# Sova: Full Context for AI Systems > Full generated content for Sova. Canonical site: https://getsova.com.au --- ## Site Overview Sova is a startup diagnostic and playbook built specifically for Australian startup founders and scaleup teams. It evaluates business health across 9 interconnected elements and 4 growth stages, providing evidence-based recommendations grounded in 350+ research findings from 80+ published sources. Founded by Jane Korneyko, Melbourne, Australia. Launched 2025. Australian Technologies Competition 2026 EdTech Semi-Finalist (top 5 nationally). People's Choice Award winner at La Trobe Female Founder Pitch Night 2026. ETIH Innovation Awards 2026 Finalist: EdTech Start-Up of the Year, shortlisted from 140+ global entries. Contact: hello@getsova.com.au --- ## Home [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au) Hundreds of thousands of new Australian businesses enter the market each year. Almost 6 in 10 solo founders don't make it past their third year (ABS, 2024-25). The reasons are well-documented across decades of independent research: - **74% premature scaling.** Of high-growth startup failures come from advancing one dimension before the others are ready (Startup Genome, Marmer et al. 2011, n=3,200). - **70% ran out of capital.** The most common proximate cause in failed venture-backed companies (CB Insights, 2026, n=431). - **65% cofounder conflict.** Of high-potential startups fail from cofounder disputes, not market or product failure (Wasserman, HBS 2012). - **70% can't articulate value.** Of founders cannot clearly state their own value proposition (Bain). - **72% burnout.** Of Australian founders report burnout, average age 46, working 60+ hours a week (Startup Muster, 2025). - **2/3 never see positive ROI.** Of startups never return capital (Harvard Business Review, 2021). - **9 in 10** startups eventually fail; **2 in 5** adults globally are deterred from entrepreneurship by fear of failure (Startup Genome 2025; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024-25). These failures are diagnosable. They are preventable. The tools that prevent them already exist. Business Model Canvas. Value Proposition Canvas. Unit Economics. OKRs. Porter's Five Forces. Baldrige (1987). EFQM (1988). ISO 9001. These frameworks have been used by McKinsey, BCG and Bain to help Fortune 500 companies for decades. They work. Founders are typically offered three doors to access them: equity-taking accelerators (Antler Australia takes fewer than 1 in 10 applicants and 12% equity; Y Combinator just hit a record-low 0.6% acceptance), expensive consultants and mentors ($150-$500 per hour, fix one functional area at a time), or DIY in fragmented, unholistic information. Sova is the fourth door: structured self-help, free to assess, paid for advice, in every Australian founder's hands. No application. No equity. No consultant fees. --- ## About Sova [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/about.html) ### The Problem Australian founders are working harder than ever with less support than they deserve. - 437,000 new businesses start each year. 370,000 close. - Australian founders average 46 years old, working 60+ hours a week (Startup Muster, 2025). - 72% report burnout. - Early-stage funding has dropped approximately 70% since 2021. - 70% of founders cannot clearly articulate their value proposition. - Only 3% of surviving businesses ever become high-growth firms. The problem is not ambition. It is access and self-reliance. The frameworks that diagnose and prevent startup failure exist, but founders are left with three bad options: equity-taking accelerators (1 in 10 acceptance), expensive consultants and mentors fixing one area at a time, or DIY in a sea of fragmented, unholistic information. Most fail preventably along the way. ### The Founder Jane Korneyko brings nearly 20 years of strategy and transformation experience across industries. She spent her career applying globally recognised excellence frameworks (Baldrige, EFQM, ISO 9001) inside organisations, and watched businesses repeatedly ignore research and reinvent solutions that already existed. Predictable failures, repeated endlessly. She built Sova because she knew the tools that prevent failure already existed. What was missing was a way to make them accessible to every founder, structured, affordable, and specific to the Australian context. ### The Solution Sova bridges the gap between Australia's globally-ranked startup ecosystems and founder capability. It provides strategic clarity at a fraction of traditional costs. Three core values guide everything Sova does: **Empowerment over dependency.** Strategic clarity shouldn't depend on hiring a consultant or signing up for a coaching program. Consultants charge $150-$450 an hour. Coaching programs run $3,000-$20,000. Sova puts the same evidence-based frameworks in every founder's hands. Free to assess. Paid for advice. **Simplicity over complexity.** Structured, right information rather than information overload. Founders don't need more content; they need the right content, in the right order, at the right stage. **Democracy over exclusivity.