E15 - Karen Lawson, Slingshot

Proud Canberran and past North Carolina coleslaw wrestling competitor, Olympia Yarger is an incredibly resilient, dedicated, inspiring and super hands-on Founder & CEO of Goterra, a waste management technology company that uses autonomous robotic systems to process food waste using insects. The company enables a circular economy by creating agricultural commodities from the waste stream. 

Goterra is paving the way for a circular economy by transforming waste into agricultural commodities, all while significantly reducing truck movement and processing costs. Learn about the remarkable environmental impact of Goterra's technology, which eliminates noxious gasses and slashes emissions by an impressive 97%.

Having spoken to her on the podcast 3 years ago, it was our pleasure to touch base with Olympia again on her fascinating journey from sheep farmer to maggot farmer, the incredible growth Goterra has had over the past 3 years while being incredibly efficient with the capital they have raised (just $20M since 2019) all with a laser focus on Goterra's mission to redefine waste management for a more sustainable future. 

On the topic of mental health, Olympia has been working from home more frequently to limit distractions and, after a tough year personally in 2023, has made a commitment to ride her horse at least 5 times a week. As part of Innovation Bay’s Summit community, Olympia has had some of her most meaningful experiences at Summit events. Though it can be difficult to get to the events amongst the day to day commitments of running the business, each time she’s gone she mentions it refills the bucket and gains perspective from other founders doing the same thing.  

Olympia and Ian also spend some time unravelling the State of Australian Startup Funding report, particularly around the pressing issues of gender inequality and diversity in the ecosystem that the report reveals. Olmypia says, “It’s disgusting and we should be ashamed.” She calls out that as an industry we shouldn’t be using any female founder as an example because the number of female founders receiving funding is still far too low and this needs to change. With deeptech, an even more polarising sector of the industry, Olympia adds: “The sheer limited number of women “making it” are an anomaly, not an attribute and we’ve got to change something.”

Quickfire Round: 

Book: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Podcast: Agtech So What 

News Source: Al-Jazeera

Productivity Tool: Notion 

CEO: Tom Loeffler or Keaton Okkonen 

App: Instagram 

TV Show: Yellowstone, Vikings 

TEDTalk Topic: What building climate tech means 

Connect with Olympia Yarger and visit https://goterra.au/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest for episode 172 is Tom Amos, CEO and Co-Founder of Sidekicker - a platform that matches thousands of businesses to pre-qualified temporary staff. 

During this chat, Tom reflects on Sidekicker's journey from the genesis of the idea as sparked by 'The 4-Hour Workweek', through to the milestone of turning over a million dollars in a month. Tom's journey is not just about business but also about building a culture where caring for each other is at the core. 

Sidekicker has been backed with $40million in funding, the initial amount of $100,000 primarily from Seek Investments. They have not only disrupted the market but have also become a vital player in the space. Sidekicker work with around 2,000 customers per year, ranging from small catering companies to large organisations like Australia Post. 

From the nuts and bolts of Sidekicker to the broader landscape of business and innovation, Tom offers valuable insights into: 

• the future of work
• the role of AI - sharing how Sidekicker innovatively uses AI for data automation, matching engines, and award compliance
• the potential challenges the economy may face in the next 24 months

Quickfire Round: 

Book: 'The Year of the Locust'

Podcast: 'No Laying Up', 'Acquired' 

News Source: Twitter

Productivity Tool: ChatGPT

Favorite CEO: Elon Musk

App: Uber

TV shows: ‘Slow Horses’, ‘Boys Swallows Universe’

TEDTalk Topic: Golf OR How to kick a standard career away and begin a startup without technical experience

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is James Bowe, the Co-Founder of OwnHome alongside Tim Harley. With shelter as a fundamental human need, OwnHome aims to transform access to homeownership in Australia, allowing aspirational homeowners to enter the property market without a 20% deposit, helping them get there for just 2% upfront. 

