Our Learning
What worked well and what didn’t.
My Five Honest Mistakes: A Founder’s Journey Through Hard-Won Lessons
Building something meaningful rarely follows a straight path. Alongside success come missteps, recalibrations, and lessons that only hindsight can illuminate.
In this candid reflection, our founder and Director Noel Mathias shares five honest mistakes that shaped WEvolution’s story — the moments that tested conviction, reshaped ambition, and taught what sustainable leadership really means.
This isn’t a story about failure, but about growth: the kind that comes from daring to build something that matters.
WEvolution's Legacy: Building Social Infrastructure for Enterprising Margins
After 15 years of championing entrepreneurship for women in underserved Scottish communities, WEvolution is sharing the insights that transformed how we think about supporting entrepreneurship at the margins.
Our most powerful discovery? Isolation before entrepreneurship is the greatest barrier to entrepreneurial development. While the ecosystem focuses on helping established entrepreneurs scale, we learned that networks must come first—building social infrastructure where it's missing, creating Small Powerful Groups where women develop entrepreneurial identity before taking the leap.
The results speak for themselves: a community-led approach that generated £26 million in social and economic value, demonstrating that when you address the human dimension first and break down institutional silos, you create ripple effects across entire policy ecosystems—from economic empowerment to violence prevention, from child poverty reduction to enhanced employability.
As we wind down WEvolution, we're sharing these critical insights with one urgent message: the voices shaping entrepreneurship policy must come from the margins, not just speak about them.
An Invitation: From Theory to Practice
“If you’re doing systems change, trying to break down silos or have simply grown weary of approaches that talk about "giving people voice" while keeping all the real power elsewhere and are asking: "how do we actually do this?"— this is how… Small, Powerful Groups: A simple methodology that helps people organise themselves, pool resources, and take action on their own terms.”
Noel Mathias, Founder and Director
“Being part of an SPG has given me confidence in business finance. The other members push me to ask for help when I need it and that has meant I feel a lot more confident in seeking answers and help…Being part of the SPG gave me the confidence and start up fund to begin the darker humour offshoot of my business.”
— Small, Powerful Groups Member