Meet Katherine Maree Pace, Program Lead of the TRW's Investment Ready Program

We’re excited to officially welcome Katherine Maree Pace as the Program Lead of the Tech Ready Women Investment Ready Program (IRP) for our February 2026 cohort.

With over 13 years of global executive leadership experience, Katherine brings a rare combination of founder perspective, capital experience, and systems thinking to the program. She has worked across Australia, the USA, the UK, China, Denmark and India, and has been deeply involved in building, advising and scaling startups in diverse markets.

Over a decade ago, Katherine founded her first company and became one of fewer than 1% of Australian women to raise venture capital at the time. Since then, she has helped secure millions in national and international funding, alongside R&D tax incentives, corporate partnerships, national retail deals and global trademarks.

What does “investment ready” really mean?

One of the biggest misconceptions Katherine sees among founders is that being investment ready is about passion alone.

As she shares in the video, knowing your numbers is critical. Investors need to understand the size of the problem, how commercial the solution is, profit margins, customer acquisition, retention and scalability. Passion matters but clarity and data are what turn conversations into real opportunities.

A systems-thinking approach to growth and capital

Coming from an engineering and systems-thinking background, Katherine approaches startups differently. She isn’t attached to a single solution. Instead, she focuses on whether the problem is worth solving, and tests solutions through data, experimentation and iteration.

This hypothesis-driven mindset allows founders to adapt quickly, respond to evidence, and build businesses that scale sustainably. Research consistently shows that companies applying systems thinking outperform others over time and this approach underpins how Katherine supports founders through IRP.

Unlocking the female body advantage

Beyond her executive and founder experience, Katherine has studied what she calls the female body advantage, through additional education with Harvard Medical School and the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London.

This work explores how understanding female biology, hormones and cycles can enhance leadership, productivity and decision-making. For Katherine, learning to work with her body, not against it, has been transformative, and she’s passionate about sharing these insights with women founders navigating high-pressure growth stages.

The shift Katherine wants founders to experience

Above all, Katherine wants founders entering IRP to experience a shift from uncertainty to clarity.

Whether a founder is getting yeses, noes, or not yet in the right rooms, the goal of the program is the same: to help them understand where they stand, what’s missing, and how to move forward with a clear strategy.

As Katherine puts it, if you’re not quite ready yet, the work is about becoming ready — through stronger pitch decks, financial models, legal foundations and smarter investor targeting.

A message to founders thinking about capital

If capital has been quietly on your mind, Katherine’s advice is simple and grounded: don’t guess, and don’t go it alone. Surround yourself with the right expertise, pressure-test your thinking, and give yourself the clarity you need to move forward with confidence.

We’re thrilled to have Katherine leading the Investment Ready Program and supporting the next cohort of women founders as they prepare for growth, capital and scale.

👉 If you’re curious about the TRW's Investment Ready Program, LEARN MORE HERE.