Day 4/100 — Sarah Wood, Co-Founder and Chair of Unruly, and Leadership Author

Day 4/100
​

Who’s Sarah Wood?

If you are in the Tech scene in the UK, you’ll already know the great Sarah Wood OBE. For those who don’t know her yet, you will be glad you do now!
Sarah Wood is the chair and co-founder of Unruly, the global video advertising marketplace acquired by News Corp in 2015. She currently sits on the boards of clothing company Superdry plc and Tech Nation, the UK network for ambitious tech entrepreneurs. She is a technology ambassador for London, a member of the London Mayor’s Business Advisory Board and an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust Women Supporting WomenProgramme. Sarah has been named Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year, City AM Entrepreneur of the Year, and has been awarded an OBE for services to technology and innovation. She is also the author of best-selling career handbook Stepping Up: How to Accelerate Your Leadership Potential, which calls for more diverse, digital and empathetic business leaders.
Learn more about her here.

What’s her Funding Tip:

​I really love this Funding Tip from Sarah. It’s a well known assumption and perception that women have less self confidence than men. The Confidence Gap is certainly a thing, but the fact is, that’s simply not true. It’s just that we display confidence in a way that’s different to men, and because they are still the ones in the driving seat when it comes to funding founders, it can be harder for them to perceive our actions and behaviours as confident, simply because we don’t act the same way they do!
Sarah’s confidence has taken her very far indeed, and it’s so refreshing to hear a woman tech founder instilling and encouraging that confidence in other female founders and entrepreneurs. The more confident you are and the more confidence you display, the more resources you’ll have access to — whether it’s attracting the right investors, team members, clients or business partners.
See what you can be — that’s the theme of my Trailblazing Women series published here on medium and in the Huffpost. Of course, Sarah was one of the great women entrepreneurs I interviewed.
I believe that raising funding, is all about a performance — you need to instill confidence in your investors to fund your next stage of development, to fuel your growth. This is why Sarah’s tip resonates so much with me.
Why Should You Listen to Her Funding Tip?Part of the founding team in 2006, Sarah had led the full growth and transformation of Unruly, which now and has employs 258 Unrulies delivering wow across 15 locations worldwide, reaching and engaging an audience of 1.2 billion people worldwide. In 2012 Unruly secured a $25 million Series A investment before a successful exit to NewsCorp, led by Sarah, for $176 million in 2015.
Now that’s what you call an exit! Above all, Sarah is a very focused, empthic and engaging leader, who gives her all in everything she does, bringing you along with her. When I reached out looking for suggestions for a location to host our first ever InvestHer Meetup in London, Sarah generously hosted us at her wonderful HQ. That’s just who she is. She is also an inspiring leader, author, speaker and mother. Yes, you can do and have it all!

About Unruly:

​

Unruly cofounders Sarah Wood, Matt Cooke (front), and Scott Button (source:Unruly)Unruly gets videos seen, shared and loved across the open web for brands that want to move people, not just reach people. By bringing emotional intelligence to digital advertising, its helps 91% of Ad Age 100 brands inform and inspire 1.44bn people around the world, using polite outstream formats on sites that people love.“Win minds and steal hearts through the power of our data-driven video marketplace. We use unique, first-party emotional data to power UnrulyX and help advertisers better engage global audiences on brand-safe, premium sites, while helping publishers grow revenue from their audiences.”
Don’t just reach people. Move people. (Unruly website)
Unruly has a unique corporate culture.
“We pride ourselves on having a unique, nurturing and inclusive company culture that celebrates both personal and professional growth across all our global offices. We’ve even made it into Ad Age’s Best Places to Work in the US list over consecutive years!” Read what Unrulies think of our company culture.
What is Unruly doing during Covid-19?Check out their latest articles about how they are supporting their customers and the ecosystem during the Covid-19 Crisis:

• Why positive emotions are key for marketers during Covid-19 and beyond
• Brand building during the time of coronavirus
• Uncovering the results behind Brands Covid-19 campaigns
• Uncovering the results behind Brands Covid-19 campaigns- Part 2

What‘s she doing now?Now that Sarah has left full time leadership of Unruly and now sits as Chair, and dedicates herself to helping boost the UK Tech scene through Tech Nation and other endeavours, she lately published her first book called “Stepping Up — How to accelerate your leadership potential”.
I can’t wait to see what Sarah does next. What I know for sure, is that it will be brilliant, innovative and empathic, just like her.
“The best advice I ever had was someone who told me that advice was overrated! I think that’s true! It’s good to listen to what other people say, but ultimately you have to make the call for yourself and have the courage of your own convictions”.
Learn more about Sarah Wood, here:

• Unruly Website
• Book — Stepping Up
• Trailblazing Woman interview with Sarah Wood
• Her Twitter profile
• Her LinkedIn Profile

You know the drill now, the 3 key words she uses to describe herself are:

• Passionate
• Energetic
• Unruly

Let’s all be a bit more unruly, shake the system, and like Sarah, put a real dent in the universe and boost the global economy. We can do it!

Want more Funding Tips?Sign up here :
.. to get a daily Funding Tip to your email box or Visit the homepage of 100 Days of Funding Tips to get more funding tips. Please feel free to share them widely with other entrepreneurs and investors alike!
Check out Global Invest Her website, to learn more about How to Get Ready for Funding
Day 4/100 coming tomorrow!
Anne
About the Author: Anne Ravanona is Founder & CEO of Global Invest Her, a recognised international Gender Diversity Advocate and Consultant, and TEDx Speaker. She’s passionate about getting 1 Million Women Entrepreneurs Funded by 2030.
Learn more about Anne here:

• personal website
• Follow Anne on twitter or instagram
• linkedin profile
• Global Invest Her website

Global Invest Her BLOGGlobal Invest Her blog is for female founders, investors…Following

• Shelly Porges
• Beyondthebillion
• Anne Ravanona
• Global Invest Her
• 100daysoffundingtips

​

---