Pitch, Please: What to Keep, Contract or Call an Expert For

The Session:
As a founder, it can be hard to know where to spend your limited, hard-earned capital—especially when every networking event and online forum seems full of people selling services your startup apparently cannot survive without.

So, what should you do yourself, what should you outsource, and when is it time to call an expert? More importantly: if you only have $1 to spend, which service gets it—and which ones can wait?

Erin Clark will explain how she prioritises services at different stages of a business, including how she weighs up risk, growth, capability and cost. She’ll unpack how to choose the right type of organisation, engage them on the right terms and manage them well—without wasting your precious startup dollars.

A rapid-fire reverse pitch will give selected service providers three minutes each to explain:

• Who they help and what problem they solve
• When a founder should engage them—and when they shouldn’t
• Where their service should sit in a founder’s spending priorities
• How founders can work with them
• How their engagement and payment model works

Expect practical guidance, honest answers and no snake oil in sight.

About your host, Erin Clark
Erin Clark is a founder and entrepreneur who has built and continues to run businesses across consulting, travel technology, tourism, and property management, including Stories Unseen, Mather Farm, and TEC Consulting.

She has bootstrapped ideas, secured government grants and run businesses through startup and scale-up. Because she runs several businesses at once, outsourcing isn’t optional—it’s a big part of how she gets things done.

Erin has engaged everyone from freelancers and fractional specialists to agencies, advisers and major consulting firms. Some have been brilliant; others have become expensive lessons. Along the way, she has learned what founders should keep close, what they can confidently hand over and how to distinguish genuinely useful expertise from polished bullshit.

Erin is also Managing Director of TEC Consulting, an anti-consulting consultancy that works exclusively with corporate clients—not startups. So, to be clear: this session is founder-to-founder, not a disguised sales pitch.

Want to reverse pitch?
Do you provide a genuinely useful service to early-stage founders?
We’re looking for WA-based businesses with a proven track record of supporting startups to take part in our rapid-fire reverse pitch.
You’ll have three minutes to tell founders:

• Who your service is for
• What problem you solve
• When they should—and shouldn’t—engage you
• Where you fit when a founder has competing priorities and limited cash
• How they can work with you and how you charge

This is not a traditional sales pitch. We’re looking for practical, transparent information that helps founders make better decisions—no scare tactics, vague promises or snake oil.

Places are limited, with one pitch available per service category. Email [contact@morningstartup.com](mailto:contact@morningstartup.com) to express your interest. First in, best dressed, subject to fit.

Agenda:

• 7:30 am: Shameless plugs and announcements. Introduce yourself or announce your startup to the Perth startup community!
• 7:45 am: Pitch, Please reverse pitch session
• 8:30 am: Networking & delicious breakfast treats
• 9:00 am: Finish

Live stream
This event will also be live streamed by the amazing folks at Perthvideo.com.au, thanks to the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification.

Access the live stream and all our post-event recordings here:
https://perthvideo.com.au/morning-startup-perth/

Coffee, Food and Sponsors
Tell Joey Zaza's you're heading to Morning Startup on the way in for a free coffee courtesy of Purpose Ventures, and enjoy some of their delicious breakfast treats courtesy of Typeset and IdeaToLife!

Thanks to the awesome team at Beacham Group for covering our meetup fees and keeping this meetup alive 🙏 ❤️