Fireside Chat: How to Fund Your Startup + Scaleup | Tech Ready Women x Westpac

Venture capital, grants, family office, friends and family or angels? Have you considered a startup bank loan (i.e. non dilutive funding).

Most founders assume a bank won't lend to them in the first couple of years. It's one of the most common, and most expensive assumptions in early-stage business. But Westpac is committed to changing that.

Westpac will lend to startups on the strength of a business plan and cashflow forecast. And through our partnership with Tech Ready Women, founders get direct access to specialist startup and scale-up bankers, not a call centre queue.

Come join us in this 45-minute chat, as TRW's General Manager, Renate Crollini, unpacks Westpac's unique offer with banking experts Mel Portelli and Michelle Kervin. Also joining them is Varsha Siddaramegowda, a founder that has been through the process herself, to walk through exactly how it works - what you need, what they're looking for, what happens when you start the conversation and how it supported her business.

What we'll cover

• The Start-up Loan: for businesses under 24 months. Assessed on your business plan, cashflow forecast, projections and assumptions. No year-end financials, no asset security.

• The Scale-up Loan: once you're trading 12 months or more. Borrowing up to $5m, with the flexibility to hire, enter new markets or smooth cash flow through growth.

• Hear from a founder herself! What she was building, what she pulled together to apply, and what the loan let her do.

• What VIP banker access actually means and how to use it before, during and after a funding conversation.

• Your questions, live and unfiltered. There are no silly quesitions. Only one's that get you closer to funding your dream!

Shall we make it a little more fun?

Want something a little extra? TRW will randomly pull 20 participants emails from those attending to enter a pool to win one $100 gift voucher.

Want even MORE? Everyone that asks a question in the session gets a FREE month in TRW's new Female Founder Grow community.

Who should come?

Women founders at any stage whether you're pre-revenue with a plan and a forecast, or trading and working out how to fund the next step. If you've ever assumed funding wasn't available to you yet, this one's for you.

The panel

• Renate Crollini, GM Tech Ready Women (host)

• Mel Portelli, Portfolio Owner, Business Lending, Westpac. Mel designs the lending products and experiences built for the startup and scale-up community.

• Michelle Kervin, Specialist Startup and Scale-up Banker, Westpac. 25 years in financial services with 17 of them at Westpac working with founders.

• Varsha Siddaramegowda, Tech Ready Women alumni and Loan for Startups recipient. Founder and CEO of technovAIte.com

Event details

📅 Wednesday, 7 October 2026

⌚ 12:30pm to 1:30pm (AEST)

💻 Online

🎟️ FREE

Got a question for the panel? Add it when you register and we'll work through as many as we can on the day.

When TRW and Westpac say we support female founders, we mean it!