The 2018 SheStarts cohort has now been selected! As day one of the accelerator approaches, reality is setting in.
Danielle Owen Whitford knows what it’s like to be overworked and withdrawn from her children and she’s determined not to let that happen again. Families sacrifice a lot when parents pursue big dreams, and Danielle wants to be part of the solution, not the problem. There’s also a twist, with a new founder joining the cohort.
Zoë Condliffe has been headhunted as a late entry for the program. She’s in it to make the world safer for women... but how will she figure out the tech required to bring her big-data vision to life?
As the program kicks off, Zoe and the other women meet the BlueChilli product team to interrogate their riskiest assumptions as they leap into the unknown.
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1st December, 2018
Episode 5 – Creating your first product
As the founders reach the halfway point in the accelerator, the rubber is hitting the road. Andrèz Coco has launched her first prototype and after a difficult pitch session she is left questioning the direction she has taken. It’s time to get back to the customer and re-centre... so Andrez (and Dr Annie McAuley and Danielle Owen Whitford) engage in user testing ahead of demo day to make sure their MVPs are in the best place possible.
Danielle is now running a pilot with one of Australia’s biggest banks at ANZ - a big step for her business. She meets with ANZ to show them how the key product is evolving - a big moment in her startup journey.
Meanwhile, Annie is getting her tech in the hands of children at her pilot childcare centre, where her daughter Grace is customer #1. A deeply personal reminder of why she is building her company and the impact it can have.
1st December, 2018
Episode 3 – Sharing your founder story
Dr Annie McAuley is a mother who wants the best for her children. When she realised her daughter Grace was struggling with language delay she did everything she could to help her. After exhausting traditional forms of therapy Annie took matters into her own hands and developed technology that empowered her daughter to learn to speak at home. Now she wants to create a company to help children around the world, just like Grace.
Annie’s motivation runs especially deep. She knows what it means not to have a voice, having experienced a traumatic brain injury that left her unable to speak for years. As she prepares for pitch practice at a SheStarts immersion day at MYOB, Annie faces her fears and shares her full story for the first time.
1st December, 2018
Episode 4 – Importance of Partnerships & Community
Zoë Condliffe is driving to Sydney for a big week at the Sales & Partnerships immersion at LinkedIn. She’s made the decision to quit her full time job to focus on her startup, and is now living in her van to give She’s A Crowd the best chance at success.
As she stops to camp overnight in the Australian countryside, she reflects on the life experiences that brought her to this point. She’s a Crowd is deeply personal to Zoe. Her experience of living in an abusive relationship drives her to make sure women’s stories are heard and further to that, changes are made to make the world safer and fairer. She’s decided to set her focus on universities as an environment to pilot her product and while in Sydney meets with advisors, academics and students to test her ideas and develop her business model.