PODCAST · business
Calling Operator with Laura Nicol
by Laura Nicol
Join Laura Nicol (your host) as she dials into the stories of startup operators in the trenches of building and scaling companies. Together, we master the art of ‘building the plane while flying it', drawing on insights from leaders and rising stars at companies like Tracksuit, Canva, Culture Amp, Atlassian, me&u, Airwallex, Eucalyptus, and more. Laura's day job is Chief of Staff to Maxine Minter﹢Co Ventures—all views shared on this podcast are her own.
Episodes
-
Ep 57. Leading Across Different Stages & Contexts—Laura Warden
After 19 conversations with some of the sharpest operators around, I’m closing the year** with someone who rewired how I think about building process: Laura Warden ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurawardenfolklore/ ). Your job as an operator is to make...
-
Ep 56. The Multi-Domain Operator with Kai Crow
Every great founder has a small Avengers team turning vision into operational reality. This episode shines a light on someone running marketing, customer and revenue operations while acting as the CEO’s trusted right-hand. Inside: 15+ years' CRM, ops, ...
-
Ep 55. Anna Prell on Building Forage, Being Acquired and Building Again
Laura Nicol dials into Anna Prell, VP Operations at Ivo. Anna reminds us why being an operator is a) so damn exciting and b) the ultimate leadership testing ground: "In a startup, you can be your own version of a founder. You’re the founder of whatever...
-
Ep 54. Betting On People with Mahesh Muralidhar
Laura Nicol dials into Mahesh Muralidhar. From day one, Mahesh has been obsessed with making a difference. He was early in Sydney’s startup scene in the 2010s post-MBA—first chasing his own idea, then finding impact (and peace) in helping others build....
-
Ep 53. Savannah Black on Range, Hypergrowth & ADHD
Laura Nicol dials into Savannah Black. For Savannah, being a startup operator is about making the company work in the real world. All the forward planning, mission, and vision stuff is important. That’s the on-paper part. But being an operator is about...
-
Ep 52. Operational Leadership with Alexey Mitko
Laura Nicol dials into Alexey Mitko. Alexey’s career has been all about operational leadership. Finance, HR, legal — he’s held the keys to the gritty, foundational work that lets startups scale without falling apart. He puts it simply: “When the startu...
-
Ep 51. Falling in Love with Startups and Running—Phoebe Pincus
Laura Nicol dials into Phoebe Pincus, COO at Startmate and Co-Founder at Cheeky Run Club. We cover a lot. Learning to lead when you've never had female leadership role models. Being the opposite of a perfectionist. Her career journey from psychology st...
-
Ep 50. Emer McCann on Building People Functions & Scaling Orgs
Laura Nicol dials into Emer McCann, Head of People & Chief of Staff at Simply Wall St. Emer scaled Deputy’s people and culture through hypergrowth (70 to 350 employees) before joining Simply Wall St as employee #15 to build from zero. She’s the quiet f...
-
Ep 49. Liani Strauss on Keeping Tracksuit on Track
Laura Nicol connects with Liani Strauss, Chief of Staff at Tracksuit. Liani’s background in industrial engineering gave her structure. Startups gave her speed. Today, she works at the intersection of strategy, systems, and people—helping shape how Trac...
-
Ep 48. Paul Redfern on Growth, Scale and Staying Human
Laura Nicol connects with Paul Redfern, Chief Operating Officer at Big Picture Medical. He’s someone who’s spent most of his career toggling between product and operations, and getting pretty good at living in the grey. And becoming “reasonably okay-is...
-
Ep 47. The Water Cooler Chat with Gaby Howard & Laura Nicol
Laura Nicol connects with today's co-host: the wonderful Gaby Howard, Head of Growth and Operations at Carted. Gaby’s no stranger to the podcast—she first appeared on Ep 23. Gaby Howard on Navigating the Shift from Founder to Operator in Tech: Insights...
-
Ep 46. Operators and Burnout with Laura Nicol—Solo Reflections
Today, I’m turning the mic inward for my first-ever solo episode of Calling Operator. I’m Laura Nicol, your host and Chief of Staff at Co Ventures—and in this conversation, we’re talking burnout. The kind that creeps up. The kind that hits hard. The ki...
-
Ep 45. Scale and Soul: Anitta Krishan on Leading People and Culture Transformation at trivago, Grab, TikTok & Hoogly AI
Laura Nicol connects with Anitta Krishan, Chief Culture Officer at Hoogly AI. We begin with a breath—a literal nervous system–balancing pause—followed by people-first perspectives from a former Trivago, Grab, and TikTok executive now shaping the future...
