From corporate law to being a better bloke - Luna's Ronen Heine on masculinity and setting an example

A decade ago, Ronen Heine tossed in his career as a corporate lawyer at a top tier law firm for life as a startup founder and adviser. "I was doing lots of fancy work on the outside, but dead on the inside," the founder of Luna tells Startup 360. "It was funny because no one took me seriously. Founders didn't take legal and accounting seriously. It was a startup helping startups start up."But it worked and Luna, his professional services advisory firm, which has worked with the likes of LaunchVic, Rampersand and Fishburners, was recently acquired by Tiger and Bear. Byron Bay-based Ronen talked to cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen about what he's learnt about startup life advising 1000s of startups and their founders about getting their legal and financial house in order to succeed, and his own experience as a founder going through a merger and acquisition. They also took a deep dive into leadership and masculinity. Ronen's been an associate professor at Monash University for the last five years with a focus on men’s leadership and how to best support younger males as they find their way in the world. Simon asks Ronen what founders can do to set a good example for the next generation.His advice is simple - work on yourself to be a better leader "You're going to have young people who are going to follow you, people are going to join you. This is going to be their first place of work. Your influence on them is far bigger than you think," Ronen said. "The interactions they see - there's a male founder who even says, 'Hey, you know what, let's think about gender diversity on our board', such a small thing to say - and the impacts like that ripples out in different ways to different things." Simon and Majella also talk about Elon Musk's Wikipedia AI ripoff - he's literally lifted large slabs of the original for it - and NZVC's new $50 million Fund II , which aims to back up to 60 early-stage startups in Australia and Aotearoa. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.