AwakenHub Takes New York – Channeling St. Brigid on our 1st trade mission to New York
Last week saw 20 women travel to New York as part of AwakenHub’s first trade mission. When we heard that St.Brigid’s Day was going to become an official Bank Holiday for the first time in 2023 we thought no better time to channel the spirit of discovery, tenacity and opportunity by organising a series of events and meet-ups to for the AwakenHub Co-founding team, 12 women founders and a couple of our Big Sisters Louise O’Conor, Gillian McGolgan and honorary John Ferris.
And what a week we had fueled by our belief in the allyship ‘if we build it they will come’ and backed significantly by our Global Diaspora Ambassador Mary Ann Pierce, her team at MAP Digital and the support of Invest NI Americas, Digital Irish and the Irish Consul General, Helana Nolan and her wonderful team at the Irish Consulate Office in New York.
“An exceptional week, celebrating extraordinary women, AwakenHub took New York!”
The week came and went in a whirlwind of activity kicking off as invited guests at the Irish Consulate St. Brigid’s Day Breakfast with incredible Irish connected women speaking about their journey to success through resilience and self-belief, often despite the naysayers, including Jennifer Muldowney (The Glam Reaper) and Una Neary of Blackrock. We also had the immense pleasure of hearing from Aissata Camara of the New York Mayors Office whose belief system is based on finding your seat at the table and if one doesn’t exist, build your own seat AND if you don’t like the table then build your own one of them too.
Our lynchpin St. Brigid’s Day Pitch event was held in partnership with Digital Irish and MAP Digital with thanks to the Bank of Ireland NYC Hub for allowing us to use their space. Little did we expect to be significantly over-subscribed to the invite only event with every inch of the venue occupied by investors, family firms, advocates and allies of women founders.
“An absolutely incredible evening surrounded by people passionate about paving the way forward for female founders across the Island of Ireland. Truly excited to see what the next chapter AwakenHub has especially as us pitchers prepare to be in New York a lot more often! ”
The AwakenHub Co-founders shared the journey of building the community over the last 2.5 years from a lockdown online event for 60 people to a subscriber list heading towards the 3k mark. Our social impact mission to remove barriers to investment, scale and success by creating more connected, confident, capable, resilience and investor/scalable ready women founders also hit the mark with inbound interest increasing our reach into the USA. We are unapologetic in ploughing our own path, finding a way to fundamentally change the landscape through positive intervention and bring everyone and anyone who wants to be part of the journey with us.
Six of our women founders pitched to perfection and we will be sharing these with you across our social media channels. The prep was obvious as they delivered sharp and targeted asks to the attendees and the followups will be significant as inbound interest was evident on the night and since the event.
You can watch back snippets of the event HERE.
“It was a fantastic launch event. I’m so excited that I got to be part of this incredible story with AwakenHub . Getting to showcase RugbySmarts alongside the other amazing female founders was a privilege. I can’t wait to see what happens next. ”
We closed out the session with an update on our planned AwakenAngels women led investor syndicate which will be a game changer in democratising the investor landscape for women as investors and founders.
As if that wasn’t enough, our founders were busy having pre-set meetings with local support agencies, prospective clients and investors in between our formal sessions.
To end the week we were invited back to the Irish Consulate to be their special guests at the First Friday breakfast to a jam packed room. We cannot thank the team for the warmth of their welcome and willingness to accommodate a larger than usual guest list. And final stop of the day was at the offices of White and Williams LLP with Nicole O’Sullivan sharing some insights with our founders on doing business in the USA. Thanks Nicole.
It also needs to be said that like all start-ups, of which AwakenHub is in itself, there is no such thing as overnight success. We described AwakenHub from day one as a community and not a network. We all know the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.The same applies for building something as special as AwakenHub and we would not be at this stage in terms of our reach and capacity were it not for those who have supported us over the last 2.5 years. So a huge thank you to Ulster Bank NI, InterTrade Ireland, AIB, British Business Bank, Catalyst, Taylor Wessing, Women In Business Northern Ireland, MAP Digital, Qubis and Donegal County Council for their support and to acknowledge Rethink Ireland and Pulsar for their initial support when it really counted.
Thanks to Nuala Purcell and Molly McCluskey for taking care of the photography for us.
