In Australia, women represent just over 30 per cent of entrepreneurs – but their numbers are growing faster than men.
The rise of women in business is deeply inspiring to us at Propeller Advisory, and we love sharing stories about people having a red hot go in business and succeeding whatever their background.
But today we want to share the successes of three women who are taking big strides in business down under and inspire us to push harder.
1. Melanie Perkins from Canva
If you’ve designed something on the internet recently or commissioned someone else to do it for you, chances are Canva was involved.
Founded by Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, Canva is a graphic-design tool website that gives anyone who clicks through access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts.
Melanie has been a key driver for the company, drawing on her deep expertise in web design and business savvy to make Canva a rising force online.
2. The founder of Flamingo, Catriona Wallace
The rise of artificial intelligence is bringing fast change to the business world and Australia’s Flamingo is at the cutting edge.
Entrepreneur Catriona Wallace founded the company and listed it on the ASX in 2014 to make it just one of two companies on the exchanges with a female CEO and chair.
Flamingo is developing virtual assistants to make working easier and has raised many millions to fund their commercial development.
3. Maree Adshead from the Open Data Institute Australian Network
We love data at Propeller Advisory – it drives everything we do from bookkeeping with Xero to running as a virtual CFO.
But when it comes to pushing what’s possible with data to the heights we’d love to see, Maree Adshead is a leading light.
Inspired by the Open Data Institute created by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, she founded the Open Data Institute Australian Network to harness the power of data to make the world a better place.
Her network is a not-for-profit organisation that helps businesses, researchers and communities understand the power of data and then apply it to the real world.
Whether its design, artificial intelligence or the power of big data, the common thread between all these women is the guts to take a chance and back their vision.
That’s worth celebrating – and being inspired by.
