Startup 360

If you've ever looked at a successful founder and wondered how they always seem to know exactly what they're doing, this week's Startup 360 might come as a relief. Our guest is engineer, entrepreneur and Tech Ready Women program director Renate Crollini, who admits she once assumed all the smart people in the corner office had the answers. It wasn't until she became a founder herself that she realised the truth: nobody has all the answers. We're all "building the plane while we're flying it”, she explains. Simon’s joined by Julie Trell as cohost for the next few weeks - and the delight for her was finally meeting Renate in person, having been a long-time mentor at Tech Ready Women. This conversation is a reminder that entrepreneurship isn't about certainty. It's about an idea that won't leave you alone, backing yourself, and learning as you go. Renate shares the lessons from her own life as a founder, including the difficult decision to walk away from her first startup, why resilience matters just as much as ambition, and the fine line between persistence and knowing when it's time to change direction. And her advice on launching is blunt: "If you're proud of your MVP, you've waited too long." The trio also canvas why women too often wait for permission before launching, juggling startups with family life, and why sometimes the most important thing a founder needs isn't another mentor or investor, but someone in their corner saying, "You've got this." And if you're looking for a mantra to take into the weekend, try Renate’s: "At the end of the day, you have a result or an excuse.” Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free

Before Sian Priest was helping deep tech founders tell better stories at Cicada Innovations, one of the games she created as a 2000s gaming founder ended up being played by President Obama at the White House science fair. This week on episode 64 of Startup 360, Majella’s away, so Simon sits down with Sian to talk about startups, deep tech, Silicon Valley self-belief, and why Australia needs to get better at celebrating founders building something more enduring than the next unicorn pitch deck. Her startup career has taken her from the UK - Manchester-born, she’s red, not blue -  to San Francisco and since 2016, thanks to Neighbours and a Sydney bloke, Australia. She remembers what Silicon Valley taught her: people back themselves.That “don’t wait for permission” mindset is something Australian and British founders can still learn from, especially in a culture where, as Simon jokes, too many people still politely line up for the bus. Sian also has some blunt advice for founders, especially in deep tech: stop assuming people already understand the problem - it’s rarely just technical. Founders need to get better at explaining why it matters to different audiences so they start to care. She also makes the case for celebrating different types of founders. Not every startup has to be a 100x VC-backed rocket ship. Some will be strong, enduring, medium-sized companies. Others will bootstrap, generating revenue from the start. They all matter. A slow-moving tanker can be just as valuable as a rocket ship, she says. As Simon quips, everyone loves a moonshot, but low Earth orbit still has its place. And in breaking news: after 5.5 years at Cicada Innovations, Sian’s left left her job, just as the Tech23 cohort were announced, to address the nagging sense that her inner founder wants another shot - she ends the show talking about how she wants to team up with someone tackling a “gnarly problem” so she can help solve it. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free

Startup 360 hit the road for episode 63, recording in front of a studio audience for the first time from Growth Summit Sydney. Simon and Majella’s guest was Ben Grabiner from Side Stage Ventures, taking them through the findings of the Australia Venture & Startup Report 2026 , which looked at the past decade of the local VC-backed ecosystem.It’s now grown 13.7 times faster than any other major global hub, creating more $10 billion companies per dollar invested than anywhere else in the world. But amid the success there are still challenges, and the conversation took place just as the federal government released its startups consultation paper in response to concerns about the impact of capital gains tax changes to the ecosystem. Ben talked about tackling Australia’s productivity slump, the flywheel of successful exits and the policy settings the country needs to encourage innovation. “You should be encouraging young people to start businesses,” he said. "If you want to discourage speculative investment in property, then you should change the tax settings of property relative to other asset classes."Tax settings drive incentives, Ben explained and the danger in the current plan is that the government is “going to make this a less attractive place to start a business." There’s plenty to unpack in the macro view of Australia’s start sector and Ben brings some clear thoughts to the conversation. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Vision gets a lot of attention in startups. It's the thing founders pitch to investors, talk about with customers and use to inspire teams. But as Dane Hudson argues, vision alone isn't enough. After more than 25 years leading businesses across five industries and mentoring more than 150 founders and CEOs, Dane learnt that scaling a company requires something less glamorous but ultimately more important: discipline. This week on episode 62 of Startup 360, Simon and Majella sit down with the founder of Impactful Leadership and author of Discipline Beats Vision to talk about what it really takes to lead as a business grows. Dane isn't speaking from theory. He has the scars to prove it. There was the time he was running KFC in Southern Africa and a franchisee came to a meeting with him, put a gun on the table and named Dane’s three daughters. And also watching as CEO of a listed wine company as its share price fell 97%. Those experiences shaped the leadership lessons he now shares with founders, CEOs and executive teams across Australia and Southeast Asia. Simon and Majella ask about the difference between grit and resilience, the mistakes leaders make as companies scale, why transparency matters more than most founders realise, and what boards and CEOs often misunderstand about each other. They also unpack some of the key lessons from Discipline Beats Vision, including why leadership is ultimately a set of behaviours rather than a title, and why the habits that get a business started are rarely the same ones that help it scale. It's a candid conversation from a veteran leader about how to be disciplined and what you need to do when the pressure is really on. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, with Ciarán Harte, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

R&D investment and commercialisation can't be treated as separate issues, says Liza Noonan, CEO of Sydney deep-tech hub Cicada Innovations, on episode 61 of Startup 360. Liza unpacks deep tech — think quantum computing, medical devices and advanced manufacturing — and the unique challenges the sector faces with Simon and Majella on this week's show. Unlike software startups, where founders identify a customer problem and build a solution, deep-tech startups often begin with a breakthrough invention and then work to find its commercial application.  The result is longer development cycles, greater capital requirements, and a need for different founder skills, investors and support structures. It's not the Silicon Valley SaaS playbook. Australia's research engine is stronger than many people realise, but there remains a bottleneck in turning ideas from the lab into large, globally competitive companies. Government procurement, infrastructure and scale-up support can matter just as much as venture capital. Simon describes the Budget's proposed changes to the R&D Tax Incentive as creating a new "valley of death" for deep-tech startups. Liza argues the challenge isn't simply funding research. It's helping companies move from "0 to 1" (proving the technology), then from "1 to 10" and "10 to 100" (building a business around it) so the productivity gains, jobs and economic returns are realised in Australia rather than ending up offshore. Liza also shares the experience of losing her father while raising three children, as Startup 360 once again explores the human side of tech. Simon also discusses his submission to the Senate Economics Committee examining the Federal Budget's proposed capital gains tax changes and their potential impact on startups, founders, investors and employees receiving equity. Startup 360 is a SmartCompany production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson with Ciarán Harte, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for the latest ANZ tech news.

Fishburners has a new owner. And episode 60’s guest is Carolyn Breeze, CEO of the buyer, ASX-listed Scalare Partners. Scalare bought Fishburners from the voluntary administrators this week and the startup community and its members will leave the Tech Central Innovation Hub to become part of Tank Stream Labs. The move also brings change for cohost Majella Campbell, who’ll wrap up as Fishburners CEO and take a break after 15 torrid months working to right the ship. Carolyn takes us through her plans for Fishies - pitch nights and a new investment fund to back those startups are afoot, and explains her vision for Scalare, which owns Tank Stream, the Australian Technology Comp, Tech Ready Women and several other brands. She's also recently taken a deep dive into how Australia’s startup ecosystem performs globally in key metrics such as investment, liquidity, experience and first customers and shares some sobering stats. Only 34% of startup investment is domestic, she explained, compared to 60-70%. Overseas investors love Aussie startups, but as Carolyn points out, especially in the context of the government's capital gains tax changes, when there’s a liquidity moment, “the international money, and then the operators and the IP are staying over there”.  That hurts Australian startups. “Our tech workforce is contracting. In every other market it's expanding,” she said. The Scalare CEO also has some thoughts on the short-term thinking of politicians and the uncertainty created by constantly changing government priorities. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, with Ciarán Harte, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

