A Woman’s Perspective on Entrepreneurship

We asked  Alicia Navarro, founder of FLOWN about the challenges women face in business and how she navigates them. Her insights challenge assumptions and highlight the real drivers of success.

What’s the biggest barrier you’ve faced as a woman in business, and how did you navigate it?
I don’t really feel that being a woman has been a barrier in my career. If anything, it has often been an advantage. It makes you stand out more, it allows you to lead with empathy, and it can make it easier to form meaningful connections. I’ve also always had a strong technical background and a clear sense of ambition, so I’ve felt able to hold my own in any room and to sell my vision compellingly. For me, the bigger determinants of success have been clarity of thinking, resilience, and the ability to execute — not gender. I have not found being a woman in itself limiting: I have a computing science background and years of experience as a product manager before I became an entrepreneur, so I can hold my own in any technical or business discussion; and I’ve always been very ambitious and resilient, and able to sell myself and my vision compellingly. It is a lack of any of these qualities that can lead to barriers, rather than specifically gender.

Have you ever felt pressure to lead differently because of your gender? In what ways?
I’ve never felt pressure to lead differently. I know I do I lead differently because I’m a woman, and I lean into that. For example, I’ve always built cultures in my companies that are known for being strong and warm, which has helped a lot with hiring and retention. I’ve also channelled my communication skills to form a narrative-driven brand, which helps with marketing and growth. I’ve never felt the need to lead more “like a man”. My approach works, and where I have gaps, I make sure to hire people who complement me.

How do you balance business growth with expectations around caregiving or family life?
With my first company, Skimlinks, I wasn’t balanced. It was an intense 11 years of work, and while I had relationships, I didn’t get married or have children. With FLOWN, I made a very deliberate decision to build a company that could support a different way of working. We’ve created a remote-first, high-performing culture that allows for more flexibility, and that has enabled me to have a baby and still lead the business. The reality, though, is that you can have it all, just not all at once. Different phases of life require different trade-offs.

Do you think funding and investment opportunities are truly equal for women in the UK today? Why or why not?
In some ways, women have an advantage over men: they now have access to additional sources of capital, such as female-focused funds, which didn’t exist before. The bigger filter is around ambition and company type. Venture capital is designed for businesses that can become very large, often highly technical, and that require an intense level of focus and commitment. That model doesn’t suit everyone. I don’t see that as purely a gender issue. My first company fit that model, and I was able to raise significant capital. The question is less about access and more about alignment with what venture funding is designed for.

What change would make the most immediate difference for the next generation of female entrepreneurs?
More men who want to be primary or equal caregivers. The reality is that women are the ones who have babies, and many want to be very present in those early years. At the same time, building a venture-backed business — especially in the early stages — is all-consuming. That tension is structural, not ideological. If caregiving becomes more evenly distributed, it creates more space for women to pursue high-growth entrepreneurship without having to choose as starkly between the two.