“A travesty”: Startup Muster re-releases top mentors list after survey returns all-male list

Startup Muster has taken the unusual step of re-releasing its latest startup industry report, after the inclusion of an all-male list of “most recommended mentors” prompted swift backlash. 

An updated mentors list featuring both men and women was assembled on Wednesday, one day after the original 2023 Startup Muster report was released. 

The original list of “Australia’s most recommended mentors” in the 2023 report ranked eight prominent men in the local startup ecosystem – David Burt, Alan Jones, Mick Liubinskas, Matt Allen, Charlie Gunningham, Peter Laurie, Jamie Pride and Brad Deveson – followed by a note that said, “we look forward to a much better gender ratio next year”. 

Source: Startup Muster

In the updated version, provided to SmartCompany and now available publicly, a list of women mentors is now featured alongside the original list. 

The mentors featured include Adeline Chu, Joanne Jacobs, Sharon Hunneybell, Julia Spicer, Kate Jenkins, Kylie Gerrard, Elizabeth Kaelin, Lynda Coker and Rachel Neumann. 

The updated page in the report also includes a much stronger statement about the need for greater gender diversity: “More representation was needed from mentors that are not male”. 

The revised top mentors list from the 2023 Startup Muster report. Source: supplied.

“A travesty”: Startup Muster boss

Startup Muster was formed in 2013 and previously received funding from the federal government. The industry survey has been on hold since 2018 but was resurrected this year thanks to support from the NSW government, Atlassian, Microsoft, Antler and The Gild Group. 

A team led by co-founder and managing director Murray Hurps, who is also director of entrepreneurship at the University of Technology Sydney, now oversees the project, which is based on an online survey of startup founders and other industry participants.

The goal of the Startup Muster report is to “measure and publish the progress, challenges and opportunities within the Australian startup ecosystem”. 

The 2023 report, and the list of recommended mentors, is based on answers from 1,100 survey respondents, including 585 founders and 322 industry supporters. The survey was completed throughout July and August. 

Speaking to SmartCompany, Hurps described the lack of gender diversity on the initial mentor list as “a travesty”. 

“I think the ecosystem needs a good hard look at itself, and that list is a depressing prompt to do so,” he says. 

Sharing the updated list on LinkedIn on Wednesday afternoon, Hurps added that he would “rather screw up and fix quickly than just screw up”. 

The revised graphic now included in the Startup Muster report “attempts to strike a balance between reporting the numerical outcome of these recommendations, and recognising the need for much more representation from mentors that aren’t male”, said Hurps. 

“Things have gone backwards”

For Sarah Moran, co-founder of Girl Geek Academy and PatientNotes.app, the Startup Muster report is a missed opportunity. 

“It’s hard to take surveys like this seriously when they mix statistical data with opinion and serve it all up as hard facts,” she told SmartCompany on Wednesday. 

“What is unarguable is that the representation of women in startups both as founders and mentors has gone backwards since the onslaught of COVID-19. In 2018 Startup Muster reported 31.0% of startups had one or more women on the founding team, and this year that data wasn’t captured at all. 

“We were making progress before the pandemic toward gender equality, but things have gone backwards and I was hopeful this Startup Muster would reflect that and highlight the economic loss to the startup ecosystem.

Moran says it is clear Australian startup founders have many male mentors, and they recommend them. But there’s a clear opportunity to change that and ensure more women mentors are being sought out by startup founders.

“When we are looking at supporting startups, ensuring women mentors are a part of that support structure is important,” she says. 

“It will stop lists like this being created in the first place.”

Bronwyn Le Grice, founder and CEO of ANDHealth, also spoke out about the list on Wednesday, using a LinkedIn post to ask: “When do we stop tolerating this lack of diversity and start calling it out?”

“We have huge numbers of women in this sector who are at the top of their game and who are leading Australia’s technology sector every single day,” she wrote. 

“In the ANDHealth pipeline of over 750 companies 45% have a female founder and 38% a female CEO or MD. There is simply no excuse for a male only panel, a male only list or a male only team in 2023.

“If your data is generating a male only image or a male only list – you need to take a long hard look at the veracity of your data.”

This article was update at 8.50am on Friday, November 3, 2023.