Open The Pod Bay Doors

Dan Phillips has spent most of his career building up Macquarie Capital's Venture Capital Group. Somewhat of a well-kept secret in the Australian startup ecosystem, in the past 25 years the Venture Capital Group has done 36 deals and deployed almost $600 million dollars of capital into some fantastic companies. The group has 11 companies currently in the portfolio.In this pod interview, Ian and Dan discuss:-The implications of COVID for Australian startups-Some success stories from the past 25 years-How their hands-on investing model works-The sectors and geographies the group focuses on-The strategies that lead to a 90%+ success rate with investmentsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of the OTPBD News Special. It’s our fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this week's panel:VC: Mike Dovey, Firemark VenturesFounder: Justin Webb, AgriWebbEcosystem: Imogen Baxter, Square Peg CapitalTopics we discuss:We discuss the flurry of new investments these past few weeks including; Doctor Anywhere, Judo Bank Qwilr, The Yield, and Verteva. We also cover Nura's long awaited Loops hitting the market, Atlassian acquisition of Halp, the UK's first week of zero coal power, and Twitter's announcement that employees can work from home forever.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Liew was named by the Sydney Morning Herald as Silicon Valley’s “Most powerful Aussie”. One look at his track record, and it's no surprise why. Hailing from Perth, Jeremy is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. After spending the ‘90s and early 2000s working for web pioneers such as Netscape, AOL, CitySearch, and Interactive Corp, Jeremy joined Lightspeed in 2006 to help the firm, which traditionally was B2B-focused, expand to the consumer. He was the first VC to invest in Snapchat and has recently invested in direct-to-consumer shoe startup Rothy's, consumer goods maker The Honest Company and online lending platform Affirm.In this episode Jeremy...-Talks us through how his career led him to VC in Silicon Valley-Tells the story behind investing in Snap-Discusses best practices for choosing board members-Explains his criteria for investing in consumer tech-Shares tips for founders looking for the right venture partner matchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the third episode of the OTPBD News Special. It’s a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this week's panel:VC: Daniel Petre, AirTree VenturesFounder: Antony Ceravolo, SineEcosystem: Rachael Neumann, AWSTopics we discuss:Will superannuation funds continue to back Aussies VCs, the launch of the Governments COVIDSafe app and do we trust them with our data, how Elon Musk wiped $14bn of Tesla's stock with one tweet, and why founders like Jeff Bezos and RedBubble's Martin Hoskings stepping back in to take the reins in a crisis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaime Bott is a partner at Sequoia Capital, managing their Talent Advisory function. She leads a talent team of 14 who help Sequoia's portfolio companies hire amazing talent, assemble a recruiting function, and build a board. Since Jaime started at Sequoia in 2010, talent evolved into an essential function for VC firms. 10 years ago there were less than 5 people in the Bay Area working for venture firms in a talent function; now there are at least 280 venture talent partners around the world.In this episode, Jaime shares her expansive startup talent expertise, touching on important topics like:How to create and run functional boardsDriving diversity with recruitmentCommon recruitment mistakesHow to build an in-house recruitment functionTools, systems, and software for working in talentSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we speak with Michael Pryor, co-founder, CEO and current Head of Product for Trello at Atlassian. Trello was acquired by Atlassian in 2017 for $425M and stands as Atlassian's largest-ever acquisition. Trello is one of many products developed by Fog Creek Software, a company Michael co-founded with Joel Spolsky back in 2000. Michael's co-founder pitched Trello at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2007 with the lofty goal of attracting 100 million users. Now, 13 years later, over 50 million people are signed up for Trello and that goal doesn't seem so lofty anymore.In addition to the birth and growth of Trello, this episode also focuses on how to effectively work remotely. Two thirds of Trello's workforce is remote, so Michael shares his tested strategies for how to build, manage, and grow a remote workforce.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to episode two of the OTPBD News Special. It’s a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this weeks panel:VC: Paul Naphtali, RampersandFounder: Rob Loewenthal, WhooshkaaEcosystem: Yolanda Redrup, AFRTopics we discuss:VC investment activity since Covid-19 hit, including latest Aussie startups to raise capital, Google and Apple join forces to fight coronavirus, the decline in podcasting listens and ad spending, and is this the end of WeWork and the SoftBank vision fund?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Carter is one of Australia's leading energy experts; he is currently Senior Vice President of Energy Tech and Solutions at Macquarie in Australia. He joined Macquarie from Tesla, where he managed APAC business development for the Tesla energy software suite. Nick has a long career in the energy space and has also worked with electric vehicles at AGL Energy, environmental policy and strategy at Toyota, and engineering at General Motors.In this conversation with Nick, we talk about:-What's happening in energy markets-Major emerging trends in the energy sector-Virtual power plants-The role that startups and tech like AI will play in the future of energyIf you're a startup doing exciting things with alternative energy, apply to present at our upcoming Renewable Energy Founder Dinner with ARENA: http://bit.ly/RenewablesDinner.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to our first Innovation Bay News Special. It's a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Alister Coleman (Tempus Partners), Emma Lo Russo (Digivizer), Fleur Brown (TechSydney, Launch Group)Meet the Panel: Topics discussed include how are startups faring in these tough times, what is government doing to support the ecosystem, what are some companies (or trends) that are doing well. Plus a look at some of the news that you may have missed.We hope you enjoy it. Any feedback or suggestions please do let us know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Phaedon chats with Luke Anear, founder and CEO of SafetyCulture. Luke founded SafetyCulture in his garage in Townsville back in 2004 and has gone on to scale the company globally, attract thousands of customers from a wide range of industries and complete millions of inspections with SafetyCulture's iAuditor app. The last time we interviewed Luke was October 2017. Since the last time we spoke:Luke has grown the team from around 140 people to just over 360.The customer base grew from 11,500 to 27,000 customersSafety Culture's market valuation has grown to $1BIn this conversation, we dive into many different aspects of scaling up a business including Luke's shifting responsibilities as CEO, maintaining culture throughout growth, building a board, establishing a recruitment function, the importance of having a coach, and making customer engagement a central focus. We know you'll enjoy hearing about this dynamic founder's journey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

