Not everyone who founds an investment firm starts in investment. Nadine Buckland, for instance, came with an insolvency advisory background, which put her right inside the world of non-bank lending. This is a market that was growing fast in the UK, yet remained largely opaque to the borrowers trying to access it.

In this episode of the Women Leading the Way interview series, the Drofa Comms team sat down with Nadine Buckland, CEO of Zenzic Capital. We wanted to hear how that experience led her to co-found the firm alongside lawyer Tom Lloyd-Jones, and what she has learned along the way.

Nadine is candid about why entrepreneurship suited her from the start. “I was never much of a rule follower, and I found it difficult to operate within large corporations,” she says. “Being an entrepreneur suited me the most — it is a type of environment where personal pace and merit matter more.”

She talks about how tough it was to get through Brexit, COVID-19, and a sharp rate cycle, naming the pandemic as the hardest test of all. Nadine had to manage a team that had gone remote overnight, keeping morale intact, while simultaneously pausing new investments to wait until the real estate market calmed down.

Speaking of women in finance, Nadine acknowledges real progress and points out that even though there historically has been a stronger culture of mutual sponsorship among men, now the situation is changing. She states that there is a really encouraging change in women's networks that are growing much stronger.

For those women who are still waiting for the perfect moment to start, Nadine says without sugarcoating: “Do not wait for complete certainty. You do not need every box ticked to succeed. Sometimes, the willingness to step forward and trust what you bring is exactly what makes the difference.”

👉 Read the full interview with Nadine here: https://womenlead.co.uk/ideas/nadine-buckland