77 Venture Challenge

From Pitch Ready to Investment Ready

The 77 Venture Challenge is a 12 week program designed for early stage ventures preparing to raise pre-seed, seed or pre-Series A capital.

The program's structure emulates an investment deal process with one major exception - ventures receive constant feedback and full transparency from the 77 Partners team.

This enables founders to understand how a prospective investor evaluates their venture and how best to prepare for fundraising.

Ventures don’t have to pay money or issue equity to participate in the program. By the end of the program, at least one venture is offered an investment from 77 Partners of at least $100,000.

  • "Through their extensive US network, the 77 Partners team played a pivotal role in helping us secure a spot in Y Combinator. "

    Daniel Gibbon, Co-Founder at Edexia

  • "The 77 Venture Challenge is in my opinion *the* best program in Australia for founders learning about the nuts and bolts of a capital raise"

    Laurie Nicol, Founder at Tendl

  • "The 77 Partners team supported us to close our pre-seed round and connected us with leading founders, investors and partners.”

    Carolina Dreifuss, Co-Founder at Sync Technologies

  • "The 77 Venture Challenge is a great program. It was very flexible and practical, tailored to the individual circumstances of our business."

    Tim Hall, Co-Founder at GreaseBoss

  • "The 77 Venture Challenge has propelled us forward in a meaningful and very real way, we highly recommend the program."

    Tim Vale, Co-Founder at Telemattica

  • “The quality of the guest speakers, and the frankness of their responses and advice to questions, really made sessions a refreshing source of insights and inspiration."

    Nina Owen, Co-Founder at SNAPI

  • "The 77 Partners team provided specific and actionable advice, which is often difficult to find. Highly recommend the 77 Venture Challenge."

    Nathan Larkin, Co-Founder at Verbotics

  • "I feel much better prepared to go into our first seed funding round. Highly recommend the 77 Venture Challenge. 10 out of 10."

    Abbie Widin, Founder at Defy-Hi Robotics

  • "The program offers proactive guidance for business growth. Highly recommend 77 Venture Challenge to early stage founders."

    Alex McClung, Founder at Traversal Labs

  • “The 77 Venture Challenge was pivotal in helping us develop and execute our strategy for raising capital. It also connected us with experienced entrepreneurs and VCs in the US."

    Sara Richardson, Co-Founder at Leakster

  • "Being part of the 77 Venture Challenge has been a fantastic advantage. The guest speakers really opened my mind on opportunities."

    Shawn Tansley, Co-Founder at BIA5

  • "The 77 Venture Challenge provides no-nonsense advice and guidance from founders that have been there, done that and know the hardships of building a startup from the ground up."

    David Cole, Co-Founder at FlyFreely

  • "Overall we feel better placed to take on the upcoming challenges for our venture and this is in no small part thanks to the guidance and collaboration from the 77 Venture Challenge."

    Christel Hadiwibawa, Co-Founder at NOA The Brand

Actionable, Next-Level Outcomes

  • Curated, one-on-one meetings with relevant Venture Capital firms (including QIC backed investment funds)

  • Support to navigate funding rounds (the majority of past participants have succeeded in raising capital)

  • Assistance to apply for high level, follow-on opportunities (including Y Combinator - eg. GreaseBoss, Endla, Edexia)

Light Touch - High Impact

The program is fully remote and is designed to accommodate founders’ busy schedules with a couple hours of touch points per week.

  • Weekly one-on-one sessions with the 77 Partners team

  • International investors and founders including top level funds and unicorn level startups

  • Cohort sessions covering fundraising strategy and overcoming associated challenges

Eligibility

The 77 Venture Challenge is currently open to ventures headquartered in Queensland. The program is targeted at early stage ventures with a frontier tech focus (Advanced Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Clean Technology, Extended Reality, Internet of Things, Quantum Computing, Robotics or related technologies).

Ventures which have already developed a pilot product and/or recently entered the market in a priority sector (Agriculture, Climate, Construction, Infrastructure, Logistics, Manufacturing, Resources, Security, Space, Utilities or related sectors) are encouraged to apply.

Past Guest Speakers

  • Geoff Ralston

    Former President at Y Combinator

    LinkedIn

  • Christina Cacioppo

    CEO and Co-Founder at Vanta

    Click Here

  • Michael Berolzheimer

    Founder and Managing Partner at Bee Partners

    LinkedIn

  • Qasar Younis

    Co-Founder at Applied Intuition

    LinkedIn

  • Holly Liu

    Co-Founder at Kabam and former YC Partner

    LinkedIn

  • Avichal Garg

    Managing Partner at Electric Capital

    LinkedIn

  • Eric Migicovsky

    Former Partner at YC and Founder at Pebble

    LinkedIn

  • Eddy Lu

    Co-Founder and CEO at GOAT Group

    LinkedIn

  • Yin Wu

    Co-founder at Pulley and Double Labs

    LinkedIn

  • Paul Sernia

    Founder and CEO at Endua and Tritium

    LinkedIn

  • Sandra Mau

    Founder and CEO at TrademarkVision

    LinkedIn

  • Matt Fairhurst

    Co-Founder and CEO at Skedulo

    LinkedIn

  • Taylor Wakefield

    Co-Founder at Teleport and Mailgun

    LinkedIn

  • May Samali

    Founder at Human Leadership Lab

    LinkedIn

  • Luke Anear

    Founder and CEO at SafetyCulture

    LinkedIn

  • Joey Flores

    Co-founder at Earbits and Inversion Art

    LinkedIn

  • Christian Sanz

    Founder and CEO at Skycatch Inc

    LinkedIn

  • Audrey Melnik

    Founder and CEO at Unlocking Growth

    LinkedIn

  • Richard Aberman

    Founder at WePay, Early Stage Investor

    LinkedIn

Timeline

FAQs

  • No, ventures are not required to issue equity or make payment in order to participate in the program.

  • ​The program is best suited to ventures approaching pre-seed, seed or pre-series A investment. As long as you are at this stage you are encouraged to apply, no matter if you’ve already raised capital.

  • The program is delivered online, except for the kickoff and end-of-program events, which will take place in Brisbane.

  • ​The program requires about two hours of contact time per week. It is designed to allow for maximum flexibility. We let each venture confirm the areas they want to concentrate on. Of course, the more you put into the program the more you’ll get out of it and the better prepared you'll be to raise the next stage of support.

  • The terms of the investment will be negotiated fairly and by mutual agreement by the end of the program.

  • The program is currently open to ventures headquartered in Queensland.