After 3 non-event federal budgets for the startup sector, all hell broke loose on May 12 when treasurer Jim Chalmers announced capital gain tax changes that will reduce the size of the cheque startup shareholders receive in a liquidity event. The backlash has been enormous and the sector is hoping Treasury will hear their pleas and create carveouts for startups and their investors, as well as small business. But amid the sound, fury and 47% equity social media memes, what does it all mean? That’s what Jack Qi, partner from startup advisory and accountancy firm William Buck explains on episode 59 of Startup 360.Will founders go overseas? Is this the end of Australian innovation? Who are the winners and losers from the government’s changes? Qi unpacks it all in this special edition of the show that puts the sexy back in the Tax Act. And because Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick, Qi reveals he really wanted to be a fighter pilot - but ended up ensuring startup founders and their employees and investors pay no more tax than they have to, instead. And loves it. f you want to know the facts amid the fury, this episode is essential listening.Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Startup founders are told to hustle harder, push through and never let the cracks show. But what happens when the pressure becomes too much? This week on Startup 360, host Simon Thomsen sits down with workplace mental health advocate Graeme Cowan for a candid conversation about burnout, psychological safety and the hidden emotional cost of building a business. Graeme, a founding board director of R U OK? and host of the Caring CEO podcast, shares his own experience of crashing after the dotcom collapse and spending five years out of work with severe depression. From that journey came a mission to help leaders create healthier, more resilient workplaces. “The old saying, a problem shared is a problem halved,” Graeme says - a simple idea that sits at the heart of this week’s episode’s message about vulnerability, connection and asking for help before burnout takes hold. This episode dives into why startup culture’s obsession with resilience can sometimes fuel burnout instead. Graeme shares practical ways founders can check in with their teams, recognise early warning signs and build sustainable habits before things spiral. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

OpenAI’s APAC startups lead Thomas Jeng has a warning for founders worried AI is about to replace them: calm down. The tools are getting smarter at breakneck speed, but the people building the future are still very much in the driver’s seat. Speaking with Startup 360 co-hosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell, Thomas - a former founder, VC operator and now OpenAI’s first startup hire across Asia Pacific - unpacked what AI can actually do for startups right now, where the hype goes too far, and why Australia’s startup ecosystem continues to punch above its weight globally. Throughout the conversation, Thomas’ core message remained consistent: AI is an incredible accelerator, but not a substitute for human insight.“If you’re breaking new ground, there will inevitably be things the AI does not know,” he said, pointing to the irreplaceable value of customer conversations, market intuition and founder conviction. The discussion also veered into the increasingly human side of AI adoption. Thomas shared that he uses ChatGPT to help explain Singapore maths to his children, plan family holidays, analyse parenting advice and even think through relationships. But he’s also cautious about over dependence, particularly for kids. For founders overwhelmed by the pace of AI, his advice was refreshingly practical: don’t try to automate your entire business overnight.“Probably pretty much everyone can take one step forward,” he said. Whether it’s improving one workflow, connecting a new data source, or simply learning to prompt better, the biggest gains often start small. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

A decade ago, Joshua Ross and his good mate Adam McCurdie went looking for an idea that would have maximum impact in doing the most good. So they decided to take on the global ticketing industry and launch Humanitix. Their second crazy big idea was to give away all the company’s profit. They’ve succeeded on both fronts. Since Humanitix was founded in Sydney in 2016, it’s given away $21 million to charities and projects, including ethicist Peter Singer’s The Life you can Save. The Atlassian Foundation has helped the pair take on a cutthroat industry and thrive. Humanitix now operates in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and UK, and Hollywood superstar and kindred spirit Hugh Jackman recently signed on as head of impact. Josh sits down with Simon on Startup 360 this week to talk about that adventure and what it means to have a not-for-profit social enterprise - something that doesn’t fit the normal philanthropic model. It’s inspiring and uplifting story of how impact and happiness comes not from the money you make but what you do with it next. And it turns out that Josh and Wolverine read the same books. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

The global business travel market is worth more than $2 trillion annually, but when most employees seek to get from A to B, how it works is not something many think about. Altitude AI founder Aimee Armstrong has, transforming the industry to help smaller businesses save time and money thanks to AI. She's Simon and Majella's guest on episode 55 of Startup 360 this week. Her story is as fascinating as her ambitions, having previously worked as a motorcycle mechanic and raced Yamaha 600cc motorbikes - so Aimee knows a bit about risk and moving fast too. She also worked at some of Australia's top tech companies, including Siteminder, Go1 and Domain. Using AI to redefine how the business world moves, she's companies lower their travel spend and making it easier for employees using an AI travel agent that can book entire trips via work tools such as Slack, and helping them deal with fiddly details such as company travel policies. It's a great conversation with some travel tips from Aimee too. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

The term Sandwich Generation was coined in the early 80s to describe people, aged in their 30s to 60s, who found themselves not only raising a family, but also caring for their parents - "carenting" - at the same time. In the middle of all those competing demands, they're also trying to build their careers and the pressures can make it all feel overwhelming. The numbers are stark - caregiving is a second job taking an average 31 hours weekly, in a journey that typically lasts 5+ years. The cost to the caregiver is estimated at around $567,000. The burden falls overwhelmingly to women, who are 70% of caregivers. That challenge is the problem Melissa Reader set out to solve with her AI startup, Vera. Episode 54 of Startup 360 focuses on trying to be everything, for everyone, all at once in a heartfelt conversation between Melissa and host Simon Thomsen, spanning work culture, maintaining focus, grief, dementia, family conflict and even voluntary assisted dying - something in the news this week with the loss of broadcaster and musician James Valentine, aged just 64. Melissa faced tragedy early in her career after losing her beloved husband Mauro, aged 40, to cancer, just after the birth of their third child. She cofounded Vera with Yaniv Bernstein. It's an agentic AI platform that listens to your specific situation and helps turn those pressures into action to help you navigate a range of situations, from your parents to your family dynamics and other constraints. It's all about tracking what matters, connecting the dots between decisions and most importantly, using AI that never advises, but rather interprets and builds context for human experts to guide you. Melissa also produces the excellent Club Sandwich podcast with Sarah Macdonald, talking to people on the frontline of caring. Make sure you have a listen after Startup 360. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

School and Malachy Doyle were never the best of mates.Our guest for episode 53 is now 17 and left school for entrepreneurship, founding his first startup Venty. Never mind the education, even being told when to have lunch got on his goat. And Malachy likes to have control of his destiny."I like building cool things," he explained to Majella and Simon, having launched his first business - making and selling Valentine's Day card, when he was just 12. Venty is an AI‑powered emotional support and journaling app that offers structured, conversational “venting” rather than clinical therapy, positioned as a low‑friction way to process day‑to‑day emotions in 5‑minute sessions.It's not a replacement for professional mental health help, Malachy explains, but helps a range of people address the daily life anxiety they feel, using AI. AI is a big theme in this week's show, with Majella and Simon discussing the attacks on the home of OpenAI's Sam Altman in the wake of a critic New Yorker article, and Anthropic's Mythos, a new model so dangerous it can only be offered to corporations, who no doubt will use it wisely for the benefit of all. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

If, like Startup 360 cohost Simon and Majella, you have a pile of non-fiction books beside the bed that you're trying to get around to reading, you'll love episode 52's guest. Shruta Satam left nearly 20 years as a corporate consultant for the likes of Deloitte and PwC to become a startup cofounder last year. Pustakh (the Sanskrit word for books), launched in Sydney in late 2025.The idea came from a pattern Shruta watched repeat during her consulting career. "The smartest, most well-read leaders I worked with would finish a book, feel inspired, cite it in the next meeting, and then change nothing. The gap between knowing and doing was everywhere, and no platform was built to fix it," she said. Pustakh is an AI-based applied learning platform for non-fiction books. It's not just a summary of 80,000 words handed to you in bite-sized pieces. It gets to know the reader to create personalised action steps, based on their specific goals, challenges, and career stage, so two people reading the same book get two entirely different action plans She's also building a habit tracker to close the loop by tracking whether Pustakh users are implementing what they read. The conversation roams from her favourite books to the metaphysical and beyond - and of course the impact of how AI is reshaping the ways we learn. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

