Summer camp, an awards night, and a day for the ladies!
Welcome to this week’s standup!
On the board today:
Founder Summer Camp - AFC members get early access from today, and the first 25 passes are A$300
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day - a full programme for 19 November, and the All Access Pass is A$45
The AFC Awards and Christmas party - Thursday 3 December, and the save-the-date is live
Partnership opportunities - the Women’s Day evening panel and an AFC Awards category
The week’s news - Canva ships its own AI image model & the new startup tax rules land
Opportunities - a funded climate pilot worth up to A$100,000, and free NVIDIA Inception membership
From AFC Media - three new pieces, including why product-market fit won’t stay found
Events to lock in - eight to get in the diary, starting Wednesday at Cremorne Digital Hub
Before we jump in - are you part of our Slack? It’s where the intros, the asks and most of the genuinely useful stuff actually happen, and it’s free to join.
This issue: Sponsored by Brand Shop
Marketing in the Age of AI: what’s still working, and where your next customers will come from
AI can write your ads, build your website, make your videos and turn out a month of content before lunch. So why isn’t everyone suddenly getting more customers?
Making marketing is getting easier. Making it work is a different problem. Brand Shop’s free webinar covers where AI gives you a real edge, where to be careful with it, and which of the old marketing principles matter more than ever - useful whether you’re launching something, chasing customers, or wondering why what you’re already doing isn’t landing.
Thursday 12 November - live at 7:30am, 12:30pm or 6:30pm AEDT, and available on demand.
📢 Founder Summer Camp: get stuck into 2027 while everyone else is in a food coma
While the rest of the country is out of office, a hundred founders are spending the summer actually getting things done. Founder Summer Camp runs November to February, it is built by our friends at co.day, and AFC members get in first.
You get 10+ one-hour sessions that each take one thing off your plate and point it at your next customers or your next investors, weekly small-group sessions to co-work and swap playbooks and wins, Founder Friyays every week, and IRL events in your city if you feel like getting out of the house. Every pass runs to the end of February, so the earlier you join the more you get.
Early access for AFC members opens today. Passes are priced by who is in first - A$300 for the first 25, A$600 for the next 25, then A$900 for the last 50.
Women’s Entrepreneurship Day: this one is for the ladies!!!
Thursday 19 November is Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, and we’re taking over Stone & Chalk Melbourne for the whole of it. And there are headshots! The All Access Pass is the day proper: workshops, focus groups and small circles on the things that actually get in the way, run by women who have been through them. A$45 for the lot.
💼 AFC Presents: She Means BusinessThursday 19 November, Stone & Chalk Melbourne Startup Hub, 121 King St. Free Coworking ticket, or the All Access Pass at A$45.
On the All Access Pass (this is where the good stuff is!!): workshops, focus groups and small circles on finance, branding, imposter syndrome and raising, with Nikki Tugano (SeenCulture), Rachel Wong (The Finance Hybrid), Katie Forse (Tribu), Jodi Geddes (Brandiie), Sam Freidin (Milkshake Creative), Sonia Kaurah (Tala Thrive and MLAI), Kathryn Priestly (Ask Colin) and Robelen Ryan (CodexLab).
Free with a coworking ticket - with a hosted morning coffee & afternoon tea!
🤝 In Conversation: Three Founders, Honestly Speaking - 5:30pm to 8:30pm, same venue, free, and open to everyone!!! Come join us. Danielle Pearce, who built Merry People into a household gumboot brand. Lauren Oakes, who scaled Thursdays from $1M to $20M. And Jodi Geddes of Brandiie, on what personal and business brands do to each other.
The AFC Awards (and the ultimate Christmas party) has a date and you need to save it!
Our Christmas party is getting a glow-up. It’s now the first-ever AFC Awards, a night to celebrate the founders, operators and teams who actually made 2026 count. Eight categories, nominations open to the whole community through November, and the winners called out on stage.
It’s still the Christmas party - drinks, the room, everyone in one place before the year ends - with a year in review on the big screen, twenty minutes of awards in the middle, then a DJ for the rest of the night. Nominating is free, and nominating yourself is welcome.
Thursday 3 December, Melbourne. Tickets and nominations should go live over the next week. December diaries fill up fast, so get your name on the save-the-date now and we’ll come back with the rest!
