Christie Whitehill learned the hard way how to start a tech company, and now teaches other businesswomen skills to avoid similar financial and emotional angst.

The founder and chief executive of Tech Ready Women and the creator of the Tech Ready Program has global plans for her business, and is already in talks with Australian universities and a major (unnamed) media organisation.

TGF: Why did you start Tech Ready Women?

Ive been in the tech business for nine years and I was always the only woman in the room at networking events. And, being a non-tech founder, I made a lot of mistakes, including very expensive ones building technology, having to throw away code, hiring the wrong developers and the wrong team members in general.

I thought there needs to be programme that helps founders, particularly women, because were very under-represented in this industry.

TGF: Tell us about your first tech experience.

I was 25 when I started my business in 2011, it was a dating website called Fancy My Friend that involved friends recommending their single friends.

We did what most non-technical first time founders do; we Googled website developer. We ended up hiring someone in India, and, as you can imagine, two non-technical people trying to tell someone across the other side of the world how to build technology.it ended up quite disastrous. So fast forward, I then created a dating app called Fancied. This was pre-Tinder. I raised $300,000 in seed funding. but by the time we launched and we were getting tractionTinder hit the market. So, a lot of lessons, a lot of heartbreak.

TGF: Tell us about Hatching Lab.

The team that I had formed with Fancied were really experienced, fantastic developers, we started working [as Hatching Lab] with entrepreneurs to give just trusted genuine advice. Then we started working with corporates; we built EYs R&D tool Ready which is now being scaled globally. So, in my career so far, Ive worked on about 30 technology builds from idea to execution. I dont code but have learned a lot about how to hire the right people.

TGF: Whats the business model of Tech Ready Women?

Tech Ready Women is, at the moment, a service-based business. Were an education company. [Other] programmes in the market are taking equity from businesses at a very early stage and I didnt really want to do that. I just wanted to charge a fee for service, so its clean: come and learn. Its a skills based programme, its very hands-on, practical learning but also paired with mentors; product managers, developers, designers, investors. We introduce them to the start-up community, as a first step into the industry, but meeting the right people giving them the right adviceso they dont spend years on one idea wasting time and money on something people might not want to buy.

TGF: Whats your definition of a tech business?

I would describe a tech business as any business that uses technology as a way to scale and operate. Some might argue against this, but I would even call an e-commerce business a tech business because its built on a technology platform; thats where your customers are transacting. Today, [even] banks are calling themselves technology businesses, and they have to move quickly, because thats where the customers are.

TGF: Who does a Tech Ready Women course?

Typically the women who do our course are women who are coming out of corporate, theyre dissatisfied in their role, or theyve seen something in their industry, a problem that they want to solve, and they want to solve it but theyre not sure how. We also have women coming from maternity leave.

TGF: Have you clocked up any successes?

We have lots of successes. We are very early stage, so even a pivot where someone says Thats not a good idea, Im going to do something else', thats a success. Weve also got revenue-generating businesses like Blaise McCann from Hear us Roar, shes now profitable and she completed our programme in 2017, and a few have gone on to get into the advanced accelerator programmes.

TGF: What about men, can they do the course?

The [tech] space is very male dominated. The men are welcome to do the [digital] course, and 50% of our mentors are men, very supportive male champions, they are represented, just in a different way. Women are so under-represented in this space, there was no community. I wanted to create that community.

TGF: Where do you begin when youre teaching tech start-up entrepreneurs?

Typically we start at the idea validation point. We focus on going out and speaking to prospective customers. I cant tell you how many people dont actually do that. They typically go Ive got an idea, Im going to go build it. You want to go straight into solution mode. We try to take the entrepreneurs back to: What is the problem youre solving? Is it a real problem? Is it a big enough problem? So we focus on problem-solution fit as we call it in start-up world.

Then we go onto market discovery: How bigs the market? How can you make money? Whats the value proposition? Whats the business model going to look like? You cant have all those nailed down in 10 weeks, but its a process, and we give them the tools to be able to keep iterating on the process, and to keep validating as they go.

TGF: What would you do if you had your time over again with your first tech business?

Validate, validate, validate. I would have educated myself a lot more first, and not just jumped straight in. Ive got one of those personalities, a typical entrepreneur, when Ive got an idea I just want to go for it. I would have slowed things down a little bit. I would have educated, validated and slowed down.

TGF: Whats your vision for Tech Ready Women?

Ive got a global vision; currently we are in talks with universities, expanding what were doing working with universities in Australia, and eventually throughout the world. Id love to create a connected space so women in Australia could launch their businesses internationally. Were working on some great partnerships at the moment, with universities and media companies.

