Boosting Female Founders Initiative Round 2

The Boosting Female Founders Initiative - Round 2 helps female entrepreneurs overcome the disadvantages faced in getting access to finance and support to grow their startups. Targeted support will be on a co-contribution basis.
Closed
This grant is currently closed to applications
Application detail:Round 2 is now closed. The Boosting Female Founders Initiative runs for five years and further rounds will be available.

What do you get?

Grants between $25,000 and $480,000 for female founded startups to expand into domestic and global markets.

Who is this for?

Female founded (majority owned and led by women) startups who wish to scale their business into domestic and global markets.

About the program

The program will provide targeted support on a co-contribution basis to female founders of startup businesses (startups) to scale into domestic and global markets. The program will also provide expert mentoring and advice to meritorious applicants. The Australian Government has announced a total of $52.2 million in grant funding for this program. For Round 2, an estimated $11.6 million in grant funding is available.

The objectives of the program are to:

  • stimulate private sector investments into innovative startups led by women
  • help women entrepreneurs overcome the disadvantages faced in getting access to finance and support to grow their startups
  • enable female founders to scale-up, expand into domestic and global markets, and become self-sufficient
  • boost the economy through increasing the diversity of startup founders.

The grants will be available on a co-contribution basis. All eligible applicants can apply for a grant between $25,000 and $400,000. If you meet additional eligibility criteria as detailed in the grant opportunity guidelines, you can apply for a grant of between $25,000 and $480,000.

The grant amount will be up to 50% of eligible project costs - unless you can meet additional requirements (see the grant opportunity guidelines for further information).

You are responsible for the remaining eligible project expenditure plus any ineligible expenditure. Contributions to your project must be cash. You are encouraged to seek contributions from private investors and industry partners.

The grant opportunity will be delivered through a two-stage competitive selection process due to the expected high demand for this program. You will first apply via an Expression of Interest (EOI). If successful, you will be invited to submit a Stage Two grant application.

Eligibility

To be eligible you must be a female founded (majority owned and led by women) startup as defined in the grant opportunity guidelines.

You must also have an Australian Business Number (ABN) and be one of the following entities:

  • an entity incorporated in Australia
  • a partnership
  • a sole trader.

We can only accept applications where you:

  • provide a signed declaration, on the template provided, that your startup is female founded (majority owned and led by women)
  • certify that your startup will remain majority owned and led by women for the duration of the grant (this will be a requirement of the grant agreement)
  • include all mandatory attachments.

Where you are applying for greater than 50% grant percentage (up to 70%), you must provide evidence to support that one or more of the following applies:

  • your head office is located in a regional area
  • your business is an Indigenous business or at least one of your founding team members is an Indigenous Australian
  • at least one of your founding team members (owners and leaders) is a person with a disability
  • at least one of your founding team members (owners and leaders) has migrated to Australia as a refugee or humanitarian entrant.

If you are successful in the EOI stage and are invited to apply for Stage Two, you must also provide:

  • evidence to support your source of funding (e.g. letter from contributor/s confirming funding amount)
  • a pitch deck (PDF or PowerPoint presentation max 10 slides) and/or link to a video pitch from your CEO (no longer than 5 mins) supporting your response to the assessment criteria
  • business financial documents including your most current profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements
  • a business plan, including revenue model, customer acquisition and company/management structure, scope, implementation methodology, timeframes, budget, risks and how you will measure the success of the project
  • a trust deed (where applicable).

You are not eligible to apply if you are:

  • an unincorporated association
  • a Commonwealth, State, Territory or local government body (including government business enterprises).

Applying

How do you apply?

The Boosting Female Founders Initiative is closed to applications.

An Independent Assessment Committee (the Committee) comprised of independent experts will assess EOI and stage two applications. The Committee may also seek additional advice from independent technical experts.

We review your EOI against eligibility criteria. We provide all eligible applications to the Committee. The Committee will assess your EOI against the EOI assessment criteria outlined in the grant opportunity guidelines and compare it to other eligible EOIs before recommending which projects should be invited to apply for a grant to the Program Delegate. The Program Delegate then makes a decision on which EOIs will proceed to Stage Two.

The Committee will assess grant applications against the Stage Two assessment criteria in the grant opportunity guidelines and compare it to other invited applications.

The amount of detail and supporting evidence you provide in your application should be relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested. You should define, quantify and provide evidence to support your answers. The sample application form displays character limits.

The program delegate will make the final decision.

The Boosting Female Founders Initiative program application process is comprised of two stages. The first stage is an expression of interest (EOI) and Stage Two is by invite only, and requires a more detailed application.

Expression of Interest stage

Assessment Criteria

1. How a grant will help you to scale-up, expand into domestic and global markets, and become self-sufficient (40 points)

Tell us:

  1. how grant funding will assist in removing barriers and help you to grow your startup
  2. what growth looks like for your business (e.g. in terms of revenue, employees, etc.)
  3. how ready your product or service is to take to market (expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or above).

2. Your capacity, capability and resources to grow (30 points)

Tell us:

  1. about you and your team
  2. if you have received any investment from external sources (including how much and the funding source). If not, why not?
  3. if you receive any non-financial assistance (e.g. mentoring, access to networks, advice or other guidance, etc.) If not, why not?

3. The impact of grant funding (30 points)

Tell us:

  1. how much grant funding you require and how you propose to fund your contribution
  2. how the grant will help you to leverage additional partnerships or support from other organisations.

Grant Application Stage Two

If invited to submit an application under Stage Two, you must address the following assessment criteria in your grant application. These require more detail than provided in your EOI and you will be asked to provide evidence to support your answers.

Assessment Criteria

1. How grant funding will help you to overcome disadvantages to scale up, expand into domestic and global markets and become self-sufficient (40 points)

You should demonstrate this by identifying:

  1. how grant funding will be used to support and grow your startup
  2. how grant funding will enable your startup to develop, scale-up, and expand into domestic and global markets
  3. how grant funding will assist in removing challenges and barriers faced by you, as a woman, in growing your startup.

