Show Notes
Sam Smith is a trailblazing entrepreneur, board advisor, and is a passionate advocate for inclusive, purposeful business. Best known as the founding CEO of FinCap, the first female led stockbroking firm in the city, she led the business from a startup within JMFinn to a £50 million investment bank, supporting hundreds of growth companies along their scale and exit journeys. Over 24 years, Sam built what became Cavendish Financial on principles she still champions today: empathetic leadership, inclusive culture, and high impact governance. Her bestselling book, the Secret Source, captures the mindset behind super scaling, empowering talent while staying true to purpose. It's no surprise that one of her favourite reads is Grit by Angela Duckworth, a philosophy she's lived by through every deal, boardroom and pivot points. She now holds multiple NED roles across a range of sectors. In 2023, she co-founded The SuperScalers alongside Rosaleen Blair, CBE, and Ollie Barrett, MBE, a global community on a mission to help underrepresented founders grow from £1 million to £50 million+ in revenue. By connecting high potential entrepreneurs with those who've already scaled, The SuperScalers is shifting the narrative of who gets to build big. Sam is also a committed voice for equity in entrepreneurship. She's advised the UK Government's Taskforce for women-led high growth businesses, contributes to the Scale Up Institute's work on female-led scale-ups, sits on the Everywoman advisory board and is a patron of the Entrepreneurs Network. She's currently campaigning to integrate entrepreneurship into the school curriculum, giving every young person, regardless of background, the tools to shape their own future. This podcast interview was recorded on 18 June, 2025. We cover the following: 00:11 Meet Sam Smith 02:33 The UK scale-up story for women 03:18 Challenges and opportunities for female founders 04:44 The importance of community and the ecosystem 04:57 Leadership styles and cultural shifts 05:51 Blind spots 08:31 Funding and capital issues 11:02 The role of government 17:09 Inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem 26:33 The power of community 29:38 Building an inclusive innovation ecosystem 29:55 Challenges faced by female founders 30:29 A new financial system for women 31:12 The importance of inclusion in entrepreneurship 34:27 The potential of the UK in the global market 38:03 The need for a coordinated entrepreneurial ecosystem 40:41 Future vision for the UK scale-up ecosystem 42:49 The importance of education in entrepreneurship 51:44 Action plan for supporting female founders 56:06 Final thoughts.
***
More from The Purse Podcast
Lindy Claassen is a Certified Financial Planner and Wealth Planner at Brown Shipley, part of Quintet Private Bank, with more than a decade of experience in financial planning across South Africa and the UK. She began her career with Old Mutual in South Africa before moving to the UK, where she went on to work with Quilter Private Client Advisers and Balance Wealth Planning before joining Brown Shipley. Today, Lindy advises individuals and families on complex financial planning, with particular experience in retirement, estate and succession planning. Lindy is particularly interested in how the relationship between women and wealth is evolving, as more women become wealth creators, investors and capital allocators. We cover the following in our conversation: 0:00 Welcome 01:49 Lindy’s early money story 05:36 The 'Great Wealth Transfer' shift 09:30 How wealth management firms adapt 14:59 Who women clients are now 18:40 From saving to investing 21:16 Purpose beyond returns 24:37 Angel investing 30:28 Legacy and tax planning 33:09 The future of women and capital 35:56 Final thoughts
