Ella works hands-on with some of Australia’s leading companies — from startups to enterprise — helping them design and implement AI roadmaps. This conversation cuts through the hype and focuses on what’s really happening on the ground: from early experimentation to production-scale AI systems.

They cover:

• The shift from AI experimentation to real-world deployment and scale
• What an “AI Customer Engineer” actually does inside Google
• Why startups are still the most exciting (and fastest-moving) AI adopters
• What “agents” and “agentic systems” really mean — explained simply
•  How companies are moving from proof-of-concept to real business outcomes
• Why the SaaS model is under pressure — and what replaces it
• Where the new “moats” are in an AI-first world (data, verticalisation, expertise)
• The rise of usage-based pricing and token-driven business models
• How AI is reshaping product development, engineering, and startup costs
• Why great engineers still matter — and what skills actually endure
• How founders should think about AI today (and why it’s no longer optional)

They also explore:

• The future of AI pricing — why intelligence gets cheaper, but better models cost more
• Whether AGI is close (and why definitions matter)
• The role of DeepMind as Google’s research engine
• Why AI adoption is still uneven — and why most people aren’t using it deeply (yet)
• How founders and investors should evaluate AI companies in a noisy market

Ella brings a practical, engineering-first perspective with clear takeaways for founders, operators, and investors navigating the AI shift.

Quick Fire Round
📚 Book recommendation – Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
🎧 Podcast recommendation – Latent Space (AI engineering deep dives)
🗞️ News source – Alpha Signal (AI research + repo summaries)
👩‍💼 Favourite leader – Lila Ibrahim (COO, DeepMind / Chief AI Readiness Officer)
🛠️ Productivity tool – Gemini CLI (with strong context engineering)
📺 TV / entertainment – Married at First Sight (pure brain-off viewing)

A sharp, grounded conversation on where AI is actually delivering value — and what to do about it.

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Matt has been at the heart of SaaS for two decades. From opening Salesforce’s first Australian office out of his Bondi apartment, to helping LinkedIn scale across Asia and the US, guiding Slack through the chaos of COVID, and now leading Rippling’s rapid expansion across APAC — Matt has lived through (and helped build) some of the most iconic software companies of our time.

They cover:

• Opening Salesforce AU with nothing but a laptop and a dream

• Lessons from LinkedIn’s hypergrowth and $26B acquisition by Microsoft

• Scaling Slack globally during the pandemic and its $27B acquisition by Salesforce

• Building Rippling’s Australian business from scratch to 100+ people in two years

• The hard realities of scaling from 10 → 100 people (and why it’s “really bloody hard”)

• How to hire and evaluate top sales talent (including Matt’s playbook)

• Product-led growth vs sales-led growth, and why the best companies do all three (PLG, SLG, and community-led)

• How Rippling is using AI today — and where it’s headed

• Scaling culture across regions and why “toxic hires” can kill momentum

• Liquidity, secondaries, and the trade-offs of staying private at $16B+ valuation

Matt is a natural storyteller with practical lessons for founders, operators, and investors — and plenty of laughs along the way.

Quick Fire Round
📚 Book recommendation – Going Infinite by Michael Lewis (Sam Bankman-Fried story)
🎧 Podcast recommendation – SmartLess (Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes)
🗞️ News source – AFR, LinkedIn Newsfeed, and a mix of global outlets
👨‍💼 Favourite CEO – Satya Nadella (plus reflections on Benioff, Jeff Weiner, Stewart Butterfield, and Parker Conrad)
🛠️ Productivity tool – Slack (still his #1)
📱 Favourite app – Slack (for staying connected to work + investor/advisory communities)
📺 TV / movie recommendation – Mob Land (Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Tom Hardy), plus Yellowstone and the Taylor Sheridan spin-offs
🎤 TED Talk topic – The evolution of US sports: from blue-collar pastime to corporate billion-dollar industry

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Whether you're a founder, investor, or ecosystem builder, this conversation is packed with practical ideas and fresh perspectives on value creation in venture capital.

🔑 Key Conversation Highlights:

• From Philosophy to Tech:
  Evan’s unconventional path from studying philosophy to building tech platforms that empower communities and ecosystems.

• Lessons from General Assembly:
  The founding journey, scaling a mission-driven business, and how career outcomes, not just education, shaped their growth.

• The Power of “Network-Driven Outcomes”:
  Why intros and warm connections still drive results, and how Getro helps VCs operationalise this at scale.

• Rebuilding the VC Tech Stack:
  What most venture firms get wrong about talent support—and why the future of VC is about network intelligence.

• Getro’s Origin Story:
  From internal project to standalone company, and what it’s like spinning out of a fund like OnDeck.

• Tactical Advice for VCs:
  How to actually help founders. Hint: it’s not just capital. Evan shares real strategies around intros, hiring, and network mapping.

Quick Fire Round:

📚 Book recommendation – The Great CEO Within - There's a PDF that's available for free, but to me this is like the Bible for any startup founder and I would just recommend anyone starting a company go get it like right now.
🎧 Podcast recommendation – This Jungian Life - not business related but a funny poscast to listen to
🗞️ News source – I've actually been using X a lot more recently. I realised once I curated who I follow it became the best place to learn about the nuances of what's getting built in AI and tech, stuff that never makes it into the news cycle.
👨‍💼 Favourite CEO –  Collison brothers (Founders of Stripe) for their ability to build a massive company while maintaining their value system and Brian Chesky (Founder of Airbnb).
🛠️ Productivity tool – Superhuman and chatGPT
📱 Favourite app – Whisper Flow - a speech to text app that's 99% accurate
📺 TV or movie recommendation – I'm half way through The Last of Us
🎤 TED Talk topic – Networking doesn't have to suck: building authentic relationships in a world of fakeness.

The Innovation Bay job board is powered by Getro. Looking for your dream role? We have you covered with over 450 open roles across almost 5000 companies: https://jobs.innovationbay.com/jobs

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He dives into the challenges and opportunities of expanding into Australia, the evolving needs of startups, and how Oxygen is staying ahead by introducing new services like fractional revenue operations (RevOps) and exploring AI tools to drive efficiency — all while maintaining a strong, relationship-first approach.

Episode Highlights:

• How Oxygen Advisors scaled from New Zealand to Australia.

• Key differences between the New Zealand and Australian startup ecosystems.

• The critical role of building trust and relationships in early-stage support.

• Trends in fractional services, including CFO and RevOps support.

• How AI is shaping the future of outsourced finance and operations.

• Chris’s personal career journey and lessons learned from growing a high-performing services business.

Quick Fire Round:

📚 Book recommendation – Personally I like to read as a form of escapism from the heavy pressures of the world. So I really just read fiction. The one book that stays with me is slaughter house fire by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a classic, anti war sort of sci fi combo. It's weird. It's wonderful.
🎧 Podcast recommendation – I don't listen to a lot of podcasts but my go to would be Desert Island Disc
👨‍💼 Favourite CEO –  From an international perspective Jason Lemkin from echosign, but then from a personal front I'd say James Sampson from file invite and Lincoln wantson from BraveGen 
🗞️ News source – I can't help but check the New Zealand Herald. BBC for international news, but if I ever want to learn something or go deep on something, my go to is, Johnny Harris? He's a YouTube independent journalist. 
🛠️ Productivity tool – I wouldn't be able to do my job without Slack. Both for managing external clients and internal
📱 Favourite app – Seesaw to stay up to date with what my oldest son, Teddy, is learning in his first weeks at school
📺 TV or movie recommendation – I'm partial to any British comedy but I think the top for me would be Gavin and Stacy 
🎤 TED Talk topic – The art of fractional working - not fractional services but how to work in a fractional environment. 

Tune in for a masterclass on scaling services for startups and the power of adapting to new markets.

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The conversation explores Australia’s global trade vulnerabilities, the urgent need to diversify partnerships, and the growing capital challenges faced by the startup sector. Allegra shares her perspective on climate policy, the energy transition, and why Australia is uniquely positioned to lead in solar innovation. The discussion also delves into geopolitical dynamics, immigration, education, and the pressing need for smarter regulation and stronger support for innovation.

Throughout the episode, Allegra outlines clear action items—from improving access to innovation funding to bringing startup voices into Parliament—while encouraging Australians to stay politically engaged. This is a must-listen for anyone passionate about Australia’s economic future, climate leadership, and the role of independent voices in shaping smarter policy.

We hope you enjoy this insightful and special live recording of Open The Pod Bay Doors.

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Ian and Rob sat down in late 2024 to discuss all things AI. From demo's to production: Scaling AI in 2025. Rob’s focus for the coming year is clear: move beyond quick wins and proofs of concept to real production use cases. He anticipates a leap in conversational and multimodal AI agents—ones that can autonomously act on your behalf via voice, text, or other inputs.

In this incredibly insightful session you can expect:
🧠 Insights on AI Adoption
📊 Advice for Startups & Builders
🧭 On Ethics, Responsibility & The Agent Era
🌐 How to Get Involved with Google Cloud

“In 2025, the conversation won’t be about what’s possible, it’ll be about what agentic experience do we want to create.”

Quick Fire Round:

📚 Book recommendation – I'm a sucker for dune by Frank Herbert. I've read them all twice
🎧 Podcast recommendation – The Well, Babbage, and AI daily brief
👨‍💼 Favourite CEO – Sundar Pichai, Google and Sam Altman, OpenAI
🗞️ News source – Google news
🛠️ Productivity tool – OmniFocus
📱 Favourite app – The Gemini App and Apple Music
📺 TV or movie recommendation – Historical dramas, whether they're accurate or not. Medicis and the Ancient Apocalypse.
🎤 TED Talk topic – ethical and responsible AI

Google Cloud program mentioned:
The Google for Startups Cloud Program helps pre-seed to Series A startups thrive by giving them access to the technology, community, and resources they need to start and scale their business.

Check out the additional benefits for AI and Web3 startups.

Eligible AI startups can get up to US$350k in Google Cloud credits, dedicated technical supports, hands-on AI training, exclusive access to events, webinars, and more. Apply today.

Web3 startups can get up to US$200k in free credits, invite-only access to gated Discord channel, foundations grants, VIP event access and more. Apply today.

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To kick off the year, host Ian Gardiner sits down with Stuart Dullard, Partner at Ashurst, for a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities facing founders in today’s venture landscape.

