Open the Pod Bay Doors

Dan Phillips has spent most of his career building up Macquarie Capital's Venture Capital Group. Somewhat of a well-kept secret in the Australian startup ecosystem, in the past 25 years the Venture Capital Group has done 36 deals and deployed almost $600 million dollars of capital into some fantastic companies. The group has 11 companies currently in the portfolio.In this pod interview, Ian and Dan discuss:-The implications of COVID for Australian startups-Some success stories from the past 25 years-How their hands-on investing model works-The sectors and geographies the group focuses on-The strategies that lead to a 90%+ success rate with investmentsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of the OTPBD News Special. It’s our fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this week's panel:VC: Mike Dovey, Firemark VenturesFounder: Justin Webb, AgriWebbEcosystem: Imogen Baxter, Square Peg CapitalTopics we discuss:We discuss the flurry of new investments these past few weeks including; Doctor Anywhere, Judo Bank Qwilr, The Yield, and Verteva. We also cover Nura's long awaited Loops hitting the market, Atlassian acquisition of Halp, the UK's first week of zero coal power, and Twitter's announcement that employees can work from home forever.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Liew was named by the Sydney Morning Herald as Silicon Valley’s “Most powerful Aussie”. One look at his track record, and it's no surprise why. Hailing from Perth, Jeremy is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. After spending the ‘90s and early 2000s working for web pioneers such as Netscape, AOL, CitySearch, and Interactive Corp, Jeremy joined Lightspeed in 2006 to help the firm, which traditionally was B2B-focused, expand to the consumer. He was the first VC to invest in Snapchat and has recently invested in direct-to-consumer shoe startup Rothy's, consumer goods maker The Honest Company and online lending platform Affirm.In this episode Jeremy...-Talks us through how his career led him to VC in Silicon Valley-Tells the story behind investing in Snap-Discusses best practices for choosing board members-Explains his criteria for investing in consumer tech-Shares tips for founders looking for the right venture partner matchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the third episode of the OTPBD News Special. It’s a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this week's panel:VC: Daniel Petre, AirTree VenturesFounder: Antony Ceravolo, SineEcosystem: Rachael Neumann, AWSTopics we discuss:Will superannuation funds continue to back Aussies VCs, the launch of the Governments COVIDSafe app and do we trust them with our data, how Elon Musk wiped $14bn of Tesla's stock with one tweet, and why founders like Jeff Bezos and RedBubble's Martin Hoskings stepping back in to take the reins in a crisis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaime Bott is a partner at Sequoia Capital, managing their Talent Advisory function. She leads a talent team of 14 who help Sequoia's portfolio companies hire amazing talent, assemble a recruiting function, and build a board. Since Jaime started at Sequoia in 2010, talent evolved into an essential function for VC firms. 10 years ago there were less than 5 people in the Bay Area working for venture firms in a talent function; now there are at least 280 venture talent partners around the world.In this episode, Jaime shares her expansive startup talent expertise, touching on important topics like:How to create and run functional boardsDriving diversity with recruitmentCommon recruitment mistakesHow to build an in-house recruitment functionTools, systems, and software for working in talentSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we speak with Michael Pryor, co-founder, CEO and current Head of Product for Trello at Atlassian. Trello was acquired by Atlassian in 2017 for $425M and stands as Atlassian's largest-ever acquisition. Trello is one of many products developed by Fog Creek Software, a company Michael co-founded with Joel Spolsky back in 2000. Michael's co-founder pitched Trello at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2007 with the lofty goal of attracting 100 million users. Now, 13 years later, over 50 million people are signed up for Trello and that goal doesn't seem so lofty anymore.In addition to the birth and growth of Trello, this episode also focuses on how to effectively work remotely. Two thirds of Trello's workforce is remote, so Michael shares his tested strategies for how to build, manage, and grow a remote workforce.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to episode two of the OTPBD News Special. It’s a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Meet this weeks panel:VC: Paul Naphtali, RampersandFounder: Rob Loewenthal, WhooshkaaEcosystem: Yolanda Redrup, AFRTopics we discuss:VC investment activity since Covid-19 hit, including latest Aussie startups to raise capital, Google and Apple join forces to fight coronavirus, the decline in podcasting listens and ad spending, and is this the end of WeWork and the SoftBank vision fund?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Carter is one of Australia's leading energy experts; he is currently Senior Vice President of Energy Tech and Solutions at Macquarie in Australia. He joined Macquarie from Tesla, where he managed APAC business development for the Tesla energy software suite. Nick has a long career in the energy space and has also worked with electric vehicles at AGL Energy, environmental policy and strategy at Toyota, and engineering at General Motors.In this conversation with Nick, we talk about:-What's happening in energy markets-Major emerging trends in the energy sector-Virtual power plants-The role that startups and tech like AI will play in the future of energyIf you're a startup doing exciting things with alternative energy, apply to present at our upcoming Renewable Energy Founder Dinner with ARENA: http://bit.ly/RenewablesDinner.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to our first Innovation Bay News Special. It's a fortnightly podcast looking at the stories behind the headlines of the news that matters for the Australian and Kiwi startup ecosystem.Alister Coleman (Tempus Partners), Emma Lo Russo (Digivizer), Fleur Brown (TechSydney, Launch Group)Meet the Panel: Topics discussed include how are startups faring in these tough times, what is government doing to support the ecosystem, what are some companies (or trends) that are doing well. Plus a look at some of the news that you may have missed.We hope you enjoy it. Any feedback or suggestions please do let us know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke Anear, founder and CEO of SafetyCulture, discusses various aspects of scaling up a business, including his shifting responsibilities as CEO, maintaining culture throughout growth, building a board, establishing a recruitment function, the importance of having a coach, and making customer engagement a central focus. They also talk about adapting to remote work during the pandemic, addressing hiring mistakes, the importance of talent acquisition, tour of duties in employment contracts, connecting with customers through cultural identity, finding the balance between intuition and data in product development, and advice for founders and the importance of board members.