Early stage founders often ask themselves “how can I start my startup in the quickest and most effective way?” and “what are the pitfalls I should avoid or learn to overcome” or even “what do I need to understand before entering the startup space?”.  I’d like to share with you the amazing insights I learned at the Pitch Ready event last week with Tech Ready Women, which I believe will benefit you on your startup journey.

The event hosted a panel of 3 incredible female entrepreneurs who are dominating the health, financial and social spaces:

• Amanda Hart, Founder and CEO at Social Health Innovations, Inc.
• Jess Ellerm, Co-founder, Zuper
• Hayley Warren, HALO Medical Devices Founder & CEO and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader

The three female founders shared their journey from startup to scale up, launching,  capital raising and building high performing teams. Here are tips from the topics the panel explored on the evening.

Check out more of the pics here.

Research and Development: Understand the trends, demographics and history of your target market as well as the industry.

Team: Take advice from trusted advisors, accountants,and professionals, but trust yourself to make the final decision. Learn to establish those connections that will have your back through thick and thin.

Compliance: Record and track every project, individual responsibility and business cost. Keep your filing system up to date!

Rejection: Pitch to as many industry partners you can connect with. Never underestimate the power of failure - it will be your driving force in overcoming daily challenges.

Sacrifice: You might need to let go of the idea of taking a wage. Hayley Warren of HALO Medical Devices mentioned her five year sacrifice citing the money she makes goes straight back into the business.

The Ask: Ask for help as much as possible. People are willing to help and support you when you let them know how to help you best and what area specifically you need help with.

Grants: Apply and search for grants on a regular basis. Grants to look into for early stage startups are the MVP Grant with Jobs 4 NSW (Sydney) for $25K and the Research and Development (R&D) Grant. More information on grants in NSW can be found here.

Pitch: Get in front of Investors and as many industry partners as you can to communicate your unique value proposition (UVP).

Equity: Take control of your equity, know how much you are willing to give away.

Communication: Understand how to effectively manage time, people and money. Sharpening your ability to communicate as clearly and genuinely as possible will help you get ahead each step of the way when faced with challenges in your startup. The four basic elements I have learned at the event relating to communication are:

1. Questioning
2. Debating
3. Negotiating
4. Persuading

What are your key takeaways from this article? Spread the knowledge and share your startup tips with us at on Twitter @techreadyau.

Written by Julia Reyes

Julia is a graduate from the Tech Ready Program