The Lisa Ring and Family Scholars for 2023!
The StartSpace team are very excited to announce the 2023 Lisa Ring and Family Scholars are:
Daniel Delaway, Founder of The Archive – a platform for the preservation and sharing of human stories captured in cinematic video.
Aiden Rayner, Founder of Don’t Move Until You See It – an online chess training platform which allows players to actively practice chess visualisation.
A note from Lisa Ring
“I marvel at the creativity and talent in our community. When it comes to start-up businesses, founders have brilliant ideas and plans but are often not able to progress their businesses. This is because they need to spend many hours on their start-ups without the benefit of having the necessary funds.
My family and I decided 4 years ago to explore ways in which we could support talented start-up founders. Our shared love of the State Library made it an obvious choice to collaborate there, and the Lisa Ring and Family Scholarship was created.
Being awarded one of these Scholarships covers some of the costs for the founders to spend the hours that they require to proceed with the next steps of their business plans. The Scholarship also provides invaluable access to the knowledgeable StartSpace mentors and all that this fantastic network offers.
The panel reviewing all the Scholarship applications was impressed to read the large range of ideas explored in applications. They were all considered. We found the final decision was difficult as all applications had merit worthy of our consideration. I am grateful to the StartSpace team and the Scholarship panel members for all that each member does to ensure that scholars are supported to develop their ideas into reality and beyond.
I have great pleasure in announcing that Daniel Delaway with his start-up, “The Archive”, and Aiden Rayner who has created “Don’t Move Until You See It”, are the successful applicants.
I am thrilled to award a scholarship to Daniel Delaway for his fantastic start-up, capturing and sharing the stories of people via video, something that so many of us would love to do but either time or skill prevents it. Now Daniel can help to make this a reality.
Aiden Rayner is awarded the second scholarship for his impressive start-up that assists people to learn to play Chess and to continue to improve their Chess game. Those interested in this world-wide popular game can look forward to exploring and progressing their skills.
I am very excited to see how both Aiden and Daniel develop their start-ups during 2023 and my family and I send our very best wishes to them.
Best wishes to them and to all our friends at the State Library for the Festive Season and the New Year!
Kind regards,
Lisa Ring
About the Scholarships
The 2023 Lisa Ring and Family Scholarships, offer two six month bursaries to ambitious new founders looking to develop their knowledge and grow their new venture.
The Lisa Ring and Family Scholarships are designed to offer seed funding, coaching and support to new business founders in the very early stages of their business journey.
Lisa Ring and Family are passionate and committed to supporting new entrepreneurs and enabling their growth. In 2022 the first Lisa Ring and Family Scholarships were awarded following a generous donation from the family, which will allow for the scholarships to continue over the next four years.
Often the available seed funding and support across the startup ecosystem tends to be aimed at more established and fast-growing startups. The Lisa Ring and Family Scholarships provide support for founders who have a great business idea, yet are still in the early stages of building their new business.
The scholarships are designed to help you advance your business to the next stage in your journey and give you confidence for future success.
The Scholarships program
The two scholarships available include:
- 6-months tailored mentoring and coaching program
- 6-months of StartSpace Loft membership and
- $10,000 of seed funding for your business
Watch this short video featuring Aun Ngo from StartSpace to learn more about the scholarships and some tips for applying.
Applications and eligibility
Applications for the 2023 scholarships closed 11.59pm Sunday 30 October 2022.
All Victorian based early stage founders, age 18+, who are working on their new venture and able to commit to a scholarships program from January – June 2023 are eligible to apply for the scholarships.
Applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQ+ people, and people of all ages 18 and above and all abilities are welcomed.
To be eligible to apply for the 2023 scholarships you must be able to enter into a scholarship agreement no later than 2 December 2022, and commit to the scholarship program period of January to June 2023.
For more information on eligibility visit our FAQs or see full Terms and Conditions here.
Application criteria
A key part of the application is to submit a pitch proposal in either slides (pdf) or video format to tell us about your new business.
When assessing the applications, the selection panel will focus on the following criteria (% weighting in brackets):
Market & problem (20%)
Tell us about your specific target audience and the problem you are solving for them.
Can you show how well you know the audience and problem you are trying to solve?
Solution (20%)
Explain how your offering, service, or product solves this problem.
Can you show how your solution addresses the market & problem e.g. how your product or service is market fit?
Fit (20%)
Describe how you are particularly setup for success to deliver your solution.
Why are you best placed to deliver on this idea e.g. lived experience, networks, knowledge?
Traction (10%)
Demonstrate to us what have you achieved so far.
What evidence can you show of plans and progress you have made even at this early stage.
Impact (30%)
How would this scholarship and investment change the runway of your business?
How much of a difference would this make to what you are trying to achieve?
For more information on applications visit our FAQs or see full Terms and Conditions here.
Other key information
- The following individuals and/or organisations are ineligible to apply for the Lisa Ring and Family Scholarships for 2023:
- Founders of established businesses or startups deemed too advanced and no-longer early stage.
To determine early stage we are guided by the definitions in :- City of Melbourne’s Startup Action Plan (PDF – page 41, Welcome/Found), and
LaunchVic’s Startup Framework (PDF – page 14).
- City of Melbourne’s Startup Action Plan (PDF – page 41, Welcome/Found), and
- Founders of established businesses or startups deemed too advanced and no-longer early stage.
- The scholarships will be awarded to individuals – though there will be options provided to have co-founders or team members (up to 3) of the scholarship winners join the scholar in the StartSpace Loft coworking space.
- StartSpace does not take any stake in the business in exchange for the seed funding; equity remains with the founder.
If you have any questions or seek more information please contact the StartSpace team: [email protected]. We also recommend you read the FAQs and Terms and Conditions provided.