2. Your capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30 points)

You should demonstrate this by identifying:

  1. your and/or your team’s qualifications, experience or track record in startups and managing large or complex projects
  2. your business plan, including:
    • your revenue model
    • your addressable market and profile of your ideal customers
    • your customer acquisition strategy
    • your company’s organisational structure
    • the rationale and scope of the project or activity for which you are requesting funding
    • project timeframes and budget
    • budget
    • risks
    • expected outcomes
    • how you will measure the success of the project
  3. your plan to finance growth. What is your plan to seek additional or follow on investment, or to build a sustainable self-funding business?

3. The impact of grant funding (30 points)

You should demonstrate this by identifying:

  1. your need for funding, i.e. the extent that you need this grant to achieve your projected growth (you must have a genuine need for funding)
  2. how your project leverages additional partnerships or support from other organisations
  3. the benefits to Australia, your region and/or community from your project.

If your EOI application is successful, you will be invited to participate in Stage Two. If you are unsuccessful, we will notify you in writing and give you the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

If your Stage Two application is successful, you will receive a written offer. If you are unsuccessful, we will notify you in writing and give you the chance to discuss the outcome with us.

Successful applicants must enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth. The grant agreement will specify the reporting requirements, payment schedule and milestones necessary to receive payments.

We will make payments according to an agreed schedule set out in the grant agreement. Payments are subject to satisfactory reporting and progress on the project.

Information Session

Boosting Female Founders Initiative Round 2 Information Session

This information session was offered to provide an overview of Round 2 of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative, including eligibility requirements, key points from the assessment criteria and some general tips for presenting a strong application

Good morning, everybody, in the Western states

and good afternoon to everybody in the Eastern states.

Thank you for joining us today for the webinar

on the Boosting Female Founders Round Two.

So, we have a few speakers involved in today's session.

My name is Natalie Gillam,

I am one of the AusIndustry regional manager network.

I just want to let you all know that for this webinar

we have turned the chat function off

due to the large numbers of people registered.

We're unfortunately unable to answer any live questions.

We will provide you with information at the end

as to who you can specifically ask to have your questions answered.

Also, hopefully, this webinar will address

many of the questions you might have.

So, at registration, many of you have put questions through.

We will do our best to answer these questions

as we go through this webinar.

And any questions that we don't specifically answer,

we will answer directly to you.

So, as I was saying, my name's Natalie Gillam.

I work with AusIndustry.

We are delighted today to also be joined by Dr Jana Matthews.

She's actually the chair of the selection committee

for the Boosting Female Founders session.

Jana will be able to provide you with some quite specific information

around the merit, sorry, criteria.

I'll be covering the eligibility criteria.

We're also very pleased to be able to welcome Cherie Johnson.

Cherie is one of our Round One Boosting Female Founders recipients.

So, we'll be able to learn a bit about Cherie,

her business and how she was successful in the grant.

First off, I would like to start with an acknowledgement of country.

So, AusIndustry would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners

and custodians of the country throughout Australia

and acknowledge their continuing connection to land,

waters and community.

We pay our respects to the people,

the cultures and the Elders past, present and emerging.

Today, I am speaking to you from the Awabakal People land

based in Newcastle.

So, like many government grants,

the government releases what they like to say

is objectives that they hope to meet by providing funding

to businesses through these grant programmes.

Specifically, with the Boosting Female Founders grant,

the grant is aiming to address the barriers

that many female founders face

when accessing private sector investments

in their innovative start-up.

It's aimed and targeted to help women entrepreneurs

overcome the disadvantages they face

by providing them finance and support

in order to grow their start-ups.

This is intended to have good outcomes for the economy

through the increased diversity of start-up founders,

which has good economic and social benefits.

For the Boosting Female Founders grant this is now round two.

Round one, obviously, closed a while ago.

This process is through a two-stage process.

Grant recipients are asked to initially

provide an expression of interest

to be then determined to be eligible,

competitive, to submit a stage two.

Today, I'll focus predominantly on what is required

for the stage one of the expression of interest.

So, in this grant round, there's $11.6 million available,

and that's for up to 50% of eligible project costs.

Now, something that we find businesses often get

a bit confused about with government grants,

is we're looking to fund projects within businesses.

Businesses need to demonstrate that they are eligible,

have an eligible project, as well as having eligible expense.

Now, this is a merit competitive-based grant.

And so, you'll also need to obviously address the merit criteria.

We would also like you to keep in mind

that round one of the Boosting Female Founders Grant

received 2,200 expressions of interest.

51 of those grants were ultimately funded.

So, it is a very competitive grant process.

And you do need to make sure that you're not only eligible,

but also competitive to pursue the opportunity through the grant.

So, for this grant, up to 50% of your total

eligible project expenditure may be funded.

The minimum grant amount is the $25,000

with a maximum grant of $400,000.

Now, this is unless your business is identified

as one which has additional disadvantage,

which are businesses located in regional areas, Indigenous owned,

founding members being a person with a disability,

or one of your founding team members has migrated to Australia

as a refugee or humanitarian entrant.

In these cases, you may access up to 70%

of your eligible project in grant funding.

Now, if you look at the customer information guide,

as well as the frequently asked questions

online at business.gov.au,

you will identify the kind of evidence

that the government requires you to submit

with your expression of interest

to demonstrate how you fall within one of these categories.

The matched funding, so, out of 50% grant ratio,

the business, obviously, is going to need to provide up to 50%

or in the other case,

the additional only 30% towards the grant funding.

This must be cash, it cannot be in kind.

At the stage of the expression of interest,

you're not required to provide evidence that you have the matched funding,

but, obviously, based on the timelines,

you are eventually going to need to provide that evidence.

So, keep in mind how you are going to match your funding,

and we encourage you to seek investment from investors

or industry partners in order to match this grant.

Now, with many government grants, including this one,

you can't match a federal government grant

with a federal government grant.

You will need to find your own cash contribution,

but up to 10% of the total project costs

can be derived from local or state government funding.

Now, eligibility, this is obviously a critical element of this grant.

In order to apply for this grant

and be assessed through the merit process,

you must demonstrate that you are eligible.

Now, the first criteria is that you are a female founded,

majority owned and led by women start-up.

Now, I'll spend the next slide talking in a little more detail

about our definition of a start-up.

But just to clarify, majority owned and led by women

requires that at least 51% of your business is owned by females

and at least 51% of the founding team,

all the senior members, senior managers, sorry, are women.

