The Ultimate Anti-Pitch Event
Thursday 23rd November, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Sydney, Australia
The Startup Women of the Year
Thursday 23rd November
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The Commons
388 George St, Sydney NSW
The Startup Women of the Year
Thursday 23rd November
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The Commons
388 George St, Sydney NSW
What is the Startup Women of the Year?
Too often, traditional pitch events favour a specific performative mould. However, we recognise that innovation isn’t limited to those with a flair for extroversion or stage presence.
Many brilliant minds excel in problem-solving, tech, and customer experience, yet are overshadowed by the conventional pitch format.
Our competition is the game-changer.
It’s the ultimate anti-pitch, designed to focus on what truly matters: the essence of startups, which is to address and solve significant global challenges.
This competition redefines what is conventional and is dedicated to celebrating and uplifting women-led businesses in Australia. With a keen focus on the tech, e-comm, and startup sectors, our mission is to shine a spotlight on the incredible achievements of Australia’s emerging women entrepreneurs and accelerate their journey towards success.
Nationwide Reach:
We’re on the hunt for the brightest and best across the entire nation. No matter where you are in Australia, if you’re a woman leading a startup, we want to hear from you!
Prizes to Boost Your Business:
The stakes are high, and the rewards are even higher. Enter for a chance to win a phenomenal prize pack valued at over $50,000! This includes a whopping $10,000 in cash to propel your business forward.
- $10K cash to the winner thanks to F5 Collective
- 3x mentoring sessions led by Tracey Warren at F5 Collective for the winner
- One Roof memberships to the Top 10 finalists with one year of extensive business support (valued at $500)
- A free marketing Audit with Stella Startups (worth $1200), including 10% off their Tell package and 15% off their Audit Package for the Top 30 shortlisted finalists
- The winner can choose either x1 free Premium ad spot (usually worth $350) with Overnight Success or a heavily discounted Startup Deep Dive article (usually worth $1,200 and only pay $500.
- 2x scholarship spots for the Press Play, Startup Program for women held in Victoria
- A scholarship to Scale’s FoundEd online education program and a 1:1 call with the investment team
- One year free Lift Angel membership to the finalists and winner
- 2x LUNA consultation sessions for the winner (1 hour legal and 1 hour accounting/tax), redeemable within 6 months from winning
- 1x Rose Gold (Silver with 18K Rose Gold Plated) Breathing Necklace by Breathe Into Peace. Breathing necklace helps relieve stress and anxiety and comes with mini-courses to help manage anxiety.
- 50% discount on a financial model build by Standard Ledger, used to determine your startup’s valuation (worth $1500)
The Grand Final:
Mark your calendars for November 23! The competition will culminate in a live event in Sydney, where we’ll hear from our top 4 finalists alongside a panel of guest judges who are ready to lend their expertise to the next generation of women entrepreneurs.
Judges to be announced.
Key Dates:
- Application Deadline: Applications are open now and close at 11:59pm AEDT on Sunday 12 Nov 2023
- Meetups: As we build up to the grand final, join us at our nationwide meetups. Connect, network, and learn with fellow entrepreneurs and industry experts.
The judges
Doone Roisin
Female Startup Club
Doone Roisin, Founder and Host (and Hype Girl) of the internationally-acclaimed Female Startup Club podcast – ranking in the top 0.5% of all podcasts globally – has inspired tens of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs from around the world through her 600+ relatable girlfriend-to-girlfriend-style chats with inspirational founders, who happen to be women.
In 2022, Doone released her debut book, Your Hype Girl, becoming an instant best-seller in Women & Business, Ecommerce and Small Business Books. Recently awarded the Young Australian Young of the Year, Doone’s mission is to continue to change the Two Percent statistics and empower young women to create wealth through business.
Preethi Mohan
Press Play Ventures
As a former product founder across MarTech, MediaTech, and HealthTech sectors, Preethi has refined her aptitude for devising innovative solutions tailored to market demands. Not only is she an avid angel investor and a fund LP, but her commitment to fostering positive growth in the startup world is evident in her roles as a community and social enterprise founder. Among her achievements is co-founding F2F, a thriving community of over 800 women designed to empower and support female entrepreneurs. Additionally, she is the visionary behind NiceTo, a platform championing the representation of underrepresented people in startups and tech and the co-founder of Press Play, aimed to help create a pathway for women from employment backgrounds to starting their own businesses.
Tracey Warren
F5 Collective
Tracey is the CEO and Founding & Partner of F5 Collective. She is an experienced professional with a background in financial markets, advisory, and strategy. With a deep passion for supporting female founders, she is determined to highlight the investment opportunity that exists in backing exceptional women-led ventures. Recognising the power of intersectionality, Tracey strongly believes in the potential of impact and returns working hand in hand. Her goal is to activate a regenerative ecosystem that provides the necessary support, funding, and tools for women to thrive in the business world.
Ananya Sinha
Artesian
Ananya is currently a Venture Capital Investor, specifically supporting Artesian‘s Female Leaders Fund and Climate Fund. They invest in high-growth, women-led startups overlooked by other VCs and underrepresented in the startup landscape. The Female Leaders Fund is a $100m fund, actively investing across APAC with a gender lens at Series A and B.
She has previously founded a sustainable tech startup, and spent time as a Management Consultant where she specialised in the intersection of strategy and customer experience.
The finalists
Verity Tuck
Goldee
The first AI assistant designed specifically to automate manual, time-consuming family operations.
