BOOTSTRAPPERS Business ACADEMY · The First Breakfast
The Bootstrappers' Breakfasts™ Comes to Edinburgh.
£156M in combined annual revenue. Built without VC.
Now build your first £1M in the room with the women who already did it.
Bootstrappers' Breakfasts™ brings together 60 female founders building towards their first £1M — with superscalers whose businesses have generated £156M in combined annual revenue without giving away control.
Date4 November 2026Time8:30–10:30amVenueRBS Accelerator Hub
142–144 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 4EQPlaces60
From the Room
What Founders Said After Cambridge
In their own words, from the feedback we received after The Bootstrappers’ Breakfasts™, Cambridge, September 2026.
“Much higher impact than I expected! I met a group of fabulous women, made great new connections, and came away feeling that it really is possible to succeed.”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
“Very energising. Meeting a fellow founder who has had a very similar rollercoaster to me was validating. I feel less alone.”
Deirdre Cijffers · Founder & CEO, All In Images
“So much good advice was shared. Real stories, real people!”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
“Great insights and honest advice from the panel.”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
9.7/10
would recommend to a fellow founder
100%
would come to another Breakfast
“I felt more connected to like-minded people. I resonated with the speakers and learnt from other founders.”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
The Room
Who You’ll Be in Front Of.
Different stages, different paths — all past the point you’re building toward.
Host
Geeta Sidhu-Robb
Founder, Seven Rungs · Growth Advisor
Geeta Sidhu-Robb is a CEO Growth Advisor and founder of Seven Rungs, the structured growth programme for women building companies without venture capital. She created and hosts The Bootstrappers’ Breakfasts™, the UK’s first national platform for female founders reaching their first £1M on their own cashflow. She built her own first company, Nosh Detox, without outside capital. She advised Sam Smith, founder of finnCap, which she grew from £1m turnover a year to £1m a week and listed on the LSE in 2018, and Mia Drennan, who founded GLAS Agencies with £6,000 and closed a partial exit at around $1.8B in January 2026, thirteen months after becoming a client. She founded the WCorp certification, holds five Entrepreneur and Businesswoman of the Year awards, and spoke at TEDxBerlin on how healthcare systems fail Black and brown mothers.
Keynote Speaker & Panellist
Darina Garland
Co-Founder, Ooni
Darina is Co-Founder of Ooni, the global product business best known for its pizza ovens and Halo Pro Spiral Mixer. Founded in 2012, Ooni has built a worldwide following — fans include Barack Obama, Beyoncé, and Dolly Parton — and now operates across the USA, Australia, Germany, China, and Sweden. Darina grew up in Edinburgh and bootstrapped Ooni from her kitchen table. Her growth conversation: what it takes to go from a Kickstarter project to a company with world-class employee engagement scores — and why she counts culture as her proudest achievement, above every award and exit multiple.
Local Host & Panellist
Nathalie Agnew
Founder, Muckle Media
Nathalie founded Muckle Media in 2012 after senior roles at Fleishman-Hillard and Porter Novelli. A chartered Fellow of the CIPR, she has led her team to win PRCA DARE Large Agency of the Year (2022) and CIPR Scotland PRide Outstanding PR Consultancy (2018). She specialises in helping brands build marketing programmes that drive measurable business results — creative approaches, rigorous ROI.
Panellist
Emma Macdonald
CEO & Founder, TBCo.
Emma began her career in fashion retail as a buyer before founding TBCo. in 2014. What started with beautifully designed blankets has become a design-led fashion and lifestyle brand spanning sleepwear, apparel and accessories — a certified B Corp built on distinctive design, quality, and natural and recycled materials.
TBCo. is now stocked by Harrods, Anthropologie and Nordstrom, and continues to grow internationally on the belief that getting dressed should bring joy.
Panellist
Kirsty MacCormick
CEO, bbspa UK
Kirsty MacCormick has spent 38 years in luxury spa and wellness — more than 30 international projects across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and 25 more in the UK. She has held senior roles at Mandarin Oriental, Champneys, Kohler and Goco Hospitality, and was part of the pre-opening teams for Mandarin Oriental Tokyo and Beijing.
In 2021 she founded The Spa Consultancy, now part of the global bbspa Group. She won the BABTAC & CIBTAC Global Spa Leader Award in 2024 and founded the HIT Scotland Spa Scholarship with The Scottish Spa Collective.
What This Is
The Room for Women Building Differently.
The Bootstrappers’ Breakfasts™ is a national series for female founders building their first £1M without external investment — sitting in front of women who have done it, past £1M, past £5M, past £200M.
Edinburgh is Scotland’s first. Each Breakfast names the Bargain most female founders have been making without realising — and gives you the language, and the room, to claim what you have already paid for.
No pitching. No networking theatre. Just women who have built, talking to women who are building.
|
1.3%
of UK VC reaches all-female teams
|
£310bn
untapped female-founder value
|
Free
to attend, by registration
|
The Morning
| 8:30 | Arrive & breakfast Coffee, food, time to settle in |
| 9:00 | Welcome Geeta Sidhu-Robb opens the room, with local host Nathalie Agnew |
| 9:15 | Keynote Darina Garland, Co-Founder, Ooni |
| 9:45 | Panel Conversation Hosted by Geeta Sidhu-Robb, with Darina Garland, Nathalie Agnew, Emma Macdonald and Kirsty MacCormick |
| 10:15 | Open Floor Questions and conversation |
| 10:30 | Close |
“Lots of motivation and warnings! I’d always prefer to learn lessons from someone else rather than make mistakes myself.”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
The Framework on Stage
The Bootstrap Bargain™
Every Breakfast names a trade most female founders have been making without realising. It is not a punishment — it is the bargain most women would make again, even when they made it without knowing.
Edinburgh is where we name it in Scotland, for the first time, in a room, out loud.
CLAIM YOUR PLACEThe Cost You Pay
Free
This first Glasgow Breakfast is free to attend, by registration. No sponsorship, no pitch theatre.
The Return You Collect
Sovereignty
Higher margin
A life that fits a body
A founder still operational at 55
“Your work is so important, both to those at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey and to those going through difficult times. Please keep going — there are so many of us who need what you do.”
Founder · Cambridge Breakfast
CLAIM YOUR PLACE
Cambridge, September 2026
This is the room.
Cambridge was set for 60 places. Seventy-seven founders came.
Edinburgh is next, with 60 seats.
Register
Secure Your Place.
Places are limited. Register and you’ll receive a confirmation email with everything you need to add to your diary.
This first Edinburgh Breakfast is free. It is for female founders currently building their first £1M — without external investment.
What Happens Next
| 1 | Fill in your details and register |
| 2 | You’ll receive an email with the full event details |
| 3 | Add it to your diary — Edinburgh, 4 November |
| 4 | Arrive at 8:30am. We’ll take it from there. |
Register for Edinburgh
4 November 2026 · RBS Accelerator Hub, 142–144 Princes St, Edinburgh EH2 4EQ
This first Edinburgh Breakfast is free. By registering you'll receive a confirmation email with diary details.
