Sahar Hashemi

Sahar Hashemi Speaker Biography

Sahar Hashemi is a visionary entrepreneur who’s built not one, but three game-changing businesses. She doesn’t wait for perfect conditions—she builds momentum, creates bold brands, and brings energy into rooms (and boardrooms) where it’s long been missing.

From co-founding Coffee Republic—the UK’s first US-style coffee chain that turned Britain’s tea obsession on its head—to championing Buy Women Built, Sahar proves that ideas don’t need permission to grow. They just need action.

But in many organisations, that action is stuck. Structures, processes, and playbooks written for another era are still running the show, even as the world outside evolves faster than ever. Innovation stalls. Fear creeps in. Decisions get bogged down in what-ifs and approval loops. And the entrepreneurial spark? It’s buried under ‘how things have always been done’.

That’s where Sahar comes in. She knows exactly how to dig that energy back up—because she’s done it, time and again.

She’s built brands from scratch that not only disrupted markets but changed consumer behaviour. From bringing sugar-free sweets into the mainstream with Skinny Candy to shifting how we shop with Buy Women Built, Sahar knows how to create movements, not just marketing campaigns.

BWB started as a single tweet during lockdown and became a nationwide rallying cry for women-built brands. With over 2,000 businesses and £2.5 billion in turnover, the BWB network is now reshaping how retailers and consumers think. Ocado launched the world’s first women-built aisle. Whole Foods, QVC, Planet Organic, and TikTok Shop followed suit. Visibility isn’t just good PR—it’s driving real commercial change.

Her bestselling book Anyone Can Do It helped tear down the myths around entrepreneurship—no jargon, no polished origin stories, just real talk about what it takes to start something. It became the UK’s second-best-selling book on entrepreneurship. Her follow-up, Startup Forever, became a Financial Times Book of the Month and a must-read for leaders who want to keep their business nimble, creative, and full of spark.

Sahar’s impact has been recognised worldwide—from being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, to receiving an OBE and being cited as a “Pioneer to the Life of the Nation” by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

But Sahar doesn’t show up with slides and theories—she shows up with stories, honesty, and a jolt of energy. She reconnects people to the creativity, courage, and momentum they already have (but maybe forgot about under all the processes and polite PowerPoints).

She doesn’t just talk about entrepreneurial energy—she makes you feel it.