February 2020 saw the launch of new venture-building entity X15 Ventures, part of the CBA group.Ian sat down with Toby Norton-Smith the new Managing Director of X15 Ventures to chat aboutlaunching the initiative and what this will look like in the future.Toby oversees the portfolio of ventures in development and in market. He’s been at CBA for 5years, pushing new innovations, partnerships and features in Digital, including the launch ofnew ventures like Beemit. Prior to this, Toby led a Fintech business in the wealth managementspace.X15 are looking for entrepreneurs, to present, receive funding and work in a derisk environment,to scale quicker; with support, guidance and access to the CBA customer base and distributionnetworks.Many of this new team have felt the pain of creating a company. Toby goes into what it was liketo be in the creation team for Beemit; spinning a technology team out of CBA core and how theywere set up off stack to get them away from everyday business and start building in a verydifferen

In this episode, Ian sits down with one of the leading figures in the Australia startup ecosystem. Sally-Ann Williams is the CEO of Australia's founding deep tech incubator, Cicada Innovations. Prior to taking over as CEO at Cicada in 2019, Sally-Ann spent 12 years working her way up to the exec level at Google Australia. As an Executive Program Manager at Google, she was responsible for leading Google’s efforts in entrepreneurship and startup engagement, research collaborations with universities and CS and STEM education & outreach. Alongside her work at Google Sally-Ann helped found StartupAUS, a non-for-profit organisation with a vision to make Australia one of the best places in the world to build a tech startup.Sally-Ann's north star is making innovation the driving force of Australia's economic future. That's why she left Google: to get people all around Australia to understand the importance of innovation. Her first step? Taking Cicada out of the shadows.Some of the highlights of the discussions in

Failure is a topic few entrepreneurs are willing to talk about but many need to hear about. You won't find anyone in the startup ecosystem who talks as openly and eloquently about failure as Jodie Fox. Jodie is an exceptional founder who built an incredible business in Shoes of Prey, the former cult-fashion startup which allowed women to customise their own shoes. A banking and finance lawyer by trade and a dedicated creative, Shoes of Prey was a perfect nexus of the corporate and creative worlds for Jodie.Shoes of Prey was considered a global leader and innovator in mass-customisation and on-demand manufacturing. A vertically integrated business that raised over US$27 million in funding, and with millions of shoes designed, Shoes of Prey changed the way the retail industry thought about product and manufacturing. This popular Aussie startup was founded in 2009 with the vision that personalisation and customisation were the future of retail. Unfortunately, after 10 years of being in business, Shoes of Prey we

This week, Ian is joined by Hannah Field from Tempus Partners. Tempus are “investing in the next generation of impossible,” with their long term approach to investment allowing them to delve into tech solutions that convention may say are impossible yet to them, are profoundly possible.Hannah’s road to becoming an investor with Tempus may not fall into the category of ‘conventional’. Hannah got her start as a semi-professional violinist and from there, took a really interesting journey throughout different industries across the globe. Ian and Hannah dive into each terrific position she has held from Boston to California to Dublin to Sydney.In her mid-20s with a “compelling drive to do something different, bigger...raise my ambition levels!” she quit her job at the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, drove cross-country and found herself in California with music provider Pandora. Being the early 2010s, music streaming was still in its initial stages. However, predicting a less than positive trajectory for Pandora

