Atto Academy: Meet ManagerIQ, Culture Cure, Hello Music & Fit With Her
Atto exists because one woman wanted to empower other women to create sustainable and scalable businesses. Serial entrepreneur, Kate Kendall created Atto as an entrepreneurship school of the future specifically for female founders wanting to start and grow tech-based businesses using low-code or no-code tools.
In 2019, Atto launched our first 12-week pre-accelerator program. Since then, we’ve had over 30 women graduate from the accelerator and learn how to test, build and launch their startups.
We were constantly approached by founders looking for support post-accelerator and in between batches so we decided to launch another program to support female founders 365 days a year. And that’s how Atto Academy was born. We launched the beta version of Atto Academy in March 2021, and now the academy is a tight-knit community of women supporting one another to build the businesses of their dreams.
So what do founders experience within the Atto Academy?
Community: Access to our private platform where we share the latest updates, tools and opportunities in the startup world.
Masterminds: Attend an accountability-driven mastermind session every Wednesday at 1 pm AEST where we review progress and support one another to keep working towards big goals.
Masterclasses: Attend a masterclass at 11 am AEST on the last Wednesday of every month to deep dive into lessons for building business and being a position of leadership. These sessions are co-hosted with leading industry educators who are dedicated to empowering our founders to take action in an area of business that will help drive them forward.
Accelerator Courseware: Access to the previous accelerator and academy masterclass recordings.
Coaching: Book in for quarterly coaching calls with the Atto team so we can deep dive into something they’re working on and support their growth.
Expert Office Hours: Access to experts through office hours where we encourage founders to ask really targeted questions to ensure they get value from the calls.
Learn more about the Atto Academy here and submit an EOI to become a member.
We wanted to highlight some of the inspiring founders we have in our community and showcase the big problems they’re working on. We’ve asked them to share some reflections on their experience in startups so far.
Meet some of the ambitious female founders in our inaugural Atto Academy group below:
Alexis Donachie, founder of ManagerIQ
Alexis Donachie started Manager IQ to support managers and team leaders to develop their skills, lean on a community of like-minded leaders and create healthy workplaces.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
“Working with managers and leaders for the past 20 years, I noticed that they didn’t receive enough development and support to be confident and effective in their roles. I decided I wanted to do something about it to help managers but to also cause a ripple to all the people they then support and hopefully manage/lead well.”
How do you motivate yourself to overcome challenges?
“I'm motivated by my business idea itself which pushes me through challenges. Talk to lots of people, watch a lot of YouTube clips and read a lot to try and understand the challenge I am facing and how others have overcome them. Talking to my new COO motivates me as there are 2 of us now in this, so I really want the business to work. I am have always been quite a positive person and feel anything is possible which is quite a motivating mindset to have in itself.”
How has Atto supported your business and development growth?
“Atto has been great!! Any challenges I have faced the academy cohort has been able to assist. Lana has provided excellent resources which I have found invaluable. Also, having access to the past content from prior accelerator programs has also really helped with certain aspects of building my business and ensuring I am able to get an effective MVP out.”
Katherine Tuominen, founder of Culture Cure
Katherine Tuominen created Culture Cure to provide a safe community for those experiencing and wanting to spark change in a toxic workplace.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
“After repeatedly experiencing toxic workplace culture, I realised I wasn’t alone and this behaviour had been normalised for generations. The support available was segregated and expensive, often placing the onus on the individual rather than addressing the systemic issue. I wanted to resolve the symptoms of toxic workplace culture by creating a safe membership community where people could connect with expert advisors and support each other while also addressing the root cause by translating their shared stories into insights that can inform a healthier working world.”
What did you wish you knew at the beginning of starting your business?
“Building a sustainable business means nurturing myself too and it’s ok if I can’t do it all at once, growth takes time. Taking some time to celebrate the little wins, not basing your value off of productivity and cherishing other aspects of your life are essential.”
How has Atto supported your business and development growth?
“Atto provides insights that can’t be googled from leading experts who have already run successful businesses. Being able to tap into a pool of knowledge has helped me to make informed decisions that feel aligned with my values.”
Karen Kim, founder of Hello Music
Karen Kim is creating an online version of her business Hello Music to support music teachers to build their business and support music students to develop their musical talents.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
“During the Melbourne COVID-19 lockdown, we had to think of innovative ways to keep our current music students engaged with learning music, so we organised local and international events which were truly inspiring to students, parents and teachers alike, such as a music busk-athon with a sister school in Ghana and competition with a music students in Sri Lanka. From these online events and workshops, I saw an opportunity to develop a new platform going forward.”
How do you motivate yourself to overcome challenges?
“Like diving into a cold ocean - take a breath and just do it.”
How has Atto supported your business and development growth?
“It’s been great to have weekly accountability and a supportive, empathetic team with great resources and up-to-date advice.”
Marni Nicole, Founder of Fit With Her
Marni Nicole founded Fit With Her to empower busy mothers to take control of their health by providing easy access to fitness classes, health recipes and grocery delivery.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
“There were two moments, close together. The first was when I was using the prototype for our portable workout station for the first time. Being able to use it for the first time made me realise how cool it really was and I thought: “I could do online exercise sessions with this every week and help people everywhere feel fit and strong, that’d be amazing!”.
The second moment was when I was attempting to create my own shopping lists from recipes I’d collected from a meal kit delivery service. To save money I was trying to buy the ingredients myself instead of paying the marked-up prices of a meal-delivery kit company and I thought “It would be a really good idea if someone delivered ingredients for meal plans through supermarkets”.
Twelve months later we are about to go live with a service that is the all-in-one healthy lifestyle for the busy woman.”
What did you wish you knew at the beginning of starting your business?
“This is going to sound really silly, but I wished I’d heard of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product, for any who know as little as I did when I started). I went all in and backed myself but if I’d found the Atto community earlier I definitely would have done a more basic MVP to test the value proposition we were thinking of taking to market.
I also had never heard of pre-accelerators like Atto, accelerators or incubators. I wish I’d known earlier that there were communities out there and guided programs you could apply to that would support you through the creation phase and path to market.”
How do you motivate yourself to overcome challenges?
“Right now the snowball is rolling so fast down the hill there is no time to procrastinate or be daunted by obstacles.
We’ve just got to find a way to run through or around anything and everything in our path.
Getting people around me and getting other people working on the project has been key to this shift in mentality. I also follow Napoleon Hill’s tried and true recommendations for getting clear on where I’m going and why, and that motivates me to find solutions.”
How has Atto supported your business and development growth?
“It was a massive boost in confidence getting into the Atto Accelerator. The program helped me and my business in many ways. Having someone with experience objectively evaluate my plans was invaluable. I also learned heaps during the masterclass session. When the Atto Academy was announced I was keen to sign up. The first investment you make should be in yourself. You don’t always know how, but the right investment in yourself should pay the highest dividends in the long run. The Academy has been great with the monthly webinars, continuing my learning. The weekly Masterclasses are also great for bouncing ideas around, getting recommendations to resources and feeling connected to a community.”
Learn more about the Atto Academy here and submit an EOI to become a member.