Our Story

The higher up I climbed, the fewer people like me I saw at decision making tables and it bothered me. I founded Sour Lemons because I wanted to give young people from backgrounds like mine, access to the same opportunities that helped me to succeed.

When I say like mine, I mean people with life experiences that don’t fit with the ‘majority’. I am a brown skinned woman from a working-class background, without a degree in a leadership position. I have life experiences of leaving home early, addiction, abusive relationships, exclusion and gang culture. I mean people like me.                                                                        

Over the last ten years I have turned my life around, brick by brick, and taken those sour lemons and made my own version of lemonade. I have chosen to use my story to inspire and motivate the next generation of young leaders to aim high and to do the same with their life experiences.  It doesn’t matter where you started in life, what matters is where you are heading to.

Sade Banks

Founder and Chief Executive