Ashurst is a global corporate law firm with over 30 offices worldwide. Stuart leads the High Growth and Venture Capital team in Australia and is the global co-head of the Tech M&A practice. Described by Ian as one of Australia’s most experienced startup lawyers, Stuart has built a career helping early-stage, high-growth tech companies navigate complex legal and funding challenges. 

This episode is a must-listen for founders looking to effectively manage their funding journey and achieve sustainable growth.

Key takeaways:

🚀 Ashurst’s strategy for building long-term advisory relationships with high-growth startups
💰 Challenges and strategies for securing funding
🗺️ Navigating venture capital and private equity landscapes
💡 Understanding legal frameworks, investor relationships, and the funding process
📑 Structuring deals, negotiating terms, and setting up for successful fundraising rounds

Quick Fire Round:

📚 Book recommendation – Fiction: The Goldfinch (“Read the book, don’t watch the movie!”) | Non-fiction: Time to Breathe by Bill Mitchell
🎧 Podcast recommendation – The Teacher’s Pet (The Australian), The Sure Thing (AFR), Liar Liar (The Age)
👨‍💼 Favourite CEO – The founders of Canva for their business success and people-first approach
🗞️ News source – Radio National every morning
🛠️ Productivity tool – Time to Breathe + morning exercise
📱 Favourite app – The New York Times Games App
📺 TV or movie recommendation – The West Wing
🎤 TED Talk topic – The highs and lows of the founder journey

🎙️ Tune in now for an insightful conversation on funding, legal strategy, and the startup journey!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hockey Stick Advisory provides market leading strategic partnerships advisory, operational and executional guidance with accountability for growth alongside prioritised partners. We empower ambitious companies to accelerate top line growth, whilst protecting scarce bottom line resources.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• 📊 Understanding Partnerships
• 🚀 The importance of Partnerships for Startups
• 🔍 Identifying Potential Partners
• 📈 Measuring Partnership Success
• 💡 Common Pitfalls in Partnerships
• 🌐 Building a Partnership Ecosystem
• 🛠️ Best Practices for Partnerships
• 📅 Community and Networking 

Quick Fire Round:

• Book recommendation - "Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. He's a former Navy seal, hardcore guy, but I think it's similar to the lines of Kim Scott's book Radical Candor. 
• Podcast recommendation - "Rich Roll - when it's relevant and something I like, Stephen Bartlett's Diary of a CEO and there's a bunch of really good partnership ones in the US where I can sort of follow along and absorb best practices.
• Favourite CEO - Yamini Rangan, CEO, Hubspot
• News source - Capital Brief
• Productivity tool - "I'm a big believer in power naps!"
• Favourite app - Strava
• TV show or movie recommendation "Well, the new Gladiator is coming out this weekend, so looking forward to that one"  
• If you were asked to do a TED talk, what topic would you speak about? Going viral and what not to do

Don’t miss this insightful conversation packed with actionable advice for growth-focused businesses!

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Highlights from their conversation include:

• Rampersand's origins and investment strategy
• Their fund economics
• Rampersand’s interest in AI-driven startups
• The future of AI in both business and daily life
• How Rampersand fosters community and provides concierge services to founders
• The current exit landscape and emerging opportunities
• The differences between venture capital firms and family offices

Quickfire round. 

• Book –  "The Psychology of Money"
• Podcast – "Defining Gravity" by Helen Sunitz
• News source – Overnight Success Newsletter
• App – Apple watch
• Productivity tool – Robo vacuum cleaner - I have a dog and this saves me spending hours vacuuming everyday 
• Tech CEO – Mark Benioff of Salesforce - a great example of start up to scale up and beyond
• TV show – "The Mole" on Netflix
• If you were asked to do a TED talk, what topic would you speak about? The art of power napping - I love power naps!

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Nick is Partner at OneVentures and leads the debt fund strategy, which was launched 5 years ago to address gaps in the Australian market. The fund offers non-dilutive alternative funding options through 3-4 year loans with interest and small equity options for growth stage companies post-Series A.

Nick explains the differences between debt and equity funding, market trends, and the fund's structure as GPLP. The conversation also delves into the use of debt funding to avoid down rounds or complement equity funding, as well as discussions on AI, productivity tools, and current events.

Highlights from Ian and Nick's conversation include

• what a debt fund looks like and how it compares to a traditional GPLP Venture Fund

• What do the mechanics of a debt fund deal look like

• Why Nick prefers the term growth credit over venture debt
• Nick's view on liquidity and exits in the next couple of years
• The future of AI and how OneVenture apodt this in their day to day operations
• potential downsides to a debt fund
• Is poker simple gambling or is it a skill?

Quickfire round. 

• Book – Just finished Outlive by Peter Atia
• Podcast – All in with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
• News source – Australian Financial Review
• App – Spotify (shout out to Spotify Audibooks)
• Productivity tool – A bit boring but I use OneNote
• Tech CEO – You've got to be impressed with Satya Nadella from Microsoft
• TV show – Colin from Accounts
• If you were asked to do a TED talk, what topic would you speak about? I know random small snippets from lots of different things..

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Set under the overarching theme ‘The Future is…’, Inspire was a platform for the exchange of revolutionary thoughts and ideas about what the future holds for the startup ecosystem across the next 5-10 years.

Our co-founder and podcast host Ian Gardiner, set out with his roving mic to chat to get his geek on with some of the event’s incredible speakers as they made their way off the main stage. He continued the conversation with them on the podcast. 

During Part 2, you’ll hear from:

• Craig Blair, Airtree – on the future of venture capital in Australia and what needs to happen over the next ten years to make VC a success. 
• Elaine Stead, Main Sequence Ventures – on how she taps into her background in biochemistry to help in her investing, and the critical role the media plays in advancing the leading-edge legislation and policies that are vital to the future success of the startup sector. 
• Chris Capon, Nominal Systems – on why he’s working to change the mindset around how people think about space, the incredible things that are going to be done in space in the not-too-distant future, and why Australia needs to be a part of it.

Listen now to get a front row seat into what Australia’s tech leading minds are passionate about and be INSPIRED. 

Missed Part 1? Listen now to hear from The Hon. Ed Husic MP, Minister for Science & Industry, Greg Miller Partner at Arena Mars (exited founder of Faethm), and Melanie Silva, Managing Director and VP, Google Australia & New Zealand.

Inspire was proudly supported by Innovation Bay’s official media partner Forbes Australia and event partners IAG Firemark Ventures, Google Cloud, the Field Jobs, and the Dylan Alcott Foundation.  

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Set under the overarching theme ‘The Future is…’, Inspire was a platform for the exchange of revolutionary thoughts and ideas about what the future holds for the startup ecosystem across the next 5-10 years.

As he does, our co-founder and podcast host Ian Gardiner, set out with his roving mic to chat to (some would say ambush!) some of the event’s incredible speakers and get a sense of what’s top of mind for them as they consider the evolution of the Aussie startup landscape. 

During Part 1, you’ll hear from:

• The Hon. Ed Husic MP, Minister for Science & Industry – on quantum computing and its long-term importance to the Australian economy. 
• Greg Miller, Arena Mars (exited founder of Faethm) – opines on rapidly building, scaling and exiting his AI business that tackled the future of work, and how he’s now paying it forward.
• Melanie Silva, Google Australia and New Zealand – talks through how Google is showing Australians the power of great digital tech through the Digital Future Initiative, and bringing the greatest Googlers from around the world together to work with Australian partners to solve local problems using Google AI.

Listen now to get a front row seat into what Australia’s tech leading minds are passionate about and be INSPIRED. 

Inspire was proudly supported by Innovation Bay’s official media partner Forbes Australia and event partners IAG Firemark Ventures, Google Cloud, the Field Jobs, and the Dylan Alcott Foundation.  

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Armed with his roving podcast mic, Innovation Bay’s Co-Founder and podcast host, Ian Gardiner, was lucky enough to tap the mind’s of some of Sunrise’s stellar speakers. 

During this ep, you’ll hear from:

🌅 Karl Durrance, Stripe - discusses Stripe’s mission to increase the GDP of the internet, it’s broad customer base from startups to large enterprises, and the challenges and strategies in the financial infrustructure space.

🌅 Kate Mason, PhD - shares her career journey from Google to founding her own firm, insights on effective communication and power dynamics, and details of her Sunrise talk about how confidence is actually unhelpful and authenticity is powerful!

🌅 John McDuling, Capital Brief - chats through the challenges and successes of launching a new media outlet, Capital Brief’s focus on the new Australian economy and providing valuable intelligence, and the subscription model and importance of quality journalism.

🌅 Maxine Minter, Co Ventures - discusses her solo GP fund, their focus on pre-seed investments and accelerating companies internationally, and some quality insights on what makes a successful founder and investor.

🌅 Kevin Jochelson, Upsize & Tech Rooport - shares his approach to helping startups scale and the importance of distribution, the impact of AI on startups, and winning the debate at Sunrise on whether investment success us nice skill than luck.

Tune in for many many more nuggets from the mind’s of this all star line up. 

This podcast episode is brought to you by Vanta.

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Our fearless Co-Founder, host of Open The Pod Bay Doors, and arguably one of the most connected humans in the ecosystem, Ian Gardiner, took the studio on the road.

Ian chatted to 9 incredible speakers who featured on Sunrise’s epic line up, to pick their brains on their area of expertise and the industry at large.

During part 1, you’ll hear from:

Adam Gilmour, Gilmour Space Technologies - discussing the challenges in the space industry, Gilmore Space’s upcoming first orbit launch and future plans including reusable rockets and lunar missions (SO COOL!)

Kristen Durham, Zendesk - about her recent promotion, the integration and future AI in Zendesk's customer support strategy.

Tova Angsuwat, Series Build (ex-Google) - about her transition from Google to founding Series Build, insights on effective recruitment strategies for startups, and the importance of diversity in startup teams.

Bronwen Clune, Capital Brief - on her background and shift to Capital Brief (one of the newest and fastest growing tech and innovation focused media outlets), about Capital Brief’s mission to cover the new economy, and the challenges and highlights in startup journalism.

It’s a mixed bag of brilliant minds, set against the backdrop of the electrifying hum of Sunrise 2024.

