In the piece, where she mourns the cultural-annihilation San Francisco has faced since the birth of Big Tech, she quotes PayPal founder Peter Thiel who wrote in 2009, “I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives and the ideology of the inevitability of death of every individual.” 

Thiel recently demonstrated his libertarian agendas by signing on as an investor in the privately funded drug-friendly sports contest, The Enchanted Games.

The competition, which describes itself as “the modern reinvention of the Olympic Games that does not have drug testing,” is headed by Aron D’Souza, Thiel’s former lawyer. The backers of The Enchanted Games believe athletes should be allowed, encouraged even, to use every advantage they can to secure success: they should take as much performance enhancement drugs as they want — all in the name of becoming better, stronger, faster. They believe that banning performance enhancements is stifling scientific innovation. 

The Games will not test athletes for drugs or any performance enhancers at its events, because it “embra[ces] ways science and technology can enhance human performance,” D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games, said in the statement. 

“The Enhanced Movement believes in the medical and scientific process of elevating humanity to its full potential, through community of committed athletes.”

“[We] see the vision of a new model of sports, that openly celebrates scientific innovation and honestly represents the use of performance enhancements in sports today.” 

The Games will focus on individual sports across athletics, aquatics, combat, gymnastics and strength. 

“By focusing on world records in popular sports such as track and field, swimming, gymnastics, weight lifting and combat sports, we can eliminate wasteful infrastructure spending and reinvest to fairly pay all athletes,” D’Souza said. 

“In the era of accelerating technological and scientific change, the world needs a sporting event that embraces the future, particularly advances in medical science.” 

But what’s really going on here? Who are the people behind this contest? And what are they really trying to do? 

It’s a men’s club

The Enchanted Games is backed by the world’s richest venture capitalists. We have Peter Thiel, the conservative tech billionaire and founder of companies such as Palantir, which monitors immigrants for the Department of Homeland Security in the US. Thiel has had a long history of defying public safety and policy regulations. He was also one of the early investors of Facebook. 

There’s Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investment Group — a private investment company with a biotech portfolio that includes Atai Life Science, who are currently developing a rapid-acting anti-depressant for home use. Atai has backing from Thiel. 

Angermayer is a big name in the psychedelic industry — he’s been open about how taking mushrooms since 2015 has changed the course of his life. 

He described The Enhanced Games as having “forward-thinking ethos”, and one that “…improves the safety and fairness of competition but also stimulates scientific breakthroughs and nurtures human advancement.”

“The Enhanced games will undoubtedly inspire the public’s imagination and reinforce the profound impact of science on human progress,” he said in a statement. 

Then we have Balaji Srinivasan, a cryptocurrency investor and former CTO of Coinbase, who has been described as a polymath and angel investor who believes that tech has the power to eventually initiate a nation-free world. 

Out of the eleven individuals on the leadership team, there’s one woman — Jodhi Ramsden-Mavric, who is listed as a creative assistant, and who has a background in the film industry. The six people on the company’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Commission come from various backgrounds, including a Harvard professor, a co-founder of OxWash (sustainable commercial laundry service-providers) and a naturopathic doctor. Two are women.

Thomas Rex Dolan, the 19-year old Victorian and Gen Z Party founder and president, is listed as head of executive operations. According to his LinkedIn page, Dolan is D’Souza’s godson. 

The Athletes Advisory Commission consists of five men and just one woman. On the games website, it explains that they “embrace[s] the inclusion of science in sports” and is “unencumbered by anachronistic legacy systems.”

I wonder how they can do this with an organisation that clearly lacks the most basic form of diversity?

Sketchy on the details 

Since the games started making headlines last month, many people have been left scratching their heads. The organisation hasn’t been clear about some details. 

For one, it has declared that it will pay the athletes who compete in the games, but it hasn’t said exactly how much. 

Athletes will be paid a base salary and will compete for additional prize money. According to the website, a prize pool and compensation model will be announced later this year. 

Who gets to compete?

Calling themselves the “most inclusive sports league in history,” the organisers said all adults are eligible to compete in the games regardless of whether they are “natural, adaptive, or enhanced, an amateur or a former Olympian.” 

Registration is set to open later this year, though the actual dates for the contest have not been announced. 

It’s dangerous for the athletes 

The Games insist they will be the “safest international sporting event in history” and will ensure every athlete undergoes full medical screenings to monitor any risks.

But critics believe the competition’s agenda will risk both athletes’ health and sport itself. Two experts from the University of Canberra feared that athletes will turn into “injectable avatars” who will endanger their health by taking medicines that have been approved for human use.

“There’s no shortage of evidence demonstrating the dangers of pharmaceutical abuse for performance enhancement, let alone what might happen when used in experimental combinations and dosages,” Professor Catherine Ordway said last week.

“Elite sport is not conducted on a level playing field. Access to money, knowledge, power and technology already gives some athletes an edge over others, and the Enhanced Games would exacerbate these inequalities.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), called the games “farcical,” and that it would be “a dangerous clown show, not real sport.” 

Jamie Crain, CEO of Sports Medicine Australia, took aim at the games’ PR material, which runs on the “anything is possible with science” ideology, pitting “science” as the gateway towards human progress and excellence.

“Science is the process of experimenting and observing and recording results and adjusting accordingly to get a certain outcome or just to understand a topic,” Crain told the ABC.

“And in this context that means they’re going to be giving otherwise fit people experimental substances to see what the outcomes is in the hope it might make them faster or stronger. Is that good science? If it produces a fast athlete who ends up with medical complications down the line, you would argue, no, it is not good science.”

Former Olympic swimmer Kieren Perkins said he could not see “any responsible and ethical person thinking the Enhance Games is even remotely sensible”.

“As soon as you start to go down the murky slope of allowing these sorts of drugs to be involved in the system you are completely setting aside the athlete’s physical and mental wellbeing and prioritising commercial gains and that’s not a place we want to be,” Perkins, now the CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, said.

Last week, retired Olympic swimming medalist James Magnussen announced he would compete in The Enhanced Games to try to break the 50m record for a reported $1.6 million. 

His reason? Money. 

“To be completely transparent, the money is a huge part,” he told News Corp. “A $1.6 million Australian dollar prize is hard to ignore.”

They’re out to make money

The carefully worded PR materials from the games’ website spruce their mission to enhance the “the medical and scientific process of elevating humanity to its full potential.”

But clearly, when you’ve got the world’s richest men backing this, it’s clear the end game is generating money. According to some media reports, D’Souza has plans to hold the games annually and stream it on platforms like YouTube to garner revenue. 

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20-something boys start a company. 20-something boys get given millions. 20-something boys can’t make business model work. 20-something boys meet their first girl and pivot to … *drumroll* “A WOMENS ONLY CLUB FOR THE GIRLIES OF NEW YORK”.

It’s legitimately concerning how much this reads like satire.

While women have (rightly) been mocking the news online, the venture capital firm behind the company, Blackbird, has been notably quiet. We’ve all been waiting with bated breath to hear what they have to say. When it finally arrived, what we got was an apology for how the pivot was announced (which, while annoying, is not the actual problem), followed by paragraphs of defensiveness about how they’re actually doing a good job and why can’t we all just be grateful for that?

“Since Blackbird started deploying our 2022 core fund, we have invested in 22 companies, and 23% of these have at least one woman founder.”

Let’s leave aside the fact that they notably funded 11 male-led companies in a row, and instead calculate that 23% of 22 is five. Five companies that had at least one female founder. Of those five companies, the number with only female founders? Three. How many of the product offerings from these ventures are primarily aimed at women? None.

Because when all-women leadership teams pitch products for women, the data tells us: they don’t get funded. And that’s our real canary in the proverbial coalmine.

