{"id":54240,"date":"2023-10-20T16:26:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/jo-burston-wants-aspiring-female-entrepreneurs-to-do-it-by-the-book-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:26:55","slug":"jo-burston-wants-aspiring-female-entrepreneurs-to-do-it-by-the-book-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/jo-burston-wants-aspiring-female-entrepreneurs-to-do-it-by-the-book-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Jo Burston wants aspiring female entrepreneurs to do it by the book – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Jo Burston wants to see an Australia where female entrepreneurs aren\u2019t the outliers, but the norm.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Inspiring Rare Birds<\/a> founder says it\u2019s important to showcase role models and help guide young female startup founders through the various challenges to ensure  gender equality in tech is reached.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy purpose and passion lies around the fact that I think in years to come when you walk down the street and you ask a little girl what they want to be when they\u2019re older, you\u2019re not surprised when they say they want to be their own boss, they want to be an entrepreneur and they want to change the world,\u201d Burston tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mission is to take what Australian female entrepreneurs are doing and showcase that to the rest of the world, and to encourage them to believe they don\u2019t have to leave Australia to be successful. They can export their ideas to the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Putting role models front and centre<\/b><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

To coincide with international UN Women\u2019s Entrepreneur Day, Burston is releasing a book showcasing the stories of 27 Australian Gen Y female entrepreneurs, the challenges they had to overcome, and the lessons they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Titled #IFSHECANICAN, <\/i>features entrepreneurs such as Canva\u2019s Mel Perkins, Showpo\u2019s Jane Lu and ThankYou Group\u2019s Justine Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really shows that ordinary women are doing really extraordinary things,\u201d Burston says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter who you are you should be able to identify with one of these women.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about listening to challenges and the strengths of each individual woman. I want it to be highly education and highly inspirational.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really focused on not just learning about an entrepreneur\u2019s experience, but learning through their problems and how they solved them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Showcasing these role models and helping female entrepreneurs overcome the various barriers in place is what\u2019s needed to close Australia\u2019s gender gap in tech, Burston says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want this book to be in every school in Australia and to be in the hands of all the students in the country,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is critical. I\u2019m a massive believer that you can\u2019t be what you can\u2019t see. We want other women to want to walk the same journey and get past the same challenges.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the media and you see certain faces a lot, but there are some really new faces in here. Some of these women are role models and they don\u2019t even know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

She herself identifies with many of the stories that are told in her book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many challenges in the book that I faced in my own journey,\u201d Burston says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of deja vu. Entrepreneurialism can be learned \u2013 I know that because I learned it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot from these people and I\u2019m in the incredibly privileged position to be able to get insights into how young people have done it, and I\u2019ve applied that to my own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith every single story there are absolute nuggets of gold to take away in your own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A global ambassador<\/b><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Burston will also be an Oceania ambassador for the international UN Women\u2019s Entrepreneur Day, and says this is recognition of the work Inspiring Rare Birds is doing to help female entrepreneurs. The platform is now used in 83 countries after launching last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sign of the impact we\u2019re making, and the impact we\u2019re making from Australia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we need to do, we need an organisation that fosters and supports women entrepreneurs to do things on the world stage. This is incredibly important for our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burston says she\u2019s hopefully the current focus on startups at a federal level will help to address the gender gap in tech.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think we\u2019ve had a change in the political climate,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of optimism around entrepreneurialism and innovation, and the startup scene in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Burston, she can finally see her vision of a gender inclusive startup sector come to fruition.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one I said it would be a very inclusive community where everyone is welcome, where we can support female entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurs of the next generation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty amazing. It\u2019s been the ride of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jo Burston wants to see an Australia where female entrepreneurs aren\u2019t the outliers, but the norm. \u00a0 The Inspiring Rare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54240"}],"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=54240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}