We are living in the digital era, reliant on smartphones, internet access and integrated online services. Navigating this constantly changing landscape can be challenging as well as empowering: we all have to get to grips with online privacy, data management and AI technology.
Scotland is a global leader in the tech industry, which broadly covers businesses working across research, development and distribution of technology-based goods or services (Investopedia). Despite recent advances, it’s a sector still struggling for gender balance with only 26% of tech roles held by women in the UK (womenintech.co.uk).
We asked five women working in tech in Scotland to explain what they do, why they love it, and how their companies can make life easier.
Angela Prentner-Smith, Founder and Managing Consultant, This is Milk
This is Milk works on global digital transformation projects, helping diverse businesses adapt to a constantly changing digital environment. Founder Angela Prentner-Smith describes This is Milk as a, “human-centred business consultancy, training firm and now technology business.” Angela manages operations which includes consultancy on innovation projects, managing people, and “acting as a researcher and product owner for our inclusive learning platform at times.”
A fortuitous timetable clash at university led to Angela taking a module on Multimedia Analysis and Design, followed by her first job in the field as an e-Business Analyst at Student Loans Company, “then one thing led to another,”: a diverse career in e-commerce and business analysis, then founding This is Milk in 2015.
Angela is a passionate advocate for equality in her industry, working to, “change perceptions and processes around neurodiversity,” and, “change the way we define gender roles, particularly around family and work.”
An exciting current project at This is Milk is Neve, an innovative adaptive learning platform. “I am super proud of Neve Learning,” Angela says, “we built the platform off of the back of a Civtech Challenge, and recruited a brilliant team to continually innovate, design, and commercialise what is a neurodiversity-first, hybrid learning platform.”
Janani Prabhakaran, Founder, Unbagged
We’ve all been there, lugging heavy bags around, or sitting and waiting with suitcases when we’d rather be exploring a new place. For young tech founder Janani Prabhakaran, this was her lightbulb moment. Janani explains: “I love traveling and on one of my trips, I faced the problem of having to lug heavy bags, store them in expensive storage and return to the exact spot to retrieve them to head to the airport. Long story short, I ended up missing my flight and my Eureka moment with Unbaggaged happened. As a student with vast resources through university, I decided to work on my idea and grow it.”
Like many brilliant ideas, Unbagged is beautifully simple, but nobody else had thought of it. Janani explains how it works: “Unbaggaged is an on-demand luggage storage platform that helps travelers by picking up, storing, and returning their bags wherever they want in a city. Simply put, we are Uber for bags. Currently operating in Edinburgh and Glasgow, we are on a mission to promote hands-free travel.”
Unbagged expanded into Glasgow in March 2023. “It was so rewarding to see the marketing, web development, and operations team work in synergy,” Janani says, “It was really cool to see what you envision come true in reality and receiving the first set of customers in Glasgow is worth all the obstacles on the way.”
I asked Janani about her industry’s gender balance. “There is definitely a gender gap in the travel tech industry or the wider tech ecosystem itself,” she says, “as an entrepreneur, role modelling is key and the larger equity is represented by more men than women. I would love to see more females in the travel tech industry so that there is a representation of challenges as well as success stories to inspire more women to enter this field. I would also like to add that more women need to push themselves out of their comfort zone - the sky is the limit when we do that.”
Sheila Hogan, Founder and CEO, Biscuit Tin Planning
When you lose a loved one, nobody warns you about all the ‘sad-min’ involved: from bank accounts to insurance policies, phone bills to magazine subscriptions - it can take years. Now think of the additional complexities of the digital era: passwords, online-only accounts- not to mention how many precious memories we store online.
Sheila Hogan, building on decades of tech industry experience, has come up with a solution.
Sheila explains: “The worlds of my professional tech career and personal experience collided after closing down the lives of my parents. It took me two years armed with a physical Biscuit Tin of policies and notes and around 30 copies of Dad’s death certificate and I realised first hand that the process is completely broken and needs to change – so the Biscuit Tin business was born.”