Half the population is just too niche

Blackbird – and other VC firms – crow about creating equality by having an equal number of women in high level roles, but at the end of the day every woman who has ever worked in any organisation knows that an equal number of women in particular roles means nothing if the company culture still has a single definition of value.

Every woman I know who has pitched a product predominantly aimed at women has heard from most VCs – if not all – that the product is ‘too niche.’ As though a total addressable market of 3.95 billion people is … small?

This is why women founders are infuriated by this story. It’s not even that a group of boys in their 20’s have the gall to start a “women’s only club”. It’s that if an all-women team stepped into the room with the same idea, the very people who funded Kiki would offer those women mentoring instead of money.

Blackbird went on to say:

“Our virtual mentoring program Giants coaches more than 400 founders every year, 55% of which are female. 50% of the startups in our deep tech focussed incubator program Foundry have a woman or non-binary founder. Our sister company Startmate runs the Womens Fellowship to help women career-pivoting into startups, which has directly resulted in 376 women getting a job in startups or VC or founding a company in the 3.5 years the program has been running.”

These kinds of programs are an easy out for organisations – they talk about them being ‘pathways’ – but the reality is over the last five years, VC funding for women-led companies worldwide has either gone backwards or is completely stagnant.

The percentage of VC funding for women worldwide:

• 2019: 2.8%
• 2020: 2.3%
• 2021: 2.4%
• 2022: 1.9%
• 2023: 2.8%

Net gain in 5 years: 0.0%

These programs aren’t pathways. They’re dead ends.

There is, of course, an easy answer to this problem. If you want more women to get funded, give them the money. It sounds so simple, because it is. And I’m also aware it won’t happen. This problem is endemic. Across the board, women are given platitudes instead of positions. Mentoring instead of money.

Men are allowed to fail, women aren’t

It ties back into a prevailing, perverse concept that the issue is simply women lack confidence. It has become a way to subtly build a narrative where the issue isn’t a lack of access to resources, but a lack of women’s willingness to ask. This narrative allows organisations to skip over taking any kind of meaningful action and instead of actually promoting or funding women, to pay (often male) motivational speakers to lecture us on how we can do better.

In rooms full of women founders, I’m hearing this consistently – women are looking to bootstrap. They’re trying to figure out how to grow without the system. As someone who did exactly that, I support it, but I also understand the limitations that come with bootstrapping. Business is a cash-hungry machine – growth is hindered when you’re limited to cashflow in order to feed it.

Add in the proposed changes around who qualifies as a sophisticated investor (the new rules would count out a large percentage of women who currently qualify, and currently women rely on other women for angel and seed investment) and we’re heading towards a catastrophic disaster. Not just for women leading startups. But for the business ecosystem and, by extension, society as a whole.

A couple of years ago I spoke with someone high up at an Australian VC firm who insinuated the reason women weren’t getting funded was that they weren’t applying.

While it’s impossible to know the exact numbers across the entire industry, estimates show us about 34% of pitches have a women-led team. If we adjust the 2.8% funding percentage to account for the application split, even at a 1:1 ratio women are literally half as likely to get funding. Those numbers took me about five minutes to do with Google and a calculator. Of course the industry is aware of them. Once again, it’s just more convenient to blame everything on women’s lack of confidence than to make any kind of real change.

VCs can gloat about how many women they employ but the real story is in the numbers, and the numbers don’t lie. The needle either isn’t moving or, when it does, it goes backwards.

The choice I’ve made, like the choice I see many other women founders moving towards, is to divest from a system that’s hostile towards me. I have a life rule about only staying in places where my presence is celebrated, not tolerated. And certainly not dismissed.

Bootstrapping is a part of this – and so is women coming together to support each other, whether that’s financially or with partnerships. I, for one, refuse to participate in a system that demands I beg men for a 2.8% chance to grow my business. Because raising money shouldn’t come at the price of your self-respect.

It certainly doesn’t for men.

This article was first published by Smart Company. Read the original article here.

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According to the government, the round saw 697 expressions of interest applications that were assessed by an Independent Assessment Committee made up of successful women entrepreneurs.

Launched by the Morrison government in 2020 and headed by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), the initiative offers grants to help women-led businesses scale into domestic and global markets. 

In order to be eligible, the startup has to be at least 51 per cent women owned and led.

The total grant funding available is $11.6 million for this round. Here’s a rundown of the startups who’ll be receiving a slice of the pie. 

Successful grant recipients, Round 3 of Boosting Female Founders Initiative

Accessi Group Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Achieving global expansion of Credit Risk Management Software Platforms

Access Intell’s project is developing a credit risk software to protect businesses from bad debts. Businesses struggle to manage debtors ledgers across disjointed systems with limited access to cost effective credit intelligence. Access Intell aggregates data from multiple sources and integrates with business systems to deliver a continuous risk assessment on every customer.

The grant funding will allow the business to scale-up, expand into global markets, become self-sufficient and create jobs and wealth for Australia.

Bestie Kitchen Pty Ltd, $249,600

Project Title: Scale Pet Supplement & Sustainable Food Range

Bestie Kitchen has commercialised intellectual property developed with CSIRO, to make a unique form of nutraceutical gummy chews for pets. This tapped into a growing market for pet supplements.

The key project activities will grow awareness and customer acquisition in Australia, secure distribution with key distributors and retail chains and penetrate key export markets in Asia.

Black Box Trading Company Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Farming tools driven by data

Black Box Trading is providing analytics to the agricultural supply chain. The project funding from this grant is key to the product vertical, as Black Box have ambitions to build livestock dashboards to help farmers, feed-lots and processors with decisions derived from their database of 3.5 million animals.

Black Box’s service is aimed at working across the beef supply chain, from the paddock to grocery shelves to aggregate data, apply machine learning, and give each stakeholder insights into their livestock.

Butter Insurance Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling Butter Insurance – Revolutionising Contents Insurance

Butter Insurance is revolutionising the way young Australians access, purchase and manage insurance. The project will focus on commercialising technology enabling data-lead instant quote and bind processes, flexible single-item policies and cost-effective pricing without lock-in contracts across key distribution channels. Butter’s goal is to bridge the insurance gap for the critically underinsured Australian renters’ market and under 35’s.

Compassion Creamery Pty Ltd, $270,000

Project Title: Retail Ready Launch of Compassion Creamery’s Award-Winning Oat Creme Cheese

Compassion Creamery is looking to scale their Oat Creme Cheese operations by increasing in-house manufacturing capability in Australia, as well as build commercial capacity including increasing shelf life through formulation alterations. Compassion Creamery will allow hundreds of foodservice outlets to contribute to the expansion and acceptance of plant-based alternatives in the market; ultimately driven by the urgent need of creating a more sustainable and ethical food system.

Driveschool Enterprises Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: myDRIVESCHOOL® – social & global

myDRIVESCHOOL® is an award winning road safety program to teach people how to drive online, using simulation, gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). With BFF funding we will develop additional learning modules to address behavioural change and combine all for global markets.

Education Ontrack Pty Ltd, $462,833

Project Title: Flohh Assessment Platform Scaling and Integration

The project for Education Ontrack will focus on integrating Flohh’s online essay marking platform into School Management Systems (SMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to facilitate student data transfer and eliminate double-handling for teachers. This will also enable the business to scale internationally and enhance product performance.

Evolve Communities Pty Ltd, $443,100

Project Title: Accelerating Allyship & Reconciliation supporting Statement of the Heart

Evolve Communities is a majority Indigenous owned, female-founded organisation that teaches Practical Reconciliation and Allyship. The project will expand their unique frameworks, educational resources, multi modal delivery, accreditation and licensing programs to make their training and accreditation the gold standard for professionals and organisations in Australia.