Nikki Tugano
SeenCulture
A decision intelligence platform in the Future of Work sector set out to show how diversity, equity, and inclusion is a strategic competitive advantage.
Suzie Betts
Boob Armour
Redefining women’s safety and empowerment, particularly in sports and high-risk professions.
Jeannie-Marie Noyce
Brenna
An innovative communication app designed specifically for residential aged care
Your MCs
Caitlin Judd
Lady Brains
Caitlin is the co-founder of lady-brains, a platform dedicated to helping early-stage founders and their businesses grow, so they can live more fulfilling, meaningful and sustainable lives. She is also the co-host of the lady-brains podcast, one of the Australia’s most top-rated entrepreneurial poddies.
With over 10+ years experience in the leadership, community, wellbeing and positive psychology space, she has helped to build multimillion-dollar businesses across Australia, US, Canada, Singapore and Europe.
Sheree Rubinstein
One Roof
Sheree Rubinstein is a former corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur who founded of One Roof, a community driven all-in-one platform for women leaders and entrepreneurs.
What was once the leading co-working space for women-led businesses in Australia, One Roof has since pivoted to digital due to the pandemic and has onboarded over 1500 digital members across Australia and globally, with members across 9 countries.
Frances Goh
One Roof
Frances Goh is the Head of Community & Growth at One Roof. Her career spans the private and not-for-profit sectors in finance, business operations, marketing research, project management and business model development.
She is passionate about empowering organisations to achieve innovation excellence, whether it’s in delivering outstanding customer experiences or cultural transformation.
Past events
MELBOURNE
Antler x One Roof: Women VCs and Founders Connect
Wed 4th Oct 2023
GOLD COAST
Defying the Odds: Women in Business
Wed 11th Oct 202
BYRON BAY
Lunch Meetup
Thurs 12th Oct 2023
MELBOURNE
Venturing into the Future: Empowering Women Founders
Fri 10th Nov 2023
Enter your business at the
Startup Women of the Year Competition
Startup Women of the Year Competition
a special thanks to our sponsors & partners
Get started with a 14 day trial and $299 for our annual plan (save $200). Offer ends 10 November.
Have a question?
Explore our FAQs
It’s like a buffet of business support services. We have loads of masterclasses, mini courses, experts who offer free coaching calls, a member directory, ways to boost your brand visibility, virtual networking and lots of ways to connect with this amazing network of entrepreneurial women. The One Roof team also makes themselves available for business check in calls and specific requests for support.
Monthly memberships will auto renew but you can cancel anytime via the member portal. Annual memberships will also auto renew but you will receive an email 7 days prior to your renewal date to confirm whether you wish to renew. You have full discretion to cancel at any time.
You will receive a Welcome Email from us about how to make the most of your membership. This includes access to the member portal with loads of member benefits and resources. You also gain immediate access to all our events and masterclasses. You will also be invited to book an official Welcome Call with our team to unlock the full potential of the community to support you and your business.
There are many opportunities and soft ways to share and promote your products and services to our 30,000+ online community.
This includes guest blogs, being featured on our socials and in our newsletters, Instagram Live interviews, speaking engagements, features in our gift guides and brand discounts, becoming a dedicated One Roof Expert or Ambassador and specific channels in the member portal dedicated to sharing your special offers.
That said, as part of our Member Guidelines we ask that members do not overtly sell their products or services to one another and we explicitly ask that members do not reach out to each other and cold sell. Please note we reserve the discretion to remove members from the group if they are not acting in accordance with our Community Guidelines.
Most of our member benefits, networking sessions and masterclasses are run virtually to accommodate our member base across Australia and globally. That said we have 30+ Ambassadors who run at least four in-person member meetups in their area every year. These are informal ways to connect and network in person and vary in how they are run including lunches, meetups at co-working spaces, workshops, dinners, drinks and speed networking. We also host a range of in-person major events throughout the year and try to change up our locations as much as possible.
Our members are typically ambitious and entrepreneurial individuals who identify as women or non binary people.
Before joining One Roof, many had experienced isolation and were seeking a community of likeminded people with whom they could relate and from whom they could learn.
Our members include startup founders, freelancers, solopreneurs, scale ups with large teams and established SMBs who continue to seek growth, development and opportunities to test their ideas, as well as boost their brand visibility.
We attract people at all stages of the entrepreneurial journey and tailor our content and resources to suit the stage of business you’re at. Whether you are still formulating a business idea or are running a fast growing business, we have the resources, content and community to support you.
Everything available in the member portal including virtual masterclasses, mini courses, coaching calls with experts and networking sessions are at NO extra cost. The majority of Ambassador-led meetups are not ticketed unless otherwise stated.
The only additional costs are some major events which will be heavily discounted for our members and the Inner Circle Program which members will need to apply separately for. Everything else is included in your membership.
We deeply care about our members and their success. As entrepreneurs ourselves we are in the trenches with our members. We share openly and honestly about the challenges of the entrepreneurial journey and we commit to remaining like a village no matter how big we get. We make ourselves available for support to ensure you don’t just feel like another number. We also work hard to help you find and connect with your people within this community. We tailor our resources to your needs and we listen to our members, take on their feedback and build on the membership benefits by codesigning with our members.
You’ll receive an email on the day before the end of the 14 days to remind you that your trial is about to expire. From here, you can choose to cancel your membership, or otherwise you will be automatically charged for the discounted $299 annual membership.