High Agency Women

When Centennial World founder Lauren Meisner saw traditional media dismissing internet culture and the creator economy, she didn’t just tweet about it – she quit her job, put in $5K of her own money, and launched a world-first Gen Z–focused internet culture brand… three months later.In this Yeah, But How mini-series episode of High Agency Women, host Natasha Gillezeau sits down with Lauren to unpack the very un-glam and real side of building a new media company from scratch: bootstrapping vs taking on a bank loan, surviving the chaos of COVID, ad budgets, navigating a co-founder exit, and evolving from a classic “.com” publisher into a personality-led podcast network.Lauren is brutally honest about what it actually takes to grow as a founder – especially when your strengths (for her, editorial instincts) can become a hiding place from the parts of the business you’re less confident in. She shares how she’s learning to confront those weak spots head on, why 2026 will be her “year of no scaling”, and the mindset shift that came with deciding Centennial World needed to be bigger than just her face and voice.You’ll hear Lauren and Tash dive into:How Lauren spotted (and moved fast on) a global gap in the market for serious coverage of internet cultureWhat really happened behind the scenes of bootstrapping Centennial World, from the first MAC Cosmetics deal to taking a bank loan in 2024Navigating a co-founder breakup while staying friends – and keeping the business aliveWhy she killed off Meta and deprioritised the website, and went all-in on podcastingBuilding a personality-led media brand that sits across both media and influencer budgetsLearning to trust your instincts in business when you don’t feel like a “numbers” personThe power of shamelessly asking for help (including the story of emailing Anna Wintour – and getting a reply)If you’re a creatively-driven founder, aspiring media entrepreneur, or just ~chronically online~ and curious about what it takes to turn that obsession into a business, we can guarantee that conversation will hit home (and follow Centennial World while you're at it!!).Sponsored by Blackbird. 

Welcome back to High Agency Women - and today, we’re diving into another Yeah, But How? episode, this time exploring what we’re calling the leap dilemma.We’re joined by two powerhouse founders who know exactly what it means to take the plunge: Camille Goldstone-Henry, Founder and CEO of Xylo Systems, and Grace Toombs, Founder of June Health. Together, they unpack the question every aspiring entrepreneur faces - how do you know when it’s the right time to take the leap and work on your startup full-time?What makes this conversation so compelling is that both Camille and Grace come from non-traditional business backgrounds. Camille began her career as a conservation scientist, while Grace was deep in the academic world of medicine before pivoting to build her own company. They’re both proud First Nations women, Startmate alumni, and leaders driven by purpose and impact.For Camille, that mission is protecting global biodiversity through tech innovation. For Grace, it’s redesigning women’s healthcare - restoring dignity, access, and agency from first period to final bleed.Camille has been recognised as a Women’s Weekly Women of the Future award-winner for her cloud-based platform connecting conservation projects worldwide, while Grace has been celebrated in Marie Claire as Changemaker of the Month for her bold reimagining of healthcare systems (just casually). It’s a rich, honest, and inspiring conversation about risk, timing, identity, and what it really means to back yourself - even when the path isn’t obvious.With pleasure, here’s Camille Goldstone-Henry and Grace Toombs. This episode was sponsored by Blackbird.

To thrive career-wise, great designers must also become excellent translators.That – amongst other gems – is one of the main lessons from today’s special episode of High Agency Women, where we had the pleasure of catching up with Stripe’s dynamic head of design Katie Dill at Stripe Tour in Sydney. Katie’s journey into the design world began growing up in New York with frequent family visits upstate to a small town called Speculator – where a young Katie would find herself solving problems around the house and even building an elaborate, fully-carpeted, light-installed dog-house aged 9.Today, the Silicon Valley-based executive is more likely to find herself sitting in board meetings advocating for Stripe’s user base from the “design” perspective – a more silent but critical aspect of how humans can delightfully (or not) navigate their way through their online and offline worlds alike. But the journey of any high agency woman isn’t just one of clocking wins. Katie also shares a valuable career lesson from her first month at Airbnb on how to earn your team’s trust at a new organisation when you’ve already achieved career success elsewhere.“I came into Airbnb, and it was evident that there were things that needed to improve with the design organisation and how the design team was working. I came in swinging like okay – let’s make these changes right away,” she recalls.“The design team were not thrilled. But that whole experience was extremely illuminating. In retrospect, it didn’t matter if my moves were the right ones – the way I handled it at the time was that I lost their trust and I tried to make changes too quickly. I learned [from this experience] how to do a better job of showing my process, what I'm learning and taking in, and how I'm using all of that to make a decision."She’s a top designer, a parent, and somehow also picked up her pilot licence in her spare time – with pleasure, here’s Katie Dill.

In this week’s episode of our new mini-series Yeah, But How?, we're delighted to welcome the incredible Chenelle Tanglao to High Agency Women.Chenelle Tanglao started her career in data analytics, before clocking the unique energy and dynamism of the Australian startup ecosystem in 2018. She felt the vibe, and wanted to spread her career wings in the tech sector. Becoming an investor wasn’t initially on her career bingo card, but after immersing herself in Startmate’s investor programs, and working with and shadowing the founders Rachael Neumann and Kylie Frazer at Flying Fox Ventures – she found herself in her current role: Investment Director for Female-Led Ventures at Trawalla Group. Trawalla is the Schwartz Family Office. Yes, Trawalla is commercially minded, but thanks to Carol Schwartz AO’s deep and enduring commitment to gender equity, the firm holds another key aim in mind: this question of how best to set up female investors, fund managers, founders, and business teams for ultimate success.In today's episode, Chenelle breaks down some of the key considerations for founders when taking on investment – from understanding the varying expectations and timelines of venture capitalists to family offices – to thinking of investors as not merely a source of money but as a valuable “resource” to tap into along your business journey. Chenelle says to think carefully about who the right investors are for you and what they bring to the table from both an expectations on return and values perspective, as (please indulge the incoming poetry) deep alignment is the fertile soil from which the best investor-founder relationships are sprung.Sponsored by Blackbird.

In this week's episode of our new mini-series Yeah, But How?, Tash sits down with everyone's favourite founder, Michelle Battersby, for an unfiltered deep dive into the full Sunroom journey - from the spark of an idea, through raising investment, all the way to acquisition.Michelle shares why she and her co-founder Lucy Mort made the call to pursue an M&A path with their startup, what the process actually looked like behind the scenes, and the biggest roadblocks she and her team faced along the way. She reflects on where Sunroom got it right, what they learned about the creator economy, and why Fanfix was the right fit as an acquirer.We also explore some of the big questions: Could Sunroom have kept going? What lessons are worth passing on to the next wave of founders? And what’s next for Michelle as she enters her next chapter?Michelle also opens up about her experience of leadership and motherhood - and what it takes to make workplaces more supportive for women and mothers.This is a must-listen for anyone curious about the realities of startup life, the challenges of M&A, and the lessons Michelle has carried into what comes next. Sponsored by Blackbird.