Founded in 2019, Atto​ is a new school for female tech entrepreneurship. Our flagship offering is a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program that has been backed by LaunchVic in Australia.

We help female founders launch tech companies in an independent, scalable, and sustainable manner. Our goal is to become the number one educational provider for the world’s most promising female founders.

Please join us for our upcoming startup showcase to wrap-up 2021 including a fireside chat with ModiBodi founder Kristy Chong.

About our judges:

We're excited to be joined by four active investors, who understand the full spectrum of startups, as our judges:

• Aprill Allen, General Partner, Tractor Ventures

• Rachael Neumann, Founding Partner, Flying Fox Ventures

• Emily Rich, Director of Microsoft for Startups, APAC & Partner, M8 Venture

Emily Rich, Director of Microsoft for Startups, APAC & Partner, M8 Ventures

Emily co-founded Jemsoft, a machine learning and computer vision company. Jemsoft was acquired in 2017 by a publicly listed IoT company, from there Emily took her passion for startups and pursued investment opportunities with a focus on early stage tech. Emily went on to co-found M8 Ventures, a venture capital fund, in 2017 whose concentration is working alongside founders to build out sustained growth strategies. In her current role as Director of Microsoft for Startups, APAC, Emily is driving startups to grow and scale with a specific founder first focus.

Covers: Alternative funding methods such as revenue-based investment, equity crowdfunding, community crowdfunding, debt-based options such as small business loans, credit and more.

Educator: Matt Allen

Bio: Matt Allen is an ex software dev, ex technical co-founder, ex tech recruiter, ex AWS, and now investor, advisor and board member. He likes VC, but loves founders who are building solid enduring tech companies. He believes that not all ambitious founders need venture capital. Founder and CEO at Tractor Ventures.
Companies: Tractor Ventures

Covers: how to create a company culture, how to create values - both for customers and team members, early D&I efforts to establish, how to communicate and upheld values.

Educator: Aubrey Blanche

Bio: Aubrey Blanche is The Mathpath (Math Nerd + Empath), Director of Equitable Design & Impact at Culture Amp, and a startup investor, and advisor. She questions, reimagines, and redesigns the systems that surround us to ensure that all people access equitable opportunities.

Companies: Culture Amp, The Mathpath

Covers: what is community, overview of the 8 stages of community, deep dive into stages 1-3, types of online communities, building an audience for you and your business

Educator: Siân Simpson

Bio: Siân Simpson is the director of community at Atto and founder of Public Rally. She is the former Community Director for the Kiwi Landing Pad and is also a BNZ Ambassador and video production lead for SaaStr. She created the popular Sales & Marketing Jam event series, and is instrumental in growing New Zealand's tech community. She’s been working remotely since 2013.
Companies: Public Rally, Kiwi Landing Pad, SaaStr

Covers: basics of public speaking, how to use inclusive language and how to make use of humour for effective storytelling.

Educator: Cathy Ngo is an entrepreneur, writer, presenter, keynote speaker and thrives at the intersection of tech, comedy and activism. She’s the founder of Keynoteworthy, a challenger speaker agency and social enterprise. With the determination to create a more inclusive world, Cathy founded Keynoteworthy. The purpose is to solve the problems that events and conference organisers have in finding and booking speakers that reflect the diversity of gender, sexualities, abilities, ethnicity and ultimately, perspectives and ideas that event-goers and sponsors are increasingly looking for. Her vision is to see Keynoteworthy and conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion redundant.

Cathy has a degree in Business, majoring in Human Resource Management. She spent over a decade in HR, corporate affairs and communications in top listed companies before hitting the ‘bamboo ceiling’ several times – note: it’s like the glass ceiling but thicker. Entrepreneurship has always been in Cathy’s blood from a young age. Hungry to be the change she wishes to see, Cathy is running two enterprises and board director roles.

Companies: Keynoteworthy,

Covers: Growth tips for founders, SEO/SEM, social, content marketing, email marketing, analytics, setting goals/growth tests, the best tools, etc.

Educator: Duane Brown

Bio: Duane Brown has lived in 6 cities across 3 continents while working for brands like ASOS, Birdies, Telstra, Wealthbar, Jack Wills, and WooCommerce. He now lives in Montreal helping brands grow through data, CRO and PPC marketing across search and social ad platforms via his company Take Some Risk.

Companies: Take Some Risk

Covers: an overview of the no-code landscape including popular tools like Webflow, Airtable, Glide, Squarespace, Google Apps, Bubble, etc, and to show how founders can use ready-made no-code tools to build an MVP and prototype.

Educator: Romy Misra

Bio: Romy Misra has led product and operations in a couple of startups. She's dedicating 2020 to becoming a better maker.

Companies: Make Something

Covers: In this closed session for Atto founders only, the cohort will present their business to Judy and the Atto team for the purpose of getting feedback and pitch practice.

Educator: Judy Anderson is the CEO of Startup Victoria, Australia’s largest network for entrepreneurs, where she organises Australia’s largest startup events and provides world-class founder memberships. A natural connector, she believes in the power of community and equal access to opportunity as a pathway to entrepreneurial success.

Companies: Startup Victoria

Covers: The B Corp framework and their B Impact Assessment tool as a guideline for how you can integrate impact into your business model.

Educator: Whitney Teluk is a young professional who is passionate about transforming communities and using business to solve social, economic and environmental challenges. Accountable for the social and environmental impact initiatives of a founding B Corp (Hub Australia) and having founded a B Corp certified social enterprise (Monochrome Coffee Co.), Whitney is a committed advocate for the B Corp movement.

Companies: The Hub, B Corp

Covers: what is an MVP, what should an MVP test, hypothesis, types of MVPs, lean product development, useful free tools 

Educator Bio: Jenn Vargas has spent the last 10+ years building user-focused products at tiny startups and some larger companies you know and love (Flickr, Etsy, Birchbox). She is currently a Group Product Manager, for the Agent Experience at Zendesk in San Francisco, CA. Jenn has a passion for building consumer-facing products that focus on providing an amazing experience for users. With both a technical and a design background, Jenn loves getting involved in all aspects of product development.

Companies: ZenDesk, Mostly Brilliant

Covers: Unearthing your first customer, user interviews, segmentation.

Educator: Joel Goyette

Educator Bio: Portland-based Joel Goyette is a senior product manager and entrepreneur, with experience at Scott’s Cheap Flights, BetterDoctor, BoxBee, Loverly, OpenTable, and more. Joel is a hands-on product management leader with over 10 years of experience building and growing startups. His happy place is leading cross-functional initiatives to deliver delightful product experiences and accomplish growth goals. 

Companies: Scotts Cheap Flights

Covers: Setting a big and achievable vision for your business, how important creating a company and product vision is from the start, how you want to build your company, carve your own path, different success stories and pathways to success etc.

Educator: Peta Ellis

Bio: Peta Ellis is a Human Transformation Architect, ecosystem builder & leader, innovation strategist, public speaker, and diversity evangelist.

As an entrepreneur, Peta founded 4 companies before 30, and has a 20 year background in communications, PR, marketing and media relations. She is currently an Entrepreneur In Residence at both the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Ipswich Girls Grammar School.

Companies: Peak Persona, Tribe Global

Covers: Guidelines, expectations, process, goal setting, community, introductions from teams.

Educator: Kate Kendall

Bio: Kate Kendall is the founder and program director of Atto. She’s the founder of Indie Labs startup advisory studio, which includes The Fetch and IndieConf. She has worked in startups for over a decade and also cofounded freelance marketplace CloudPeeps and Aussie Founders Network.

Companies: Atto, Indie Labs, CloudPeeps, The Fetch