Julie Trell is an American woman who moved to Australia in 2017 to pursue two opportunities in the Australian startup ecosystem: working as head of the now defunct accelerator Muru-D, and to bring SheEO to Australia. SheEO is a global organisation founded by Vicki Saunders with a unique model: women and non-binary “Activators” contribute a monthly payment which is pooled together and given as a 0% interest loan to women-led “Ventures” selected by the Activators. As well as contributing capital, Activators also act as mentors, lending their expertise, Mentioned and networks to help the Ventures grow and succeed. In her conversation with Adam, Julie discusses the unique SheEO business model, as well as the importance of diversity within the Australian startup ecosystem.
SheEO: https://sheeo.world/Julie Trell bio: https://about.me/julietrellJulie Trell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/julietrell
Transcript Synced · click any line to jump ▾
Adam Spencer: Let me tell you about our partner, Teamified. If you need to build a top-notch team quickly, Teamified is your go-to solution. They not only provide fractional CTOs, they can also do contractors and even remote team members tailored exactly to your needs. And whether you're looking for expertise in the Philippines, India, or Sri Lanka, Teamified has you covered. What's amazing is that Teamified uses a blend of AI and human expertise to cut hiring times by 50%, cent. The platform handles everything from automated onboarding to day-to-day management and even performance tracking. You can also handle rewards and recognition, buy equipment, and order training all through their platform. Simplify your hiring process and get the best talent fast with Teamified. Check them out now and transform your team. Go to dayone.fm/teamified. That's dayone.fm/teamified. Thank you, T-E-A-M-I-F-I-E-D, and get started today. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer, founder of the Day One Network, which is bringing the history of the Australian startup ecosystem to you. I believe in founders. It's why I do everything I do at Day One and our media company, W2D1 Media. And that's why the Day One Network exists, to create helpful content for founders. We've got some great shows in development, but a large part of what we do couldn't be done without support from our partners and sponsors. And I couldn't be happier than to be working with NTP, who get community better than any other technology recruitment company out there. A Newcastle company like mine, NTP are invested in seeing the growth of the local tech community in Newcastle, Sydney, and more broadly Australia. So thank you, NTP, for helping us bring helpful content to founders and the startup community in Australia. Back to the interview. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer, founder of the Day One Network, which is bringing the history of the Australian startup ecosystem to you. I believe in founders. It's why I do everything I do at Day One and our media company, W2D1 Media. And that's why the Day One Network exists, to create helpful content for founders. We've got some great shows in development, but a large part of what we do couldn't be done without support from our partners and sponsors. And I couldn't be happier than to be working with NTP, who get community better than any other technology recruitment company out there. A Newcastle company like mine, NTP are invested in seeing the growth of the local tech community in Newcastle, Sydney, and more broadly Australia. So thank you, NTP, for helping us bring helpful content to founders and the startup community in Australia. Back to the interview. Hi, I'm Adam Spencer and welcome to Day One, the podcast that spotlights Australian startups, founders, and the organizations that empower Australian entrepreneurship. We go back to the beginning to tell the story of Australia's most inspiring founders and how they built their companies. You're listening to a special interview series as part of a documentary W2D1 is producing about the history of the Australian startup ecosystem. On the episode today, we have—
Julie Trell: I'm Julie Trelle, an American woman on Gadigal land, Sydney, Australia. I came to Australia 4 years ago to help to take over from Annie Parker running MiroD, which was Telstra's accelerator. And while I came down here, I started, I helped bring a fund down here called SHEEO, which is a new way to get, move capital to, for, by, with women and non-binary entrepreneurs working on the world's to-do list.
Speaker C: What is your day made up of now in terms of the split between SHEEO, Playful Purpose, and what else have you got going on?
Julie Trell: Since my role was made redundant at Mirra Dee, I'm currently doing my own startup consulting playing called Playful Purpose where I work with founders and business people on how to do more play in the world in which they work, which is really about communication, collaboration, co-creation, and creating safe space. So I do that ad hoc as well as building up and growing the SHEEO network across Australia. So we have over 500 women that have gotten involved, and they're called activators, where they're activating their capital, buying power, expertise, and network. And the fund, it's a zero-interest loan fund that gets loaned out to women-led and non-binary-led ventures. So we have, well, close to $800,000 in this fund that's going in and out. Mm-hmm.
Speaker C: So I know you were involved in setting SheEO up in the States, was it? Or was it in Canada?