Two spots open right now
The evening panel at Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. Thursday 19 November, and the biggest room of the day. One sponsor, in front of a full house.
Or alternatively, co-create some of the programming with us during the day!
An AFC Awards category. Thursday 3 December. You present the award on stage, recorded, your brand sits on that category right through the November nomination campaign, and you get photos and vox pops from the night to use afterwards. A couple are still open, and two partners have already brought us a category of their own. Reply to this email or DM Megan and we’ll send the pack through.
The top 5 pieces of startup news you need to know about this week!
Canva has shipped its first public AI image generation model - Australia’s biggest startup now builds its own foundation models rather than renting them. Kate Weber, SmartCompany.
The Treasurer says the new startup tax rules will drop next week - Which means this week. Simon Thomsen, Startup Daily.
Australian businesses are pulling their websites offline over the PHP threat - Check your version before you check anything else. David Adams, SmartCompany.
Apple has been ordered to allow third-party app stores in Australia - A Federal Court ruling, alternative in-app payments included, by March 2027. Tom Williams, Information Age.
Australia has sanctioned the bosses and financiers behind North Korean IT workers - One for anyone hiring remote contractors. Juha Saarinen, iTnews.
Opportunities
QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge 2027 - A funded pilot worth up to A$100,000 for solutions that help communities prepare for, adapt to or recover from climate and disaster risk. Applications close 31 October.
All Along monthly matching, round two - A three-minute form about what you’re building, what you need and what you can offer, and you get matched with a few people worth meeting. Closes Sunday 1 November.
F5 Collective Women’s Economy Survey - Putting data behind how women build businesses, for a report aimed at investors, brands and policymakers. Closes 16 November.
NVIDIA Inception - Free, no equity and no cohort - training, preferred hardware pricing, cloud credits and possible VC introductions. Open now.
ACS CyberPath early adopter pilot - The Australian Computer Society wants employers and practitioners to test its government-backed cyber skills framework before the February start. Free, and open now.
Curated from #opportunities-and-programs and #community-shares in the AFC Slack, Startup Daily and Information Age.
From AFC Media
Stop chasing capital and focus on your business Before you chase a $260,000 cheque, see what it really buys and what to build first. Jayden Bartram. Read more
Kevin Costner Didn’t Need to Think About GTM While Building. You Do. Figuring out how to sell your product shouldn’t come after figuring out what to build. Sravanthi Kalepu. Read more
4 Seasons in 1 Day: Why Melbourne Founders Should Stop Finding PMF You found product-market fit. Here’s why it won’t stay found, and what to do about it. Harinath Pudipeddi. Read more
THIS WEEK!! WE’RE IN SYDNEY!! Only 7 spots left!
Thursday 29 October, 5.30pm, Stone & Chalk Tech Central, Level 1/477 Pitt St, Haymarket
Straight talk about the calls that almost went wrong - the hire that shouldn’t have happened, the month the cash nearly ran out, the pivot that took too long to kill. Join us for a wine!
Thanks to Stripe and Stone & Chalk for backing AFC’s first Sydney gathering.
Events to lock in
🎯 Founder Day: What Do VCs Even Do? - Wed 28 Oct, 12:00pm AEDT, Cremorne Digital Hub
🌱 Make AI a part of your Community - Wed 28 Oct, 5:45pm AEDT, Royal Automobile Club, Sydney CBD
🤖 My AI MVP is stuck at 80%: fix it, rebuild it, or sell it by hand? - Thu 29 Oct, 6:30pm AEDT, online
📆 Plan What Matters - Sat 31 Oct, 9:00am AEDT, Latin Hub, Brisbane (MATTERS10 for 10% off)
🚀 Founder Institute ANZ Demo Day - Tue 3 Nov, 6:00pm AEDT, online, free
💬 Men, boys & preventing violence - Thu 5 Nov, 12:00pm AEDT, online
🖥️ Claude Activation Sprint - Thu 19 and Fri 20 Nov, 12-2pm AEDT, online (AFC20 for 20% off)
⚡️ EDGE by Ampere - Tue 24 Nov, 9:00am-7:00pm AEDT, Establishment Ballroom, Sydney (AUSSIEFOUNDERXAMP20 for $20 off)
That’s a wrap for this week - see you in Slack in the meantime.
Catch you Tuesday!
Megan 🚀
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