Carolyn Mee is 155 centimetres and describes herself as petite.
The start-up co-founder says she finds pitching tough.
"Because I'm a woman and I lack stature I have to try extra hard to have impact," she says. "I do see it in men's eyes, sometimes they don't even engage on that level."
Mee was one of the participants in Australia's first Dolphin-Tank pitch session in Sydney on Friday where she pitched Sound Scouts, an app that gamifies hearing screening.
Rather than the cut-throat pitching environment portrayed in the television show Shark Tank, Dolphin Tank takes a softer approach.
Backed by Springboard, Dell and Guggenheim Partners, it aims to help aspiring female entrepreneurs access a cross-industry network of business leaders to give friendly advice and insights to help accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies led by women.
Mee gave a three-minute overview of Sound Scouts in front of the panel, explaining the details of the app which she developed with scientist Harvey Dillon and programmer Cuauh Moreno.
"We've taken the principles of an audiological hearing test and made it into a game," she says.
Sound Scouts enables children to have their hearing tested and checked wherever they are, including in remote locations.
The app has already attracted $1.1 million in funding to enable its build and launch last year but Mee says she now needs to get the message out and educate people about the issue of hearing health.
"The lovely thing about Dolphin Tank was that it was a very supportive environment," she says. "It felt very relaxed. There was some fantastic feedback and feedback from a global perspective which is always great to receive as an Aus entrepreneur."
Mee says she made some great contacts at the event.
It often takes them to that next level and opens them to that next opportunity.
Angela Fox
"It wasn't a case of pulling apart your experience, instead it was about saying 'This is what you could add to strengthen what you are putting forward'."
Vice President of Commercial Dell EMC Australia and New Zealand, Angela Fox, was part of the group of experts providing advice at the event.
She describes Dolphin Tank as "a fast-paced, highly interactive pitch format" which provides female entrepreneurs with "the opportunity to get valuable feedback".
"It often takes them to that next level and opens them to that next opportunity."
Fox says events like Dolphin Tank are important as there continue to be significant barriers to entry for female entrepreneurs.
Women are starting businesses twice as fast as men but they receive less venture capital funding than male counterparts and receive less media coverage.
"The reality is through our own ongoing conversation and research there really continues to be some predominant issues that inhabit the platforms that are necessary for entrepreneurs," she says. "You can sum that up in access to technology, access to capital, access to networks and access to talent."
Fox says networking is critical.
"When you look at it from a networking perspective often professional women and female entrepreneurs find it hard to break into male-dominated networks," she says. "Increasingly those entrepreneurs are turning to each other for help."
Fox says she was particularly interested in the technical aspects of the pitches at the event.
"Being in the tech industry I'm fascinated to see how they are going to use technology," she says. "For some start-ups it's at the core of their value proposition."
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