With enviable and impressive resumes and backgrounds across consulting and consumer tech with the likes of Bain & Company, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Macquarie, Wise Ltd, and Herbert Smith Freehills between them, James and Tim were driven to start OwnHome after reflecting on some of the biggest challenges they personally face (financial security being at the top of the pile) and how they want to spend the brief period of time they have left on this planet. 

After participating in Commonwealth Bank’s accelerator program from overseas, working their day jobs during UK day time and the accelerator program from 10pm - 4am, they finished in the top spot for the accelerator and received $150,000 funding. Now armed with little to no excuses to jump into OwnHome full time, the pair returned to Australia, and raised their seed round while in hotel quarantine in Sydney. Own Home has since received backing from Entrez, Global Founders Capital, Square Peg, and Commonwealth Bank's X15 Ventures and recently raised $31 million in their series A round. 

OwnHome combines technology and human services for a seamless experience. Through OwnHome, aspiring homeowners can wave goodbye to renting forever and forgo intergenerational support as the only avenue to owning a home. Their offer allows those with just 2% deposit on the home value access to a licensed buyer’s agent, split loan structures, choice of home loan and comprehensive support through the process. Over the past two and a half years, they have received well over 20,000 applications and supported 50 families in becoming homeowners. Across the next 12 months, OwnHome aspired to support $500 million of property purchases in the next 12 months. 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Amp It Up!, Frank Slootman & Black Belt, Joseph Healy
Podcast: All-In
Newsource: The Economist, Twitter
App: Twitter
Productivity Tool: Siri
CEO: Jeff Bezos
TV Show: Succession
TEDTalk Topic: Solving the challenges of housing affordability in Australia  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Human beings have an innate need to belong to a group or tribe. Large parts of our brain are dedicated to engaging and interacting with others. Belonging triggers the release of chemicals in our brain that promote trust, empathy, and social bonding. Building belonging is essential in a fractured world and requires understanding and addressing our default setting.

During this very special episode recorded during the Innovation Bay panel at SXSW Sydney's inaugural event in October 2023, an all star panel featuring Phil Morle (Main Sequence Ventures), Jenny Li (Scarlare Partners), Joel Connelly (Blackbird), and Skye Riggs (Ripple Opportunities) join moderator and guest Open The Pod Bay Doors host, Cameron Webb (Innovation Bay) to share insights on how to build belonging at speed and scale. They share strategies for welcoming new members and creating meaningful connections that keep people engaged over the long term.

This episode is proudly brought to you by propodcast.com.au 

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Our guest this week is Dan Sturrock, Investment Director at Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). With a decade of experience at ARENA, Dan has witnessed the organisation's remarkable evolution and growth. As an ARENA board observer representative, he provides invaluable insights into the exciting work of propelling startups towards solving colossal challenges - companies like Sundrive and RayGen, who are making huge strides in the solar energy sector.

ARENA's mandate is to accelerate decarbonisation with a focus on renewable energy. By providing grant funding for groundbreaking projects in renewable energy, energy storage, and electric vehicles, they are taking the battle against climate change to a whole new level. The monumental task of decarbonisation requires an all-encompassing approach across various sectors, and both the government and corporate giants are stepping up to the plate. ARENA's core focus is reducing risks and igniting innovation in renewable energy generation.

The fourth installment of the Innovation Bay & ARENA Renewables Startup Showcase for 2023 happens next week on Wednesday 1 November at Melbourne’s Cargo Hall. This event brings together 100+ of the country's leading angel investor, VC, PE and CVC community. Get ready to be blown away by four of the most remarkable founder pitches from the renewables, cleantech, and climatetech sectors. It's not just an event; it's a spark for networking and an education in the latest developments in the renewable startup universe. This year's stars include Renewable Metals, Hysata, Sicona, and Novalith. 

Tickets are limited and available now https://innovationbay.com/event/arena-november/ 

Quickfire Round: 

• Book: Love Stories, Trent Dalton
• Podcast: Positive Climate
• News Source: New York Times 
• Productivity Tool: turning off notifications and avoiding distractions
• Favourite CEO: Allan Moss, Nick Moore
• Favourite App: Spotify 
• TV Show: Alone Australia
• TEDTalk Topic: Alternative approaches to creativity in children and challenging some of the accepted paradigms around education

Connect with Dan Sturrock via LinkedIn or email.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cath Rogers is a Partner at Antler, a global fund with 900 portfolio companies, have dealt with 5,600 founders, with $4 billion in total portfolio value, working across 27 locations. Cath’s career trajectory showcases an interesting and diverse path into the venture capital industry. 

