The F5 Magazine Issue 04

THE F5 MAGAZINE Senate Bill 54 and the VC Revolution Givvable: Ensuring Ethical Practice Through AI

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION:

THE POWER TRIO

ISSUE

04 2025

Senate Bill 54

Frances Atkins: Givvable

Alisha Geary

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 3-4 2

A Message From The Ceo: The Power In Your Wallet

TRACEY WARREN

PAGE 5-7

Our Global Community: Maintaining Responsible & Sustainable Procurement And De&I Standards In A Complex World

PAGE 13-15

PAGE 26-27

SB 54

SCHERIE NICOL

PAGE 16-19

PAGE 28-29

Allyship: Revolutionising Venture Capital Against All Odds: The Story Of California Senate Bill 54

Women Doing Great Things: Alisha Geary Builds A Bridge To Inclusion And Opportunity

GIVVABLE

ALISHA GEARY

PAGE 8-9

PAGE 20-23

Women In Business Spotlight: ade Diep Of Dr. Glitter

JADE DIEP

PAGE 10-12

Thought Leadership: Scroobious Founder Allison Byers

ALLISON BYERS

Hidden Voices: Up-And-Coming Entrepreneurs Featuring Andrea Brimmer

PAGE 24-25

ANDREA BRIMMER

SUBANA PARAMUTHEVAR

Pursuing Parity: Demystifying Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Balancing The Scales Part 1 Of “Bridging The Gap”: Scherie Nicol: “It’s The Individual Actions That Matter”

Balancing The Scales Part 2 Of “Bridging The Gap”: The Pension Gap: Why Women Retire With Less — And What We Can Do About It

PASCALE HELYAR-MORAY

THE F5 MAGAZINE | 04

A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO THE POWER IN YOUR WALLET Dear F5 Community, We often talk about power - how to claim it, build it, and wield it.

But there is a form of power we exercise every single day, often without realising its immense impact: our purchasing choices.

Every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. A declaration of our values, our priorities, and our vision for the future.

In this edition of F5 Magazine, we are shining a spotlight on Givvable, a trailblazing company in our portfolio that is revolutionising supply chain transparency. Their work is a driving force for ethical consumerism, ensuring that the products we buy are not tainted by exploitation.

Why does this matter? Because modern slavery is not a relic of the past; it is a grim reality of our present.

In Australia, an estimated 41,000 people are trapped in modern slavery, with many cases going undetected.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, approximately 29.3 million individuals are living in conditions of modern slavery, accounting for 59% of the global total.

In the United Arab Emirates, around 132,000 people are affected, with systemic issues like the kafala system exacerbating the problem.

It’s in the cobalt that powers your iPhone and laptop.

It’s in the batteries of the electric car you’re proud to call sustainable.

Cobalt. Lithium. Nickel.

Many of these minerals are mined under conditions so exploitative they meet the definition of modern slavery; often by children, often in countries with no labour protections.

This is not just a supply chain issue.

It’s a human rights crisis embedded in products marketed as ethical, progressive, and even revolutionary.

And let’s not ignore the rot at the top.

High-profile cases, like the mounting legal proceedings involving figures such as P. Diddy, expose just how insidious and pervasive human trafficking and exploitation are; even among the wealthy, the famous, and the powerful.

So what do we do?

We refuse to look away.

We demand transparency.

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We fund the fix.

We support companies who lead with ethics, not just PR. And most of all, we remember this: Our wallets are weapons.

The United States is not exempt, with over 1 million individuals living in modern slavery conditions.

Every dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in.

In India, an estimated 11 million people are living in modern slavery, the highest number globally.

Because when women rise in power, we don’t just shift trends -

Pakistan has approximately 2.3 million individuals in modern slavery, with a prevalence rate of 10.6 per 1,000 people.

Bangladesh reports about 1.2 million people in modern slavery, equating to 7.1 per 1,000 individuals.

We rebuild systems.

Let’s do it with our eyes open, our standards high, and our money aligned.

With Fire & Determination,

These aren’t just numbers — they are real people.

Mothers. Daughters. Sons. Workers. Survivors.

People whose freedom has been stolen, whose labour is exploited, and whose humanity is traded for speed, scale, and silence.

And this isn’t happening “somewhere else.”

Tracey Warren, CEO, F5 Collective

It’s stitched into those leggings in your wardrobe.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO: THE POWER IN YOUR WALLET

SOURCES FOR MODERN SLAVERY STATISTICS AUSTRALIA

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Modern slavery in Australia. Retrieved from walkfree.org Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024).

Modern slavery. Retrieved from aihw.gov.au

ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Asia and the Pacific Regional Report. Retrieved from cdn.walkfree.org

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Modern slavery in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved from walkfree.org

UNITED STATES

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Modern slavery in the United States. Retrieved from walkfree.org

INDIA

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Modern slavery in India.

Retrieved from walkfree.org

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PAKISTAN

Walk Free Foundation. (2023). Modern slavery in Pakistan. Retrieved from walkfree.org

Associated Press. (2024). Migrant workers in Malaysia seek unpaid wages from a supplier to Japanese companies. Retrieved from apnews.com Vogue Business. (2023). Modern slavery is on the rise. Fashion’s role remains steady. Retrieved from voguebusiness.com

A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO: THE POWER IN YOUR WALLET

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In this economic environment, you may lose business, you might not be competitive, it might hit your bottom line, and that really does drive behaviour.

OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY

MAINTAINING RESPONSIBLE & SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT AND DE&I STANDARDS IN A COMPLEX WORLD

Givvable takes the guesswork out of complex supplier diligence and DE&I adherence through data mapping and educational tools, turning the digital space into a purpose-driven pathway.

By F5 Magazine Editors

Corporate responsibility programs such as environmental societal and governmental (ESG) and diversity equity and inclusion (DE&I) have come under fire recently. Many countries require companies to complete due diligence that protects workers and local communities by adhering to the guidelines of these programs, however. Each deals with them differently and while this may seem to affect large corporations more frequently, small businesses and startups have just as much responsibility in

maintaining standards set forth by the country in which they are located and those of the companies they do business with.

Following the guidelines themselves is already a process often too big for one person to manage, but consider this — if you are a vendor who works with several different suppliers helping you manage your supply chain, customer service, inventory, web development, etc., you may have the best of intentions when

OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY: GIVVABLE

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it comes to sustainability, gender and racial equity, equal pay and beyond, but what about the companies with whom you do business? How can you be sure each of these large, medium and small businesses are following the appropriate guidelines of fairness and environmental wellness? That is where Givvable comes in.

It’s rare to find one digital platform that addresses the monumental issues of modern-day slavery, environmental impact, diversity, and overall human rights with such precision and depth. Givvable’s reach is so vast and what they do of such value, one may tend to forget the most important aspect of their Application Programming Interface (API): at the end of the day, what sisters Frances Atkins and Naomi Vowels and team have created is simple. Givvable is a gateway to awareness of and education about two things: 1. Ensuring your corporation is fulfilling its governmentregulated corporate responsibility requirements by providing you the tools to monitor and manage your company’s responsible and sustainable procurement and DE&I policies and processes.

2. Enlightening you on the practices of the companies you do business with to ensure they, too, are adhering to the principles your company not only embraces from a moral and humane standpoint but need to comply with the regulations of your home country and the regions of those with whom you do business.

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Simple but powerful, and in that there is extraordinary complexity. You see, Givvable is not an advocacy organisation.

They do not come in on a white horse and fix glaring issues of noncompliance or human and environmental rights violations.

No. Givvable provides the tools for companies to address it themselves by taking all the guesswork out of it for them through: •

Data mapping

•

Education

•

Support

ELIMINATING THE DOUBT OF SELF-REPORTING Surveys can be tricky. With something as polarising as human and environmental rights issues, asking a company to share how they are working and trusting the information they are presenting is valid is a slippery slope. Not only is it possible they are not being truthful, but the bigger the organisation the more difficult it is for one person to have visibility into every department and every supplier with whom they do business to ensure their corporate responsibility policies are being adhered to across the board. The risk of discovering you are not fulfilling it and, therefore, ending up out of compliance is too high. “I didn’t know,” isn’t an excuse that will fly with any government agency especially when the tools are available to you.

Givvable is that tool and they walk every company through how to use what they provide. They are especially keen on working with smaller businesses that don’t have the resources to do their own due diligence on their suppliers. They are too often

OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY: GIVVABLE

overlooked and the team at the platform are very sensitive to that.

Millions of data points are gathered and when this all started, Frances and Naomi didn’t even know if it was possible to scrub all that and come up with viable solutions for those in need. Working with some folks at the World Bank used to dealing with big data, they discovered a way. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort, but it paid off, leading the Givvable team to now build and manage the system in-house.

“We look at what companies are already doing and the verifiable actions they’re taking,” Frances shares, “and we’re able to make certain attributions around that and get to the regulatory requirements.”

But how does it work and what information is the API mining?

SUPPLY CHAIN 101 Currently, companies go into the platform and search a business name or if they don’t have a name, they provide data points to call up suggestions of the organisation they’re seeking information on. What comes back is insight into the original data point.

The information being mapped is across a vast landscape of the company’s vendors, taking care of the legwork that would be virtually impossible otherwise.

As Frances explains: “Even a mid-size business, when they procure things, it is across multiple categories. They might have tens, hundreds, or thousands of different categories and the business cannot be a subject matter expert across every single business category they buy.”

To put it into context, she continues. “We work with a big company that is a core supplier of tourism operators, and they understand that world, but they’re buying everything from office supplies to food to coffee and there are so many different other things that they just don’t know if they’re buying the right stuff from a business that aligns with their goals. That’s what creates complexity within procuring around ESG.”

