Podcast Feature | Alison Rose on ThinkIn: Overcoming barriers to female entrepreneurship and serving customers through difficult times

Lindsey Schlandt
Jan 8
1 min read

Gouache-style editorial illustration showing a warm, collaborative moment: three people’s hands exchange items around a table—one offers a steaming mug of coffee, another hands over a closed book to someone in a suit. On the table sit a soft green folder, a box of tissues, and a small potted plant. The muted palette of beige, sage, and slate blue creates a soft, comforting atmosphere, evoking care, support, and shared knowledge.

Dame Alison Rose unpacks what the Rose Review surfaced about why women founders still struggle to access capital, including low awareness of funding routes, limited role models, and the high stakes of over-levering with debt or giving away equity too early. She then connects those insights to how she led NatWest through Covid, expanding digital support tools, launching Entrepreneur Accelerators across the UK, and balancing shareholder returns with the responsibility of serving vulnerable customers and local small businesses.

Listen here.