Starting in a Goldman Sachs venture-backed startup in London in the very early 2000’s during the original dot-com boom, bubble and bust. She later worked in investment banking and strategy consulting before moving into venture capital. Cath spent three years in Abu Dhabi, working in a sovereign wealth fund focused on global cleantech VC - her foray into VC investing. 

Upon returning to Australia in 2011/2012, Cath had a stint in Private Equity. After leaving to start her own business, she crossed paths with Daniel Petre and was offered to join him at a fund he was starting up - Airtree. Here she gained valuable mentorship and firsthand experience in early-stage VC before taking a period of time to raise her children - after which she joined Antler, the world’s day zero fund. Antler’s approach to due diligence is unique whereby they observe founders over a 12-week period. The VC firm aims to institutionalise early-stage venture capital and provide founders with a near-term path to capital.

Among so much more, Ian and Cath discuss, how the path to becoming a VC is now incredibly diverse, how the fundraising environment for VC funds has become more challenging, how investors are more cautious and have higher expectations in terms of risk appetite and exits, that quality funds and founders can still find capital, and how VC funds offer attractive returns compared to traditional investments.

Quickfire: 

Book: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Podcast: Pivot - Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway, Serial 

News Source: Axios, Capital Brief 

App: Blinkist

Productivity App: Tactic, Calendly, Motion, Asana 

Favourite CEO: Warren Buffett, Kate Morris (Adore Beauty) 

TV Show: The Bureau (SBS) 

TEDTalk Topic: What children learn at school and how that positions them for creativity, innovation and adaptation to the world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s podcast episode features our special guest harrison.ai, CEO and Co-Founder, Aengus Tran.

harrison.ai started with the problem statement of healthcare capacity. According to Aengus, one of the biggest problems of our time is how to look after such a huge population with increased health needs. harrison.ai is looking to scale the global capacity of healthcare by building automation with AI systems and providing clinicians with superpowers of scale. Aengus says, "of all the things being done in in healthcare, scale will be the solution of quality healthcare globally."

After moving to Australia from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Aengus was one of very few Vietnamese students at an English-speaking Australian school so quite quickly had to learn the English language. After school Aengus went on to study medicine at university after advice from none other than Paul Ramsay of Ramsay Healthcare - a company that has gone on to invest in harrison.ai.

While working through his medical degree, Aengus realised how much in terms of scale was missing from medicine. During his final years of training, Aengus was involved in a research project building technology along with Vertex Health to select human embryo; opening his eyes to the capabilities of AI systems and how they can scale.

After starting out in Australia and New Zealand, harrison.ai’s radiology arm is regulated with FDA clearance in 38 countries with 1 million live touches and one in four radiologists using their technology in Australia alone. Their north star is to touch 1 million lives per day with their technology. harrison.ai has gone on to raise $US120M in series A and series B with investments from Skip Capital, Blackbird, Horizon Ventures and specialist, strategic, corporate investors Sonic Healthcare and Ramsay Healthcare.

Quickfire Round:

Book: Prediction Machines, The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb

Podcast: Lex Fridman on YouTube

News Source: Medium, mainstream news

App: VS Code, Rise

Productivity Tool: very basic reminders app and keeping notes, Slack

Favourite CEO: Mark Zuckerberg

TV Show: House

TEDTalk Topic: The health equality and impact that is possible through the scalability of AI

harrison.ai are continuously hiring in their AI teams. If you'd like to learn more or are you're curious about the tool, reach out to harrison.ai. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is Max Cunningham, CEO of FCX. FCX is Australia’s only end-to-end registry, capital raising and trading platform for private companies whose aim is to make owning and transacting private company shares simpler. 

