From Personal Experience to Global Mission: How Gulshen Bano Is Scaling Strike Back Self-Defence

Some businesses begin with a market gap.

Others begin because something happens that changes the way you see the world.

For Gulshen Bano, founder of StrikeBack Self-Defence for Women and a finalist for Powerhouse Business of the Year, the starting point was deeply personal. After experiencing serious assaults while working as a pharmacist, she realised just how little practical knowledge she had about keeping herself safe.

That experience led her first into self-defence training, then into teaching, and eventually into building a global organisation with a very clear mission: make practical self-protection skills accessible to women and girls everywhere.

What makes Gulshen’s story especially powerful is that the mission has never sat separately from the business. The commercial model is what allows the impact to grow.

The Moment Everything Changed

Gulshen spent years working as a pharmacist across the North West, often finishing late, locking up and walking back to her car alone.

Looking back, she describes herself as naive about the risks she was taking.

“What you don’t know, you don’t know. And once you know it, it changes everything.”

After two serious assaults, she knew she needed practical skills.

That search led her to Krav Maga, despite having no previous martial arts background. She started training just before the age of 40 and eventually qualified as an instructor because women around her kept asking for help too.

Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and friends began sharing their own stories. Many had experienced harassment, assault or situations where they had felt unsafe, but had never spoken about them.

The need was clearly much bigger than Gulshen herself.

Creating Something Women Would Actually Walk Into

The first Strike Back class was a small community session in Solihull.

But Gulshen soon realised that the environment mattered just as much as the techniques.

Women who had experienced trauma did not necessarily want to walk into a traditional martial arts setting or learn hands-on physical skills from a male instructor. They wanted somewhere they could feel safe, understood and supported.

That became a defining part of Strike Back.

The programme is built around:

• All-female teaching environments
• Trauma-informed delivery
• Practical self-protection rather than martial arts progression
• Awareness and prevention alongside physical skills
• Boundaries, confidence and trusting instinct
• Skills designed around real situations women and girls may face

Gulshen is very clear that the goal is not teaching women how to stay and fight.

“It’s about what do I need to do in this moment that allows me to go home safely.”

That distinction matters.

Self-Defence as a Life Skill

One of the strongest ideas in our conversation was Gulshen’s belief that self-protection should be treated in the same way as other basic safety skills.

We teach children road safety before they cross roads alone. We teach swimming because one day somebody may need it.

So why, she asks, are women and girls often given no practical preparation for situations they may face in everyday life?

For Strike Back, physical techniques are only part of the programme.

There is also a huge focus on:

• Recognising when something does not feel right
• Understanding personal boundaries
• Calling out inappropriate behaviour
• Recognising unhealthy relationships
• Understanding red flags
• Not allowing politeness to override safety
• Knowing what options are available before a situation escalates

“Stop second guessing yourself.”

That message runs through Gulshen’s work because she sees how often women instinctively know something is wrong, but have been conditioned to question their own reaction.

When the Mission Becomes Bigger Than the Founder

Strike Back began growing beyond Solihull and eventually beyond the UK.

After teaching in the USA, Gulshen sat down with her friend Kathleen, founder of Hope for Handbags, after another exhausting run of workshops.

Kathleen told her something that changed the direction of the business.

“This is bigger than you, Gully.”

Gulshen could not physically teach every woman herself.

That is where franchising entered the picture.

The model allows women to build businesses within their own communities while delivering the Strike Back curriculum and mission.

And for Gulshen, local leadership is crucial.

“Nobody knows a community better than a woman that lives in it.”

The needs of women in Glasgow may look different from those in Solihull, India or Singapore. The core principles remain consistent, but the way they are delivered can respond to the community.

That is one of the reasons the franchise model fits the mission so well.

Scaling the Mission Globally

Strike Back is now expanding internationally, with Gulshen describing recent activity in India, Cairo, Malaysia, Mongolia and Singapore alongside its growth across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

The geography changes.

The conversations often do not.

Again and again, women tell Gulshen and her team about the same kinds of experiences: being followed, feeling unsafe on public transport, experiencing harassment or simply not knowing what to do when somebody crosses a boundary.

The long-term vision is bold.

Gulshen wants:

• A female Strike Back instructor in every major city
• More women able to access training locally
• Younger girls learning boundaries and red flags much earlier
• Instructors building viable businesses around meaningful impact
• A model that continues long after Gulshen herself stops teaching

That last point is important.

This is not simply growth for growth’s sake.

It is legacy.

Visibility Through Dragons’ Den

Strike Back’s appearance on Dragons’ Den became another major step in raising awareness.

Interestingly, Gulshen did not apply. A senior producer contacted her directly after following the business.

She said yes almost immediately.

The motivation was not primarily investment.

“It was always about getting this topic out on the mainstream.”

After a lengthy due-diligence process and hours in the Den, Gulshen received an offer from Jenna Meek.

But the biggest result was visibility.

Strike Back had taken conversations around women’s safety, practical self-defence and violence against women and girls into one of the UK’s best-known business programmes.

For a mission-led brand, that platform mattered enormously.

Passion Still Has to Turn a Profit

Perhaps the most useful business lesson in Gulshen’s story is that she refuses to treat purpose and profit as opposites.

“Yes, it’s a business and it has to be a business.”

A mission does not remove the need for healthy numbers.

Quite the opposite.

If Strike Back is going to train more instructors, enter more countries, develop its curriculum and reach more women and girls, the business has to work financially.

Gulshen puts it simply:

“Passion has still got to turn a profit.”

Profit allows the business to reinvest in the mission.

Without it, growth eventually stops.

That is a message purpose-led founders sometimes need to hear more often. Wanting to create impact is not enough on its own. The structure underneath that impact has to be sustainable.

Building a Powerhouse With Purpose

When Gulshen talks about the future, she does not talk only about bigger revenues or more territories.

She talks about what the next generation of girls should inherit.

“What legacy have we left behind?”

That question sits underneath everything Strike Back is building.

The ambition is huge, but so is the clarity behind it.

Create a business that can grow.

Train women to lead it.

Give communities access to skills they need.

And build something strong enough that the mission keeps moving long after the founder steps away.

That is what makes Strike Back feel like a genuine powerhouse.

Watch the Full Interview

In our full conversation, Gulshen shares the personal story behind Strike Back, why self-defence is about much more than fighting, her global franchise ambitions, what Dragons’ Den changed for the business and why purpose-led founders still have to understand profit.

👉 Watch Gulshen’s full finalist interview here.

If you are building something with a mission behind it, The Class Business Live on Saturday 10 October 2026 is where those bigger conversations continue. We are bringing together founders, finalists, judges and sponsors who are building businesses around impact, growth, community and long-term change.

The daytime event runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm at the National Conference Centre in Solihull, before The Class Business Awards & Afterparty begins at 6:00pm.

👉 Join us for the conversations and the celebration.