Build the things that should exist

ABOUT DAISY FORD-DOWNES

Making powerful forces work for people

Back in the day, I accidentally joined a start-up. There, I fell in love with entrepreneurship as a way to create change.

For over a decade, I worked in investment across Scotland's startup ecosystem. At Firstport, I led the Investment Team creating innovative finance solutions for social entrepreneurs – while scouting category-defining deals for Ada Ventures. Before that, I managed blended finance investments at Foundation Scotland and, before that, supported high-growth co-investment deals at Scottish Enterprise Growth Investments. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Deloitte's Entrepreneurial Business team and, somewhere in there, helped build a rural community development trust.Now I'm working on the question of how we build what we need with technology. Finance and technology are both global forces, designed by humans but experienced by many as something that simply happens to them. At CodeBase, I'm figuring out what, and how, people need to learn to stay ahead of frontier technologies like AI, and what we need to build to help them take hold of the possibilities.

CREDENTIALS
ex Big 4 Chartered Accountant
Responsible Finance Clore Fellow
MSc Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship

SELECTED WORK

Things I've built & contributed to

Investment Product Design

Financial products designed to fuel growth, sustainability and impact.

  • Designed and led Scotland's £15m revenue-based loan fund for social enterprises at Firstport. Flexible enough to fund organisations scaling up for global impact AND those scaling deep to transform local communities.

  • Provides flexible equity-like finance of £50k+ to ambitious ventures unable to access traditional social investment. Repayments based on a percentage of trading revenue to align success for investor and investee.

  • Four distinct support routes serving impact innovators, community businesses, global majority entrepreneurs and social enterprises – providing investment readiness and post-investment growth support from experts in each field.

  • Expanding the field on impact governance and what it means to be a global social enterprise, building from Scotland.

  • Designed Firstport's 0% interest loan product (£5k–£30k) for social enterprises ready to scale strategies that are already working – incentivising sustainable revenue growth.

  • Built the application process as a practical investment readiness exercise: applicants make their own business case and design their own repayment plan.

  • Light touch assessment for quick decisions.

Cashflow Support Loans

  • Emergency cashflow support for critical community organisations with a clear recovery plan and short term cash need.

  • Partnering with support services for those difficult times when money alone is not enough.

Investment Readiness

Helping purpose-led founders bridge the gap from idea to investment.

  • Reshaped Firstport's flagship investment readiness programme for social and community enterprises getting ready to raise repayable finance for the first time.

  • Now supports cohorts through an on-demand digital learning journey, wrapped around with workshops, peer learning and 1-1 expert support interventions – with clear pathways into social investment.

  • Through 2021-24, 42 early stage enterprises selected for the programme raised £2.1m in funding.

  • Fundraising accelerator for under-represented founders as part of a national consortium, led by Mountside Ventures, backed by Innovate UK.

  • Expert-led curriculum for 21 ambitious founders, with contributions from top tier VCs, culminating in a London investor day.

Fundraising workshops

Bespoke, interactive investment readiness sessions, including:

  • introduction to investment

  • alternative finance models

  • climate tech funding

  • venture capital strategy

Ecosystem building

Contributing to the wider infrastructure that helps it all happen.

Panellist/ Judge

  • Panellist, judge and/or speaker for various programmes including Converge Challenge, PowerHerUp, Summer Startup School, Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc accelerator, and CivTech.

  • Led the Edinburgh chapter (2018–2022) of the global network building ethical, inclusive alternatives to venture capital culture. Organised networking, learning and support events for local purpose-driven companies and advisors.

  • Convened Zebras across the whole of the UK virtually during COVID, alongside London chapter lead Esme Verity.

  • Led the capital and regional landscape work for a UK steward ownership deep dive produced by Yoak, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with the Purpose Foundation as partner.

  • Finance consultant with Bioregioning Tayside and Dark Matter Labs on a place-based financial architecture for nature, water and community resilience.

GET IN TOUCH

Let's talk

Alongside my work at CodeBase, I still do the occasional bit of speaking, writing and panel work on how we fund and govern the things the world needs. Email me or find me on LinkedIn.

Copyright © Daisy Ford-Downes 2026. All rights reserved.