2021: Atto’s Year in Review
With the year coming to a close, it’s a great time to look back on all that we’ve achieved this year. It’s important to celebrate success, build willpower, and take time out to rest.
This year was a whirlwind for many people, including our team.
Atto’s founder Kate Kendall welcomed her second daughter in March, baby Grace, and sister to Elizabeth. Atto and Kate’s startup advisory Indie Labs set up an office in High Street, Kyneton – regional Victoria.
We also welcomed our incredible Program Manager, Lana Weal, to the team in February. Lana has been instrumental in helping Atto crush it this year. 👏
By the end of 2021, Atto has now supported 75+ female founders to build tech-enabled businesses.
Below, we’ve shared a wrap-up of our biggest wins, some of our best female founder interviews and content, and Atto team wins.
Launching the Atto Academy membership 🎓
The biggest milestone at Atto this year was the launch of the Atto Academy membership for female founders.
This new monthly membership was created as we were constantly approached by founders looking for support post-accelerator and in-between programs – so we decided to launch another program to support female founders 365 days a year.
Within the academy, founders get access to invaluable startup coaching with Kate, monthly Masterclasses, weekly Masterminds, office hours with experts, and loads more benefits.
We launched the beta version of Atto Academy in March, and now the academy is a tight-knit community of women supporting one another to build the businesses of their dreams.
Learn more about the Academy community here.
Welcoming the third batch of Atto Accelerator 🚀
In the second half of the year, we ran the third batch of Atto Accelerator.
23 startups joined the program and we welcomed new and repeat world-class startup founders, operations and investors as Atto Educators.
Almost half the founders are based in VIC, while others are based across Australia in Perth, Brisbane and Sydney, and we have several more founders joining us from New Zealand this year. This was the first year we saw so many international applications coming from the USA, Canada and the UK.
At the end of 2020, Atto received another $125,000 in funding from Launch Vic. The extra funding comes off the back of the Victorian Government’s incentive to boost the number of women startup founders in Victoria. This funding meant we were able to extend our online program into 2022 and help us in our mission of making entrepreneurship accessible to all.
Next year, we’re running even more programs for women creating tech startups. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.
Meet the 2021 Accelerator startups. Watch the 23 startups pitch at Demo Day.
Partnership with Microsoft for Startups ⚡️
In October, we announced our partnership with Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups provides entrepreneurs and founders of startups with the cloud resources and mentoring they need in their journey from idea to exit. This partnership means that Atto founders get access to benefits like free Azure cloud, Office 365, GitHub and more.
Read more about the announcement here.
Atto Team Wins 🎊
Some of the highlights from Atto’s founder Kate Kendall’s year:
Hosted 70+ coaching sessions with Atto founders
Interviewed in Episode 140 of the Startup Playbook Podcast
Hosted a workshop for Startup Victoria’s Startup Success Series on building MVPs with no code tools
Answered all the Atto questions in an AMA with Lana about the Accelerator program
Interviewed on Ausbiz about the 2021 Accelerator Demo Day
Some of the highlights from Atto’s Program Manager Lana Weal’s year:
Hosted 40+ weekly mastermind sessions with our founders
Hosted 30+ office hours 1-1 sessions with founders
Facilitated a Q&A with Bubble Tea Club co-founder Pamela Yip
Pitched Atto in 2mins at the Spark Fest collaborative event of reverse pitches from all Accelerators around Australia
Represented Atto as People’s Judge at the Startup Victoria x One Roof HerStartup pitch night
Meeting female founders from the Atto community 💪
Every month, we publish a blog interview with an inspiring woman from the Atto community.
We ask them to share how they came up with their business idea, their biggest lessons so far, their biggest win, and advice for other early-stage female founders.
In 2021, we shared interviews with:
Elizabeth Knight, Purposeful (Atto 2020)
Bronwyn Smith, Promoloco (Atto 2020)
Adeline Yeak, Zove Beauty (Atto 2019)
Marni Nicole, Fit With Her (Atto 2020 & Atto Academy)
Sophia Ritchie, Thero (Atto 2020)
Hilary McCullugh, Coffee Roulette (Atto 2019)
Suzanne Nicholas, Zanitee (Atto 2020 & Atto Academy)
Kristen Craven, Kidzta (Atto 2021 & Atto Academy)
Alexis Donachie, ManagerIQ (Atto Academy)
Karen Kim, Hello Music (Atto Academy)
Katherine Tuominen, Culture Cure (Atto Academy)
Liisa Vurma, Nudge Me (Atto 2020)
Next year, we’ll be back with more interviews with some of the 70+ founders in the Atto community. In the meantime, meet all the Atto startups here.
Inspiring and educational content for female founders 🗣
We published a few blogs we hope are both inspiring and useful for the next generation of founders, including:
Each month, we also share our monthly Atto Community Update (November’s Community Update here) and our new series for 2021 sharing Global Female Founder News (November’s Female Founder News here).
And finally…
The Atto team are looking forward to the holiday season, taking a step back from work to reflect a bit more on all these great wins, and come back to 2022 with more fire to support female founders reach success.
If you have any feedback for Atto or would like to get in touch about anything, feel free to send us a message here.