International Women’s Day 2019 falls on Friday 8th March, and this year we want to showcase one of our favourite initiatives that’s helping to promote female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses in Brighton & Hove. Thrive was set up by women for women, with a goal of increasing the visibility of women in business and sharing the stories and advice that they have.

Thrive Magazine

Thrive puts together a quarterly magazine throughout the year, showcasing the latest business success stories in the city. In addition, it features interviews and advice from experts in all fields from marketing to accountancy (Nilden featured in the latest issue!)

Click here to read the latest issue if Thrive Magazine.

Monthly meet-up

In addition, Thrive run monthly events through Meetup. These serve as peer-to-peer business support sessions, where you can meet and mingle with other female business leaders. Whether it’s a problem you want to bring to the table and see how the group can offer advice and help you find a solution, or maybe you just want to meet like-minded people and find collaboration opportunities and inspiration. Either way, Thrive’s events are one of the must-attend staples of our monthly calendar. And of course, there are free nibbles and drinks included.

A recent meet-up run by Thrive at the Barclays Eagle Labs in Brighton.

How did Thrive begin?

Thrive was set up by Clare Griffiths and Lau Moracchini in response to the lack of business magazines that really speak to female business owners. After winning a grant through Huawei’s Make It Possible campaign in 2018, the first issue of Thrive was put together and published.

We’re at a time when things are slowly changing. Clare found that there’s been an increase in the number of female run start-ups being set up in recent years. Despite this, she also discovered that the number of female entrepreneurs who are setting up businesses still falls way short of the number of men starting new ventures. In addition, in a culture where venture capital and equity crowdfunding are the common routes to early business growth, only a small percentage of women are successfully getting access to the funds they need. So, whilst we’re seeing more and more female run businesses getting off the ground, we’re far from gender equality here. Hence Thrive’s goal is to inspire and inform women in the city, and boost female entrepreneurship in Brighton & Hove and beyond.

Why we love Thrive

We’re incredibly grateful to Thrive for all the great work that they do in promoting amazing businesses and inspirational leaders in the city, and that’s why we want to extend our thanks to them and celebrate all they do this International Women’s Day. They showcase some of the most interesting, thought-provoking, and important new organisations in Brighton & Hove, and help put the city on the map when it comes to its business culture. Thrive is helping to create a more positive and progressive business environment, and enhance the lives of any woman involved in business, from someone with the bare bones of a business idea right through to female leaders of some of Brighton’s most successful businesses.

We think you’d be hard-pressed to find a business community quite like Brighton & Hove’s anywhere in the UK, and one of the reasons our city is so unique is thanks to Thrive and the work they’re doing to create a better culture for female-run businesses.

If you haven’t attended a Thrive Meetup, then join us at the next one! Nilden will be attending the event on 27th March, taking place at the Barclays Eagle Labs at 1 Preston Street, Brighton, BN1 4QU. We hope to see you there.

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