46 Women Founders, Two Programmes, One Room: WeScale 3.0 and SheGen6.0 Kick Off in Dublin
On Tuesday 13 October, AwakenHub and AwakenAngels kicked off two of our flagship programmes side by side in Dublin. WeScale 3.0 welcomed 21 scaling founders from across the island of Ireland. SheGen6.0 welcomed 25 early-stage founders, many of whom are taking their very first steps as founders. Video below ↓
The day began with both cohorts in one room, and that was deliberate. Founder journeys aren’t linear, and the people who’ll help you most are often a few steps ahead or a few steps behind. Those first conversations are the start of a community connection that will outlast both programmes.
Thank you to our hosts, Clark Hill Law Dublin
A huge and heartfelt thank you to our hosts at Clark Hill Law Dublin, who welcomed us to their offices at Percy Exchange. Special thanks to Jennifer Fay Edward Johnston and Conor Kenny for sharing your expertise, opening your doors and making everyone feel so welcome.
Having a firm with Clark Hill's international reach, and its depth across corporate, commercial and advisory law, hosting the event and their partners joining us in the room sends a real signal to these founders. It shows the kind of support and networks that are open to them here in Ireland.
WeScale 3.0: 21 women ready to scale
Scaling can be a lonely place. The decisions get bigger and fewer people around you have made them before. WeScale exists to change that, and the day opened with Clare McGee, Denise McQuaid and Martin Spiller meeting the women who’ll be making those decisions over the months ahead.
Marina Mc Cully then welcomed the cohort on behalf of the partners of the Shared Island Enterprise Scheme. Her message was clear: ambitious women founders, North and South, have backing across the whole island.
Then the founders took the floor. Twenty-one women stood up and shared where they’re from and the problem their company solves. In a room like that, you quickly find your future customers, collaborators and sounding boards.
The rest of the day was about growth. Martin Spiller challenged founders to think strategically about where AI fits in their business, not just which tools to try. Founder Ciaran Ryan of Optik took them through finding and reaching the customers who are already out there. Clare McGee closed with an open Q&A on getting the most out of WeScale, because the founders who ask the most questions tend to get the most out of the programme.
SheGen6.0: 25 founders taking their first steps
Next door, a different kind of energy. For many of the 25 women in the SheGen6.0 room, this was their first day calling themselves a founder out loud.
Maria McKeever got things underway with a tour of what lies ahead: the programme modules and the Circle community space where much of the next few weeks will happen. Questions get asked there, wins get shared, and nobody has to figure it out alone.
That’s also the thinking behind Big Sister support. Every founder has someone in her corner who has been there before, helping her build the confidence and the community that early-stage founders so often go without.
In the afternoon it was down to business. Denise McQuaid and Clare McGee took the founders back to the Value Proposition questions every great company has to answer: who is this for, why does it matter to them, and how will it make money? Denise closed the day by setting each founder her next three steps, so nobody left with just inspiration. Everyone walked out with a plan.
Founders sharing their journey and knowledge
A big thank you to the founders who joined us to share their experience.
Deborah Cleary, NoCodeLab.ai, cracked open the AI conversation with an interactive workshop, Build It or Buy It. Founders assessed AI tools, developed their own Product Requirement Document and had a play at building their own AI solutions. Founders discussed product discovery and problem definition. Then dug into ideation and product definition. Mapping out basic user flows, information architecture, and concepts before generating a high-fidelity interactive model with AI. The Build It or Buy It no code play session created serious dashboards, multi screen user experience ideas and starter websites.
Ciaran Ryan shared the experience of building Optik, one platform, ai amplified built for running Go-To-Market for scaling companies. Ciaran talked frankly about the challenges of sales, and of evidencing a sales pipeline for investment rounds and shared how their system uses AI-optimised data, workflows and incredible visibility to ramp up GTM for the founders in the room. Gareth Borrow was the brave sales man who shared a cringeworthy sales call, that still converted to a meeting booked, despite the cock-a-doodle challenges. Key takeaways Founders are Sales people whether we love it or not; and theres help out there to make the best of your sales ability!
A day of learning, building and connecting
Two rooms, two very different stages of the journey, and the same questions underneath. Who is my customer? How do I reach them? Where does AI actually earn its place in my business? What do I do next?
SheGen6.0 founders went back to basics and got their hands dirty, sharpening their value propositions and building their first AI-powered tools. WeScale founders worked on what growth really demands: a clear AI strategy, a route to the right customers, and the sales evidence investors want to see. Both cohorts learned from founders who have been exactly where they are, and nobody left without a plan.
Why we do what we do
What happens when you put women founders in a room together. By mid-morning the noise levels were rising. By lunchtime, introductions had turned into conversations, conversations had turned into connections, and ambitions were visibly growing, from first idea to scale-up.
Women who travelled from across all parts of the island, backing each other from day one. We could not be prouder of the talent in our founder community, and this is exactly why we do what we do.
More about AwakenHub founder supports
SheGenerate is AwakenHub's accelerator-lite programme for early-stage women founders, proudly supported by AIB as Patron Partner and by supporting partner British Business Bank.
The WeScale programme, led by InterTradeIreland in partnership with Invest Northern Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, is supported under the Shared Island Enterprise Scheme, funded by the Government of Ireland. The delivery partner for WeScale is AwakenHub.
More about our supporting partners on the day
About Optik
Optik is an AI-amplified go-to-market platform for B2B sales teams. In one place, teams can define their ideal customer profile, research and enrich leads, and reach buyers by email, phone and LinkedIn. They can then manage deals all the way to closed-won. AI handles the research, drafting, prioritisation and admin, while sellers keep control of the decisions and the relationships. With no minimum seat count, Optik works for everything from one-person sales teams to full revenue organisations. Find out more at optikai.io.
About NoCodeLab.ai
NoCodeLab.ai helps businesses build their own AI capability. The team designs AI systems, trains people to run them, and steps back once teams are AI fluent. Since 2018 it has coached more than 3,000 leaders. Its programmes range from one-to-one coaching for business leaders to accelerator training that turns founders into builders. NoCodeLab.ai is based in Manchester and works with clients worldwide. Find out more at nocodelab.ai.
About Clark Hill
Clark Hill is an international law firm with more than 700 lawyers across 27 offices in the United States, Mexico and Ireland. Its Dublin office was the firm’s first in the European Union. It is led by Partner in Charge Jennifer Fay and advises on corporate and commercial matters, M&A, financial services, fintech, commercial litigation, restructuring and data security. Find out more at clarkhill.com Email: dubinfo@clarkhill.com
Dublin Office 3rd Floor, Percy Exchange, 8-34 Percy Place Dublin 4 D04 P5K3 Ireland +353 (0)1 6613960
