Keynote SpeakersSahar Hashemi OBE is one of the UK’s most inspirational female entrepreneurs.
A visionary entrepreneur who has built three game-changing businesses, Sahar Hashemi turns ideas into brands and reignites entrepreneurial energy where it’s been lost.
From revolutionizing coffee culture with Coffee Republic to building Buy Women Built into a powerful brand, she proves that momentum, not waiting for certainty, creates change.
However, in many organisations, that momentum is hard to find. Too often, structures, processes, and habits built for a different era remain, even as customers, competitors, and industries evolve.
The result? Ways of thinking and working that no longer match the speed of the world outside. Entrepreneurial energy—the very force that drives innovation, momentum, and bold action—gets buried. It is lost under layers of process, fear, and the comfort of certainty. Leaders hesitate. Decision-making slows. Over-cautiousness takes hold. Customer connection fades. And with it, so does growth.
Sahar Hashemi knows how to ignite entrepreneurial energy—she’s done it repeatedly. She has turned ideas from scratch into brands that disrupt industries and shift consumer behaviour.
“Sahar was the best-ranked speaker at our conference and did an amazing session”
The Coca-Cola Company Middle East
Who is Sahar Hashemi?
She transformed the UK from a nation of tea drinkers to coffee lovers when she co-founded Coffee Republic, the country’s first US-style coffee chain.
She changed consumer habits again with Skinny Candy, bringing sugar-free treats into the mainstream.
And now, with Buy Women Built (BWB), she has built a brand and a movement that is redefining how consumers and retailers see women-built brands.
What started as a single tweet during the pandemic is now a commercial movement, transforming how consumers see women-built brands. With a community of 2,000+ women-built businesses generating over £2.5 billion in turnover, BWB is shifting buying habits at scale. BWB launched the world’s first women-built “aisle” on Ocado, proving that visibility drives sales.
Major retailers, including Whole Foods, QVC, Planet Organic, and TikTok Shop, have embraced BWB and integrated it into their stores and platforms.
Her pioneering book, Anyone Can Do It, was the first to strip away the myths of entrepreneurship and reveal its messy, real-world reality. It inspired thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide and became the UK’s second highest-selling book on entrepreneurship.
Her insights into how bureaucracy, perfectionism, and the need for certainty kill momentum led to Start-Up Forever, a Financial Times Book of the Month, and a playbook for leaders to keep the startup spark alive—before it gets buried.
In June 2012, she was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and charity.
She has been named “Pioneer to the Life of the Nation” by HM The Queen and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Sahar Hashemi – Keynote Speaker:
Sahar doesn’t give audiences theory. She reconnects them to what they already have—the energy, creativity, and courage buried under old habits, processes, and fear.
Through powerful storytelling and real-world experience, she reignites the urgency to move, the boldness to act, and the deep connection to customers that fuels innovation and impact.
She doesn’t just talk about entrepreneurial energy—she makes people feel it, and when they feel it, they act.
Sahar makes a strong impact, igniting the audience with a ‘can-do’ spirit and the tools and habits to ‘make it happen’.
Topics include:
- If you’re Human, you’re an entrepreneur
- The Switched-On Mindset – Igniting Creativity and Innovation
- Entrepreneurial Mindset in Your Organisation.
- 8 Habits for a Switched-On Mindset
- Corporate vs Entrepreneurial mindsets!
- Anyone Can Do it – Awakening the Entrepreneur Within
- Life Outside the Comfort Zone – An Entrepreneur’s Journey
- Entrepreneurial Leadership
- Standing in the Customer’s shoes
- What makes an Entrepreneur
- Anyone Can Do it – The journey of turning an idea into a business
