00:00 Intro

Crystal: These are people that usually haven’t run businesses and look at numbers and statistics and the numbers tell them they should invest in women and they don’t. We’ve had founders go through that program, had not made a dollar, and within 24 hours had $300 hit the bank account.

Steve: The worst advice you think most people get given before they find you guys?

Crystal: Is to take every piece of advice. I got sick of saying no to people and I wanted to say yes.

00:52 Crystal’s start in local government

Steve: Crystal, welcome to the show. I’m excited today because it is a topic of note. It’s a topic that everyone talks about. It’s a topic that is not, in my view, changing massively. It’s a topic you’re trying to change. So before we get too heavily into what you’re doing right now, let’s go back through your history. Where did you grow up and build this resilience and desire to go out and set up your own fashion startup?

Crystal: I actually started my career in government, which is so not the one you expect to hear. I got sick of saying no to people and I wanted to say yes. I was a sport and recreation officer building skate parks, swimming pools, working with grassroots sport in Central Queensland.

Steve: And how old were you then?

Crystal: 23. My role was the first sport and recreation officer in the local council, bringing together the community to have activities for young people.

03:20 Building the consulting business

Steve: How long were you in government?

Crystal: Maybe 3 years. Just enough time to teach you some governance and rigor. I jumped out and started a consulting company working with sport and recreation organisations. We did sport and recreation plans, open space planning, worked for governments around Australia, did some work in Fiji.

Steve: So at 26, you’re already a founder. How long were you in the consulting business?

Crystal: 18 years I owned that company.

04:30 Youth entrepreneurship program

Crystal: I left the business when I moved to New South Wales and I started building out a youth entrepreneur program working with disengaged unemployed young people. We built a course and delivered it with grade 10 students at a high school. The students gave up 2 hours of their time, 2 hours of school time, 2 hours of student time.

Steve: Anyone come out of that program that really nailed it?

Crystal: Every single young person had their story. I had twins in grade 10 who couldn’t read and write. They’d been lost in the system. Their idea was to build a solution for young people like them to learn how to read and write. They went back and taught themselves to read by buying an audiobook and having a physical book so they could hear the words and read the words.

08:52 The fashion-tech startup

Crystal: It was my graphic designer. She’d built out a virtual try-on app, had some customers, but she needed to raise capital. We got all of the advice from all of the people and we pivoted the business 10 times. I was a grant writer in my government days, so I got some funding from the Queensland government, the Advanced Queensland Ignite Grant. We got some family and friends funding as well. And then we pitched to Brisbane Angels and got some investment.

10:33 Friends-and-family round

Steve: I want to ask about that family and friends round. I’ve never really asked anyone about it. I would be so uncomfortable asking family and friends to put money into something. How do you go about that?

Crystal: When investors first said to us, “Do a family and friends and fools round,” I thought, I don’t know anyone who’s going to invest in this. But just having the conversations with people. Informal pitching to everyone and anyone who will have a conversation. It gave us a lot of data points and people came on in advisory roles as well. We were able to raise $100,000 in cash from that.

11:25 Lessons from making every mistake

Crystal: We made every possible mistake. All the failures. Which puts me in great stead to tell great stories now to all of my founder friends. Here’s what not to do. The issue with the fashion industry is that the margins are so tight. To implement any sort of technology is so difficult.

13:00 Tech Ready Women and the Scalari acquisition

Crystal: I’m not actually the founder of Tech Ready Women. Christy Whitel was the founder. She launched her business in 2017 when she was showing up to all the tech events too scared to ask the silly question. When COVID hit, the New South Wales government put out a contract for an online pre-accelerator program for women. Christy had recorded all the sessions already. We then identified that we didn’t want to just kick founders out of the program. They kept coming back saying, can you help us with investment?

16:14 Why the VC model does not match the data

Steve: Do you think in that period the environment has changed for women or do you think everyone just says it has but in reality it hasn’t?

Crystal: I think things change. But if we’re looking at investment for female-only teams, that’s a number that’s not changing. The VC model is built upon things that naturally support male businesses. These are people that usually haven’t run businesses and look at numbers and statistics and the numbers tell them they should invest in women and they don’t.

17:18 AI and the rise of the non-technical founder

Crystal: AI is changing the game for non-technical founders. You can now prototype, build, and test ideas faster without needing a technical co-founder from day one. This is making entrepreneurship more accessible, particularly for women who may not come from traditional tech backgrounds.

22:14 Female Founders Startup Program

Crystal: The Female Founders Startup Program takes founders through ideation, validation, and building out their first customers. We run it nationally across Australia now, which was one of the things that made Tech Ready Women a good acquisition for Scalari.

24:19 1 to 1000 customers sprints

Crystal: We’ve had founders go through that program, had not made a dollar, and within 24 hours had $300 hit the bank account. Getting that first revenue is such a confidence builder.

26:38 Investment Ready program

Crystal: The Investment Ready program runs for five months. We cover capital options beyond VC, grant writing, angel investment, and alternative funding pathways. Founders need to understand which type of capital suits their stage and business model.

31:12 Free resources and scholarships

Crystal: We have free resources available, scholarships, and low-cost options. We want to make this accessible to as many women as possible, regardless of their financial situation.

32:55 Worst advice founders get

Steve: The worst advice you think most people get given before they find you guys?

Crystal: Is to take every piece of advice. Too many voices with contradictory opinions lead founders to pivot constantly and lose focus.