THE “WHY?” OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY When Givvable began, the thought was compliance was simply good business, and companies would do it because it was the moral and ethical thing to do but it doesn’t necessarily drive profits. As time has gone on, what the data shows is how it positively affects the bottom line.

“In this economic environment, you may lose business, you might not be competitive, it might hit your bottom line, and that really does drive behaviour. And if there is a regulatory overlay then there’s a compliance issue around it as well and that is becoming more and more important with human rights and modern slavery.

But also, now there are more issues around decarbonising and emissions, so those are the main drivers with organisations doing

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this sort of thing.”

The bottom line is Givvable is dealing with complex due diligence supplier issues. The desire is to power this intricate due diligence for companies around the world via API across different markets, products, etc. Givvable is plugged into procurement platforms that corporate and government buyers are using, prompting suppliers to come to their platform to enrich their own data and to provide more information on how they perform. That enables Givvable to offer better information about how they are working.

There’s a benefit for both sides around how they’ve built the platform.

CHALLENGE OF THE GREAT UNKNOWNS Givvable goes beyond just providing insight into others, however.

They help companies investigate their own practices and see what changes need to be made to remain in compliance and keep on track with responsible & sustainable procurement and DE&I practices. The company has also discovered how to demystify this intricate space.

Frances explains, “We’ve had to show companies how to manage complex supplier diligence more efficiently because I think, unfortunately, it’s been associated with being challenging and expensive to do. I always thought if we could make it easy for organisations, then there’s no conversation about whether they should do it.”

There’s also an opportunity for new businesses to learn how to establish best practices in the corporate responsibility space through Givvable’s supplier engagement portal. Free to anyone interested, there are learning modules companies can go through to best equip themselves for navigating this elaborate network.

TAKING ON MODERN SLAVERY Modern slavery is another area that has its hurdles to address and identify. Per the World Economic Forum, 1 in 150 people — 50 million as of 2022 — are victims of this. Migrant workers are three times more likely to be affected and it’s getting worse.

Uncovering modern slavery practices in an organisation is very difficult, however, and Givvable is frequently asked to conduct internal investigations. Doing so means putting policies and practices in place and using tools like their API, which take a lot of time and are not a quick fix.

Givvable has been working with Monash University in Australia, which has been developing its own model to assess the quality of organisations’ discover-related policies and practices. Monash has been using its framework to score those organisations on the quality of their disclosure. There are currently tens of thousands of modern slavery statements filed in Australia each year, but the government is looking at who is required to file them. The problem is that the university researchers can’t manually score these practices with their framework and Givvable is using their data structure and AI to instantly assess the fillings based on their framework with the objective of making it jurisdictionally agnostic — global, not just Australia.

“Once there’s enough data around what works and what doesn’t work, a lot of the regulatory disclosure is geared toward helping peer groups, organisations, and businesses in the same industry share how they have been combating modern slavery. Looking at what’s succeeded and what hasn’t, then improve the best practice for not just one company but that particular business and industry,” Frances says.

As a data company, Givvable doesn’t personally audit businesses to hold them to standards if they discover disparities within any of the complex supplier diligence spaces. This is where the support comes in. They are partnered with various organisations and expert consultancies that provide training and tools. Once the client gets the data and sees where the potential risks and gaps are, there’s a next step for them with one of their partners.

WHAT’S COMING? Givvable has been working with the Queensland state government to develop the Indigenous business gateway. A platform to make it quicker and easier for organisations to uncover not only the bigger Indigenous businesses operating with and supplying corporate and government clients but mumand-pop retail businesses. They have been engaged to be the software provider for that platform.

“This is super exciting because through the infrastructure and data models that we’ve built, we’re able to instantly identify these different businesses in the procurement processes of businesses and government,” Frances says. “This has been done in close collaboration with both independent Indigenous bodies and government.”

A VAST LANDSCAPE Givvable has taken steps to create an infrastructure for businesses that does more than hold them accountable. Through the massive amounts of data it is pulling, the company has discovered not only how to extract information but provide pathways to change, growth, and awareness. The simplicity of its business model has massive reach, and as more and more data comes in, the possibility to effect change and create awareness for more businesses only grows.

As some countries embrace and others move away from corporate responsibility and ESG principles, Givvable is poised to become more involved in advising rather than merely providing.

In the meantime, they are creating an invaluable resource for companies of any size anywhere.

There is much to discover with this API and we encourage you to visit the Givvable website to learn more about what they are doing, where they are going, and how they are promoting more humane practices for a more equitable, inclusive world.

OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY: GIVVABLE

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

JADE DIEP OF DR GLITTER What started as a kitchen experiment with gold sugar and pepper turned into something far more ambitious. Dr Glitter is the brainchild of Jade Diep and her cofounder Augusta Xu-Holland — a duo blending science, creativity, and a bold vision for wellness with their patented dietary supplements. In this issue’s Women in Business Spotlight, Jade shares her journey from finance graduate to wellness innovator, and how she’s bringing a whole new kind of supplement to the global stage.

By Holly Richards

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND HOW YOUR UPBRINGING BROUGHT YOU TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

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I was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, and was a very creative and sporty kid. After studying finance and marketing at the University of Melbourne, I deferred my graduate job in management consulting to go backpacking through Latin America and intern in the Chinese film industry.

Growing up, I never aspired to be an entrepreneur but always took school projects really seriously. I loved deep research and having the flexibility to create original work. When I was backpacking in Latin America, I also made it a priority to figure out what motivates me and is my measure of career success, because I didn’t want to simply start the first “great job” that was given to me, work really hard at it, but look back and feel lost after five years. Through this reflection, I realised that I was driven by social impact and believed that the most effective way to achieve this was through business.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO START YOUR BUSINESS? I am a serial entrepreneur. Dr Glitter is the second of four businesses that I have started and the other three operated whilst Dr Glitter was in research and development.

My cofounder Augusta (Xu-Holland) and I decided to start Dr Glitter whilst living in China. We used to decorate our food and drinks with gold sugar and gold pepper, and everybody loved it. We could also see that our friends were becoming obsessed with health supplements but didn’t know how to cook or eat a balanced diet of whole foods. So we thought, why not kill two birds with one stone, and create health supplements that look like edible glitter that were unflavoured, made from natural ingredients, and designed to be sprinkled on healthy food and drinks?

WOMEN IN BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: JADE DIEP & DR. GLITTER

To turn this idea into a business, first we experimented with producing a minimum viable product in the kitchen and soon realised that the key challenge was scale. So we spoke to scientists at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and then worked with machinery manufacturers to develop our own proprietary manufacturing line. We then spent two years perfecting our formulations and manufacturing processes, and developing Dr Glitter’s branding.

After five years in research and development, we launched Dr Glitter online in Australia and to our surprise, three U.S. retailers reached out within weeks!

WHAT WAS YOUR “AH-HA!” WITH DR. GLITTER — THE MOMENT YOU KNEW “THIS IS IT!”?

The most groundbreaking moment was when we had commercial samples of Dr Glitter’s Red IRON+ Crystals. I had been consuming it for months, this felt effortless and I experienced no stomach cramps or constipation. The product was so good that I questioned whether there was iron in it at all, so we engaged a lab to test our product and found that there’s no issue with our iron content and that our iron was released gradually.

Since going to market, the “Ah-HA!” moment also came when we realised how Dr Glitter could simply be considered a convenient and highly concentrated source of iron-rich food. One 4g sachet of Red IRON+ Crystals contains the same amount of elemental iron as 121g of beef or 500g of beetroot, but is so much more convenient to consume daily. With Dr Glitter, giving our bodies enough iron everyday is easy!

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST PAIN POINTS AND HOW HAVE YOU DEALT WITH THEM? Our biggest challenge has stemmed from the fact that from a business standpoint, Australia wasn’t the best place to build

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the Dr Glitter brand. Our population is too small for innovative consumer products to rapidly achieve critical mass and there’s almost no competition amongst retailers. So unlike in the U.S. and China, Australian investors, consumers and retailers are not accustomed to backing new and innovative consumer products.

We’ve dealt with this by moving to the U.S. and basing ourselves amongst the wellness community in Los Angeles. Fortunately, Dr Glitter’s branding was designed in New York, so we’ve been able to appeal to U.S. consumers immediately.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESSES AND HOW HAVE YOU CELEBRATED THEM/HAVE THEY PROPELLED YOU FORWARD? The patenting process has been really important. Getting this drafted, submitted and having our provisional patent in Australia being successfully deemed “novel” for the use cases, manufacturing processes and compositions of nutrient crystals has been a game changer. We have a great relationship with our patent attorney and mentor Gus Lightowlers from MinterEllison, and we make sure to always celebrate over a nice meal!

WHEN DID YOU KNOW ENTREPRENEURSHIP WAS RIGHT FOR YOU? I’ve been an entrepreneur for 10 years, and during this time I have seen many people try and fail at becoming an entrepreneur.

Whilst being self-employed may sound sexy, it requires the ability to tolerate uncertainty, discomfort, and frequent rejection. It also requires the ability to self-motivate, problem solve, be a great storyteller, be competitive, and also be an optimist.

Over the years, I’ve realised that I have these skills and have been indirectly training my whole life. Whether through competing in sports as a child, to constantly problem solving as a backpacker on a shoestring budget, or starting my first company in the film industry at the age of 21. All these experiences have helped prepare me for Dr Glitter, which is a highly complex business with huge market potential.

WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE WITH YOUR BUSINESS (EXPANSION, GROWTH, OTHER BUSINESSES YOU WISH TO CREATE, ETC.)?

We are working on rolling out Dr Glitter in the U.S. retail market.

Already we are distributed by Urban Outfitters, and will soon be distributed by one of the biggest chains of grocery stores.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER FEMALE FOUNDERS? Think bigger. Think global from day one. Statistically speaking, female founders are more likely to create consumer products.

Whilst it’s often hard for consumer innovation to gain traction in Australia, it tends to be a lot easier in countries with big populations. However, there is also more competition in these markets, so to stand out and be able to compete, you need a big vision and to know these consumers intimately. This doesn’t mean that you need to move overseas immediately or ever, but you do need to make sure that you have the ability to develop products and brands that global consumers want and be able to establish partnerships with operators overseas.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: JADE DIEP & DR. GLITTER

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HIDDEN VOICES

UP-AND-COMING ENTREPENEURS FEATURING ANDREA BRIMMER

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HIDDEN VOICES: ANDREA BRIMMER

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By Linda Morris

Shifting her focus from law to entrepreneurship, Andrea Brimmer created a wastewater renewal concept and caught the eye of NASA. In our first Hidden Voices feature, we highlight the California Lutheran University graduate who is only one engineer away from changing the face of agriculture.

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND HOW YOU GOT INTERESTED IN STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS. It’s been a crazy journey. From the beginning of middle school to my freshman year of college, I did everything you could imagine to become a good lawyer. My family is made up of immigrants, and I wanted to be able to help them — and other people who might be dealing with the same experiences — through any issues. I entered college as a political science major, but I grew fascinated with international business and switched programs.

Then COVID hit, and I got a job at a farmers market. When I started back at school, I wished I could live as I had during COVID — waking up super late, tanning, working out, and reading books all day — but I had to figure out how to make money. That’s when my business brain kicked in, and I launched Linette Fine Jewelry, using my middle name as the company name. I invested US $1,000 from my savings, found wholesalers, made a nice website, did the branding myself, and made business cards with the website’s QR code on the back. I went to my mom’s hair salon and marketed to her clients. Once I had doubled my original investment, I closed it down to focus on school. Because I had also taught myself how to make money on the stock market, I then decided to study finance, and shifted my major for the 2nd time.

Brimmer’s drive drew attention at California Lutheran — including that of the dean of the business school — which led to an opportunity for her to join the first cohort at the European Innovation Academy in Portugal and work on a startup idea.

During that program, HortiTech came to life.

I thought, “Where is there a problem I can solve and what do I know? Where can I help?”

I was watching the news, and I saw all these stories about problems with fertiliser. I knew agriculture, because I grew up on a farm, and I decided to build a drone. I had no idea how to do it, but I knew I could figure it out. I put a team together, but we only had three weeks to complete the project. We learned you can make an agreement with NASA to access their contracts and

patents if you pass all their requirements. We didn’t have time to go through the entire process, but we contacted them to find out if our idea was viable. They said, ‘Yep. Viable idea. You can do it.’

So we did it for the competition without pursuing the agreement — but the project stuck with me, and I continued the process to

THE NASA TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROGRAM Often, technology built for space exploration, research, and air transportation improvement have other potential uses — so NASA makes these innovations available to the public through the NASA Technology Transfer program.

By licensing its technology patents for use in areas like business and education, NASA plays a part in developing products and solutions that benefit the Nation.

work with NASA. When Brimmer was accepted into the European Innovation Academy program, she had just started a summer internship with the automotive tech company, Vitu. Although it meant taking three weeks off, the company’s CEO, Don Armstrong, was supportive, but he asked Brimmer to do one thing before she left: meet with the company’s chairman, Kelly Kimball.

When I met with Kelly, he had a drawing of a business plan on his whiteboard. He explained Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM), and gave me the fundamentals so I would be prepared for this program. He asked me about my life, and I shared everything. I’ll never forget what he said: ‘You’re not a lawyer. You’re a CEO. I know a CEO when I see one. Do you really want to be working for people like me for the rest of your life?’ I took that confidence and belief he had in me into the Portugal program and just killed it. It was super fun.

WHAT DOES HORTITECH DO? HIDDEN VOICES: ANDREA BRIMMER

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We created a filter that draws ammonia out of agricultural wastewater so that farmers can make their own nitrogen fertiliser. Take dairy farmers, for example; they have a bunch of cows producing an insane amount of manure, which is not good for the environment. The current disposal system floods the cow stalls to pumps that take the waste to a big lagoon offsite. This creates three problems: one, it can contaminate the soil around the lagoon; two, it’s bad for the atmosphere; and three, it smells and costs farmers a lot of money. We found an opportunity to leverage the NASA technology that filters water out when astronauts use the restroom in space. When we finally obtained the agreement with NASA, we discovered that they have also tested the technology on wheat plants, but they don’t have the resources to pursue it, so we acquired a license for it and are trying to win in that space.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IN THE COMPANY RIGHT NOW? There are four of us, including me. Emma is in New York. She has strong leadership skills and is great at marketing. Jack is in London. He was introduced to me by a mentor, and handles our finances. And Cassie is our chemical engineering intern.

Although I figured out all this science-y stuff by myself, she just comes in and does it. She keeps me in my place, too. Sometimes I get so many ideas, I’m all over the place and Cassie will say, ‘Andrea. Lock in.’ I love it.

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WHAT IS IT ABOUT WASTEWATER RENEWAL THAT SPEAKS TO YOU? When I was younger, my mom would take me and my sister back to Mexico and we would see all the poverty. I know she did this so we would be grateful for what we had, but I want to do something about that. Once I switched to this CEO/entrepreneurial journey, I thought, ‘Mexico has really bad water,’ and I saw that I could make a bigger difference as an entrepreneur than I could as a lawyer.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST HURDLE WITH YOUR STARTUP? Hiring has been tough, because we don’t have a lot of money.

Another big challenge is my age (23); people often don’t take me seriously because of it, but that has actually been very helpful in developing my leadership skills.

Leadership doesn’t depend on seniority; it depends on who you are as a person, how you speak to people, and how you lead the conversation.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL AT THIS POINT HAS BEEN THE HIDDEN VOICES: ANDREA BRIMMER

BIGGEST SUCCESS? The NASA thing has been a huge success, because that’s just so crazy to me that we were able to get the agreement. But even bigger than that is the team we have — the people who stick around without being paid and work as though they are being paid. I am so grateful to them, because I think that speaks a lot to the team and the community that we’ve built together. It makes me happy to know there are these people who are working full time jobs and have taken this on as well. It’s not easy — the work is demanding, the hours are demanding — and for them to still make the time to do this means the world to me, and makes me feel very successful.

IF YOU COULD GIVE ANY ADVICE TO WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS STARTING OUT — REGARDLESS OF AGE — WHAT WOULD IT BE? Always believe in yourself. It’s never too late to start — and once you take that risk, it will always align for you.

Have the courage to trust-fall into the greatness that’s ahead for you.

I honestly wish I had done it sooner, but I fully believe I did it at the right time and I listened to my intuition and my gut. It’s really about being in tune with yourself and believing in yourself.

ANY LAST THOUGHTS? ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE? My mom was a single mom until I was six. She and her family came together to raise me and my sister, and it was fundamental and important to the core of my being. They are why I work so hard, think the way I think, and why I grew up quickly and obtained a lot of wisdom during those years. I saw my mom struggling to raise my sister and me, and I have a lot of gratitude for her, for my family, and for those who come along on this journey. And that’s what I want to share: be grateful. I think in life we get little angels and it’s important to stop and recognise them.

On the day of our interview, Andrea Brimmer was entering her third week of leaving a corporate banking job to focus full-time on her startup. This leap of faith may not have been easy, but it was inevitable. As Andrea says, “Working for corporate for the last two years, I was just bored, and I felt like I was losing my spark. I couldn’t really see the impact I was making. Other people could, but not me. And I thought, ‘If I feel like this two years in, how am I going to feel five years in?’ I just couldn’t do it.

But HortiTech brings a smile to my face.”

Join us as we follow Andrea’s journey over these next few months and catch up with her to see how HortiTech is progressing.

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A L LY S H I P

REVOLUTIONISING VENTURE CAPITAL AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA SENATE BILL 54 (SB 54)

By Holly Richards

In 2022, the world of venture capital (VC) showed a shocking drop in funding for women from the already abysmal numbers of prior years. For F5 Collective CEO Tracey Warren and Chairman Kelly Kimball, this wasn’t just another depressing setback for female founders; it was a call to arms.

California Senate Bill 54 (SB 54) was born out of frustration with systemic inequity and the refusal of those in power to enact change. It became the first legislation of its kind in the world, aiming to mandate venture capitalists to disclose the diversity metrics of their investments. This is the story of how a small Australian-born collective with a big vision fought against one of the most powerful industries in California to push for equity in the distribution of capital.

F5 Collective Chairman Kelly Kimball shares the journey to bringing the revolutionary California Senate Bill 54 to life — legislation created in support of all marginalised entrepreneurs

FROM FRUSTRATION TO ACTION “In 2022, Tracey said something to me that really struck me,” Kelly recalls. “We had spent a lot of time on Zoom calls for F5, and all people did was talk about the problem — complain about how difficult and disheartening the issue of the gender funding gap in venture capital is. As they should. But it was just noise.

“One day, Tracey said, ‘I’m tired of hearing about the numbers. What are we going to do?’”

