CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 10 2023 23 Mar22259 A Firm Foundation Specialising in connecting and supporting Australian start-up companies and its founding members, The Startup Network has gone from strength to strength in the last two years following the appointment of ambitious CEO, Vicki Stirling. We speak to Vicki and find out more about the company and its vision as she celebrates being bestowed with the title of Most Influential CEO 2023 - Australia (Business Support). The Startup Network supports company founders across Australia to develop skills, gain knowledge, and become part of a close-knit community of entrepreneurs, no matter what stage they are at with their start-up. Providing education, content, and legendary events, the company’s “secret sauce” is its inclusive approach to the founder experience, along with the firm belief that it takes more than one Individual to build a start-up – it takes a village, and The Startup Network is that village. Vicki Stirling is Chief Executive Officer of the firm and in this capacity her vision is to ensure that all company founders have a place to come to get the right advice and support on their journey. “We know how lonely the founder journey can be and we aim to make the experience as inclusive and accessible as possible,” she explains. “At The Startup Network, we pride ourselves on representing the underrepresented and ensure that our members know that these are our core values. There is no exclusive access to our content or courses; we are all on the journey together.” Vicki’s values have solidified in her time as CEO, and she has not wavered from this mission of inclusivity and openheartedness since the very beginning. As a leader, she prides herself in creating an inclusive and autonomous environment for the people within the organisation too, providing both guidance and clarification, and yet always ensuring that the firm has a clear goal and vision to push towards. With her leadership style having been heavily influenced by her time at Nike, as well as the flat matrix structure, the freedom to produce her best work has had a big impact on Vicki from very early on in her career, and this is something that she has always strived to replicate. “There was a period in my career where I lost my way a little, but eventually I was able to see that my ability to lead with authenticity was being overshadowed and influenced by people who’s values did not align to my own,” she elaborates. “This was a period of my life when I was influenced too much by the masculine energy around me and my team. This energy stopped me from being true to myself, in fact, I would say I lost myself at this time. It took a lot of deep inner work to see that I needed to reset and really get to know myself fully. I needed to identify what was triggering me in the workplace and why.” With this new-found awareness, Vicki was able to see how her own conditioning and her own past experiences were influencing her ability to be the leader she wanted, and needed, to be. “I am grateful to have been on this journey,” Vicki enthuses. “I can truly say that I am now able to step into my feminine power and lead with empathy and compassion for my team, and my community.” And lead she does! Describing her team as being “everything”, Vicki tells us that she is grateful for the talent that she gets to work with every day. Each member of the team is an expert in their own space, meaning they are the owner of the experience they, in turn, provide to founders. This carefully cultivated collaborative, supportive, and transparent environment ensures that The Startup Network team can continue connecting its members to a likeminded and aligned community. When Vicki initially joined the company two years ago, it was very much reliant on funding from the Victorian government, which was really valuable at the time, but she had a vision to take the organisation nationally and felt that it needed to reduce its ties to government funding. Fast forward 18 months and the company is now fully independent and self-supporting through memberships, partnerships, education, and events, with its latest achievement being the recognition that Vicki recently gained as Most Influential CEO 2023 – Australia (Business Support). But what does the future look like for both the firm and its ambitious CEO? Over the next 12 months, Vicki is steadfast in her vision to bring world-class speakers and global start-up leaders to Australia to help to support its national innovation journey. This year, in June, this dream was realised for the first time as the company welcomed renowned entrepreneur, Sam Altman to speak to its evergrowing community. Vicki will also continue to add to its incredible education platform and expand beyond its existing pre-accelerator content. “The Startup Network is growing its community nationally and is passionate about removing borders from founders,” Vicki enthuses. “I’m also very passionate personally about supporting female founders, so we aim to continue connecting founders from all over Australia and will be doing more of this through the launch of our new digital platform later this year.” Company: The Startup Network Contact: Vicki Stirling Web Address: www. thestartupnetwork.com.au Aug23077
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