Missing Perspectives, a media startup platforming the voices and perspectives of women, and Blackbird Ventures, venture capital firm, have announced a content partnership aimed at inspiring and empowering women across Australia and New Zealand to consider careers in the startup landscape.
This collaboration will bring forward the stories, lessons learned, and advice from female founders and rising stars, offering insights for aspiring entrepreneurs. Through content that showcases real-life success stories, Missing Perspectives and Blackbird aim to boost the pipeline of potential female entrepreneurs seeking VC funding – or considering launching a business in Australia.
The series – titled “High Agency Women” – will include in-depth interviews and thematic pieces speaking to women across the country – including Sunroom co-founder Michelle Battersby, Amplify Bookstore co-founders Marina Sano and Jing Xuan Teo and Kic co-founder and CEO Laura Henshaw – about what they’re building, how they’re building it, and their unique approaches to commerce and creativity.
The partnership will include the mentorship and capacity-building of aspiring tech reporters – a journalism space with some of the lowest female representation. A Women in Media study conducted in 2023 found that in Australia, only 37 per cent of reporters in the business and finance beat are women. Reporters coming on board for the project include Aditi Kutty, Hannah Cohen, Rowan Willis-Hall and Chidinma Iwu.
The partnership will be led by Missing Perspectives’ editorial writer and product manager, Natasha Gillezeau, formerly a tech reporter at The Australian Financial Review.
“In a nutshell, this is a content partnership between Blackbird and Missing Perspectives to evolve our ‘female founders/high agency women’ series where we publish profiles and stories that shine a light on what women are building, how they are building it, and their unique approaches to commerce and creativity,” said Gillezeau.
“We are fortunate in the sense that this partnership is not necessarily the typical one that Blackbird would enter into, but Melia Rayner (Blackbird’s head of communications) and Kate Glazebrook (Blackbird’s head of impact) – intuitively grasped the systems level change we are working towards here. We’re grateful for their trust, support, and energy,” added Gillezeau.
“If we want to encourage more women to found or join startups, we need to tell more stories that motivate and inspire. And we need to tell those stories in new places, to normalise the world of startups, technology and venture capital to a more diverse audience,” said Blackbird’s Melia Rayner, head of communications.
“Phoebe, Tash and the talented writers at Missing Perspectives bring a fresh, thoughtful approach to telling these stories, and we’re excited to partner with them to champion some incredible business founders and operators over the coming months”.