Marianne Abib-Pech, an international finance executive, investor, and author. Marianne previously led the strategic repositioning and expansion of Shell Aviation, a $30 billion global business, and went on to found LTF Partners and co-found Transitions First.She is now leading the development of a new industrial capital platform targeting $300 million to support the commercialisation and scale-up of industrial deep tech.Marianne is also the author of The FT Guide to Leadership. We cover the following in our conversation: 2:30 – Non-obvious patterns investors miss about industrial vs. software value creation (the "J curve") 5:12 – Why industrial investing requires underwriting an entire system, not just a technology 8:36 – Case study: AgriLoops, going from pilot to physical plant 10:55 – Where traditional VC breaks down for long-cycle, capital-intensive sectors 14:26 – The funding architecture problem and how to redesign it 17:11 – "Bits vs. atoms": the shift back toward industrial/physical investment 22:47 – Geopolitics: US-Iran, Russia, supply chain fragmentation reshaping capital flows 27:30 – Europe's opportunity to lead in industrial deep tech 32:10 – Lessons from Shell Aviation: process discipline, security of supply, collaboration over competition 35:53 – M&A in frontier markets: risk vs. perception of risk, pattern recognition over "intuition" 46:02 – The GE furnace analogy for continuous industrial systems 46:17 – Where AI creates real defensible value in physical industries (and where capital is mis-priced) 50:32 – Leadership in an age of AI and geopolitical uncertainty 51:35 – "It's courage" , one-word definition of leadership today 55:24 – Women in investing and cognitive diversity in deep tech 58:30 – Closing question: what's systematically underestimated — society's capacity to build 60:54 – Final thoughts
Sana Kapadia is Chief Catalyst at Heading for Change, investing in solutions that advance climate, nature, biodiversity and gender equality. Her career has spanned gender and climate finance, impact investing and equity research. She is focused on leveraging capital as a tool for social change and to support deep and intersectional systemic shifts. We cover the following in our conversation: 00:00 Welcome 01:44 Heading for Change mission 04:51 Why gender lens matters 08:41 Suzanne Biegel legacy 12:18 Understanding the 2X Challenge 14:33 From niche to mainstream 18:54 Climate and gender nexus 25:25 Inner work of systems change 29:44 Generational shifts in capital 32:02 Care economy as infrastructure 36:08 Measuring inclusion and impact 38:46 ESG and DEI backlash 41:33 Staying the course together 44:54 Redesigning finance for equity. **** The reports mentioned in this episode are: Heading for Change Insights Reports Investment Toolkit & Guidance Other climate and gender Tools, Resources Climate & gender investing overview Tools Metrics Gender care and climate rubric Project Catalyst & SAGE Criterion report Pivotal care economy report ***
Triin Linamagi is the Founding Partner of Arãya Sie Fund, an early-stage venture fund backing the next generation of women-led businesses in the UK and Europe. The fund invests at the pre-seed and seed stage across healthcare, climate, fintech, and deeptech/AI. She is also the Founder and CEO of Sie Ventures, an angel syndicate and capital platform. Sie Ventures improves access to high-quality investment opportunities for angel investors while supporting women founders through dedicated programs to help them fund and scale their ventures. Triin brings over a decade of investment experience across multiple venture capital funds. Prior to her career in VC, she spent several years as a founder and operator building technology companies, giving her a unique dual perspective as both investor and entrepreneur.
Dr Georgia Fleet is a scientist turned entrepreneur on a mission to tackle one of healthcare's most persistent challenges: hospital-acquired infections. She founded Zonova on International Women's Day in 2023 and is as CEO & Co-Founder. A materials scientist by training, Georgia spotted how medical devices drive hospital infections, and how few commercial solutions exist to address it. Three years on, the company's Z-ROS® antimicrobial materials platform is in active commercial discussions with global device manufacturers to make hospital-acquired infections a problem of the past. Georgia is a 2024/25 Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award winner, named Most Disruptive at Women in Tech EU 2025 and was listed #1 in TechRound's Top 50 Women in Startups & Tech in 2026 - recognising her commitment to impact, innovation, and women in STEM. We cover the following in our conversation: 01:59 Why hospital infections persist 04:40 Breakthrough: The "aha" moment 06:50 Pivot to platform model 08:25 Founder market fit 11:05 Fundraising reality check 17:20 Pitching platform and hiring CCO 19:43 Women investors 27:30 Fundraising experience 30:06 IP and impact strategy 31:44 Looking ahead: Ten year vision 33:51 Advice for new women investors 36:38 Final thoughts