Scrunch founder Danielle Lewis: When I started, it shocked me that there were so few women in startups, tech and investment.
Life as an entrepreneur can be as creative as it can be fun and flexible – but it’s also seriously hard work, with challenges you can only fully appreciate when you encounter them head on.
Recently, five female tech founders shared their biggest challenge in business at a Creative3 summit, an event aiming to drive the creative-tech industry in Australia.
The individuals in this group have all travelled their own path to get to where they are creating seriously powerful and disruptive tech-based businesses, encountering different challenges but ultimately creating success their own way.
Below, each answer questions about life as a female founder: their biggest challenge; their advice to aspiring entrepreneurs; the legacy they hope to achieve; and what they’d tell their younger self.
Technology Will Save Us offer award winning make-it-yourself kits and digital tools help kids (and the adults that love them) to make, play, code and invent using technology.
What you have found to be your biggest challenge to date as a female founder?
Investment is very masculine and it is only recently that they have started to focus on culture and people. Most investors talk about these things but have not actually experienced it.
I very quickly realised that Venture Capitalists are mainly male, and the tech industry is mainly male, but there are definitely some amazing females in it. Find them!
As a woman, your relationship to parenting and family are different to a man’s relationship, biologically. Getting pregnant and raising kids are not the same for men and women. This doesn’t mean that one experience is more important than the other, they are just different.
Finding an identity, a blend and being able to iterate my experience as a mom, wife and entrepreneur was crucial but hard.
What would be your advice to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
I would say that always remember, this is a journey not a destination. Make sure you surround yourself with examples, mentors, and advisors that inspire you to be the kind of entrepreneur and person you want to be. Always keep learning.
Also, don’t just aim to ‘balance’ all your responsibilities, blend them together, make it work with your daily routine.
What legacy you hope to achieve in your industry
I hope to inspire a generation of young people with hands on technology, so that they understand how technology can help them creatively solve all the problems we face. Around 65 per cent of children in school today will have a job that does not currently exist, we want to equip them with all the tools they need to be prepared for these roles.
Any industry/personal growth advice you would go back and tell your younger self?
I would also tell myself that this is definitely a journey… not a destination.
Scrunch is a marketing analytics tool enabling brands to measure the ROI of their digital PR, marketing and advertising.
What you have found to be your biggest challenge/s to date as a female founder?
When I first started Scrunch, five years ago, I was coming out of the corporate world. So I was used to boys-clubs and how to handle them. However, it did shock me that there were so few women in startups, technology and in the investment community in Australia. This brought plenty of awkward networking events, rude comments and knock-backs; however I never lost my stride and pushed through to find a passionate group of supporters for our startup. This landscape has changed dramatically in the last 5 years with female led VC funds, female-centred networking groups and a general #girlboss attitude that has emerged amongst women in the entrepreneurial community. It’s exciting to be a part of!
What is your advice to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
My advice is simple. Never give up. Because most days, you will probably want to, and I believe it’s those who persevere the longest that win.
What legacy you hope to achieve in your industry?
At Scrunch we plan to be the industry benchmark for Influencer Marketing. Right now, the industry is hugely disparate and there’s a lack of transparency.Brands are crying out for a way to streamline this form of marketing and be able to attribute ROI. And we’ve got a kick-arse team of data-scientists, engineers, marketers and creatives that are up for such a big challenge!!
Any industry/personal growth advice you would go back and tell your younger self?
If I could give my younger self advice, it would probably be to take a chance on doing my own thing sooner and not to be so hard on myself!! Everything is a process and an opportunity to learn. What will be, will be and if you work hard, the success will follow.
Stashd is an online shopping app which is changing the way we engage in online shopping specific to mobile, with a “Tinder-esq swipe motion”.
What you have found to be your biggest challenge/s to date as a female founder?
Being taken seriously when I first launched Stashd was a challenge. I was 22 and had little to none tech experience. I found people would look at me and say my idea was ‘cute’. It was very black and white when it came to people’s interactions with me at networking events and I would be the only women, or one of three maximum, at events. People would either see the value and the vision or they wouldn’t. I definitely got mistaken for an intern as opposed to the CEO in the early days. But this only made me more driven.
I grew up with the whole premise that you can do anything – with no stereotypical conditioning that girls can do this, and boys can do that. Due to this, I would walk into meetings and have people expect me not to be as confident as what I was. Afterall, I’m a young female founder of a technology platform that’s now launched in China, yet I don’t know how to code or speak Chinese, so there was an initial push-back from the industry. However, in my mind I knew what Stashd was capable of, so it was learning that process of convincing people that we were to be taken seriously, and we were going to change the retail-tech space. It was about translating my vision, and the belief I had in myself and the team, into a compelling argument.
