Entrepreneur-Author-NED-Mentor-Speaker
About Julie
Julie is CEO and Founder at Spark! Consulting, a management consultancy working at the intersection of innovation and economic growth. Spark! works with corporates, SMEs and startups on their strategy, fundraising, corporate governance and process improvement.
Julie is also the author of #1 best-selling book “Investor Ready: The start-ups guide to getting investors to say yes” which was published in 2020 and a finalist in the UK Business Book Awards in 2021.
A Non-Executive Director (NED) for Altha Health and Seventy7 Ventures and Chair of the Board at Generation Success (a non-profit helping young people from minority backgrounds to build careers in the City) Julie has extensive experience in governance and business strategy, particularly for new and high growth companies.
As part of Julie’s commitment to supporting new entrepreneurs she is also a mentor on UK government-led entrepreneur programmes, as well as The Royal Academy of Engineering’s LIF Global Entrepreneurs programme and on Dent Global’s Key Person of Influence programme.
Julie now makes regular speaking appearances, both in person and online, as well as featuring as a guest on multiple podcasts.
Prior to launching Spark!, Julie spent nearly twenty years in financial services working in consultancy, regulation and banking. She built extensive experience in corporate strategic planning, pitching to corporate boards, enterprise innovation and large-scale growth, process improvement and IT deployment.
AUTHOR - INVESTOR READY
Published July 2020
#1 Best Seller
Finalist - UK Business Book Awards 2021”
Is your company ‘Investor Ready’?
Getting investment is tough. Competition is fierce. There are new start-ups around every corner fighting for their slice of the pie.
In this book, Julie shares her proven six-step process to showcase your company at its best and wow your potential investors with the perfect pitch.
The six Investor Ready steps outlined in this book enable you to:
- Communicate your company Vision to investors
- Ensure the Structure and Scalability of your start-up supports your Vision
- Prove your Market fit and impact
- Provide business Numbers that give investors confidence
- Build your ideal Investor Profile and find investors who match it
- Create a Pitch and Business Plan that will wow potential investors
SPEAKER
Julie is an experienced public speaker who brings real value to her audiences through her practical approach and inclusive speaking style.
Comfortable in front of audiences of any size, Julie speaks on the following topics:
- The 6 steps to being Investor Ready
- 20 ways to WOW investors
- Governance: The most boring topic ever or a supercharger for your business?
- Don’t waste time – yours or investors!
- Growing your business in the data age
CEO
As CEO of Spark! Consulting, Julie works with ambitious organisations, from large corporates to innovative startups, who want to grow fast, innovate and transform how they do business.
Spark! works directly with C-Suite and senior management stakeholders in large corporates, and with Founders and their management teams in startups – always focused on understanding the exact problems they are facing and working on solutions that deliver the outcomes they need and fit their budget.
For startups, the focus is on being Investor Ready, Growth Strategy and implementing Corporate Governance.
For Corporates, the focus is usually more on ‘stripping out’ – innovating and transforming to remove unnecessary process and cost and re-introduce agility.
We deliberately work with both large corporates and startups because we know each can learn huge amounts from the other, and we are often able to share insights between them and facilitate introductions where appropriate.
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND MENTOR
Chair of the Board, Generation Success, a non-profit helping young people from minority ethnic backgrounds to build corporate careers.
Advisory Board Member for Seventy7 Ventures, a creative technologies focused VC fund, providing expertise on investment, strategy, compliance and business process.
Non-Executive Director for Altha Global Treatments - Providing expertise on strategic planning, business scaling, investor readiness, risk and governance, while leveraging her network to bring in additional expertise for M&A activity.
Julie is also a startup/business mentor for various different organisations:
Startup Mentor for the Royal Academy of Engineering: LIF programme – mentoring startups from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
Business Mentor on the UK Government Help to Grow Programme, via Change School
Business Mentor on the Santander Women Business Leaders programme
Entrepreneur Coach for Dent Global: Key Person of Influence Programme – Mentoring high-growth SME business owners