Open The Pod Bay Doors

Large buildings are both economically and environmentally costly to operate. David Walsh saw lots of data flowing in and around these inefficient buildings but there was no focus on using this data to find or fix the root causes of wastage. That's why he founded CIM in 2013. CIM's platform analyses building data to detect faults and inefficiencies that are wasting energy, saving their customers money and improving environmental outcomes. Today, CIM counts 58% of premium grade shopping grade centres in Australia as customers, has offices in Dublin, London and Sydney, and employs just under 40 people.In David's conversation with Ian, he talks about his personal career journey, starting as an Irish backpacker in Australia, how he's attracted an incredibly talented team with a sustainability-focused mission, and the ways to overcome the challenges of enterprise sales. David also discusses why he was determined to bootstrap as long as possible, the importance of maintaining strong company culture, and how CIM doub

Olivia Humphrey is the founder, former CEO, and current executive chairman of Kanopy, the award-winning video streaming service for universities and libraries. She worked in media rights management at the BBC and Village Roadshow for 10 years before founding Kanopy in Perth back in 2008. After growing the business for a few years, Olivia and her young family packed up and moved to San Francisco in 2013 to help Kanopy's overseas expansion. Today, millions of students at thousands of universities use Kanopy's service. Olivia transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman in 2019 and moved back to Perth. She was recently appointed entrepreneur-in-residence at Curtin University.In this conversation with Phaedon, Olivia talks about...How to think about growing beyond Australia from the startScaling once landing in the USThe pros and cons of bootstrappingThe process of exiting KanopyWhat's next for herSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly series analysing the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet the panel...Founder: Emma Weston, AgriDigitalInvestor: Craig Blair, AirTree VenturesEcosystem Leader: Michael Bakto, StartmateTopics we discuss:Some of the biggest headlines our panel discussed include the federal government's news battle vs. Facebook and Google, recent volatility in tech stocks, and big upcoming tech IPOs. We also talk about the launch of Second Quarter Ventures, the new secondary fund from David Tarascio, Andrew Spykes, Ian Beatty, and Leigh Jasper, the role tech jobs will play in Australia's economic recovery, and Elon Musk's Nuralink chip.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Olympia Yarger, founder and CEO of GoTerra, is converting food waste into livestock feed by using robots, AI, and maggots. Yes, maggots. After years of working across many different agriculture sectors, Olympia knew she wanted to find a new way to help farmers and make farms more efficient. It was only when she starting farming insects to feed her own poultry that she stumbled upon the solution. She was blown away by how difficult insect farming was and decided to engineer her own fix; she ended up developing a high-tech solution in which maggots in robot-run automated capsules turn food waste into animal feed and fertiliser. Olympia welded the first prototype herself and GoTerra was born. Since founding GoTerra in 2016, she's steadily scaled operations and recently completed a $6 million Series A round of funding with Grok Ventures and Tenacious Ventures to fuel future growth. Olympia is living proof that with time, passion, and tenacity, you can solve big problems.Some specific topics touched upon in Phaedo

Welcome to the latest edition of OTPBD News Special, Innovation Bay's fortnightly podcast analysing the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet the panel...Founder: James Ferguson, Immutable GamesInvestor: Niki Scevak, BlackbirdEcosystem: Cheryl Mack, Stone & ChalkTopics we discuss:Our panel covers recent funding news, including raises by See Mode, Buildkite, SpaceX and Blackbird's new fund. Some other key topics include Canva and Atlassian blasting changes to R&D tax scheme, the COVID-19 Global Venture Funding report from Crunchbase, and AirBnb's upcoming IPO. Our panel also discuss the growth of edtech, the formation of a new venture fund for female founders by Marisa Warren and Kate Vale, Expert360's Bridget Loudon joining the Telstra board, and the ongoing battle between Apple and Epic, the creator of Fortnite.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Shein first emigrated from South Africa to Australia in 1986. 9 months after touching down he founded his company Com Tech, a specialist supplier of networking and communications products. He grew the business for 14 years and eventually sold it to Dimension Data for over $1bil. At the time of David's exit, Com Tech employed over 1,400 people, had offices Australia wide, and achieved revenues of $700 million. After leaving Com Tech, David transitioned into becoming an investor and mentor to a number of startups. He is the GP and cofounder of Our Innovation Fund, an early stage venture capital fund that invests in exciting Australian startups, as well as a founding partner in the Israeli Venture Capital enterprise, OurCrowd, the first Global Equity Based Crowd Funding Platform.In this episode, David discusses:-Where his love of mentoring startups comes from-Why he feels lucky to have landed a terrible job when he first arrived in Australia-How customer service fueled his company's growth-Why he was calle