You must also have an ABN

and be one of the entities defined there,

being an incorporated entity in Australia,

a partnership or a sole trader.

Now, as I said, we have quite a specific definition

of a start-up in this programme.

If you look in the glossary of the customer information guide,

you will identify that it defines a start-up as an early stage,

innovative or disruptive business that is scalable

and working on a new or novel product, service,

or has a different business model.

Businesses are also required to be at least at technology level six,

which I will provide more information on later.

But in general, we're looking for businesses that have novelty,

innovativeness, and the ability to scale

in both domestic and international markets.

This will require that you can identify that your product,

service or your business model is new to the industry,

new to Australia or new to the world.

We're looking for you to describe how your offering

is considered to be different or significantly improved,

as compared to others that are already available.

And you will need to demonstrate that you have the capacity

to scale into global and domestic markets.

Scalable means that with limited resources,

you're able to grow your business very quickly.

Now, within the grant guidelines, as I said earlier,

we're looking for eligible projects

with eligible activities and eligible expense.

You'll note in the grant guidelines that

there are some definitions around some eligible activities

that you can undertake as part of this grant programme.

These might include developing new software or apps,

launching and scaling your products,

developing marketing for your new product,

purchasing some equipment that will enable your growth,

expanding into new markets,

improving your management board

or any relevant professional development or training.

You'll look in the customer information guide at the end,

it also defines what can be eligible expense,

also what might be ineligible expense.

Pay particular attention when you're formulating your project

to make sure that your project activities

and the expense allocated to those activities is also eligible.

So, earlier, I mentioned that your project needs to,

or your product, process or service needs to be able to demonstrate

that you are at least at technology readiness level number six.

So, as you can see from this slide,

there are TRLs, as they're commonly known,

ranging from number one to number nine.

We are looking for projects that are at least at prototype stage.

So, you've already demonstrated that it may be able to work

in a real world environment.

It's at pre-minimum viable product stage.

Technology readiness level nine

is when you've already tested your product, process or service

and it has been shown to work in a real life environment.

Jana will talk in a little more detail about

what this means in the merit criteria.

This isn't strictly an eligibility criteria,

but it is an important element for you to consider

where your product or your business sits

against this level of technology readiness.

Now, the important things.

Well, the timing.

So, as I said, this grant is going to be administered

in a two stage process.

Businesses, first, need to submit an expression of interest

to us in AusIndustry through the business.gov.au website.

The expressions of interest close on 22 April at 5pm,

and that's Eastern Standard Time.

So, for our Western states,

you do need to consider the time difference when submitting.

The expressions of interest are currently open,

as I said, up until 22 April.

Applicants that have demonstrated eligibility

will then be provided to the independent assessment committee

to be ranked or determined who's likely to be competitive

for the grant process.

The eligible and meritorious applicants

will then be invited to submit a stage two application.

You need to keep in mind

that this is unlikely to occur before July, 2021.

Following that, businesses will be, obviously,

working on a stage two application,

which, again, will be assessed and go to the committee

to be recommended for funding.

What you need to keep in mind

is that the earliest start date of projects

isn't expected to occur before November 2021.

So, this means that you cannot incur expense

or commence your project

until the time that the Commonwealth has written a letter

indicating that you've submitted a complete and eligible application

for the stage two.

So, make sure that the grant commitment matches your timelines.

Also, I encourage you, while we are only looking at

expressions of interest at this stage,

the merit criteria and the requirements

that a business is going to need to submit

as mandatory attachments for the stage two application

is included in the customer information guide.

When preparing your expression of interest,

make sure that you will be able to fulfil the requirements

of a full stage two before investing a lot of time

in your expression of interest.

OK, so, that's my side of the presentation done for now.

I would like to now invite Jana Matthews

to discuss with you the competitive element of this programme,

which is the merit criteria.

Thank you, Jana.

JANA MATTHEWS: And thank you, Natalie.

So, I am the chair of the selection committee,

but I am not an employee of the government,

none of us on the committee are.

We all have our various day jobs.

In my day job, I am the director

of the Australian Centre for Business Growth

and ANZ Chair in Business Growth.

So, while I've worked with a lot of growth companies,

as have my colleagues on the selection committee,

and we have all had companies of our own,

so, we have all walked in your shoes

and we understand what's required to scale.

So, as Natalie said, we had over 2,200 applications,

and when we actually got down to being able to review

ones that met all the eligibility criteria,

it was less than 1,000,

and then even so, we only picked 52, 51, 52.

So, there's a huge gap between people being interested

and thinking they would actually be applicable

and the actual people who are

awarded the agreements and the money.

So, we wanted to spend a little time talking about that.

Natalie, I can see you on screen, are you able to see me on screen?

Yes, good, excellent.

So, the second reason why we wanted to do these webinars

is to make sure that people understand what this programme is about,

so you don't spend precious time if you're not eligible,

or that you do spend time listening

so that you can get eligible for future years.

Because this programme has another three years to run.

So, you can be getting yourself eligible and in line.

So, when we look at, whether it's the expression of interest

or a more full blown description of these criteria,

I wanna talk a little more detail about them

and help you understand what we'd be looking for

as members of the selection committee.

The first is, the programme is Boosting Female Founders.

It's not encouraging, it's not supporting, it's boosting.

That means we wanna give you a chance

to actually scale up and grow quickly

and get to these international markets

in ways that you might not have otherwise.

Part of it is by the money,

part of it is by some mentoring that we were able to make,

part of it is by the requirement

that you co-fund this with someone else.

So, this gives you an opportunity to approach other investors and say,

I have money that's non-dilutable.

If you will invest in the company,

we can have a larger pool of money

to do the things we need to do to be able to scale up.

So, we think this is actually a leverage point for you,

the way they've structured the programme.

So, you have to tell us,

because we can't get inside all of your heads,

you have to tell us how this is gonna help you scale and expand.

Because boost is what this is about, first and foremost.

So, how is it going to assist you, first of all,

in removing the barriers that you currently have?

Barriers could be not getting to the right markets,

not having the right advisors,

not having the right mentors or the right management team,

or whatever it is that you need

that you have found that you can't get

and it's been a barrier to you.

The second is, what does growth look like for you?

