High Agency Women

In this episode of High Agency Women, Tash sits down with Astrid founder Lisa Nguyen following the sale of her medicinal cannabis business to Chemist Warehouse - a landmark moment for Australian female founders, and one of the most significant exits in a frontier category still shaped by stigma and misunderstanding. Lisa shares what it took to build Astrid from the ground up, the realities of scal...

Welcome back to High Agency Women, and this is a very exciting episode because it's the first time we've had repeat guests! Yep, the Clutch co-founders Annabel and Lucy Hay are back in the studio for Yeah, But How? to take us through how exactly Annabel spearheaded Clutch's $2 million pre-seed capital raise and deal close process with Australian VC firm Blackbird (one of the biggest...

New year, new goals - but how do you sustain them without burning out?! In this episode of High Agency Women (our first for the year!) host Natasha Gillezeau sits down with psychologist Rashida Dungarwalla and founders Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks and Alicia Vrajlal for an honest conversation about ambition, boundaries, and wellbeing in the startup world.  From vision boards and New Year’s resolutions...

When Centennial World founder Lauren Meisner saw traditional media dismissing internet culture and the creator economy, she didn’t just tweet about it – she quit her job, put in $5K of her own money, and launched a world-first Gen Z–focused internet culture brand… three months later. In this Yeah, But How mini-series episode of High Agency Women, host Natasha Gillezeau sits down with Lauren to unp...

Welcome back to High Agency Women - and today, we’re diving into another Yeah, But How? episode, this time exploring what we’re calling the leap dilemma . We’re joined by two powerhouse founders who know exactly what it means to take the plunge: Camille Goldstone-Henry, Founder and CEO of Xylo Systems, and Grace Toombs, Founder of June Health . Together, they unpack the question every aspiring ent...

To thrive career-wise, great designers must also become excellent translators. That – amongst other gems – is one of the main lessons from today’s special episode of High Agency Women, where we had the pleasure of catching up with Stripe’s dynamic head of design Katie Dill at Stripe Tour in Sydney. Katie’s journey into the design world began growing up in New York with frequent family visits upsta...

In this week’s episode of our new mini-series Yeah, But How?, we're delighted to welcome the incredible Chenelle Tanglao to High Agency Women. Chenelle Tanglao started her career in data analytics, before clocking the unique energy and dynamism of the Australian startup ecosystem in 2018. She felt the vibe, and wanted to spread her career wings in the tech sector. Becoming an investor wasn’t...

In this week's episode of our new mini-series Yeah, But How?, Tash sits down with everyone's favourite founder, Michelle Battersby, for an unfiltered deep dive into the full Sunroom journey - from the spark of an idea, through raising investment, all the way to acquisition. Michelle shares why she and her co-founder Lucy Mort made the call to pursue an M&A path with their startup, wh...

In this episode of High Agency Women , we sit down with sisters Annabel and Lucy Hay - the powerhouse duo behind Clutch, the startup redefining what it means to feel secure, and supported, in your clothes. What's not to love? Frustrated with the poor performance of traditional Hollywood tape, Annabel took matters into her own hands. While juggling a demanding full-time job in Hong Kong, she c...

"I've always had this motto: you can't complain about something more than twice unless you're prepared to do something about it," Robyn Denholm tells Missing Perspectives, on her decision to purchase the Women's National Basketball League, as spurred on by her daughter Victoria Denholm. Business geeks and sport lovers alike, we're excited to introduce you to a sh...

Eileen O’Mara has a knack for picking winners - now the Chief Revenue Officer at fintech company Stripe, the Irish-American tech leader has forged a career working at some of the most dynamic, founder-led tech companies in the game including Oracle, Salesforce, and now Stripe.  Reputationally, Stripe is known for their high standards, fast-moving pace, and obsessive and relentless focus on the nee...

This week's guest is the incredible author Diana Reid, whose new novel Signs of Damage is coming out on March 4th 2025. Signs of Damage is Diana’s third novel published by Ultimo Press, and comes off the back of the success of her first two books Love & Virtue and Seeing Other People. The plot is inspired by the notion of “terrible things happening in beautiful places” (think White Lotus,...

In the heart of Haymarket in Sydney’s CBD, a group of 110 engineers and bankers are building a new company that simplifies how banks operate. At the helm of this operation, which is called Constantinople after the Roman Empire, is a formidable woman called Di Challenor. Never being the one to tell herself no, Di and her co-founder Mac Duncan hold a unique title in Australian business history as th...

Ten years into building health and fitness company Kic, Laura Henshaw and her co-founder Steph Miller (née Steph Claire Smith) have survived the initial years of startup life. Now, she’s ready to set the company up for success well into the future. Laura sat down with Natasha Gillezeau to talk about how she’s scaled the Kic team, the importance of navigating differing communication and work styles...

From rural Montana to a tech unicorn, Emily Glassberg Sands breaks down her journey into data science and how other women can embrace similar opportunities in technology.