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From growing up in a beef and dairy farming family in regional West Australia, to jumping into TV at 15 and becoming a media executive at the age of 25, to moving to New York to run the Search for a Supermodel television show and working with leading advertising, design and branding agencies. Clive's life has been varied and rich with experiences. 

Armed with a whole lot of technical knowledge from his time in NY, Clive moved back to Australia to undercut the local advertising industry to create better quality creative and content for clients. Taking his company from zero to hero in just 3 years, Clive sold a large stake to leading advertising holding company WPP, later buying it back to rebuild it. 

With a penchant for giving, a captivating and wise mind, a values-led existence, and a heart of gold, Clive has founded and aligned himself with organisations that aim to make better and illuminate the human experience. “We’re put on this earth to make a difference to other people and to live in a community and be connected,” he says. 

Tune in to learn of Clive’s fascinating journey, one we could all take a leaf from! 

Quickfire Round: 

Book: ‘Who Not How’, Dan Sullivan 

Podcast: Your Move with Andy Stanley 

News Source: Reuters 

Productivity Tool: Calendar 

CEO: Dan White, Luke Harris, Steven Marks  

App: Instagram 

TV Show: WeCrashed 

TEDTalk Topic: How do we use our power to influence good  

Get in touch with Clive at https://wearecompadres.com | and follow along on Instagram @wearecompadres

This episode is brought to you by Vanta. 

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Sustainability has been a core value at Google for 25 years who are looking to minimise their impact on the planet while helping others to do the same. In 2007, Google became the first major company to become carbon neutral. In 2017 Google was the first company to achieve a 100% renewable energy match - this means purchasing renewable energy that covers all energy usage for all of Google which they’ve done every year since. Google has data centres running 24/7 solely on carbon free energy. One of their key goals by 2030 is to have every data centre around the world run on carbon free energy. Google is forecast to spend $10B on renewable energy this year alone! 

As  the whole world struggles with climate change, how do businesses begin to understand the impact climate change is going to have on them in the future? Leah’s role as Sustainability Business Lead for APAC at Google is fascinating and impactful, with an emphasis on encouraging and helping corporate customers to achieve their sustainability goals via the Google Cloud platform. There are myriad sustainability areas to focus on - not just gas emissions. These include water stewardship, waste reduction, circulatory in products, optimisation - all areas that technology can help with - particularly AI. 

One of the pressures Leah observes with the customers she engages with is that many of those in younger generations are willing to pay more for products that are sustainably sourced and will show loyalty to brands that have a sustainability mission. Leah helps companies tackle these challenges by working with them to assess a measurement framework and benchmark, help them to become compliant against regulation, assist companies to make data-driven critical business decisions, guide them in optimising with what they do have, and help to seek out aligned sustainability growth opportunities. She also emphasises that companies with strong sustainability initiatives attract top talent.

This hugely educational and fascinating discussion cover so much more... take a listen.

Interested in learning more about how Google Cloud can assist you to reach sustainability goals? Head to Google Cloud’s website, sign up for free and receive $300 in credit, or reach out to your Google rep or Innovation Bay who will put you in touch.  

Book: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen and Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

Podcast: The Energy Gang and Stuff You Should Know 

News Source: The Guardian 

Productivity Tool: Calendar and Kanban Board 

CEO: Melanie Perkins, Canva 

App: Signal 

TV Show: The Wire 

TEDTalk Topic: Geospatial analytics and its impact on sustainability

This episode is brought to you by Vanta. 

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Bernadette takes us through the evolution of The Volte, from its early days catering to fashionistas to its transformation into a platform embraced by mainstream consumers. She reflects on the complexities of remote work, the importance and challenges of strategic partnerships, and the challenges faced during the tumultuous times of COVID-19. The Volte not only weathered the COVID storm, but has since experienced remarkable growth in orders and active users. 

She candidly reflects on the importance of trust, dedication, and alignment within a startup team, where she shares co-founder duties with four other women - Genevieve Hohnen, Kym Atkins and Jade Hirniak. From bootstrap beginnings to securing funding from Angels and VCs including eBay Ventures,The Volte defied the odds to become a trailblazer in the fashion rental industry.

Bernadette shares the uniqueness of The Volte's model - which is focused on occasion-based rentals rather than traditional subscriptions - as well as insights into the company's distinctive unit economics. From leveraging strategic investments, harnessing the power of AI for personalised customer experiences, and visions of international expansion into Europe, Bernadette paints a compelling picture for The Volte's future.

Quickfire Round 

Book: 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan, 'Burn Book' by Kara Swisher

Podcast: Hard Fork, The Business of Fashion 

News Source: New York Times 

Productivity App: ClickUp 

CEO: Anthony Eisen (Afterpay) 

Favourite App: Calm 

TV Show:  'Vanderpump Rules' and 'The Morning Show'

Movie: ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’ 

TED Talk Topic: Changing consumption habits - moving from disposable, one-off usage to reusing, safekeeping and passing onto the next owner. 

This episode is brought to you by Vanta. 

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Goterra is paving the way for a circular economy by transforming waste into agricultural commodities, all while significantly reducing truck movement and processing costs. Learn about the remarkable environmental impact of Goterra's technology, which eliminates noxious gasses and slashes emissions by an impressive 97%.

Having spoken to her on the podcast 3 years ago, it was our pleasure to touch base with Olympia again on her fascinating journey from sheep farmer to maggot farmer, the incredible growth Goterra has had over the past 3 years while being incredibly efficient with the capital they have raised (just $20M since 2019) all with a laser focus on Goterra's mission to redefine waste management for a more sustainable future. 

On the topic of mental health, Olympia has been working from home more frequently to limit distractions and, after a tough year personally in 2023, has made a commitment to ride her horse at least 5 times a week. As part of Innovation Bay’s Summit community, Olympia has had some of her most meaningful experiences at Summit events. Though it can be difficult to get to the events amongst the day to day commitments of running the business, each time she’s gone she mentions it refills the bucket and gains perspective from other founders doing the same thing.  

Olympia and Ian also spend some time unravelling the State of Australian Startup Funding report, particularly around the pressing issues of gender inequality and diversity in the ecosystem that the report reveals. Olmypia says, “It’s disgusting and we should be ashamed.” She calls out that as an industry we shouldn’t be using any female founder as an example because the number of female founders receiving funding is still far too low and this needs to change. With deeptech, an even more polarising sector of the industry, Olympia adds: “The sheer limited number of women “making it” are an anomaly, not an attribute and we’ve got to change something.”

Quickfire Round: 

Book: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Podcast: Agtech So What 

News Source: Al-Jazeera

Productivity Tool: Notion 

CEO: Tom Loeffler or Keaton Okkonen 

App: Instagram 

TV Show: Yellowstone, Vikings 

TEDTalk Topic: What building climate tech means 

Connect with Olympia Yarger and visit https://goterra.au/ 

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During this chat, Tom reflects on Sidekicker's journey from the genesis of the idea as sparked by 'The 4-Hour Workweek', through to the milestone of turning over a million dollars in a month. Tom's journey is not just about business but also about building a culture where caring for each other is at the core. 

Sidekicker has been backed with $40million in funding, the initial amount of $100,000 primarily from Seek Investments. They have not only disrupted the market but have also become a vital player in the space. Sidekicker work with around 2,000 customers per year, ranging from small catering companies to large organisations like Australia Post. 

From the nuts and bolts of Sidekicker to the broader landscape of business and innovation, Tom offers valuable insights into: 

• the future of work
• the role of AI - sharing how Sidekicker innovatively uses AI for data automation, matching engines, and award compliance
• the potential challenges the economy may face in the next 24 months

Quickfire Round: 

Book: 'The Year of the Locust'

Podcast: 'No Laying Up', 'Acquired' 

News Source: Twitter

Productivity Tool: ChatGPT

Favorite CEO: Elon Musk

App: Uber

TV shows: ‘Slow Horses’, ‘Boys Swallows Universe’

TEDTalk Topic: Golf OR How to kick a standard career away and begin a startup without technical experience

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With enviable and impressive resumes and backgrounds across consulting and consumer tech with the likes of Bain & Company, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Macquarie, Wise Ltd, and Herbert Smith Freehills between them, James and Tim were driven to start OwnHome after reflecting on some of the biggest challenges they personally face (financial security being at the top of the pile) and how they want to spend the brief period of time they have left on this planet. 

After participating in Commonwealth Bank’s accelerator program from overseas, working their day jobs during UK day time and the accelerator program from 10pm - 4am, they finished in the top spot for the accelerator and received $150,000 funding. Now armed with little to no excuses to jump into OwnHome full time, the pair returned to Australia, and raised their seed round while in hotel quarantine in Sydney. Own Home has since received backing from Entrez, Global Founders Capital, Square Peg, and Commonwealth Bank's X15 Ventures and recently raised $31 million in their series A round. 

OwnHome combines technology and human services for a seamless experience. Through OwnHome, aspiring homeowners can wave goodbye to renting forever and forgo intergenerational support as the only avenue to owning a home. Their offer allows those with just 2% deposit on the home value access to a licensed buyer’s agent, split loan structures, choice of home loan and comprehensive support through the process. Over the past two and a half years, they have received well over 20,000 applications and supported 50 families in becoming homeowners. Across the next 12 months, OwnHome aspired to support $500 million of property purchases in the next 12 months. 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Amp It Up!, Frank Slootman & Black Belt, Joseph Healy
Podcast: All-In
Newsource: The Economist, Twitter
App: Twitter
Productivity Tool: Siri
CEO: Jeff Bezos
TV Show: Succession
TEDTalk Topic: Solving the challenges of housing affordability in Australia  

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During this very special episode recorded during the Innovation Bay panel at SXSW Sydney's inaugural event in October 2023, an all star panel featuring Phil Morle (Main Sequence Ventures), Jenny Li (Scarlare Partners), Joel Connelly (Blackbird), and Skye Riggs (Ripple Opportunities) join moderator and guest Open The Pod Bay Doors host, Cameron Webb (Innovation Bay) to share insights on how to build belonging at speed and scale. They share strategies for welcoming new members and creating meaningful connections that keep people engaged over the long term.