Julie Trell: So Vicki Saunders, who's the founder, she started it in Canada, and I just loved how she was disrupting and wanting— disrupting this investing world and getting capital to women and changing minds, the mindset of companies and ventures and solutions that we should be investing in. So I just loved how she was doing things differently, and I just wanted to get on board and help her with this new way of thinking of new wave business, new wave investing, and I helped launch it in the US. And having that experience and then the opportunity to come down to Australia, I said, I'm gonna bring it down to Australia.
Speaker C: Did you move to Australia with the intention of bringing SheEO here, or—
Julie Trell: When I got the job offer to work with Mirrodi, I said, and I saw my predecessor, what Annie Parker had done launching Code Club, if she was gonna be able to do this venture on the side, I wanted to bring this down to Australia. The other reason was New Zealand had already launched SheEO, so I figured, let's be collaborative antipodeans and, and do this together.
Speaker C: When did you first get involved in the Australian startup ecosystem? What year was it? When did you come here?
Julie Trell: I came down in 2017, so the ecosystem was already well on its way. However, it was well behind where I was coming from in the Silicon Valley, US ecosystem.
Speaker C: From your perspective, what is the major difference?
Julie Trell: Well, there's, well, it's a smaller market for one. So my history was I had met Marc Benioff in 1998, and he knew he wanted to start a company that was going to sell software over the web, which was crazy back then. We were still getting AOL on CDs. And he also knew he wanted to bridge the digital divide, which I was a teacher back then, and I said to him, "If you're going to deal with kids and technology, you need to hire teachers. Don't just be a company that gives away money." So in 2000, I moved out from Atlanta to San Francisco to help start the Salesforce Foundation in this new startup world. There are 100 employees. Employees at the company. And I just grew up then the next 12 years on thinking big and taking chances and taking risks and not being afraid and having a leader that was so visionary where it was a really safe space. When I got to Australia, there was a lot more fear and there was a lot more aversion to risk. And so I found that to be a big difference.
Adam Spencer: Mm-hmm.
Julie Trell: And as well as the investment landscape of VCs being a lot having that fear as well, with really challenging terms a lot of the times with the investing in the startups, which constrained the startups on really thinking big, taking risks and trying big things.
Speaker C: From what you've seen over the last 3, what, 3 or 4 years, what do you think the Australian ecosystem does really well?
Julie Trell: I think they're learning and growing and listening to one another. A lot of times when I would take the field trip from Australia to San Francisco, they saw how the ecosystem up there was very collaborative, supportive, willing to introduce a network. And then I found when the founders with the companies that I was with, when they would come back, they were inspired. They took what they learned and they were ready to apply it. So I do think that there is, once they see and experience what is possible, they're willing to take those risks.
Speaker C: What do we have to do to get it to 50/50 in terms of equality in startup land?
Julie Trell: Okay, so what do we need to do? We need to have more diverse people that are making the investments, that are making the decisions. We need to have, and it's not just women, there's also like Indigenous, We need to have more inclusive people that are making the decisions that are writing the checks. And a lot of the work that I'm doing now with Playful Purpose and the concept, what I call the other AI, applied improv, is listening to the differences and accepting different gifts and as offerings as what the solutions to problems that we have and not continually continuously doing it the same way we've been doing it. The systems that have been set up are set up by the people who set up those systems. And so we need to take a step back, and it's not a zero-sum game. And organizations like SheEO are helping to move the capital in different ways, in new ways, where it's inclusive, where everyone can make decisions.
Speaker C: What drives this passion that you have for making these opportunities available to everybody?
Julie Trell: I just, the disruptiveness, trying things new, and I'm gonna throw out the word innovation because again, the systems that have been set up have been set up by the people who set them up and they're not supportive or they're not inclusive of the women that are solving problems that might not be the next unicorn, but they're solving problems in the community that are making the world a better place, not necessarily the bank account bigger. Part of the process of getting funding, standing in front of a table of 5 experts and pitching your idea where there's such a hierarchy and a status of the founder founder who's down there and the investors that have— that write the checks, where it needs to be more democratized, which is one of the ways what SheEO does is the women that have contributed their capital, the activators, get to select companies that they want to invest in, that they want to see to get this funding. And we come down to 5 and it's a very democratic process. The process of applying in and of itself is 10 questions. Yeah. Write like you speak to someone. The people that are reviewing it are everyday non-investors and making those selections.
Speaker C: Yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about SHEEO and that process of getting an activator on board? Is there something in particular that you look for?
