The Sync

(Brought to you by Mission and Rhythm)

Lead with action. Rethink the system. Make work, work.

We talk a lot about “innovation,” but too often it’s just polishing the same broken systems. Funding models that don’t fit, migration pathways that lock people out, workplaces that celebrate tech but push women away.

This issue is about the cracks and the choices we can make to fix them.

Because when we stop asking people to bend to systems that were never built for them and instead reshape the system itself, we open the door to something better.

The Headlines

1. Venture Capital Isn’t the Answer for Women Founders

Source: Startup Daily - Tracey Warren & Bree Kirkham

We’ve been told for years that women don’t “fit” venture capital. The truth? Venture capital doesn’t fit most women founders.

• VC is engineered for unicorn-chasing SaaS, not for the creative, consumer and community-driven businesses where so many women thrive.
• Yet, we keep telling women to play a game that was never designed for them.
• This as more than a mismatch. It’s another form of exclusion and one that puts the burden on women to bend, contort and carry more weight, instead of fixing the system.

Takeaway: It’s not founders that are broken. It’s the system.

Action: Rethink capital. Expand the toolkit - revenue-based finance, grants, blended capital. Fund models that fit the founder and the business, not just the VC playbook.

2. H-1B Visa Chaos: Australia’s Window of Opportunity?

Source: SmartCompany + LinkedIn reflections

The US has just priced an H-1B visa at almost $150,000. Another pointless wall?

When one system breaks, can another step in? This is an opportunity if government and business pull together to design visas that are fast, affordable and attractive to the talent the US is pushing away.

We talk a lot about skills shortages, about struggling to compete. Yet right now, the door is wide open. If we’re serious about building the next wave of industries here, this is the moment to move. I said it at the start of the year, Australia has a chance to be an offshoring talent hub to the US and Europe.

Takeaway: Opportunity doesn’t wait. When one country closes its doors, another can open them.

Action: Stop talking skills crisis and start acting. Create a genuine global talent pathway: fast approvals, clear policies, employer backing. Not charity, but strategy.

3. The AI Future Needs Women - But the System Keeps Locking Them Out

Source: Tech Council of Australia - Future Ready 2025

AI is Australia’s fastest-growing skills frontier. 8 of the top 10 jobs by 2030 will be highly technical - from machine learning engineers to cybersecurity specialists. But here’s the problem: women are still just 20% of the technical workforce, and after 40, they exit at almost double the rate of men.

• This isn’t about ability. Girls perform just as well, if not better, than boys in STEM subjects, but by high school their confidence drops 25%.
• By mid-career, half of women report harassment.
• Add in patchy childcare and inflexible workplaces and we’re watching talent walk out the door right when AI is reshaping work.

AI adoption has a trust gap. Women are more sceptical of AI than men and that’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. Diverse perspectives are exactly what’s needed to challenge blind spots, call out bias and design systems that earn trust.

If we keep building AI with the same narrow pool of talent, we’ll repeat the same inequities. But if we close the gender gap in tech, we don’t just unlock fairness, we unlock better, safer AI.

Takeaway: Australia’s AI future won’t be won by code alone. It’ll be won by confidence, culture and inclusion.

Action:

• Government & business: Build affordable childcare beyond preschool after-school and vacation care matter just as much.
• Employers: Tie executive bonuses to retention of women in technical roles. Flexibility isn’t a perk, it’s a pipeline.
• Industry: Fund programs that connect girls to real technical role models early and redesign mid-career pathways so “rest” doesn’t mean “exit.”

4. Show Us the Data: Funding Equity Moves From Pledge to Standard

Source: SmartCompany - Noga Edelstein / Equity Clear / Investment NSW

Equity Clear started as a bootstrapped pledge to disclose funding data on women-led startups. Now, with backing from Investment NSW and rigour from UNSW, it’s scaling into a national investment diversity data standard.

• The shift is huge: from ad hoc reporting to a consistent, sector-wide framework tracking who gets seen, who gets funded and where diverse founders drop out of the pipeline.
• Gender is the starting point, but cultural diversity, socio-economic background, regionality and disability are next.

Storytelling built awareness. Now data builds accountability. We can’t fix what we won’t measure. This isn’t about public shaming. It’s about evidence. VCs who are reporting are already increasing investments in women-led companies. Data drives behaviour.

Takeaway: Equity without evidence is branding. Evidence is what drives systemic change.

Action: Founders - ask your investors if they’re disclosing. Investors - join, standardise, publish. Governments - tie grants and co-investments to transparency.

5. Walking the Talk: Recognition & New Beginnings

Sources: HRD Australia , Mission and Rhythm , PeopleStack

It’s one thing to write about changing systems. It’s another to build them. This week

• Mission and Rhythm was recognised in HRD Australia’s Readers’ Choice Awards, standing alongside giants in the industry as one of the top HR consultancies in Australia and New Zealand. A small player punching above its weight, but proving that people-first action matters.
• And PeopleStack just kicked off its first founder cohort - an accelerator designed to give early-stage leaders the tools to build people foundations that scale. No jargon, no fluff, just the support founders need to grow cultures that actually work.

Recognition is nice. Action is better. Momentum matters if it’s shared with founders, with teams, with a community that believes work can be done differently.

Takeaway: Change doesn’t just happen in headlines. It happens in the systems we design and the programs we kick off.

Action:

• Founders: if you’re building from the ground up, don’t wait until it hurts, invest in people foundations early.
• Leaders: keep backing the players who are building better ways of working, not just talking about them.

WHAT’S CAUGHT MY EYE

Stop Blaming Mothers: Autism Isn’t a Failure, It’s Humanity

Source: Women's Agenda - Laetitia Andrac 🌈♾️

Every generation finds a new way to blame women for autism. First it was “cold mothers,” then vaccines, now paracetamol in pregnancy. The science doesn’t stack up, but the blame always lands in the same place. On mothers.

It’s cruel, lazy and bullshit! Mothers are already carrying more than their share at home, at work and in society. Add stigma and guilt on top of that and you’re not helping families, you’re breaking them.

Autism isn’t a defect to be prevented. It’s part of human diversity. When leaders recycle these mother-blaming narratives, they don’t just harm women, they make it harder for neurodivergent people to be seen, supported and included.

This iis cowardice. Blaming women is the oldest trick in the book and it lets leaders off the hook for doing the hard work of building workplaces, policies and communities that actually support parents and embrace neurodiversity.

Takeaway: Blame isolates. Support includes. The story of autism isn’t prevention, it’s participation.

Action:

• Leaders: Call this out, loudly and publicly. Every time.
• Workplaces: Stop adding weight. Start removing it from parents, from carers, from neurodivergent employees.
• Allies , Accomplices and Advocates (especially men): Step up. Shoulder the load. Stop leaving women to carry it all.

FINAL THOUGHT

Blame is cowardice dressed up as leadership.

Pointing fingers at mothers, at founders, at workers... at those of us who are different and not in power it’s the oldest trick in the book. It shifts responsibility, protects power and keeps broken systems intact.

Real leadership is hard. It takes courage to admit the system doesn’t work. It takes accountability to change it... To design funding that fits, visas that welcome, workplaces that include and cultures that don’t pile weight onto the same shoulders again and again.

Progress doesn't come from blame or deflection. It comes from leaders who refuse to hide behind it. Who choose to act, to own, to change.

Because nothing changes until someone has the guts to stop pointing fingers and start moving the load.

📊 You’ve got the insights. Now lead like it matters.