Max is an industry veteran. From his early career experiences to the development of a groundbreaking technology platform, Max's story is one of passion, expertise, and innovation. His LinkedIn profile is short, though his tenures have been long held - spending approximately 10 years each at Macquarie, Goldman Sachs, and the ASX before developing and launching FCX. 

Max takes us on a journey through the realms of public and private markets, shedding light on the fundamental differences and the rapid growth of private markets in Australia. He explains how FCX was born out of the need for simplifying ownership of private company shares and the revolutionary concept of regularly trading private company shares.

With a firm belief in the FCX ecosystem, Max outlines the platform's unique features and its ability to provide instant atomic settlement, granting companies immediate access to capital. He delves into FCX's vision of creating a secondary market for privately listed tech companies, offering liquidity to staff, early investors, and shareholders.

Plus so much more… 

Quickfire Round 

Book: Arafat: The Biography, by Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker

Podcast: Unholy: Two Jews on the News

News Source: New York Times

App: RunKeeper

Productivity Tool: Empiraa

CEO: Yuval Rooz, Digital Asset 

TV Show: Succession

TEDTalk Topic: Tokenisation of capital markets

Check out FCX https://fcx.com.au/ 

And get in touch with max@fcx.com.au or josh@fcx.com.au to find out more. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s special guest is Silvija Martincevic, CEO & Board Director of Deputy. Silvija is a passionate advocate for purpose-driven companies and brings a wealth of experience to Deputy from her background in socially responsible investing and previous roles at Groupon.

Deputy, founded over a decade ago, is a leading company specialising in smart scheduling and workforce management. Their software solution is used by over 1.3 million shift workers in more than 100 countries, empowering 330,000 businesses with tools for compliance and communication.

Silvija's journey from Croatia to the United States, combined with her experience in socially responsible investing, has shaped her leadership approach. She aims to take Deputy to new heights by creating a more flexible and transparent workplace for hourly workers.

Deputy's mission is to become a global platform for hourly workers, providing technology solutions to increase productivity and engagement. Despite the significant number of hourly workers in the world, there is a lack of tailored technology tools for them. Deputy is addressing this gap, currently serving over 1.5 million hourly workers and 330,000 workplaces.

Silvija's insights on responsible scaling, company culture, and bridging the gap between employers and hourly workers are valuable for understanding Deputy's approach. Their focus on diversity and exploration of AI to improve workforce management and customer support are also noteworthy.

Quickfire Round:

• Book: Leading Lightly by Jody Michael
• Podcast: Pivot with tech journalist Kara Swisher and NYU Professor Scott Galloway
• News Source: Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Fortune, CNN, Buzzfeed, The Australian 
• App: Spotify 
• CEO: Alison Deans
• Productivity Tool: WhatsApp 
• TV Show: Working: What We Do All Day (Barack Obama) 
• TEDTalk Topic: Resilience and grit  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s very special episode was recorded at our recent full community event. The Globe, hosted by Macquarie, brought together our four communities of early and later stage founders and CEOs, VCs and angel investors, to connect, learn, discuss and shape the future of our industry.

Ian sat down with five of our incredible members for this all star line up featuring:

• Yash Varma, Founder & Partner, Empress Capital (Aurora & Horizon member)
• Phil Morle, Partner, Main Sequence (Aurora member)
• Georgia Barkell, Managing Partner, Sprint Ventures (Aurora member)
• Lisa Vincent, CEO & Founder, HowToo (Summit member)
• Alon Greenspan, Partner, Mind Ventures (Aurora member)
• Cameron Webb, SVP of Member Experience and Managing Partner, Innovation Bay (Innovation Bay team)

With the taste of celebratory champagne at our cocktail party on their lips, Ian and our members discuss (among plenty more):

• Their own background, progressions and evolution in the ecosystem
• Some of the recent challenges they’ve faced
• Their pulse on the current market and focuses in their respective roles
• Their experiences and takeaways from this year’s incredible The Globe event
• The benefits and why being a part of the Innovation Bay community is awesome

For more information on our events, or to apply for membership, visit innovationbay.com 

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