Welcome toFuture founders festival
The Future Founders Festival is a place for students and budding entrepreneurs to learn, gain confidence and have fun with their ideas. If you missed it, you can watch the recordings from each of the events to catch-up.
Ever wondered what it’s like to start a business? Already got an idea but not sure what to do next? The curious amongst you is what the festival is designed for.
Presented by Study Melbourne and StartSpace, the Future Founders Festival ran from Thursday 15th to Friday 16th July, with a series of online events, a pitch competition and learning from inspiring and successful founders, the festival program offers everyone the opportunity to take part, whether you are based here or offshore.
Sign up for regular announcements for future elements of the program or keep reading to find out more.

Festival event recordings
Watch our Future Founders Festival 2021 event recordings to catch up on insights and tips from experienced founders and leaders covering everything from lived experience, the startup ecosystem and how to get started, to MVPs and networking.
Principal speakers

Winitha Bonney is the leading expert in helping corporates build inclusive cultures and is Australia's first and foremost thought leader helping people of colour to advance in leadership and entrepreneurship. In 2021 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her extensive work in diversity and inclusion.
Winitha has over 22 years of experience in executive roles and has founded several businesses. She has an incredible amount of unique insights, experiences and expertise to help People of Colour succeed.
You can connect with Winitha at: www.winitha.com

Jill Tang is a serial entrepreneur, community builder and Women in STEM advocate.
She is the co-founder of Ladies Who Tech, a social enterprise focusing on changing the status quo and promotes gender diversity and inclusion in STEM industry through offering digital upskilling education, career opportunities and community network. It connects more than 30,000+ members across all social media in greater China and now has presence in 11 cities including Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Her work has been reported by Forbes China, the Guardian, BBC, TechNode, Paper, CGTN and CNN. Jill was a finalist for 2016 Australia China Young Alumni of the year and top 100 Gen T in China by Asia Tatler in 2019.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from La Trobe University, Master of Applied Finance from Monash University and MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Richard Li is an Australian entrepreneur whose businesses include direct-to-consumer luggage startup July and online furniture retailer Brosa, one of Australia’s most successful DTC brands.
Rich co-founded July in late 2018 with Athan Didaskalou to create the biggest travel brand in the world, starting with APAC.
Richard also co-founded and built Brosa, Australia’s biggest online furniture retailer from the ground up. One of Australia’s fastest-growing eCommerce businesses, Brosa is now worth over A$50m and has been backed by some of Australia’s most prominent and successful Venture Capital funds including Airtree Ventures and Bailador Technology Investments.
Prior to Brosa, Rich built his expertise in business strategy, brand development and ecommerce as the largest seller to Groupon Group globally, sourcing and creating products from China for retail sale in USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A Chinese native who moved to Australia at 16, Rich has deep networks in China and wider Asia, including deep supply chain capabilities and a finger on the pulse of the Chinese consumer.

Aamir Qutub is the award-winning CEO and founder of Enterprise Monkey - an Australian multinational web and app development company. Under Aamir's leadership the company has achieved Australian Smartest Innovation of the Year Award and in 2016 Aamir was recognised as Australian Young Business Leader of the Year.
Being an automation evangelist, Aamir’s interest in process optimisation, business consulting and career hacks has taken him to the peak of success by doing what he loves. Aamir has since founded Mentor Monkey and co-founded Angel Next Door.

Dominic Soh is a TEDx and international speaker who’s worked with Tesla, National Australia Bank, VW & Australia Post to help teams develop resilience to thrive in change and uncertainty. He is a former international student, the Head of People and Culture of Datarati, has spoken on the TEDx stage twice, presented in over 12 countries, coached professionals from ANZ, EY & Deloitte and interviewed high performers like U.S. Navy SEALs and Olympians. He’s been featured on Entrepreneur.com and The Sydney Morning Herald and other speaking clients include Google, Intel, New York University, University of Copenhagen, Chartered Accountants and EU Business School. Connect with Dominic at dominicsoh.com
Guest Speakers
Offering a range of expertise, tips and practical advice, be sure to catch as many as you can of our festival guest speakers who are experienced founders and leaders, many of whom have international student or migrant backgrounds. We can all learn a lot from their journeys.
Events

Don't miss the intro to the festival, a short 15 min greeting session where you will be briefed about what is happeni...

Welcome to the brave new world - a landscape that is becoming more unpredictable, disruptive, competitive and non-lin...


Grab a cup of tea and have a 15 minute break before the next session starts. :)
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This panel forum features female founders and leaders, sharing their experience and stories of building businesses, p...

Have some lunch, go for a walk or a stretch and enjoy a 30 minute break before the next session starts. :)
...
Are you new to the world of startups and entrepreneurship? Learning about the ecosystem and how it all works could re...

Hearing from other successful founders allows you to take away different learnings from their experience in building ...

Grab a cup of tea and a snack have a 15 minute break before the next session starts. :)
...
This workshop session presented by Christie Ding, co-founder...

Hear from Richard Li, Founder of modern travel luggage brand

Stay with us for a quick wrap up of Day 1 of the Festival, our thank-yous and for any important announcements for Day...