Women Entrepreneurship Day 2022

Women's Entrepreneurship Day is on November 19th. Founded in 2013, the movement was established to bring awareness to the 250 million girls living in poverty globally that deserve to be given a chance in life, while simultaneously inspiring and empowering the 4 billion women on our planet.

Space South Central spoke to Wenmiao Yu, the co-founder and director of business development at Quantum Dice, to find out more about her journey as a female entrepreneur in the space sector.

Wenmiao Yu, Co-Founder and Director of Business Development at Quantum Dice.

What drew you to the space sector?

My pathway to the space sector is non-linear as I do not come from a physics or engineering background. However, I have always been interested in the translation of scientific innovation into products that solve business problems and made my first foray into the space sector through Quantum Dice, a spin-out from the University of Oxford that I co-founded in my last term at university in 2019. We’ve been working over the past year to make a space-suitable Quantum Random Number Generator for use in satellite-based quantum communication systems. Over the past year, I’ve been amazed by how space (a relatively mature sector) intersects with quantum technologies (very much a nascent sector) and am excited to see how it’ll become an increasingly integral part of our daily lives!

As a woman working in the sector, what were some of the challenges you faced?

The biggest one is the imbalance between female/male role models in prominent roles within the space sector. I’ve been really fortunate in having been supported by both female and male champions in my network but would love for there to be more visibility on all the amazing contributions that females in the sector have made, and especially to showcase the contributions made by those at all levels of an organisation. Also, I’m not sure if this is specific to my gender, but a key challenge I’ve experienced recently is hiring. Of course, hiring suitable talent for a start-up presents its own set of challenges as opposed to hiring as a large, international corporation. Some roles within the space sector also require such a specific set of skills that the talent pool is naturally quite small. I’ve still to figure out what the best solution is and am open to hearing from anyone who thinks they might have a solution!

What, if anything, do you wish you had done differently?

Having the belief in myself to speak my mind sooner!

What do we need to do to get more women to join the industry?

Initiatives just like this! I personally believe that visibility has a big part to play in increasing the diversity of any industry. Seeing someone in a certain role and being able to relate to them makes it so much easier to then imagine your own career going along a similar trajectory too. There are many communities that aims to do just that through various initiatives: Innovate UK has an annual Women in Innovation award that showcases women innovators in the UK, and Space Scotland has a working group that I’m a part of called New Voices in Space which aims to demonstrate that the UK space sector is open and accessible to all.

Who has inspired you in the past and why?

In any conversation about inspiring leaders, I have to mention Jane Garrett, who was my mentor and Director of the Bristol Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre. A successful technology entrepreneur herself, Jane played a catalytic role in developing my leadership skills. Her style of mentorship is not prescriptive but focuses on enabling me to make informed business decisions to then take ownership of. I admire her leadership (and mentorship) style and also keep a people-centric focus when leading my own team at Quantum Dice as well as when coaching undergraduates from the Oxford Women in Business society.

What drew you to the space sector?

My pathway to the space sector is non-linear as I do not come from a physics or engineering background. However, I have always been interested in the translation of scientific innovation into products that solve business problems and made my first foray into the space sector through Quantum Dice, a spin-out from the University of Oxford that I co-founded in my last term at university in 2019. We’ve been working over the past year to make a space-suitable Quantum Random Number Generator for use in satellite-based quantum communication systems. Over the past year, I’ve been amazed by how space (a relatively mature sector) intersects with quantum technologies (very much a nascent sector) and am excited to see how it’ll become an increasingly integral part of our daily lives!

As a woman working in the sector, what were some of the challenges you faced?

The biggest one is the imbalance between female/male role models in prominent roles within the space sector. I’ve been really fortunate in having been supported by both female and male champions in my network but would love for there to be more visibility on all the amazing contributions that females in the sector have made, and especially to showcase the contributions made by those at all levels of an organisation. Also, I’m not sure if this is specific to my gender, but a key challenge I’ve experienced recently is hiring. Of course, hiring suitable talent for a start-up presents its own set of challenges as opposed to hiring as a large, international corporation. Some roles within the space sector also require such a specific set of skills that the talent pool is naturally quite small. I’ve still to figure out what the best solution is and am open to hearing from anyone who thinks they might have a solution!

What, if anything, do you wish you had done differently?

Having the belief in myself to speak my mind sooner!

What do we need to do to get more women to join the industry?

Initiatives just like this! I personally believe that visibility has a big part to play in increasing the diversity of any industry. Seeing someone in a certain role and being able to relate to them makes it so much easier to then imagine your own career going along a similar trajectory too. There are many communities that aims to do just that through various initiatives: Innovate UK has an annual Women in Innovation award that showcases women innovators in the UK, and Space Scotland has a working group that I’m a part of called New Voices in Space which aims to demonstrate that the UK space sector is open and accessible to all.

Who has inspired you in the past and why?

In any conversation about inspiring leaders, I have to mention Jane Garrett, who was my mentor and Director of the Bristol Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre. A successful technology entrepreneur herself, Jane played a catalytic role in developing my leadership skills. Her style of mentorship is not prescriptive but focuses on enabling me to make informed business decisions to then take ownership of. I admire her leadership (and mentorship) style and also keep a people-centric focus when leading my own team at Quantum Dice as well as when coaching undergraduates from the Oxford Women in Business society.