Kelly — a technology entrepreneur, political strategist, and Harvard Executive Fellow — spent decades evolving as an activist. In his youth, he joined marches and later, he raised funds and worked within institutional systems. Throughout his career, Kelly became a pioneer of practical Government solutions and strategies bridging the gap between paper and digital transmission of sensitive government data. In fact, he created the US’s first electronic filing system for political reporting. By 2022, he had learned how to channel his energy into laser-focused action and results.

Once again, he got angry. And this time, F5 got to work.

ALLYSHIP: THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA SENATE BILL 54 (SB 54)

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A LATE-NIGHT CALL SPARKS A MOVEMENT

Byers. The team testified, rallied allies, and lobbied persistently, including across both aisles of government .

Fresh off a call with Tracey, it was a Saturday night when Kelly called his friend Toni Atkins, the first woman to lead the California Senate and a former Speaker of the Assembly. Toni immediately recognised the urgency.

“I did call a number of Republican legislators who are opposed to any kind of regulation,” Kelly, a staunch Democratic party supporter, admits. “And a few of them agreed to sit it out and not vote.”

“She called over her wife who just that morning had been to two venture capitalists on something she’s been working on,” Kelly explains. “She’s a very accomplished businessperson and she’s made tons of money for investors. But these VCs shut the door on her with no reason. All she could figure out is either because she’s female or she’s a lesbian or both.”

While the bill sailed smoothly through the legislative process, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee was successful in initially securing US $1 million in funding to get the proposal implemented if signed into law — funding that was ultimately stricken during final budget negotiations.

Toni then looped in Senator Nancy Skinner, head of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus and Chair of the Senate Budget Committee. By Sunday morning, SB 54 was born.

“Each year every legislator passes what they call spot bills,” Kelly explains. “They submit bills to various committees, but they only change one word, in essence saving the bill in case it’s needed after the deadline. You’re never going to pass those bills but they’re there to beat the deadline. Now you can do what’s called ‘gut and amend,’ where you can replace it with a whole new bill.

It’s a way to do things late. Toni says, ‘Nancy, do you have a spot bill for banking?’ She said, ‘Yeah. I happen to have one.’”

With one swift stroke, it was repurposed into SB 54, aiming to hold venture capitalists accountable through mandatory disclosure of their investment demographics.

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ENTERING THE BELLY OF THE BEAST F5 Collective became the bill’s sponsor, stepping into the epicentre of global venture capital. With one-third of all VC funding in the world domiciled in California, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Yet, the initial reaction was eerily quiet.

“We started hearing rumours that they were opposed, but they were afraid to go public,” Kelly said. “How do they oppose this and not look bad?”

Through committee after committee, SB 54 advanced. Kelly brought on fellow F5 Collective founding partners Divya Reddy and Marquesa Finch, four-time Grammy award-winning sound engineer Derek Ali, and founder and CEO of Scroobious Allison

Meanwhile, the venture capitalists — especially the most powerful players — remained behind the scenes, relying on their usual playbook of pressure and quiet opposition.

FACING BLATANT SEXISM As the bill advanced, resistance from the industry became more overt. Kelly recounts a particularly insulting meeting with the National Venture Capital Association.

“It was one of the most brutally sexist discussions I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “He shut down any of the women who tried to talk and would only address me. These are people who don’t consider themselves sexist — they think they’re part of the solution.”

This interaction crystallised the problem: systemic bias cloaked in good intentions. It wasn’t just about a lack of diversity — it was about power structures that actively excluded women and people of colour from the table.

THE FINAL PUSH “We were tenacious once we decided to go in and fight this fight,” Kelly says. “We did not back down.”

“Toward the end there in the last couple of committee hearings, the last floor vote, we had a lot of push-back.”

By the time the bill reached the governor’s desk, the venture capitalists had ramped up their lobbying. Pressure mounted on California Governor Gavin Newsom to veto the bill.

“The VCs are probably the wealthiest and most powerful people in the state,” Kelly notes. “They thought all they had to do was call the governor and kill it. How insulting is that?”

Against all odds, however, the bill survived. “We were waiting, day-byday, hour-by-hour,” Kelly remembers.

“And then, finally, word came down from the governor that the bill was signed. Now, the real work began.’”

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SB 54 SIGNED BUT WORK ISN’T DONE. DEFENDING AND FUNDING After the bill was signed and technically law, the team was on defense and offense at the same time. They had to defend the policy and the core of the legislation to ensure that the entities and powerful people in secret opposition didn’t water down the bill to make it meaningless or were successful in never seeing the law implemented due to a lack of funding.

Following the Governor’s message in his signing of SB 54, the F5 team started communications with his Administration in the early Spring of 2024. They worked together to help push back on certain proposed language and to push for funding in the 2024 Budget.

One of the major victories during the negotiation process was pushing back on the initial proposal that would have made SB 54 effective only upon appropriation — a condition that would have effectively killed the bill post-signature. This critical revision helped secure the bill’s enactment and allowed it to move forward.

Additionally, specific exclusions were negotiated to refine the bill’s scope. Foreign investors domiciled in California and public retirement systems were also removed from the bill’s coverage, refining its applicability and addressing stakeholder concerns.

To provide a smoother implementation process, the effective dates were extended, granting affected entities additional time for compliance. Another significant structural change involved shifting enforcement responsibility from the Civil Rights Department to the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). This transition required modifications to the bill’s investigative and enforcement mechanisms, aligning them with DFPI’s existing regulatory authority.

These strategic amendments were instrumental in securing SB 54’s passage and implementation, ensuring it met its intended policy objectives while addressing stakeholder concerns. The success of this legislation underscores the importance of proactive engagement, strategic negotiation, and thoughtful policy design in shaping effective lawmaking.

FUNDING As it pertained to the funding component, which was crucial to ensure implementing the law, the chances for an appropriation in the budget was bleak earlier given the state’s large budget deficit post COVID. The F5 team was engaged with its authors and other legislative champions to help push for funding in budget negotiations. The overall negotiations with legislative leaders did not focus on who was going to get new funding for programs, but what safety net programs were going to get reduced funding or, unfortunately, cut. In a swift political change of events in the team’s favor, there was a communication that there will be $1M appropriated for the implementation of SB 54 as there were also other reporting/transparency bills more focused on climate and emissions reporting that were getting the necessary funding

appropriated to get off the ground. It was good political and policy sense to ensure SB 54 was included as well.

A FIRST STEP TOWARD EQUITY SB 54 will take effect in January 2026, allowing time to build the systems needed to enforce it. At its core, the bill requires venture capitalists operating in California to disclose the demographic breakdown of the founders they fund.

“While this might seem like a modest step, its implications are massive,” Kelly explained. “This isn’t charity. This is just smart investing.”

The transparency SB 54 demands will force the industry to confront its biases.

“Now we get to see exactly who the people are that are doing the damage,” Kelly states. “Everyone who’s in the know knows, but anyone outside of that doesn’t because they can hide it so easily. The vast majority of VCs are small mom and pop VCs. They’re making a conscious effort to do the right thing because it makes good financial sense. But the big kids? They don’t want to be bothered. They do what they do. They’re the masters of the universe and they don’t ever want to be regulated. They’re the problem.”

Kelly says industry excuses like “We don’t have the deal flow” no longer hold water.

“They have the deal flow, they’re just not letting them in the front door,” he says.

THE BIGGER PICTURE For Kelly and F5 Collective, SB 54 is just one piece of the puzzle.

True equity will require systemic change across education, legislation, and cultural attitudes.

“We need to teach little girls how to be investors,” Kelly asserts.

“We need women and people of colour to become capital allocators.

We need policies, investment, and the collective effort of everyone.”

As the world grapples with crises from climate change to social inequity, Kelly sees a deeper urgency. “We’ve got issues we need to solve before they’re unsolvable. And the people allocating the money are saying only people who look like me are allowed to fix those problems. What are they saying — that women and people of colour aren’t smart enough to solve these problems?”

FROM NOISE TO ACTION The journey of SB 54 shows what happens when frustration transforms into action. It’s a story of grit, strategy, and hope.

Against immense odds, a small group of determined individuals stood up to an industry that has long resisted change. And they won.

“We stopped with the noise,” Kelly says. “And we started doing something.”

ALLYSHIP: THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA SENATE BILL 54 (SB 54)

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WOMEN DOING GREAT THINGS

ALISHA GEARY BUILDS A BRIDGE TO INCLUSION AND OPPORTUNITY Navigating two worlds, the Australian First Nations entrepreneur creates community-minded businesses that celebrate her heritage and bridge the gap between Indigenous and Western cultures.

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By Linda Morris

Alisha Geary is a storyteller. Torre Strait Islander on her mother’s side and Australian Aboriginal on her father’s, the First Nations entrepreneur shares the stories of her culture through the companies she’s founded. These are intricate tales of empowerment for Indigenous artists, farmers, and healthcare professionals. The yarns she weaves create connection, enlightenment, and opportunity between Indigenous and Western sensibilities where once there was only division, misunderstanding, and a lack of prospects.

This journey of alignment began when, as a child, Alisha noticed polar opposite values between Indigenous and Western cultures, and felt drawn to bridging the two for the benefit of both.

“A lot of Indigenous culture is about collaboration and sharing, and Western culture can be very individualistic, focused on achievement and being special.

I would experience one point of view at home, then I would go to school and encounter the exact opposite,” Alisha explains. “That was very different for me growing up.”

Navigating both worlds gave her a front row seat to how big this divide really was. Out in the Western world, Alisha heard and was affected by how Indigenous people were misrepresented,

WOMEN DOING GREAT THINGS: ALISHA GEARY

resulting in a lack of opportunity. She developed a deep sense of fairness and justice, and sought ways to make an impact through empowerment and education. The stories of her people needed to inspire them to make the difference she knew they were capable of; however, how she would bring that to light wasn’t clear until her mother pushed her to go to university and get a degree.

DISCOVERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP Going to university and completing her degree meant Alisha would be the first member of her very large family to do so.

“When we have family reunions, there are at least 300 people from both sides, none of whom went to university and finished, so it was really important to my mum that I get my degree.”

Alisha studied law, but as she got closer to graduating, she realised there were three career paths she could take: teacher, journalist, or entrepreneur. The last of these was something she didn’t even know was possible until she saw some friends in high school start a side business — and the idea stuck with her. Once at university, Alisha learned of an accelerator program for young entrepreneurs that offered a AU $5,000 prize for the winner. She was accepted into the program, won the money, and discovered a whole new world of possibility she hadn’t imagined before, with

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I grew up with one foot in each world, and my ventures come out of my desire to create cohesion between my two very different cultures while helping my community and my family flourish in a very different system from what we’re exposed to.” Alisha Geary, Entrepreneur/Australian Community Builder

WOMEN DOING GREAT THINGS: ALISHA GEARY

a huge bonus: profit for purpose.

Entrepreneurship meant Alisha could be in control and use whatever business she created to support First Nations communities, giving them the support and opportunities they lacked. In addition, creating a shared encouragement and mutual appreciation between the two worlds she straddled meant those in her community would be seen, heard, and validated — and thereby thrive.

Imagining how she could use her own success to help her family and her community by providing a platform to shine a positive light on her culture, Alisha leapt into entrepreneurship, focusing on companies to empower and enable in: •

Self-care

•

Healthcare and Agriculture

•

Indigenous Founder Investment

SELF-CARE — FAEBELLA AND THIRSTY TURTL Alisha used the prize money from the accelerator program to start activewear line Faebella. Using a storytelling approach to feature Indigenous designs and artwork, it celebrated her heritage in ways those from the West could embrace and appreciate. Fashion, however, was not the goal.

“This business came about from the idea that if people knew more about the stories we tell in our artworks — the valuable knowledge we share —they would appreciate the culture more.”

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Through her use of Indigenous artwork, Alisha became acutely aware of a gap that needed to be closed: Indigenous artists license a great deal of their work to various brands, but are often taken advantage of in the process, with late, incorrect, or missed payments. Alisha wanted to change that by making sure First Nations artists got paid what they deserved, when they deserved it. She established Provvy, a stock image library of licensable Indigenous artwork, to ensure timely, correct payments to artists for their work.

Faebella’s use of First Nations artists caught the attention of skincare line Thirsty Turtl’s cofounder, sparking a discussion on the great Indigenous bush foods and plants that can be used to enhance the skin and body. Many Westerners don’t know about these botanicals, and if they were harvested through Indigenous farmers, those farmers would earn the profits. Thirsty Turtl became Alisha’s next venture, and the team brought in a cosmetic scientist to formulate the products in-house, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

AGRICULTURE AND HEALTHCARE — PROVVYPAY AND HEALTHERA AI Selling her management stake in Faebella, Alisha turned her full attention to Thirsty Turtl and started down a rabbit hole of agricultural concern.

“Less than 2% of the bush foods industry is actually owned by

WOMEN DOING GREAT THINGS: ALISHA GEARY

Indigenous people, although they know everything about bush foods.”

All farmers suffer the same payment crisis as artists, but these late and missed payments create far-reaching issues. The inconsistency not only makes it hard for them to maintain and resource their supplies, but it can also lead to food shortages in developing countries. These farmers also use sustainable techniques, giving back to the environment and enhancing the soil. To support such a viable, meaningful resource to the planet, Alisha focused on building a payment app for restaurants and grocery stores to pay these farmers in real time using the Provvy model — similar to Grubhub or DoorDash for agriculture.

Alisha moved to Indonesia to explore Provvypay for the hospitality industry. She also looked to Asia and South East Asia where much of the hospitality industry accepts payment in multiple ways, such as via QR code. Consolidation, however, is difficult for restaurants when it comes to tax time because of the unsophisticated payment infrastructure on the continent. Moving to the area represented a huge opportunity where she was setting up a partnership with an accounting firm when her friend called with a unique healthcare opportunity. He asked her if she would be willing to put agriculture on the back burner and help him create a similar model for healthcare lending. His plan was to set it up for a couple of years and sell it — and then Alisha could use the capital for her agriculture model.

The refashioned Provvypay became a subsidiary of the new Healthera AI platform — a no-forms P2P lending platform for doctors and dentists. It streamlines acquiring finance and credit by allowing these physicians to lend supplies, materials, and equipment to each other against their credentials. This business model is especially beneficial for rural, Indigenous healthcare professionals who need help getting nontraditional loans when they are overlooked by mainstream lenders. It is a similar struggle Alisha ultimately seeks to solve for farmers who, in addition to real-time payments, struggle to acquire finance because of the seasonality of their work and lack of transparency due to nonexistent reporting tools. The finance model Healthera AI is currently using would assist those in agriculture to buy the stock and tools required to invest in their farms and grow more sustainably as well. Seeing the benefit for farmers is what drew Alisha to build the healthcare loans platform first with the intention of returning to agriculture to solve a similar problem with the same technology.

INDIGENOUS FOUNDER INVESTMENT: BLAK ANGELS The more experience gained as a founder, the more Alisha saw the need to encourage other First Nations startups. In 2023, she and other Indigenous entrepreneurs came together to create an investment syndicate to support other like-minded founders. In consultation with U.S.-based First Nations investors and backed by the Minderoo Foundation and the U.S. government, and her team established Blak Angels Investment Group, a consortium designed to help grow First Nations startups.

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19 “We want to promote more First Nations entrepreneurs and successful businesses, because Indigenous entrepreneurs tend to employ other Indigenous people and build businesses that give back to the community,” Alisha says. “We want to keep that going and support that.”

THE STORY CONTINUES Although she moved away from her focus on agriculture, Alisha has not given up on it. By doing further research and aligning with the appropriate partners, she feels she can do something for First Nations growers that has never been done before: create an ecosystem that values their hard work and gives them the support and compensation they need to continue supplying families, markets, restaurants, and the public at large with the same care they show the land itself. She remains wholeheartedly devoted to entrepreneurship with focus on cultural impact.

“I think entrepreneurship is an amazing vehicle to uplift families and communities and enact a lot of change,” Alisha says, at the same time recognising the difficulty that

comes with her chosen path. “As they say in startup programs, it’s jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down. It’s rapid learning. If you’re comfortable, you’re not doing it right. You must be uncomfortable, and that’s just the reality of it.”

Alisha’s companies are giving voice to First Nations providers in ways that broaden their impact and bridge the cultural divide.

The core of her being is entrenched in ensuring that the culture and communities that matter to her are thriving. She continues to grow that story through entrepreneurship, engaging in programs to push herself even more, learn more about herself, and become a stronger guardian of her cultures.

“I’ve always thought that what’s missing in entrepreneurship is to find the individual’s connection to what they’re doing,” the young founder shares, “to ensure they’re able to build a business that is meaningful, not just for them, but for their community and society.”

The story Alisha tells is just beginning — and while each chapter may change, the theme remains the same.

“Everything I do needs to have some sort of impact that’s not just profit with no purpose to it. It must align with what I consider to be my North Star: create companies with a collectivist, collaborative sense. That comes from my culture. Whatever I do has to do something great for the community. Whatever community that may be.”

WOMEN DOING GREAT THINGS: ALISHA GEARY

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SCROOBIOUS FOUNDER ALLISON BYERS

By F5 Magazine Editors

Discover the value of storytelling, providing opportunities for underrepresented founders, and tips and tools on creating an engaging, eye-catching pitch deck.

We all have a story to tell. Our lives consist of hundreds, even millions of tales experienced during our lifetime. These define us and speak to the “why” of each action we take and decision we make.

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Allison Byers and her team at Scroobious understand the value of founders telling a good story to attract investors. Putting that insight to use, the company offers the tools needed to tell the right story to the right audience in their pitch deck, an invaluable and deeply personal resource.

THE PATH TO SCROOBIOUS After a decade in a professional career, Allison decided to venture into a startup, raising nearly US $10 million in five years. Then they ran into a wall raising Series B. “It was my first time in the startup space, and we weren’t able to raise the capital we needed at the time. We ultimately went through an early acquisition via an asset sale, which was not the outcome we originally envisioned. The acquiring company, which had an all-male leadership team, went on to raise $55 million shortly after. That was hard to see, and it made me question whether I had fundamentally failed, or if something else was at play,” Allison says.

Upon researching capital allocation, Allison discovered the statistics on venture dollars going to women-led teams (her partner was also a woman). According to a 2024 Fast Company article, while women generate 78 percent more capital than males, less than 2 percent of venture capital is allocated to women-led teams.

“I had a lightbulb moment many entrepreneurs don’t get to have, which was I didn’t fail. I was operating in a system where I was unlikely to raise what I was looking for although the company was obviously fundable.”

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: ALLISON BYERS

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Recognising she was part of a larger underrepresented and overlooked demographic, Allison redirected her professional career toward working for more equitable access to business capital for all. She had a vision of a platform focused on the growing alternative funding sources that are more likely to invest in underrepresented populations.

Scroobious was born to fight back against the disparity. When Allison was researching her business idea, it became clear many founders didn’t know how to tell their story in a way to specifically compel investors, which is a critical fundraising skill.

individualised feedback on their draft pitch material, including callouts where marketing language is used rather than what’s appropriate for an investor.

