Models I Live By

Behind every ‘success’ is a person who took a bet on someone else.

For many founders, it’s either someone they’ve worked with, a friend, a parent or a spouse.

A spouse is the hardest because you spend the most time with them and you’re risking your entire marriage – if it doesn’t work the ramifications are pretty catastrophic for you both. Yet that’s the path I chose. There’s a reason they say that who you marry is far more important than what you’ll choose to do with your life; if it’s a person who battles you every step of the way, your path is virtually impossible. It’s like going through the Amazon with someone dropping traps in front of you, every step of the way.

The stories I read about Australian female founders don’t really cover how the funding starts, yet for any of us to make headway, it’s helpful to know how it’s worked before.

My husband is medical, my background is legal. He backed me from the start – no matter what career I chose, he wanted to be there. But before you think that made it a cruisy journey, I’m here to tell you the battle is real. It’s because he’s so supportive that I am so – well, conscious that I don’t want to let him down. It does my head in which isn’t really helpful when you’re trying to reinvent a century old eating experience. Every funding path comes with its own set of trade offs and this is the one I chose.

I’d be lying if I told you it doesn’t cross my mind that friends and colleagues theorise as to how I’m doing it. ‘Yeh rich spouse’ ‘if only I had that’ ‘what does she even do all day’. And all I have here is fuel and understanding. It’s fuel for me to work hard and serve people. And it’s understanding – I’d probably ask the same. That’s why I’m answering it. And what’s funny is most people don’t care. So those conversations may well never have happened. Focus on your lane.

My blessing is that I was raised in such a strict household that I had to learn I could not afford to care what others thought. I wasn’t about to rebel, so I just had to accept that I didn’t have the same rules as everyone else. That mental fortitude has served me in spades.

So my husband is bringing in the income while I build this up. He started his practice when we got married and back then I’d been just finishing my degree. He offered to defer his start in his partnership so he could come with me on my final 6 months exchange – which was a mandatory part of my degree; and the part I’d been most excited about. But I knew it would not bode well for him to start 6 months behind. I changed my degree. It put me about a year behind. But he made up for it in ways I cannot begin to count. His income supports us while I build this and it is my dream to give him that same freedom.

I got a safety net at work; my team had offered me a promotion and told me my position would be open if I decided to go back.

I don’t know how other female founders around Australia are getting funded – living with Mum and Dad? Partner? Renting? 2 jobs? All I know is it would be helpful for the next generations to know so we can help show them pathways.

Because no one great got anywhere without someone taking a bet on them.