Kristo Käärmann is the co-founder and CEO of TransferWise, a peer-to-peer international money transfer business. Kristo Käärmann cofounded TransferWise in London in 2011 with fellow Estonian Taavet Hinrikus, the first employee at Skype. Since then, the business has amassed over 8 million customers and moves more than US$5 billion every month. TransferWise has 2,200 employees in 14 global offices and is valued at US$3.5 billion.In this conversation, Ian and Kristo discuss:• The origin story of TransferWise• Kristo's experiences raising capital• The highlights and challenges Kristo has encountered scaling the company• Impact of the pandemic on TransferWiseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the OTPBD News Special, Innovation Bay's fortnightly podcast that analyses the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet the panel...Founder: Lauren Hall, iVvyInvestor: Bede Moore, Antler Ecosystem Leader: Angus Hervey, FutureCrunchTopics we discuss:In this episode our panel covers ANZ funding news, including raises by Jig Space, Pyn and XYSense, as well as relevant local and global news. Some key topics include Blackbird's new fund, the BigCommerce IPO, and the government's mandate that Google and Facebook pay for news. We also talk about COVID-related news such as Atlassian and Facebook's new WFH policies, some good COVID stories you might have missed, and the big dip in hotel transactions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tom Humphrey is an experienced Aussie entrepreneur and Partner at Access Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Denver, Colorado that invests in early stage technology companies. Before joining Access, Tom helped grow two successful startups, OurDeal and Kanopy. He was COO of OurDeal, a “group-buying” ecommerce website in Australia and helped scale the business to a successful exit to News Corp. Tom was also COO/Director of Sales of Kanopy, a B2B video streaming platform that he saw through an exit to L2 Capital in 2018, delivering a 14x return to investors.In Phaedon's conversation with Tom, the two cover:• The story of building Kanopy with his sister Olivia• How Tom managed rapid growth when OneDeal scaled from 8 employees to 80+ in a year• The segments and markets Tom is excited to invest in• Qualities Tom looks for in a founder• The value of partnering with a VC• Why he lives in Colorado instead of San FranciscoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarah Nolet is one of Australia's leading agriculture technology (agtech) experts. She's the founder and CEO of AgThentic, an agtech strategy and advisory firm, and the co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, Australia’s first dedicated agrifood tech VC firm. Sarah also hosts the podcast "Agtech - So What" which tells the story of innovators at the intersection of agriculture and technology.In this episode, Sarah talks about her professional journey moving to Australia and growing the agtech ecosystem here, cofounding a new venture fund, and starting a podcast. She also shares the criteria her fund uses when evaluating food and agriculture startups, the first addition to the Tenacious Ventures portfolio, and some insights about sustainable farming.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly podcast analysing the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet the panel...Founder: Billy Tucker, OneFlareInvestor: Melissa Widner, NAB VenturesEcosystem Leader: Gavin Appel, Ignition LaneTopics we discuss:In this episode our panel covers both ANZ happenings and global headlines. Some local topics covered include local funding news, people moves, the best Aussie employers of 2020 and TikTok scrutiny from the Australian government. We also talk about world news like the international boycott Facebook movement, Bitcoin scammers, and COVID app woes around the globe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen Thompson is a founding partner and managing director of Brandon Capital Partners, the largest life science healthcare fund in Australasia. Brandon Capital raised their first fund in 2007 with the mission of commercializing Australian medical research. Stephen and his co-founder noticed that Australia was home to loads of world-class medical research but didn't have the weight of local capital to bring projects through to market, so they stepped in in to provide the funding and expertise to get ideas out of the lab and into the global market.In this episode, Ian speaks with Stephen about...Shifting from technical work in product development and immunology research to investingThe story of how Brandon Capital came to beAn overview of the Brandon Capital portfolioThe incubation model the firm uses to identify and commercialise researchThe process of building a highly trained teamSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome to the 8th edition of the OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly podcast analysing the news that matters to Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet this week's panel:VC: Alan Jones, M8 VenturesFounder: Kath Hamilton, Loop+Ecosystem: Annie Parker, MicrosoftTopics we discuss:This week we cover the latest funding news and discuss hot topics like the impact of the Victorian COVID-19 outbreak on the startup sector, India and potentially the US banning Tik Tok, venture reports on funding throughout the pandemic, and Tesla's surge in valuation. We also talk about Who Gives a Crap's $6M donation to charity in the wake of TP panic-buying, the government's investment in cybersecurity, toxic workplace culture, and the classification of Huawei and ZTE as "National security threats" by the US.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're joined this week by Vuki Vujasinovic, Founder & CEO of global PR and communications agency Sling & Stone. The agency has quite the rockstar client roster; some current clients in the US, AU and NZ include Twitter, Uber, Xero, Hubspot, CultureAmp, Slack, Stripe, CSIRO, Domain...the list goes on. The agency launched in 2010 and exclusively works with disrupters, challengers, and entrepreneurs, helping tell their story to the world with comms campaigns that blend tech and creativity.In this chat with Ian, Vuki talks about...Launching the agency at the age of 23The process of slowly growing the business over the past 10 yearsEncouraging entrepreneurial instincts within his teamThe process of growing with startup clientsHow sometimes the job requires him to be like a VC when selecting early stage clientsAdvice for companies on how to alter communications in a crisis like COVID-19See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the 7th edition of the OTPBD News Special! It’s our fortnightly podcast analysing news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.Meet this week's panel:VC: Sarah Nolet, Tenacious Ventures & AgThenticFounder: Adam Theobald, OrdermentumEcosystem: Paul Smith, AFRTopics we discuss:We cover funding news, the acquisition of self-driving startup ZOOX by Amazon, the federal government's big investment in cyber security, Atlassian's announcement of brand new headquarters at the Sydney Innovation and Technology Precinct, Canva's latest $8.6 billion valuation, the future of coworking, and Sydney's dropping in the startup ecosystem ranking.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam Chandler is the Founder and CEO of Nitro, a software company developing commercial software used to create, edit, sign, and secure Portable Document Format files and digital documents. Nitro is Australian-founded and is now listed on the ASX and headquartered in downtown San Francisco, with offices in Melbourne, Australia; Dublin, Ireland; and London, England.Sam grew up in Tasmania and started his first business at the age of 16. He started Nitro back in 2005 with a seed round of $1M and a $5M valuation after a few years of bootstrapping. The company went on to complete a Series A with Starfish Ventures and a Series B/C with Battery Ventures in San Francisco. Nitro launched in the US in 2008. The company has grown significantly in the past decade; Nitro has nearly 2 million licensed users in 144 countries and over 10,500 business customers, including over 65% of the Fortune 500 and two of the Fortune 10.In this episode, Sam talks aboutThe journey of building and growing Nitro form the ground upAdaptation