THE STORY OF BUSINESS

KEEPING IT REAL AND TRUE TO YOU

“In any business situation where you need to compel someone to believe in a future vision that doesn’t exist today, you must tell a story. There are different formats and different ways to be persuasive in those stories, but you must get people to buy in, and that’s what happens with an early-stage pitch as well.

You’re telling what’s interesting with the pitch.”

“It starts with the origin story, because it’s important to understand who the person is and what is the motivation for building this company,” Allison shares.

“It’s the single, most effective way to start that story. Especially when you’re at the early stage, and especially if you come from a marginalised segment or community. Your instinct is to keep your personal out of it and that it should be all business. There’s this perception that you must be super-formal, buttoned up and polished.”

This is what Scroobious coaches their founders on.

Through their platform, startups gain education and guidance on telling the story of how an investor will benefit by funding the founder’s company. It’s a very specific story focused on potential investors, something a founder has never had to do before, and it doesn’t come naturally.

“Founders don’t come from the industry of entrepreneurship or the industry of investing. They come from the space where they have unique insight and domain expertise. Why would they know how to tell that story? They need the education and the guidance,” Allison explains.

This is also a living story encompassing all you have achieved with your company, changing as your company changes. Scroobious teaches founders a narrative arc of how that is reflected.

Focusing the narrative on the right direction helps manage that opacity, which is important, and Scroobious has three main tips for crafting your pitch deck. The first one is something many founders don’t realise or think about but is perhaps the most important feature of their tale to share.

Tip one: The most important part of your story is you.

“But,” Allison confides, “It hurts your chances of connecting with the investors, because investors are just people, too. In particular, angel investors.”

Angel investors are those with discretionary wealth who invest on their own behalf vs. institutional or fund investors. While different investor personas, each looks to feel a connection. If you keep your personality out of it, the investor can’t get a sense of who you really are, and they can’t assess your motivation for starting this company in the first place.

“By leaving that out, founders actually damage themselves.”

“We also tell them why that narrative arc is impactful from the investor point of view and we show them how to be an effective storyteller.”

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM AND OFFER A SOLUTION

“SUIT THE ACTION TO THE WORD, THE WORD TO THE ACTION”

The final two tips Allison offers when crafting your pitch deck are to identify the problem you want to solve and what the solution is.

People don’t remember stories from boring storytellers. No matter who we are, we all recall that storyteller who did all the voices, set the scene, helped us visualise through words the experience they were sharing — real or fiction. This dynamic feeds into the narrative arc Scroobious recommends, and they came up with their own pitch framework to guide the narrative to the correct audience. This ensures founders are speaking in ways that are relevant to the investor conversation.

Through the Scroobious platform, founders receive

“Those are your tickets to the game, and everything else is about playing the game. Your origin story, the problem, and the solution — those three are the top.”

Identifying the problem and seeking a way to solve it speaks to what led Allison to start Scroobious in the first place and a path that has taken her into advocacy on a deeper level.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: ALLISON BYERS

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FINDING YOUR VOICE: SB 54 AND THE SPARK TO ADVOCACY This month’s Allyship article tells the full story of SB 54, which requires California VCs to report their diversity investments to boost funding for marginalised founders. Allison was an integral part of that legislation, a journey that started thanks to Scroobious.

“I was invited to run a pitch workshop for the Harvard Business Analytics Program and Kelly (Kimball) was an attendee. He reached out after to express how much he enjoyed the workshop, and I took it upon myself to deepen that relationship. You know when you’re an authentic person and an advocate, you can identify that in other people, and we saw that in each other. He witnessed my own entrepreneurial journey, got to understand where my areas of expertise are, and saw me authentically advocate for a sustained period. When he had the opportunity to work on legislation, he called me to be part of his small but mighty team.”

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This first foray into legislation led Allison to pursue advocacy and policy work on a broader scale. Those who follow her work and founders she helps and inspires through Scroobious often ask how to get involved as well, what ways they can make a difference. While Allison credits Kelly with kickstarting her because “I never would have thought I could enter that space before he brought me into it,” remaining active in advocacy work is due to her desire to take the reins of that first step and continue using her voice to make a difference.

“Ultimately, it takes acting on your values and consistently using your voice for yourself and your stakeholders to be invited into these rooms in these spaces. If you do, you get invited. If you stay quiet or you don’t act consistently, that’s when it’s a little harder to get involved.”

During times of difficulty and amid changes that are adversely affecting the communities Allison advocates for and Scroobious focuses on empowering, it helps to find pockets of positivity and forward movement on an individual level.

BRIGHT SPOTS OF MOTIVATION For most in Allison’s community, the current journey is difficult and because of the trust she has developed, there is a desire to share the good to uplift and encourage amid such disparity.

“For our members, I’m usually the first one they reach out to with good news or when a win happens,” Allison says. “And they’re usually big wins from people who have been in pretty dark places.

It’s so much motivation to move forward, and so much validation that things are worth it. You know there’s the masses, joining together and fighting dispersion. But then there’s seeing each person, and understanding that matters, too.”

Another bright spot is Allison noticing private investment is growing, something she thought would happen when she

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: ALLISON BYERS

established Scroobious. To give more insight into this trend, she’s writing a book called Fundraising for the Rest of Us. “The ‘Rest of Us’ is most of us. And if the ‘Rest of Us’ start participating in bigger numbers, that’s most of us, and we can decrease that marginalisation.”

We’ll share more as Allison’s book gets closer to press. In the meantime, visit Scroobious to learn about the services offered and what’s next on the horizon for the ‘rest of us.’

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WORK + LIFE HACKS WITH ALLISON What is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

It is okay not to have a plan. I had multiple plans for myself that were interrupted by things that were outside of my control, and it was the unexpected interruptions that led to the more fulfilling pathways.

You can’t have everything perfectly mapped out. Just because you encountered a boulder you couldn’t move doesn’t mean you can’t go around it and discover something more exciting.

What are your top 3 books, podcasts or resources for success (in business and/or life)?

One thing that is super important to me is to always maintain humour and levity and something fun, so my first thing is listening to every Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. It’s so good. I replaced the morning news with that because it makes me smile. It’s fun, funny and it does relate to success in business and life because he’s a good leader. I take learnings from it, but it makes me happy. My second one is more of a practical one, but LinkedIn is an incredible resource. I’ve used it throughout my whole career, and I’ve built an actual community from it. It’s a huge marketing channel for me that’s led to real world collaborations and friendships, and it’s all in what you put into it. Then the 3rd one is another podcast — the TED radio hour. Again, it’s not necessarily business although some episodes focus on business elements, but it again, lets my mind wander and make connections between lessons from different fields, and apply those learnings to what I’m working on. It gives me perspective, and it helps me keep my priorities straight in my life because your identity is not your business.

What’s your number one productivity hack?

One is a message that it’s okay to not be super productive all the time.

It’s a struggle for everybody but if you’re someone like me, where I context switch eight times a day, it’s very hard to be productive when you are context switching so that works for me. Second, keep a very accurate calendar including travel time. If it’s not on my calendar, I don’t know it exists. We have a personal family calendar and my work calendar. We must keep them accurate or it’s a problem. The last is learn your work style. If I need to be productive, like writing this book, I need an entire day to do nothing but that thing. If I do it, I’m super productive.

What’s your number one piece of advice in overcoming failure or mistakes?

My origin story, right? You can’t tie self-worth to a failure or a mistake.

That’s when people get in trouble. That’s when I got in trouble. Instead, you must flip that into learning about what happened and moving forward with that separation of self and thing that happened. Stewing and shame don’t help you. It doesn’t help other people. Learning and building resiliency can lead to better decision making after you go through something dark.

How do you stay motivated and driven, especially during challenging times?

It’s the thing I said about the individuals. When someone reaches out to me with a note or they’ll send me a link to my own LinkedIn post, saying, “I saw myself in that. Thank you so much for posting it,” it makes it worth it to be loud and take time to do those things.

Or when our founders write to me and say, “You had to be the first to know. I just won this pitch competition, and it’s life-changing grant money for the company.” All those things. It’s one person, but those are incredibly motivating. It counters that feeling of doom scrolling.

I do it just like anybody else. It’s so easy to get lost in the enormity of it all, and as much as I do with policy and advocacy work, I don’t have a voice at a federal level. I can’t do things to impact this horrific budget destruction and targeting of community members. It’s easy to get lost in the, “Well, whatever I do doesn’t matter, because this is going to happen,” and then forfeit to the inevitability of what you think is coming. So, focus on what you can do, and, on those individuals, you have a tangible impact. Take one step and you’ll see a result that counters that other feeling.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: ALLISON BYERS

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PURSUING PARITY

DEMYSTIFYING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION

After years of navigating the DEI and Talent space across global companies, Subana Paramuthevar shares insights on the efforts that truly build impactful, inclusive businesses and the critical role individuals play in driving that change.

By Linda Morris

The Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion landscape has always created discussion, sometimes confusion, and often controversy. While it is used to label and identify corporate advocacy programs, it is an everyday practice, not just a corporate term. As Subana Paramuthevar, expert in DEI and Talent Strategy explains, engaging with the space often starts at the fundamental, human level.

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“Working in DEI is not for the faint hearted. Learning the ‘why’ early is critical as the work requires grit and perseverance; most of all it needs to be part of your belief system.

“This way, during tumultuous times it transcends leaving or joining a job. It becomes more about how you embody values of inclusion and equity daily; and the actions and advocacy you commit to stay true to those values,” Subana says.

