Entrepreneurship is not just about having the boldest idea in the room.
It is about learning how to test it, question it, shape it, and keep going when the next step is unclear.
This semester, that is exactly what the women in UQ Ventures’ Empower program have been doing every Thursday evening.
They have been validating ideas, refining pitches, speaking to mentors, making pivots, and slowly building the confidence to call themselves founders.
Empower is UQ Ventures’ 10-week pre-accelerator program for women founders. Through customer validation, legal fundamentals, pitching, go-to-market strategy and mentoring, the program helps early-stage founders move from idea to action.
But the workshops only tell half the story.
The real impact is in the journeys behind the ideas: the long drives, the honest questions, the moments of doubt, the unexpected pivots, and the point where something that once felt uncertain starts to feel possible.
For Elizabeth, that journey has meant driving 2 hours each way from the Sunshine Coast every Thursday while balancing 2 children, a clinical career and a startup. Her company, Worthwhile Solutions, focuses on third-party sexual harassment compliance, and after a government body discovered her online training module, Empower helped her step into the opportunity with confidence.
“I went from seeing myself as a giant imposter to actually believing I can do this.”
For Saipriya, Empower began with curiosity. She joined Empower as an Aspiring Entrepreneur without her own startup, and became part of RAPID, an AI-powered smart triage system for hospitals. After mentor feedback and a conversation with a Gold Coast Government health professional, the team pivoted and found a clearer direction.
“There’s no right or wrong here. You’re just learning. You’re just growing.”
For Katherine and Lachlan, Empower turned a long-held idea into something more strategic. Their startup, HomeHunter, is a one-stop platform for finding your ideal place to live. Through the program, they moved from simply discussing the idea to building it with structure, strategy and acquisition in mind.
“It totally changed the way we’re approaching it.”
For Stephanie, Empower offered community during what can often be a lonely founder journey. She entered the program with an MVP already built for her natural-language app creation platform, where users can describe what they want and the platform helps build it.
“Sometimes you face it alone. Then I come here and see female founders with so much energy.”
For Gen, founder of Quadley, the idea came from watching her daughters navigate residential college updates through scattered Instagram DMs, Facebook posts and group chats. Empower helped her move beyond the product and start thinking through the business side of building.
“I drive 2 hours to get here every week. Because it’s worth it.”
The startups are different. The founders are at different stages. The problems they are solving span workplaces, healthcare, housing, software and student communities.
But their journeys share something common.
They showed up.
They asked questions. They tested assumptions. They listened to feedback. They changed direction when they needed to. And week by week, they started to see themselves not just as people with ideas, but as founders.
That matters, especially in a startup ecosystem where women still face significant barriers. In 2025, all-female founding teams in Australia received less than 0.5% of venture capital funding. Empower cannot close that gap alone, but it gives women something every founder needs early on: support, structure and a room that takes their ideas seriously.
For many participants, that room has made a difference.
Gen, who has been part of mixed-gender startup spaces before, noticed how open the Empower environment felt.
“Here, everyone’s learning and they’re really happy to share.”
Saipriya said seeing women lead sessions, teach, guide and take up space in the startup ecosystem was more inspiring than anything she had found online.
That is the power of Empower.
Not because women need a separate space to be capable, but because confidence grows faster when people feel seen, supported and taken seriously.
On Thursday 7 May, the Empower cohort will take the stage at Demo Day to share what they have built over the past 10 weeks.
It will not be the end of their journey.
It will be the moment their ideas step outside the room.
And for these women, it is only the beginning.
See the Empower teams in-action at Empower Demo Day, 7 May 2026