SXSW Wrap: Crafting a Winning Pitch & Building Connections Across Asia Pacific and Beyond

I’ve touched back down on the Sunshine Coast after a massive week in Sydney for SXSW.

Things kicked off with Melanie Perkins from Canva presenting on her investment-raising journey. So much of her story resonated with me, and many parallels considering Laundry Lady's investment pitches have been created in Canva! Melanie certainly set the bar high for the eventful week ahead.

Next up was a visit to the Google offices, jumping in on a Female Founders panel with Georgia Barkell (Sprint Ventures) and Lisa Vincent (HowToo) to talk about growing a business with funding versus no funding - my startup Laundry Lady is proof you can bootstrap and grow revenue!

After some last-minute pitch practice with Phil Ore and a lot of support from my Sunshine Coast support crew, I took to the stage to pitch TimeBoss. And…we won the Innovation in Retail and Commerce category. 

Pitching our B2B SaaS TimeBoss definitely pushed us out of our comfort zone and really got me to dig deep on our future plans for taking this software that we created for The Laundry Lady to help turn other service industries on their head. 

I’ve always been super passionate about helping people in business and I’m truly excited by the operational efficiencies and scaling opportunities we can offer to contractor style businesses with TimeBoss.

Grand Final Pitch Event

While TimeBoss undoubtedly WOWED the judges, it was Stefan Mazy from DermR Health who took out the grand final at the SXSW Sydney Pitch.

This well-deserving candidate will do an incredible job of representing Australia on the world stage at SXSW Austin in 2025 with his skin cancer detection solutions.

Overall, it was an awesome experience to pitch alongside six very cool businesses and share in our nerves and prep. 

The more pitch events I attend, the more I’m blown away by the amazing startups we are building in Australia.

Fellow finalist pitching businesses included: Airee Felt, Outread, OVUM. Technology, SpaceDraft and WaveX.

About SXSW

This year’s SXSW event in Sydney had the theme had the theme: The Future Belongs to the Curious, delivering over 1,000 sessions, events and experiences dedicated to helping creative people achieve their goals. 

SXSW is all about creating a platform for countless connections, driving new ideas forward across Asia Pacific and beyond.

What an awesome experience to have TimeBoss and Laundry Lady be a part of this idea innovation and Aussie business showcase.