Kickstarter FAQs

The Kickstarter Challenge is a competition for female entrepreneurs with a new business idea. Kickstart your business by entering this national competition and be in the running to win some amazing prizes, including a life-changing share of $60,000 equity-free prize money to help you accelerate your business idea. 

Check out the terms and conditions to learn more.

You have until 6:00pm on, Sunday, 15 October 2023 (AEST) to submit your idea.

One finalist from each category will be flown to Canberra to attend the Kickstarter Challenge Grand Final where they will pitch their ideas to a panel of industry experts. 

The finalists will receive the support needed to bring their ideas to life including a $60,000 equity-free prize pool, mentorship opportunities and much more!

It’s really simple. All you have to do is submit your idea via the Kickstarter Entry page on our website. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the judging criteria in order to give yourself the best chance of standing out.

Check out the terms and conditions to learn more.

Yes! We would love to help you. Join us for an Incubator Workshop where we will help you refine your idea. If you still have some questions feel free to email us here. 

Good entrepreneurs convey their business idea, unique selling point and target audience precisely. Strong submissions are short and to the point.

Character limits are included in the form fields of your submission.

If you choose to include a video into your submission (we recommend you do) there is a 60 second time limit. Here is some great advice to help you with your pitch – Become Pitch Perfect.

That said, we don’t want to impede your creativity and all business ideas are different and will require a different entry. If you need help submitting, please email us at hello@enterprising-women.com.au.

We recommend you attend an Incubator Workshop. These events are targeted at helping you refine your business idea. And you’ll have the opportunity to discuss your submission with an expert. Get more details.

Yes, here is a great place to start. Our Pitch Perfect tips from our entrepreneurial queen Laura, will get you camera phone ready, Laura will assist you in articulating and presenting your business idea.

Climate Change and Sustainability
What is a sustainable solution to help protect and safeguard the climate.

Health, Wellbeing and The Care Economy
What improvements can be made to address health and wellbeing challenges facing.

STEM and Technology
What modern problem can be solved through a digital or tech solution?

Women’s Economic Equality
What innovative idea helps to empower women and girls by strengthening their economic security, participation, leadership or safety?

Business ideas can only be entered into one category, so be sure to choose the one that’s most appropriate for you.

Yes, you can. We celebrate entrepreneurship and all of your ideas.

This challenge is to help women kick start their new businesses, therefore your business ABN must not have been registered prior to 1 January 2020 and should be in the early-start up phase, with revenue under $75,000 per annum. Only at ideation stage? That’s fine! The Kickstarter Challenge is designed for women in the early stages of their start-up journey, you just need to register an ABN which is free to do!

That’s okay, however, the Accelerator for Enterprising Women exists to help women kick start their business journey. Therefore,  the percentage of your co-founders must be at least 50 percent women or those who identify as female or are gender non-binary.

There will be two judges per category scoring the entries to determine the finalists. These judges will be industry experts from a broad range of backgrounds and sectors, and will be scoring based on the criteria outlined on the Kickstarter entry page.
The finalists will then pitch their business ideas to five industry judges at the Grand Final.

Yes, if your business was registered after 1 January 2020, you are eligible to enter the 2023 Kickstarter Challenge. You will need to attach evidence of your business name registration to your submission.

Yes you can also enter the Kickstarter Challenge with an ACN, provided this was registered after 1 January 2020.

More women than ever are working, with 5.8 million now employed in Australia. Yet women still face a gender pay gap and the average superannuation of an Australian woman is 42 per cent below an Australian man. This disparity has long-term consequences for Australia and must be addressed for self-employed women in particular.

Self-employment is an increasingly viable career path in Australia, particularly for women who would otherwise face barriers to workforce participation. Advances in digital technology and globalisation are reducing barriers to entrepreneurship. For example, the NBNCO Connecting Australia study demonstrated that the percentage growth rate of female-led businesses in locations with NBN access was 23 times higher than in other areas.

Despite the employment advantages of an entrepreneurial skill set, only 31% of Australian startups are female-led. There is also well-known gender disparity in STEM fields in Australia, with very low rates of female participation.

We are tackling this problem by helping girls and women see running their own business as a viable option with our program, the Academy for Enterprising Girls and the Accelerator for Enterprising Women.