The wild thing about building a marketplace for jobs is that you never know what your customers will need. Airtasker cofounder and CEO admits on episode 51 of Startup 360 that when a man wanted someone to fly from Australia to the US to pick up an engagement ring and bring it back, they deleted, thinking it was a hoax.A slightly indignant, but also very anxious and hopeful future fiancé set the record straight and the Tasker who said yes is probably still a hit at dinner parties with that story. Tim shares his story with Simon and Majella this week, from Airtasker's origin story to the lessons of leading for more than a decade, and going public on the ASX in 2021. The entrepreneur and father has some honest insights on what it takes to build a category creating business and the perils and triumphs that entails, including learning what you can and can't say when you're the the typically open boss of a public company. As Christians and Jews mark Easter and Passover, Simon and Majella also discuss the latest news: the big Meta court cases in the US over child safety and addiction; and locally, the eSafety commissioner's battle with the social media giants over the under 16s ban. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

⁠Finder.com⁠, one of the first generation of Australian tech startups, has just turned 20. So for the 50th episode of Startup 360, we have a very special guest - co-founder Jeremy Cabral.  It was so long ago that two new inventions, Twitter and the iPhone, played a central role in Jeremy's next two decades after his co-founder-to-be, Fred Schebesta, asked on the social media site whether to buy the new Apple product or Nokia N95. Jeremy already had an iPhone and shared his thoughts with Fred. That moment would transform what was then known as Credit Card Finder into one of the world's most successful comparison sites, last valued at $680 million. He spent the next 16 years as COO driving Finder's global growth, before stepping down from an operational role in September last year. Jeremy remains an advisor to the Finder team, led by OG CEO and cofounder Frank Restuccia.  "I'm driven by 3 things, connection, growth, and helping people. They're my 3 values," Jeremy told Startup 360's cohosts, Majella and Simon. He "accidentally ended up becoming an advisor to businesses" after he posted on LinkedIn and more than 170 companies reached out for help. He's now a startup coach and growth advisor.  It's a long and fascinating episode covering the lessons of building Finder, Jeremy's ambitions for the future and where he things tech is going and what it takes to build a great business. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.  This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.  This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free!

This week on Startup 360, we talk to veteran startup recruiter Dexter Cousins about work in the AI era. With WiseTech Global cutting 2,000 jobs, nearly a third of its global workforce, the Commonwealth Bank shedding 300 tech roles, Block reducing its workforce by 40% - 4,000 more jobs gone, the employment landscape is changing faster than ever before as artificial intelligence transforms how people work. Dexter wrote about it for Startup Daily earlier this month, and founded Tier One People a decade ago, which helps fintechs find the people they need. He's now pondering his own role over the next decade. Having grown up in Northern England in some tough times, Dexter's used to being blunt, but he also brings incredible insights into what it means to be a valuable employee in his conversation with Simon and Majella. The pair also discuss the biggest news of the week - the fact that the "mystery weekend" Majella's partner, Brendan, flagged last weekend turned out to be an M&A deal. She's engaged! And has a very heavy ring finger to prove it. Congrats to the pair of them. In other news this week, the release of the Denholm report into Australia's R&D policy is also unpacked, along with Advanced Navigation, has raised $158 million in Series C (although Simon initially shortchanged them $5m). Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

It's a special episode of Startup 360 this week with Earthletica cofounder Bronte Campbell. The triple Olympic gold medallist and a former World Champion's had a bit of a career pivot since Paris. She's now CEO of the sustainable activewear brand after competing in four Olympics - her first as a teenager in 2012. Bronte and cofounder Libby Babbett are now raising capital for Earthletica on the crowdfunding platform Birchal, having already generated more than $200,000 in revenue, selling out its first-year products. She decided to tackle a key problem in the $600 billion activewear market - it's made from virgin plastics and harsh chemicals. Earthletica uses recycled and organic materials, avoids PFAS (the forever chemical) treatments, and is designed with end-of-life recycling in mind. Startup 360 hosts Simon and Majella talk to Bronte about what a winning mindset and focus in sport brings to founder life, overcoming setbacks and discussing a subject close to her heart, creating a winning team culture. Bronte's delved deep into it, having dealt with the worst and helped create one of the best cultures in Australia's Olympic swimming team, and what she has to say about the science is fascinating. It's an inspiring conversation with a sporting great, now doing amazing things on the founder field. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Startup 360 takes a deep dive into leadership this week with Chris Kirk, one of the OGs with Stone and Chalk . Chris recently announced he was stepping down as CEO after three years, and 11 with the organisation since it began in Sydney. It's not so much an exit interview as a rumination on what he's learnt about what it takes to be a great founder and also leader. Chris took the top job at a time when the not-for-profit's finances were in a perilous state, with losses in the millions, and has returned the innovation hub that's home to more than 500 startups and scaleups in three capital cities to financial stability in an $9 million turnaround. Simon and Majella also talk to Chris about what he learnt from his first CEO role, the support he gathered around him to succeed, and when it comes to holding yourself accountable, how the father of two also does that for family while in a high-pressure job. Chris also talks about the role he plays as regimental sergeant major to hundreds of founders at Stone & Chalk, and knowing when to step in to help and advise someone who might be struggling with "the 57 things you've gotta deal with today to keep your business alive". Episode 47 of Startup 360 is an open and honest conversation about staying the course and knowing that leadership is a marathon and not a sprint. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

It's a slightly different Startup 360 this week with no special guest, so cohosts Simon and Majella take the time to kick around the big news of the last few weeks, from Canva buying two more startups, to WiseTech slashing 2000 coding jobs in favour of AI, UpGuard's $105 million raise and SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear returning as CEO ahead of an AI rebuild of the workplace safety platform. Simon and Majella also cover Growth Summit in Melbourne, where Aconex cofounder Leigh Jasper offered advice on staying the course in business, and VCs explained what "you're too early" means. The pair also crack open a can of Australian Coffee Culture's Australian-grown coffee. Cofounder Shreya Gupta was a guest on the show in November, and Majella had an update on Dome - founders Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi were guests in August - with the podcasting community engagement startup launching with its first podcast, all about tackling the juggle between work and raising a family. They also discuss Uber after Simon made a post about surge pricing on LinkedIn that's had more than 60,000 impressions in just 48 hours. What's your take - just the free market working or a price gouge that's outside the acceptable boundaries of business? This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

It’s all about artificial intelligence this week with In the Blink of AI host Georgie Healy joining the show  to talk about what many see as the 4th industrial revolution. Majella’s away this week, so Simon enlisted Georgie to talk about this week’s news, including the loss of Techstars Sydney, before they got into the weeds on AI. Georgie’s podcast, In the Blink of AI, is out every Friday and recently spoke with AWS AI guru Rada Stanic, who admits even she’s struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of change in artificial intelligence. Georgie, who recently left Google to focus on her podcast, also turned the tables on Simon asking him about the impact of AI and tech on journalism. They talked about parenting in the age of smartphones - Georgie had a revelation while off her phone for 90 minutes while her son was at Nippers - and ethics in AI, as well as her love of music and her hacks for using AI better. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

This week Startup 360 discusses leadership - and how to do it without being a jerk, with Karlie Cremin, CEO of Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia. Karlie wrote a book about it - Don’t Lead like a Jerk - and Simon and Majella talk to her about the ups and downs of being the boss, confessing the jerk bit can happen to anyone - what you do next is what matters.Karlie reminds us that first and foremost, we're not machines, we're humans and that means there are good days and bad ones. It's a fascinating dive into what it means to lead and hang around to the end, when she reveals the simple trick that transformed one CEO's life, both at work and home. The news Simon and Majella discuss this week includes digital twins platform Neara raising $90 million to become Australia's newest unicorn, Startmate's plan to back social enterprise startups to create generational businesses that make the community better, and Deel's $21 million global Seed-stage startup comp, The Pitch. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Startup 360 looks south this week, for a conversation with fintech investor Brian Collins about his new role as CEO of Enterprize Tasmania.Brian, deputy chair of Fintech Australia, and cofounder of fintech VC Triple Bubble with Dom Pym and Judy Anderson-Firth, spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley before calling Melbourne home in recent years.Brian shares the stories of some remarkable Tassie startups, as well as the joys of life on the Apple Isle - from a caring community’s support and collaboration to the food, wine and fun of a MONA visit.He also shares his tips to founders as a long-time mentor to hundreds of startups.While Simon and Majella plot how soon they can head to Hobart to record Startup 360 on location there, they also talk about the big news of the week. First up it’s the release of the annual State of Australian Startup Funding report, which reveals a 24% increase in investment to $5.1 billion in 2025, although the total number of deals fell as later-stage rounds became the focus alongside AI, which received the most funding at $1 billion.Elon Musk was also in the new for the right and wrong reasons, from the merger of SpaceX and xAI, to making plans to visit convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious island, with the release of emails and 3 million files about Epstein contradicting Musk’s previous spinning of the narrative around his involvement with the billionaire, who died in jail in 2019.Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Welcome back to Startup 360 for 2026. For the first episode of the year, Majella and Simon talk about the big news of Summer: ·       The sudden collapse of parcel delivery platform Sendle ·       The end of SXSW Sydney ·       Airwallex calling in lawyers to ask media to take down critical stories Our guest for episode 42 is Maddi Ingham, cofounder of GreenPay, a social enterprise payment processor that donates 50% of its profits to biodiversity and conservation. Maddi started her career in management consulting at BCG, working with Australia’s largest companies to solve their most pressing problems. She admits she likes chaos and the adrenaline rush of dealing with things when they go wrong. She was also Chief of Staff at Verve Super, supporting the launch of their investment product, and leading Verve’s sale to Future Group, and talks about the role and how it’s the perfect training ground for life as a founder. Startup 360 is more founder fun than founder mode. It’s all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