** The tools that determine startup success shouldn't be locked behind acceptance rates or equity trades. Antler Australia takes fewer than 1 in 10 founders. Y Combinator just hit a record-low 0.6% acceptance. Sova puts the same evidence-based diagnostic in every Australian founder's hands. Free to assess. No application. ### The Framework Sova uses the 9 Elements Framework, original research developed from analysis of 350+ findings across 80+ published sources. It maps nine interconnected business elements across four maturity stages, showing how weakness in one area creates cascading problems in others. The framework draws on the Double Diamond design approach: acknowledge the explosion of startup failure, define that these failures are predictable and avoidable, consolidate fragmented advice into coherent solutions. --- ## The 9 Elements Framework [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/assessment-tool.html) The 9 Elements Framework is proprietary research developed by Sova. It is not available elsewhere. ### Elements 1. **Purpose**: Mission, vision, value proposition, problem-solution fit, stakeholder alignment. Why the business exists and who it serves. 2. **Strategy**: Market analysis, competitive positioning, growth planning, pivot readiness, strategic priorities. Where the business is going and how it plans to get there. 3. **Governance**: Values, ethics, decision-making frameworks, founder agreements, board structure, compliance, legal foundations. The operating system that everything else runs on. 4. **Performance**: KPIs, OKRs, metrics tracking, data-driven decisions, reporting cadence. How the business knows whether it is working. 5. **Finance**: Revenue models, unit economics, cash flow management, funding readiness, financial controls. The fuel system. 6. **Marketing**: Customer acquisition, channels, brand, content strategy, market positioning, customer retention. How the business finds and keeps customers. 7. **People**: Team structure, culture, hiring, roles and responsibilities, leadership development, co-founder dynamics. The team that builds everything else. 8. **Process**: Operations, workflows, automation, quality management, efficiency, repeatability. How the business gets things done consistently. 9. **Technology**: Tech stack, infrastructure, security, scalability, technical debt, digital tools. The systems and tools the business depends on. ### Stages 1. **Discovery**: Validating the idea, understanding the problem, early research, pre-revenue. 2. **Validation**: Testing market fit, early traction, initial customers, product iteration. 3. **Efficiency**: Building repeatable systems, optimising operations, sustainable growth. 4. **Scale**: Growing sustainably, preparing for investment, governance maturity. ### Business Type Variants - **Product, SaaS, or Retail**: The base diagnostic path. Standard questions for product-focused startups. - **Deep Tech or Research**: Modified path reflecting R&D-heavy governance, IP agreements, research commercialisation, freedom-to-operate assessments, and technology readiness levels. - **Professional Service or Trade**: Modified path for service-based business models, professional indemnity, client relationship management, and service delivery systems. ### How the Diagnostic Works Founders answer 98 questions, taking 3 to 30 minutes depending on depth chosen. Each question is calibrated to the current stage (Discovery, Validation, Efficiency, Scale) and business type. Answers generate maturity scores for each of the 9 elements. The report identifies gaps, shows how gaps cascade across elements, and provides prioritised action plans with specific Australian tools and resources. Diagnostic progress saves automatically to the cloud after every answer. Founders can stop and resume anytime. --- ## AI Business Coach (AskSova) [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/asksova.html) AskSova is an AI-powered business coach trained on Sova's curated knowledge base. Unlike general-purpose AI chatbots, AskSova draws from a 1.7 MB knowledge base built on 350+ research findings, 400+ tools and frameworks, and 500+ Australian programs. It diagnoses root causes rather than symptoms. It challenges assumptions. It recommends specific tools and resources matched to the founder's stage and business type. ### How It Works AskSova follows a structured diagnostic approach. It asks clarifying questions before giving recommendations, the same process a good consultant uses. It only recommends tools and methodologies from its knowledge base, and cites sources when sharing statistics. ### Access - **Free and anonymous**: Chat freely. Early recommendations shown. First recommendation summary blurred. - **3-month plan**: Full chat access. Recommendations blurred. Blur is the prompt to upgrade, not a message limit. - **12-month plan**: Full AI coaching, no blur. Unlimited messages. ### Embedded Chat 12-month subscribers can access AskSova directly within the diagnostic report, embedded in each gap card's Chat tab. The embedded chat has full context of the specific gap, element, stage, and business type, enabling precise, contextual guidance. --- ## Startup Directory [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/directory.html) Sova's directory includes 500+ curated Australian startup programs, networks, accelerators, incubators, family