Atto Community Update: Mar 2022
Atto HQ 🏡
2022 has turned into another challenging and jam-packed year.
In Q1, we launched and kicked off our new program: Atto Aspire Pre-Accelerator. The 8-week online program was designed to support aspiring female founders to define their problem, conduct customer discovery, and build an lean MVP.
Kate Kendall joined AirTree as an Explorer sourcing early-stage startups for investor deal flow. Read more about the program here.
And there’s lots of discussion around the state of funding for women (learn more in our monthly female founder news wrap-up). In one article, Atto was mentioned as one of the places advocating for an alternative funding path. “Others, like the One Roof community and the Atto Accelerator, are focused on ‘indie’ growth, shirking outside funding altogether.“ Read more in Smart Company.
We’ve got some exciting plans for the coming months so keep a lookout for our upcoming announcements!
Atto Aspire Pre-Accelerator 💡
We supported 18 founders from 14 startups to who participated in the Atto Aspire Pre-Accelerator 8-week program. View all the Atto startups here.
While over half the applications were from women based in Victoria, Australia, 20% of applications were received from overseas including the USA, Ukraine and Mexico.
Meet the Atto Aspire founders here.
AMAs with Female Founders 🚀
We’ve shared a few AMA events we’ve hosted with feamle founders.
We hosted an AMA with Atto’s founder Kate Kendall and talked about the best ways to build a tech startup. Kate shares more about how Atto supports female founders, what is the indie way of doing business, how Atto is different, the support early stage founders need, and the format of our programs. Watch the AMA with Kate Kendall here.
Kirsten Craven, co-founder of Kidzta, shared more about her startup journey with us. Watch the AMA with Kidzta here.
Leanne Bats & Jussara Bierman, co-founders of Cool Points Club, shared how they’ve launched their web3 startup and the wins they’ve had in the past year. Watch the AMA with Cool Points Club here.
Karen Kim, founder of Hello Music World, shared her story of being in business for 30 years and how she’s taking impact to the next level online. Watch the AMA with Hello Music World here.
Atto Academy 🎓
We’ve updated our membership options! Founders have joined the Atto Academy for different reasons. Some founders want monthly coaching with KAte to help keep them on track, others want to engage with the community during weekly Masterminds, and others just want access to the best startup education materials. We’ve introduced a new tiered membership offering. View the membership options here.
In a recent Academy Masterclass, Leanne Bats, co-founder of Cool Points Club (Atto 2021 & Atto Academy) took us through the basics of NFTs. She shared the top level knowledge around what startup founder need to know about NFTs - what they are, why startups use them to raise capital, risks, and case studies. Watch the NFTs for Startup Founders Masterclass.
Alumni News 📰
Bubble Tea Club co-founders Jenny Le & Pamela Yip (Atto 2020) and AirRobe founder Hannon Comazzetto (Atto 2019) secured grant funding from the latest Boosting Female Founder Grant round. Each startup secured around $400,000 each for their growth plans Read more about the grant win here.
AirRobe founder Hannon Comazzetto (Atto 2019) has created a circular wardrobe offering for Oroton. “In a bid to enhance its circular commitment, Oroton has incorporated AirRobe’s innovation by allowing customers to resell, rent, recycle or donate their purchases.” Read more from Inside Retail.
AirRobe founder Hannon Comazzetto (Atto 2019) was featured at SXSW! During a panel The Future is Female: Aussie Tech Unicorns Hannon spoke alongside impressive women leaders: Gemma Lloyd of WORK180, Kim Teo of Mr Yum, Marisa Warren ALIAVIA Ventures, and Odette Hampton from the Austrade: Australian Trade & Investment Commission. They discussed the success of female-led startups that have come out of Australia, and while that women get a tiny percentage of venture capital funding, they generate larger returns. View on SXSW website. View Gemma’s image of the panel on LinkedIn.
AirRobe founder Hannon Comazzetto (Atto 2019) was interviewed on IT News about how they want everyone to be a part of the circular economy. “The company has grown rapidly in the last 18 months with a whole suite of merchant partners globally such as Oroton, The Iconic, Rebecca Vallance and P.E. Nation.” Watch the interview on IT News.
Wedsites founder Ayla Toyokawa (Atto 2019 & Academy) was asked to contribute to an international wedding trends report sharing insights on tech trends for wedding businesses. Vew The Wedding Trend Report 2022.
Overtly founder Sair Buckle (Atto Academy) hosted an event on Professionalism myths debunked: a neurodiverse inclusive hiring approach. The panel event explored tips from the recruitment industry for how to widen your talent pool. It was attended by ~200 people on LinkedIn and is available to watch. Watch the event here.
She Lion founder Kate Dillion (Atto 2021) was featured in an article discussing who decides what success means to women and who gets to decide. Kate suggests that, “while women undoubtedly face more barriers in accessing capital, entrepreneurial success in itself is no different for men and women.“ Read more in Smart Company.
Bubble Tea Club co-founders Jenny Le & Pamela Yip (Atto 2020) have launched their corporate gifting program! Learn more about Corporate Gifting on the Bubble Tea Club website.
Nanny Pay founder Lauren Brown (Atto 2021) announced that they helped place over 50 nannies in 2021 alone! Read more about their team on LinkedIn.
Coffee Roulette founder Hilary McCullagh (Atto 2019) reached a big milestone - they’ve made over 300,000 coffee connections! View the announcement on Twitter.
Photogenie founder Carly Michael (Atto 2021) was featured on One Roof’s Rooftop Talks sharing how to get back in control of your digital mess. Watch the Q&A on Instagram.
Cool Points Club co-founders Leanne Bats and Jussara Bierman (Atto 2021) were interviewed on the Disruptors for Good podcast about how they’re using NFTs and digital assets that generate funds and help scale emerging carbon removal technology. Learn more and listen to the podcast.
Cool Points Club co-founders Leanne Bats and Jussara Bierman (Atto 2021) have partnered with Metis to keep designing and building NFTs that are hardcoded to remove real-world Co2 from the atmosphere - not just when the NFT is first purchased by for the entire life of the NFT. A world first of Digital Carbon Sponges and will be built on $METIS. Learn more on LinkedIn here.
Food Remedy Co founder Shura Ford participated in the Rocket Seeder showcase day! Learn more here.
View all Atto alumni startups here.
Founder Love 🗣
“You’ve got to just give it a crack and get started.” Leanne Bats & Jussara Bierman, Cool Points Club (AMA with the Cool Points Clubs co-founders)
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