When Jim Cooper, CEO of Blue-X, a California-based innovation services company for startups, moved to the US three decades ago, he had some trepidations. Now he loves it, but the former Sydneysider is back "home" for Christmas and in his shorts, to share his experiences on the final Startup 360 episode for 2025. Jim, who coaches an AFL team in Orange County, not far from Disneyland, has some strong thoughts on the Australian mindset and how to hustle."We've only got really one metric and that is at the end of the fourth quarter, we've got more points on the board than our opposition," he said. "So I treat every single startup as if it's three-quarter time with five goals, two, down, and we need to do something in the next 20 minutes to turn this game around so that we can win it. He also believes tall poppy syndrome is a thing in Australia and tells cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell it's holding us back, alongside the "report economy" endless reports, and no action. "We gaze inward, we see what we're missing and then we do very little about it except write a report. We don't address the problem head on. We like to be safe and we like to say a lot of safe things in Australia," he said. "We like to be very comfortable and polite. We don't like to tell the hard things that people don't like to hear. We can't confront that in Australia and I think that's a real fault of ours, being on the outside looking in and kind of seeing that now, you know, it makes me, it makes me cringe. It kind of makes me a little bit angry as well." And don't get him started on aphorisms like "punch above our weight".Episode 41 of Startup 360 is an extended Summer edition, diving into what Jim Cooper's learnt about startup life - he first launched accelerators in the US in 2010, and has worked and advised around the world on innovation and company building. It's also the last episode for 2025. Have a wonderful Summer and happy new year! The show will be back at the end of January, just as everyone packs up the beach umbrellas and heads back to work. 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!

Back in 2016, around the time LaunchVic was kicking off in Melbourne, Dave McManus left the city for Silicon Valley, determined to become a startup founder. Now he's back in Melbourne and the founder of Lightning Ventures has plenty of stories to tell and advice to share on episode 40 of Startup 360. Explaining Lighting, his no-code innovation studio, which helps early-stage startups rapidly build, test and launch software without needing a technical founder or large amounts of capital, Dave describes it as "the IKEA model of software development". "The way people build software is they go out, they find the tree, they chop the tree down, they hack the tree in half and they hand whittle all the pieces for the chair," he said. "Whereas the new model is out of the box, bang, click, click, bang - the pieces assemble a chair and it looks pretty much the same, does the exact same thing, hosted on AWS, with the exact same infrastructure that your custom-coded dev's doing without headaches, for like, a 10th of the price." Lightning has worked with more than 60 startups, combining lean product strategy with no-code tools. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell were keen to know more about Dave's experience in San Francisco. "I think the Bay Area is very open and accepting of people, especially if you're having a go, it's amazing," he said. "I think they've got an advantage in San Francisco - seven miles by seven miles - so it's such a small area and you've got so many successful people. The personal life and the business life kind of intertwine. You could be at a house party having a chat with someone - and this actually happened to me in the kitchen at a house party - saying, 'Oh, what are you doing?' They're like,'Oh, I work in tech'. I'm like, 'Oh cool'. "Anyway, turns out that guy was the cofounder of Weebly that sold to Square for like $300 million. He was like the most modest, humble guy. So yeah, you get the opportunity to meet incredible people." On the penultimate show for 2025, Majella and Simon also talk about the leaked details of Blackbird's investor day, "AI slop" as word of the year, and the ban for life on GetSwift's cofounders to prevent them being company directors in Canada. 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!

Alex Miller was having rapid success with his subscription management platform Hudled when he spotted a nugget of insight in that startup and launched a second, Rechargly. Like a Marvel movie spinoff, he's now enjoying even more success, as Alex explains on episode 39 of Startup 360. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell asked Alex about the lessons and mistakes along the way and how startup No. 2 came about. "What we discovered [in Hudled] is that accounting firms were managing hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of their clients. And in the Hudled dashboard, which was supposed to help them track all of this, they were hiding it," Alex recounts. "And we just couldn't work out why because it was coming off their credit card, it was their spend, but they didn't consider it as their own." So so they launched, Rechargly, so accountancy firms can bill clients quickly and correctly for software disbursements - a pain point that, surprisingly, many neglect or get wrong. Rechargly now delivers the bulk of the revenue and Majella and Simon wanted to know how to spot an opportunity and go all-in. "It's always tricky, isn't it? Because things were working with Hudled and to take a step back in order to go forward faster is always a really hard decision," Alex explained. "And when our team sat down and we were evaluating what was in front of us with what we knew versus what we discovered about what could be, it was, it was really challenging at the time." As well as a great convo with a serial founder who kicked off with a paddleboard importing business with a mate, this week's show discusses the latest from Blackbird-funded New Zealand startup Kiki, now starting out again in London after being shut down in New York, having paid $224,000 in a settlement - 3x the total revenue generated there - with the city over Kiki's illegal operations there. Also getting Simon riled up are 350 researcher jobs being cut at the national science agency, CSIRO, in the face of flatlined federal funding. 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!

This week's Startup 360 kicks off with cohost Simon Thomsen recounting the two days spent in the NSW Supreme Court this week as senior council for the liquidators of failed medtech StrongRoom AI probed cofounder and former CEO Max Mito, and director Divesh Sangvhi, about the potential insolvency of the business. Sangvhi sold his company, Medical Benefits Australia (MBA), to StrongRoom when it had no cash, having already rented the company's IP to the startup, which is was also, frequently unable to pay for on time. Simon recounts how Mito told the court that they company's approach to board minutes was "informal", and when one director raised concerns that the acquisition had gone through, Mito explained that "We had a bit of an issue with board members not always remembering details." What also emerged was that both MBA and StrongRoom were behind on the tax obligations, and the ATO was chasing both companies for money, as well as issuing Sangvhi with Director Penalty Notices for non-compliance. The details emerging from the public examination into the company's failure left both Startup 360 hosts a little gobsmacked, especially when it came to company governance, and the liquidators appear to be taking a close look at the actions of both men and their compliance with the Corporations Act. On a happier note, the also shared some excellent advice from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, now 95, in his final shareholder letter as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His excellent advice includes: "Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them." Their guest this week is Shreya Gupta, cofounder of Australian Coffee Culture, which is championing Australian-grown coffee - it accounts for just 1% of the 6 billion cups of coffee we drink annually - in a new range of ready-to-drink pick-me-ups. Shreya takes about moving from corporate life to startup founder and why Australian coffee beans deserve a special place in our cups. 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.