This episode is proudly brought to you by propodcast.com.au 

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ARENA's mandate is to accelerate decarbonisation with a focus on renewable energy. By providing grant funding for groundbreaking projects in renewable energy, energy storage, and electric vehicles, they are taking the battle against climate change to a whole new level. The monumental task of decarbonisation requires an all-encompassing approach across various sectors, and both the government and corporate giants are stepping up to the plate. ARENA's core focus is reducing risks and igniting innovation in renewable energy generation.

The fourth installment of the Innovation Bay & ARENA Renewables Startup Showcase for 2023 happens next week on Wednesday 1 November at Melbourne’s Cargo Hall. This event brings together 100+ of the country's leading angel investor, VC, PE and CVC community. Get ready to be blown away by four of the most remarkable founder pitches from the renewables, cleantech, and climatetech sectors. It's not just an event; it's a spark for networking and an education in the latest developments in the renewable startup universe. This year's stars include Renewable Metals, Hysata, Sicona, and Novalith. 

Tickets are limited and available now https://innovationbay.com/event/arena-november/ 

Quickfire Round: 

• Book: Love Stories, Trent Dalton
• Podcast: Positive Climate
• News Source: New York Times 
• Productivity Tool: turning off notifications and avoiding distractions
• Favourite CEO: Allan Moss, Nick Moore
• Favourite App: Spotify 
• TV Show: Alone Australia
• TEDTalk Topic: Alternative approaches to creativity in children and challenging some of the accepted paradigms around education

Connect with Dan Sturrock via LinkedIn or email.

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Starting in a Goldman Sachs venture-backed startup in London in the very early 2000’s during the original dot-com boom, bubble and bust. She later worked in investment banking and strategy consulting before moving into venture capital. Cath spent three years in Abu Dhabi, working in a sovereign wealth fund focused on global cleantech VC - her foray into VC investing. 

Upon returning to Australia in 2011/2012, Cath had a stint in Private Equity. After leaving to start her own business, she crossed paths with Daniel Petre and was offered to join him at a fund he was starting up - Airtree. Here she gained valuable mentorship and firsthand experience in early-stage VC before taking a period of time to raise her children - after which she joined Antler, the world’s day zero fund. Antler’s approach to due diligence is unique whereby they observe founders over a 12-week period. The VC firm aims to institutionalise early-stage venture capital and provide founders with a near-term path to capital.

Among so much more, Ian and Cath discuss, how the path to becoming a VC is now incredibly diverse, how the fundraising environment for VC funds has become more challenging, how investors are more cautious and have higher expectations in terms of risk appetite and exits, that quality funds and founders can still find capital, and how VC funds offer attractive returns compared to traditional investments.

Quickfire: 

Book: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Podcast: Pivot - Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway, Serial 

News Source: Axios, Capital Brief 

App: Blinkist

Productivity App: Tactic, Calendly, Motion, Asana 

Favourite CEO: Warren Buffett, Kate Morris (Adore Beauty) 

TV Show: The Bureau (SBS) 

TEDTalk Topic: What children learn at school and how that positions them for creativity, innovation and adaptation to the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

harrison.ai started with the problem statement of healthcare capacity. According to Aengus, one of the biggest problems of our time is how to look after such a huge population with increased health needs. harrison.ai is looking to scale the global capacity of healthcare by building automation with AI systems and providing clinicians with superpowers of scale. Aengus says, "of all the things being done in in healthcare, scale will be the solution of quality healthcare globally."

After moving to Australia from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Aengus was one of very few Vietnamese students at an English-speaking Australian school so quite quickly had to learn the English language. After school Aengus went on to study medicine at university after advice from none other than Paul Ramsay of Ramsay Healthcare - a company that has gone on to invest in harrison.ai.

While working through his medical degree, Aengus realised how much in terms of scale was missing from medicine. During his final years of training, Aengus was involved in a research project building technology along with Vertex Health to select human embryo; opening his eyes to the capabilities of AI systems and how they can scale.

After starting out in Australia and New Zealand, harrison.ai’s radiology arm is regulated with FDA clearance in 38 countries with 1 million live touches and one in four radiologists using their technology in Australia alone. Their north star is to touch 1 million lives per day with their technology. harrison.ai has gone on to raise $US120M in series A and series B with investments from Skip Capital, Blackbird, Horizon Ventures and specialist, strategic, corporate investors Sonic Healthcare and Ramsay Healthcare.

Quickfire Round:

Book: Prediction Machines, The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb

Podcast: Lex Fridman on YouTube

News Source: Medium, mainstream news

App: VS Code, Rise

Productivity Tool: very basic reminders app and keeping notes, Slack

Favourite CEO: Mark Zuckerberg

TV Show: House

TEDTalk Topic: The health equality and impact that is possible through the scalability of AI

harrison.ai are continuously hiring in their AI teams. If you'd like to learn more or are you're curious about the tool, reach out to harrison.ai. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max is an industry veteran. From his early career experiences to the development of a groundbreaking technology platform, Max's story is one of passion, expertise, and innovation. His LinkedIn profile is short, though his tenures have been long held - spending approximately 10 years each at Macquarie, Goldman Sachs, and the ASX before developing and launching FCX. 

Max takes us on a journey through the realms of public and private markets, shedding light on the fundamental differences and the rapid growth of private markets in Australia. He explains how FCX was born out of the need for simplifying ownership of private company shares and the revolutionary concept of regularly trading private company shares.

With a firm belief in the FCX ecosystem, Max outlines the platform's unique features and its ability to provide instant atomic settlement, granting companies immediate access to capital. He delves into FCX's vision of creating a secondary market for privately listed tech companies, offering liquidity to staff, early investors, and shareholders.

Plus so much more… 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Arafat: The Biography, by Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker

Podcast: Unholy: Two Jews on the News

News Source: New York Times

App: RunKeeper

Productivity Tool: Empiraa

CEO: Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset 

TV Show: Succession

TEDTalk Topic: Tokenisation of capital markets

Check out FCX https://fcx.com.au/ 

And get in touch with max@fcx.com.au or josh@fcx.com.au to find out more. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Deputy, founded over a decade ago, is a leading company specialising in smart scheduling and workforce management. Their software solution is used by over 1.3 million shift workers in more than 100 countries, empowering 330,000 businesses with tools for compliance and communication.

Silvija's journey from Croatia to the United States, combined with her experience in socially responsible investing, has shaped her leadership approach. She aims to take Deputy to new heights by creating a more flexible and transparent workplace for hourly workers.

Deputy's mission is to become a global platform for hourly workers, providing technology solutions to increase productivity and engagement. Despite the significant number of hourly workers in the world, there is a lack of tailored technology tools for them. Deputy is addressing this gap, currently serving over 1.5 million hourly workers and 330,000 workplaces.

Silvija's insights on responsible scaling, company culture, and bridging the gap between employers and hourly workers are valuable for understanding Deputy's approach. Their focus on diversity and exploration of AI to improve workforce management and customer support are also noteworthy.

Quickfire Round:

• Book: Leading Lightly by Jody Michael
• Podcast: Pivot with tech journalist Kara Swisher and NYU Professor Scott Galloway
• News Source: Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Fortune, CNN, Buzzfeed, The Australian 
• App: Spotify 
• CEO: Alison Deans
• Productivity Tool: WhatsApp 
• TV Show: Working: What We Do All Day (Barack Obama) 
• TEDTalk Topic: Resilience and grit  

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Ian sat down with five of our incredible members for this all star line up featuring:

• Yash Varma, Founder & Partner, Empress Capital (Aurora & Horizon member)
• Phil Morle, Partner, Main Sequence (Aurora member)
• Georgia Barkell, Managing Partner, Sprint Ventures (Aurora member)
• Lisa Vincent, CEO & Founder, HowToo (Summit member)
• Alon Greenspan, Partner, Mind Ventures (Aurora member)
• Cameron Webb, SVP of Member Experience and Managing Partner, Innovation Bay (Innovation Bay team)

With the taste of celebratory champagne at our cocktail party on their lips, Ian and our members discuss (among plenty more):

• Their own background, progressions and evolution in the ecosystem
• Some of the recent challenges they’ve faced
• Their pulse on the current market and focuses in their respective roles
• Their experiences and takeaways from this year’s incredible The Globe event
• The benefits and why being a part of the Innovation Bay community is awesome

For more information on our events, or to apply for membership, visit innovationbay.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is Clément Aglietta, Co-Founder & CEO of Edda, a collaborative tool for private equity investors. Edda is an all-in-one solution for deal flow, portfolio management, and LP’s relationship management. The tool is designed to be user-centric and integrates with external databases and other tools. Edda has recently launched into the ANZ market via a partnership with Innovation Bay’s VC community, Aurora. 

Clément began his career at CERN, the biggest physics laboratory in Europe, where he learned about quantum physics. He then went on to study design. This gave him the opportunity to join the dots between physics and design and discover a new method of solving problems - a passion that led to the creation of Edda. 

Clément’s desire to be an entrepreneur led him to attend conferences and meet investors. He worked at Rebag, a luxury handbag marketplace, and was later invited to join LG Labs as a VC. As a designer turned VC, he noticed the lack of advanced technology in the industry and decided to create Edda. Edda raised the first funding round after building a team and creating the first version of the product. 

Edda helps investors manage their deals and portfolio companies by capturing information from emails, synchronizing data, and providing collaboration tools. It provides statistics and creates profiles for companies, while allowing users visibility on the true value of investments and the impact they create, in real time. With a team of 33 (growing to 40 imminently), Edda now has 130 clients in 26 countries and manages around $30 billion in assets across the private and public equity markets. With lofty ambitions to be the global industry leader, and a passion to make a positive impact on people, society and the planet, Edda has big plans for the future. 

Quickfire Round:

Book: Build by Tony Fidel, Civilizations by Laurent Binet

Podcast: audio books

News Source: VC news via LinkedIn

Productivity App: Turning off phone notifications 

Favourite CEO: Demis Hassabis from DeepMind 

TV Show: n/a

TEDTalk Topic: Financing impact

Get in touch with Clèment via LinkedIn and learn more about Edda here https://edda.co/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Launching the day prior to a snap lockdown in Canberra and with two primary school aged children, the last couple of years have been a ride for Kate, but overall a totally energising time. In just under 8 weeks the Tech Council grew from 24 to 100 members and went from 1 full time staffer to 15 in 18 months. With a board made up of some of the most impressive voices in the industry, they have lofty ambitions to reach 1.2 million tech jobs in Australian by 2023 - a goal backed by the federal government who have made it an official national policy.  

