The reviews are coming in for Meghan's podcast 'Confessions of a Female Founder'ions of a

[LaBarruci]

Not listened to the first in Meghan's podcast series, a conversation with the founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Heard, but the Mail has collated all the press reviews so far, with links. The Guardian, Telegraph and i-Paper are unanimous: the podcast is cloyingly dreadful.

The reviews for Meghan Markle's latest podcast are in! Two stars for Confessions of a Female Founder https://mol.im/a/14584193 via https://dailym.ai/android

I do agree with the fact that society places an enormous amount of pressure on women compared to men which then results in us women constantly feeling that we are somehow not measuring up both at work and at home.

We've got to remember to show ourselves some grace.

I am not thinking about founding a business just yet( too risky for my liking), but I am curious to hear from other women who successfully did.

I am always intrigued by the courage, drive( and in some cases substantial funding) that you must have to venture in something like this. I like the energy behind that. I wish I had a more entrepreneurial mindset.

I know it’s not every successful person, but an awful lot of them seem to come from already very privileged backgrounds (so they were able to drop out of uni/college to pursue a ‘dream’ etc). Whenever I look up someone who has made a lot of money they really quite often have come from moneyed backgrounds so had a good safety net if things didn’t work out. My own tiny attempts in the past (selling stuff on Ebay which ended up costing me more than I was making, not having the luxury of not having a regular salary etc, it’s hard to be entrepreneur when you have nothing.

You're right, @BunnyLake , very few of them started with nothing.
That's what's so good about The King's Trust (formerly The Prince's Trust). It gave grants to people who had no other way to start a business, and there have been some incredible stories of success from that scheme.
You need more than hard work and luck.

I can’t bring myself to criticise Charles too much — he’s actually achieved quite a lot. He built Poundbury, a model town rooted in traditional urban design. He created the stunning gardens at Highgrove, launched Duchy Originals to champion sustainable farming long before it was trendy, and has been an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and net zero well ahead of the curve. He’s cultured, thoughtful, and intellectually engaged — everything a King should be.

But William? There’s none of that. No vision, no real legacy projects that have pased the test of time, no sense of cultural or intellectual leadership. Instead, we get him shouting from the stands at Aston Villa — and really, who thought being openly partisan about a football team was a good look for a future monarch and Royalists in their hearts of hearts know it.

Well, Charles was coming in for a lot of flak when he was in his 40s. Maybe give William a few years and he’ll impress you too.

That's true unfortunately. However, I am equally impressed( if not more impressed actually) by those who build small business while coming from a normal background.

I also like the idea of filling a gap in the market , having an eye to detect what is missing and what the next big thing will be( although you would probably need substantial funding).

I find it impressive that Whitney was both part of Tinder and then ended up founding Bumble. These two apps literally changed how people date in this day and age.

I said nothing about William. I know nothing about Aston Villa. I'm just saying what a good idea the King's Trust is, and how much good it's done in giving people the leg up. I was really agreeing with @BunnyLake about how tough it is if you don't have capital or connections. Especially for women.

Earthshot Prize. Building homes on his own land with his own money to end homelessness in Cornwall. The project to end homelessness. He's also an involved father with a happy marriage.

I also like the idea of filling a gap in the market , having an eye to detect what is missing and what the next big thing will be

Do you think that there is a gap in the market to fill with pancake mix, shortbread, tea and 'spread'?

Or is this just a white label packaging exercise in souvenier/gift products associated with British culture (bar the pancake mix and flower spinkles) to sell to the US to remind customers of MM's royal experience?

Agree. I admire very much anyone who can build a successful business from nothing but hard graft, vision and drive. I admit I don’t have those things but that could have been down to not knowing what to focus on. One thing I have in common with Meghan is I lose interest in stuff after a passionate start, it’s like a switch just goes off with me.

