Election policies, AI in daily life and Maradona or Messi is the GOAT?

Happy democracy sausage weekend. As Australians head to schools and halls on Saturday (although around 20% of the population has already voted) to cast their verdict on the last three years of the Albanese government, Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Kayla Medica took a look at the policies and election promises for the tech sector from both Labor and the Coalition. It was a short conversation. There's a sense of disappointment and frustration across the industry that both major parties have shown so little interest in innovation and tech, and organisations such as FinTech Australia are saying it out loud too. It's mostly bad news from both the government and opposition, with Labor's plan to tax unrealised gains on personal super funds worth more than $3 million at 15% a potential disaster for early-stage startup investing. The Peter Dutton's Coalition wants to kill off Labor's $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, but at least aspiring treasurer Angus Taylor is offering tax breaks to early-stage startup investors via Early‑Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (ESVCLP) scheme. The Liberals want to double the current threshold for startups involved to $100 million, and do a similar thing for thee Venture Capital Limited Partnership threshold, increasing it from $250m to $500m. But there's not much else on the table on this front. Simon, a Gen Xer, also wanted to talk about Mick McConnell's LinkedIn post about life as a Gen Xer at the end of the analogue era. Luckily, we had two amazing guests this week, investor Danielle Haj-Moussa, from deep tech fund Main Sequence Ventures, talking AI, and Angentian-born, soon-to-be-Australian Ramiro Roman Loureyro, the cofounder of Yakka Labour, for 10x, our 10 rapid-fire questions. Danielle talks about using AI as a copilot in her daily life, her love of DJing and how she thinks about investor in ideas to change the world. Ramiro talks about the scourge of modern slavery, Yakka's global plans and answers one of life's most important questions: who's Argentina's greater player, Maradona or Messi? Startup 360 is all about staying human. It’s a weekly show, talking startups and tech. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.