“I was often the only woman in the room, and I wanted to do something about that” with Gillian Fleming

Gillian Fleming is Co-Founder and Managing Director of women-led angel investment network Mint Ventures. She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Stirling.

Gillian shares the rewards and challenges of being an Entrepreneur in Residence including

• Why supporting women-led businesses is so important to her
• How working in university commercialisation got her interested in investing
• Her personal connection to Stirling which motivates her to give back
• The rewards of being trusted with people’s ideas and aspirations

Connect to Gillian via LinkedIn

Visit the Mint Ventures website

Follow Mint Ventures on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X (@MintVentures)

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn 

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Gillian Fleming, Sarah McLusky

Gillian Fleming  00:02

I've always been very conscious that I was usually the only woman in the room. I've always had a mission that I wanted to do something about that. I started to think, why am I not investing in these wonderful opportunities coming out of universities? It's really rewarding to have those early stage of conversations where you are trusted with an individual's own personal aspirations.

Sarah McLusky  00:30

Welcome to the Academic Adventures podcast. This podcast is all about the journey from teaching, research and innovation to real world solutions. For season two, we are joined by experienced founders and other experts who work alongside university staff and students to help create and support a culture of enterprise on campus. 

Sarah McLusky  00:50

Hello and welcome to the first episode of season two of the Academic Adventures podcast. I'm your host Sarah McLusky. In the first season, we heard from people who are embracing the opportunity to combine academic work and entrepreneurial ventures. For season two, we're going to shift our focus and meet some of the experienced business founders and other experts who are working alongside university staff and students to help boost their entrepreneurial efforts. Today's episode features Gillian Fleming, a guest who will be familiar to many as she has spent time at the Universities of Strathclyde, the West of Scotland and now Stirling, as well as being involved in several accelerator programs and business competitions. Gillian is currently an entrepreneur in residence and honorary professor at the University of Stirling. She is also the co-founder and director of Mint Ventures, a women-led angel investment network. This venture grew out of her drive to help more women step into entrepreneurship, making her the ideal guest for this episode, which will be released to coincide with International Women's Day in 2025 in our conversation, we talk about how she got started, why supporting women is so important to her, what she does as an entrepreneur in residence, and why it helps, and also why her personal connection to Stirling makes her current role particularly rewarding.

Sarah McLusky  02:11

Welcome along to the Academic Adventures podcast Gillian. It's so fantastic to have you here with us today. So the reason we've invited you to come along is because you're now an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Stirling, but I think it would really help set the scene to understand a bit about what has led you to this point. So could you tell us a bit about what you do and how you got to where you are today? 

Gillian Fleming  02:35

Well, thank you very much, Sarah, absolutely delighted to have been invited to speak about this. So I'm Gillian Fleming, and I started out my career in the oil and gas industry many moons ago, in marketing and sales. And from there, I moved into power generation and actually went through IPO, so that's flotation on the stock exchange of a company called Aggreko, which is where I got my first appetite of investing and and then from there, I went to work at the University of Strathclyde. So I kind of fell into university commercialisation, and for about the following decade, I worked supporting translation of research into companies. So it really was had the opportunity to cut my teeth and learn all about university commercialisation at the University of Strathclyde. I then moved over to University of West of Scotland, where helped set up their enterprise function and get their first spin out company over the line. And while I was doing this, I started to think, why? why am I not investing in these wonderful opportunities coming out of universities I've effectively done all my own due diligence. I know the team I've helped create and recruit the team. I understand the patents that have been filed and, and I, you know, I believe in the founders as well, and and the technology. So at that point, I really changed my attitude to risk, and I went off and did a Saltire fellowship. And when I came back from the Saltire fellowship, I set up my own consultancy vehicle, and I started working with a variety of different universities, supporting them with spin outs and startups. And that's when I decided I was going to invest. And I looked around, I joined a few angel group meetings, and none of the angel groups really were aligned with my values or what I was looking for. And then got speaking with Women's Enterprise Scotland, who Mint Ventures was co founded with, and they had been working on a project looking into women and investment, and what makes women want to invest, and what the challenges are. And therefore our heads combined together, we created Mint Ventures, which is a women led angel investment group. So Mint Ventures our values and the two strands that we really are focusing on is that primarily we are creating a new source of capital for more diverse teams, and we do look to have at least one woman in the founding team, and also a very clear social, economic or environmental purpose, and really that relates to ESG or purpose led investing. But the flip side of what we're doing is all about encouraging more women to consider becoming an angel investor. And at the moment, in the UK, only 14% of women are angels, despite women owning 50% of the wealth. And on that note, it's not all about wealth. It's very much about using your expertise and and I'll come back to this later on. I'd like, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the expertise side of things. It's about using your business acumen, and it's about small amounts of money. So we bring women into angel investing through foundational training, which is CPD accredited, and it allows them to become an accredited angel after being a member for six months. So my role at the moment is Managing Director of Mint Ventures, which I absolutely love doing. And then last January, I was approached by the University of Stirling and asked if I would join as an Entrepreneur in Residence, which I was absolutely delighted about.