-
Ep 44. Scaling Hnry with Karan Anand—Inside the Chief Strategy Officer Role, His Operating Philosophy, Abductive Logic
Today, I'm connecting with Karan Anand, Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director, Australia at Hnry. We trace his journey from 13 years in consulting to becoming Hnry’s first hire in Australia, exploring what it really means to lead without ego, thin...
-
Ep 43. Sophie McKay on Launching Tech Brands Across Asia-Pacific—Qualtrics to Notion
**Join us at our first-ever podcast meetup in Sydney. Info below ** Today, I'm connecting with Sophie Mckay, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan at Notion. Sophie’s career has been all about scaling tech brands across the Asia-Pacific region (APA...
-
Ep 42. Culture Drivers with Olivia Panzic—Leading Marketing Communications and Building High-Performing Teams at TikTok ANZ
**Join us at our first-ever podcast meetup in Sydney. Info below ** Today, I'm connecting with Olivia (Liv) Panzic, Head of Marketing Communications at TikTok ANZ. A core part of Liv’s belief system? Look after people. And it shows. Her colleagues and ...
-
Ep 41. Rach Matters on Turning OCD Anxiety into Her Superpower and Scaling to Senior Program Manager at Linktree
Today, I'm connecting with Rach Matters, Senior Program Manager at Linktree. Rach’s sweet spot is joining fast-growing organizations with a blank job description, and she’s had the privilege of learning company building through EA-exec partnerships wit...
-
Ep 40. Shipra Mahindra: From Software Engineer to Canva’s First PM and Product Leader at Octopus Deploy
Today, I'm connecting with Shipra Mahindra, Principal Product Manager at Octopus Deploy. Let’s just say—Shipra’s peers can’t stop raving about her. She made her mark as the first product manager at Canva, working closely with co-founder Mel Perkins and...
-
Ep 39. Harry Uffindell on Scaling Partly, The ONE Thing and Lessons from the Climb
Today, I'm connecting with Harry Uffindell, Chief People Officer at Partly. Harry’s worn just about every startup hat—founder, growth, bizops, revops, people, culture—you name it. But he ultimately found his calling in the people space. Now, he’s scali...
-
Ep 38. Alice Hehman on Being a Glue Person—From Facebook to Quip to Glue Club
Connecting with Alice Hehman, a "SWAT team" startup leader who’s built recruiting and operations playbooks for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. An under-the-radar operator, you need to know. Alice knows what it takes to scale operations across b...
-
Ep 37. Emma Seymour’s CFO Journey at Deputy—How Rebalancing Led to Profitability and Unicorn Status
Today, I'm connecting with Emma Seymour, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Deputy. Emma is no stranger to navigating big transitions—whether steering a company through acquisitions, adapting through CEO leadership changes, driving profitable growth in u...
-
Ep 36. Annie Liao on Designing a Dream Career and Building a Training Campus for 1 Million AI Builders by 2026
Today, I'm connecting with Annie Liao, founder and CEO of Build Club. What began as a weekend AI project among friends has now evolved into APAC’s largest AI learning platform. Fresh off closing her pre-seed round and going all-in on Build Club, Annie ...
-
Ep 35. Deena Metz on Building a Customer Success Function at Flagship—From Digital Health to Retail Tech
Today, I'm connecting with Deena Metz, Head of Customer Success at Flagship. For Deena, being at the nexus of a company is where she thrives, so she’s placed herself at the heart of an early-stage startup: customer success (CS). She’s one of 12 employe...
-
Ep 34. From Clinical Medicine to Product: Dr Jackie Rabec’s Journey to Heidi Health and Google
Today, I'm connecting with Jackie Rabec, Product Manager at Google. Jackie’s product leadership story is all about transitions—from corners of the globe to non-linear career paths and reframing impact beyond just our work. In our conversation, we discu...
-
Ep 33. George Hatzis on Product Design: Journey from Startups to Scale-Ups and Fractional Impact for Early-Stage Teams
I'm connecting with George Hatzis, a fractional product designer for early-stage startup teams. From his early curiosity about design and product at Ignition to redesigning a personal loan application admin at Wisr and building and scaling a multi-bran...
-
Ep 32. Coaching with Maxine Minter: How to Be the Best on the Field as a High-Impact, High-Performing Startup Operator
Today, I'm connecting with Maxine Minter, executive coach, founder of Co Lab, and General Partner of Co Ventures. Coaching and mentoring leapfrogging someone’s career trajectory has been a key theme percolating our recent episodes, SO… recognising that...
