Spark Club Podcast

Today we're with Murray Hogarth from Wattwatchers sharing his experience competing in two European Energy Tech competitions, Free Electrons in Lisbon and Start up Energy Transition in Berlin. Murray talks openly about the Wattwatchers start up journey sharing lesson learned along the way.  Interestingly, returns from Europe with a new found appreciation for Australian networks as their preparedness to engage with the digital disruption seems far better than their European counterparts. We're in front of a live audience, returning to our original home base at Polyglot in Glebe. Enjoy the podcast..

Jonathan Englert was inspired by the founders journey and how critical communications is in shaping the start-up destiny. The lines between marketing and communications can be blurred which is why I invited Jonathan Englert onto the podcast to discuss communications and the book he co-authored, No Dead Monkeys. Jonathan helps draw the lines between marketing and communications and shares some of his insights from his book and how he believes communications shapes your destiny. Jonathan is generously offering 10 No Dead Monkeys books to our Spark Club community, listen to the podcast for details.

ClimateKIC are running the ClimateLaunchPad program, deadline is the end of May 2018.  In this short podcast Chris Lee introduces the program, how Australia fits into the global context and provides the detail on the application and the process. The competition is open to any Australian resident – being a start-up, SME, researcher, student, public organisation, consultant or anyone else with an innovative green idea, whether it’s fully fledged or sketched on the back of a coaster. Participants must have: not yet started a business or started it less than one year ago no substantial revenue attracted less than € 200,000 in total funding (this includes research grants, government loan, angel or VC investment etc, but excludes your PhD salary for instance) not yet sold products, solutions or prototypes on commercial terms.

Our Sales and Marketing podcast brings two leading lights to the stage for our Fireside Chat in March 2018. Both speakers draw on deep experience during the tech boom in Silicon Valley and are applying lessons learned here in Australia. Spark Club Members and Elders will learn key Sales and Marketing insights from Joanna and Sidney. More importantly we will learn and how the Silicon Valley ecosystem created billion dollar companies as our boom time in energy tech kicks off.

Blockchain is coming to energy at hyper speed. In the podcast Grant McDowell interviews Matt Hale as he unpacks the fundamentals of blockchain specific to energy. The podcast is a great entry point for blockchain in energy, both here in Australia and in other global energy markets.

Danny Kennedy is Managing Director at California Clean Energy Fund and is at the centre of energy disruption.  Grant McDowell has 'hallway' discussion with Danny about the clean tech startup scene in the US and Australia and how they compare.

In our third Fireside Chat Grant McDowell interviews Ulric Ferner.  Ulric shares his own journey from entrepreneur at MIT in Boston to VC with Right Click Capital here in Sydney.  Ulric sees energy tech start-ups from a unique vantage point and shares key insights for clean tech entrepreneurs.

In the second episode of the Spark Club podcast series, Spark Club co-founder Grant McDowell interviews Paul Fox, investor, strategist, business builder, technologist. Paul offers great insight through his time spent in Silicon Valley and then back here in Australia working at AGL New Energy.  Paul shares invaluable lessons learned along the way and a rare glimpse into how the big players see the market.

In the first episode of the Spark Club podcast series, Spark Club co-founder Grant McDowell interviews CEO of Solar Analytics, Stefan Jarnason. Grant asks the questions that every entrepreneur ponders, giving Stefan an opportunity to share his knowledge in navigating the difficulties in establishing a startup, and overcoming the common challenges faced by entrepreneurs in this space. He also discusses the complexity of financial planning and stable business development.