Startup 360 cohost Simon Thomsen is flying solo this week, taking a deep dive into philanthropy with Antonia Ruffell, CEO of StartGiving, and the Australian MD of global tech charity initiative Pledge 1%. Technology is transforming the art of giving - with companies such as Atlassian, Canva and now Airtree cofounder Daniel Petre, founder of StartGiving, leading the way. StartGiving is not-for-profit, funded by Petre, who was inspired by his time working with Bill Gates, to change the culture of giving in the local startup sector. As Antonia explains: if you just look at the top 50 biggest philanthropists in Australia, a few years ago, 1% of that giving came from the tech sector, and now it's 21%. And just looking at the commitments that have been publicly made by those, particularly those sort of wealthier end of the tech founders, we think there's the potential for $20-30 billion dollars of untapped potential giving to come through the pipeline in the next few years." The research commissioned by StartGiving also found at people working in the tech sector were more than twice as likely than others to already be giving to charity, with $19 billion in commitments already made. English-born Antonia has had her own remarkable career in philanthropy and social impact over the past two decades, starting out of the Prince’s Trust - now the King's Trust after its founder, King Charles, took the throne. After moving to Australia, her roles have included CEO of Australian Philanthropic Services, and nowadays, she's a director of UNICEF Australia and chairs The Giving Academy Advisory Committee at the Centre for Social Impact, among several other hats. Last month she joined Pledge 1%, now chaired by Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar, who was instrumental in establishing it a decade earlier, to lead its first team outside of the US. More than 1,800 companies across Australia are part of a global community of 19,000-plus Pledge 1% members in 130 countries. They include the unicorns Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, Culture Amp, and Employment Hero. Their commitment is to give 1% of equity, profit, product, or employee time to projects and causes that help others. Simon and Antonia spend time discussing leadership, kindness, and how to support others to make the world a better place in an inspiring 40 minute conversation. To learn more, check out StartGiving and Pledge 1%.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.

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.

Air conditioning is doesn't sound like a sexy startup problem, but Conry Tech cofounder Sam Ringwaldt knows more than most how profound its impact on us and the planet will be as climate change takes hold. "It's a really vicious irony that the main solution that we're relying on to mitigate the change is also accelerating the change faster than nearly anything else," he explained on the Startup 360 podcast. "I mean, there's 864,000 new air conditioners being installed every day from now until 2050." Forget AI data centres or any other power consumer on the planet, air conditioning, something we don't think about because we mostly don't see it, is the only game in town, he explained. "Air conditioning is actually the sector that's expected to drive most of the growth of demand of electricity," Sam explained. "In fact, 50% of the growth of electricity over the next 30 years is all going to be air conditioning. And we're talking about comfort here. We're not even talking about food chains, pharmaceuticals, or the other applications." Startup 360 this week makes air conditioning sexy again as a major climate tech issue. Sam and his eponymous cofounder, 60-year industry veteran Ron Conry, raised $3 million in venture funding this week for their latest revolution, BullAnt, an air-conditioning system that has completely rethought how cooling is delivered, with the potential to save up to 50% of consumption and power bills for users. And if you think it all sounds sedate, Sam recounts the time their engineers were followed home and robbed and factories in Melbourne and Canada were ram-raided, with files and computers stolen in moments that sound like a spy thriller. Sam and Ron were responsible for the last great innovation in air conditioning 25 years ago - back when the Nokia 3310 was the world's best-selling phone, so HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) is overdue for disruption and if anyone's going to do it, it's these two with Sam's wife, Brenda, alongside as Conry Tech cofounder. Also on the show this week, cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen talk about the latest Cut Through Venture funding report for the September quarter. 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.

Preethi Mohan was in the middle of a corporate life at Google when she had a revelation about life as a startup founder. Her latest and 5th startup, Press Play Ventures, a 12-week accelerator program coaches women on the move from corporate life to startup founder, and in just 18 months, has helped 120 women to launch 104 startups. Press Play Ventures won the GSD (Get Sh*t Done) Award, at the recent Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2025. A prolific ideas person who writes down her thoughts in notebooks explained her lightbulb moment to Startup 360 hosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen this week. “It’s just up to me whether this idea happens or not,” she said. “Even when there was chaos, it's like, it's okay. It's up to me - I can find the direction, I can control change, which is a very empowering idea." That thought, that realisation of freedom, electrified her. So she quit her lucrative Google job in late 2019 - yes, just before Covid - for life as a founder. Now she’s running startup 4, NiceTo, which is all about creating connections in the startup sector to succeed, as well as 5, Press Play, with ambitions to make it a global accelerator. Preethi also talked about human empathy in the age of AI. Having that connection of that technology and human empathy, I think it goes such a long way,” she explained. “If we disconnect from that, we're actually just going to lose a whole part of our beings.” Simon and Majella are continuing their extended discussions on Startup 360 with just one guest this week as they introduce listeners to the winners from the Best in Tech awards to unpack what makes them tick. Also on this week’s show, Majella and Simon also talked about pushback against the upcoming SXSW Sydney event by the startup sector and the week’s biggest raises, including $98 million for Heidi Health. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about 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.

Brace for puns with week as Startup 360 talks to Saara Jamieson, founder of Cool Beans Underwear, about how her revolutionary way of taking care of man bits came about. Saara was a finalist in the Best New Founder category of Startup Daily Best in Tech awards (the winner was Rebecca Keeley from Yarn Speech), and in a special extended episode, they spoke to the Brisbane mother of two about how her own journey to becoming a mother led to Cool Beans. It's an important dive into male reproductive health that had Simon rearranging himself when Saara talked about the impact of sitting for 20 minutes or more and how how the additional heat down below has an impact on male fertility and testosterone levels. While reproductive health and fertility tends to focus on women, Saara has taken a deep dive into what blokes need to do to hold up their half of the conception bargain. And the simple truth is that their "beans" are running hot and that's not good for them. Helping her own husband take care downstairs transformed their attempts to become pregnant and the mother of two is now spreading the message to all who'll listen, building a scientifically-backed deep tech startup in the process. An explainer: Cool Beans undies keep the testes away from the body, as nature intended, so they don't become too warm, which can lead to reduced fertility and testosterone. Her product now has TGA approval and she has plans for FDA approval in the US. Simon and Majella took a deep dive into what's going on, as well as discussing being a solo founder, first mover advantage (is there one?) and the impact building Cool Beans has had on other families and the health of men. And Simon couldn't resist asking what it was like to talk to a room of NRL execs earlier this year about a different kind of ball handling skills... The Startup 360 cohosts also discussed the closure of ANZ's VC project, 1835i, the new home for Fishburners at the Tech Central Innovation Hub, and the wash up from the Best in Tech awards.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. 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!

This week's Startup 360 is a little different as cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell frock up for the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards. That's the key theme of this week's episode and we celebrate one of the winners by replaying our conversation with Climate Salad cofounder Mick Liubinskas. On Thursday night, Mick was named Industry Champion among 14 winners, with Sydney-based workplace AI agent builder Relevance AI winning both the AI Game-changer category and Startup of the Year awards, having raised a $37 million Series B just a few months earlier. Simon and Majella chat about the big news of the week, including Canva's profitability after the design giant filed overdue financial statements with ASIC that revealed a $200 million loss in 2022 - mostly because the company handed out more than $400m worth of shares to its team. And Strongroom AI returned to the news this week amid its legal battle with in investor EVP, after cofounder Max Mito filed his defence against allegations of fraud by the VC. But the fun part of the conversation is Mick, who spoke to Simon and inaugural podcast cohost Kayla Medica earlier this year, telling stories from a career that's spanned startup founder, startup investor, startup accelerator founder and novelist. Mick talks about his journey and how family brought his focus to climate tech and wanting to lead the planet in better shape for the next generation. He also talks about the price of being a founder, and understanding the sacrifices that need to be made. He also reveals his genius for being able to get more drinks, now matter where he is celebrating in the middle of the night - a skill that no doubt made him popular at the Startup Daily Best in Tech awards as the night wore on. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. 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!

Charlie Chan's musical career began at age 3 with a ukulele. It broke. But growing up in the '70s, Charlie was part of the dawn of consumer electronics and computers, experimenting with home electronics kits, and by the '90s as the internet age began, they went online to share their music with the world. Now Charlie's embraced artificial intelligence as a new way to create. Charlie joined Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell as a serial founder and entrepreneur to talk about the role music plays in creativity and innovation. "Innovation and creativity are the same word. We just tend to say, 'oh, innovation is this digital thing that we do with computers and, you know, sciencey-type things," Charlie said. "Things that you can prove things that have a hypothesis But on the other hand, creativity is like. We don't understand creativity. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know from one creative moment to the next. Everything's creative. And I think that there's a bit of a disconnect between these two worlds." It's a fascinating conversation about embracing new technology and how to think about being an innovator. In a first for 10x, Simon and Majella's 10 rapid fire questions, they're join by two guests, the cofounders of CarSavvy, Ashlinn Leatham and Lachlan Dunn. It's a fun conversation spanning customer feedback - Ash would head to bars and pubs in Newtown and approach patrons to get them to download the CarSavvy app - to what makes a good, sustainable cofounder relationship and marketing car maintenance. Simon also digs a deep hole for himself attempting to mansplain what makes a great car for women. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. 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!

