quickly attracted controversy due to its lack of gender diversity.<\/a><\/p>\nHeras says TechSydney is actively working to address this problem from the inside-out.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiversity is a key issue because there\u2019s not enough engagement from non-white middle-aged males in the tech community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an issue from a cultural point-of-view and an access to talent point-of-view.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that improving diversity in the ecosystem and internally will be an important part of TechSydney\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a large part of the community who don\u2019t feel they belong we will have few of them participating,\u201d Heras says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiversity in all its forms is something that\u2019s critical to getting us towards that goal of putting Sydney in the top tech ecosystems by 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way that we engage with the community aligns with that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Techfugees co-founder Nicole Williamson will be heading up the group\u2019s diversity and inclusion efforts, with an aim to help connect, amplify and partner with existing projects and people in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data suggests that female-led startups are more likely to be profitable but less likely to be venture-funded,\u201d Williamson tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cTechSydney can connect emerging female founders with great mentors but will also encourage women to become mentors themselves as they become more experienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also want to recognise the role that women play in other parts of the tech ecosystem. For TechSydney to be successful, everyone needs to get excited about growing and contributing to the startup world.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of the year, Heras says he wants TechSydney to be playing an active role in improving the Sydney ecosystem for all its diverse members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019d do really well in changing the image of the community and being really focused on diversity to make sure the base of memberships isn\u2019t just one particular culture or part of the community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to have demonstrated our value so more people feel like they\u2019re part of this Sydney tech movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow StartupSmart on <\/em>Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, <\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian startup supergroup TechSydney looks set to hit its crowdfunding goal of $500,000 as it looks to pour fuel on its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}