Why I’m Going to Europe to Understand the flow of Capital

(and Why It Matters to Me)

I don’t come from money.

I grew up in a working-class family in regional Australia.
We didn’t take holidays — ever. Travel wasn’t something you aspired to; it simply wasn’t part of our reality.

I didn’t leave the country until my mid-30s. My first international trip was to Fiji. Not for business. Just to see what the world looked like beyond what I knew. A little while later, Hong Kong.

Those trips weren’t glamorous. But they cracked something open.

They made me realise how small my frame of reference had been — not intellectually, but structurally.

I started noticing where money actually flows - later

I studied business straight out of school. On paper, I should have understood capital early.

But I didn’t.

It wasn’t until I opened my own sustainability consulting business that the questions really started to bother me.

Why do some enterprises get funded and others don’t?
Who decides what counts as “viable”?
Why do good ideas struggle to survive while mediocre ones sail through?

That’s when responsible capital started being research and becoming understood. It also became something I thought about constantly. I worked with venture funds. With Limited Partners. With investors who genuinely wanted to do better — especially in sustainability. And yet, even then, I could feel a disconnect between intent and impact.

Stepping into the startup ecosystem ... and feeling the imbalance

When I later moved into the startup and innovation ecosystem, the feeling intensified.

It genuinely felt like stepping into a new universe.

Accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces — they buzzed with energy. Ideas collided. Ambition was everywhere. It reminded me of astrophysics: like the Milky Way, dense with matter, where new stars are formed.

But it didn’t take long to notice something else.

The rooms were familiar.
The voices were familiar.
The power dynamics were familiar.

The boys’ club wasn’t hidden. It very much alive and well.

And that’s when my focus sharpened.

Why my work narrowed, on purpose

Around 2017, I made a conscious decision to narrow my work.

Not because women needed “help”.
But because the system clearly wasn’t built with them in mind.

I started working almost exclusively with women founders - helping them apply for funding, yes, but more importantly helping them understand the system they were being asked to compete within.

For more than a decade, I’ve felt like I’ve been standing on the edge.
Seeing patterns repeat.
Seeing women do everything “right” and still miss out.

What’s changing now

Over the last few years, something has shifted for me.

It’s no longer enough to understand the Australian system deeply.
I want to understand how other systems are designed — and what happens for the founders who operate inside them.

In 2026 I’m spending time in Europe and the UK. I want to be closer to different funding architectures, different policy choices, different experiments with capital.

I want to sit in the rooms.
Listen to how decisions are made.
See what changes when proximity changes.

Because if we want different outcomes for women founders, we can’t keep looking at the problem from the same perspective.

Now, why should you care ...

Because if you’re a founder, the funding outcomes you’re experiencing are not random. They are shaped by how the system you’re operating in is designed — who it trusts, who it pays, and who it asks to wait.

Most founders internalise poor funding results as a personal shortcoming.
If I just do one more accelerator. If I just get a bit more traction. If I just become more “ready”.

After years of watching capable women do everything asked of them and still miss out, I stopped believing this was about individual effort. It became clear to me that it’s about system design.

That’s why I’m paying closer attention to how capital moves in different markets / countries / global regions — looking for systems that produce solid outcomes, where funding reaches founders directly, and where the patterns are impossible to ignore.

What I learn, I’ll share with you.
Because once we can see the patterns —
💥  some systems fund institutions first,
💥  some fund founders early,
💥  some reward polish,
💥  some reward momentum —

then ... you stop asking “What’s wrong with me?”
and start asking “What is this system actually built to fund?” "Am I the right applicant for the funding?"

For me, this next chapter is about understanding why funding keeps circling women instead of landing with them — and what has to change for that to stop.

That’s what I’m doing in 2026.
What about you? What is your big plan? Where is the energy of 2026 taking you? 
Drop me a note. Add a comment. Let me know.