The currently 160-strong Tech Council membership ranges from representatives from some of the biggest Australian companies (Atlassian, Canva, Seek), up and coming startups (Bryte, AirWallex, Envato), multinational companies (Google, IBM, Microsoft) as well as some of the country’s major employers (Wesfarmers, Woolworths, NBN Co, Commonwealth Bank, NAB). All of them share a common passion to have their seat at the table and be on the forefront of change in the industry, through addressing jobs and skill shortages, reforming migration systems, getting cyber security and privacy reform right, and making sure key tax settings are working effectively to incentivise innovation. 

Quickfire Round 

• Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
• Podcast: Planet Money 
• News Source: ABC, The Guardian, The Australian, AFR, The Economist 
• App: Outlook, LinkedIn, Teams, Slack 
• Productivity Tool: Trello 
• Fav Tech CEO: No Favourties but Robyn Denholm as Chair of Tech Council 
• TV Show: Wednesday, White Lotus 
• TEDTalk Topic: Diversity in the tech sector

For more information on the Tech Council of Australia, visit https://techcouncil.com.au/.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Currently in the middle of its fifth season, fmX invites 8 startup companies per cohort to engage in a 12 week program giving participants a unique opportunity to learn how to infiltrate their product successfully into the insurtech ecosystem. 

Across the entirely free program, participants gain hugely valuable knowledge through training and face to face workshops to learn how to structure and position their businesses while giving them access to internal technical and design outlets to explore insurance use cases. One unique element of fmX is the potential for startups to partner with IAG. 

With an enviable resume which includes practicing international tax law, a tenure as the GM of Stone & Chalk Melbourne, Chair and board member of Fintech Australia and Director of Revenue for startup Chipper Cash, Alan is also a lover of fine wine, even studying to become a sommelier, and writes a hugely knowledgeable Fintech newsletter Fintech Radar.   

Quickfire Round

• Book: Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara 
• Podcast: Got Somme - Aussie wine podcast 
• News Source: Twitter 
• App: Tana, Oura 
• Tech CEO: Andy Grove  
• TV Show: Ru Paul’s Drag Race
• TEDTalk Topic: The State of Fintech in Africa  

While recruitment for the next season of fmX won’t officially kick off until October this year, Alan is always on the lookout for startups with amazing ideas that might fit the fmX mould. Get in touch with Alan alan.tsen@iag.com.au or follow along on Twitter @alantsen.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, Anna Podolsky, Founder & CEO of direct to customer pet wellness business, Lyka, is on a mission to make our furry friends healthier and live longer, more fulfilled lives. Named after Anna’s 14 year old border collie, the concept for the business was borne when Lyka showed signs of being unwell and, after not recognising any of the ingredients in her generic food, began cooking for her fur baby. 

Lyka employs 160 staff - doubling almost every 6 months - each with a deep love and care for animals. The company has so far raised $40 million in funds and has created 15 million meals for their loyal and very sticky customer base of furry friends and pet parents. 

Ian and Anna cover a range of topics including: 

• Building the foundations for business success as a management consultant at Bain 
• Traveling around the world with a border collie 
• Practicing 10 thousand hours of gymnastics 
• Her Dad’s kitchen as first production facility 
• The importance of building a purpose-led culture 

And lots more… 

Quickfire Round:

Book: The Power of Moments - Chip Heath, Dan Heath 

Podcast: Masters of Scale 

News Source: Morning Brew 

App: Headspace 

Tech CEO: Bob Iger 

Productivity Tool: Remember The Milk 

TV Show: The Block (guilty pleasure) 

TED Talk Topic: Kibble is the new cigarette

Get In Touch: 

Lyka are always recruiting, check out their open roles: https://lyka.com.au/careers 

Have a pup and ready to make the switch? Head to: https://lyka.com.au/ 

Connect with Anna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-podolsky/ 

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Anuj joined Macquarie’s Technology, Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMET) team in 2006 following a short period working as an actuarial consultant.​

Today, Anuj focuses on helping Technology companies with M&A, IPO, trade sales, capital raising and other strategic priorities. In addition, Anuj is actively involved in Macquarie’s principal investing activities having been involved with companies such as Seek, oOh!media, PEXA and Temple & Webster. ​Leading a team of 22 staff across advisory and investment, some days Anuj will be solving complex problems with a large ASX company - the next - helping a Series A company think about their growth and investments. 

Anuj and his team have a broad technology coverage across online businesses, classifieds, FinTech and software, and are building capabilities in emerging sectors like AgTech.

Ian and Anuj discuss a number of topics including: 

• Macroeconomics and a potential continuation of a flat economy
• Trends in the tech debt market and how corporates are going after growth 
• The difference between VC and PE and the relationship between them  
• Pre-planning for the IPO market 
• Investment opportunities in AI

And so much more! 

Quickfire Round: 

Book: Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography 

Podcast: Alan Watts on YouTube

News Source: Letter of Intent, AFR 

App: YouTube, Outlook 

Tech CEO: all CEOs bring different things, Shemara Wikramanayake (Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Group) is inspirational. 

Productivity App: n/a 

TV: Carl Pilkington 

Ted Talk: How do you find your purpose? 

Learn more about Macquarie Capital HERE 

Connect with Anuj Goel HERE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Scwhab runs at a million miles an hour - literally, he runs barefoot marathons! The CEO and Co-Founder of Luxury Escapes, Adam Schwab is our guest this week. 

Outside of running one of the country’s most successful, bespoke travel sites, and running really far without shoes, Adam is also a contributing journalist and writer, podcast host, father of two young children, is on the investment committee of Save The Children, and is an angel investor. 

An ex-lawyer, Adam and Luxury Escapes co-founding partner Jeremy Same (an ex-banker), started their first business in 2004 - apartment accommodation for backpackers. Fast forward to 2023, Luxury Escape has 510 staff on its books across Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, Ukraine, and New Zealand and will turn over close to $1b this year. 

Ian and Adam discuss a heap including:

• Taking asymmetric risks 
• How COVID affected the business and helped them pivot their product offering 
• That every great founder balances incredible self confidence with consistent paranoia 
• His podcast From Zero 

And so much more. 

Quickfire Round 

Book: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Podcast: Pivot, What The Flux 

News Source: AFR, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg 

App: BOM 

Tech CEO: Jeff Bezos 

Productivity Tool: WhatsApp 

TV Show/Movie: WeWork, Super Pumped, The Crown - fact based fiction 

Ted Talk Topic: n/a 

Luxury Escapes are always hiring and Adam’s DM’s are open. Hit him up on Twitter. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a shift happening in the food that we eat. That is, we’re seeing a transition to plant based food. According to Bloomberg, the plant based food industry is projected to hit $162 billion in the next decade. With a projected population of 10 billion people on earth by 2080, it will be impossible to feed that many mouths with animal-based proteins. Enter Nourish. 

Our guest this week is James Petrie, the CEO & Co-Founder of Nourish. Cutting his teeth as a research scientist at CSIRO, James was part of the lipid engineering team, and responsible for one product that mimicked fish oil - all from a canola crop. These learnings inspired the formation of Nourish. 

Though not a trivial exercise to make plant-based proteins delicious, Nourish is responsible for the production of fats that have made a breakthrough in the taste and experience of alternative proteins. Nourish engineer yeasts and fungal streams that behave in the same way as animal fats - and taste just as good! 

During this chat, Ian and James cover: 

• How the growth opportunity lying with carnivores 
• James’s founder story and the transitional changes that come with moving from early to late stage in a startup 
• Nourish’s raising journey to date 
• The monolithic size of the market 
• The importance of demonstrating tangible customer traction to investors 

Plus so much more… 

Quickfire Round

• Book: Stephen Webb - If the universe is teeming with life, where is everybody 
• Podcast: Gaming podcasts - Min-Max 
• News Course: ABC, AFR 
• App: Slack 
• Tech CEO: not one specific person but James respects those who make the journey from startup through scale up and beyond stating “the start of the journey is very different to the middle is very different to the late stages”
• Productivity Tool: Miro 
• TV Show: Death In Paradise 
• Ted Talk Topic: How to make food real using the right ingredients / Transitions from early to late stage in startups 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite a potentially promising career in cricket and a desire to become a physio, Adam studied Computer Science at university going on to complete a Master degree in Commerce. Beginning his career as a stockbroker focusing on technology stocks, Adam moved into roles with voiceover IP company Freshtell (comparable to Skype) and web-based video conferencing company Parkslide (akin to Zoom). With a love of coffee, Adam founded order ahead app Beat The Queue (since rebranded to Hey You who have recently merged with delivery app Yello). 

Ordermentum was born in 2014 with 10 customers signed up - the first being Lion Nathan. Despite the COVID curveball that threatened to all but completely wipe out the entire hospitality industry, the company became a savior to locked down dog walkers ordering coffees. 

Ordermentum now boast a hugely profitable business that caters to 35,000 venues (or half of the venues in the country), have 650 suppliers signed up, move over $1billion in G&V and process $400million in payments. 

Ian and Adam cover topics including: 

• Raises (one of which occurred during the pandemic!)
• Cricket (of course)
• Why he supports in-office in a remote moving world
• The importance of noticing emotional burnout in staff
• Plans to double his workforce in the next 12 months 
• The network effect 
• How important being part of a community is - Adam is a member of Innovation Bay’s Summit (Series A+ Founder Community) 
• And so much more… 

Quickfire Round 

• Book: Radical Focus, Christina R. Wodtke + Working Backwards (Amazon) 
• Podcast: Serial 
• News Source: Sydney Morning Herald 
• App: Hey You
• Tech CEO: The Hard Thing About Hard Things 
• Productivity Tool: Woop 
• TV Show: Yellowstone, Line Of Duty 
• Ted Talk Topic: Ability to think on three trajectories - running the right balance between a short, medium and long term success trajectory 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Armed with a microphone, and less a wisdom tooth (which was removed around halfway through the festival - by a professional dentist), Innovation Bay’s Co-Founder and familiar host of Open The Pod Bay Doors, Ian Gardiner, tapped 21 people on the shoulder for series of pow wows about business, innovation, a retrospective at what has got them to now, a fast forward of what’s to come for our industry and what’s exciting them, and of course…what they’re hearing, seeing and feeling at Sunrise. 