What is your vision of what it is that you want to be?

How big would you grow?

If you simply wanna add another two or three offices in your state,

that's probably not what we're looking for.

We're looking for national, international expansion.

Looking for a company that, if given a little bit of money

and some mentoring,

and some, you know,

what we call intangible assistance here,

by simply having been chosen in a national programme,

that gives you a chance to leap forward.

So, you need to tell us,

we need to see that you have a big enough vision

that includes going national and global.

And then, of course, are you actually ready?

Do you have something that actually could go in the space

of this project that we'll be funding,

that is ready enough to be able to go national or global?

And that's where Natalie talked about the TRLs.

When we talk about at least level six, that's at least a prototype

or alpha minimum viable product that then you've tested,

you have customers,

you have somebody who says, "I wanna use this,

"I like this, this is a great thing."

Then the point is, the fact is,

you're gonna be competing with a lot of people

who are farther along that TRL scale.

They're actually going to have products

that are ready to take to the market.

So, if you're only at six, think really hard about whether or not

and how quickly you're ready to go down to seven, eight, nine,

because there will be applicants who come who are on seven, eight, nine,

who will be applying for money and you'll be competing with them.

So, as I said earlier, you may wanna be listening carefully

in terms of what you wanna do over the next couple of years

to position yourselves to be a really attractive grant applicant.

OK, so, this is the how ready are you to go to the market?

What does growth look like?

Do you have a big vision of what your company,

what you want the company to be and how it could be there?

And then, what are the barriers that you're currently facing?

Is it people?

Is it talent?

Is it market?

Is it mentoring?

Whatever it is.

Natalie, would you just click ahead for me,

I don't think we've shared the screen here, whatever.

Thanks.

OK, the second is, we know from our experience,

those of us on the selection committee,

that it's not just the product,

it's about the person and the team's capacity

to take the product to the market.

And so, we're looking at your capacity

and the capability within your organisation

and your current resources available to actually grow.

And that means we're looking at you and the team.

What is your experience in growing a company

in the industry that you're moving into,

marketing and taking a product to market?

So, we wanna see that there is somebody on the team,

if not you, then other members of your team,

or the team working together,

that can actually help you achieve what this goal is.

Second, if you have already received funding from some external source,

and we certainly encourage that.

We've had people who have already been venture funded,

angel funded to come in,

tell us how much you have and a little bit about who is it,

who has funded you, and how long ago?

And what's the money that you have available?

What are you using it for?

And if you haven't gone out and asked for money

or searched for money from somewhere else,

we want to know, why not?

Because if you have a great idea

that you think is gonna be national and international, with impact,

something that you really believe in,

then, clearly, you're gonna have to look for money to finance it.

And so, we're interested in, were you not ready yet?

Or do you not know anyone?

Or have you tried and other people haven't funded you?

What's the reason why you haven't actually received any investment yet?

And third, we're looking to see if you've actually reached out for

and been provided with what we call non-financial assistance.

And that would be people who are willing to mentor and advise you.

Have you actually reached out and asked people to do that?

Do you have an advisory board?

Do you have a set of advisors?

Do you have people that you meet with now and then?

Are you part of a network?

Research that I did long ago showed that

the strength of networks of entrepreneurs

is often highly determinant of how successful they are.

Whereas if you stay in your own little cocoon

and try to do all this by yourself,

you're highly unlikely to be successful,

because you have to have networks

to sell, to find people, to learn and understand.

So, you're not in discovery mode by yourself,

but you can learn from other people's successes

and failures and mistakes.

So, access, I know you're accessing other networks

of CEOs or industry associations.

Where are you getting your advice and guidance from?

Or are you just trying to make this up as you go along?

I mean, those are all indicators to us of what your, basically,

capacity and capability is,

and the resources that you've already accessed to enable you to grow.

Thanks, Natalie. I'll go on to the third criteria.

The third is, so, if you get the funding,

what's the impact it's gonna be?

Not only will there be an impact by having more money available,

but you actually, as Natalie said, have to match that money.

And so, there's a 50% or some percent requirement to match.

And this is important, because if you say, oh, well,

the money will come from somewhere, that doesn't work.

We're actually looking to see, do you have money on your balance sheet?

Do you have reserves?

Do you have money yourself that you're willing

to put into the company to match the money?

Do you have money already from angels or ventures?

Do you have such a significant cash flow

that you're going to have net cash flow?

Again, profitability, that's gonna be able to fund this?

We need you to think that through before you apply for the grant,

because there's no sense in going to all the time and effort

to apply and for people to review

and then you actually can't meet the basic criteria,

which is the matching.

So, how much do you require and how much can you fund,

sometimes those are intertwined.

But how much do you require in order to do whatever it is

you think you need to do to boost,

and this is up to $400,000, again, that you would have to be matching.

So, how will this grant help you leverage?

It's the leverage that we're looking for,

not just that you'll be able to do this yourself,

but leverage other partnerships,

other relationships, arrangements to get nationally, to go globally.

How do you make one and one is three,

if you will, the old adage for synergy.

And so, the impact of getting this money,

we want you to have thought through that.

Sometimes, the impact is actually getting the money to be able to do it,

or maybe it's getting the money to be able to hire

the people that you need to form your executive team.

Or maybe it's the money that you need in order to move into

those global markets that you've been trying to get into.

But you haven't yet had enough money to do the marketing

or set up the office or whatever.

Or maybe it's the final enhancements on the product,

so that it is then ready, if you're going from eight, nine,

whatever the TRL levels would be,

that will really enable you to go to market with an amazing product.

We would look at applications,

and I'll sort of share with you

some of the thoughts that we had as we reviewed the applications.

One was, we clearly haven't made this clear

in terms of what we're looking for.

Or we probably wouldn't have people applying who simply aren't ready,

who don't have a company, don't have people,

don't have a product that's ready to go,

haven't thought through what would this money do for them

other than, "help me grow."

Hence, we're doing these webinars

and trying to make our materials more explicit.

Second is, this is not about helping you simply

develop more products that you could sell.

I think one of the disappointing applications would be from someone

who wanted to order a new product that she could sell,

which would be a double sided doormat,

which had 'Happy Holidays' on one side and 'Welcome' on the other.