Julie Trell: Well, anyone can be an, any woman, any person identifying as a woman or non-binary can become an activator. And so they contribute $1,100 or $92 a month. And then, so they submit, so that's how the fund is made. And then ventures who are applying need to be women or non-binary entrepreneur, 51% of the company needs to be owned by women or non-binary, and they need to have a minimum of $50K up to $2 million in revenue from a product in market. The way the process goes, so we have hundreds of women applying, and they fill out these 10 very simple questions. The activators then review the questions and they decide, yep, "Send this venture to the next round," or "No," and they can add feedback to it. Once they go through the second round and 5 ventures are selected, the ventures, the founders of those ventures go on to a retreat. They get coaching. They get to know one another. They get to learn about each other's businesses, and then they decide how the funding is divided. And there's 2 rules. It can't be divided evenly and it can't all go to one person. Now remember, it's a zero interest loan, so you take what you need, and it's over 5 years, zero interest, and the venture founders really really then become exceptionally collaborative and making sure that everyone in that cohort is, is successful.
Speaker C: Does any other model like this exist?
Julie Trell: No.
Adam Spencer: How was it developed?
Speaker C: 'Cause it's so unique. How did someone come up with this?
Julie Trell: Yeah, so this is Vicki Saunders. Vicki was very, was seeing what was happening where women were pitching to investors and looking for unicorns and they have to be these unicorns and making sure there's a 10x return. When she felt and she saw these ventures that were solving the world's problems and making a difference in community where it was both a social impact as well as a financial return on investment. And she wanted to make it so that it was fair. And a lot of these practices have to do with indigenous history and culture.
Speaker C: Can you take me back to day one in terms of how you got involved with SHEEO? I don't think we touched on that yet.
Julie Trell: It was, I actually met one of the ventures that was, I was in a program called Think. One of the venture's founders says, "You can't tell anyone, this is a secret surprise that we just got selected as one of the ventures." And she shared how she was saying, "It's this new model where we were selected, we get to divide the money and we're really excited. And oh my God, I have thousands of women that are backing me in not just finances but in support." And just so meeting one of the ventures, seeing how the network, and it wasn't just about capital, it's not just about capital, was being supported. And it was just completely new model where I see, and I also see with the ventures, there's less stress in there. They know that they can reach out. They know they can be vulnerable and be authentic and say, I'm having trouble here. The pandemic has just wiped out all of my funding. And there's other women that will literally roll up their sleeves and it's like, here's a loan, or here's some equity, I want to take equity in your company, here's an investment. And it's just a very new break the rules kind of model. I think the other reason I like it is I like to color outside the lines. And this is, there's a new structure and we're still figuring out how this works. They're still throwing spaghetti and seeing what works. But I'm also seeing it's this incredible— Opportunity. Community. And it's funny, some of the women who are in it, they're like, this is a women's network for women who don't like the women's networks.
Speaker C: Can you tell me a little bit about your opinion of corporate accelerators? Are they important? Where do they fit into the ecosystem?
Julie Trell: I think corporate accelerators have a lot of potential with the right backing and visionary people in the company for what they, what they can do. So when Mirra Dee was started with, with Annie Parker It was— really wanted to grow and infuse the startup ecosystem. Because I don't think there were many accelerators back then. And their mission and their vision was to find tech companies to help them be successful. Now, these tech companies did not have to be— have anything to do with telecoms or Telstra, and that was intentional. So, at the start, and I think that was fun, that was great, creating a new sandbox, all this play. Long term, given where we are now, it was really challenging.
Speaker C: Mm-hmm.
Julie Trell: And so with the right visionaries at corporates, with the right understanding of how it's mutually beneficial for founders, ventures, the corporate, the corporate's customers, and the ecosystem, that's the triple home run.
Speaker C: Mm-hmm. What year did Murady start in Australia?
Julie Trell: 2014, I believe.
Speaker C: And when you say challenges, what kind of challenges are we talking about?
Julie Trell: Telstra was making a lot of cuts. Corporate accelerators are cost centers, and it's also a long-tail game where you're not gonna see the return on investment. So Telstra did make financial investments in the startups, which added another layer of complexity. The return on financial investment, that's not why you go into making these accelerators. It needed to hit a lot of other points such as how can customers use them, how can the company benefit, which wasn't the intention set up at the beginning, which was a great learning curve.
Speaker C: Yeah, I'm jumping all over a little bit right now, 'cause I wanna go back to, you know, you said you met one of the ventures for SheEO, and that's how you got involved. What happened then? Did you like reach out to the leadership team at SheEO and say, "Hey, I've got this experience, I really wanna help," or how did that happen?