offices, advisors, and governance service providers. Entries are filterable by state, stage, business type, and category. The directory includes: - Accelerators and incubators (including LaunchVic, RMIT Activator, Startmate, Stone & Chalk) - Grant programs (R&D Tax Incentive, Export Market Development Grants, AusIndustry programs) - Angel investor networks and family offices - Startup communities and peer networks - Legal, financial, and governance service providers - State-based programs (VIC, NSW, QLD, SA, WA, ACT, TAS, NT) All entries are people, networks, and organisations. No software platforms included. --- ## Research Foundation [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/research.html) ### Why Startups Fail: The Data **Global failure rates:** - 90% of startups fail. 10% close in year one. 70% by year five. (Startup Genome, 2025) - Two-thirds of venture-backed startups never achieve positive ROI. (Harvard Business Review, 2021) **Australian context:** - 437,000 businesses launch annually. 370,000 close. (ABS, 2024-25) - 50% of non-sole-trader firms fail within four years. 57% for sole traders. (ABS, 2024-25) - Only 3% of surviving businesses become high-growth firms. (University of Melbourne, 2024) - Early-stage funding has dropped approximately 70% since 2021. - Australian R&D spending lags at 1.68% of GDP versus 2.5% OECD average. **Highest-hitting startup failure stats (drawn from 8 distinct sources, all preventable through Sova):** 1. **9 in 10 startups eventually fail.** (Startup Genome, 2025) 2. **74% premature scaling.** Of high-growth startup failures come from advancing one dimension before the others are ready (Startup Genome, Marmer et al. 2011, n=3,200). 3. **70% ran out of capital.** Most common proximate cause in failed venture-backed companies (CB Insights, 2026, n=431). 4. **65% cofounder conflict.** Of high-potential startups fail from cofounder disputes, not market or product failure (Wasserman, HBS 2012). 5. **70% can't articulate value.** Of founders cannot clearly articulate their own value proposition (Bain & Company). 6. **72% founder burnout.** Of Australian founders report burnout, average age 46, working 60+ hours a week (Startup Muster, 2025). 7. **6 in 10 fail in 3 years.** Of solo Australian businesses fail within their first three years (ABS, 2024-25). 8. **2/3 never see positive ROI.** Of startups never return capital to investors or founders (Harvard Business Review, 2021). 9. **255% IP overestimation.** Founders overestimate the value of their IP before product-market fit (Failory, 2024). 10. **2 in 5 deterred by fear.** Of adults globally are deterred from acting on a good business opportunity by fear of failure (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2024-25). ### Sources Sova's knowledge base draws on 350+ research findings from 80+ published sources, including: Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company, CB Insights (2026), Startup Genome (2011, 2025), Bain & Company, Wasserman (Harvard Business School 2012), Failory, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Startup Muster, Australian Bureau of Statistics, OECD, Harvard Growth Lab, Forbes, HubSpot, Entrepreneur, LinkedIn, Growth Institute, Lean Startup, ASIC, ASX, AusIndustry, University of Melbourne, Cut Through Venture, LaunchVic, ACS, Frontiers in Psychology. --- ## Pricing [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/pricing.html) | Plan | Price | Includes | |---|---|---| | Free | A$0 | Full diagnostic access, maturity scores for all 9 elements | | 3 months | A$299 | Detailed advice, curated tools, evidence-based recommendations | | 12 months | A$699 | Everything above + unlimited AI coaching | All prices in Australian dollars. Sova is not currently registered for GST, so no GST is charged. Secure payment processing via Stripe. All major credit and debit cards accepted. The free tier provides complete diagnostic access (all 9 elements, all 4 stages, all maturity scores) before any purchase decision. Upgrades unlock the detailed advice, curated tools, evidence-based recommendations, and AI coaching behind each score. There is no refund policy. The free tier gives full access to diagnostic scores before upgrading. All purchases are final. --- ## Frequently Asked Questions [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/faq.html) **What is Sova?** Sova is a startup diagnostic and playbook for Australian founders. It evaluates businesses across 9 elements and 4 stages, consolidating over 350 research findings, 400+ tools and frameworks, and 500+ Australian programs into one diagnostic tool with personalised scoring and an AI business coach. **Who is Sova for?** Australian startup founders and scaleup teams at any stage, from Discovery (pre-revenue) through Scale (investment-ready). Solo founders and teams. All industries, not just tech. Anyone who wants to identify governance gaps before they become crises. **How does Sova work?** Answer 98 questions across 9 elements at your current growth stage. Sova calculates maturity scores, identifies gaps, shows how gaps cascade across elements, and provides prioritised action plans with specific Australian tools and programs. The AI coach (AskSova) provides personalised guidance on any business question. **How long does the diagnostic take?