From the 13 to 17 August 2018 Tank Stream Labs is hosting its annual Female Entrepreneur week in Perth and Sydney. Head to their website for upcoming events, times and location…
With over 50 leaders speaking about startups, finance, investments and the blockchain, Tank Stream Lab’s inaugural ‘Female Entrepreneur Week’ in Perth (second year in Sydney) is an important moment.
The week will bring together woman entrepreneurs and startups to lend encouragement and hopefully a boost to the number of female entrepreneurs in Australia.
According to a 2015 report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics “women are graduating from universities at higher rates than men” yet they are still well underrepresented in entrepreneurship. Only 34% of Australian entrepreneurs are women.
Why is that? Is there an inherent bias in startup land as well as the well documented ones in more mainstream employment circles?
According to a media release from Tank Stream Labs only “3% of tech firms are founded by women, yet when funded they deliver 35% higher return of investments (ROI) than male led firms.”
So there’s no reason to not back women led startups. Quite the opposite.
Iris Llach, Partnership Manager, Tank Stream Labs said “the week will build on the success of the 2017 Female Entrepreneur Week [in Sydney] with the aim of bringing female leaders and startups together to share and learn from their unique experiences and build partnerships for the future.”
An article on BCG notes that women make approximately 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. The situation is even worse in WA.
In addition, when female entrepreneurs pitch their idea they receive considerably less capital than a man would despite producing twice as much per dollar investment than their male counterparts.
I am Woman
You don’t have to look far to see some highly successful women-led tech companies in Australia or even WA.
Mel Perkins heads the wildly successful Canva (founded in WA, now based in Sydney), Dr Jemma Green is Chair and co-founder of Power Ledger (and recent EY Entrepreneur of the Year awardee) and Ruth Hatherley has the multi-award winning blockchain fintech Moneycatcha.
Think also Kinchip Systems, Tap into Safety, Appbot, Feedmee, SEQTA, CourseGenius, The Volt, Kooda, AgriStart … the list goes on.
Brad Delamare, CEO of Tank Stream Labs said “we know that Australian female entrepreneurs are doing exceptionally well, but they still fall behind men in having access to capital investment. This week is designed to not only provide practical advice but identify further ways that Tank Stream Labs can support female entrepreneurs build strong networks as they go out on their own.”
“These figures demonstrate that we must do more to support, encourage and develop opportunities for female entrepreneurs. While we must make the entrepreneurial market more equal for women, it also makes sound business sense.”
Hear hear. And it’s the right thing to do too.
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To hear more about what’s on visit Female Entrepreneurs Week.