Sarah McLusky  06:47

Fantastic. Oh, well, I think we'll come on to talk about that in a in a moment and but you've said there how much of what you do now is around supporting women, both as women led businesses, but also as becoming angel investors as well. Why is it that supporting women is something that's so important to you and a role that you wanted to step into?

Gillian Fleming  07:11

So throughout my career, I've always been very conscious that I was usually the only woman in the room and in the different spin out companies when we were shaping up the teams, and we had these kind of pre boards, then I was usually the only woman in the room. And I also should have said that I joined a venture capital company as well prior to setting up Mint Ventures, and it was generally working with other men in in the engineering sector, and I've never, I've never been scared of being the only other women in the room, but I've always had a mission, that I wanted to do something about that, and I am, I am a feminist. I've been brought up by a strong line of women who always stood up for themselves and always asked the questions. Therefore, I'm really keen to support more women to make that leap of faith. And whether that leap of faith is that they then want to start up their own company, or they want to change career, or they want to get more involved in board positions, that's where I really want to help and support. 

Sarah McLusky  08:17

Yeah, fantastic. And as you say, Mint Ventures is working on that. Now, are there any particular things that Mint Ventures has supported, or companies that that you're really proud of, that really stand out for you? 

Gillian Fleming  08:31

Well, every single one of the companies we've supported to date, we've made for investments, and all of them actually have women CEOs now that that's not that is not through deliberate filtering, that's because they have gone through our process, and these are the ones that our members have actually wanted to invest in, and we are particularly proud, and to give you an example, then we've invested in Inicio AI, and that is a debt restructuring company that was founded by the CEO Rachel and her backstory is that she had met with a lady that was pregnant and was so in debt she was she has saw no alternative other than to end her own life. 

Sarah McLusky  09:16

Oh, goodness. 

Gillian Fleming  09:17

And these are the kind of stories that we sometimes hear and you want to support and help as much as you can. So what Inicio AI does is it takes the very difficult 50 questions or so that you're often asked if you're in debt to come up with a repayment plan, and this is now completed by a conversational AI assistant, who's extremely empathetic, goes through the questions much quicker, and it comes up with the different options in a much more easy way. And what, what they found with Inicio AI, is that more people are likely to take up and actually, you know, go through this process than be embarrassed to do it with a human being.

Sarah McLusky  09:59

Yeah. Yeah, I've certainly heard that. That's one of the uses they're finding for AI, isn't it? Now these difficult conversations that that actually, knowing that it's it's not a real person behind it, makes it sometimes easier to be open with the information that you need to share. Yeah, that's a fantastic example. So, yeah, helping us to see where these investments are making a big, really making a tangible difference in the world to people. So you mentioned then that you've become an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Stirling. So tell us a bit about what that entails, why it's something that you wanted to get involved with. 