Fonz Moto Pty Limited, $393,847

Project Title: Fonz Moto – Australian designed & made EV motorcycles market expansion

Fonz Moto designs, builds, sells and rides electrifying two-wheel motorcycles & road-scooters for the future of mobility. The project boasts a highly innovative Australian designed and manufactured product that has disrupted the Sydney market, and will continue its rapid growth both locally and overseas.

Future Anything Pty Ltd, $294,150

Project Title: Future Anything Enterprising Education Applied Learning Platform

Future Anything’s project will transform teacher-led enterprise education programs into a new student facing applied learning EdTech experience.

The project will create an innovative new standalone product that will enable Future Anything to scale rapidly and sustainably into the domestic and international market.

Gaykamangu, Liandra; $437,500

Project Title: Liandra Swim International Expansion

Liandra Swim is a premium fashion brand that focuses on sustainability whilst celebrating Indigenous Australian culture. Liandra Swim presents contemporary fashion collections showcasing hand-drawn signature prints.

The theme of each collection links the audience to a carefully considered narrative through the ancient Indigenous art of storytelling. The project will support the expansion and diversity of available swimwear inventory into the domestic and international market.

Givvable Pty Ltd, $397,600

Project Title: Givvable – helping businesses reach their sustainability targets, faster

Givvable has developed an artificial intelligence-powered software as a service (SaaS) platform for businesses to discover and track the sustainability attributes of suppliers mapped to widely-used reporting frameworks. The project will leverage existing local distribution partnerships to expand further into the domestic and international market.

Grant’d Pty Ltd, $382,122

Project Title: Grant’d 2.0 Automating and Scaling The Personalised Grant’d Experience

This project will create a subscriber based platform that automates our unique grants service, transforming Grant’d into a scalable tech based business. This investment will boost the scalability of Grant’d by eliminating our current manual processes and removing cost barriers for users through: A purpose-built Software as a Service (SaaS) platform using generative AI to deliver and maintain Grant’ds vision to become the go-to digital solution for grant seekers in Australia and globally.

Lactamo Holdings Pty Ltd, $365,000

Project Title: Scaling-up Lactamo to respond to demand nationally and internationally.

Lactamo is a world first in MedTech innovation for breastfeeding. Lactamo uniquely combines temperature, movement and compression to address the common breastfeeding problems. Independently clinically validated and IP protected, Lactamo is both proactive and reactive for breastfeeding.

The project will focus on 3 key activities consisting of marketing (domestically and internationally), the expansion of the team, and operational expansion support to facilitate growth, creating a secure foundation for the core business areas.

Leap4ward.ai Pty Ltd, $399,600

Project Title: Tech development of artificial intelligence-enabled virtual health coach

LeapForward.ai’s project is an artificial intelligence-enabled application that supports injured individuals to recover from a compensable injury or illness. The minimum viable product’s core function will implement a chatbot (“Virtual Health Coach”), which delivers virtual support and responds to users with scripted responses deployed via basic algorithms.

The project will utilise advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand the user’s expression, tone and sentiment.

Life Skills Group Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Develop an SDK to integrate wellbeing data and tools into web-based systems

Life Skills’ project is a Software Development Kit that allows the integration of existing wellbeing data collection, measurement and analysis tools into third party applications. It is a platform to measure the emotional wellbeing of students.

Lush Organic Hair & Spa Forest Glen Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Penny Black Organic hair products – domestic and global expansion

Lush Organic Hair trades as Penny Black Organic (PBO) and is the only Certified Green Salon in the Southern Hemisphere. Lush Organic has developed 16 certified organic hair products.

The project will focus on scale manufacturing and organic packaging, product range expansion for direct customer sales both domestically and early international sales, recruitment of skilled management team to implement brand awareness and marketing.

Maxme Pty Ltd, $380,599

Project Title: Hodie+: Powering the Great Reconnection in the Digital Age

Maxme’s project is an immersive and digitally-enhanced human skill development learning experience underpinned by a digital learning application, empowering individuals to take control of their skills, careers, and futures, driving retention and engagement in the small to medium sized enterprises market. The gamified solution bridges the gap between employees and their jobs, integrated into daily work life through the application.

Meditati Pty Ltd, $330,000

Project Title: Commercialisation of tampon innovation to disrupt the FemCare market

The project will undertake Multi-Cultural Research for the commercialisation of a revolutionary applicator to disrupt the FemCare market. Key activities for the project are to create Go-To-Market brand, web-based education for schools and health practitioners. The project is developing a revolutionary soft applicator insertion solution. The New Zealand market pilot study will refine the go-to-market strategy for the Australian release.

Mettleaje Pty Ltd, $225,995

Project Title: Scaling Thirsty Turtl skincare boosts global Indigenous extracts market

Thirsty Turtl is an Australian skincare startup that launched in December 2022 with three products. The project will focus on growing the global market for Indigenous-sourced Australian native plant extracts.

This will be achieved through product expansion, sales growth via domestic and export-focused distributors, more efficient manufacturing and employment of specialised staff to build brand awareness.

MIIROKO Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: MIIROKO’s establishment and expansion into Japan

MIIROKO’s innovative vegan hair colour formula is free from ammonia, resorcinol, and paraphenylenediamine, empowering women with affordable access to salon-quality hair colour that is both gentle on their hair and environmentally friendly.

The project will focus on enhancing its digital capabilities, establishing a robust back-end team, and securing investment to leverage existing organic growth within the domestic market to scale into the lucrative Asian market, beginning with Japan.

Mineral Fox Pty Ltd, $262,500

Project Title: Mineral Fox National Expansion

Mineral Fox exists to help people return to nature and is a supplier of innovative, Australian-made natural plasters and renders that provide a sustainable, healthy a beautiful alternative to conventional wall coatings.

This project will support accelerated national expansion through additional headcount, systems, marketing and training.

More Good Days Pty Ltd, $396,318

Project Title: Digital Evidence-Based Pain Management Program for Fibromyalgia

This project will accelerate the build of MoreGoodDays pain management digital platform, and help accelerate growth across Australia and internationally.

Neomorph Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: NeoMorph – An innovative mouldable alternate to the dental-made mouthguard

NeoMorph Prodigy is an innovative over-the-counter, re-mouldable alternative to the dental-made mouthguard. The patent pending design, interlocks a dual polymer combination to provide a mouthguard that is securely custom fitting, protective and comfortable, to address the current concerns of end-users and the Australian Dental Association.

Our Trace Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Automate carbon footprinting for SMEs to scale in Australia and overseas

This project will focus on automating the process of collecting data from businesses and enhancing the accuracy and useability of the carbon inventory to power decarbonisation and enable Trace to scale. By integrating with technology that companies use every day, such as spreadsheets, accounting and travel management software, Trace can gather data required to measure, reduce and track emissions and establish channel partnerships with third parties already servicing our target customer.

Parking Spotz Pty Ltd, $388,917

Project Title: Parking Spotz – Electric Vehicle (EV) charging market expansion and execution of growth plan

Parking Spotz is developing an integrated hardware and software solution that automates parking bay security and optimises usage, turnover, and a return on investment through data-driven insights for electric vehicle (EV) charging bays.

The project will focus on product integration with new EV Charging partners, optimise and automate manufacturing processes for scaled production, execute sales growth plan with the recruitment of specialised management team and launch new data analytic modules to deliver valuable insights and position us as leaders in parking and EV data analytics.

 Pixii Pty Ltd, $133,740

Project Title: Changing women’s experience everywhere by bringing equality to bathrooms.

The project will result in a second generation dispenser for Pixii organic period products being brought to market, including new tech-enabled capabilities for stock monitoring and automated re-ordering. This will enable more building and facility managers to offer period products as part of their fundamental hygiene suppliers to staff and guests, just like soap and toilet paper.

