REAL
ENTREPRENEUR
LIFE
About Sarah Dowzell
Sarah Dowzell is an exited tech founder, advisor and speaker who’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs scale smart and exit strong.
At just 21, Sarah became an employer for the first time. By 22, she was balancing life as a new mother and a first-time founder, learning early what it truly means to build a business while building a life. Over the next decade, she bootstrapped, raised £1.6 million in venture capital and grew her company to a 50-person team before successfully exiting.
That journey shaped her mission to show the real side of entrepreneurship, the part that sits between startup and success, and to help other founders navigate it with clarity, confidence and balance.
Through Real Entrepreneur Life, Sarah now works with scaling founders and business leaders across the UK, offering high-touch advisory and exit preparation support. Her work focuses on building the right systems, leadership structures and strategic mindset to scale sustainably and create real options for the future, whether that’s an exit, succession or renewed growth.
Alongside her advisory work, Sarah sits on The Lifted Project Birmingham Board, a data and ecosystem-led approach to increasing the flow of capital to regional, high-growth women-led businesses. A five-year project aligned with the Rose Review and Treasury. She also collaborates with schools and universities to inspire the next generation of founders, sharing her story to encourage young people, particularly women, to explore entrepreneurship as a real career path.
Known for her candid, down-to-earth approach, Sarah blends lived experience with strategic insight. Whether she’s speaking on stage, mentoring founders or answering “Ask an Exited Founder” questions on TikTok, her message is simple: building and exiting a business isn’t just about numbers; it’s about purpose, people and the person you become along the way.