Christina Richardson

Founder, weare3Sixty

Christina founded weare3Sixty to fuel the ambitious individuals leading the UK’s high-growth startups and scaleups. She is also an Entrepreneurship Fellow at UCL where she trains the next generation of founders and launched the first dedicated founder-leadership programme within enterprise education.

Having spent almost a decade as a tech-entrepreneur, Christina knows first-hand the wellbeing challenges of leading a fast-growth startup. With weare3Sixty she dedicates her time to making sure the humans behind the UKs startups have the support and skills to reach their full potential as startup leaders, through training and coaching. Now with a team of startup-centric coaches, hundreds of founders are supported every single month as they unite from all over the UK in safe group-coaching spaces to support each other, problem-solve together and develop as startup leaders.

Prior to this, Christina’s career started managing brands at Nestle, Britvic and Mercedes, driving forward marketing growth and innovation. She then co-founded two technology startups herself – the first launched in 2012 and was acquired by Enterprise Nation in 2015; the second was a Cannes Lions Innovation award winner and used by brands like Samsung, Vodafone and Expedia.

Why do you support the work of The Entrepreneurs Network?

As an entrepreneur, research is interesting but action on that research is what matters. The Entrepreneurs Network, alongside their work with the APPG in Entrepreneurship, is the beacon of this mindset. Time and time again, they delve deeply into topics that affect founders, and their recommendations for improvements actually come to fruition. Connecting politicians and business in this way is fundamental to improving the lives of entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of our economy - sustaining jobs today and creating the jobs of the future.

What research should more people read?

A study was done in partnership with The Entrepreneurs Network to investigate the state of the nation when it came to founder mental health. The report does not make for light reading. Nine out of ten entrepreneurs show signs of mental health strain – most with multiple mental and physiological symptoms on a weekly and monthly basis - and 8/10 feeling lonely on the startup rollercoaster. These are the individuals leading the businesses that drive UK economic growth. We owe it to them to provide support on the human and leadership development side of the startup and scaleup rollercoaster. The report results were discussed in Westminster with leading MPs, and it fuels us every day at weare3Sixty to work towards ecosystem level change.