“It’s the same for businesses,” she continues, “If DEI is truly part of your DNA, and reflected in how you treat your people, shape culture, design systems, and make decisions then it becomes your default mode of operating, no matter what challenges arise. However, if it was always about box-ticking, and about projecting/managing an external image, then your efforts will be the first thing that is impacted when the landscape shifts.”

Subana partners with companies and individuals to uncover opportunities for business growth through a DEI lens. She helps organisations reconnect with the deeper purpose behind their DEI efforts, while building strategic, measurable approaches that drive value and strengthen their brand.

A LIFELONG COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION Born in Australia, Subana’s family returned to Chennai, India when she was just one. It was there she spent her early years, immersed in a world of contrasts.

“India has always felt like a land of extremes, where wealth and poverty live side by side, tradition and modern life constantly clash, and beauty and struggle are all tangled up together.”

PURSUING PARITY: SUBANA PARAMUTHEVAR AND DEI

Her childhood unfolded in the heart of this complexity, surrounded by chaos, tight-knit community, and a deep-rooted culture of collectivism shaped by these stark socio-economic divides.

“A lot of my values and beliefs are rooted in Indian culture, which are grounded in community, and collectivist mindset. These are central to my value system, and have and will always determine my approach to navigating the world both at a personal and professional level,” Subana explains.

Returning to Australia as a teenager and settling in a small country town, the contrasts only deepened. She watched her father, a man who grew up in abject poverty in Annamalaipudur — a remote village in Tamil Nadu — now teaching high school English in a classroom full of predominantly white Australian students; her family was one of the only families of colour in the town. It was moments like these that cemented her interest in how social structures and cultural identity shape and are shaped by human experience and behaviour.

Subana has straddled a career in both the Arts and Business world throughout her career. From writing and performing at the Sydney Opera House at the age of 14 to completing her MBA in Entrepreneurship at UTS Business School and working with high growth startups to help define their talent and growth strategy, and most recently, leading global DEI programs at Uber, the work that brought her to New York. Her work lives at this intersection, where people, culture, creativity and business meet. Fueled by a deep curiosity about human behaviour and identity, she has built a global career across markets in APAC, EMEA, and North America, with career defining experience in markets like Hong Kong, Delhi, Tokyo, Dubai, and now New York. She saw how the same situation can affect people in different ways depending on their background, and that perspective shaped how she approached problem-solving in her roles.

Along the way, Subana’s observed a troubling pattern: “The faster information comes at us, the less space we have to think, eroding curiosity in the process. This leads to a tendency to reduce people to labels and boxes. I remain committed to DEI because I’ve seen the harm this causes. I understand that people are not elevator pitches, and curiosity is inherently human to us. My work is focused on tools to help nourish, nurture, and encourage this,

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so we have the chance to build a more inclusive economic and social future.”

Experience and identity don’t fit in a box. Bias and bigotry come from others not fully appreciating another’s perspective, how they’re approaching it, or the subject matter they’re addressing.

It doesn’t matter which side of the political or cultural spectrum you’re on. We fear what we don’t understand. And many of us don’t understand what “DEI” truly embodies.

“My mission in life is to make the principles of DEI accessible. I want to demystify it, so everyone understands how it impacts them, and how they impact its existence I’m forever grateful for the privilege of global work opportunities.

While I worked hard for them and faced my share of challenges and failures, I don’t take it lightly. They have given me a unique lens and the ability to connect and build bridges across cultures.”

This journey also led Subana to recognise the depth and impact DEI efforts can have when backed by the right business strategies and a genuine investment in operational tools to drive meaningful change.

THE “WHAT” OF DEI Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion as a term creates unique friction.

Taken individually, the words represent a clear picture of what they are capable of together: Diversity (n.): the state of being diverse; variety.

Equity (n.): Levelling the playing field and ensuring we’re bridging the opportunity gap, so everyone has the same level of access.

Inclusion (n.): the action or state of including or being included within a group or structure.

DEI embodies the principles of not being one-size fits all. It’s not about giving a person of colour or a different gender a leg up over someone else even when that person is hired or promoted over that someone else. DEI is vast and covers a range of needs that underserved groups are notoriously overlooked and excluded from.

“This isn’t just my sentiment. There is data to show how history has systematically ignored specific groups of people, the reality being that their quality of life is worse off than other groups.”

But what does a DEI program take into consideration? Who are the groups being advocated for?

“It’s not about depriving one group of people to prioritise another group.

It’s things like implementing physical accessibility accommodations for someone who is wheelchair bound. That’s DEI. Creating the opportunity for parents, and carers to take time off to tend to their loved ones; it’s funding education and healthcare services for those who lack access to it. That’s DEI. These initiatives ensure that everyone takes part, contributes, and benefits in the social and economic sphere,” Subana explains.

There’s a lot of misconception about what DEI really means, especially when those in leadership assume that if an issue doesn’t affect them directly, it’s not worth addressing. This mindset is exactly what makes DEI work so necessary. The overintellectualising and dissecting ideas rather than understanding from a place of curiosity and a reality that most people exist in.

That misunderstanding can make it difficult to incorporate DEI practices and principles into a business structure.

“I do see this shifting, even if it’s not always from a mindset of ‘doing the right thing.’ Companies want to stay relevant and competitive, whether it’s to attract talent or scale their operations. So, once you decide to invest in DEI strategy, building the framework and seeing its benefits come to life in the long term is vital.”

THE “HOW” OF INCORPORATING DEI DEI goes beyond ensuring marginalised groups have equal access to jobs. It is good business practice, when you think about it. It could look like creating pathways for expanding your product development lens or crafting marketing material to address the consumer groups you may be overlooking. This ultimately helps in expanding your base for bottom line profits. This goes again to the need to understand how far-reaching DEI efforts are and why it needs to be woven into the company’s business model.

“The most frustrating part for me has always been the time it takes! I love moving fast, breaking things, rebuilding and seeing measurable results. But one thing working in DEI has taught me is that anything that drives societal or cultural shifts takes time; and forcing people into a corner because you’ve got some superficial metrics to tick off will probably collapse the culture you are attempting to build,” Subana explains.

“At the end of the day, every company aims to drive profit. The role of corporate DEI is to show leaders how DEI isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a value driver. Our job is to help them see that, and to operationalise it through data, strategy, and storytelling, both internally and externally.”

WHAT’S NEXT TO KEEP DEI THRIVING? “The interesting thing is, if you stopped a random person on the street and asked, ‘Do you think someone in a wheelchair deserves access to a restroom?’ Chances are, they’d say yes.

Most people agree in principle; the real challenge is turning that principle into practice,” Subana explains.

She concludes, “Our job as practitioners in DEI or adjacent spaces is to extend the table, invite conversation, and create room for competing perspectives to co-exist. We’re here to equip individuals and businesses with the tools to navigate and thrive in an increasingly globalised world, not to gate-keep, overintellectualise, or shut people out. It’s not always easy, but it’s the difference between performative efforts and truly building a more equitable, inclusive future of work.”

Subana Paramuthevar’s newest venture is Postcode F, (“F stands for Future!”) a company focused on the demystification of DEI for all, among other inclusive goals. Revisit her with us in our March 2026 issue to learn more about this new platform, gain more insight on how founders can incorporate DEI into their framework from the start and where we go from here in this unique space.

PURSUING PARITY: SUBANA PARAMUTHEVAR AND DEI

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BALANCING THE SCALES PART 1 OF “BRIDGING THE GAP”

SCHERIE NICOL:“IT’S THE INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS THAT MATTER”

By Holly Richards

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Did you know that as of 2024, women held only 26.5% of parliamentary seats globally? Or that around the globe, every 10 minutes, a woman is killed by an intimate partner or family member? It can feel impossible to hold any hope when reading statistics like these. Regardless of which end of the political spectrum you align with, the current state of the world still feels like a dangerous place for women. While it’s crucial to continue shedding light on heartbreaking stories and dire statistics, it’s equally imperative to recognise the abundance of progress and good happening for women on a global scale.

Scherie’s professional journey began in Inverness, Scotland, where she worked as an economist for a regional development agency.

Meet Scherie Nicol, Senior Policy Analyst in Public Finance at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, who speaks to The F5 Magazine about the encouraging improvement of conditions for women and girls around the world.

A serendipitous six-month secondment to the OECD in 2013 became a turning point. Initially intended as a short-term stint, Paris’ sunny allure and the OECD’s compelling work in public finance led her to extend her stay. Over nine years later, she remains deeply entrenched in her role, balancing her professional accomplishments with personal milestones, including raising a family in France.

“When I first started working on gender budgeting in 2016, about a third of OECD countries were practising gender budgeting,” Scherie explains. “We then ran the survey again in 2018 and 2022.

Now, almost two-thirds of OECD countries are practising gender budgeting. There’s been this incredible momentum towards incorporating evidence on the impact of policies on equality.”

She adds: “It’s very easy to look at political changes in individual countries and think we’re not making progress, or that some of these problems are so deep-rooted they won’t ever be addressed; but what I’m actually seeing is the opposite.”

FROM SCOTLAND TO PARIS: A CAREER SHAPED

BY OPPORTUNITY BALANCING THE SCALES — “BRIDGING THE GAP” PT. 1: SCHERIE NICOL

“It was wonderful,” she recalls, describing her work fostering economic prosperity in rural areas.

After transitioning to the Scottish Parliament, Scherie helped spearhead the establishment of the Financial Scrutiny Unit and played a pivotal role in preparing for Scotland’s increased fiscal powers.