-
Ep 31. Growth Enzyme Mindset: Taylor Fox-Smith on Academia, Channel Partnerships and Building Community at Airwallex
Today, I'm connecting with Taylor Fox-Smith, Head of Community Partnerships at Airwallex. In this episode, we explore Taylor's formative years and Montessori education and dive into her latest project: building the community function at fintech unicorn...
-
Ep 30. Emily Robinson on Scaling with Purpose: From Leading People and Culture at Linktree to Driving Growth as GM at Kic
Emily's an incredible people and operations leader who is passionate about doing things differently. Her latest project is Kic, a fitness app quashing diet culture—founded by Laura Henshaw and Steph Claire Smith. In this episode, we explore her journey...
-
Ep 29. Building Scar Tissue: Albert Patajo’s Path from Venture Capital to Fatherhood and Scaling Nexl Beyond Series A
In this episode, we explore Albert’s journey from growing up as an immigrant in Australia to becoming a startup leader and new dad to his daughter, Ava. Albert is a true fundraising nerd, and watching him level up on his way to Victory Road is a joy. W...
-
Ep 28. From Rowing to an All-Women-Founded Exit: Maddi Ingham’s Playbook for Building Unstoppable Chief of Staff Partnerships and Mastering M&A
In this episode, I dial into a conversation with Maddi Ingham, 2x Chief of Staff, now working in stealth on her next venture. Maddi's career is a testament to her commitment to creating a better world for people and the planet. We explore her journey f...
-
Ep 27. Mikayla Hopkins on Building a World-Class Marketing Function and Brand at Tracksuit—Journey from Beer to Beauty to B2B SaaS
Mikayla builds brands people can't stop talking about. Her latest project is Tracksuit, recognised in The Generalist's Future 50 list as one of the world's highest potential startups. We dive into her career journey from beer to beauty to B2B SaaS; the...
-
Ep 26. A new era, Handing over Calling Operator to Laura Nicol, from front row with Anna Wintour to Chief Of Staff at Co Ventures
Episode summary: This week, we’re thrilled to introduce Laura Nicol, the new host of the Calling Operator podcast! In this special transition episode, we get to know Laura and her incredible journey—from the front rows of London Fashion Week beside Ann...
-
Ep 25. Shilpa Mohan's journey from award winning interior designer to head of ops at ProcurePro and finding confidence through changes
Episode summary: This week, we sat down with Shilpa Mohan, Head of Operations at ProcurePro. We explore themes of confidence, career transitions, and true self-belief beyond external validation. Shilpa shares her inspiring vision for diversity in start...
-
Ep 24. Georgia Marshall on Building community, co-living across the world and small changes for big impact
Episode summary: This week, Georgia Marshall takes us through her journey from Fishburners to founding Humans for Good and Flock. Georgia shares her experiences building communities, running pitch nights, and developing Flock, a database of diverse com...
-
Ep 23. Jared Bergman's Journey to Vow — From Bionic Eyes to Blowing Up the Bioreactor (Not Literally, Yet)
Dive into Jared Bergman's journey on this week's episode, where he shares his transition from developing bionic eyes at university to pushing the boundaries of biotech at Vow. Discover the thrilling world of engineering innovative solutions for sustain...
-
Ep 23. Gaby Howard on Navigating the Shift from Founder to Operator in Tech: Insights from Carted and Flaunter
This week, we delve into Gaby's journey from founding Flaunter to spearheading operations and growth at Carted. Gaby takes us through her unique journey back to an operational role after experiencing the highs and lows of being a founder herself, the s...
-
Ep 22. Polina Nesterova on Pioneering Meaningful Change in Health Tech with Neurode, Inventia Life Sciences, and HealthMatch
Resources mentioned: Radical Candor, Kim Scott Spades, Hearts, Diamonds feedback framework Outlive, the science & art of longevity, Peter Attia Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your sugg...
-
Ep 21. Emma Earley From Unconventional Paths to Remarkable Outcomes: Defying Norms & Embracing Inclusive Leadership at Remarkable
Resources mentioned: Fair Play by Eve Rodsky Emotional Agility by Dr. Susan David Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn. A note from your host, Laura: My...
-
Ep 20. Deanna Hood on Becoming a technical leader in Health Tech robotics at Vexev and Inventia, Embracing Learning as a Skill and Shattering STEM Stereotypes.
Find Deanna here: TikTok / @deanna.stem Instagram @deanna.stem https://dhood.io/ Resources mentioned: Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking Brave not Perfect: Fear less, Fail more and Live Bolder https://www.meetup.com/ <---...