This week on Startup 360, we talk to two founders who presented at Cicada x Tech23. Engineer Nick Hazell is back with his second climate tech startup, Algenie, having previously raised $120 million as cofounder of plant-based meat venture v2food. Also on the couch is Ana Belgun from CSIRO-developed digital twin pioneer Terria. They were among 23 founders who shared their startup stories at the annual deep tech expo, in Sydney. Cohost Simon Thomsen was there and keen to share their ideas with the Startup 360 audience. Cohosts Simon and Majella Campbell talked to Nick, an engineer who came from R&D in the food sector, about the lessons be brought to a second go, at tackling the problem of carbon emissions. Algenie is an algae biotech company using groundbreaking technology for algae production at scale at an affordable price. The term describes everything from plankton - a vital part of the marine food chain - to seaweeds, and as well as being a major oxygen producer, it also soaks up CO2. His hope is that Algenie can help replace fossil fuels and last year the startup raised $1.1 million in pre-Seed funding. Nick talks about gardening leave from v2food, going from a startup in a "hot" sector for investors, to having to go back an educate people from scratch; why he's driven to tackle big problems and the nexus between engineering and science and how "innovation of having different voices in the room sort of looking at the same problem from different angles and solving it together." Ana spent nearly a decade at CSIRO's Data61 before cofounding Terria in late 2024. Terria makes it easy to build advanced maps and digital twins, for faster, smarter decision-making, and she talks about their potential for big ideas, including Australia's much talked about high-speed train. Ana also explained by the Terria team banned all meetings on a Wednesday, and why having "a really good product mindset and go to market and brand" is essential to be a successful deep tech startup commercialising research. Simon and Majella also talked about the big news of the week - PsiQuantum's $1.5 billion raise. When Majella asked him what he'd do with $1 billion, Simon said he'd share it among the startups at Tech23. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta and is a SmartCo Media production. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net.

When you talk to Pete Horsley about his career in tech, it doesn’t take long to see that his work is deeply personal. His eldest sister, Jo, was born blind, autistic, and with an intellectual disability. That experience shaped the way he views the world, as he explains to Majella Campbell. As a child, Pete loved showing off Jo’s talents, like her uncanny ability to tell you the day you were born from the date. It taught him an important lesson: value doesn’t always look the way society expects.Pete is the founder of Remarkable, the accelerator backed by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supporting startups building technology for people with disabilities. He’s also a passionate voice for inclusive design, reminding us that technology we take for granted — the keyboard, speech-to-text, touchscreens — were first created to solve accessibility challenges. Pete shares why disability isn’t about “some of us”, it’s about all of us. When we design for diversity, we don’t just build better products, we build a better world. One of the latest startups supported by Remarkable is Hailo in Brisbane, cofounded by Santiago Velasquez. Born blind, he quickly discovered that public transport wasn’t designed for people like him. Buses would pass by because he couldn’t hail them, or he’d be dropped off at the wrong stop late at night with no easy way to get home. Hailo is an app that will transform the way people with disability navigate public transport. A major trial in Victoria is about to get underway and as Simon remarks, the idea has the potential to make public transport easier for everyone. Santi's visual impairment inspired his life as an entrepreneur - the only blind startup CTO in the Southern Hemisphere, he jokes. After failing a uni subject in his electrical engineering degree because the course materials weren’t available in an accessible format, he sent out to invent a solution. It was the spark that lit his first startup and set Santi on the path to solving problems not just for himself, but for millions. His ambitions are boundless, including being the first blind person on the Moon. If anyone can, Santi will. Also this week, Simon and Majella discuss the latest data from Blackbird on investing in female founders, and the end of the Sydney Startup Hub as we know it. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. 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, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.

Episode 28 of Startup 360 is a little different, with cohost Simon away at a company offsite and Majella moving Fishburners out of the Sydney Startup Hub. So we've picked out two of our favourite interviews of the last six months to shine a light on them once again. Irish-Australian teenager Liam Fuller starred on Startup 360 in April, as one of our most watched and listened to episodes. He was 17 at the time, and came to Australia, birthplace of his equally entrepreneurial dad, Shane, for a holiday after being suspended from high school over a viral photo taking a client call sitting in a toilet cubicle. While here, he started cold-calling local VCs to raise for his second startup QuickFind AI, an agentic AI ordering system for retail procurement, and made a three-hour train trip to Sydney for a 20-minute meeting with Square Peg’s Paul Bassat. Liam ended up banking a A$2.15 million pre-Seed round led by Square Peg - not a bad 18th birthday present. The 10x we wanted to share once more was from episode 3 with high-performance coach Veronica Mason. She's a member of the NSW LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council and last year organised Australia’s first Pride Pitch Night for founders from LGBTQIA+ backgrounds. After being outed in high school, Veronica broke her back in several places, aged 23, learnt to walk again, and now focuses on helping others.She's a font of wisdom, from what to look for in a mentor to how your mindset shapes the world. It's a wonderful, inspirational conversation. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. 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, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.

Nicole Gibson is a remarkable founder who thinks deeply about what it means to be human in the world of tech. The CEO of inTruth Technologies, the world’s first emotion bio-tech, is a very special guest on Startup 360 this week, sharing her journey from teenage student struggling with serious health issues and the profound impact one educator had on her life, to how she hopes we can all be better people by coming to understand who we are using tech. She's on a mission to reshape the future of personal well-being, leadership, and human connection, having served as the youngest Commonwealth Commissioner for Mental Health, and also founding Love Out Loud (also writing a book with that title), a movement dedicated to fostering authentic human connection and conscious leadership.Nicole's conversation with cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen is one of the rawest, most authentic and generous discussions Startup 360's seen in 27 episodes as she talks about bridging the gap between AI, emotional intelligence, and human potential. Meanwhile, Simon takes the chance to quiz Majella about her day job as CEO of Fishburners, as it prepares to move out of the Sydney Startup Hub, which is being shut down by the NSW government, and the new direction and vision she has for the Fishburners community of hundreds of startups, as well as the broader ecosystem. Also joining them for 10x, the show's rapid-fire questions, is David "Dutchie" Holland from Employment Hero. The man in charge of talent solutions at the HR tech unicorn has been there since it was a team of 12 back in 2016, which has now grown to more than 1,600 people. Dutchie shares his insights into scaling a startup, and the joy of nicknames. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human.

Startup 360 cohost Majella Campbell is making her own news, with the Fishburners CEO releasing a manifesto on new ways of nurturing early-stage startups. It comes as Fishburners prepares to move out of the Sydney Startup Hub after seven years, as the NSW government shuts it down. This week's guests are Paloma Newton, cofounder of Elita, a pet genetics and stem cell therapy startup; and Aakash Gupta, cofounder of boostrapped remote work team building and wellness startup Hooray Teams. Motivated to by the health issues her own dog, Edgar Allen Paws, faces, she launched Elita (which raised $1.1m, pre-Seed) with her partner-in-life, biomedical engineer and dog coparent Jackson Gritching. Paloma talks about her varied career - from hospitality to deep tech navigation startup Baraja, and cofounding the workplace advice site Grapevine - the leadership challenges of going from manager to founder, and how to get on with your cofounder when you also go home with them at the end of the day. She's a powerhouse of ideas, but as a proud and focused feminist, reveals some telling moments in what she's experienced as a female founder, and how to cope on those days when you "feel like a genuine failure". Meanwhile, Aakash is dealing with one of the great issues of modern workplaces - managing remote teams and keeping everyone inspired.He launched Hooray Teams, which runs virtual team-building events for remote, distributed and hybrid teams two years ago. His global customer base includes one company with people in 23 locations, and Aakash shares his tips on how to get everyone getting along - trivia is popular - and the challenges of dealing with diverse cultures. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta.

