Rethinking how we work, live and give
Alana Ventures is a purpose-led social enterprise at the intersection of human expertise and intelligent technology. We believe the future of business is led by people, powered by AI, and built for good.
Start a conversationA social enterprise,
not just a consultancy
Alana Ventures is built on the belief that purposeful work creates thriving people — and thriving people change the world.
Founded by Gemma Hyde, Alana Ventures is a purpose-led social enterprise headquartered in Bristol. We exist to prove that business can be a force for good — delivering expert consultancy, making ethical investments, and funding the community projects that need it most.
Our internal standard is a 20-hour working week, because we lead by example. We believe highly skilled professionals deserve to live full lives — and that the best thinking happens when people have space to breathe.
Every engagement we take on generates revenue that flows directly into our three pillars: consultancy that transforms businesses, investments that create equitable returns, and charitable work that strengthens communities.
The Three Pillars
Everything we do flows through three interconnected pillars — consultancy, ethical investment, and community impact.
Consultancy
CEO-to-CEO consulting through The 20 Model. We sit with founders and leadership teams to diagnose what's really going on inside their business — and build a clear path forward. No jargon. No filler. Just honest, expert insight.
Ethical Investments
Strategic investments in UK and global businesses that generate equitable returns while creating genuine social value. We invest in people and ideas that align with our mission to build a more human economy.
Charitable Enterprise
Revenue generated by Alana Ventures directly funds the community projects that need it most — from local Bristol initiatives to broader social impact work. Business as a vehicle for change, not just profit.
The 20 Model
The 20 Model is an original innovation in business consulting — a five-day CEO-to-CEO discovery phase combining executive-level expertise with the intelligent application of AI. Four focused hours each day. Twenty hours total. Your business, understood.
Traditional discovery takes months and still only scratches the surface. The 20 Model works differently. Exec level human expertise drives every conversation — asking the right questions, reading between the lines, recognising patterns that no algorithm alone would catch. AI then amplifies that insight: synthesising, structuring, and surfacing connections at a depth and speed that transforms what's possible.
The result is a clear, honest, and actionable business overview — delivered in plain language, not a 200-page report that sits in a drawer. It is the foundation for every strategic decision you make next.
The 20 Model is also a statement of intent: that 20 hours of purposeful, focused, human-led work each week is not a limitation — it is a standard worth aspiring to. Better for thinking. Better for living. Better for giving back.
Immersion
Understanding the business through the eyes of its founder. History, vision, culture, and the story so far. AI-assisted preparation ensures no context is missed.
Operations
How the business actually runs. Processes, people, technology, and the friction points nobody talks about — mapped intelligently in real time.
Financials
Revenue, costs, margins, and cash flow. Where the money comes from, where it goes, and what the numbers really say.
Strategy
Market position, competitive landscape, growth levers, and the decisions that will shape the next 12-36 months.
Delivery
A complete business overview presented back to you — clear, honest, and actionable. Human insight, AI-amplified. The foundation for what comes next.
Gemma Hyde
Gemma Hyde is the Founder of Alana Ventures Ltd. With over 20 years of experience spanning consulting, technology, financial services, healthcare, central government, aerospace, and engineering, Gemma has built a career defined by one consistent thread: the ability to understand complex organisations quickly, deeply, and with precision.
After two decades at the forefront of digital transformation, strategic consulting, and AI-led delivery, Gemma reached a pivotal crossroads. She recognised that the working model most organisations depend on — the 40-hour week, conceived over a century ago — was no longer fit for purpose in an era of advanced artificial intelligence. Rather than accept this as an immovable constraint, she chose to challenge it.
In founding Alana Ventures, Gemma committed to proving — publicly, commercially, and by personal example — that with the intelligent application of AI, individuals and organisations can achieve more in 20 hours than they previously could in 40. The mission is not incremental improvement. It is societal change: a fundamental rethinking of how we work, live, and give.
A Founder's Crossroads
Gemma's decision to found Alana Ventures was the result of two decades of watching talented people — particularly women — constrained by working models that demanded everything and gave too little back. She saw first-hand how the traditional consulting model, built on billable hours and months-long discovery phases, served large firms more than it served clients.
She also saw the transformative potential of artificial intelligence — not as a threat to human capability, but as the greatest enabler of human potential in a generation. Alana Ventures is her answer to that question. A business built to be on the right side of AI. A business that demonstrates, through its own operations and its work with clients, that a 20-hour working week is not a concession — it is an upgrade.
Leading by Example
Alana Ventures does not simply advocate for a 20-hour working week — it operates on one. The 20-hour week is the internal standard for every person who works at Alana Ventures, at the same pay. This is not a reduced role or a reduced salary. It is the same professional, doing the same calibre of work, achieving the same outcomes — with a fundamental shift in how that work is done. AI removes the inefficiency. Focus replaces volume. Depth replaces presence. Gemma leads by example, running her business, serving her clients, and building her enterprise within the same 20-hour framework she brings to clients.
The UK — and the wider world — is losing some of its most talented, experienced professionals to a system that was never designed around human life. Parents forced out after having children. Experts who burned out after decades of 60-hour weeks. Skilled people who chose to live, to love, and to grow — and found that the existing model would not allow them to do both. Alana Ventures exists to bring those people back.
Let's have a conversation
Whether you're a founder ready to go through the discovery phase, an investor interested in ethical opportunities, or someone who shares our belief that the future of work should be human-led — we'd love to hear from you.
gemma@alanaventures.co.uk