Female Founder Friday: In Conversation with Liz Hunter, Founder of nuala ai

Liz Hunter is the founder of nuala ai, a B2B2C workplace benefit designed to help close the gender pay, career, and AI gaps for women. With over 25 years of experience as a creative copywriter, including leading copy teams at hypergrowth tech companies like Revolut and Multiplier, Liz is now channeling her expertise, passion, and lived experience into building a business that tackles some of the most pressing inequalities facing women at work.

In this Female Founder Friday conversation, Liz spoke with FounderCatalyst about becoming a founder later in her career, navigating the early stages of fundraising, the importance of community, and why the rise of AI makes her mission even more urgent.

FC: Can you summarise your professional background and introduce your company?

Liz: My professional background is pretty straightforward, really. I’m a creative copywriter, and that’s been my passion and expertise for 25 plus years. Just recently, I decided to take the leap into becoming a founder myself. I’ve found something that I’m really passionate about, so I’m building nuala ai, which is a B2B2C workplace benefit designed to close the gender pay, career, and AI gaps for women.

FC: What fundraising challenges have you faced, and how have you navigated them?

Liz: I’m still early on in my journey, so I’m learning everything afresh for the first time. I discovered FounderCatalyst via the Female Founders Rise Pre-Accelerator, which has been so useful, because I really didn’t know anything about fundraising before.. It really is a whole new world.

FounderCatalyst has been very helpful too - lots of useful resources and easy to follow videos. It also feels good to know I’ve got all my legal paperwork ready for my first round.I’ve been refining my pitch deck for the past couple of months and now it’s with HMRC for SEIS approval - so fingers crossed!

I’ve been building out my list of angels - plus accelerators and grants to apply for. I’ve also been exploring which CRM tools to use – probably going with Pipedrive – and whether to use an investor outreach tool like Metal or Scribe. Still deciding - but I love the fact there’s so many smart tech solutions ready to help founders today. So I’m getting ready, and I’m looking forward to getting into it. Honestly, I feel ready to raise.

FC: Have you experienced any barriers as a female founder?

Liz: I would say no, not yet, because I’m really new at this. There is an amazing female founder community out there and I'm very grateful it exists. I don’t know what I would have done without that support!

I also went to an event hosted by LetsFundHer, which was so inspiring. It was a pitch event for female founders, and I just went to take notes.

As soon as I walked in, I was immediately struck by how young everyone was. I was just like, OMG, people are doing this so young. Respect to the young women out there today. They’re just like, “Yes, I’ve got a great idea. I’m a founder. Invest in me.” ” And they’re raising, and really doing it. It was so impressive. I think I needed to see that.

It made me think, I don’t know whether it’s the generation I’m from, being a millennial and being a woman, growing up and working through creative agencies in London, but I experienced tons of sexism. I have experienced the pay gap and the career promotion gap - multiple times.

I’ve had to train men who were at the same level as me, who were new in the business, and then I would find out they were being paid more than me. I was like,, but we’re both Midweight Copywriters. Why are you on £5K more than me? How does that make sense?

So I’ve definitely experienced the gaps that I’m building a solution to help close. I feel like I’ve arrived here later than I could have if I’d been promoted when I should have been, offered leadership training when I should have been, and if I had been shown more support and respect by senior male leaders around me, rather than being treated very dismissively most days. Female copywriters don’t have it easy, let me tell you! It just takes a while to shake off that kind of treatment and realise that actually you have the potential to be great, and create something with real impact. You just have to believe in yourself.

FC: What advice would you give to younger female founders just starting out in their journey?

Liz: Just go for it. Plug into the great resources that are out there for female founders, like Female Founders Rise. There are other really great networks as well, including the one I mentioned, LetsFundHer.

I’ve been told it’s best to steer clear of VC until you’re really ready and go to angels first - who are investing their own money. Definitely go and get your SEIS advance assurance, and use a great company like FounderCatalyst to do it so that you’re not constantly asked for a % fee every time you get an investment

And as I’ve said before, just believe in yourself, it really does come down to you And make sure you have a mission you are absolutely obsessed with and believe in wholeheartedly.

FC: Do you have any exciting projects or developments coming up for your company that you can share?

Liz: I’m about to start my b2b and b2c user research phase. I’ll be building that with my wonderful Head of Research, Dr Mina Tajvidi. She’s Associate Professor of Marketing at Queen Mary’s University of London and I’m so thrilled to be building nuala ai with her support and expertise.

We’ll be doing in-depth digital questionnaires with HR Directors at enterprise businesses as well as some in-person focus groups - these insights will be used to validate the product idea and guide our MVP build. We’ll be building our pilot client list too and a customer waitlist. Aside from angel outreach and getting on an accelerator programme, these are the top priorities on my roadmap for the next 3-6 months.

FC: Is there anything else you’d like to specifically mention in the article, whether it’s another piece of advice or anything else you’d like to share?

Liz: I would say being organised really helps. Make yourself a Notion hub, or something similar, and document everything.

Create tables for all the grants, accelerators, awards, competitions, and everything else you should be applying to. Know when their deadlines are and log when you submit.

It’s the same for angel outreach. Have it all tracked. Use a proper CRM tool like Pipedrive to organise your outreach, and be very focused and selective about who you reach out to. Write personalised messages, and don’t just “spray and pray”.

Also check out this new service called Hubble,, which makes it possible for you to book conversations with experienced founders or investors. I just had a call with Bettina Briz, a b2b2c deep tech expert, founder and angel investor, and it was absolutely awesome. She came so prepared for the call and gave me so much incredible advice. Would definitely recommend exploring their site, esp if you’re a solo founder looking for advice! So just make use of the many resources around today that are available to female founders.. Definitely go to IRL meetups because face-to-face meet-ups can prove the most valuable, get your SEIS application in, and just keep believing in what you’re building. The world needs it.

A huge thank you to Liz Hunter for contributing to Female Founder Friday and sharing such an honest, practical, and timely insight into her founder journey. From building nuala ai to help close the gender pay, career, and AI gaps, to navigating SEIS, angel outreach, and customer validation, Liz’s story is a brilliant reminder that entrepreneurship does not need to follow one fixed timeline. Sometimes, the most powerful ideas come from lived experience, deep expertise, and the determination to build the solution you wish had existed sooner.

Website: https://nuala-ai.com/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-hunter-london/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/use-nuala-ai/
Author: Jen Jeffries, Marketing Executive at FounderCatalyst

At FounderCatalyst, we support founders by helping UK startups get investor-ready. Whether you’re exploring SEIS advance assurance, setting up an EMI share scheme, or just learning how to raise pre-seed funding in the UK, our platform makes the process simpler. Book a call with us to learn more.