Bex Gidall has been a regular visitor to the INNOVENT 310 Women and Entrepreneurship class. She is an Investment Associate at Icehouse Ventures with over a decade of experience in startups. Bex shares her expertise with the class on the funding landscape in Aotearoa and the challenges for women.
Q1. What first sparked your passion for supporting founders, and how did that lead you to your work at Icehouse Ventures?
I’ve always been inspired by people who create something from nothing – those who see opportunities where others see obstacles and are driven to make things better than they found them. Early in my career, I realised that founders are the ones shaping the future, and that the biggest impact I could have would be in supporting them. That’s what drew me to Icehouse Ventures – where we back transformative Kiwi founders building a future brighter than what’s imaginable today.
Q2. You’ve worked closely with entrepreneurs at every stage. What do you think makes a great founder or team stand out?
The best founders combine vision, self-awareness, and the ability to execute. They’re not just chasing an opportunity – they’re genuinely driven to solve a problem that matters. They build teams that share their values, stay close to their customers, and make decisions grounded in both insight and feedback. What really sets them apart, though, is their mindset – a willingness to keep learning, adapting, and growing no matter how much they achieve.
Q3. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone about to leave university who wants to start a business, but isn’t sure what that is yet?
Get curious about problems, not ideas. The best founders have a unique insight – something they’ve noticed or experienced that others haven’t. That can come from anywhere: a personal frustration, research you’ve been part of, or time spent inside an industry where you see things others don’t. Rather than trying to dream up a business, focus on understanding a problem deeply. Talk to people, explore what drives their pain points, and follow your curiosity. The most compelling ideas emerge when you truly understand the problem you’re solving.
Q4: Which industries or areas are harder or easier (have gaps or are over-saturated) to get funding as women entrepreneurs?
Women founders still face barriers in raising capital for a range of reasons, from network access to pattern recognition bias. But I don’t think any industry is inherently easier or harder because someone’s a woman. What we do see is that women are often more represented in sectors like consumer, health, and education, where their deep understanding of people and lived experience give them a real edge. That’s a strength – it’s one of the reasons women are building some of the most thoughtful, customer-centric, and enduring companies we see.
Q5: Looking ahead, what excites you most about the next generation of women entrepreneurs in Aotearoa?
We’re entering a new era for women entrepreneurs in Aotearoa. While barriers to capital and networks still exist, this next generation is coming through with incredible momentum. They’ve grown up seeing founders like Brooke Roberts and Sonya Williams from Sharesies, Janine Grainger from Easy Crypto, and Brianne West, founder of Ethique, prove that you can build a world-class company from New Zealand – and that entrepreneurship is a path open to them too. What excites me most is their confidence and ambition – they’re building businesses that reflect their values, driving impact on their own terms, and reshaping what success looks like in Aotearoa.
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