Or that people are just wanting to open another office,

just like their current office, only in another city.

That's not what we're looking for.

We are looking for innovative things

that will actually expand the business and enable you to grow,

enable more women owned companies to grow,

and clearly enable more people to be employed.

We are interested in that for Australia's sake.

So, if we were to look at the...

Next slide, thanks, Natalie.

We would look at the questions that we want you to ask yourself

before you submit the application.

The first is, ask yourself that cold, hard,

rough, unvarnished finished question,

"Am I really eligible?"

Now, we have a website that you can go to,

you can find a lot of things on the website,

on the BFF website,

but I think Natalie ran through it very clearly.

I mean, a start-up is defined as an early stage, innovative,

disruptive business that is capable and scalable

and it's working on a new or very novel product.

And it's going to perhaps be a different business model.

Those are the things we're looking for,

scalable means it can grow quickly,

it's on the cusp, it's ready to scale and grow quickly,

nationally or globally.

So, have to be honest with yourself.

The second is, have you started the project?

Have you started whatever it is that you're doing?

One of the applicants that we funded was someone

who has been in the printing business

and she saw a need for printing more signs that you put on buildings

that people could read with Braille.

And so she had done the homework.

She had looked at what those were, how much they cost,

what the different ones would be

and which ones she particularly wanted

and where some of the markets were that she could sell into.

She already had a business plan around that.

And we thought that was exactly the kind of thing

that we're looking for,

a way to expand the business.

And this one piece of equipment, the right equipment,

because she had done the market research

and she understood who she was going to sell into

and what the requirements were,

this would enable her to boost her business.

It doesn't all have to be sort of going global immediately,

but it has to be going global on your long term plan.

And another business that I thought was really unique

was sort of Internet of Things

when they did sensors inside water pipes,

because, of course, this huge expense in cities

when water pipes expand

or we don't know that there's a leakage, you lose a lot of water.

And so being able to track just before they're ready to burst

or even if there's a little trickle,

being able to know exactly where to dig in the street.

I thought this was great.

I could see immediately national, international applicability.

So, they had the product, they had it tested,

and they were testing it

and they had a customer that said,

if this product does what we think it will,

we will definitely co-fund the amount of money that they're asking for.

So, they had a customer and somebody who was willing

to actually co-fund and co-pay.

So, that was great.

Clearly, we're not funding ideas, and we've made that really clear.

I want ideas, we want lots of ideas,

but there are lots of other places that you can go

to sort of vet your ideas.

Accelerators, incubators, so forth.

What we're looking for are companies that actually are

on the cusp and ready to scale that we can help.

Of course, is the timing right for you?

As I said, this may not be the year.

COVID hit a lot of companies and knocked them around a lot.

And maybe this isn't the year.

Maybe wait another year.

You find out what it is that we're looking for

and then you put that into your longer term plan.

And maybe next year or perhaps the year after that,

you will apply to the program.

But make sure that the timing is right

because, A, you will have to be able to access that matched funding.

And second, we will expect you to scale.

Once you get the money, there's high expectations

for the small number of people who've received funding

to be able to then actually accelerate

their growth in scale rather rapidly.

So, this is one of the questions that you have to step back

and look at yourself and look at your own company

and say, is this the right time?

Am I ready?

Is the company ready?

Do I have the people in place?

Or will this grant money enable me to get the people in place

that then I can really take off?

Thanks, Natalie, for the next,

and I think this will probably be my last slide,

and then we can have a conversation, you and I.

So, if there's a little checklist of things that we want you to do,

it's not just on the basis of this webinar,

as informative as it has been, but to go back and read the guidelines.

Read the definitions of all the words that we've used,

of TRL six, seven, eight and so forth.

What we're talking about in terms of scale up,

eligibility and so on.

Understand what it is that you can spend money on.

Now, there are some things that are allowed

and some things that are not allowed.

And rather than go through that laundry list here,

we suggest that you go to the website and look at what's listed there

in terms of allowable and not allowable expenses.

It's always useful to have another set of eyes look at that application

and look at it from a perspective of being a constructive critic,

knowing what the requirements are

and knowing what you're trying to do,

is this the right program?

There are lots of other programs that you could apply to

that perhaps would be a better fit for what you're trying to do.

Or if you think this is the one,

then make sure that you are actually clicking on the boxes

and hitting all the levels of requests

for information that we've asked for.

So, good to have another set of eyes or another person,

certainly another person in your company or in your court,

an adviser who would look at that and give you feedback on,

well, let's strengthen this.

You have made it clear about this.

Show me some more about our capability.

I think you've underplayed how far along we really are and so forth.

We want you to have evidence to support your expression of interest.

Support means show us that there is customer feedback

on what you're talking about.

Show us that you actually have the team

or show us that there is money.

There's going to be able to be money to fund whatever it is

you're going to be asking for.

Show us that there is actually a market for what you're talking about.

Give us some evidence so that we can see that you're making

evidence based decisions about how to grow your company.

It may just seem like an expression of interest

is an easy thing to put together,

but actually it does take time and it should take time

because this is one of those processes

that enables you to think through

a lot of things about your company.

So, in some ways,

it may be a catalyst for you doing thinking

that you hadn't been doing before.

And that's good.

But that means that will open another door

and another door and another door.

And so, don't wait till the last minute.

I'd say start thinking about this right now

and realise that no is also an answer.

No, this isn't the program.

This isn't the timing.

This isn't right for me.

And that's good.

That's good for you to actually have a set of criteria

and make an evidence based decision.

But if it is interesting, and you are in a situation

where not only will the grant help you,

but it would boost you

by making you think of a whole new set of things

that you hadn't thought you could think about before

because maybe there hadn't been funding to do it.

Then start on it, I'd say, today,

because, as Natalie said there,

if we started this webinar on time,

applications will definitely close on time.

5pm Eastern Standard Time on 22 April.

So, we talked about what happens if you are successful.

Well, what happens is all these applications,

expressions of interest will go in and then will be reviewed.

And that's quite a process,

so we really, really want you to put them in

if you're really eligible.

And if you're not eligible, then wait, or don't put in an application

because it takes quite a bit of time.

We spend a fair amount of time reviewing applications,

whether they're expressions of interest or actual applications.