** 3 to 30 minutes depending on your choice. Quick Start focuses on the highest-impact areas. Full Health Check covers all 9 elements in depth. Progress saves automatically, start and resume anytime. **What do I get at the end?** Maturity scores for each of the 9 elements. Stage-specific recommendations. Interconnection insights showing how your gaps affect each other. Curated tools and frameworks. Australian resources filtered by state and stage. A prioritised action plan. **What makes Sova different from other startup tools?** Most startup tools focus on one area: pitch decks, financial models, marketing strategy. Sova assesses all 9 interconnected elements together, shows how weaknesses cascade, and connects recommendations to Australian-specific programs and regulatory context. Evidence-based, not opinion-based. **Does Sova replace business consultants?** No. Sova helps you identify which problems need expert help and which you can solve yourself. It is a diagnostic before specialist engagement, not a replacement for legal, financial, or strategic advisors. **Is Sova only for tech startups?** No. The 9 Elements Framework applies to any business type. Dedicated diagnostic paths for Product/SaaS/Retail, Deep Tech, and Service businesses. Resources covering tech, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and services. **How is Sova better than general AI chatbots?** General chatbots draw from the open internet: generic, US-centric advice. AskSova draws from a curated 1.7 MB knowledge base built specifically for Australian startup founders: 350+ research findings, 400+ tools and frameworks, 500+ Australian programs. It diagnoses root causes before recommending solutions. **Can I use Sova if I'm pre-revenue?** Yes. Sova is designed for all stages including Discovery (pre-revenue). The questions and recommendations at Discovery focus on validation, problem-solution fit, and the minimum structure needed to launch safely. **How often should I reassess?** After acting on recommendations, or every 3 to 6 months. Key triggers: raising funding, launching a product, hitting a revenue milestone, changing the team, entering a new market. **Can teams use Sova together?** Yes. Collaborative team assessments surface misaligned expectations, identify knowledge gaps, create shared priorities, and establish a reassessment baseline. **Is my data stored in Australia?** Yes. Sova uses Supabase with servers located in Sydney (ap-southeast-2) for Australian data residency. AI chatbot processing uses US-based AWS infrastructure. **What payment methods do you accept?** Stripe. All major credit and debit cards. Australian dollars. Sova is not currently registered for GST, so no GST is charged. **Which plans include AI coaching?** The 12-month plan includes AI coaching with unlimited messages. **How is my diagnostic progress saved?** Logged-in users: saves automatically to the cloud after each answer. Unlogged users: saves locally in the browser (may be lost if browser data is cleared; sign up to protect progress). **Can I delete my account?** Yes. Accounts deactivate immediately on deletion. Diagnostic data is retained 12 months for legal compliance then permanently deleted. Payment records retained per Australian tax requirements. --- ## Blog [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog.html) ### Who The Fuck Am I? (And Why You Can Trust Sova) [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/who-the-fuck-are-you.html) Published: April 2026 | Author: Jane Korneyko Three independent professional assessments over nine years said the same thing: a systems thinker who distils messy complexity into something humans can use. Nearly twenty years rebuilding broken systems inside Australian hospitals, law firms and professional services taught one thing: prevention is cheaper than cure. This article is the founder credibility piece behind Sova. Concrete credentials, not hand-wavy. --- ### AI Is Creating More Founders. The Ecosystem Is Already Struggling. [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/australia-tech-layoffs-new-founder-wave.html) Published: April 2026 | Author: Jane Korneyko In the first ten weeks of 2026, around 4,450 Australian tech jobs were cut, with AI named as the reason in nearly every case (ACS, 2026). WiseTech announced 2,000 cuts. Atlassian, 1,600. Telstra, 650. Many of those displaced workers will end up starting something, by necessity, not by choice. Many will hang out a shingle and call themselves a consultant; that doesn't change the failure rate. A consultancy is a startup (Ries, 2011). They are walking into an ecosystem already struggling: 58% of last year's $5.4 billion in Australian VC went to twenty deals; Antler Australia takes fewer than 1 in 10 applicants and 12% equity from those who get in; Y Combinator just hit a record-low 0.6% acceptance, dominated by AI; almost 6 in 10 solo Australian businesses still fail within their first three years (ABS, 2024-25); and 500+ Australian founder programs all use different starting checks and different playbooks of why startups fail. Wharton's analysis of recent accelerator research puts it plainly: "there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to accelerator