In light of International Women’ Day, the event was organised by co-founders Nitika Vyas and Elisabeth Prager – who want to highlight the barriers faced by women-founders. 72% of women don’t feel empowered to act on their finances, which can mean starting a business or fulfilling any other dream feels out of reach. Fewer than 20% of UK companies are women-led and when women founders do take the leap, just 2p of every £1 in venture capital funding goes to women-led businesses.

Launched in January, the Elevator of Dreams is a place where budding business owners buzz a video doorbell and deliver a 60-second business pitch to the camera with Simon and Richard sharing feedback on their favourite pitches online. Nearly 1,000 founders have pitched so far.

Squibb comments: “It’s great to see more than 100 women queuing outside Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch to come and pitch to the doorbell. We want to see more founders have the confidence to go out there and make their dreams happen. This is a queue that should inspire women everywhere!"  

Nitika and Elisabeth launched their business Aila Money, last year, and are on a mission to empower women to get confident with money, calculate a financial plan and learn how to invest. Their free app, Aila Money: Your Money PT went live in January.

Nitika Vyas comments: “We think the Elevator of Dreams is a fantastic initiative, and we wanted to see more women showing up with confidence to pitch their dreams. Women still face too many barriers and biases in entrepreneurship and in their personal finances, and International Women’s Day is the perfect opportunity to shine a light on these challenges.

"International Women’s Day is about accelerating action, and I’m in awe of what we’ve created today with the support of Virgin StartUp team and Simon Squibb. This is exactly the action we wanted to see, a queue of women wrapped around the hotel, feeling confident and ready to pitch their dreams.

“Today has been an incredible way to showcase so many talented and ambitious women while also providing role models for others. We’re proud to highlight the importance of financial confidence in helping women dream bigger!”  

All the pitches made to the Elevator of Dreams are uploaded to the HelpBnk platform, where founders can connect with other entrepreneurs and potential investors. The top ten pitches will also be supported by Virgin StartUp, Virgin’s not-for-profit organisation, supporting new business founders.  

In 2019, Virgin StartUp launched its own commitment to addressing the gender funding gap for women-founders via a 50/50 pledge to equally fund women and men founders with Start Up Loans. Since 2013, Virgin StartUp has distributed more than £80million in Start Up Loan funding to more than 6,000 founders across the UK, who have gone on to contribute more than £300 million to the national economy.

Diana Greenhalgh, Operations Lead at Virgin StartUp, and an entrepreneur who has started and scaled her own business to acquisition in 2022, adds: “This is exactly what International Women’s Day should be about. It’s an opportunity for us all to think about what we can change to inspire and empower more women to start and scale their own businesses and equip them with the right skills and business advice to set them up on a path to success.”