Gillian Fleming  10:38

So I was invited by a contact that that I have in the industry, and, yeah, I was just absolutely delighted to to have been invited to join the university in this role. And in the role at Stirling it's a huge variety that, and I think each EIR role, at each different institution, is very, very different, but I'm really lucky that I have such a variety within the role and a lot of flexibility to get involved at different parts of the university. So one of the roles as part of my EIR is I sit on the international advisory board for the business school, which is a wonderful board that involves, you know, students, people from different industry sectors, and it gives a really great, rounded reflection of diversity of thought. And one of the other roles that I, that I spend a lot of time with at Stirling, or the majority of my time with, is working closely with senior officials to support strategic thinking. So any kind of refresh of strategic planning the moment we're looking at the different centres and the city deal, so it's really being able to roll your sleeves up and and act in a kind of a board advisory capacity when required. I also have the opportunity to go out and speak to academics, have those early stage coffees with them, and talk about ideas that are maybe coming out of the research that could have commercial impact. And part of what I do there is also to with a real focus on speaking to women academics and women students to enable them to consider entrepreneurship as a career. So all of that combined together might involve, you know, meetings with individuals. It also involves guest lectures. It involves participating and hosting workshops. So yeah, a real, a real mix and variety. And in a way, you know, the EIR role is to is to work at arm's length with all the different departments and also the research and innovation office as well, to add value. And another reason that I was really keen to be an entrepreneur in residence at Stirling is that I was brought up in the local area, and I really wanted to give back to that area, because I have such an affinity with Stirling and the surrounding area.

Sarah McLusky  13:12

Yeah, and were there any particular things that you hoped is it to just support the local economy, or was it to kind of put Stirling on the map, or any other particular reasons?

Gillian Fleming  13:25

Well, yeah, I suppose it's a bit of both. In the you know, my father was an academic there and spent his career there. I spent a lot of time as a child on campus, and my mother worked in for the local council in Stirling. So there's just so many connections around the whole Stirling area that it's really it's coming full circle and wanting to support the area and the university in particular. 

Sarah McLusky  13:53

So it sounds like a very busy role in doing lots of things with lots of different people there, and what in terms of that, what are the things that you find most rewarding about those conversations that you're having?

Gillian Fleming  14:05

Well, I think it's really, it's, it's really rewarding to have those early stage of conversations where you are trusted with an individual's own personal aspirations, as well as you know what the different commercial options might be. So it's really you feel that you're very useful. So it's a great sense of giving back, feeling useful and being able to help and support. So you can, you can give your advice, and it's up to them to reflect on that advice, on on where they what direction of travel they might want to go in. So that's actually my favorite part, is going out and having the conversations and speaking to those with the ideas, those with the commercialization ideas, and then giving them a whole host of different opportunities and different pathways and funding for them to think about.

Sarah McLusky  15:00

Yeah, so it sounds like that kind of initial ideas stage is something that gets you really excited when you don't quite know where it might go. 

Gillian Fleming  15:09

Yeah, absolutely. And in a way, it's it's similar to what we do at Mint Ventures. We have this opportunity. We have free office hours for female founders, also for male founders as well, because we're all about backing diverse teams, and we have that 30 minute call, and you can glean so much in that 30 minute call, and also you can support them so much in that 30 minute call, whether it's making introductions or giving them a list of accelerator programs or funding streams that might be relevant for them, because they might not be quite ready for investment, and it's exactly the same at the university. You know, they're nowhere near knowing what is the correct next stage for funding, but those early stage conversations and making those connections are so, so important.

Sarah McLusky  15:57

I can see that. And certainly, you know, this move towards having people as Entrepreneurs in Residence, it's clear that the university see the value in having somebody coming in with that external expertise. What do you think are the things that an external perspective can really offer a university environment?