Part 1 features a bevy of incredible humans including: 

- Matt Fairhurst (Skedulo)
- Al Coleman (Folklore)
- Kristen Durham (Zendesk)
- Mary Minas (Sense of Self)
- Mark Dombkins (Forever Projects)
- Jason Neave (Punt Club)
- Nan Ransohoff (Stripe)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born in Canada, Mina has spent a lot of time in the US, kick starting her career at Goldman Sachs in New York. She chose a role as Product Manager at Google over Business School and was one of the first employees of Uber, where she went on to become Head of Product and was part of the team that introduced surge prices during busy periods. While running her consultancy on the side to keep close to product and startups, Mina worked with a couple of venture firms (Cowboy Venture and Redpoint) as an advisor and entrepreneur in residence. Through all of this wealth of experience, she knew she wanted to be a founder. 

During a round the world trip, Mina and her husband came up with the idea for :Different. They raised their Seed round with Airtree - during the birth of their first child - launched publicly in 2017 and raised their B round last year (2021) - during the birth of their second child. :Different now manage tonnes of properties with efficiency and high quality via their customers that make up the likes of Ray White, LJ Hooker and many other top real estate agencies, and in doing so, have become one of Australia’s fastest growing agencies. 

During her chat with Ian we learn about: 

• Her time on the board for Airtasker
• Her advisory role with Antler
• Her position on the board for Australian Tech Council - a lobby group working with gov to create 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030 
• Her founder journey and the double edged emotional rollercoaster of decision making 
• Her advice for founders and investors in the current and coming climate (Winter is coming - like it does every 3 years)
• How much she values the written word 

Quickfire Round: 

• Book: Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austin 
• Podcast: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (NPR News Podcast) 
• News Source: Twitter
• App: Calm 
• Tech CEO: Mina doesn’t want to put anyone on a pedestal, everyone has something to learn  
• Productivity Tool: BarTender. BetterSnapTool 
• TV Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation  
• Ted Talk Topic: Power of the written word to persuade people

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode we hear about Mark’s passion for politics and study of History, Government & International Relations at Sydney University. How Google poached him from a startup to help launch Google Play Books, Google Play Magazines & Google Newsstand. Returning from a couple of years in New York we learn how reconnecting with old school friend Dylan Baskind led to the creation of Qwirl. 

Ian and Mark discuss Qwilr’s journey and deep dive into Mark's expertise in sales and go-to-market plan. Tune in to hear more on:

• Choosing a company name and re-branding
• Founder-led sales, the importance of a sales team 
• Building and scaling your team
• Fundraising process
• International expansion
• The hardest and best parts of building a startup

Quick fire round:

• Book - ‘How Will You Measure Your Life’, Clayton Christensen
• Podcast - Acquired
• News Source - Twitter
• App - Twitter
• Tech CEO - Joe Thomas, Loom
• Productivity Tool - Loom
• TV Show - White Lotus 
• Ted Talk Topic - ‘The journey of sales’ or ‘wisdom on how to measure your life’

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s episode, our guests are WinVC’s incredible founders, Andrea Gardiner, CEO & Founder of Jelix Ventures; Ingrid Maes, Founder & Managing Director of W23; and Michelle Deaker, Founding Partner & Managing Director of OneVentures. 

According to a recent report by Deloitte and SBE titled Accelerating women founders: The untapped investment opportunity, only 0.7% of all private start-up funding in FY22 went to solely female founding teams, despite funding increasing tenfold between FY18 and FY22. A separate AIC report highlights that just 25% of VC investors are female, with VC female partners sitting at 15%.

Andrea, Ingrid and Michelle have joined forces for WinVC to tackle the issue of diversity in VC head on. They firmly believe that diversity leads to better decision making and fund performance. And that having more diversity (ie women in VC) will lead to better investment decisions will being made which will help our startup ecosystem in Australia, in turn bolstering the county’s economy. 

Quickfire Round: 

• Read - The Economist, Atomic Habits, Harvard Business School Website
• Watch - The Power of the Ring, Blacklist, Extraordinary Attorney Woo 

If you’re a woman in VC and are interested in membership, please head to the WinVC website (https://winvc.com/) to express your interest. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We hear about Paul’s study of agri economics at uni (where his nickname was Urban Cowboy), his first full time role at Equigroup, how he helped to set up the team at Microsoft Financing in Australia before moving over to PayPal in 2010. Deeply passionate about the customer experience, and now with an enviable resume of experience, Paul co-founded Slyp in 2016 alongside Spiro Rokos and Mike Boyd.   

With just a prototype, Paul and Slyp were able to engage all four major Australian banks as both investors and current and future customers - the only Australian fintech to have done so. Slyp’s merchant list extends across almost all verticals with the likes of Chemist Warehouse, General Pants, JD Sports, Harris Farm and the Rockpool Group all on board. 

Having raised $40mil, Slyp currently employs 50 staff with ambitions to have Slyp in the hands of 1 in 2 Australians by the middle of next year. The purpose-led company are also working on amplifying their sustainability by offering a recommerce space (reselling preloved items). Paul’s goal is to see Slyp as an Australian made global proposition, hoping to get offshore into the US, UK and European markets. 

Quickfire Round: 

• Book: Good To Great by Jim Collins
• Podcast: The Howie Games (Mark Howard)
• News Source: LinkedIn, AFR
• App: Milkrun
• Tech CEO: Jeff Bezos
• Productivity Tool: Outlook Mail app
• TV Show: Billions, Super Pumped, WeCrashed
• Ted Talk Topic: The ability to leverage game theory to drive network effects and innovation

Learn more about Slyp here & connect with Paul Weingarth via LinkedIn

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• The effects of the meat industry and food production on the Global greenhouse gas emissions 
• How Vow as a product is produced and when it will first go to market
• The investment and growth stages of Vow 
• Georges business and personal challenges

Quick fire round:

• Book: Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell, By: Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
• Podcast: Lex Fridman and The Constant
• News Source: ABC/AFR for local news and The Atlantic
• App: Vimcal - Lightning-fast calendar for remote work
• Tech CEO: Elon Musk
• TV Show: Jerrfey Dahmer on Netflix
• Ted Talk: Woodwork and a mindfulness practice.

George is a member of Summit Community at Innovation Bay. 

You can find more at VowFood.com, Twitter or Linkedin. Vow Food is hiring so be sure to keep an eye out on their careers page.

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• The transition from corporate to start up
• Wallet Nation - How was it founded, where is it at currently and what is the vision
• Crypto Winter and the evolution of blockchain and web3
• The benefits of being apart of a community
  
  

Quickfire Round

Book - Cloudstreet by Tim Winton 
News source - NY Times 
Tech CEO - Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia 
Best productivity tool -  Weeding tools for the garden 
TV show - ESP News 
Tedx talk - Importance of citizens taking active interest in media and how it affects society.

Angela is also an Innovation Bay member and part of the Canopy Community. You can reach Angela via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaclarkaustralia/?originalSubdomain=au 

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Passionate about the digital economy creating the jobs of the future, Ed has a long-standing interest in the impact of tech on our economy and community and his portfolio appointments and parliamentary interests have focused on this. For a number of years, he has been part of the Federal Opposition’s team developing policies to promote early stage and digital innovation.

In this episode, we dive into Ed's top priorities for policies within the startup ecosystem. Ian and Ed also touch on the Research and Development tax incentive, the positive impact migration and visas can have on growing the economy, as well as discuss politics in general plus the impact inflation and rising interest rates may have on small startups. 

Tune in to hear more from Ed!

Quickfire Round
Book - System Error by Rob Reich and Starling Grad War by Antony Beevor. 
Series - Narcos and Kenobi (Starwars)
TV Shows - The A Team
Gadget - New generation airpods

This is Ed's second time on the Open The Pod Bay Doors podcast. You can check out his first appearance here.

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Across the course of the evening, four promising founders from a pool of 40 applications in the renewables space were invited to pitched their business to a room of experts and enthusiasts in the industry. 

We heard from ARENA's Darren Miller, past alumni 5B’s Dr Nicole Kuepper-Russell and an expert panel, recorded the night, featured Renate Egan from the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, Kate Vidgen of Macquarie Group and Kristin Vaughan from Virescent Ventures.

Today we’re thrilled to share the panel discussion with you for this week’s episode. Across this educational and eye-opening conversation, Innovation Bay’s own Ian Gardiner alongside renewables experts Renate Egan, Kate Vidgen and Kristin Vaughan cover a range of topics. 

We investigate the renewable energy industry shifts across the last 12-18 months, Australia’s evolution relative to other international markets in relation to EVs and hydrogen and where Australia is going to win within the emerging technology space. We also discuss how the world is recognising the need to globalise the supply chain, export opportunities for Australia’s energy commodity or IP and the increasing need for negative omissions. 

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An ex-social worker, Louise is incredibly passionate about supporting underprivileged and underrepresented people. While teaching at Flinders NVI, Louise became fixated on wanting to push into work of the future and how it would look to bring in the best educational model that focused on coding and jobs - and one that was open to everyone. After looking up 42 on the advice of a colleague, Louise contacted the French headquarters to ask if she could become the Australia license holder. Within 24 hours they agreed. 

Louise looks at everything with a lens focused on diversity and equality. She is driven by a desire to solve some of the really complex problems in society - one problem in particular being youth unemployment. Through 42, she’s also looking to squash some of the statistics currently running through the tech industry. Stats such as only 25% of people in the tech sector identify as female; the number for software engineering dwindling down to 12%. At 42, 30% of intake are women, 40% are neurodiverse and 28% did not finish grade 12, all proving that 42 is open to all. 

Running for just over a year in Adelaide, 42 has seen 450 students pass through its ranks and move straight in employment via a red hot recruitment market. The learning philosophy is all practical without any theory with students working across around 200 projects during the course of their learning curriculum. With a long term goal of being first and front of mind for digital apprenticeships, Louise plans on setting up shop in Sydney as a second Australian market very soon with a goal of 1500 students through the door. 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Jacinda Ardern (I Know This To Be True): On kindness, empathy & strength

Podcast: The Game Changers 

News Source: YouTube 

App: Spotify 

Tech CEO: Allison Nikula (CareApp)

Productivity Tool: My brain + team use Airtasker  

TV Show: Peaky Blinders 

Ted Talk Topic: What will it take to get equality in tech and are we prepared to really listen to what that is.