The Paw Grocer Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling for Expansion in the Domestic and Export Premium Pet Food Markets

The multi-faceted project will scale The Paw Grocer in both domestic and export markets. The grant funding will be used to improve our manufacturing capability & production efficiency, implement an inventory management system, and bring new products to market.

The One Two Pty Ltd, $362, 521

Project Title: The OneTwo domestic and global expansion

The OneTwo creates an easy bra shopping experience with hyper-personalised e-commerce, including a proprietary world-leading fit algorithm and innovative products.

The project aims to accelerate revenue growth in two years through commercialisation into the domestic and international market, as well as investments into intellectual property and technology.

Theratrak Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Theratrak, scale-up and market expansion to support the disability sector

Theratrak is developing an innovative online and mobile application based tool for therapists working with children with disabilities. Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Vapar Innovation Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Innovative AI sewer technology expansion to the USA

Vapar Innovation is developing artificial intelligence for sewer technology expansion into the United States of America. Vapar will implement a channel strategy to reach early adopter customers and set up sales operations internationally.

VETNexus Pty Ltd, $200,000

Project Title: Bridging the National Digital Skills Gap: Leave no-one behind

VETNexus has developed a Digital Literacy Licence (DLL) which is a suite of online courses with digital badges. These badges can be displayed on a participant’s social media profile and resume to verify their skills when applying for employment.

The DLL takes participants on a journey of discovery and decision making, actively engaging with the concepts covered to ensure they have developed the full range of foundational digital skills by the time they complete their full DLL.

The project will include digital skills roadshows, marketing materials, learning content to promote and raise awareness of digital literacy.

X-Hemp Pty Ltd, $480,000

Project Title: Scaling X-Hemp, Building Homes, Elevating Women, Capturing Carbon

X-Hemp uses waste agricultural materials and purpose planted crops to make environmentally-friendly hemp building products.

The project aims to deliver synergistic investments in people and processes, equipment and business enabling infrastructure, new product development, branding, marketing and new market activation.

Zondii Pty Ltd, $427,000

Project Title: Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project

Zondii’s technology goes beyond human senses to measure the true value of food and fibre. The prototype is currently in on-farm beta trials and its application in wool measurement has attracted a growing waitlist.

The Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project will fund an industrial design and refinement process; product launch in Australia and New Zealand; and professional development for Zondii’s female leaders.

This project will establish Zondii as a financially sustainable female founded startup, with a commercial product in domestic and global markets, and will provide economic growth for wool growers, improved earning potential for women, and job creation internally and within the industry broadly.

The post Meet the 34 grant recipients sharing in the $11.6 million Boosting Female Founders Initiative appeared first on Women's Agenda.

In the midst of hype around AI increasing productivity or stealing jobs , there is one role that many women would be more than happy for it to take on: the mental load of managing a family. 

The need for innovation in coping with the mental load of family admin is never more apparent than at the beginning of the school year. The sheer volume of work required to keep our lives in check is utterly overwhelming. It is no wonder parents are burning out.

It is baffling that when it comes to the multitude of apps, emails, WhatsApps and group chats for our home lives, many parents have no help beyond a shared calendar on the fridge.

I even commonly hear that parents just switch off all notifications on WhatsApp and push school emails to a different inbox folder just to try and ease the mental load by not reading it at all.

In my professional life, the prospect of AI to increase our personal productivity, that of our teams, and even our products was intriguing and exciting.

Faced with stark differences between what was available professionally and the lack of options at home, my co-founder and husband, Mike Fraser, and I knew that needed to change.

Technology is creating overwhelm

In my household, Mike and I share the “doing” work of parenting quite evenly, but when it comes to things like Book Week, what’s happening when, and joining all the dots, that’s on me. 

Statistics prove I’m not alone. It is disproportionately women who hold 70% of the household mental load and are burning out from the sheer volume of life admin required to manage kids. Almost 50 per cent say there isn’t enough time to get everything done.

In 2021, the AIFS survey asked 2920 people, “who in your household plans and coordinates activities relating to your children?”. It found almost no instances of the male taking this on – being the one who usually or always does it, while only 1 in 5 households shared the mental load.

Innovating to solve this, even at least partly, is important. It is why CEOs have personal assistants, and why Annabel Crabb’s The Wife Drought is still relevant 10 years after she wrote it.

Starting and then exiting same-day flower delivery business LVLY, and now launching Goldee, the AI assistant for parents, I can say with conviction that the work of managing a family is akin to running a business.

If we can innovate for even small productivity gains in the workplace, we need to do the same to give back time and headspace to the parents who are simply struggling to keep up with technology that was supposed to help them. Parents need personal assistants, too – and that’s where AI presents exciting opportunities.

How AI can give parents back time

Solutions are thin on the ground. A simple internet search on easing the mental load provides vague help such as “practice self-care” (with what free time?) and “physically writing down everything in your head and delegating” (again, with that free time?!).

As AI becomes mainstream, there is a global focus on governance and risks including gender bias within AI, noting that the technology will hold the same bias as its programmers. The kind of products being developed using AI often reflect the dominance of men in the technology space. I believe it is important that the huge gains to be had using AI are also focused on reducing inequalities.

We don’t claim that the AI we’re developing at Goldee will make the mental load completely vanish (sorry!). But AI tools can and should be created so that  any parent can easily take the lead and start forwarding kid-related activities to an AI personal assistant for busy families. This is the kind of innovation that will help  shift the weight and make the invisible load visible.

As with productivity tools in the workplace the hidden volume of work, appointments and organisation, and all those tiny to-dos that normally get carried around in the woman’s head will be extracted and put into an action list, ready for anyone to help with.

Importantly, AI created by women to solve our unique problems means we will have tools to stop us from feeling like it’s easier to just keep doing everything ourselves.

That means more time for doing things we enjoy, more time to connect with our partners (rather than fight over who did what), and more time to spend with our kids rather than on your phone trying to find that piece of info. And that’s an AI-driven future all parents can get on board with.

Goldee is currently in limited release and available to parents with an invite code – parents that would like to be invited can head to Goldee.ai to get their invite.

The post How a new AI assistant for parents can help carry women’s mental load appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The startup, formerly known as EasyRent, provided subletting options in New Zealand and Sydney, before pivoting the business to expand in New York City.

Earlier this year, Kiki announced it would be launching a “girls only” club in the US city in an Instagram post, a decision that received significant backlash.

On Wednesday, Toby Thomas-Smith spoke in an Instagram video posted on Kiki’s account, addressing the situation from last month.

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“I have a lot to own and apologise for, since putting out that post four weeks ago,” Thomas-Smith said.

The co-founder first apologised to the people who found the decision “offensive and disrespectful”.

“I was extremely naive referring to Kiki as the first girls club in NYC and for not articulating the true reasons behind this direction,” he said.

When it was first announced, the Kiki co-founders cited the hire of its first female worker as the reason behind the decision, who “enlightened” the all-male founding team on the supposed problem of women meeting women in NYC.

“It was incredibly offensive to all the women founders who’ve been working and researching to improve the safe environments for women to live in,” Thomas-Smith said in his apology.

According to Kiki and Blackbird, the venture capital fund that invested in Kiki, women comprised 70 per cent of Kiki users. Thomas-Smith said it is women who engages with the subletting company the most, which encouraged the group to pursue the “girls only” club.

However, Thomas-Smith said the startup’s time in NYC so far has “lacked the special feeling” and the “strong level of connection in the community” that they had in Sydney.

“We’re still ultimately committed to subletting and our mission of changing how the world lives, but because we’ve been missing the connection piece, this has required our full focus the past few weeks,” he said.

