Building bridges for founders with global ambition

Our Mission

Impact Rise Ventures exists to help ambitious founders navigate the complexity of scaling into global markets with confidence and clarity.

We work hands-on with companies, founders, and ecosystem partners to build practical pathways into leading tech hubs, combining curated programmes, international delegations, trusted networks, and high-quality resources.

We design our work around founders, not frameworks. That means creating experiences and support that are commercially focused, human, and genuinely useful. Whether that’s preparing a cohort for a new market, delivering a mission on the ground, making the right introductions, or providing clear guidance to help founders make smarter choices.

Our role is to reduce friction, open doors, and help founders focus on what matters most: building strong, globally scalable businesses.

Our Team

Impact Rise Ventures was founded in 2025, fuelled by a passion to help companies scale globally.

Victoria Ross

With over 20 years combined experience in business growth, stakeholder engagement and project management, Victoria has a strong track record of delivering impactful initiatives including:
- Facilitating international delegations to the US for trade and investment
- Event curation and delivery across Europe and the US
- Supporting founders with investor relations and fundraising.
- Extensive stakeholder relations across government bodies, third sector and the private sector.

- Startup experience of as a Chief of Staff overseeing operations and HR.

You will often find Victoria out networking, connecting and learning at global gatherings such as various Climate and Tech Weeks in San Francisco & New York and tech conferences across Europe.

Barry McDonald

With over eight years of experience supporting startups and the broader ecosystem in Scotland, Barry currently leads the accelerator at Geovation Scotland and is a director with Startup Grind Scotland.

Latterly he was Vice President of Community at CodeBase, supporting the national Techscaler programme. He has coordinated multiple founder cohort trips to major international tech events such as Web Summit (Lisbon) and has organised fact-finding visits to Latitude 59 (Tallinn), Slush (Helsinki) and CMX (San Francisco).

Barry has deep experience supporting growth-stage founders, connecting them with investors, and delivering cohort-based showcases in London and beyond.
He also brings operational strength, ecosystem insight, and international market exposure to the team.

Services

Fractional Support

High-impact, flexible support for founders who need strategic execution & operational leverage but aren’t ready for a full-time hire.

This might look like:

Strategic Execution – Driving key projects, from fundraising to hiring

Investor & Board Support – Decks, reporting, and stakeholder management

Process & Workflow Optimization – Automating and streamlining ops

Fundraising Support – Investor outreach, deck refinement, due diligence

Global Connections - Ensuring your company is visible and connected in the right places.

International Delegations

Impact Rise Ventures runs curated, impact focused founder delegations into global tech hubs.

Our trips are built around founder needs providing a balance of value add and time freedom. Focusing on ecosystem immersion, connections and insight, our trips help founders navigate the local markets and foster relationships which will help them on their journey to scaling globally.

We work with Chambers of Commerce and ecosystem partners to design and deliver high-impact international missions and founder cohorts. From shaping the programme to leading it on the ground, we create structured, outcome-driven experiences that help companies build the right connections and move faster in new markets.

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Resources

Practical resources such as market-entry playbooks, guides, and toolkits designed to help founders navigate new ecosystems with confidence.

These resources share on-the-ground insight, local context, and real experience into clear, actionable guidance, designed to help companies prepare properly, land quicker in market and hit the ground running. Whether used ahead of a delegation or as a standalone support tool, our playbooks give founders structure, clarity, and a smarter way to approach international growth.

Playbooks can also be produced for roles such as Chief of Staff or Founders Associate, providing a landing pad for new starters and assist them in creating their own daily operating rhythm.