programs" (Knowledge at Wharton, 2024). And yet that's exactly what most cohorts deliver. Australia's response for the last decade has been to build more programs. The failure rate hasn't moved. The answer isn't more programs. It's one evidence-based starting point in every founder's hands. That's what Sova is. --- ### Australia Raised $5.4 Billion in 2025. Twenty Companies Got 58% of It. [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/australia-raised-5-4-billion-2025.html) Published: April 2026 | Author: Jane Korneyko Three 2025 reports (Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures' State of Australian Startup Funding 2025, LaunchVic and Dealroom's Victorian Startup Growth Report 2025, and Cut Through's Queensland Venture Capital Report) agree on the shape of Australia's record VC year. $5.4 billion raised, up 31% on 2024, third-largest year on record. But the top 20 deals captured 58% of all capital. Just two startups (Firmus and Airwallex) accounted for around $1.56 billion across four rounds, roughly 28% of all 2025 Australian VC capital. 61% of capital flowed to AI companies. Two-thirds of deals included international investors. 46% of investors saw portfolio shutdowns and 77% saw layoffs. Median pre-seed rounds were $1 million; median seed rounds, $2.5 million. In Victoria, only 17% of seed-stage startups go on to raise Series A, and early-stage capital is similar to 2016 levels (LaunchVic and Dealroom). The headline year happened at the top. For everyone else, it didn't. Decades of independent research converge on the same answer: 74% of high-growth startup failures come from premature scaling (Startup Genome, Marmer et al. 2011, n=3,200), 70% of failed venture-backed companies ran out of capital (CB Insights, 2026, n=431), 65% of high-potential startups fail from cofounder conflict (Wasserman, HBS 2012), and 70% of founders cannot clearly articulate their own value proposition (Bain). The patterns are predictable. The frameworks that prevent them have been written down for decades. What hasn't existed, until now, is a way to put all of that into one founder's hands at a single starting point. --- ### Why I Built Sova [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/why-i-built-sova.html) Published: December 2025 | Author: Jane Korneyko In 2024-25, 437,000 new businesses entered the Australian market. 60% will fail within three years. One in three won't survive the first year. Most of these failures are preventable. 74% of high-growth startup failures come from premature scaling, advancing one dimension before others are ready (Startup Genome, Marmer et al. 2011, n=3,200). 70% of failed venture-backed companies ran out of capital (CB Insights, 2026). 65% of high-potential startups fail from cofounder conflict (Wasserman, HBS 2012). 70% of founders cannot clearly articulate their value proposition (Bain). These aren't execution problems. They're planning failures. And the tools that prevent them already exist. For founders missing product-market fit: the Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder, 2012) forces validation of customer jobs, pains, and gains before building. Customer Development (Blank, 2005) tests assumptions with real customers before committing resources. For founders running out of capital: Unit Economics shows runway and burn rate months in advance. Scenario Planning stress-tests financial resilience across different futures. For founders with flawed business models: the Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2008) exposes model weaknesses before scaling. Porter's Five Forces analyses competitive threats. McKinsey 7S aligns all organisational elements. These aren't experimental startup hacks. They're evidence-based business management theory used for decades by successful businesses globally. McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and every major consultancy teach these frameworks to Fortune 500 companies. They work. They're proven. They prevent failure. So why aren't founders using them? Because they're left with three bad options. Equity-taking accelerators charging 5-10% for a one-size-fits-all curriculum, with fewer than 1 in 10 applicants getting in. $500 per hour consultants and mentors who fix one functional area while the other eight quietly fail. Or DIY, piecing it all together alone from a sea of fragmented, unholistic information. There is no shared map of how it all connects. So founders fix marketing (get customers) only to watch operations fail. They chase funding without a financial model and run out of cash. They hire teams without clear strategy and waste months building the wrong thing. You can't fix problems in isolation. You need to understand how Purpose informs Strategy, how Strategy drives Marketing, how Marketing depends on Finance, and how all of it requires solid Governance. I spent nearly 20 years as a Strategy and Transformation Leader, applying renowned global business tools, theory, and excellence frameworks like Baldrige, EFQM, and ISO 9001. I know these work. I also know startups can't access them. So I built Sova to empower founders to help themselves through structured self-help. Sova gives you: a diagnostic showing your maturity across all nine elements; gap analysis