“Again, I’m deeply sorry for how I went about communicating this focus in such a poor way. I won’t make these same mistakes again in the future.”

Blackbird’s response

Venture capital funds have a significant gender problem. In 2023, just four per cent of startup funding went to all-female teams in 2023, with all-male teams continuing to dominate across all deals done.

At the time of Kiki’s announcement, a lot of backlash was directed at Blackbird, Australia’s largest venture capital fund. Blackbird invested a 16 per cent stake in the all-male founded startup when it was based in Sydney and known as EasyRent.

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Many commentators criticised Blackbird’s lack of response since the saga. But four weeks later, General Partner at Blackbird Ventures Samantha Wong released a statement on behalf of the company.

Her statement addressed the criticism surrounding the gender issue in Kiki and in VC funding in general, one Blackbird is “committed to improving”.

“As a former female founder who struggled to raise venture funding for her startup, and as a female general partner who has raised $160M over two separate funds for the New Zealand Blackbird funds that I run, I am empathetic to the challenge of fundraising as a woman,” Wong said.

“I can fully appreciate the frustration at inequity in funding for female founders that I saw in commentary on this story.”

Wong firstly clarified “a few facts” in relation to Kiki’s girls only club.

“Despite what you may have read, Blackbird did not back a women’s club, nor did Kiki ‘fail’ in Sydney,” Wong said. 

“We, along with numerous other investors, invested in Kiki to expand its subletting platform, off the back of its strong traction in Sydney, where it was known as ‘EasyRent’.

“At the time of our investment of 16%, EasyRent had been live in Sydney for 12 months, was essentially bootstrapped and was profitable.”

Kiki then made the “bold and risky” move to expand its business in NYC and “own the subletting category globally”, which Wong said has a “logical basis”.

“Women made up 70% of Kiki users in Sydney, but when they moved to New York, they experienced an imbalance of supply and demand, and didn’t have the ‘community magic’,” Wong said.

“As we all know, startup founders experiment and learn and sometimes adjust as they go. They do not always get everything 100% right. We see it as our role to provide support to them through the learning, shifting, ups and downs of the startup journey. 

“So that’s where our focus has been working with Kiki over the last few weeks.”

In 2022, Blackbird invested in 22 companies; 23 per cent of those companies had at least one woman founder in the founding team.

“While this is broadly in line with industry standards, it’s nowhere near where we want it to be,” Wong said. 

“We are committed to continuing to provide transparent reporting about our progress, acknowledging that we need to do better.”

Blackbird has several programs designed to mentor, coach and develop more women startup founders.

“There is much more work to do, and we’re committed to doing it,” Wong said. “We will continue doing our part to build an ecosystem we can all be proud of.”

The post All-male startup Kiki apologises for girls only club in New York appeared first on Women's Agenda.

“It just felt like being vulnerable was going to be able to help people, and I did not expect that once I would share my story (publicly), just how many people would resonate,” she said.

When it went public, the blog quickly amassed a dedicated following, which Sepel expertly grew even further, securing a book deal, creating JSHealth programs, a smartphone app, along with her most popular venture: JSHealth Vitamins. 

Sepel says her is a passion for nutrition and helping others has always guided her business decisions.

“Being authentic and vulnerable is always a good thing,” she says. “People just love and appreciate it. Don’t overthink it because you can’t really plan for the journey of businesses, as it just sort of happens how it’s meant to.” 

Sepel is the latest to feature in our How I Manage My Health series, examining how dynamic women from different career backgrounds manage their physical and mental health.

Read Jessica Sepel’s full “How I Manage My Health” profile below, and see other women profiled in this series here.

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What’s one key thing you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?

As a customer-first company, the goal for us is to make JSHealth Vitamins the most trusted wellness brand in the world and to help as many people as we possibly can to thrive. That was the goal from day one, and how it remains, so I’m incredibly excited about our recent expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, with our first step being in Singapore through Watsons. This expansion marks a new chapter for us as we continue our mission to support our community on their wellness journeys, around the globe. 

Singapore is a place known for its dynamic lifestyle and health-conscious citizens, making it an ideal starting point. Partnering with Watsons, a leading health and beauty retailer there, allows us to reach more people and provide them with the tools they need to nourish their bodies and minds, both inside and out.

The excitement behind this expansion isn’t about business growth for me, but about bringing our message of balanced, sustainable wellness to more and more people.. It’s about sharing the power of wholesome nutrition and self-care routines, and helping individuals around the world to feel their best – that’s the JSHealth way.

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to connect with and learn from diverse cultures. As we progress, I look forward to seeing how our JSHealth community in the Asia-Pacific region evolves and grows.

What does your morning routine typically look like? 

I always start the day on a positive note – it has such a powerful ripple effect on my whole day ahead.  Each morning I’ll wake up around 7.30am to have 7-8 hours sleep daily. I continue my technology ban from the evening (I switch off around 8pm each night) – no checking of social media, texts or emails –  until after I’ve been awake for at least 30-40 minutes and practised my wholesome morning routine.

I love to begin with a 30-minute workout from the JSHealth App, followed by a piccolo coffee, and a 10 minute meditation practice, and then I get ready for work. I usually eat breakfast once I get to the office. At the moment, I love fuelling my body with the JSHealth Power Protein Smoothie or my current obsession, a quick and easy-to-make bowl of oats – my Banana Bread Overnight Oats!

Do you have any top tips for staying focused on key tasks? 

Running a business can get overwhelming, so I’m a big  believer in the power of prioritising. Each day, I identify the top three tasks that align with my goals and commit to completing them. This keeps me focused and prevents me from becoming stressed out by a long to-do list.

I also practise mindfulness. Being present in each task, rather than thinking about the next thing on my list, increases my productivity and the quality of my work. It also reduces stress and enhances creativity, which is really important for me when I am working on developing new formulas – my primary focus at JSHealth. For this process I need the mental space to connect with what my community needs for their health, delve into the research of ingredients and work intuitively with all of this and my wellness knowledge in order to create products that stand out and deliver.

Also, taking regular breaks is essential. This may seem counterintuitive when you’re busy, but research shows that short breaks can significantly improve focus and productivity. I usually step away from my desk, do some stretches or practise a quick 10-minute meditation from the JSHealth App. 

Do you have a framework or key rules or procedures for organising your day? 

I never use the word ‘rules’ as to me it sounds too rigid, and I’ve learned that we need to maintain the ability to be flexible in all areas of our wellness, including a healthy work routine. However, daily structure is key for me to stay organised and productive, especially when the days get very busy! I start off the day on a strong note with my morning routine – that’s a non-negotiable. 

Due to my varied schedule, days do often look a little different, but I like to check in with my plan and prioritise or plan anything needed. During the day, I always make sure to schedule breaks and personal time. It’s essential for maintaining balance and avoiding burnout! 

Having a routine is important and flexibility is key. Some days will be unpredictable, and that’s okay. The goal is to have a framework that helps you manage your day effectively – but always be kind to yourself if things don’t go exactly as planned. 

Once the day wraps, I look forward to cooking a JSHealth dinner and spending time with my hubby Dean (our night walks are my favourite time of day) so that I can recharge and do it all again tomorrow! This is a really important part of my daily framework, outside of “work hours”.

Can you share a time when your work really tested or even harmed your health and wellbeing? 

Building a business can be incredibly tough and demanding. When you accept this fact, it actually gets easier to prioritise your own wellbeing as part of the process, rather than an afterthought.

It will be even more challenging when you build a brand based on care for your customers, as your natural inclination is to put their needs first. However, it’s essential to remember that you can serve others more effectively when you are at your best, both physically and mentally.

