WHEN entrepreneur Tricia Martin entered a mentoring program a year ago, she was after business acumen rather than affirmations.
"Up until then I had been on a lot of female leadership courses/workshops that focused on personal branding or presentation rather than the meatier acumen you need to launch and scale a business," she says.
Granted a "safe space" with three female mentors and the chance to discuss macro things like stakeholder engagement, user testing and revenue diversification, the impact was profound after her first meeting.
"I sat in my car for 40 minutes crying and having a freak out because I had this startling realisation ...that I was accountable. I remember calling my Dad saying, 'I need to do this, it's serious now'. That's genuine empowerment."
The Hunter-based mentors who supported Ms Martin are expected to be among those taking part in the inaugural Female Founder Program. Run by the University of Newcastle's I2N partnership with the City of Newcastle, the free 10-week program aims to "level the playing field" for female Hunter entrepreneurs via workshops, coaching and mentor meetings, culminating in a Demo Day.
Applications are now open and close on September 19.
I2N Operations and Innovation senior manager Siobhan Curran said the Program offered a springboard to empower Newcastle women to navigate their start-up journey with confidence: "It takes more than a great idea to launch a startup: Business know-how, a supportive professional network, and confidence in yourself and your concept are 'must-haves' to succeed," she said.
Recent research by Cut Through Ventures found that startups co-founded by women received 27 per cent of venture capital funding in Australia to date in 2021. Australia was ahead globally, but analysis of the $2.7 billion raised by startups locally found those led wholly by women received just 5.3 per cent of venture capital funding. Meanwhile, research from the Boston Consulting Group found that when women-led startups do get funded, they deliver higher revenue - more than twice as much per dollar invested - than those run by men.
Ms Martin launched Virtual Intern, a platform that recruits, upskills and transitions local students into careers through virtual work experience, in July 2020. The mentoring she received via I2N's Virtual Mentor Service gave her strategies that "completely changed" how she ran parts of her business.
She says female founders are often underfunded and that male founders outperform female founders with investing and capital raising. She sees another hurdle in "pinkwashing" - capital funding targeted at women solely for marketing or as an unpaid add-on.
For details on the program, see newcastle.edu.au/ffp.
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