This week on #OPTPBD Ian is joined by Rick Baker, partner with Blackbird Ventures. Founded in 2012, Blackbird is a venture capital fund with a vision to accelerate and champion the most ambitious founders. Their portfolio includes an impressive line-up including; Canva, CultureAmp, Zoox and RedBubble. Prior to breaking new ground with Blackbird, Rick was busy running the venture portfolio at MLC where he invested half a billion dollars into venture capital. He also cofounded two software companies, spent some time in the UK and in Silicon Valley, but is now happily back in Sydney as Australia’s startup ecosystem truly gathers momentum.In this fascinating and open discussion with Ian, Rick takes us through Blackbird’s ‘Secondary Strip Sale’ and their hugely successful Fund One from 2013 which drew $30million from 97 investors. This was an enormous feat for the time which now sees them as Canva’s biggest investor. He also shares Blackbird’s philosophy of splitting their investments between classic software mark

This week on #OTPBD Ian talks with Anil Sabharwal, Vice President of Chrome, Comms and Photos at Google. Of the 9 Google products that have reached over 1 billion users, Anil is in charge of 2 of them, Photos and Chrome.Anil shares his incredible journey, beginning with founding D2L, a successful online education startup in Canada, through his struggles with a string of other less successful ventures, to a big move from North America to Australia that ultimately led to a spot at Google.While he initially saw Google as a temporary pit stop on his entrepreneurial journey, Anil found that his attempts to get fired actually led to a series of promotions that led him to becoming one of the most senior and successful product leaders in Australia...and the world. Uncover the lessons Anil has learned from his failures, the importance of alignment at Google, and how he manages a global team while being based in Australia.Anil’s story is one of perseverance and product excellence that you won’t want to miss.See omnystu

This week on Ep72 of #OTPBD, we’re diving deep into seed investing with the founding team of Tidal Ventures. Founded by Grant McCarthy, Andrea Kowalski, and Wendell Keuneman, Tidal Ventures is a new institutional seed-focused VC firm hitting the Australian market, aiming to fill the void between Angel and Series A funding. The team has incredible collective experience working and investing in tech, with resume highlights of the founders including Yahoo, Bailador Capital, and Atlassian. Grant, Andrea, and Wendell use their respective commercial, investment, and product expertise to take the companies they invest in on the journey from seed to Series A funding.This impressive trio share key insights about seed phase investments, as well as how they evaluate investment opportunities, and what they look for in a founder. Furthermore, the co-founders divulged their own team dynamics, preparing businesses for international expansion, differences between the Australian and American VC markets, and the venture platfo

Airwallex is building global financial infrastructure to help modern internet companies grow, by offering end-to-end solutions for businesses to move money programmatically at a large scale. Lucy is an incredibly successful and inspiring founder who was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia, in 2017. Airwallex was founded to solve the problems surrounding global payments. Lucy shares Airwallex's founding story - from a coffee shop to Australia’s fastest growing billion dollar startup. Airwallex also recently achieved unicorn status in March and is the third Australian company to do so (after Atlassian and Canva).This week we are releasing #Ep71 of #OTPBD with Lucy Liu, President and Co-founder of Airwallex. In this pod, Lucy discusses Airwallex’s commendable competitive strategy. It is quite impressive how they worked around partnering and competing with banks at the same time by liasioning with different departments within the banks. Having already launched Airwallex globally, Lucy shares great insight

On this week’s OTPBD - EP70, we’re happy to have Dylan Lawrence, General Manager (Investment) at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) as our guest. After partnering together for our annual VC conference in New Zealand, Venture Downunder, it was great to catch up with Dylan and spend some time learning more about New Zealand’s tech startup ecosystem.NZTE is a government agency designed to support companies to grow bigger, better, and faster—which in turn benefits the New Zealand economy and its citizens. As a result, they play a crucial role in the support of founders and the startup ecosystem in New Zealand. One of New Zealand’s biggest challenges is their geographic positioning. To quote Dylan, “A lot of countries are small, and a lot of countries are distant, but we’re the only country in the world that’s small and distant”.The New Zealand startup scene is flourishing with ingenious and innovative startups rising every day; however, these startups need to expand to international markets in order to scale

This week on #OTPBD EP69, we’re delighted to host Paul Bassat, Co-founder at Square Peg Capital. His previous founder experience at Seek and current VC journey makes this episode’s discussion very captivating! Square Peg Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in high-potential businesses in Australia, Israel & South East Asia with a specific focus on series A & series B. Square Peg has made around 35 investments to date and their portfolio includes some groundbreaking startups including Canva, Athena Home Loans, Deputy & more.In this pod, we explore the dynamics between VCs & portfolio companies. Paul states, “Founders are like the captain of a sports team and a VC is like a coach.” Having walked the path of a startup founder himself, Paul shares great insights on how VCs need to support founders and act in the best interests of their portfolio companies. As a VC, one gets to be a part of plenty of groundbreaking ventures, but as a startup, the founder has just one venture that they ar