AFC presents In Conversation: Three Founders, Honestly Speaking

AFC Presents: In Conversation - Three Founders, Honestly Speaking

Did you know it’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on Thursday the 19th of November? We’re closing the day with a conversation - three founders who’ve actually built, scaled and sold real businesses, sitting down to talk honestly about what that took. This event is open to everyone (men - this means you!!!)

📅 Key Event Details

Date: Thursday 19 November

Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Location: Stone & Chalk Melbourne

Free to attend

The Panel

Danielle Pearce, Founder of Merry People: Danielle built Merry People from the ground up into a household gumboot brand, navigating product, manufacturing and brand all at once. She’s covering the real arc of building a product-led business people actually want.

Lauren Oakes, Cofounder of Thursdays: Lauren scaled an agency from $1M to $20M and picked up 70+ awards along the way, including Global Executive of the Year and a spot on Deloitte’s Fast 50. She’s talking through what it actually takes to lead and scale, and what she took with her into fractional and founder life.

Jodi Geddes, Founder of Brandiie (exited Circle In): Jodi built her name and business around personal branding, helping founders figure out how they show up. She’s bringing the lens of what it takes to build a brand alongside a business.

What You’ll Learn

What it actually looks like to lead and scale a business past the early stage

What building a product people love, from scratch, really takes

How personal brand and business brand work together (or pull apart)

A fun, real conversation about the messy parts

Want to sponsor this one?

We’re looking for a partner for the evening panel - this is a free, open event closing out a full day of programming for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. If that’s of interest, get in touch with the team to talk through what’s available.

Venue Sponsor: Stone & Chalk Melbourne

We're hosted by Stone & Chalk, one of Australia's largest innovation hubs and home to hundreds of startups, scaleups, and the people building them. Their Melbourne space sits in the heart of the city's startup community, and we're stoked to be running this one in their room.

AFC is backed by Innovation Victoria

Innovation Victoria is the newly merged organisation combining LaunchVic and Breakthrough Victoria, bringing support, capability building and investment together in one place to grow Victoria's startup ecosystem. Their backing is what lets us run these events.

Grateful to have them backing us.