Christies GREAT EIGHT, answers to our eight getting to know you questions:

Recommended book:The Breakthrough Experience by Dr John Demartini. Hes my mindset guru.

If you could co-author a book with anyone in the world who would it be, and whats the book title? It would probably be with neuroscientist and mindset coach Dr Joe Dispenza, and be on mindset tools and skills for entrepreneurs.

Best piece of advice you can share? If speaking to business leaders and business developers, its always working on your personal development. Its just so key; mindset, mental health. We all experience the ups and downs of running a business and it can be really tough.

What's been your lowest moment, and how did you recover from it? I think with Fancied, that was my lowest moment in business, I felt like the biggest failure. I wasnt expecting it, I had such high ambitions for it, and it was my first experience in business. At the time I found who my mindset coach is now, and worked through it quickly, and balanced the perception on the perceived failure, which was really just a big learning opportunity, so now Im grateful because it led me on my path.

How do you relax? Spending time with family (I have a two and a half year old), spending time with my husband, going out to nature.

Whats a fun fact thats not widely known about you? When I was younger I wanted to be a Park Ranger!

What do you think is the secret of success? Defining your own success and never measuring it against other people.

What is your prediction for 2025? Tech Ready Women will be in five different countries.

After an energetic and lively performance by the String Sirens, mains were served before a sponsor presentation by T20 World Cup 2020 CEO, Nick Hockley.

Blazing a trail for women in sports, he asked guests to imagine 90,000 people watching the ICC Womens T20 World Cup on International Womens Day. Inda Nooyi, recently appointed as the ICCs first female Independent Director, grew up a keen cricketer, learning many lessons about leadership, teamwork and cooperation that she would draw on throughout her professional life.

The Immigrant Mentality

In a conversation that covered a myriad of topics, family life, gender and the Immigrant Mentality were focal points, with the latter something she maintains to this day.

I dont think Im an exception. Most immigrants...have a fear that things may not work out...interestingly, its never gone, even today...40 years later.

She described the fear that things could be taken away at any time, and the embarrassment of having to answer to her failures to those in her birth country. Despite her success, the fear remains.

The Power of Legacy

The conversation moved to CEO succession as a process, both Indra Nooyis own move into the role of CEO of PepsiCo, as well as her transition out of the company. Describing the effective system used by PepsiCo, Indra and her team identified 10-15 people of different ages who could go all the way. Over the course of up to four years, she created opportunities for the board to see each of them in action, along with extensive documentation on each one.

A comment that surprised many of guests, was not that the process of succession was taken seriously, but the extent to which Nooyi invested in her own:

I was more worried about my legacy than I was about my performance as a CEO.

Mega Trends

The big moves made by Nooyi during her 12 year tenure at PepsiCo are widely known, but for her they were never gigantic decisions. She advised the audience to do what she did as CEO, which was to identify the mega trends of her industry, and determine what moves had to be made to address them.

This process is not about intuition or experience, but rather about getting all the facts.

Youd be surprised how many of those trends youre ignoring or not addressing.

She went on to share several anecdotes, though the common theme was clear:

Just because youre a CEO, doesnt absolve you of the responsibility of getting the details.

The Good and the Bad

Dealing with controversy is nothing new for Nooyi, something she touched on in reference to PepsiCos infamous Live for Now advertisement. Although focus groups suggested otherwise, the backlash was both quick and severe. Nooyi ultimately viewed the experience as a learning opportunity:

At the end of the day, we all learn from these sobering experiences.

Gender and Bias

Questions from the audience led to a discussion about balancing family/work life, and the difficulties women and minorities face in the workplace.

Inside many companies, we have to address this issue of conscious and unconscious bias...you strip those people, you slowly strip them of their confidence, and when you strip them of their confidence, you strip away their competence.

She went on to share some inspiring words with the audience, the magnitude of which was felt by the men and women in the room, alike:

...All these labels are what people give you, not necessarily what you are...The fact is, theres a job to be done, and I believe Im the best person to do it.

An Evening with Indra Nooyi

After the Q and A dessert was served, a decadent selection which included an affogato station, before a partner address from Dave Woodall, EGM, Corporate and Regional Growth of Sunsuper.

While the food was in abundance and the drinks seemed to flow endlessly, it was hard not to feel stimulated by the animated conversations, rich music and overwhelmingly, the sage words and hard-learned lessons shared by the guest of honour, Indra Nooyi. Her experience is unlike any other, and spending a night in her company was likewise a unique and special occasion for all those who attended.

Thank you to everyone who attended An Evening with Indra Nooyi, ICC T20 World Cup 2020 , Sunsuper , and all of our other event partners.

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