Welcome to the 6th edition of the OTPBD News Special. It’s our fortnightly podcast that anaylses the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this week's panel:VC: Dean Dorrell, Carthona CapitalFounder: Gemma Lloyd, Work180Ecosystem: Mark Pesce, This Week In StartupsTopics we discuss:We cover the latest funding news and discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and how tech companies have responded, such as IBM's decision to stop selling facial recognition software to police. We also discuss startup job losses and revenue hits as reported by VC firms, what type of help startups will need post-Job Keeper, and the recent rapid progress of telehealth due to COVID.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leigh Jasper is the co-founder and CEO of Aconex, the world's most widely used cloud collaboration platform for construction, engineering and infrastructure projects. Aconex was acquired by Oracle in 2018 for $1.6B. Leigh started the business back in 2000 with school friend Rob Philpot, after working at McKinsey & Company where he consulted for clients in the financial services, media and information technology sectors. The duo founded Aconex with the view of transforming the construction industry and raised a $1.6M seed round pre-product. Leigh is now an active angel investor with over 20 investments in tech startups.In this episode, Leigh discusses:-Managing the co-founder relationship-The value of an executive coach-Advice for businesses managing through COVID-19, drawing from his dot-com bubble and GFC experiences-The journey of building and growing Aconex-Tried and tested fundraising lessons for foundersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fred Schebesta is a serial entrepreneur, best known for co-founding finder.com, one of the world’s leading comparison websites. Before launching Finder, he started Freestyle Media, a successful digital marketing agency, while at university. In 2007, Freestyle was sold to a public company and the funds were used to start Finder.com. Fred, with his co-founder Frank Restuccia, have grown Finder organically without funding to $100M+ revenue, 1,000+ products on the platform, 83 countries, and 360 employees around the world.In this episode, Fred discusses:-His entrepreneurial journey from Freestyle Media to Finder-Observations and predictions for how life and business will change post-COVID-How Finder is constantly reinventing itself to stay alive-His advice for managing the co-founder relationshipSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the fifth edition of OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Today, our panel features...VC: Elicia McDonald, Principal at AirTree VenturesFounder: Joe Forbes, Co-Founder of BiarriEcosystem: Stephanie Palmer-Derrien, Startups and Technology Editor at SmartCompanyTopics discussed include the latest funding news, Amazon's acquisition of Zoox, the SpaceX launch, the drop in startup valuations, and the boom in quantum computing. Listen in for thoughtful commentary on relevant startup and technology headlines by a fantastic panel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.