-
Ep 19. Sam Garven from dreaming of living in the forrest studying gorilla's to people leadership at ZipCo, Kinde + more
You can find Sam here on Linkedin Resources mentioned: WGEA report: Gender Pay Gap Fair Work amendments 2024 Josh Bersin Podcast Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me...
-
Ep 18. Holly Brooks - From Childhood in Doha to Overcoming Early Career Hurdles, Achieving Her Dream Job at Startmate
Resources mentioned in this episode: MKT1 Newsletter Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could b...
-
Ep 17. Nicole Meaker on studying Engineering in adulthood, figuring out what you actually find interesting and working at Marqo as a Product Manager
Listen to this interview with Nicole Meaker and dive into... Unexpected Paths Lead to Rewarding Careers: Nicole's journey into tech was unplanned. Despite an initial lack of interest in math and science, her diverse experiences, including working in ba...
-
Ep 16. Alex Crawshaw from boarding school to a grad job at Deloitte and then finally landing a dream role at Halter
Alex Crawshaw is a finance manager and chartered accountant at Halter, a New Zealand AgTech startup on a mission to enable farmers to run more productive and sustainable farms. Alex grew up in NZ and went to boarding school (with her now founder, Craig...
-
Ep 15. Dr Izzy Bigio from six years at med-school, to two years as a Doctor and then a massive personal rebrand before landing at Blackbird as a community partner
** Apologies for the radio silence! I have moved interstate, had some tough family news and am also at a new job - this episode is an absolute banger to come back to, so please enjoy 🙏 ** This week I sat down with Dr Izzy Bigio, Blackbirds Aotearoa-bas...
-
Ep 14. Gemma Clancy & Will Richards, creators of the Overnight Success newsletter talk about building something from nothing
Interesting in Overnight Success? find them here Resources mentioned: Acquired podcast Tech Safari Acquisitions anonymous Lennys newsletter Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggesti...
-
Ep 13. Monica Masaoka from Airwallex on pushing against the conventional path, going from retail at Mecca to Zip co and finding her place in RevOps at Airwallex
Resources mentioned: Scaling People, Claire Highs Johnson Rosalyn Santa Elena, RevOps influencer RecOps Impact Newsletter, Jeff Ignacio Pavillion University Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please sh...
-
Ep 12. Royina Bakshi from Nutromics on turning adversity into a superpower and finding the perfect spot in a MedTech hardware start-up
Resources mentioned: Influence: The psychology of persuasion Inside the nudge unit: how small differences can make a big difference Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with...
-
Ep 11. Carrie Gray from Atlassian on being a humming bird person and using her experience to cross pollinate the world
Resources mentioned in this episode: Atlassian Playbook Atlassian Team 2023 online event Elizabeth Gilbert: the Curiosity-Driven life podcast TedTalk - Hire a Mum Midset: Ben Crowe: Mojoespresso Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who co...
-
Ep 10. Garry Williams on a non-linear pathway into tech, loving life at Tractor Ventures and hard life stories
**Content warning at the bottom of this section** ** Please note that this episode touches on grief and murder and may be distressing for some listeners. If you or someone you know is experiencing grief, please visit the below resources and remember to...
-
Ep 9. Estelle Berton on landing at Eucalyptus, the power of peer learning and removing 'sorry' from your vocabulary
Resources mentioned: Podcast, Radical Candor Podcast, the imperfects John Cutler, LinkedIn Guest ideas? Do you have an operator on speed dial who could be perfect for the show? Please share your suggestions with me via LinkedIn. A note from your host, ...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Join Laura Nicol (your host) as she dials into the stories of startup operators in the trenches of building and scaling companies. Together, we master the art of ‘building the plane while flying it', drawing on insights from leaders and rising stars at companies like Tracksuit, Canva, Culture Amp, Atlassian, me&u, Airwallex, Eucalyptus, and more. Laura's day job is Chief of Staff to Maxine Minter﹢Co Ventures—all views shared on this podcast are her own.
HOSTED BY
Laura Nicol
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Calling Operator with Laura Nicol have?
Calling Operator with Laura Nicol currently has 58 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Calling Operator with Laura Nicol about?
Join Laura Nicol (your host) as she dials into the stories of startup operators in the trenches of building and scaling companies. Together, we master the art of ‘building the plane while flying it', drawing on insights from leaders and rising stars at companies like Tracksuit, Canva, Culture Amp,...
How often does Calling Operator with Laura Nicol release new episodes?
Calling Operator with Laura Nicol has 58 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Calling Operator with Laura Nicol?
You can listen to Calling Operator with Laura Nicol on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Calling Operator with Laura Nicol?
Calling Operator with Laura Nicol is created and hosted by Laura Nicol.
URL copied to clipboard!