Everyone knows the startup-founded-in-a-garage origin story, but Kinde cofounder David Berner can top that. He was in a caravan travelling in outback NSW with his family, with his two cofounders in Sydney, when they built their developer platform, which takes care of "the boring but essential stuff" to help founders move faster. Kinde in a rare-breed, with two technical cofounders, and Dave adventures led him to settle in the hinterland behind Byron Bay to raise his family of three kids, which the startup's team also stretches from Sydney to London. Episode 25 of Startup 360 discusses his love of music, the importance of creativity for founders, and life as a country dad running a high-tech business - he keeps his kids well away from screen addiction, arguing that if his parents can get proficient on an iPhone, there's no need for their grandkids to be early adopters. Cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen also caught up with industry legend Murray Hurps from UTS Startups and the founder of the annual national ecosystem survey Startup Muster. There's a songline between Murray and Majella as the former and current CEOs of Fishburners, and how evolving technology is transforming the role of founder. For a kid who dropped out of school to play around with software, and now runs a thriving university startup community, Murray has some firm views of learning and education, as well as  entrepreneurship as the "exploitation of privilege". Majella asked him for advice on how to be a successful founder and Murray turned to the wisdom of Fishburners cofounder Pete Davidson. "Find someone that shares your circumstances, that has done what you're trying to do, figure out how they did it, and then copy them quickly and do it better," he said. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Happy horse's birthday! The way the cofounders of podcasting community engagement startup Dome met is positively old-school in an era of swiping left and right. Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi met at an International Women's Day event in Sydney, and the mutual love for the pop culture podcast Shameless launched their friendship. Six months later, their idea for Dome became the Australian entry in the global final of the Red Bull Basement startup competition and they were headed to Tokyo. Sophie and Bella are the first duo to sit on the Startup 360 couch and share their stories. Both in their early 20s, they discussed the yin and yang of being cofounders, explained the problems they're looking to solve in the $130 billion podcasting industry, and talked about the influence of family - Sophie's grandfather is a former NSW Premier - and the appeal of being a startup founder (while trying to finish a uni degree). Startup 360's second guest, for 10x, our rapid-fire questions, is Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media, the independent publisher that last week acquired Startup Daily and assets of its publisher, Pinstripe Media. British-born Will, whose wife is Australian and works in tech, has spent his life in media, working on the admin side at prestigious titles such as The Economist and Wall Street Journal, as well as next gen brands such as Buzzfeed. Startup 360 cohost Simon Thomsen couldn't resist asking his new boss about the nexus between tech and media, his advice for Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos as the paper comes under fire from readers and key staff depart the loss-making title, and, perhaps went too far in bringing up the Melbourne Demons after the side's shambolic loss lass weekend. Cohost Majella Campbell wanted to know how Will stays chilled, especially when a billionaire from the Murdoch family is gunning for you.It's a chance to hear more about the future of media from someone on the frontline. Simon and Majella also discuss Gilmour Space's first attempt to launch Vegemite into space on a home-grown rocket, Build Club's massive win with Swedish vibe coding platform Lovable, and the Australian government's YouTube ban for under 16s. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Usually the one doing the reporting, Startup Daily and its parent company Pinstripe Media is in the spotlight this week, having been acquired by SmartCompany’s Private Media. AJ Koch fills in for Simon to share how it came together.  We also keep the celebratory theme going with two phenomenal guests behind some significant raises from the past week.  Chris Wirasinha is the founder of Linkby, the mediatech that just closed a $23M Series B raise. After a successful exit from his first venture, youth media business Pedestrian.tv, Chris shares how different the experience is the second time around. Not only is he at a different stage of life, Linkby is already an international business, having setup already in New York and aggressively growing in the US market.  The conversation with Chris spanned everything from hustle culture to NBA teams to founder fashion.  From founder we move to investor, welcoming Brendan Hill from Ten13 into the hot seat to discuss two of his portfolio companies who were in the news this week. Everlab, a medtech with a fresh $15M raise, and Liam Fuller, the 17 yr-old Irish sensation who had a whirlwind tour of Australia that helped him land $2M seed capital for his startup Source. Brendan’s inner database of startups, raises, and investors in unmatched, and the discussion gives a good insight into how an investor goes about their business, builds community, and stays in the loop.  This week’s episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Kish Modi had a rule with friends and family once he was out of intensive care and began his treatment for leukaemia: no crying when they came to visit. His mum , a 157cm (5' 2") powerhouse, laid down the law to everyone who came to visit Kish in hospital. "She's like, no tears, zero emotion, rational conversation only positive thoughts only. No one's allowed to cry in front of Kish," he recalls of his life and death battle with blood cancer on Startup 360 this week. Kish, now in remission after 18 months of brutal treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, is preparing to launch a new startup, Hey Buddy, with longtime collaborator Stevan Premutico (me&u, Dimmi). Cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen were left in awe of Kish sharing his story. His career moved from management consulting to startups with HelloFresh, me&u and now Hey Buddy, an AI concept for hospitality that's still in stealth mode. Kish talked about what drives him and how he sees the world after facing a life-threatening illness, his passions and love for his partner, Paul, in a moving conversation about founder life and the fight for life. Majella and Simon discuss this week's news, including ASX-listed Scalare Partners acquiring Tank Stream Labs, Elon Musk's Grok going generative Nazi, and Linkby's $23 million Series B raise. Their guest for 10x, the rapid-fire questions, this week is Jack Rathie, cofounder of DDLoop. The AI-based legal due diligence platform helps lawyers make sure all bases are covered when doing a deal and when Jack shared the story of how they pulled up the details for StrongRoom.AI when it imploded, revealing a range of tells that flagged problems, Simon's mind was blown.A science fiction fan, Jack also shared three books he recommends sci-fi fans should read. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Aubrey Blanche has been part of building culture at two great Australian tech companies, Atlassian and Culture Amp. The self-confessed "proudly woke" data nerd, who believes that bringing empathy to the numbers is vital, sat down with Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell to talk about workplace inclusion, how business is dealing with the impact of Trump's war on woke, and her own experiences as a former US citizen who now calls Australia home. It's a fascinating conversation about creating kinder workplaces and how she thinks about DEI - it has a branding problem - and her business Mathpath, a combination of math and empathy. Aubrey had "a front row seat" as Atlassian listed on the Nasdaq and became a force across the Pacific, and the cultural differences. "I learned so much about the deceptive levels of difference between American and Australian business culture. And it was something that really took me by surprise when I first came to Sydney," she said. "One thing to note is that Americans come across as incredibly arrogant to Australians, but it's really important to say to Australians that it's not necessarily that we're all sociopaths, but rather that there is such a level of competition that self promotion is a survival strategy in American business in a way that there's just a different set of norms here." Aubrey believes you need to measure to management and talks about the asking the right questions to get the best out of your teams and how focusing small details can make a big difference for everyone. Simon and Majella also discuss the latest VC funding numbers, which saw women founders receive just $1 in every $200 invested in Australia in the June quarter. On a brighter note, accessible beauty tools startup ByStorm is collaborating with celebrity Celesete Barber's makeup brand Booie, to ensure sisters are doing it for themselves. Joining Simon and Majella for 10x, their 10 rapid-fire questions is founder turned VC investor Ben Chong from Right Click Capital, who talks about why he launched the Founder Institute in Australia, and how asking the hard questions early on reaps bigger rewards for founders and investors down the track. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Black Pearl Group founder Nick Lissette had an idea for a AI-driven sales agent for small business about five months ago. It took 90 days to develop and launch Bebop, the latest product from his New Zealand listed tech company, and within 45 days, it hit $1.2 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Black Pearl's previous innovation, Pearl Diver, took 45 days and within two years hit NZ$10 million. Nick, the company's CEO (and briefly CTO), is Startup 360's first international guest, joining cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell from Aotearoa to talk about everything from AI to investing, rugby, music and his belief in teamwork. He describes Bebop as like ChatGPT, but built for sales and revenue growth. The Black Pearl boss, who could have been a professional musician had he not blown his audition in the UK studios of Sir George Martin (of The Beatles fame), is funny, fast-paced, a wild card, focused, stubborn, and jack of all trades. It's a cracking conversation filled with plenty of great insights on what it takes to run a listed company from WellingtonHe also revealed their currently exploring a dual listing in Australia, for the 13-year-old tech business, and how hard it was to find the funding to back Black Pearl Group (NZX:BPG), heading to the US and refusing to come home until he had the cash. Black Pearl shares jumped 30% on the NZ exchange this week after he announced the success of Bebop and the potential the company sees in artificial intelligence products. In other news, Simon and Majella talked about philanthropy by tech founders, and how Australian founders are among the world's best when it comes to turning small amounts of VC funding into valuable companies.Also joining them for 10x, the rapid fire questions (but they lost count so it could be more) is Spanish-born design guru Miguel Anton from Xeito Studios, who explained how hard it is to make things look simple, why great design matters, and how to think about luxury in a conversation that spans his time working for billionaire Bernard Arnault at LVMH, to the genius of Apple and Labubus. 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! This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Ammonia is the second most-produced chemical on the planet and without it, we wouldn't be able to feed the world. But making it has been energy intense - until an accidental scientific discovery at the University of Newcastle created the potential for a more environmentally friendly way to produce it. That discovery is a new startup, Facet Amtech, and cofounder James Bradley joined Startup 360 this week to explain how it works and talk about life as a second-time deep tech founder Ammonia is normally produced a high temperatures under high pressures, but when a materials science was sawing samples in half to examine them, he noticed a smell. It was ammonia, created at room temperature just with water and ambient air. Scaling up that discovery is the goal of Facet Amtech, which recently completed CSIRO's annual ON accelerator program, which helps scientists turn research into commercial ideas. Facet Amtech is also one of 23 startups chosen for Tech 23, the annul deep tech showcase by Cicada Innovations. Bradley, who's been entrepreneur-in-residence at Newcastle Uni's startup hub, I2N, previously founded a climate tech hub he was forced to close because of Covid-induced supply chain problems and talked about the lessons from that and getting back in the saddle with a new idea, as well as a family with three kids. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell also talked about Kiwi accomodation startup Kiki's move to London after being forced to shut down in New York, and fellow Aotearoa agtech scaleup Halter's $155 million Series D, and the NSW budget for startups, with Simon arguing the $80 million worth of announcements isn't nearly enough. Also joining us for 10x, the rapid fire questions, is Tennille Eyre, head of CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program, to talk about the importance of science and what hanging out with super smart people as they develop ideas that can transform the world is really like. 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! This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Listen to your gut and trust it, says Bree Kirkham from F5 Collective, a venture firm backing women-led startups. Kirkham, who worked for pioneering tech brands including ClassPass, Uber and Airbnb, had plenty to say about women in tech on episode 18 of Startup 360 this week. Cohost Simon Thomsen asked the mother of two what advice she'd give to classroom of young girls. "I think a lot of girls and a lot of women question themselves all day, every day and question their path and question their role in society and question what they should do based on the mark they got or their parents expectations or just what society is throwing at them," she said. "And I think my biggest thing is trust your gut, because I do think if you follow your passion and you follow what you're good at, then a success will naturally flow your way. I genuinely think that. The second thing I would say is that there's no wrong turn... I encourage girls and women to not put that pressure on themselves that they have to get every step right and to know that there isn't a wrong turn and you can always pivot and move into something else and actually take value from what you learned in a previous step." It was a spirited conversation about women founders and what F5 Collective has learnt from studying their success and how it falls outside traditional VC models. Looking at the data around why women aren't receiving funding led them to write A Theory of Change, their thesis on backing women. Simon and Majella discussed the big news of the week, including Canva's acquisition of Magic Brief, Sally-Ann Williams stepping away from Cicada Innovations after six years at the helm, and the latest twists in turns in Blackbird-backed short-term rental startup Kiki, which is shuttering in New York for a second time. Their 10x guest this week is Sam Garven from Hello Canopy, a workplace reporting app that allows employees to raise issues in a way they can trust, as well as giving employers the ability to see issues and trends and respond. The former environmental scientist was also a cofounder of Grapevine, the workplace harassment advice site launched last year. The conversation spanned everything from office romances to red flags in the workplace and setting culture in startups, as what gives Sam the shits about dealing with HR. Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