I have noticed that even in the UK we have public figures such as Rochelle Humes venturing in these sort of podcasts which focuses on female founders as well, so there is definitely an appetite for this topic. Hopefully that means that we are having more and more women interested in funding their own businesses. I hope there are grants in place to facilitate the process.

I believe there is place for a bit of everything in the market. As previously mentioned, It is lovely to have people who can bring something groundbreaking and innovative into the market and literally change the way we do certain things( see Whitney with Tinder and Bumble). However, there is also a place for things that are not so innovative - that's why we don't have one brand of jams, bread, biscuits etc...We have choices. Actually we are spoiled for choice when it comes to any consumer good.

Instead, we get him shouting from the stands at Aston Villa — and really, who thought being openly partisan about a football team was a good look for a future monarch and Royalists in their hearts of hearts know it.

@vera99 I'm a lifetime supporter of the Villas mortal local rivals and I think it's great (they need all the help the can get, after all 😂)

I wouldn't necessarily call it losing interest after a passionate start. Especially in the business world, you' ve got try new things, see what works, find your niche. Fail. Dust yourself off and try again until you find what sticks.

I am not an entrepreneur, but I would argue that this principle applies to many other facets of life. People should not be afraid to change trajectory and fail. Actually if you are going to fail, fail fast.

• focus

Just watched this video covering Whitney Wolfe Herd's origin story. No wonder Meghan didn't touch on any of it. WWH and the company she has kept sound despicable. Based on a 2014 exposé article about her in TechCrunch.

That's where The King's Trust do well, they mentor. Lots of people give up, they need guidance and support.

I saw Rochelle Humes being interviewed about her podcast, I really liked what she said. I think she and her husband have worked hard and built a brand. Neither of them came from privilege.

Earthshot Prize website

IMHO, a fair-minded assessment of W's contribution to society would acknowledge just how impressive Earthshot is...we have only one planet and we all benefit from a cleaner, less polluted environment. Earthshot funds and supports environmentally beneficial entrepreneurship.

For example, food packaging prevents contamination during transportation from production to market. Notpla uses innovative seaweed-based packaging to provide the consumer benefit without the environmental harm of other types of packaging such as single use plastics.

I recommend the additional videos below for a flavor of what Earthshot does:

Thanks, @My2cents1975 , that's really interesting. I'm just so relieved that this sort of thing is happening. So much consumerism and over production, pollution, use of plastics etc.
Some positive action. Excellent.

She is lovely, I really only knew her from This Morning and had no idea about her business venture. Lovely to hear about how her kids products came about. I had no idea she was the founder of My Little Coco. Talking about feeling a gap in the market - she couldn't find a product who she thought could be the right fit for her kids' skin and hair. She worked towards creating one while making money from it. Remarkable.

• which

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I think you’re really downplaying the impact and significance of Earthshot there, at a minimum. I also think that William, Catherine and Harry’s Heads Together campaign was really effective, I remember loads of people talking about it at the time. And William has continued with that, the last story I remember reading about William was his work surrounding mental health in rural communities. He is very vocal in advocating for mental health, rural communities and ending homelessness (and I wouldn’t say that it’s a trendy thing to advocate - yet he gets out on the street to sell Big Issues etc to highlight the problem).

He is also the first direct heir to the British throne to have a civilian job and worked as an air ambulance pilot, working 4 days on, 4 days off, and donated his whole salary to charity.

Also, I am a massive football fan and can confidently tell you that him being a Villa fan doesn’t really bother me. It’s nice to see him being passionate about something he loves and engaging in that passion with his children. I’m actually impressed he went for an average run of the mill team rather than jumping on the bandwagon and supporting one of the successful big clubs like City, United or Liverpool (I say that as a City fan who supported them when they were shit 🤣)

William also has worked to support mental health campaigns for men generally, but those at higher risk, such as sportsmen and farmers.
I've also discovered that much of this isn't widely publicised.
It's really strange, because I never had much time for William, as I said upthread (nor Charles), but in all honesty the Harry and Meghan debacle has made me respect them a whole lot more.