Melissa Grove FCA initially signed up for a three-month stint at the Spacecubed start-up hub in Perth. Although she had experience advising startups and serving on boards, most of her 20-year career had been in accounting, audit and assurance at Chevron and Deloitte.

Grove was soon in high demand: mentoring, advising, delivering presentations, and judging at pitch nights. So much so- that she extended her CA in Residence program to six months.

“I enjoyed it so much — and they loved having my fresh perspective, outside the start-up industry,” she said. “So the feeling was mutual.”

When she started at Spacecubed in March 2023, Grove, the Managing Director of Rhine Consulting, met the membership co-ordinator who introduced her to start-up founders at the hub. These founders then booked her for pro bono sessions, both face-to-face and online. 

But it was Meena Srinivasan, a year 10 student on a mission, who Grove found most inspiring. 

Meena sells products sourced from local artisans and farmers at markets around Perth. She plans to create an online platform that shows shoppers, with a carbon calculator at checkout, how much carbon they saved by buying locally, their carbon footprint from the purchase and gives them the option to offset the carbon.

Grove assisted Meena with her business structure and encouraged her to focus on her website, marketing, and social media. By July, Meena had won a Plus Eight’s Impact Scholarship at Spacecubed, providing her with three months of free coworking space, the opportunity to attend a start-up founder bootcamp, and access to other start-up community events. 

“Meena is challenging the linear paradigm: that you’re expected to go to school, go to uni and then work in a career for 50 years,” Grove says. “She’s doing it all at once - while also doing something about the environment, starting a business and creating a podcast about it all.”

In November, Meena was chosen as the West Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Next Gen Awards WA Showcase. 

“I tell people: I’m happy to help you as much as I can but then your responsibility is to pay that forward in future and help someone else.” 

“I felt so thrilled I have played a small part in her journey,” Grove says. “She started at local markets and now she wants to take her business global. There are no limitations. She gives me so much hope for the future.”

In addition to mentoring Meena, Grove also ran a financial literacy seminar at the City of Canning and assisted many other startups.

“Most founders need serious help with their governance,” she says. “They have the same levels of requirements as other private companies but because many are self-financing, everything is dollar-driven and a toss-up between what to spend time and money on.”

Grove also helped founders understand the value of accountants. “I explained that CAs offer much more than profit and loss, balance sheets and the technical side of accounts. We can really help with business advice, financial planning, risk management and checking your solvency — providing some really robust conversations.” 

Spacecubed also invited her to be a judge at a pitch weekend. The participants, divided into teams, conducted customer surveys and then honed their pitch for the judges. 

“We had so much fun, and it simulated the steps they’d actually go through in a real pitch to investors,” Grove says. 

During her involvement with Spacecubed she encouraged founders to help each other. “I tell people I engage with: I’m happy to help you as much as I can but then your responsibility is to pay that forward in future and help someone else.”