So, whatever the number is,

we'd expected probably 300-400 and got 2,200,

so that was a bit of a shock to the system.

But we all rolled up our sleeves and did what we needed to do

because we're all committed to women owned companies.

We would actually prefer fewer applications

that are absolutely the ones that are on target.

But if there are lots and lots of women who think they are on target,

I wouldn't want to discourage you from applying either.

We review the applications,

then we decide which ones we think have the most potential to grow,

to scale, to go global, to go national,

the technology's the farthest along.

And that's where it's not just that you're eligible,

it's are you competitive compared to everybody else

who's applied for the grant.

And that's why we don't invite everybody who may be eligible

to then go to the next stage.

We invite those that we think have the most capacity,

capability, highest level of competitiveness.

And so they then will be invited to do a full blown application.

And, as Natalie said, those will be probably informed

sometime in July

and they'll be August at least to develop their full blown application.

And that's why it's helpful if you spend some time thinking that through

in the EOI version, on the stage of expression of interest,

then that puts you in good stead then for later

when you're actually developing the full application.

So, we will review the full applications.

We have two members of the committee independently review.

We're very careful about conflicts of interest.

Anybody that we might have known, talked to, heard about,

we declare and we do not review their applications.

So, you really do get a fair go, if you will,

in terms of people reviewing your applications.

And then we rate you, we grade you on a scale from zero to 100.

And then we look at those starting from the top

going down for as much money as we have.

And if we have 11.6, we can't fund more than 11.6,

so we try to fund the very best of the ones that we have.

And then you're informed

and then you will have to show that you actually have the funding

before we will release the funding.

You must show that you have the matching funding,

and whatever the other criteria are that you'll need to show.

And then there's a contract basis.

And then, as Natalie said, the funds are unlikely to be released

before actually the end of November.

So, I wouldn't be planning on them much before December 1

if you're planning to spend them.

But you can certainly be getting ready for whatever the activities would be

that would be launched on December 1.

But you won't be able to use government money to get ready.

OK, Natalie, happy to have a conversation with you

or have any comments that you might make

or questions that you have yourself.

NATALIE GILLAM: No, Jana, that was amazing,

thank you very much for dedicating the time to go through that.

I think, while I could have read out the merit criteria,

I would not have done it nearly the justice that you did

in giving the context, the background,

and someone from the committee who's seen a lot of these applications,

it was hugely valuable.

So, thank you very much for your time.

JANA MATTHEWS: My pleasure.

NATALIE GILLAM: We did have a few questions

from the registration process that I'll just quickly cover.

I have a number of questions around businesses

that were unsuccessful in stage two in round one,

and whether they can reapply for round two.

Now, the answer to that is yes, you may reapply.

Obviously, you need to remain eligible.

You need to still have an eligible project

that you haven't incurred expense against

and aspects such as that.

And obviously, it makes good sense to address any weaknesses

that you might have had in your round one application,

because we expect this round is suggested to be

as competitive as previous rounds.

Businesses that were successful in round one

also may reapply for round two,

but obviously it's going to have to be

for a completely different project.

Again, you're going to have to redefine that you are eligible,

reapply and all the rest.

So, consider whether businesses in that case

would be interested in doing that.

What I would now like to do is, though,

hand over to one business local to my region in Newcastle,

who was successful in receiving round one funding

under Boosting Female Founders.

So, now I'm going to hand over to Cherie Johnson

from the business Speaking in Colour

to tell us a bit about what her business does,

her process of applying,

what kind of things she looked at when putting the grants through

and any tips you might have to help people

thinking about applying under this round.

Thanks, Cherie.

CHERIE JOHNSON: Good afternoon, everybody.

Thank you for your time.

I'd like to acknowledge that we're all coming signing in

from many different Aboriginal countries from around Australia.

And I acknowledge your old people from where you're from.

And I thank you as women in business

who are making a difference in the environment,

the community that you're working in.

And this is one of the reasons why we at Speaking in Colour

put in for the Female Founders,

because this is a great way that we can

continue service in our community.

So, I just wanted to give you a little bit of background on who I am,

who my business is, how we started, what we do.

More importantly, what did we apply for in the grant

and some of the tips that we found out,

because not in my wildest dreams did I actually think

that I'd receive that email that we actually got one,

that was quite great.

So, I'm actually a descendant of the Gamilaroi and Weilwun people

from North-west New South Wales.

My name is Cherie Johnson, and my mother is Dawn Conlan,

and my grandmother Rachel Darcy was born on country.

So, very fortunate to be from the country we're from.

I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm an aunty to mum.

I've got two children of my own

so I understand the juggle of work life balance.

My background, teacher, artist, curator and researcher.

But first and foremost,

and this is what business has always been about for me,

it has been about community, how to be an agent for change.

So, Speaking in Colour,

we're 100% owned and operated Aboriginal business,

which I'm thrilled with.

We are 95% women run.

So, that's no small feat.

I think we need a little bit more diversity in our business, actually.

And actually one of my top hot tips

is make sure you do have somebody who oversees your application

and gives you a bigger picture of how to maybe

add some things that you hadn't in that.

It was actually my accountant that said to me, Cherie,

you're actually 95% woman run,

surely you should put this in your applications.

That's hot tip number one today for you.

So, I'm just an everyday person.

I started the business because I had young children

and I was on leave from teaching

and I really wanted to be able to provide an opportunity for my family

to make some money on the side.

So, I know a lot of businesses,

especially women in business, start this way.

So, be brave and dig in.

In 2016, we actually incorporated and became a company,

and since then we've grown.

We still only have a small team, it's a small team of six employees.

We have about nine contractors and we are continually growing.

So, we're very much grassroots, bootstrap, this business,

and just kept reinvesting in, like a lot of us do.

So, there's three parts of the business that we have.

The genesis for Speaking in Colour, as a high school teacher,

I always wanted to be able to support more of my colleagues,

the Aboriginal and non Aboriginal teachers in the classrooms

to implement Aboriginal perspectives,

but link it to the curriculum and assessable outcomes.

And this is a mandatory part in education.

And I don't mean to sound like I'm bagging the Department of Education,

'cause not at all.

I've sold my life out for education,

I believe it's one of the areas for change.

