The Women Founders, Entrepreneurs, and Innovators Shaping Sister and Beyond

March offered a brilliant moment to celebrate the incredible vision, stories, and achievements of the women leaders and innovators in our Sister community – who aren't just helping to fuel Manchester’s economy but also inspiring the next generation of founders at Sister, across the city, and beyond. 

Now, as we enter an exciting second quarter, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on what happened at Sister during Women’s History Month. From shining the spotlight on some of the incredible women based here, to sharing insights from our second Social Value Networking Breakfast where experts explored: “Stories of Resilience: Building a female-led social enterprise and funding the mission.”

The scale of the opportunity we see at Sister alone is vast, yet data from The Gender Index’s 2025 report shows that in 2024 just one in five active UK companies were women-led – a figure that underscores why championing women in business remains so critical. There is however reason for feeling optimistic, as JP Morgan unveiled that the number of women-led businesses has grown by 160% in the UK over the past 5 years – with women-led firms in the North West now accounting for 28.8% of the region’s high-growth companies. 

At Sister, we believe that building a community that amplifies and supports these female pioneers is a vital part of unlocking the region’s full potential. Read on to find out what we got up in March.

Social Value Networking Breakfast

Last month, we hosted our second Social Value Networking Breakfast, celebrating women driving impactful initiatives across our network. The event fostered cross-sector connections and provided a platform for community leaders to share experiences and explore new collaborations.

Karen Jelenje, Sister’s Community and Social Impact Manager, opened the event reflecting on Sister’s progress since our first Social Value Networking Breakfast back in September 2025, emphasising that meaningful social value stems from visible community presence and long-term partnerships that prioritise shared values over ’business as usual’. We also heard from Richard Phillips, Business Partnerships Lead at Manchester Community Central, who shared insights on bridging the gap between corporate partners and the VCSE sector.

The morning concluded with a panel moderated by Nilofer Khalifa, Director of Growth and Marketing at Impact Reporting, featuring Lisa Riste, Founder of FLAG-Me CIC; Tabi Gazele, Founder of Butterfly Future; and Tracey Torley, CEO at Cracking Good Food. Together, they shared insights on their journeys so far and explored the opportunities and challenges of building and growing purpose-driven organisations.

Here’s a snapshot of the discussion’s key takeaways:

• Partnerships matter: The most impactful initiatives aren’t built alone. They’re built through long-term relationships grounded in shared values.

• Growth isn’t linear: Confidence, resilience, and tackling challenges like imposter syndrome are critical for success.

• Communicate your value: For social enterprises, communicating impact to corporate partners is crucial – and often underestimated.

• Community drives change: Consistent, visible engagement at a local level is what turns intention into impact.

Spotlighting Sister’s Women - Led Businesses 

At Sister, we’re proud to be home to a number of inspiring women-led businesses. Last month, we hosted an intimate morning gathering over breakfast inviting women-led businesses based in the Renold building to take new headshots, get inspired, and network. Alongside this we launched a campaign that dove deeper into the stories of some of the women entrepreneurs based in our Renold Innovation Hub. This included:

• Tabi Gazele – Founder and Director of Butterfly Future, a Greater Manchester-based social enterprise designing and delivering inclusive wellbeing, skills development and creative programmes through music, arts, sport and digital technology. 

• Helen Banks – Founder of Imperfect Pointes, a UK dancewear brand that creates premium ballet essentials designed for the realities of dancers’ lives. Best known for its sustainably made convertible ballet tights and contemporary leotards in inclusive sizes.

• Dr Sahara Bhanot – CEO and Co-Founder of LanthaGen Bio, a biotech start-up focused on developing environmentally-conscious rare earth metal capture systems.

• Dr Lisa Riste – Founder of Flag-Me CIC, a Manchester-based social enterprise that improves medication safety for both the public and healthcare professionals.

Together, we explored what inspired them to start their businesses, their ambitions for the next 3-5 years, and what problem they are on a mission to solve. We also discussed what key challenges they’ve faced as female founders, as well as the opportunities they believe are most exciting right now for entrepreneurs in their sector.

You can explore their answers via the links above, but in the meantime here’s a snapshot of the key advice they wanted to share with other women considering starting a business.

“Find a community of women in business who will support you, uplift you, collaborate with you and will make time to understand your goals and dreams,” says Tabi. “It helps when the journey gets tough and overwhelming and not everybody understands what it's like."

“Do your research. Do some more research,” emphasises Helen. “Then ask yourself if it’s really what you want to consume you for the next few years. But don’t put it off. There’s never a perfect time to take the plunge.”

“Don’t be put off when people say you can’t do something. We’ve faced so much adversity as a team and doubt in what we can achieve, and we strive to prove people wrong daily,” explains Sahara, adding: “I would love to help and give back the support I received in the early days from some outstanding women, so please reach out if there’s anything about our journey that resonates with you!”

“It’s about being able to say ‘no’ to the things that don’t add value or distract from your mission, which we often find hard to do,” says Lisa. “As women, we are brought up to be people pleasers, and the only people we aren’t pleasing is ourselves. So say ‘no’, protect your time and go for it – you never know where it will take you.”

Beyond Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month may be over for another year – but the extraordinary breakthroughs and social change these inspiring female founders, entrepreneurs and innovators achieve have a 365-day impact. Their legacy and successes cannot be contained to a single month, nor should they be celebrated so. Their achievements continue to reshape our community every single day. 

A huge thank you to Tabi, Helen, Sahara, and Lisa for sharing your stories and insights with us – we couldn’t be prouder to have you call Sister home. And thank you to all the brilliant speakers and attendees who joined our Social Value Networking Breakfast – we look forward to connecting again soon!