme. The first one is leadership and management, discovering what type of leader you are currently compared to what type of leader you aspire to be and how that particular type of leader portrays themselves. We also have a session on pitching, which includes coaching on how to present yourself confidently. One of the issues we're hoping to tackle in the programme is imposter syndrome which disproportionately affects female business leaders compared to a lot of their male counterparts. If you tackle imposter syndrome and you tackle confidence, it makes a lot of the other challenges a lot easier to work on.

After year two of the programme, we noticed how strong the network was within the groups, but because it's delivered yearly, the cohorts never got a chance to meet each other. We decided to put together a small conference to bring the two cohorts together in 2022. It was 2 days of workshops, talks, and networking, and it was absolutely amazing - now we build on it year after year. We had the last one in London in September 2024, and we had all four cohorts there. That was the first time we opened it up to external female-led screen businesses too, and it was a sell-out, which was amazing. We had senior figures come and share their expertise from All3Media, Meta, Google, BBC, UKTV, Digital Catapult, Sumo Digital, Team 17 and Barclays. It was all about bringing the network together to learn, share, grow their networks and get to know each other.

Also, it sounds obvious, but when delivering an inclusive programme, we need to be inclusive in the delivery methods. A lot of the women on the programmes are mothers or carers, so we fit delivery around school runs and school holidays, and adjust timings to suit the cohorts needs. We had a newborn baby at the conference, which was so wonderful to see, I’d never been to a conference that allowed children before. You can’t target support at a particular demographic without considering all of the needs of that demographic in the delivery of it.

In your view, what makes the programme successful?

I work on quite a few programmes but what makes Female Founders different is the cohort and the network. That wasn't our initial plan when we started the programme but after the first cohort, we noticed what a strong bond these businesses and women had with each other. I think that's the thing about being female - we're inherently more open to collaboration, being vulnerable and sharing our concerns instead of worrying about being perceived as the biggest and the best. There is so much less competition, and more teamwork and support for each other.

We get these groups of phenomenal women and they share concerns about their businesses and they all rally around with advice and support. We're up to 52 businesses now in the network and they're all really great friends. Having the support of that female-led network and peers really does make a huge difference.

A lot of the great success stories that have come out of the programme has been through the collaborations afterwards. For example, there are now two brand-new businesses that have been set up by people who met on the programme, and countless partnerships. We're just the conduits for these things to happen- we create and provide a safe space to explore options in.

How do you reach female-led businesses in the screen industries to ensure they're able to engage?

Luckily, we already have such a great network - they are our best marketing tool, as well as previous alumni. They come into the programme, experience it first hand, and then go and share it with their peers and colleagues. From an internal team perspective, a lot of it is us going out and meeting them where they are, we don't just expect them to come and find us. 

We go to regional industry events, especially if we know there's a particular hub, and try to reach them that way. We've also got great contacts, which help us be very proactive in going out and finding them. Creative Enterprise also has its own socials and marketing accounts but I'd much prefer to go out and find people because you build stronger relationships when you meet people where they are face-to-face.

What have been the main limitations, challenges or barriers you've experienced in delivering this particular project?

Budgets, in the industry as a whole, funding is becoming more and more scarce, and prices are going up, so now it's up to us as a team to try and deliver the same standard of programme on tighter budgets, which involves a lot more groundwork, a lot more admin, but it is so rewarding overall when you see the final project.

What would you say to other organisations considering delivering similar initiatives?

I mean, why wouldn't you? Despite the recent advancements in this area, there is still a disproportionate lack of females at higher levels and senior positions in the industry, especially in the indie sector, we want authentic female voices represented on screen, so why would you ignore half of your audience by not having these stories told by females? It's super rewarding - it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done personally.

Learn more about how Creative Enterprise is supporting the momentum toward greater equity in the screen industries here.

Explore other case studies today at diversity.wearecreative.uk/case-studies.