Femme & Fortune
A podcast about how wealth is actually built. Hosted by Ayesha Ofori, it explores the real stories behind successful women, including the decisions, risks, instincts, and turning points that don't make it into headlines. Each episode goes beyond the surface to look at how money, mindset, and life experience shape outcomes, from career moves to big leaps and setbacks.
Episodes
I Negotiated a Full Year's Salary as a Sign-On Bonus - Twice: Tara's Guide to Negotiating
From a council estate in Peckham to Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and the Financial Times, Tara's career reads like a masterclass in building wealth as an employee. In this episode, we get into exactly how she did it.Tara opens up about growing up between two worlds, the shame she felt hiding where she lived, and the moment she realised her story wasn't a weakness but her biggest asset. We talk
She's a Risk Expert Professionally, But Too Scared to Take Any Risk With Her Own Money.
Livia advised governments and multinationals on political and geopolitical risk for a living. She spent her career helping some of the world's most powerful organisations decide who to trust and where the danger was. Then she sold her own company, walked away with millions, and left it sitting in cash for three years because she couldn't bring herself to trust anyone with it.In this episod
She built a business and made life changing money. Now she’s doing it again
In this episode of Femme and Fortune, I sit down with Victoria Peppiatt, three-time founder and Co-CEO of Hey Savi, the AI-powered fashion platform she describes as Shazam for fashion.Vic's journey is remarkable. She ran creative agency The Pink Group with her husband for 11 years, sometimes putting the mortgage on a credit card to keep things going. Then she co-founded Phrasee, an AI marketin
She Married into a Billionaire Family. Then her Husbad Died. The Financial Truths No One Talks About. | Christine Dawood
In June 2023, the world watched as the search for the Titan submersible gripped every news channel and feed on the planet. Christine Dawood was on the support vessel. Her husband Shahzada and her 19 year old son Suleman were on board the sub.Three years on, Christine joins Ayesha for her most personal interview yet. This is not the story the headlines told. It is the story of who her family really
3 Things Every Parent Gets Wrong About Kids And Money | GoHenry Founder: Louise Hill
What if everything you were taught about money came too late? Louise Hill was 47, a single mum with two kids, a mortgage and virtually no savings when she quit her job to build GoHenry, the app that has taught millions of children how to earn, save and spend. In this episode she tells me how it really happened: the years of dead ends, the record breaking crowdfund that raised £4 million in a singl
The Real Secret to Wealth Isn't a Big Idea: 4 Lessons From a £100M Ice Cream Founder
Everyone tells you that you need a completely original idea to build wealth. Here's why that's nonsense.In this Femme and Fortune deep dive, Ayesha breaks down one of the biggest myths in business: that you need a never been done before idea to build real wealth. Drawing on a conversation with Vivian Wong, cofounder of Little Moon's Mochi Ice Cream, Ayesha unpacks the concept of an edg
How £1,000 Turned Into £600,000: Angel Investing Explained
Because for every Revolut, there are thousands of startups that go to zero and take every penny with them. In this Femme and Fortune deep dive, Ayesha Ofori breaks down how angel investing actually works, why you don't need to be wealthy to start (you can invest from as little as £10), and how two UK government schemes, SEIS and EIS, can give you back up to 50% of what you invest through tax r
How a £10,000 Pay Rise Becomes £1.72 Million
A high salary is not the same as wealth. For years Ayesha Ofori managed money for some of the wealthiest people around, and the thing that surprised her most was that almost none of them had a remarkable salary. What they had was ownership.In this Femme and Fortune Deep Dive, Ayesha breaks down the four shifts that separate people who earn well from people who actually build wealth, drawn from her
From Goldman to Founder: The £500M Banker Who Walked Away to Build Wealth for Women