On the journey, there have definitely been times when certain aspects of my work have encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone. Team management is the ultimate test, especially with an ever-growing global team ! I am so committed to a healthy work culture, so constantly being aware of this and managing personalities has previously been a challenge for my husband and I in the past. As with all things in life, challenges are opportunities for growth. We’ve learned so much from these experiences and have taken proactive steps to create a really vibrant company culture – we are more like a family! Today, I’m proud to say that our work environment is the most positive and supportive it’s ever been.

How do you stay active?

20 minutes a day of movement is my foundation! I believe in listening to your body – it knows what it needs. You don’t have to push yourself through exhausting workouts. 

Find a form of movement that you genuinely enjoy and commit to it. I used to force myself through workouts, motivated by wanting to look a certain way. These days I only workout in ways that I love…to FEEL good – with a kind, compassionate and gentle approach. This is what we call ‘body kindness’- it’s the JSHealth way.

The JSHealth App offers quick and easy workouts that can fit into anyone’s schedule, no matter how busy. You can do them from the comfort of your home, or even your office – which is where you’ll often find me squeezing in a workout! 

Can you share a key thing you regularly do (or aspire to do more) that really supports your wellbeing?

Gratitude: it may sound cliche, but giving thanks has become an important part of my daily routine, especially after experiencing a mental health crisis over the past two years.

During that challenging time, my perspective on life changed drastically. I found myself longing for peace of mind and appreciating the simple things in life that I previously took for granted. Today, I make it a point to express gratitude for my health, my husband and my loved ones.

Practising gratitude doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be as simple as taking a moment each day to acknowledge what you’re thankful for. For me, this short daily practice has had a profound impact. It serves as a reminder of the good in my life, helps to keep things in perspective, and nurtures a positive mindset.

How do you manage your health when working remotely or from home?

Working remotely or from home has its unique challenges, but it also provides opportunities to care for your wellbeing.

For me, it allows for more quality time with my loved ones, which is incredibly nurturing for the soul. I also make use of the flexibility to engage in workouts that I genuinely enjoy, whether that’s a yoga class, a swim in the ocean or simply taking a mindful walk.

Cooking at home is another advantage. I love preparing delicious, nutritious meals from the JSHealth App. The process of cooking and eating wholesome food can be deeply satisfying and beneficial for overall health.

Working from home also provides a break from social pressures and comparisons, which can often lead to stress. Embracing the slower pace of life and learning to say ‘no’ when necessary are vital parts of self-care and living the Healthy Life. 

Finally, effective stress management is key. For me, this involves daily practices like deep belly breathing or resting with my legs up against a wall. These simple techniques help me unwind, reset and maintain a calm and steady mind amidst the busy schedule!

Considering you’re so present in the health and wellness space, has there been a  particular piece of health advice you always find yourself coming back to?

The most important lesson I’ve learned and find myself coming back to, especially on a personal level, is the importance of prioritising my mental health so I can show up for my business and my community as my absolute best. Something that’s been integral to this is creating self-care rituals, such as switching off from social media every night by 8 pm, moving my body each day in ways that I love, and nourishing myself with wholesome foods. 

The other one is advice from my grandma that I’ve really learned to be true – “Keep boxing” as she says. I have this phrase all through my head during the harder days of building a business. You just have to keep boxing, and you will go far.

What do you want more women to know about their health?

In my journey as a nutritionist and through building the JSHealth community, I’ve had the privilege of hearing countless women share their health concerns. From digestion issues, skin problems, hair health, bloating, anxiety, mood imbalances to sleep disturbances – these are common issues that many women face.

Women must know they are not alone with any of their health concerns. I want women to know they have our support through JSHealth and JSHealth Vitamins.

JSHealth Vitamins came about purely as a way to help support my clients and community’s health and wellbeing. Our goal is that our solution-focused vitamins will give women the confidence and comfort they deserve for a broad range of health concerns. Some of our top women’s targeted supplements at JSHealth Vitamins include Hormone + PMS Support, Vaginal Probiotic+, Menopause+, Detox + Debloat, PM+ Sleep Formula, Skin + Digestion and Hair + Energy.

What I want more women to understand is the importance of letting go of fad dieting and embracing a balanced approach to eating. Being “healthy” doesn’t come from deprivation or restriction, but from balance and kindness towards ourselves. Practising body love daily and building a nourishing, positive relationship with food works for the long haul. The JSHealth way is a wellness philosophy so sustainable, enjoyable and result-driven that it will last a lifetime!

The post Balance and ‘body kindness’: JSHealth’s Jessica Sepel shares her tips for wellbeing and business appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Sixty two per cent of funding deals went to all-male founding teams, compared to 12 per cent for all-female founding teams and 26 per cent for teams involving at least one female founder.

The figures from the latest State of Australian Start-up Funding Report released today highlight how much the Australian startup ecosystem is missing out on by largely failing to include one-half of the population.

These dire numbers again point to signs of a sick startup sector in Australia.

Indeed, when just four per cent of investor capital goes to all female founding teams and just 18 per cent of funds raised go to mixed-gender teams, we can’t pretend to believe that we’re getting the innovation, technological advancements, competitiveness and best ideas that should stem from a healthy startup ecosystem. We also can’t hope to achieve the social impact and development that such an ecosystem could support.

These new figures show that investing in startups is still largely a men’s game, despite increasing rhetoric on the need to invest in women, and despite the excellent ideas and proven results of women launching businesses that have great impact and returns.

Incredibly, that four per cent is actually an increase on the previous year’s figure.

But that four per cent is concentrated across just a handful of deals. In 2023, half of all funding secured by teams with at least one female founder was shared between just five startups: Constantinople, Secure Code Warrior, Silicon Quantum Computing, Loam and Fleet.

The median size of deals for all male teams was $3 million in 2023, compared to $0.7 million for all female-founded teams and $1 million for mixed-gender teams. This trend has been going on for years. Since 2019, there have been only three funding rounds by all female founding teams worth more than $50 million, representing just 2.5 per cent of such funding rounds. Seven such teams have completed funding rounds worth more than $20 million, representing 2.1 percent of all rounds in that category.

While there is more movement on investors recognising and talking about these issues — and a win in that 58 per cent of the 50 most active investors in Australia invested in a startup with a female founder, compared with just 28 per cent in 2022 — it’s difficult to overlook the fact these figures mean 42 per cent of these active investors did not invest in a woman at all in 2023.

So what are investors doing about the imbalance? Not enough, according to the survey of investors included in this report.

Seventy-two per cent of investors reported they are looking at “ensuring diversity within investment team”, while 34 per cent say they are partnering with diversity-focused accelerators and incubators. Just half (51 per cent) said they are sourcing deals from networks focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs, and just 50 per cent said they have collaborated with industry to promote diversity and inclusion. Less than a third (27 per cent) have policies to ensure diverse representation management and boards within their portfolios. Fourty one per cent are still not recording and analysing the diversity metrics of applicant founders.

There were some small upticks for women in this report. First, 18 per cent of equity capital went to teams with at least one female co founder, an increase on the previous year’s figure, at just 10 per cent. And 26 per cent of all deals done involved at least one female co founder, up from 23 per cent on the previous year.

Founders have big ambitions ahead. Eighty two per cent of the women founders surveyed said they plan to raise capital in 2024. We wait to see what happens next and how investors will better consider diversity in their portfolios.

Meanwhile, some initiatives are emerging to push for transparency and potential targets in investment portfolios.

More than 50 firms have committed to publicly disclosing data on how many female-led businesses they have screened, vetted, and funded. Led by Scale investors, Alberts Investment and Giant Leap, they’re on a mission to enlist at least 100 Australian firms.