What is your advice to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Firstly, to back yourself. Nobody is going to believe in what you’re doing unless you believe in it 100 per cent. Next, you have to learn how to articulate that vision. A lot of female entrepreneurs lack some of the confidence in the start – I know I did a little. Once you change that mindset to say we’re here, this is the vision, and can confidently convince people of that, is when things really start to shift. Especially if you’re in the tech space as a young woman with no coding experience.
What legacy you hope to achieve in your industry?
I want to change the way that people shop on mobile. I think the whole transition from e-commerce to m-commerce doesn’t work in its current format. People are trying to force the e-commerce experience onto your mobile phone and that isn’t scalable. I want Stashd to be the go-to location to shop for fashion specifically on your mobile phone. I also want to pinpoint those data points to take back to marketers so they can make more informed business decisions, and be able to launch into new markets using data to back them.
I want Stashd be able to lift up those emerging designers that have really unique pieces and provide them with a platform for exposure, and also data insights so that they can scale as opposed to shutting up shop because they don’t know how to market in this new, vertically integrated market of apps, e-commerce, advertising and social media.
Any industry/personal growth advice you would go back and tell your younger self?
I probably wouldn’t be as trusting and would bring on mentors and advisers a lot sooner. When I started out I was very young and came from a really small town, so I was very trusting of developers and other people that I probably shouldn’t have been.
Over time you learn how to vet people, but I would advise to be a tiny bit more skeptical while staying true to your vison. Bring on mentors before you even get started to run ideas past them. I’m sure I would have been able to move 10-times quicker if I did that from the start as they can cut your learning curve in half.
How can we encourage more female founders in Australia?
The way I think people speak about female founders is almost as though it’s a handicap, as though it’s not on par. The way we change that is by setting examples. We need female founders to rise up and be the example, and the only way we can do that is by supporting them, investing in them, and celebrating their successes. Technology is the vehicle for innovation, so we need to look at technology in a different way and see how this can be applied to an industry – like fashion or retail – where it can potentially disrupt that entire industry, and then showcase those female entrepreneurs to be role models to other young girls who want to get involved in the space.
Stringr is an app linking both amateur and professional videographers to media outlets needing vision.
What you have found to be your biggest challenge/s to date as a female founder?
There are many challenges that I believe all founders face, male or female. Getting a product to market, getting customers who not only like the innovation but want to pay for it, and assembling a great team that provides great service. On top of that there’s fundraising: it’s challenging finding capital to make sure your idea gets off the ground and then scales. But those are every entrepreneur’s challenges.
Being a woman in the professional world has its challenges for sure— I think, it mainly comes down how our society relates to one another. And let me clear, some of my first and best supporters are men. But on the topic of gender bias: One of my favorite professors, Ethan Mollick at The Wharton School, has done research on women entrepreneurs and funding of start-ups. He’s found women statistically have more successful startups, however funding of them through traditional VCs is vastly lower than their male counterparts. Upon a cursory look, you could call that misogyny— however I believe it’s more an issue how we relate to others. Men relate to other men better because all male investors were once/are young men. The only solution is time and making sure that more woman are entrepreneurs, that we foster those who have great business ideas and make sure they stay in the game long enough— so they can become silver ladies making investment decisions.
What would be your advice to other aspiring female entrepreneurs
I have a few pieces of advice for entrepreneurs starting out: 1) Get a partner or co-founder— working at it alone is really tough and most investors won’t take you seriously. 2) Get childcare. Anyone who says they are working from home with a young one in the house and no help, will not generate enough traction in time. 3) Stay in the game and push the ball forward every day. Startups have their tough days, but if you are willing to write down the 5 things that are critical and work on them each day, you will build something. 4) Don’t be afraid to negotiate. Some may think it’s not lady-like, but remember anything said with kindness that’s reasonable, well, is reasonable.
What legacy you hope to achieve in your industry
I want people who want custom video to wake up and think— I’m logging into Stringr. I want videographers who want to submit awesome footage to wake up and think— I’m sending it to Stringr. I want to make sourcing video as easy as grabbing lunch.
Any industry/personal growth advice you would go back and tell your younger self?
