When we launched Surge, our new Start-Up Academy for Year 12 students, our intention was not simply to teach the mechanics of business, essential though that is, but to cultivate the qualities that underpin it.
The programme is built around three guiding principles: We seek to ‘empower’ young women to think like founders, to ‘equip’ them with the knowledge and confidence to bring ideas to life, and to ‘engage’ them with the tools to connect meaningfully with an audience, whether that is an investor, a customer or a community.
The case for doing so is highly compelling. Fewer than two per cent of global venture capital investment last year went to all-female founding teams, and only three percent of angel investment reached them at all. When you add the intersection of ethnicity, background or geography, those numbers shrink even further. These statistics continue to tell a familiar story, one that will not change unless we begin to prepare young women differently, giving them the skills, networks and conviction to rebalance the scales.
The Empower strand began with our launch day in September, which brought together almost the entire Year 12 cohort for a day of introspection, jargon-busting and creative thinking. Sonal Sachdev Patel (ONL, Class of 1998) opened the day with a powerful reflection on authentic leadership, followed by Riya Patel (All the Aunties) and Lauren O’Donnell (Oatsu Founder and ONL, Class of 2010), who spoke candidly about the creativity, perseverance and self-belief required to start something from scratch. Beth Horn, Managing Director of Pinterest UK, closed the morning with a reminder that the best ideas are often born of detours, and that imagination and adaptability remain a leader’s most valuable tools.
In the following session, Find the Gap, Lauren O’Donnell returned to show how a single question, ‘why there was no healthy breakfast available on the go’, became the foundation of her growing brand, Oatsu. She challenged the students to consider what problems they might be able to solve in their own worlds.
The Equip sessions have deepened that learning, beginning with Amber Nasir of Vestd, who guided students through the language of equity, ownership and investment. This was followed by a session with Oliver Wyman organised by ONLs Rupal Kantaria and Nikki Davis, who led what was in essence a masterclass in strategy, showing students what goes into developing a business strategy as a team, how to ask great questions and giving them their first taste of pitching their own original ideas. For many, it offered a first taste of the world-class thinking that shapes leading organisations.
To close the half-term, Headmistress Vicky Bingham led a session on People Power, exploring what it takes to build a thriving team offering a unique insight into how she has built her leadership team and how great team depends as much on diversity and empathy as on ambition.
Next half-term the focus turns to Engage, where students will explore how to bring their ideas to life and connect them with the wider world. From The Art of Persuasion with girls learning how to pitch successfully for investment, to Connecting with Your Crowd, a session on how to reach the audiences you want with Lori Meakin of advertising agency adam&eveDDB. The series will culminate in the Social Change Challenge and a keynote on Purpose, Innovation and Disruption with Priya Lakhani, CEO of Century Tech.
We’re looking forward to hearing how the girls have found the programme and how we can build it out for other years. If you are interesting in being a mentor in the future, please contact office@nlcs.org.uk.
Surge 2025 Programme