I managed half a billion pounds for some of the wealthiest people in the country. Not one of them built that wealth from their salary.To close out Season 1 of Femme & Fortune, Ayesha Ofori turns the tables. After a whole season asking other women how they built their wealth, this time she's in the guest seat, answering the questions she gets asked most about her own journey.From a state pr
From Supermarket Cashier to Entrepreneur, making £60 Billion for Tesco and £92 Million for herself
She Turned a Loyalty Card Into £92 Million | Edwina Dunn OBEEvery time you scan a supermarket Clubcard at the till, you are using something Edwina Dunn created.In this episode, Ayesha sits down with the woman who changed the way the entire retail world understands its customers. Edwina co-founded Dunnhumby with her husband Clive Humby, built the data engine behind the Tesco Clubcard, and went on t
From Medicine to Millions: The NHS Doctor Who Built Her Own Empire
From medicine to millions - Dr Ifeoma Ejikeme on building wealth through expertiseDr Ifeoma Ejikeme didn't follow the traditional path. She trained as a doctor, studied business management at Imperial College London, completed a fellowship at Columbia University, and then walked away from surgery to build something that didn't exist yet.Today she is the founder and medical director of Adonia Medic
Why Your Salary Will Never Build Wealth (And What Actually Will) | Charlotte Baroukh
Charlotte Baroukh is a chartered accountant and tax expert at Pie, the UK's first free tax app. She has built one of the most engaged finance communities on Instagram, breaking down the tax rules that most people were never taught.In this episode, Charlotte and Ayesha get into why your salary will never be enough to build real wealth, the tax mistakes that are costing self-employed women thous
She Earned More, Paid For Everything & Lost Half In The Divorce - Here's What She'd Do Differently
What happens when you give up everything for love and it still isn't enough?In this episode of Femme & Fortune, Ayesha sits down with Nathalie Lethbridge, a powerhouse who built an extraordinary career across three continents, rose to senior management at Disney, advised corporations on multi-million pound deals and still found herself starting over financially in her 50s.Nathalie opens up
Investor Reveals the Secrets to Picking Startup Winners | Yvonne Bajela
Most people read picture books at age 8. Yvonne Bajela was reading the Financial Times.Growing up on a council estate in Mitcham, South London, Yvonne's father made sure of that. That early conditioning set her on a path to Goldman Sachs, strategy consulting, her own startup, and eventually a decade-long career in venture capital at some of Europe's most respected funds, including Local Gl
She Started Nails Inc at 23 With £250K. Years Later She Sold It for £30M | Thea Green
What does it actually take to build a 30 million business and then sell it?In this episode of Femme & Fortune, Ayesha Ofori sits down with Thea Green MBE, founder of Nails Inc, to talk about the journey from starting a company at 23 with 250K to selling it to private equity in 2024.Thea was working as a fashion editor, earning 11K a year in London, when she spotted a gap no one else was seeing
How Vivien Wong Built Little Moons Into a Global Brand
In this episode of Femme & Fortune, Ayesha Ofori sits down with Vivien Wong, co founder of Little Moons, the mochi ice cream brand that went from a homemade idea to a global business.Vivien shares how she started with a simple ice cream machine at home while still working in finance, and how she turned that into one of the UK’s most recognisable food brands.This is not a “perfect plan” story.
From Scholarship Student to Wealth Builder: How Lamide Did It
In this episode of Femme & Fortune, Ayesha Ofori sits down with Lamide Elizabeth, former investment banker turned founder, investor and creator of Building Wealth Without Borders.Lamide didn’t follow a traditional path.She grew up in Hackney, got herself into private school on a scholarship, went on to LSE, and started her career in investment banking. But early on, she realised something most
How Maxine Laceby Built a £42M Beauty Empire in Her 50s
Maxine Laceby didn’t grow up around business.She grew up on a council estate, left school at 16, and built her career in a completely different world before ever thinking about starting something of her own.She didn’t start Absolute Collagen until her 50s.No background in beauty.No experience building a company.Today, it’s a £42M brand.In this episode of Femme & Fortune, she sits down with Aye