I’ve been very fortunate in my career— have save one position, loved my work and owe a lot to a few key mentors who gave me great advice when I was young. But what I’d tell 20-year-old Lindsay: 1) Move to New York sooner, it’s the media capital of the world. 2) Speak up more— you don’t always have to be well-researched to brainstorm or be a part of the conversation. 3) Don’t let self-doubt get in your way— it may seem like someone doesn’t have faith in you. But people, even bosses, have faith in employees who have good ideas, can articulate and then execute them— on their own. And it never hurts to make your boss look like a star.
That Startup Show is an award-winning online TV series focusing on the fast-growing entrepreneurial boom and the culture that surrounds it.
What you have found to be your biggest challenge/s to date as a female founder?
The biggest challenge I have faced to date as a “female” founder is like any founder (especially in the creative industries) – getting funding. In Australia currently only 5% of female founders of (tech based) startups are funded, so my immediate question is… why? In the creative industries, however, it is marginally better.
I personally have only had one experience where I truly questioned whether there was some kind of unconscious bias at work. I had honestly never thought about that before, and it is something which really rocks your confidence. Every rejection I had been through previously, I had always reviewed whether it was the product, the pitch, the timing, the team – basically every aspect of the business so I could improve the next time. In this instance, it was subtle but evident to people in the room. That’s why unconscious bias (toward any personal characteristic) creates a confidence gap in people who are different from the majority – whatever the industry, organisation or culture. That’s hard to understand for people in the majority if they have not experienced it directly.
Having said that, it also had this weird effect of making me more determined – and that’s the part of me that I draw on to keep going. It seems to have worked so far.
What would be your advice to other aspiring female entrepreneurs?
My first piece of advice would be to develop tenacity and go forth. Tenacity is what keeps you going that bit further everyday in the face of many challenges.Also, it’s ok to ask for help on occasion (which I am really bad at). Whether it’s asking for advice, support or emotional support – it takes a village to keep you sane as an entrepreneur. It’s important you have a support network.It’s also important to respect the time of people who may help you, and acknowledge your gratitude.
Also when you create your business, think of why you are doing it and how it will affect the world – is the business ultimately making someone’s life better, or providing us with a new way of doing things which is necessary and hopefully revolutionary? Get really passionate about that purpose. Make this the centre of your team’s obsession. The “why” is the one thing that keeps you on track in the tough times. We have no idea how much we will be affected by our environmental and social challenges in the next 20 years, so it’s critical to understand the vast impact your business (or intended business) has or will have, even in the choices you make in your supply chain.Consumers globally are already telling us that a business must be more accountable and contribute to the ecosystem it operates in – so it’s up to us – the new generation of business owners to make that a consideration in our operations. Ultimately it will make the business more profitable anyway!
Finally, it’s really important to have a life plan (and encourage your team to also have one) behind your business plan. That means tapping into what is your greater purpose as a person and developing that side of you, in addition to the business you are creating. You never imagine you may outgrow your business as you grow as a person and as part of a team, and you never know how a life event may impact you or the business. At some point, as a founder you need to separate your identity from your business, which many founders find challenging.Anchoring to where you want to be as a person is as important in the long term.
What legacy you hope to achieve in your industry?
I am passionate about culture change on many levels – inside industries, inside organisations and inside people. It’s what drives me to find new ways of doing things constantly. I hope first and foremost to forge a new kind of VR storytelling with my co-founder Ahmed Salama, and explore how it can affect positive change in real life.
I’d love to see more diversity on screen and off screen – I know it’s something being talked about a lot – but creative industries are so important for diversity because they are the ones with the most visibility – and we are what we see. Whether you’re disrupting the modelling industry like therightfit or building indie games like League of Geeks – you have tremendous influence to shape how our society is reflected in your business.
The tapestry of talent is immense in Australia, we just have to tap into its full potential.There is also a proven business case for it – the outcomes are simply better in diverse businesses or projects.
I’d love to see a new business model, which empowers audiences to be part of the creative process. Ultimately we make stories to connect with people. It makes sense to listen to them and make something that resonates. The challenge is how to do that to a high standard and cost effectively to allow creatives to have a reasonable career pathway in the process. It’s definitely the age of the multi-skilled creative which is necessary in the rising tech world. I personally love this intersection.
Any industry/personal growth advice you would go back and tell your younger self?
I would absolutely tell my younger self to keep dancing! I love dancing, but stopped when I decided to be “a serious business person”.Now I dance around the living room and on the occasional dance floor. The point is we get very caught up in what we do or problems of the world and forget to find joy in the everyday – which is an important resource to tap into as a human being in business – for me, this has always been an important catalyst in creativity, especially when working in a startup or business environment.