DRIVING CHANGE THROUGH GENDER BUDGETING Scherie’s foray into gender budgeting in 2016 was unexpected but pivotal. When tasked with analysing a survey on gender budgeting practices across OECD countries, she uncovered significant opportunities for policy innovation. Shortly thereafter, Scherie collaborated with the Canadian government, which under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to institutionalise gender budgeting. This work laid the foundation for what is now considered a global benchmark in the field.

“Gender budgeting isn’t about gender equality alone,” Scherie explains. “It’s about ensuring that governments use evidence to

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momentum. These practices transcend political cycles, fostering long-term improvements in decision-making.

“Once policymakers see how their decisions affect different groups, it’s hard to unsee it,” Scherie observes.

By institutionalising tools like gender budgeting, governments can ensure that decisions are informed by robust data, even amidst shifting political priorities. Transparency further amplifies accountability, allowing citizens to assess whether leaders’ choices align with evidence-based recommendations. understand the impact of their budget decisions. By doing so, they can eliminate inadvertent bias and maximise the effectiveness of public spending.”

For instance, Scherie’s analysis in Brazil demonstrated that closing the gender employment gap could significantly boost GDP, allowing citizens to afford essentials such as groceries, rent, or tuition. Such findings underscore how reducing gender disparities benefits entire societies, not just women.

Despite gender equity being a macro issue, Scherie believes that real change stems from individual actions.

“When I was working in Scotland, my counterpart’s PhD looked at the impact of administrative action on policy outcomes,” she recalls. “It found that it is the actions of individuals over time that had the most significant impact. That’s why initiatives like gender budgeting aim to change the overall approach to evidencebased decision-making across governments.”

Scherie stresses, “It’s the individual actions that matter. That’s what drives change.”

ADDRESSING MULTIFACETED BARRIERS The path to closing gender gaps is far from straightforward.

Scherie emphasises the interconnected nature of inequalities, which necessitates a multi-pronged approach.

“You can’t just invest in childcare and expect that to solve everything,” she notes. “In countries like Brazil and Australia, barriers vary widely based on location, ethnicity, and religion.

It’s crucial to address cultural norms, economic incentives, and systemic issues like gender-based violence.”

Her work with Brazil highlights this complexity. Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the OECD is suggesting new approaches to help realise the economic gains possible from gender parity. This collaboration mirrors Scherie’s earlier success in Canada, demonstrating the potential for tailored, evidencebased policies to drive substantial progress.

THE POWER OF EVIDENCE AND TRANSPARENCY One of Scherie’s most striking insights is the enduring impact of embedding evidence into governance. She cites the growth of gender budgeting practices across OECD countries — from one-third in 2016 to nearly two-thirds in 2022 — as proof of

OVERCOMING BIAS FOR GREATER PROSPERITY Scherie’s advocacy extends to addressing unconscious bias, a pervasive issue in economic systems. She references a 2017 Swedish study that revealed how male entrepreneurs were more likely to secure funding than equally qualified women, highlighting the economic inefficiencies of biased decisionmaking. Gender budgeting, Scherie argues, offers a practical solution.

“By mandating analysis as part of funding processes, we ensure that resources go to the most promising ventures, regardless of gender.”

THE OECD EXPLAINED The OECD is an international organisation that works to foster economic growth, improve living standards, and promote global trade and cooperation. With 38 member countries (as of 2025), including some of the world’s most advanced economies such as Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, the OECD is uniquely positioned to analyse and influence policies impacting gender equality.

PERSONAL PERSISTENCE For Scherie, progress is about persistence.

“I’m happy to grind away at the administrative level with civil servants, working to change how everyday decisions are made.

Whether people choose to act on the evidence or not, the fact that it’s there speaks volumes.”

While the statistics surrounding gender inequality can be disheartening, Scherie’s insights offer a beacon of hope.

Progress may not be linear or fast, but it is happening.

From embedding gender budgeting practices to increasing transparency and accountability, small, consistent actions are making a big difference. By continuing to shine a light on both the challenges and the wins, we can move closer to a more equitable world for women everywhere.

BALANCING THE SCALES — “BRIDGING THE GAP” PT. 1: SCHERIE NICOL

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BALANCING THE SCALES PART 2 OF “BRIDGING THE GAP”

THE PENSION GAP: WHY WOMEN RETIRE WITH LESS AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

By Holly Richards

Around the world, women are working longer, earning less, and retiring into poverty at staggering rates.

Per the World Economic Forum, women retire with up to 40% less in pension savings than men. In the United States, that gap translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the UK, it’s over 30%. In Australia — a nation with one of the world’s most sophisticated retirement systems — one in three women retires into poverty. And the fastest-growing group of people facing homelessness? Women over 55.

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These aren’t just numbers. They’re the real-world consequences of a superannuation and pension system never designed with women’s lives in mind.

“The system was built by men who assumed everyone would work full-time, uninterrupted, for 40 years,” says Pascale Helyar-Moray OAM, founder of Grow My Money. “That’s not how women live, and it’s costing us our futures.”

After decades in global finance, Pascale returned from the UK to Australia only to face the same systemic gender bias that keeps women out of financial security. What she did next would go on to disrupt an an industry, and spark a movement.

“I wanted to work three days a week on the same salary I was earning in London,” she recalls, laughing. “Back then, people just said, ‘Very funny. Thank you. Bye.’” Like so many women trying to balance ambition and caregiving, she forged her own path and launched a jewellery e-commerce business from her living room floor.

That entrepreneurial detour was just the beginning. Years later, while consulting with the Australian Gender Equality Council, Pascale found herself stunned by the data she was seeing.

“Women were retiring with roughly half the superannuation of men. One in three were retiring into poverty. And nearly 40% of working-age women weren’t in the paid workforce. How are they

BALANCING THE SCALES — “BRIDGING THE GAP” PT. 2: PASCALE HELYAR-MORAY

meant to ‘top up their super?’ With what income?”

Her frustration — and refusal to accept a broken system — gave birth to Grow My Money, a platform that allows women (and men) to grow their superannuation or pay down their mortgage simply by shopping. Retailers like Australia-based Big W or Chemist Warehouse pay a commission to the platform, which is then split with users and deposited directly into their super fund or home loan.

“It’s affiliate marketing used for good,” she says. “You’re going to buy the groceries anyway. Why not get rewarded for it?”

The platform was acquired by Finder in 2024, allowing it to scale its impact and integrate with broader financial literacy and rewards tools offered by the brand. Pascale recently contributed to Finder’s State of Women’s Wealth Report 2025, released in April of this year.

A GLOBAL PROBLEM The gender gap in retirement savings isn’t just an Australian issue. It’s global, systemic, and deeply rooted in how society values (or doesn’t value) women’s labour.

The causes are maddeningly consistent across borders: the gender pay gap, time out of the workforce for caregiving, the part-time work trap, and financial abuse or exclusion.

“In Australia, 38% of women aged 15 to 64 aren’t in the paid workforce. Of those who are, only 40% work full-time,” Pascale says. “The system was never designed with women in mind. It was designed by men, for uninterrupted, full-time working lives.”

DIVORCE AND THE SUPER DISAPPEARING ACT Then there’s separation and divorce. Though in Australia and many nations around the world, family law encourages equitable division of assets, the lived reality often plays out very differently.

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“A common story is: ‘You take the house, I’ll take the super,’” Pascale explains. “But you can’t eat your house. Women give up the asset that would actually fund their retirement.”

that align with their values, contribute as early as possible — to harness the power of compound interest — and consolidate accounts. “You don’t have three mobile phone plans, so why would you have three super accounts?”

Post-divorce, the super gap can blow out to over 100%.

And for younger women, especially Gen Z just entering the workforce, there is immense opportunity.

BEYOND BLAME: A BROKEN SYSTEM

“Time is your friend,” Pascale says. “If you do even a little now, consistently, you could retire without a gender super gap at all.”

Pascale is careful not to individualise what is fundamentally a systemic issue.

“A man is not a plan,” she quips, “but let’s also not blame women for not having a plan when the entire system was built to exclude them.”

Financial literacy, cultural background, trauma, domestic violence, and coercive control all impact a woman’s ability to earn, save, or even make decisions about money. One woman is killed every four days in Australia due to domestic violence, often preceded by financial abuse. Globally, a woman or girl is killed every ten minutes at the hands of an intimate partner or close family member, according to a 2023 analysis by UN Women. This form of violence against women even has a new term: “femicide.”

“It’s not laziness. It’s systemic gender bias that says men handle the money, and women get an allowance. Even today.”

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE The good news? There are tools, movements, and products now trying to right these structural wrongs. Initiatives like Grow My Money are part of a broader wave of fintech solutions with a feminist lens; they’re designed to reward unpaid labour, increase passive super contributions, and encourage financial independence.

Education is also key.

“Super is just a product,” Pascale reminds us. She urges women to do their research, engage with ethical investment options

DARE TO BE RICH Now an Order of Australia Medal recipient and bestselling author, Pascale is far from finished. She’s launching a podcast provocatively titled Dare to Be Rich — a call to arms for women to claim financial agency on their own terms.

“Rich doesn’t just mean wealthy,” she says. “It means having the power to choose.”

That’s what superannuation should be: freedom, choice, and security after a lifetime of work, paid or unpaid. But until systems catch up with the lives women actually live, we’ll need more disruptors like Pascale. And a lot more women who dare.

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEALTH BY THE NUMBERS

Average net wealth: Men AU $597,000 vs Women $428,000

Gen Z men are twice as likely to own a home outright

48% of women have less super than they expected at this stage of life

1 in 3 single women over 60 lives in income poverty

Source: Finder State of Women’s Wealth Report 2025

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