Founder Bootcamp

It's time to rethink your digital; both what you want to get out of it, and its purpose in your customers lives. In the prehistoric days, ads no facebook no matter how bad they were could translate to sales so long as they were technically correct, but that's not the case anymore. In this session we'll talk about technical requirements to running effective ads, and dressing your message in a way that's turning heads!

The fast-paced world of social media is forever changing. Every company is looking for the next biggest 'thing' to help drive engagement, awareness and business results. Hootsuite has done a tonne of research to provide you with the latest trends on social to get ahead of your competitors! Get your note pads ready!

A framework from scaling consumer businesses / your startup from idea to $100M revenue and beyond

Whether you come up with ideas for a living or just want to learn more about the creative process, this is one fast-paced and funny session you can't afford to miss.

Dive right in to this comms masterclass hosted by Joan Westenberg - an esteemed journalist and writer, responsible for growing the #1 Medium blog in the Asia Pacific region. Joan Westenberg is an award winning Australian PR director, contemporary writer, and creative. She is the Director of Content at Linktree and the founder of PR and communications firm Studio Self. Her approach to messaging, communication and semiotics has built her reputation as a writer, and she has been named as one of the leading startup voices in Australia by SmartCompany. It's not easy to get coverage as a new player in the market; you can't spread innovative ideas without the proper messaging and storytelling. Clear, jargon-free content and communications are crucial for an unknown startup. The only way to cut through is to lose the bulls**t and tell it like it is.

Design Thinking is a social technology that stimulates innovate ideas and creative solutions from a human-centred perspective. The design process inhibits intrinsic biases, breaking down behaviours that manifest in sub-optimal decision making. Team collaboration unleashes imagination, creative energies and motivation to reframe ill-defined problems, surface concealed problems, and generate numerous beneficial solutions (processes, projects, products, services, business models, experiences, etc). Rapid experimentation through an empathic understanding of the stakeholder generates solutions that are prioritised, prototyped and tested in-field to achieve an outcome that sits within the triangulated nexus of desirability, feasibility and viability. Design thinking skills have strong value in the workplace as consumer and stakeholder needs transform to accommodate the fast pace and constant change experienced in contemporary times.

When kicking off the fundraising process, a well-structured pitch deck does a lot of the heavy lifting to attract investor attention. Knowing what to highlight and what to leave on the cutting room floor can make all the difference. In this session, Lauren Capelin will share how to craft a solid pitch, give insight into what investors are looking for and raise some of the more common red flags.

We've all been there. Overwhelmed by the number of things we have to do & not enough time to do them. So we cut back on sleep, family time, on the quality of what we're doing, or we put opportunities on hold because we just can't fit any more in. We rush, stress. This is no way to live. It's time to take back control of your time. In our "Death by Doing" workshop we cover: 1) Your "Value" as a leader 2) Leading ~v~ Doing 3) Why "it's just easier if I do it myself" 4) Your "Time Thieves"? 5) Tools/practices to move from being a "Doer" to an effective "Leader". You will walk away from this workshop with: a) Very clear understanding of why you don't have enough time to do all you want b) Very clear reasons why you need to change this now c) Simple, effective strategies to start your change today

Equity and valuations are two things you really need to understand before you start asking people for their money. During this session, we’ll explain how equity works and walk you through some simple methods for valuing your startup. About this workshop: You’ll learn how equity works initially and over multiple rounds as you're raising capital. We’ll show you how you’ll end up with a smaller piece of a bigger pie, and how that’s totally okay. They say valuation can be as much an art as a science, and there is definitely a psychology at play during capital raising negotiations. We'll run through 4 ways of valuing your startup to give you an operating range of valuation as a base to confidently negotiate from. And finally, we're not lawyers but we have seen a lot of deals and we'll give you a quick run down on equity, convertible notes and SAFE agreements, plus some of the key legal deal terms you'll see. You’ll receive slides and an Excel cap table template.

Leaders can create courage. Through anchoring to purpose, surfacing fears and creating next best actions you begin to create collective courage and unlock momentum with your teams. We work on the executive mindset needed to tap into the productivity and emotional health of the business. This session covers: Leadership Status Quo Leading with Head Leading with Heart Leading with Courage

In this session Gerry Cawson will step you through the typical process of a capital raising and the different types of capital available at different stages of growth. He will help you understand the key stages of structuring a deal including what to expect in due diligence and the key terms of transaction documents. He will also provide tips on how to avoid the more onerous capital raising terms so that you get to keep more of the equity in your business.

We are all leaders – of our organisations, our communities, our families and of each other. We also care for them. In a crisis, leadership which is visionary, people-focussed, fast- moving, practical, engaging, coordinated and empowering builds, and re-builds, trust, communities and nations. This presentation will draw on nearly three decades’ of professional experience and international best practice in regulation, governance and risk management to provide practical assistance and perspectives for effective pre-event, response, recovery and reconstruction leadership and strategic governance.

A masterclass in Intellectual Property law for startups. This session will cover patents, copyright and trade mark regimes in Australia and across the world, with practical tips on how to develop an effective and efficient IP strategy. Some basic knowledge of IP is assumed, but novices to IP should not get lost in this session.

We've all heard the stories about the genius founders who dropped out of college before building an empire... but there are other pathways to startup success too. If you're entrepreneurial, curious, restless – or even a little bored at Uni, this Masterclass will give you some inspiration and tools to get started right away.