This week on the PRmoment podcast, I’m interviewing Rachel Pendered, managing director of Media Zoo.

Media Zoo has a fee income of circa £13m and approximately 130 employees. It’s an independent PR firm in London. It was co-founded by Rachel and Mark Killick in 2003.

Before she co-founded Media Zoo, Rachel worked for the BBC and Channel 4 as a TV producer.

Here’s a summary of what Rachel and I discuss: 

[00:01:30] Why have we seen so many women leave their agency CEO jobs in the last 12 months.

[00:06:51] Why Rachel believes it's much harder to become a successful female entrepreneur than a male entrepreneur.

[00:07:22] How just 8% of start-up funding goes to women.

[00:10:08] How can we encourage more female entrepreneurs?

[00:12:21] Why entrepreneurship is all about imagination.

[00:13:28] Rachel talks to us through some stats from The Rose Review, a piece of research looking at why there are fewer female entrepreneurs in the UK. 

[00:13:34] How, if we were to close the entrepreneurial gender gap, we would potentially add £250 billion to the UK economy in the next 10 years.

[00:16:27] Where women can find out more information about becoming entrepreneurs.

[00:19:03] Why Rachel set up Media Zoo in 2003.

[00:20:23] Why Rachel didn't enjoy being employed.

[00:21:08] How, originally, the plan for Media Zoo was for it to be a network of production freelancers – but things soon changed…

[00:25:16] How Rachel has built the Media Zoo to become a £13m firm alongside Mark Killick.

[00:26:50] How did Rachel create a culture of entrepreneurship at Media Zoo?

[00:27:27] How has Media Zoo grown to a £13m fee income when lots of its independent agency peers have not? 

[00:29:11] Why Media Zoo has brought all its production services in-house. 

[00:29:35] Why Media Zoo has never made any acquisitions.

[00:32:20] Rachel talks about her working relationship with Mark Killick. 

[00:37:27] How Media Zoo has diversified through its content engine proposition.

[00:38:46] Rachel talks about Media Zoo’s embedded client team strategy of six to 12-person teams typically on one- to three-year contracts.

[00:40:12] Rachel talks about Media Zoo’s expansion plans into Scotland, Switzerland and the US next year. 

[00:43:54] With many economic forecasters predicting a recession is on the way – Rachel recalls what she did after the 2008 financial crash that helped her business to survive.