Thursday, SEPT 10 AEST
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
In-person Panel Event | Building a Business is Hard AF
Hosted by
Boa
Details
The founder conversation nobody shares on social media.
Building a business can look pretty good from the outside.
The growth. The launches. The big clients. The revenue milestones.
What you don’t see are the cash flow nightmares, expensive mistakes, difficult people decisions and the moments where everything feels like it’s going wrong.
Join us for a candid BOA panel with four founder who know what it takes to build, scale and navigate the hard parts:
- Raquel & Adam Bouris - Founder & Creative Director and CEO of WHO IS ELIJAH, the Australian fragrance brand they’ve scaled into a $20M+ global business.
- Anaita Sarkar - Co-Founder of Hero Packaging and Founder of Sell Anything Online, helping thousands of businesses grow through e-commerce and marketing.
- Alexandra Pappas - Founder of No.22, the Australian homewares brand known for its cult collections and sell-out launches.
Together, they’ll get into the side of business that rarely makes it onto LinkedIn or Instagram - and what you actually do when things don’t go to plan.
No polished founder journeys. No highlight reels. Just honest conversations about the hard parts of building a business and the lessons learned along the way.
What we’ll get into:
- Navigating when things go wrong.
- Cash flow and financial pressure.
- Expensive mistakes and lessons learned.
- Difficult people decisions.
- The pivots and decisions that turn things around.
Because success doesn’t mean the hard parts stop.
Date: Thur, 10 Sep
Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Sydney CBD
Limited seats available - RSVP to secure your spot.
Brought you to you in collaboration with our events partner, Omnisend.
Date: Thursday, 10 September AEST
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Location: Sydney CBD
Other Upcoming Events
Melbourne In-Person Mixer
Join us for our next BOA Melbourne Founder Mixer.
A relaxed evening designed to help you meet other founders through curated small-group conversations, followed by open networking.
Date: Thur, 27 Aug
Location: Melbourne CBD
- 5:00pm | Arrival & networking
- 5:25pm | Curated founder conversations
- 6:40pm | Open networking
- 7:00pm | Wrap
Please arrive by 5:25pm to take part in the group conversations.
Vanessa Gray Lyndon | Growing Beyond the Startup Stage
Join us for a digital advisory with Vanessa Gray Lyndon, founder of Vanessa Megan Skincare.
Building a business is one thing. Knowing what to do once you've launched is another.
After growing Vanessa Megan Skincare into one of Australia's leading natural skincare brands, Vanessa has spent years navigating the decisions that determine whether a business continues to grow or reaches a plateau.
In this conversation, we'll unpack what founders should focus on during their next stage of growth - from making smarter investment decisions and building the right foundations to recognising when your current strategy is no longer serving you.
We'll cover:
- Where to focus your time, energy and investment after launch.
- How to know when it's time to grow your team, expand your range and strengthen your systems.
- The signs your business has plateaued and why growth stalls.
- Finding your next growth lever while avoiding costly distractions.
- Building a business that's ready for its next stage of growth.
Date: Tues, 1 Sep
Time: 9:30am-10:15am
Location: Online
Learn how to make the decisions that drive sustainable growth and move your business to its next stage.
Sydney Panel Event | Lead Gen, Sales & Growth
How are the best founders consistently winning new customers?
Join us for an exclusive BOA panel featuring Laura Higgins, Jack Henderson and Daniel Hakim as they unpack the lead generation, sales and growth strategies helping them build successful businesses today.
Meet the panel
- Laura Higgins: Founder of The Next Level Club. One of Australia's top coaching companies, as well as host of My Business Playbook, where she teaches founders how to attract more clients, increase revenue and build businesses that scale.
- Jack Henderson: Founder of Henderson Advocacy, one of Australia's fastest-growing buyer's advocacy firms, who has built a reputation for negotiating high-value deals and helping clients secure over $750 million in property across Australia
- Daniel Hakim: Founder and CEO of Club of United Business and Boa, who has built one of Australia's most influential founder communities through strategic partnerships, relationships and founder-led growth.
Together, they'll share the strategies, systems and mindset behind how they generate opportunities, win customers and continue to grow in an increasingly competitive market.
