Founders4Schools is a free service that brings founders of successful businesses into schools to inspire students about their future career prospects.

1. Connecting teachers with entrepreneurs and founders of growing,
successful businesses to inspire young students.

2. About Founders4Schools
Founders4Schools is platform that enables teachers connect with founders of successful, growing
businesses to visit their schools and inspire their students.
Doing so helps ensure that children are prepared for the jobs and aware of the sectors that will be
relevant when they leave education.
In turn this will help ensure the UK’s future growth in the global economy.
“I had emails from students giving me their thanks for the event. In lesson and as I walked through the school, pupils and
teachers have said how the event was one of the best things they have ever seen. Our Assistant Head concurred that it was the
best talk she had seen at the school.” Bobby Ahmadzadeh, Teacher, Brentford School for Girls

3. Thank you to agency ‘Mother’ for donating resources to create this illustration for us

4. Students aged 8+ benefit from:
● real-life role models who demonstrate the relevance of what is taught in classroom with careers
● contact with real business leaders from your local community
● the opportunity to consider business as a viable career choice (particularly in STEAM areas)
● hearing what jobs are being created today from the creators of the jobs themselves!
“I will look into my future a lot differently. I think it is very much about what jobs you can get and what university to go to but now I
think seeing such amazing entrepreneurs with such incredible stories about what they have done, I will definitely look at my future
in a very different way.”
Brent - a student at JFS secondary school

5. Teacher benefits:
· We tell them who to invite: (our database covers the whole UK
and 80% of founders. We filter out unsuccessful businesses and
un-inspirational speakers).
· We provide materials to help them prepare their students for the
‘event’: (enables students to research the careers and
businesses of the speakers before the event)
· We help them coordinate / communicate with the speakers: Think
“event-brite meets linkedin”
· We provide tools to help them assess impact after the event.
· We provide opportunities for their students to experiment with
digital tools and share what they have created with others.
Principal Tricia Kelleher of the Stephen Perse Foundation with speakers:
Megan Smith, (Previously) Vice President, Google [x]
Alice Rathjen, Founder, CEO DNA Guide
Wendy Tan White, CEO Moonfruit
Mary Lou Jepsen, Head of the Display Division at Google [x]

6. 1. Enter Location
Less than 5 minutes to find and invite leaders into the classroom
in 4 easy steps
Empowering Teachers:

7. 2. choose your preferred founders
based on subject area and gender
Less than 5 minutes to find and invite leaders into the classroom
in 4 easy steps
Empowering Teachers:

8. 3. add your event’s details
Less than 5 minutes to find and invite leaders into the classroom
in 4 easy steps
Empowering Teachers:

9. 4. confirm your selections
Less than 5 minutes to find and invite leaders into the classroom
in 4 easy steps
Empowering Teachers:

10. Nationwide: every corner of the UK is
covered
8000 volunteers
filtering allows teachers to select speakers
based on subjects they studied at university to
demonstrate to students how the subjects they
are studying are relevant

11. A typical F4S event lasts 1 hour, and is a discussion during which 3-4 founders
talk about their entrepreneurial journey and then answer students’ questions
Event Format:
“who wants to change the world?”
Nick Heller during a F4S event

12. A snapshot of events held in schools and
colleges across the UK

13. Impact:

14. Brentford School for girls [click title to see event]
● Bobby Ahmadzadeh, Subject leader of economics at Brentford School for Girls first heard of
Founders4Schools from a friend.
● Set the event up online and had 5 speakers (3 female | 2 male)
● Impact:
○ 104% rise in students that chose economics. This is an unprecedented growth for any
subject area at Key Stage 5 according to Bobby.
○ Immediately after the event some students requested information about creating their own
app, and others started a lunch-time economics club
○ Maitri, one of the students attending the event approached F4S for an internship. She
worked on an idea for an app and helped with database coding. The F4S event and her
work experience led her to change her university subject of study from History to
Computer Science.
● The positive feedback extends to teachers - “we were all really inspired that people like that
cared enough to come in to talk to students”.
Examples:

15. UCL Academy [click title to link to the website for the event]
● Deputy Head Teacher Diarmuid Molloy booked 6 speakers for 2 events in October 2014 with
the aim of complementing traditional ‘theory’ lessons with real life examples.
● Impact:
○ Sharpened students understanding of future careers
○ Showed intricate links between the Science, Maths, Technology and Engineering areas
○ Showed students how interesting and fun STEM can be
● Following those events Diarmuid has booked a further 5 as part of UCL’s ‘Women in STEM’
week in March 2015.
● Diarmuid has said that it takes him one fifth of the time to book F4S session with 4 speakers as
it usually takes him to book one speaker.
Examples:

16. Ambassadors: Students
…

17. Ambassadors: Teachers
…

18. "A great initiative and a unique opportunity for students to see where their education
can take them. Founders4schools events show students which are the high growth
sectors and where the jobs are likely to be when they leave education."
Eben Upton, CEO, RaspberryPi
Ambassadors: Business Leaders
“In an age of digital disruption, young people's career paths have never been more
uncertain. The jobs of tomorrow have yet to be created today. Founders4Schools is
dedicated to inspiring, motivating and mentoring young people to see their potential
within the world of business and as the entrepreneurs and change-makers of the future.”
Kathryn Parsons, co-Founder and co-CEO, DECODED

19. If any teacher is fortunate enough to get a entrepreneur willing enough to
come to their school obviously they should welcome it with open arms.
Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin
Ambassadors: Business Leaders
“The biggest impact I can make to creating more great tech and business leaders -
especially female ones - is to inspire them while they are still deciding what they want to
do with their futures. By giving these young people examples of careers they may not
have thought of, we can really make an impact on their lives, and on future society that
benefits from more diverse leadership.”
Alicia Navarro, Co-founder and CEO, Skimlinks

20. We partner with LinkedIn and Duedil to create the up-to-date,
accurate database of founders based on education, interests
and business turnover and to connect teachers to them
Postcode Anywhere makes the ‘local founder’ search possible
Partners: Technology

21. Nominet Trust & iDEA
The UK’s leading social tech funder supports
Founders4Schools as it develops its platform for the
benefit of students and teachers. An collaborating
together with HRH the Duke of York’s iDEA initiative
empower young people to think and develop their own
ideas into successful digital businesses.
Telefónica & Wayra & Think Big
have teamed up to inspire and offer a path to young
people from supporting F4S events through to
providing digital skills training to funding and via Think
Big and entrepreneurs mentorship at Wayra.
Partners: Financial

22. Partners: PR, legal and accounting

23. A selection of our educational partners...
Partners: Educational

24. Inspire a student today!
book an event if you are a teacher or bring this to a teacher’s attention if you are not!
www.founders4schools.org.uk
Why?
● To help teachers show students skills needed for jobs of tomorrow
● To offer every pupil in the UK the opportunity to meet inspirational business leaders
● To inspire young people about careers they might pursue
● To empower teachers to showcase the importance of STEAM subjects
How?
● Help F4S reach more students…..

25. Join forces with Founders4Schools today!
www.founders4schools.org.uk

26. Nick Harrison, COO
nick.harrison@founders4schools.org.uk
Harriet Williams, Marketing & Communications Manager
harriet.williams@founders4schools.org.uk
Contact:
We would love your support….
www.founders4schools.org.uk