This is the third edition of State of Australian Startup Founding Report, jointly published by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures. This year’s version highlights a significant drop in overall funding for startups, down from $7.4 billion in 2022 to $3.5 billion in 2022, which reflects an overall global downturn in such funding.

The report notes that artificial intelligence is the most anticipated sector for 2024, while strong interest remains for enterprise/business software as well as climate tech/cleantech.

Pictured above: Tegan Nock, co founder in the agritech business Loam, which achieved one of the five largest rounds involving a female founder in 2023.

The post Investors overwhelmingly backed all-male startup teams in 2023 appeared first on Women's Agenda.

When I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey many people were surprised to see me shift from being a social justice lawyer with a stable wage to taking the risk of starting a business with an untested concept. I had just given birth to my third child and many thought it was a crazy time to take such a big financial risk.

But what only those close to me knew was that I came from a family of entrepreneurs, business owners, and risk-takers, so not only was it in my blood, but it was also my turn.

I needed to challenge myself and test my ability to combine commercial goals with my passion for solving social problems. I saw a gap in the market that conveniently also solved my need to access quality early childhood education and care for my three children under the age of three, so I decided to fill the gap!

When you throw yourself into entrepreneurship, there are the highs — like hitting 20 percent revenue growth month on month in the business’ first year. But there are also the lows, like when your personal bank account hits rock bottom because you can’t pay yourself yet, but you have to keep the lights on. The loneliness of decision-making and risk-taking at the top requires grit and determination, but it can also offer immense personal and financial rewards if you see it through.

Now that I have moved on from the business I established, I thought it was timely to share my reflections on the experience in the hope of encouraging others to take the plunge and bring their ideas to life that could just change the world.

The stomach for it

I have always said that to take the plunge as an entrepreneur, one must have the stomach for it. You need to be comfortable with rejection, making mistakes, and taking decisions that might not always pan out the way you hoped, despite all the best planning.

A recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast (pop it on the list if you’re a human behaviour nerd like me) talked about our ability to live with failure and our own mistakes. They discussed the concept of ‘intelligent failures’, namely ones that are well-informed but occur when you are exploring new ideas, innovation, or trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

In my journey I needed to be comfortable with trying new things even if they didn’t work out, while taking the time to learn and reflect on them to improve my future decisions and actions. When you finally create something out of nothing, that feeling is indescribable, and it’s only through mistakes and failures that this kind of achievement is reached.

The right team

Having the right people around you to be able to execute is vital, but you aren’t always going to have the pick of the market when you’re a startup or make the right decisions the first time. So again, be comfortable with knowing when you’ve made the wrong choice and be swift in taking action to move people on if they aren’t the right fit.

Diversity of experience, skill, background, and way of thinking among team members is a must-have. You don’t want people who glorify you and are just excited to be part of a startup. You want people who question your ideas, push you out of your comfort zone, and bring skills you don’t possess.

As an entrepreneur, you are most likely the biggest risk taker in the room, but you need at least one person sitting next to you who tells you not to jump off that cliff.

The mental toll

Any entrepreneur or business owner will tell you that the mental toll of being a leader is almost impossible to quantify.

Not only is it lonely at the top at times, but you will also feel burdened by the weight of the business, you will have sleepless nights over finances, and you will be unpopular because of difficult decisions you make. So, ensuring you have strong self-care habits will be key to getting through these times.

During the height of Covid I found myself exercising more and taking frequent breaks from my computer to balance the stress of economic uncertainty. A great support network outside the business, like family and friends, will also provide reprieve and a place to debrief during those challenging times, not to mention being there to celebrate the successes.

In terms of the ongoing running of the business, make sure you have team members you can trust to run the business in your absence. Being away from the day-to-day is not only great for your mental health, but it also provides appropriate distance from the business to enliven creative solutions for problems you might have been grappling with for a while.

The learning

Once you decide to launch into business, you will most likely have the tools and skills to get something off the ground.

But be prepared to learn. A lot. I found myself watching YouTube videos to build a website myself, I got a friend to teach me how to use InDesign, and I tapped into my network to ask questions about insurance, marketing, trademarks, you name it.

After you have established the business and have confidence in the team you have created, be prepared to let go a bit (yes that’s directed at all the control freaks reading this). You need to impart your knowledge, give others the freedom to learn and make their own mistakes, but be there to guide and support them on their own journey of growth.

This type of freedom does, however, mean you need to maintain a strong culture of accountability and autonomy, otherwise you will forever be doing other people’s jobs. The reward of growing the capability of others will also form part of your entrepreneurial legacy.

The ‘why’

Many innovators and creatives can be easily distracted, so whatever you decide to focus on when taking the leap of faith into entrepreneurship, make sure it has staying power to command your ongoing attention.

If it’s going to be a fleeting interest then don’t do it, because there’s no such thing as easy money in business. Success takes time and commitment and your ongoing interest in the subject matter will be crucial to achieving that success.

In my case, the ‘why’ had a strong social purpose while also achieving commercial goals. The overall vision in the original business plan enabled me to create a clear set of values that remained relevant throughout the business’ evolution. This meant that many new recruits joined because of values alignment and understood the ethical framework that sat around decision-making and the way we operated, which allowed us to stay true to our purpose as the business grew and changed.

The leap

Taking the leap has to be the scariest but also the most exhilarating part of the journey. That nervous feeling when you don’t know if something will take off, but you have done all the preparation, planning, and research to get you there is fun, wild and takes guts.

If this is what you’re thinking of doing, then jump. You don’t know if you’re sitting on the next big thing that could change just one person’s life or shift the course of society forever, so maybe it’s time to step into the uncertain and share your idea with the world.

The post Six things I’ve learned since launching and exiting my startup appeared first on Women's Agenda.

She had just completed a semester-long course titled “Entrepreneurial Musician” where she learned how to present her music to the wider public in interesting fresh ways. 

“The spark of a ‘I can make anything happen’ attitude was ignited,” Junus told Women’s Agenda. She gathered her friends across various art forms and set up concerts to showcase their work.

“We put together themed performances, working with other artistic disciplines such as dance which sparked my interest as different art forms as they have their own different and unique perspectives on music,”  she said. 

The friends held their first concert on Valentine’s Day with a concert called ‘Love: Classical to Contemporary.’ Junus realised that she ultimately wanted to bring overseas trends to audiences in Australia. 

In 2018, Junus officially named her organisation, Artists By Any Other Name. The collaborative entity invites artists from various disciplines to come together and share their ideas. It’s also a registered not-for-profit through the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) where artists can apply for financial support.

“There aren’t many organisations that serve the needs of artists in the creative industry,” Junus said. “Our focus is on creating unique performances that provides important paid work for performers and has seen us broaden the scope of ABAON.”

This Lunar New Year in February, Junus will bring toward two musical ensembles for a concert titled Legends & Lanterns.  

She will be joined onstage by internationally renowned Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin,  and the Odyssey Symphony Orchestra, led by Hong Kong-born Briton and Musical Director of the Australian Ballet Jonathan Lo. The concert will feature a musical fusion of East and West, showing traditional pieces from the classical Chinese repertoire, including the Spring Festival Overture, Galloping Horses, and a special rendition of Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto for Violin and Erhu, featuring Junus on the violin and Fuhua Li on the erhu. 

Junus hopes that by performing popular Chinese music using traditional Chinese instruments like the Erhu, Australian audiences will enrich in their knowledge and perception of Western and Chinese classical music. 

“[These performances] are important because we can bring together world-class artists to produce performances that explore different cultural influences and create unique and enriching performances,” she said. “It encourages artists from various backgrounds to explore and merge their artistic voices in a powerful and harmonious symphony.”

By blending traditional art forms with contemporary expressions, Junus believes that the concerts will have something for everyone.