Gillian Fleming  16:19

So I think in terms of EIRs, I mean, obviously they all have different expertise. The majority of EIRs have set up their own company, which is why, hence the title Entrepreneur in Residence. So we've been through the journey, and I talk about this knowledge bank, because it's all in your head. This knowledge bank is in your head, and this expertise, it's a legacy that many people want to download and enable others to use that legacy. And for me, that's really what it's all about as well. It's tapping in to that legacy and that expertise in a way that it can be documented for others, and the documentation comes out through all the advice and support and connections that you offer. And again, I like to align this with angel investing, because it's effectively what you're doing with angel investing, is that you are providing your expertise alongside a little bit of finance to support those founders on their journey. So that's the bit that I really, really enjoy and and I think that's the bit that can help with the ideation stage. So if an academic or or a student is introduced to us, we can talk through the vision what, as to what it could look like, and, more importantly, what their role might be, and the role could be a number of different roles. Because if, if it's a PhD student and they want to stay in academia, or it's an academic with mid career, and they're really clear that they don't want to leave academia, then perhaps we can talk about roles as as a director of the company, or they could be a consultant to the company, and then we can help bring the team around that vehicle and make sure that the right people, the right chemistry is in place, and therefore the right culture is developed to take it forwards.

Sarah McLusky  18:17

Yeah, it really makes sense that what you offer there is just that sense of all the possibilities and the different ways you could put it together and the different ways you could structure it. Because I think people who haven't got that experience in entrepreneurship and this, this came out in the previous series of the Academic Adventure podcast as well, and it's, it's almost like you don't know what you don't know, you know. It's like you're coming into this a little bit blind. And there's, it's so far for many people, out of what they consider their area of expertise, it's that they, you know, they, they've got an idea, but it's just like, where do you go with it next? And funding is only part of that. I can see that from what you're talking about there, it's that whole holistic support package that you can offer, not just the money. 

Gillian Fleming  19:06

Yeah, and Sarah, I think it's also what's really important is the experiential learning. So if, if we as founders, have been through the journey, we know how difficult it is to raise funding. We know how difficult is to get customers on board and that hand to mouth existence. And they are going to go through that, whether it's a startup or a spin out, and they will need to constantly be looking for that, where their next funding is coming from, until they are revenue generating sufficiently that that they either need to go for more funding to scale significantly or that, or they can stay at the stage they're at and build organically with revenue generation, and to have gone through that, or be going through that as as I am currently, it's really helpful to relate to others and pass on that experiential learning. 

Sarah McLusky  19:57

And what are some of the things that you find that perhaps University spin outs or startups, any particular challenges that are different for them compared to ones that you're involved with with your angel investing side of things. Are there any differences you notice there particular challenges that come from working within the university sector?  

Gillian Fleming  20:19

I think maybe the the hardest challenges for for those that are coming from academia is that they they will have to go through the university process first, and that is just part of what they have to do the and and working with the university is the key here. Not working against the university is working with the university, because ultimately, any intellectual property owned is owned by the university, and there has to be a license negotiated over to the new vehicle, the new spin out company, and going through that process, hand holding, working with the research and innovation offices can be challenging, but it is, it is they're all looking for the same goal at the end of the day. And I guess that when companies come for angel investment, they are expected to have gone through that process and have have all of that agreed and in place. 

Sarah McLusky  21:18

Yeah. 

Gillian Fleming  21:19

So so that that does make, I suppose that's the key difference that that they will have to go through if it's a startup, of course, it doesn't involve, usually university IP, so they don't require those licenses, but they've, there's a lot of support and help given from the universities in terms of, you know, maybe there's an accelerator that they can join. There's lots of other support and help around funding, pathways and workshops. And at Stirling University, you know, we have the the RIBE office that provide a lot of support around enterprise creation. So there are challenges, but at the end of the day, it's the same outcome for everybody. 

Sarah McLusky  21:58

Yeah, yeah. And I think that when you talked about all the support that can be available in the university, that was something again, in the previous season, we had some people who'd gone through the process before there was a university support in place, and then they'd gone through it again, and they were like, yes, use, you know, go through the process. Take advantage of all that support that's available for you within the university, because it really does help you get your ducks in a row so that you're ready to go on to the next stage. Yeah.