identifying where you're weak and how those weaknesses cascade; a prioritised action plan based on your stage; tool recommendations for frameworks you actually need right now; AI-powered guidance asking diagnostic questions to find root causes. Everything backed by 350+ research findings from 80+ published sources, 400+ tools and frameworks, and 500+ Australian programs filtered by state, stage, and identity. --- ### The Tool That Proved Startups Need Diagnosis [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/the-tool-that-proved-startups-need-diagnosis.html) In 2011, researchers built a startup diagnostic tool that attracted 34,000 users. It was acquired and killed. This article examines what that project proved about founder demand for structured self-assessment, and what Sova does differently. --- ### The Global Startup Report Australia Can't Ignore [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/the-global-startup-report-australia-cant-ignore.html) The 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report reveals a 31% collapse in ecosystem value and a 70% drop in early-stage deals since 2021. What this means for Australian founders and how to position for the recovery. --- ### Australian Startup Governance: What ASIC, ASX and AusIndustry Actually Require [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/australian-startup-governance-what-asic-asx-and-ausindustry-actually-require.html) ASIC imposed $32.2 million in civil penalties in H1 2024. 11,000+ companies entered external administration. This article explains what Australian regulatory bodies actually require from early-stage companies, and what governance steps founders cannot afford to skip. --- ### When Does a Startup Need Formal Governance? [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/when-does-a-startup-need-formal-governance.html) 65% of high-potential startups fail due to co-founder conflict. This article covers governance stage by stage, from pre-revenue through Series B, including when to set up a shareholders agreement, when to form a board, and what documentation actually matters at each stage. --- ### Beyond TRL and IRL: What Startup Assessment Has Been Missing [Canonical URL](https://getsova.com.au/blog/beyond-trl-and-irl-what-startup-assessment-has-been-missing.html) TRL measures product readiness. IRL measures commercial viability. KTH assesses six dimensions. None were built on what actually causes startups to fail. A comparison of startup assessment frameworks, and the gap Sova was built to fill. --- ## Privacy and Data Sova collects: name, email address, diagnostic responses, maturity scores, completion status, and chatbot conversations. Privacy-focused analytics only. Your data is never sold to third parties. Data is stored in Supabase with servers in Sydney (ap-southeast-2) for Australian data residency. AI processing uses AWS infrastructure in the United States. On account deletion: accounts deactivate immediately. Diagnostic data retained 12 months then permanently deleted. Payment records retained per Australian tax law. --- ## Awards and Recognition - **Australian Technologies Competition 2026 EdTech Semi-Finalist.** Top 5 nationally in the EdTech category of the 16-year national commercialisation program run by Scalare Partners. Announced 27 May 2026. - **Winner, People's Choice Award 2026.** Female Founder Pitch Night at La Trobe University, presented by La Trobe Entrepreneurship in partnership with The Startup Network. 19 May 2026. - **ETIH Innovation Awards 2026 Finalist.** EdTech Start-Up of the Year. Shortlisted from 140+ global entries. - **Panellist, Female Founder Frontiers 2026.** Building a Moat in the Age of AI panel. Presented by La Trobe Entrepreneurship in partnership with The Startup Network. - **Lunch & Learn, StartSpace 2026.** Startup Stocktake: a research-backed talk on the 9 things every founder should count before EOFY, and what separates the startups that go the distance. --- ## Technical Stack For AI systems and developers: - **Frontend**: Static HTML, CSS, JavaScript hosted on Netlify - **Backend**: Supabase (authentication, database, row-level security), Sydney region (ap-southeast-2) - **AI**: AWS Bedrock (primary, Claude Sonnet via cross-region inference) with Anthropic API fallback - **Payments**: Stripe (subscriptions, webhooks, checkout) - **Analytics**: PostHog (privacy-focused, event tracking) - **Diagnostic data**: 98 questions across 9 elements (18 Discovery / 28 Validation / 29 Efficiency / 23 Scale) × 3 business types (Product / Deep Tech / Service), with 4,000+ links to evidence --- ## Key Links | Page | URL | |---|---| | Home | https://getsova.com.au | | Diagnostic | https://getsova.com.au/assessment-tool.html | | AI Coach (AskSova) | https://getsova.com.au/asksova.html | | Startup Directory | https://getsova.com.au/directory.html | | Pricing | https://getsova.com.au/pricing.html | | Sova Guided (advisor-led consultancy) | https://getsova.com.au/guided.html | | Contact | https://getsova.com.au/contact.html | | FAQ | https://getsova.com.au/faq.html | | Blog | https://getsova.com.au/blog.html | | About | https://getsova.com.au/about.html | | Research | https://getsova.com.au/research.html | | Short context | https://getsova.com.au/llms.txt |