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Wayne spent 10 years in the ARMY straight out of school, first as a tactical communications officer and later with a key role to build the ARMY’s first drone. This opportunity led to a job offer with Boeing, then a Queensland tech company (Lincom) before starting his own consultancy company. Following a devastating flood that affected his property in 2011, Wayne reevaluated his position, wanting to move away from being the product of his business. 

During a trip to the US, Wayne came up with an idea for a SaaS business - a single instance multi tenant cloud as a solution for engineering companies. RedEye was born with BHP the very first customer. Fast forward 10 years and Wayne has taken up position as Queensland Chief Entrepreneur - a position he will hold until the end of 2022. 

His key focus priorities in this role include: 

• To help the existing industry to be as sustainable and successful as possible by partnering with QLD innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers 
• To build the next emerging industry and new economy
• To focus on regional - entrepreneurship and innovation can happen anywhere, from Longreach to Gladstone or Cairns 
• To unlock partnerships with the Brisbane 2032 Olympics

During their chat, Ian and Wayne cover a range of topics, all highlighting Wayne’s desire to make a difference and help others - particularly those in the innovation and entrepreneurship space. One of the key takeaways: Resilience is learnt as you go on your journey. Know you’re not alone. It’s hard work but keep going. What you’re doing is going to make a difference! 

QUICKFIRE ROUND 

• Book: Lifespan by Dr David Sinclair 
• Podcast: Rich Roll, The A16Z Podcast 
• News Source: tries not to focus on the news - prefers to focus on customers 
• App: Garmin, Strava - for trail running 
• Fav Tech CEO: Elon Musk 
• Productivity Tool: Redeye 
• TV Show: The Terminal List 
• Ted Talk Topic: Building resilient economies for innovation

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• Investment NSW’s areas of focus which include Fintech, Cyber, Blockchain, Smart Cities, GreenTech, EdTech, AdTech, HealthTech
• Differences between the tech ecosystems in Australia and the UK
• Human and financial capital
• The importance of Australian startups thinking global from the get go
• Scottish ties

• Book: Katie - Sally Rooney, Normal People | Ryan - Homer’s Iliad
• Podcast: Katie - Bankless, 11FS | Ryan - Lex Freeman
• News Source: Katie - Reddit, Financial Times | Ryan - AFR, The Australian, The Economist, National Geographic
• App: Katie - Spotify | Ryan - Headspace
• Tech CEO: Katie - Sarah Biller | Ryan - Mike Cannon-Brookes
• Productivity Tool: Katie - Monday | Ryan - Trello
• TV Show: Katie - Toast of Tinseltown, Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Recent Movie: Ryan - Top Gun
• Ted Talk Topic: Katie - Music on the brain and mental health | Ryan - Marine conservation

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• Karen Chan, Portfolio Manager, Perennial Partners
• John Henderson, General Partner, Airtree Ventures
• Stew Glynn, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, TEN13

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• The transformation of the ecosystem since 2016 (including the positive impact both the ESVCLP Legislation and Canva have had on the industry at large)
• The most important sectors in the industry - Web3, AI, computer vision, the metaverse (though he’s not hugely excited about it), drug discovery and creation using AI
• How Australia needs to dramatically increase research funding
• That there is no reason we shouldn’t be a renewable superpower, and that we shouldn’t close minds to small scale nuclear, and
• Daniel lends some incredible insight into current market conditions

• Book: 'Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World' by Anand Giridharadas
• Podcast: Open The Pod Bay Doors, Sam Harris’ ‘Making Sense’
• News Source: The Economist
• Tech CEO: Impact over last 5 years - Elon Musk, Melanie Perkins (Canva) - will go down as one of the greatest tech CEOs of our time
• TV Show: The Liar, (new version of) The Staircase, Ozark

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• Book: The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
• Podcast: Rewired (ARENA podcast)
• App: Snap Send Solve
• Founder: Michael Liebreich
• TV Show: Insiders

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• Book: What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz
• Podcast: Song Exploder
• News Source: News app on phone
• Tech CEO: Stewart Butterfield (Slack)
• App: Sonos, beta version of Linktree, baby monitoring app
• Productivity Tool: Notion, Slack
• TV Show: Euphoria
• Ted Talk Topic: How managing artists translates into building a business

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• Book: Turn The Ship Around
• Podcast: Flow State
• News Source: curated RSS feed - TechCrunch, blogs etc
• Tech CEO: Elon Musk
• App: Safari - because of Li Chess
• Productivity Tool: Motion
• TV Show: WeCrashed (the story of WeWork)
• Ted Talk Topic: Alternative teas to coffee for the mind - ie Lions Mane, Cacao Tea, Reishi

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• Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear / How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings
• Podcast: Risky Biz
• News Source: more international news than local - takes a little bit from here and there
• Tech CEO: HashiCorp - Aaron Badger
• App: New York Times Puzzle App, Freeflow - things that can turn off brain
• Productivity Tool: Miro, Asana
• TV Show: fantasy with a good story that takes you on an adventure and outside your world
• Ted Talk: Restoring vintage sewing machines / Teach everyone to be a little less well behaved - breaking the rules helps you defend.

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• The need for the salary benchmarking guide within the startup ecosystem
• Difference in salary ranges between early stage startups and later stage startups
• The importance of transparency within the market
• How ESOPs can be used for attraction and retention
• The great resignation and what it means for Australian companies
• The trend toward flexible work arrangements

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• The importance of patient accessibility to clinical trials
• Empowering patients as drivers in healthcare
• Manuri’s journey from medical student to entrepreneur
• The impact the Covid-19 vaccine development had on the medical world
• The consumer approach of HealthMatch
• HealthMatch’s recent expansion to the United States

• Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• Podcast: The Twenty Minute VC
• News Source: Twitter, social media platforms
• App: Instagram
• Productivity Tool: Miro
• Favourite Tech CEO: Whitney Wolfe Herd (Bumble) & Melanie Perkins (Canva)
• Favourite TV Show: Succession
• Ted Talk Topic: The shift that is happening in healthcare toward more empowered patients

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• The emergence and growth of the tech sector in Australia
• Tech becoming the largest sector for issuing secondary capital
• Why some US companies choose to list in Australia
• The potential future of work in Australia
• Macro-trends that could positively impact the ecosystem
• The importance of building community

• Book: Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Podcast: The Ideas Exchange Podcast, Conversations with People Who Hate Me
• News Source: The New York Times
• App: PhysiApp
• Productivity Tool: “My wife”
• Favourite Tech CEO: Richard White, WiseTech
• Favourite TV Show: Ozark, Fauda
• Ted Talk Topic: “The confluence of capital power and political power”

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• Mick Liubinskas, Climate Salad
• Ali Cluines-Ross, Artesian

• https://www.climatesalad.com/
• https://events.humanitix.com/climate-salad-showcase-2021
• https://www.globalclimatelandscape.org/

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• What Steve learned during his time as a professional sportsman
• Steve’s varied career history and how it led him to where he is today
• How the idea of DriveYello came to be in 2014
• The gig economy in Australia and how gig economy businesses operate and scale
• How DriveYello was able to enable businesses to survive during Covid-19 lockdowns
• Steve’s experience as a Summit member and how it has provided him support
• What is next for DriveYello

• Book: Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott
• Podcast: The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
• News Source: Listening to podcasts and news and doing an investigation to validate
• App: Stake (investment app), Apple Fitness
• Productivity Tool: Trainual
• Favourite Tech CEO: Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar, Atlassian
• Favourite TV Show: Ted Lasso
• Ted Talk Topic: “the mental health of startup CEOs”

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• The challenge of securing funding for RangeMe prior to the existence of a thriving startup ecosystem
• The story of RangeMe’s acquisition and why they decided to go forward with it
• Why RangeMe expanded to the US with a base in San Francisco
• How RangeMe built an efficient team and established an effective team culture
• The growth of the Australian startup ecosystem since RangeMe was founded
• RangeMe’s current focus on globalising the platform

• Book: The Happiest Man of Earth by Eddie Jaku OAM
• Podcast: How I Built This
• News Source: Family group chat, LinkedIn, SMH
• App: Smiling Mind, Spotify, Peloton app
• Productivity Tool: Slack
• Favourite Tech CEO: David Shein, Our Innovation Fund
• Favourite TV Show: Looking for recommendations
• Ted Talk Topic: “the power of going global and expansion” or “the fear of failure”

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• Matt Allen, Tractor Ventures
• Andrea Kowalski, Tidal Ventures

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• John Henderson, AirTree Ventures
• Stew Glynn, TEN13

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• The growth of the Australian startup sector
• Alex’s experience over the past 6 years as CEO of StartupAUS
• Why StartupAUS is becoming Tech Council of Australia
• The process of establishing the Tech Council team
• The release of The Crossroads Report
• Alex’s experience at Stanford and how it will benefit him going forward
• What Alex hopes Tech Council will achieve

• Book: Masters of Rome Series by Colleen McCullough
• Podcast: Reply All
• News Source: The Economist
• Productivity Tool: TripIt
• App: WhatsApp
• Favourite Tech CEO: Steve Jobs (Apple) & Elon Musk (Tesla)
• Favourite TV Show: The West Wing
• Ted Talk Topic: “The role consumers have in solving climate change”

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• Lauren Capelin, Startmate
• Michael Batko, Startmate
• Alex Scandurra, ex-Stone & Chalk

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• A high-level view of the payments industry
• How Zeller raised a large amount of money in a short period of time
• Why each employee should be part-owner of the business
• Square’s recent acquisition of Afterpay
• The growth of the Buy Now, Pay Later sector
• How resilience played a role in Ben’s journey
• The mental health pressures that many Founders experience

• Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• Podcast: The Dropout, How I Built This, The Dollop
• News Source: AFR, The Age, The Australian, Techcrunch
• Tech CEO: Mike Starkey (Athena)
• App: YR (Weather app)
• Productivity Tool: Slack, Figma
• TV Show: Loki, Silicon Valley
• Ted Talk Topic: “Resilience and the difficulties faced when founding a startup”