“[We are] bridging the gap between East and West through music so the audience can feel and experience different parts of the world through music. It is helping to foster connection and greater understanding for all who experience it.” 

Fellow musician, Li-Wei Qin said that the concerts are a way to share the international language of music, with both Australians and Australian migrant audiences.

“Legends & Lanterns is unique because we will largely be playing to a Chinese audience as part of the Lunar New Year celebrations,” he said. 

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Junus credits Qin with helping her expand her musical spectrum. 

“I see music as a process of constantly learning and I’m quite methodical in my practise and studies. Being methodical many would say is a Chinese trait, that commitment to discipline and perfection. But sometimes I know myself I trust everything on the page a little too much, what’s written there must be done! I have to remind myself to let myself go and let the music flow through me.” 

“This is something I am learning more and more through collaborations with the prodigious talent of cellist Li-Wei Qin who is playing in our upcoming Legends & Lanterns performances. It is little wonder Li-Wei Qin is so acclaimed as his technique is flawless, yet the beautiful tones and intonations capture the emotions within the pieces and bring them to fore in the audience.” 

Junus hopes to take her concerts to regional Australia in 2024. 

“[We hope to] develop our education partnerships and programs to continue to inspire and support the next generation of musicians.” 

Legends & Lanterns are holding two upcoming concerts: The Concourse, Chatswood on 11 February 2024 at 3pm AND Sydney Town Hall on 14 February 2024 at 7pm.

The post Sydney violinist Harmonnia Junus brings musical fusion this Lunar New Year appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The show will be hosted by a woman and at least half of its guests will be women. The female-run, independent network will present the show once a month, addressing issues such as the shortage of female teachers, gender discrimination in politics, and the impacts of environmental issues on women. 

According to the Guardian, the show will operate in a similar style to the UK’s BBC Question Time, where a team of reporters will visit venues across the country and invite the public to participate and contribute their opinions.  

Fathi Mohamed Ahmed, the chief editor of Bilan, believes her media company provides a vital alternative to the current media content in Somalia, which “just focus[es] on politics and conflict.”

“There are so many stories to do on Somali society, especially about Somali people, and what is going on here,” she said. “We are going to have all those stories.”

In December, the host Naima Said Salah featured in the show’s pilot episode, discussing menstruation education and health with young women. 

“Women, including me, never had the opportunity to learn about periods as girls; even our own mums don’t discuss it,” Salah said. “People think this is taboo, but it is a fact; it exists and we cannot ignore it.”

The episode was praised for its candid discussions with young women, many who lack access to basic and essential hygiene products, forcing them to use risky forms of protection including tree barks, old clothes, socks and newspapers.

“One young woman in the audience shared her own experience,”  Salah, a senior reporter at Bilan, said. “She remembered the exact time and day when her period started because she had no idea what was happening. She thought she was dying. It was only after she told her older sister, that she understood.” 

Somalia is the most dangerous country for journalists in Africa. More than 50 journalists have been killed in the past twelve years. In the Global Impunity Index by The Committee to Protect Journalists – a list that calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country’s population, Somalia ranks last. 

The country was ranked by the UN as the fourth-lowest for gender equality globally. Women and girls in Somalia face harrowing challenges, with maternal and infant mortality rates among some of the highest in the world, and early marriage being one of the most pervasive. 

Director of the Mogadishu schools network, Cabdulqaadir Maxamed Xasan, posted his reaction to the new show on Bilan, saying he was pleased that the show is offering “more knowledge and experience” on education issues to the public. 

“Given the scarcity of female teachers in the education sector, young girls often struggle during their periods to adapt to changing circumstances. This discussion underscored the importance of community support during this critical time, particularly at the onset of adolescence.”

The show will officially launch on International Women’s Day, on 8 March this year. 

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The AI-based sewerage system maintenance business was backed by Dutch water technology specialist VC PureTerra Ventures, supported by US engineering and construction software giant Autodesk.

“As a women-led start-up, we understand the unique hurdles women face in leadership and funding, and we’re thrilled for VAPAR to be part of the positive change,” the company tells Women’s Agenda.

“We hope that we can inspire other women and the start-up support network to continue backing women and providing a diversified space for all entrepreneurs to drive change.”

Co-founded in 2018 by two engineers, Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar, the innovative startup was inspired by Siquiera’s experience as an engineering intern. She would manually review sewer inspection videos for 8-hours a day, an error-prone and subjective process that ignited the idea for a streamlined, tech-driven, AI-based solution.

“VAPAR’s technology unlocks the necessary efficiencies in pipeline investment decision-making,” Siqueira said. 

“Billions are spent every year by global water utilities on fixing their pipes, over half of which is spent in North America. Despite the massive investment, there isn’t enough data and dollars available – utilities must commit to doing things differently.” 

“Artificial intelligence can unlock unprecedented efficiencies. Our vision is to create a world where critical infrastructure investment meets the needs of our communities.”

Over 3 billion feet of sewer pipes are inspected globally each year, according to VAPAR, with sewer overflows and flooding becoming more common as a result of aging pipes, climate change and growing populations. 

VAPAR currently serves water authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, with a multi-regional team of 17 members. 

With this new $5 million investment, the company plans to build on its established customer base in these regions as well as fuel further expansion across North America to transform aging infrastructure. 

“The face of AI is changing rapidly, and we’re proud to be pioneering this deep learning technology in such an impactful way for the water industry,” said Aguilar.

“With our increasing customer base, we now support a wide range of industry standards, time zones and languages. Investing funds to double our team, add new verticals and start our North American office will ramp the number of customers that can benefit from this technology.”

For the past four years, VAPAR’s revenue and product usage has doubled annually. 

Alex Crowell, Partner at PureTerra Ventures, praised the startup’s performance, calling it a “standout in the evolving water management technology space”. 

“Showcasing their strong customer advocacy, a quick-to-adopt product and an impact-driven team made our decision an easy one,” he said, referring to their backing of the company.

“This investment will not only expand VAPAR’s customer reach but also substantially reduce pipe failures, which reflects our shared commitment to sustainable water infrastructure development globally.”

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It marks the first time the Ultra Violette has taken outside captial and comes ahead of the brand’s five-year anniversary. The sunscreen brand was first founded in 2019 by Rebecca Jefferd and Ava Chandler-Matthews. The pair hatched the idea while working together at Mecca Cosmetica.

Already, Ultra Violette’s success in Sephora Australia has seen it expand into 12 European markets. It’s also in New Zealand, Hong Kong and South-East Asia, Net-A-Porter globally as well as Space NK, Liberty and Harrods in the UK.

With this latest backing from Aria Growth Partners, the business has its sights set on North America. They expect to be stocked across Sephora Canada from March 2024 and are eager to jump into the US market in 2025.

“Strategically, [Aria] brings strong expertise in North America, which is very important to us,” Jefferd told the AFR. “This capital raise is not about the money, it’s about embracing the opportunity to expand into North America. We want the resources and knowledge to move into that market.” 

Following the investment, Mathews and Jefferd will remain majority owners of Ultra Violette and continue to helm the business. 

Aussie cosmetics on the rise

Australian cosmetic and beauty brands are having their moment. This partnership between Ultra Violette and Aria is only the latest backing in a string of high value investments.

Last year in April, L’Oréal acquired the Australian cosmetics brand Aesop for $2.5 billion, the largest ever acquisition for the French conglomerate. 

Australian self-tanner and skincare brand Bondi Sands was acquired last year by Japan’s chemical and beauty giant Kao Corporation for an estimated $450 million.

And in July last year, Australian luxury tan brand, Loving Tan, received a notable investment from private equity firm Gauge Capital.

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