“Mirrors the actual picture”: Burning Heroes awards celebrate women-led businesses

For Anna Deynego, the founder of the startup awards Burning Heroes, supporting other female founders in the startup world is a passion project alongside her full-time career.

“It’s my hobby, my third child,” Deynego tells Women’s Agenda. “Having two daughters, this initiative feels like my third. It’s about disseminating my values and contributing positively to the market alongside the most brilliant minds.”

As a non-profit organisation, Burning Heroes Founders Association’s ultimate goal is to empower and inspire collaboration across the ecosystem to support talented, hardworking founders.

It’s the first startup awards created by founders for founders, and since it began in 2022, the organisation has run numerous events across the world.

Deynego’s own journey as a founder provided her with firsthand insight into the hurdles female entrepreneurs often encounter.

“One significant challenge for women in business is overcoming indifference,” she says. “Women frequently have to prove their worth to be acknowledged and deemed competent in their fields.”

Unfortunately, Deynego can recount experiences where, despite being the CEO, business discussions were directed at her male CTO, often in a condescending tone.

“The dilemma of the chicken and the egg persists,” she says. “Statistically, female founders secure funding less effectively, primarily because investors base their decisions on these statistics.”

This problem even exists among female investors who hold misogynistic views. Deynego once encountered a female investor who openly preferred not to invest in female-led ventures.

“This world was historically designed by men, for men,” Deynego says. “It’s crucial that we support one another to reshape this world to serve us equally”.

Supporting diverse startups is a huge part of the underlying ethos of Burning Heroes, with investments into women-led businesses highlighted to a great extent at last year’s inaugural pitch in Australia.

Five out of 6 of the winners at the award ceremony in Sydney were women-led companies, and women-led businesses made up 80% of the finalists.

The importance of highlighting these successful women-led companies in Australia can’t be overstated, as the latest data shows only 4% of the $3.5 billion in startup funding in Australia in 2023 went to all-female-founded startups.

Sixty-two percent of funding deals went to all-male founding teams, compared to 12% for all-female founding teams and 26% for teams involving at least one female founder.

Deynego says that deciding to launch these awards in the first place was an “emotional decision” meant to elevate under-supported startups.

“We ensure a fair selection methodology, evaluating the quality of startups without bias towards the founders’ gender, origin, age, and so forth,” she says. “The significant presence of female finalists and winners in our Australian contest mirrors the actual picture, and we are gratified to have spotlighted this matter.”

The contests have zero costs, are free for startups to participate in, and are entirely supported by people who value improving equality in the way that startups are funded.

With award ceremonies spanning many continents, the volunteers that run the Burning Heroes events have the freedom to organise them in the best way they see fit, and Deynego says the organisation supports them to do so.

She holds the Australian awards in high regard, saying, “Marina Chelak, Lea Rausch, Gemma Clancy, and other enthusiastic contributors that have already made notable impacts on Australia’s startup landscape, effectively launched Burning Heroes into the market and refreshed the program with new categories and innovative processes.”

Honouring early-stage startup achievements in a range of different areas, the Australian categories included Global Reach (won by Humanico), Social Impact (won by Alt. Leather), Aussie Market Mover (won by The Separation Guide), Equity in Innovation (won by DEIR Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Retention), Speedy Start-Up (won by SeenCulture) and Tech in the Arts (won by QreativeAI).

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.