Julie Trell: Yeah, so it's a lot of— my life has been a lot of serendipity. I actually happened to run into Vicki Saunders, or I had met her a year prior, and I caught up with her again with some other ideas that I wanted to create, and it just— I was wanting to talk about one thing, and then here I got sucked into helping Follow be a follower, which in a sense is a leader for a CEO for what she was doing. You know, so it was, there's a lot of serendipity. Serendipity how I got down here, I say that I was, how did I get down here for this role was serendipity, flip-flops, and a love letter to Mary Poppins.
Speaker C: What the heck?
Julie Trell: Yeah, what the heck? What the heck? So serendipity, flip-flops, and a love letter to Mary Poppins. My predecessor Annie Parker wrote the job description was, the title was looking for someone to fill my flip-flops. She wore flip-flops everywhere. She's English, so that's why she She calls them flip-flops and not thongs. Had it been a title, "Looking for someone to fill my thongs," very different outcome.
Speaker C: Hahaha.
Julie Trell: So I thought, "Oh, this is really interesting." And she was told to write a love letter to the next person she wanted to fill her role. And this role was very— the job description was very authentic and heart-centric. Looking for someone that has the gravitas to work for corporates, someone that's more concerned about the success of others than their own personal gain, someone that knows the startup ecosystem. I'm like, "This is really interesting. I want to have this conversation." Then when I got to Australia and I read the Telstra job description, it was very, very different. Kind of like when the kids were writing the letter of who they wanted for Mary Poppins, when Jane and Michael wanted their nanny, they wanted Mary Poppins, and Mr. Banks wrote something very different. Language and purpose has a lot to do in this ecosystem. That's what I'm talking about is changing that mindset, the behavior. Yeah. Of how things have been done to making them different.
Speaker C: This is a question that I ask everybody. If a brand new founder come to you and you could give them one piece of advice that would increase their chances of success, what would you tell them?
Julie Trell: Well, without hearing what the problem is or the challenge is or what they're trying to solve, I would say play more. Exercise your growth mindset.
Speaker C: Have fun.
Adam Spencer: Okay, that's a great answer.
Speaker C: Is there anything else, anything that I've missed that's important to either the SHEEO story, the Playful Purpose story, the Muradie story, anything that should be included in the series that I haven't asked about?
Julie Trell: Well, I mean, you mentioned SHEEO is really changing the way capital flows and giving women and non-binary entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs a chance to change the world and how business is done and where, where, who should be funded. So they're focused on the— SheEO ventures are all somehow self-defined, focused on the Sustainable Development Goals. We say they're working on the world's to-do list.
Speaker C: Yeah, I love that line. We've come a long way over the last 3 years. How do we get to that 50/50 mark?
Julie Trell: Yeah, I think we need to start letting others step into roles that we're not— that they might not think they were in. So here's a story also. I was very hesitant to take the interview with Annie because I had this voice in my head, and people will hear me talk about her name is Beatrice, my imposter voice, that said, who are you to run an accelerator? You've never been in a start— you've never been a founder yourself. It was early days at Salesforce. That was my early— that was my startup world.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Julie Trell: And, you know, what do you know about Telstra in Australia. And so I went to sleep, but I had dreamt about living down here. And then I remembered the Harvard— there was a Harvard Business Review article about how men will accept jobs where they have 2 of the 10 qualifications and women need to have at least 8 or 9. And so I said, I'm going to continue this conversation. I'm going to still— I'm going to have a conversation, see what happens. And I'm going to trust myself and believe in myself and listen to what other people say about me. At least to my face, accepting these, these, the, that I am capable. And I think we need to start championing others and be champions of people where we see that have the capability. One of the tenets of, of improv, which I call the other AI and playful purpose. So one of the tenets is make others look and feel good. And if we continue to do that, and encourage others to take roles that they may not think that they're right for, but we see something in them. Let's do it. So making others look and feel good is the next pandemic that I want to start. No vaccine required.
Speaker C: Again, another great line.
Julie Trell: I'm giving you sound bites left and right.
Adam Spencer: Yeah, exactly. That's fantastic.
Speaker C: I hope you enjoyed that interview. More interviews are on the way.
Adam Spencer: Follow the podcast wherever you're listening right now. Stay tuned for more interviews with many, many more amazing people from the Australian startup ecosystem. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
Julie Trell: Bye.