And that was a real genesis of Speaking in Colour,

is providing professional development

that had all of the accreditations that teachers needed

to be able to maintain and achieve

and, you know, while understanding how to link it

and to engage in content within their classrooms

and achieve those successful outcomes.

That was our first and foremost.

Then we moved into providing more cultural engagement programs.

We've been looking at ACARA,

which is the data of body of the Department of Education

and looking at the wellness and the intercultural continuums,

because again, this is a mandatory area

and the area that I feel would benefit with more resources.

This is one of our areas, of growth, of need.

We also started to work a lot more in the business and government area.

I'm very conscious that a large portion of Australia

either run or employed by small and medium businesses.

So, we really wanted to support that collective of businesses

in how they can be agents for change.

How can they bring education into the workplace?

How can they perhaps run a reconciliation action plan

and have some sort of that interaction,

how can I build a thinking cycle of relationships within the community?

All of those sorts of things.

That's how we support businesses these days and government.

We do a lot of cultural capacity training.

We've been developing a suite now thanks to this grant.

We've been developing more of our suite of online services.

So, these can be accessed after hours,

or small teams can access these.

But also, once you do your initial training, what then?

How else can you be supported?

What might that look like?

Is it access to a library?

Is it access to other back of house products?

And that's what we're currently developing, which is very exciting.

I'm loving the fruit of this work.

We also do cultural team building

and wellness sessions with a cultural twist.

And these have been brilliant, especially through COVID.

And this is a great way that we partner with our community.

So, we are able to engage mums in the hours that they want to work.

We engage people who are brilliant,

far more brilliant than I am, at lots of different things.

And we have lots of opportunities there for even small businesses,

medium business and government schools to be a part of,

which is really cool.

And all of this actually funds our social impact.

So, the reason why we do what we do

is we are very much women and youth focused.

That has always been our core vision at Speaking in Colour.

And we do a number of programs.

And if you aren't familiar with Speaking in Colour,

I would definitely encourage you to follow us on social media

or join our mailing list.

We do some amazing programs in the Hunter and Upper Hunter

and going to Sydney and we're even more expanding.

Thanks very much to this particular grant.

We're actually expanding our geographical reach

and we're actually answering more of the international inquiry

that's coming as well,

because this is good business sense for Australia

to look at ways that we can diversify our tourism and our education

and to build our understanding of Aboriginal culture.

Brilliant.

I'd just like to share a little bit of our data

with our last social impact program if I can.

Newcastle Regional...

Sorry, Newcastle Museum had our last exhibition held there.

They were 10 projects involved,

each of those projects for a ten week program

that we work with either community group or school group.

And some of the data was amazing.

Out of the ten groups we had 144 community and Elders participate

and learn cultural practice for the first time, invaluable.

And the fruit of that we may never see completely.

And we had 445 kids.

So, these are kids not only learning cultural practice,

Aboriginal and non Aboriginal, and their teachers,

they get to exhibit in a professional art exhibition.

And at the moment we're going through

and we're doing more annual cultural camps in our area.

And we're currently seeking some sponsorships

for some really cool ones that we're doing,

which is mind blowing.

I'm really excited from it.

So, our next exhibition will actually be the Maitland Regional Art Gallery

and that's already booked out, which is cool.

So, now you know a little bit about who we are and what our core value is.

I would like to talk about

what did we apply for in the grant and why?

So, there were three phases to our structure.

We decided to, obviously, we create lots of product,

so we wanted to create ten new product.

Now, another tip.

Do your budget properly.

We always think we can do everything on the smell of an oily rag.

It does not wash.

If you don't evaluate and you don't have time to pivot,

you kind of cut your nose off there.

So, make sure you do your budget well.

We have decided to, out of the ten new products,

we actually, one of the books that we have written.

It's amazing.

I actually wrote it with my 11 year old, she's now 12.

And we have local language in there

and it has some craft activities in the back.

It's got a teacher professional development

free downloadable resource that goes with it.

And we've just been picked up by a Cambridge company

to publish that book, which is really exciting.

So, there's three parts to it.

It's great just 'cause it's a book, it's got language in there.

It's going to be published in the UK,

which is brilliant for us Aussies,

it's got some great craft activity

and it's got a really good teaching resource

linked to the positive behaviour for learning.

So, it's a really good education product.

We also have a number of other products similar to that line.

So, we're focusing on how to empower educators

and how they can get that content in their classroom in an engaging way.

So, that's the first kind of theme of our education product.

The second theme of our education products

is how to support businesses and educators

and just the everyday people who do cultural capacity training

or cultural awareness training.

Where do you go beyond that initial, you know,

for those of us who have done a degree,

we didn't get a degree going to one lecture and one tutorial

and were completely, you know, amazing

and across all their knowledge in that particular topic.

So, it's really important, especially as Australians,

that we have opportunities to learn from a number of different people

who specialise in different areas.

And my area of specialty is as a researcher

is a qualitative and quantitative.

So, it's a little bit different.

So, how do we go on from the initial training?

So, we looked at things like

we're developing an e-library at the moment.

We also have an amazing mailing list, which is monthly like a newsletter.

This month's theme is this,

this is a resource that we would like to encourage you to be viewing,

or this is a way that you can diversify your podcast list.

This is a way that you can diversify your reading list

because, you know, these things are important.

And our third area was just for the everyday people,

you know, what sort of things are we after.

So, we decided to do like a merchandise line

because there's a whole heap of,

especially on this cultural camp

that we're taking the kids to, to the snow.

They're going to need hoodies, right?

Because they're freezing.

But then educators love that stuff.

So, there was ten products that we mainly had.

But I'm really, really excited about the post cultural training content

and the online content with our e-learning modules,

with our online learning system.

So, that was our main area.

The second is what everyone says in a small to medium.

Going from a small to a medium, or however it be,

is the automation of systems and processes.

I don't know about you, but there are so many CRMs out there.

There are so many different project management tools,

and oh, my gosh,

I don't know if you're like me, but I'm a little bit like,

hold up, where do I start?

Did I just read that?

Like, do you know what I mean?

So, speaking to people who actually know what they're talking about,

engaging people that straight cut to the chase,

the one that you need for your business is this.

This is a subscription you need.

This is how you get it tailored

and this can take X, Y, Z risk out of your business.