ETF - exchange traded funds - have become a popular investment since OG fintech entrepreneur Graham Tuckwell pioneered the sector in Australia more than 20 years ago. The local market grew by nearly 40% last year to around $250 billion, but a decade has passed since a new player appeared on the seen bearing a familiar name. David Tuckwell is following in his father's footsteps with ETF Shares, which launched this month after taking part in the Macquarie University Incubator program. The fintech is offering lower fees and access to US markets. Tuckwell says the sector will be worth more than $20 trillion within 20 years. He sat down with Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell to explain ETFs - Simon compared them to buying a box of groceries - and what he learnt from his philanthropist dad as he follows his father's trade. They discussed parenting, journalism - David worked in the sector before getting a real job - life lessons, the transformative opportunity of going to university, philanthropy and the bank of Mum and Dad backing your startup. "There's those old three Fs about when you start a business, friends, family and fools being the ones that first back you," David said. "We're no different in that regard. We've got a major family member, hopefully he's not a fool in my dad." Simon quipped that Graham Tuckwell's financial success - he runs a VC firm out of London and donated $100 million to his alma mater, ANU in Canberra, for student scholarships - suggests not.David also talked about how he wants his kids to grow up."I also want them to be strong and able to face the world because family is obviously loving and nurturing," he said."But when you're out there facing the market - I think startup founders understand this almost better than anyone - in fact, the real world can be a bit of a cold, hard place." Their second guest for 10x, the rapid-fire questions is 2nd time founder Peter Cole, from legal tech startup CourtAid.ai. He was inspired to launch the law research platform because of a legal dispute involving his first startup, Gathera, which ended up wasting four months of his time. It launched 12 months ago and now has 14,000 users in Australia, New Zealand and UK markets. Peter talked about the potential of AI and how it gives startups the ability to compete with the biggest tech companies in the world. "When you're talking about these AI businesses, everyone, including the big boys, are using the same models like they're all using OpenAI," he said. "No one has access to 300,000 GPUs to train a whole new model, except for the big end of town, which means it ends up becoming an even playing field in that sense, where suddenly a small company like myself have access to the same resources these big enterprise players have, which means we can build products just as good as the big enterprise players. So I think there's going to be a huge shift in startups coming through and competing with the enterprise players." This episode of Startup 360 is supported by ⁠Vanta⁠, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Just as Techstars Sydney MD Christie Jenkins was about to go hiking in Patagonia, taking her offline for 10 days, she got a call from Sir Richard Branson's Caribbean retreat, Necker Island. They wanted the acclaimed athlete to speak there. It was "a pinch me moment to be on stage talking about investing in women's sport" and Branson is in the front row taking notes while she was speaking. She hung out with the entrepreneur for the rest of the week and found out just how competitive he is, as Christie recounts on Startup 360 this week.Having risen to the top of three sports - trampolining, CrossFit, and beach volleyball - Jenkins went to cut her chops on investing at Blackbird, before going on to help build Athletic Ventures. She remains passionate about sport and the lessons it can bring to being a successful founder, which is one of the reasons why she returned from the US to run Techstars, which closes applications for its next cohort of 12 early-stage startups on June 11. Christie explained to cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen that standards are more important than the goals you set yourself. "We set goals and they're aspirational and that's lovely and they're exciting and they give us that juice of motivation at the beginning. But when it's 4am and your alarm goes off and 2 degrees outside, you don't feel like going to the gym, standards are much more powerful," she said. "Standards are the minimum level that we would tolerate." Christie talked about her passion for supporting early stage founders to succeed, and shared her tips on everything presenting successfully to taking on new challenges. Simon and Majella also talked about a Kiwi report on how much founders are paid, gathered from anonymous responses, for the New Zealand Founder Pay Report 2025. Their guest for 10x, the rapid-fire questions, this week is Justin Wastnage, founder of Vloggi, although they spent several minutes talking about his remarkable career, including trans fats in Silicon Valley, being a aviation reporter accidentally breaking things on the private jets of famous people and coining the term vlogger 20 years ago.