Whats in store:
- Building a predictable pipeline instead of starting from zero each month.
- Winning customers without relying solely on referrals or a large marketing budget.
- Negotiating and closing higher-value opportunities.
- Leveraging partnerships, relationships and founder-led sales to create long-term growth.
Date: Wed, 2 September
Time: 5pm–7pm
Location: Sydney CBD
Limited spots available – RSVP to secure your seat.
Christian Stevens | Build a Personal Brand That Creates Opportunities
Join us for an exclusive Digital Advisory with Christian Stevens, Founder of Flint. Having built one of Australia's fastest-growing financial services businesses and arranged more than $1 billion in lending, Christian knows what it takes to build trust, authority and a reputation that creates opportunities.
In this session, he'll share how founders can use their personal brand to attract customers, build credibility and create long-term business growth, without relying solely on paid advertising.
Whats in store:
- Why expertise alone isn't enough anymore
- Building a brand people remember and trust
- Creating content that drives real business results
- Turning visibility into opportunities and customers
- Using your personal brand to fuel long-term growth
Date: Tuesday, 8 September
Time: 9:30am–10:15am (AEST)
Location: Online
You’ll also have the chance to ask Christian questions in the Q&A.
Build a reputation that creates opportunities long after the conversation ends.
Session 1: The Lead Generation Engine
How to Build a Profitable Lead Generation System For Your Business
Most founders are either relying on referrals, posting content without a strategy, or spending on marketing without understanding what's actually driving profitability.
What we'll cover:
- Which lead source will work for you?
- Is your business ready to convert leads? – setting up the foundations for success
- Why not all leads are equal - understanding your perfect prospect through measurement
- The hidden costs: Are you comparing apples to apples?
- How to calculate ROI?
- The benefits of qualifying out in your marketing
- Sales readiness – marrying lead engagement to sales culture
- Understanding legal requirements and related legislation
- Is cold calling dead?
- The biggest mistakes causing leads to fall through the cracks
Date: Thur, 10 Sep
Time: 9:30am-10:30am
Location: Online
Why you need it:
Every founder wants more clients, more opportunities and more revenue. It's immediately valuable and actionable.
Session 2: The Hidden Revenue Inside Your Business
How to Turn Existing Customers, Leads and Data Into Growth
Most businesses spend all their energy chasing new customers while ignoring the opportunities already sitting in their database.
What we'll cover:
· How to make smarter growth decisions using customer data
· Why your customer database is one of your most valuable business assets
· The key metrics every founder should understand
· The revenue opportunities most founders are overlooking
· Reactivating old leads and past customers
Date: Thur, 17 Sep
Time: 9:30am-10:30am
Location: Online
Why you need it:
It's a topic founders rarely think about, but often generates immediate results because it's focused on leveraging what they already have rather than spending more money.
Thu Nguyen | Sip & Scale In-person FMCG Workshop
An intimate workshop for female FMCG founders.
Join us for an exclusive evening of champagne, conversation and commercial strategy with Thu Nguyen, founder of Unhinged Business World, COO, Board Advisor and international growth specialist who has helped fashion, beauty and FMCG brands scale both locally and globally.
Whether you're preparing to launch into retail, refining your wholesale strategy or looking to expand internationally, this interactive workshop is designed to help you build a more profitable, scalable business.
Having worked alongside some of Australia's fastest-growing consumer brands, Thu has become known for helping founders understand the commercial side of FMCG - from pricing and profit margins through to wholesale, retail expansion and sustainable growth.
Thu will share the frameworks and commercial insights every product founder should know, before opening the room for discussion, questions and real founder conversations.
What's in store
- Building a pricing strategy that protects your margins
- Understanding wholesale, retail and distributor pricing
- Where founders lose profit without realising
- Preparing your brand for retail growth
- Expanding into international markets
- Avoiding the commercial mistakes that slow growth
- Q&A with Thu
Date: Tue, 13 Oct
Time: 4pm-6:30pm
Location: Sydney CBD
Includes: Wine, Sparkling & non-alch, grazing platter
Following the workshop, stay for champagne, grazing and the opportunity to connect with other ambitious female founders building the next generation of consumer brands.