“Biscuit Tin is a ‘software as a service’ business on a mission to make death a little easier to deal with,” Sheila says, “A digital secure vault holding all your life information that is released to those you nominate when you die providing them with the direction they need to easily and effectively close down your life, alongside a precious digital record of your life to hand down the generations. In a world where there are digital tools for almost every area of our lives, not having one to help close our lives down and create a digital legacy of our life for our loved ones is a glaring omission.”
Since launching, Biscuit Tin has been racking up awards, including as a finalist in Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Start-up of the Year Awards, and winning ASB Business of the Year. Sheila’s start-up has also been featured on Dragon’s Den and BBC Morning Live, and she’s currently raising investment to scale-up in 2024.
Sam Rhynas, COO, Effini
We are constantly being told that Data and AI technology are the future, but if it’s not the world you work in, it can seem unimaginably complicated. Edinburgh-based Effini can help, with their promise of, “a people-focused approach to data.”
COO Sam Rhynas explains, “We work with organisations to help them use their data to
achieve their goals”, which might include manufacturing efficiencies, business insights or complex AI solutions for app developers. “As well as these practical solutions we help them define their strategic plan for how they will use data and also the management of the data including governance and security,” Sam says.
Sam is proud of the diverse projects that Effini has successfully delivered: “including things like forecasts for water quality on beaches in Scotland; energy saving in your home to improve costs and decrease your carbon emissions; health monitoring and predictive care and many others. Sometimes the simplest of solutions can make a huge difference, and we are careful not to build in complexity just for the sake of it. We are very proactive about working on projects we feel are creating a really positive contribution.”
Data education is key to Effini’s work. “It's a new concept to many people,” Sam says, “so we run workshops for businesses and individuals, and we’re developing key data lessons for use in schools and colleges.”
Sam says she is, “passionate about creating a fair and open culture in tech and data, and sees community engagement as key to achieving this.” Sam sits on the leadership circle for the Scottish AI Alliance, “who are tasked with delivery of the AI strategy in an open, transparent and collaborative way,” she explains, and runs the Edinburgh chapter of PyData Edinburgh:”an international community of users and developers of data analysis tools to share ideas and learn from each other.” Sam is also part of Girl Geek Scotland, a volunteer-led organisations that supports women in the tech industry through workshops, and networking opportunities, engaging with tech companies across Scotland.
Angela Fleming, VP Product at FreeAgent
FreeAgent provides cloud accounting software, much loved by small businesses and freelancers - and their accountants. Angela Fleming is VP for Product so responsible for overseeing the product strategy and team.
Angela began working in tech in 2021 in the automotive tech industry, including diverse roles in business consultancy, marketing and product management. “I quickly fell in love with the role of product management,” she says, “especially identifying problems to solve for our users. I moved into Fintech (financial technology) when I joined FreeAgent in 2020 and this has been a great opportunity for me to continue in product but venture into a new industry."
“I see my role primarily in serving my team and supporting them to achieve their personal career goals and our business goals, along with representing our department at an executive level,” Angela says. “I am passionate about building high performing teams through empowering, providing direction and support, and ensuring the team has the tools and systems it needs to build successful products,” she says.
Angela would love to see more women pursue careers in tech: “Tech is traditionally seen as male dominated,” she says, “but in recent years there is definitely a shift, with an increase in women pursuing careers in tech, although we still have some way to go for a true balance.”
The Fintech industry is currently around 30% female Angela says, but in her Freeagent team: “I’m pretty proud to say we have a 50/50 split across gender across all levels of roles within our product team.”
“Tech is not just about coding,” Angela says, “there is so much more in areas such as product management, product design, user research, data analysis and data science. New startups arise every day and it is great to see so many women taking that leap of faith and leading new startups. The exciting thing about tech is it is always changing so the opportunities are always changing too.”
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