So, for me as a small business, our risk is a lead turning cold.

I'm sure it is for a lot of you guys as well.

Even being able to identify a lead.

You know, so that might look like an integration between

a CRM or an accounting

or I'm not really sure for you,

but for me systems and processes is the big area to remove risk.

And the third area was to upgrade our office and training facilities.

Hence the reason why I'm in here,

I was a little bit nervous about Wi-Fi, just frankly,

because sometimes Wi-Fi goes a bit crazy.

So, that for us is really important,

just having really good quality,

because, like I said,

I bootstrapped this business just on the side.

We started as a company when my youngest went to kindergarten.

And yeah, so, we're just doing this like a lot of other small businesses.

So, what are some of my hot tips?

Hopefully, some of these resonate with you.

If you're anything like me,

it's really great to get the Post-it notes out and brainstorm.

Look at your criteria, chunk it down,

know the word count, note the word count.

And it's often different dots within that one.

Make sure you have someone who can go bigger picture with you.

Shout out to Mel.

I think you might be on this call.

Love you to pieces.

This lady was bigger picture.

She was like, Cherie, you didn't mention that

and you didn't mention this.

And hang on, you didn't mention that.

I was like, oh, yeah, I was too busy in the detail

and I forgot to zoom out a little bit.

Definitely take a couple of goes at writing

and drink pots of tea in between your draft versions,

because the pot of tea always does you wonders.

Double check your figures,

make sure that you've got your formulas correct

because you might, for me,

I had to break down my budget in a particular way.

But then when I looked in the actual,

how I had to put the budget into the actual systems

a little bit different,

so I had to group things together.

So, just be tricky about stuff like that.

Trick yourself.

Tell yourself that it's actually due 12 hours before it actually is,

because trust me, that extra half an hour comes in handy.

Double check your word count and the size of your files.

Oh, my gosh, the size of your file.

If it's 2MB, stick to that.

Can't be 2.2,

it will crash the entire thing and you'll cry.

And lastly, be brave.

Be brave.

When we received that we were put through to the second round,

I did the happy dance,

when we actually got the email that we'd been successful,

we were in a staff meeting and I literally cried.

I was like, oh, my gosh, we actually got it, can't believe it.

So, what's your point of difference

and how are you going to communicate that

and how you're gonna look super good.

That is something that you need to take your time

to be able to really look at.

So, what we do for our point of difference

is we write about innovation.

So, we talk to our clients

and we innovate based on their objectives.

We go away and we put together the different proposals

and the different...

And that's how we knew what we needed to apply for in this grant,

is how can we innovate

and what products is our clients wanting.

Therefore, that's how I knew what to apply for.

And I looked at where is my areas of risk

and how do I minimise those risk areas.

And then how can I put that into the...

Now, I'm no business master.

I'm still learning new stuff too.

So, don't you worry if you're feeling that way right now.

Clearly, I can talk under wet cement,

I'm pretty sure, though,

I might be getting the wrap up here a little bit.

If anybody does want to reach out and connect, happy to.

Contact us via LinkedIn or Facebook or my email address.

I'm pretty sure our email address might come out after,

and just be really brave of what it is that you want to do.

We will be having a webinar in the next month

if anybody wants to know more of what we do at Speaking in Colour.

But more than happy to support a sister out, I know what it's like.

Good luck. Be brave.

NATALIE GILLAM: OK, thank you very much, Cherie.

I went quickly because I knew that Cherie would have a lot to tell you

and a very valuable story to tell as well.

So, that's almost it for us.

We are coming very close to the end of time.

I would very much like to...

Oh, yes. Sorry.

JANA MATTHEWS: Natalie, I just wanted to add one final comment

that those of us on the committee felt very strongly that we were investing

the money from the people of Australia

and in women owned businesses that could grow

and make a huge difference.

And I think Cherie is a perfect example

of why we feel really proud to have chosen the group that we did

because this is a perfect example of what we hoped would happen

when we funded a woman owned company.

So, thank you, Cherie, and congratulations.

And I don't think it's telling a lie

that when we actually looked at the list of $11.9 million

in women owned companies,

all of us had a little tear in our eye and said,

we are really hoping that they will help all of Australia

become what it should be

and how strong its economy can be

because women are amazing

and their companies should be supported.

So, thank you for proving us right.

NATALIE GILLAM: I think you just made Cherie cry again.

So, I would like to thank again everybody for joining us,

and particularly you as well, Jana.

Very much appreciate the time and the insight

that you've been able to provide the businesses

looking at applying for this grant.

And, again, thank you to Cherie.

So that you are all aware, we have recorded this session.

The webinar will be uploaded most likely

on the business.gov.au website

after Easter with a transcript.

We will follow up with an email to you all though.

As I mentioned, if you have any questions,

would you please contact the call centre at business.gov.au

in the first instance.

Phone number 13 28 46.

And don't forget applications,

the expressions of interest close on 22 April.

So, thank you very much, everybody, for your time again.

Best of luck with the grant application and have a lovely Easter break.

JANA MATTHEWS: And thank you, Natalie.

Well done.

NATALIE GILLAM: Thank you very much.

Need help?

Let us answer your question over the phone, email or live chat.

  • Phone:
  • Open Hours:
    Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm across Australia
  • Website:

Customer stories

  • Akin CEO and Boosting Female Founders Initiative grant recipient, Liesl Yearsley, talks about how the grant has helped her business.

  • Laila & Me CEO and Boosting Female Founders Initiative grant recipient, Melissa Devereaux, talks about how the Initiative helps women entrepreneurs expand their startups.

Key documents

Grant opportunity guidelines

pdf · 0.71 MB docx · 0.48 MB

Sample application form Round 2 Expression of Interest (stage 1)

pdf · 0.64 MB docx · 0.17 MB

Sample application form Round 2 stage 2

pdf · 0.83 MB docx · 0.17 MB

Frequently asked questions

pdf · 0.28 MB docx · 0.15 MB

Sample grant agreement

pdf · 0.69 MB docx · 0.15 MB

Contribution evidence letter (for all cash - co contributions one per contributor)

pdf · 0.08 MB docx · 0.03 MB

Declaration of business being female owned and led

pdf · 0.10 MB docx · 0.03 MB
Was this page helpful?