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• Sam’s extensive background in software development
• Working in an ever-changing industry
• Engaging customers through education
• The natural progression of adding B2B services
• The process of negotiations that led to the acquisition by Pluralsight
• The unique set of challenges A Cloud Guru faced in raising funds and hiring
• Creating consistency through shared values among employees

• Book: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Podcast: Lex Fridman podcast
• News source: Ars Technica, The Age, The Washington Post, WSJ
• Tech CEO: Elon Musk (Tesla)
• App: Calm
• Productivity tool: Superhuman Email
• TV show: The West Wing
• Ted Talk Topic: “The future of education and work” or “the biggest and most exciting ideas in physics”

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• The role family offices play in Australia and how it is evolving
• How family offices can help innovation become a core part of the Australian economy
• The differences between a family office and an individual
• The intergenerational nature of family offices
• Deal flow as a determinant of success in first-time funds
• The importance of ESG (environmental, social, governance)
• Trends among family offices

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• The difficulties Deputy faced during the pandemic and how they overcame them
• How Deputy adapted to place more of a focus on the healthcare industry
• Deputy’s recent rebranding and how it came to be
• The concept of “clocked-in for the customer”
• The startup landscape in Australia and how COVID-19 has impacted it
• How he is largely driven by courage & compassion

• Books: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
• Podcast: The Tim Ferriss Show
• New Source: Facebook video
• App: WiZ App
• Favourite Tech CEO: Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
• Productivity Tool: Screen time on iPhone, turning notifications off
• TV Show: The Playbook
• Ted Talk Topic: “Being selfless and owning that selflessness”

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• How Taekwondo impacts several areas of Lauren’s business and life
• Growing up in South Africa and how it sparked Lauren’s desire to immigrate to Australia
• The process of healing post tragedy and trauma
• Lauren’s introduction into the events industry and how iVvy came to be
• How Lauren successfully led iVvy through COVID
• The ways in which COVID has impacted the events industry
• Preparation for iVvy’s upcoming IPO
• The existence of hybrid events and the future of the events industry

• Book: Scale or Fail by Allison Maslan
• Podcast: The Joe Rogan Experience
• Tech CEO: Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar (Atlassian)
• App: Slack
• Productivity Tool: Monday.com
• TV Show: Bloomberg, Dragons’ Den
• Ted Talk Topic: “The courage, the resilience, and the endurance around delivering success within a person’s world and what it actually takes to be successful.”

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• Tessa Court, IntelligenceBank
• Danny Gilligan, Reinventure
• Kevin Jochelson, The Tech Rooport

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• The transition of Pegasus from a labor hire company to a tech company
• Pegasus’s recent acquisition by Avetta and how it came to be
• The benefits and challenges of running a Newcastle-based tech organisation
• Pegasus operating with a growth mindset
• Managing the tension between sales and development
• ...and more!

• Book: t by Andy AllenThe Next Elemen
• Podcast: How I Built This
• News Source: The Newcastle Herald, AFR, The Australian
• Favourite Tech CEO: Ryan Smith (Qualtrics)
• Favourite App: HeyYou
• Productivity Tool: Coffee
• Favourite TV Show: Loki, The Footy Show
• Ted Talk Topic: “How my broken leg at 22 became the means for me to change my life”

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• Melissa Widner, Lighter Capital
• Peter Dunne, Herbert Smith Freehills & Safety Culture
• Barnaby Marshall, Icehouse Ventures

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• His journey to founding Immutable
• The process of recruiting a successful team
• Building a team culture centred around a growth mindset
• The gaming industry as a whole
• Immutable operating in a carbon-neutral way
• The history and future of NFTs

• Book: The Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin
• Podcast: The Tim Ferriss Show
• News Source: Stratechery by Ben Thompson, Matt Levine newsletter in Bloomberg
• Tech CEO: Patrick Collison (Stripe) & Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX Exchange)
• App: Deliveroo
• Productivity Tool: Polymail (a tool to tackle email)
• TV Show: Drive to Survive
• Ted Talk Topic: “what it means for the world in 10 years if we have programmable immutable digital assets”

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• The GP LP structure of Telstra Ventures and why it works
• Telstra Ventures operating as a thematic investor
• The Telstra customer network and why it is an asset for Telstra Ventures
• The growth of the Australian startup ecosystem over the past 10 years
• The existence and future of secondary markets
• Australia’s venture capital market in comparison to other countries globally

• by Yuval Noah Harari, by Ben Horowitz, & by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar.Book:Sapiens: A Brief History of HumankindThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsWorking Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
• 20 Minute VC & PivotPodcast:
• TechCrunch, Business Insider, Wall Street Journey, & AFRNews Source:
• George Kurtz of CrowdStrikeTech CEO:
• LinkedIn & Apple MusicApp:
• Telstra Ventures data science toolsProductivity Tool:
• WestworldFavourite TV Show:
• Aligning incentives between management and investors”Ted Talk topic: “

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• Holly Cardew, Carted
• Hugh Stevens, Galileo Ventures

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• The ins and outs of Baraja's most recent raise
• Advice for founders who are fundraising
• Balancing the urgency of hiring with finding the right person
• Lessons from building out overseas teams
• Creating a culture that attracts problem solvers
• Managing the co-founder relationship

• Book: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne & The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• Podcast: Lex Fridman Podcast & The Joe Rogan Experience
• News source: The Information & TechCrunch
• Tech CEO: Elon Musk
• Productivity tool: Daylio
• Ted Talk topic: Resilience vs. Going All In

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• Elicia McDonald, Airtree Ventures
• John Croll, Truescope

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• ARENA’s investment track record
• The future role of hydrogen in Australia’s energy infrastructure
• The rise of electric vehicles and the challenges of the charging network
• How startups contribute to the energy system

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• Cheryl Mack, Stone & Chalk
• Richard Lin, AirTree

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• Hannah Field, Folklore Ventures
• Andrew Coppin, Farmbot

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• His own entrepreneurial journey
• What exactly a Chief Entrepreneur does
• How South Australia is growing into a startup hub
• Why he is passionate about giving back to his community
• South Australia's key strengths, including space, defense, agtech, and renewable energy

• Book - by Bill BrowderRed Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
• Favorite tech CEO - Flavia Tata Nardini of Fleet Space Technologies
• App - Spotify
• Productivity tool - coffee
• TV show - Seinfeld
• Ted Talk topic - "The role philanthropy can play in innovation and entrepreneurship"

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• Danny Kennedy, New Energy Nexus
• Imogen Baxter, Square Peg Capital
• Matt Pearson. Airspeeder

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• Mike Zimmerman, Partner at Main Sequence Ventures
• Andrew Horsley, Co-founder & CEO at Quantum Brilliance
• Sarah Nolet, Partner at Tenacious Ventures

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• Why he became a lawyer and how early experiences shaped his career
• Why he's more interested in people than the size of deals
• Key differences between private equity and venture capital
• How he got involved in Atlassian's first capital raise
• His approach to building a tech practice and choosing clients
• His advice for startup founders who are fundraising
• What "legal debt" is and how to avoid it

• Books: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez & To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• Podcast: This American Life
• News source: The Economist or The Guardian
• Tech founder: Luke Anear of SafetyCulture
• Productivity tool: Atomic Habits
• TV show: Dr. Who
• Ted Talk topic: How we can inspire and help each other

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• Dean Dorrell, Partner at Carthona Capital
• Robyn Foyster, Director of Foyster Consulting
• Gautam Mishra, Founder of Inkl

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• Big changes in the EV space from the past year
• How autonomous vehicles relate to electric vehicles
• Electrification of the transport system and the opportunities it presents
• How the grid will be impacted by an increase in EV uptake
• Trends, challenges and opportunities in the EV space

• Book: What Is to Be Done: Political Engagement and Saving the Planet by Barry Jones
• Podcast: The Driven podcast by the
• News source: ABC News
• Holiday location: Forrest, Victoria
• Favorite founder or CEO: JB Straubel, Founder of Redwood Materials (Former CTO of Tesla)
• Productivity tool: Trello
• Ted talk topic: How to electrify the whole fleet

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• Evan Hinchliffe, Technology Industry Lead for Macquarie Business Banking
• Paul Smith, Technology Editor at AFR
• Cate Hull, Founder and CEO of Freight Exchange

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• What it was like growing up and studying in Tasmania
• His passion for electric aviation
• How he and his co-founders started Altium
• What he learned about building a sales engine
• His experiences in Silicon Valley
• What he looks for when he invests in businesses
• Shifting roles of executives throughout Alitum's journey

• : Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans RoslingBook
• : The Science ShowPodcast
• : ABCNews source
• : Elon Musk & Bill GatesFounder/CEO
• ExcelProductivity tool:

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• Alicia Garden, Goanna Ag
• Cara Waters, The Age & SMH
• John Henderson, AirTree Ventures

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• Roshan Ghadamian​, VC Catalyst Program Director at Wade Institute
• Emma Weston, AgriDigital
• Annie Parker, Microsoft

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• Her career journey and how it led to investing in cleantech
• Where the opportunities are in renewables in Australia
• Australian startups with innovative clean energy tech
• The role of carbon pricing

• Book: Into Thin Air, Touching the Void and The Adventurer's Son
• Podcast: The Interchange from Greentech Media & How I Built This
• News source: The Guardian, ABC, AFR
• Favourite tech CEO: Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia)
• App: LastPass
• Productivity tool: Pen & paper to-do lists

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• What is was like growing up in South Africa and Canada
• How she developed a passion for innovation and startups
• The story of founding her startup Arribaa ("the Airbnb of experiences")
• The highs and lows of her 6-year journey with BlueChilli
• Her favourite parts of her role at AWS
• Where the magic happens between corporates and startups
• How the AWS Activate program can help startups scale

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• His advice for entrepreneurs - work hard building your network and never stop talking about your idea
• Key differences between the startup ecosystem in Israel vs. Australia
• How the fear of failure is holding Aussie founders back
• Why speed in shipping product, hiring, executing, following up and more is such a big advantage in a competitive world
• What can be learned from Israeli startups that are global from day 1
• Why arguments are healthy but grudges are not

• Book: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
• Podcast: Invest Like the Best
• News Source: LinkedIn
• Best Holiday Location: Frasier Island & Italy
• Favourite Founder/CEO: Brian Chesky of Airbnb
• Productivity Tool: Krisp
• Ted Talk Topic: Managing hotel quarantine with three kids

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.