Gillian Fleming  22:27

Absolutely. And another challenge working with universities is that, of course, they are quite hierarchical, and I sometimes think of them as being akin to to an elephant in the in the decision making process, and being an EIR that can really help you adjust your your speed that because it's frustrating, the speed that you want to get things done and you really have to adjust to the way that universities work in order to work efficiently and also to manage your own expectations as well. So adjusting to that really does help, and it also helps to push through opportunities that are going through the commercialization process and to understand the different stages that they need to go through, the different review points and gates that they have to go through, and then ultimately, who the final approval is in that process.

Sarah McLusky  23:24

Yeah, and I think certainly there's no question that universities can move at their own glacial pace sometimes, but I imagine that having somebody like an entrepreneur in residence actually can possibly help to push things along, even though it might not feel like it at the time. But I imagine having somebody from the outside like, come on, what's the next thing you know? What are we going to do? Because University academics in particular can be so they can have so much to do on a day to day basis that these are the kind of things that can fall off their to do lists at times. So having somebody external to help support push things along, I think, be really valuable, 

Gillian Fleming  24:02

Absolutely. And you know, EIRs have the opportunity to have the ear of different departments, different officials, and if that timescale is going to have, you know, negative consequences, missing some significant funding or something similar, then that's where we can really step up and make sure that something is pushed along quicker.

Sarah McLusky  24:27

Yeah, it sounds like a really, really important and useful support for people in universities who are looking at becoming entrepreneurial in whatever respect that might mean. So to come back then, maybe now, from that part being an entrepreneur in residence, and come back to you and your career journey, all the things you've been involved with, I wonder what success means to you now, and whether that's something that's changed over time.

Gillian Fleming  24:59

Yeah, so it's. It certainly has changed over time. I think when I, when I first started my career, it was more about, you know, staying with the same company and working your way up the the management chain within a large organization, and with my attitude to risk totally changing, and also with the ways of working and the different career paths that we have now that certainly completely changed. I still have some milestones that I would like to achieve in my career, and the primary one right now, of course, is is continuing to grow and evolve Mint Ventures to be able to hand over the baton to somebody else who's at the right stage in their career that that it will be meaningful and add a whole new chapter to their life as well. So that is my number one priority at the moment, is to be able to, you know, maybe grow to 100 members or so. We're currently at 56 members. So the more members we've got, the more deals we can do, and more impact we can have on funding women led companies. 

Sarah McLusky  26:12

Yeah, fantastic. I think it is really interesting that a lot of people who I've spoken to, once you get to that point where you sort of see what's possible beyond, as you say, that kind of traditional career progress. And you know, you go up within one company, and once your eyes are open to the possibilities, it's very hard to to go back, isn't it very hard to forget that that other world exists.

Gillian Fleming  26:37

Yeah, and portfolio careers are more accepted now, and and being in one role for, you know, a year or two is seen to be a stepping stone to another role. And ultimately, you know, portfolio, careers, variety is the spice of life has always been my motto, and I would which, yeah, we'd like to have a few more board positions. You know, once I'm not running Mint Ventures.

Sarah McLusky  27:03

Yeah. Well, that sounds like a fantastic thing to aim for. So it just remains to say, thank you very much for your time, Gillian, if anybody wants to know more about you or Mint Ventures, or the Entrepreneur in Residence work, anything like that. How is a good way to find out about what you do? Is there somewhere people can a website or social media that people can find you? 

Gillian Fleming  27:29

Yes, so mintventures.co.uk, is our website. You can contact us through there. Also on LinkedIn. Very happy for people to approach me. Gillian Fleming on LinkedIn, and I think that's the two best ways.

Sarah McLusky  27:45

Fantastic. Well, we'll get those links and put them in the show notes. So thank you so much for coming along and sharing your journey and telling us all about being an Entrepreneur in Residence.

Gillian Fleming  27:57

You're very welcome. Thank you. 

 Sarah McLusky  27:59

If you've been inspired by this podcast, head over to our LinkedIn page and tell us about your biggest takeaways. You'll find a link in the show notes, or just search for the Academic Adventures podcast. This podcast is a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and the Connect-Ed network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and me, Sarah McLusky. This season of the Academic Adventures podcast is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.