Open the Pod Bay Doors

Join venture capital heavyweights Paul Bassat, Co-founder of Square Peg Capital; Craig Blair, Co-founder of Airtree Ventures; and Kara Frederick, Partner at Reinventure, as they dive into Australia's evolving VC landscape. They discuss the passion-driven approach to entrepreneurship, emerging hot investment sectors like AI, and the transformed startup funding dynamics. The panel emphasizes the importance of building authentic relationships and the need for diversity in investment teams, all while navigating opportunities and challenges in the tech space.

Terry Gold is the Managing Directors of Techstars in Adelaide. I don't think he would mind being described as a "veteran" of this industry, having founded, run, sold, mentored many many companies over his "several" years in the sector.Terry was an awesome interview subject. Smart, caring, passionate. We discussed his background in the US, how he ended up as a core member of the early Boulder, Colorado tech community and how he eventually landed up in this amazing job in the up-and-coming tech colossus of Adelaide. Who is in the program, how it's structured, and what he expects from it. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday 13 July 2017, Jobs NSW announced the creation of the "Sydney Startup Hub", a new, 17,000 sq m space dedicated to housing, and nurturing, much of Sydney's startup community. Anchor tenants of Fishburners, Tankstream, Stone & Chalk and The Studio. Scheduled to open later in 2017. David Thodey is the Chairman of Jobs NSW and managed to squeeze in this special episode of the podcast straight after the announcement. David was CEO at Telstra from 2009 to 2015. Under his tenure Telstra's market cap doubled and, according to Crikey, "not only restored its tattered reputation but improved it."He is currently Chair of CSIRO and JobsNSW, and has a wealth of experience as a technology industry executive.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Slightly different episode format this week. This was recorded at an Innovation Bay event in Sydney, so we had the fun of recording at a live event in front of a studio audience. Please forgive the audio challenges around the Q&A section. Apart from a mis-joke about Paul growing up in Liverpool (he didn't, but I actually thought he was serious when he said he did!) this is a great and fascinating chat with Paul.Paul has over a decade experience in investment, venture capital and startups. He started at Goldman Sachs before becoming the Investment Manager for the $400m Tulla Family Office. For the past 2.5 years, Paul has been a Venture Partner at AirTree Ventures, a $250M Venture Fund.Today, he's building Spaceship, a tech-focused Super Fund offering a diversified portfolio with tech at its core, built for those with long investment horizons. Spaceship is looking to completely change the future of Superannuation for young Australians.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Based in Western Sydney, Ed Husic was elected to the House of Representatives as the Federal Member for Chifley in 2010. Currently in his third term, he was re-elected to Parliament in 2016.Before entering Parliament, he held a number of roles within the public and private sector including National President of the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union. Prior to this he was employed with Integral Energy (now Endeavour Energy); a major national energy retailer and NSW based electricity distributor.We managed to keep the discussion as non-political and partisan as we possibly could. And remarkably didn't even mention Donald Trump once.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the course of Paul's career he has built and sold four previous companies and has then become an active consultant and non-executive director of some major companies like Trade Me and iiNet. In 2014, Paul McCarney and Danny Gilligan (one of the founders of VC Reinventure) founded Data Republic with a mission to change the way organisations exchange data - to make it safer, more secure and more scalable.This is a complicated area, which we cover in some detail.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elaine is Head of Venture Capital at Blue Sky and is responsible for the management of the Blue Sky venture capital fund and portfolio. Established in 2012, her division has over $100 million in assets under management across a broad range of industry sectors. Amongst her notable investments was a $25m injection into Vinomofo in April 2016.Elaine is a proud Brisbane native and a huge champion of Queensland's startup sector. She has a strong academic foundation holding a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Adelaide.  She is actively involved in Australia’s professional venture capital community, as a member of AVCALs venture capital stakeholder committee and as a member of the investment committee of ANUConnect Venture Capital, the Australian National University’s venture capital fund.I took the podcast studio on the road with me and visited Elaine's Brisbane office for this awesome and insightful chat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The sharp-eyed amongst my listeners will have noted the reference to "2001 - A Space Odyssey" in the title of this podcast. Whilst certainly no HAL 9000, Andrea Boyd is one of the controllers of the International Space Station, albeit from the relative comfort and safety of Cologne, Germany, Planet Earth.Andrea was visiting Australia to help lobby for the establishment of an Australian Space Agency (plus some other things). I managed to catch up with her and her busy schedule to hear how a girl from Adelaide has made it so far in the Space Industry. And what we might expect in the future from Australia's nascent Space Sector.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daniel Petre, founder of Airtree Ventures and former Microsoft executive, shares his insights on the tech landscape. He discusses the evolving nature of algorithms, stressing the importance of contextual data over mere commoditized tech. Daniel reflects on his journey from corporate leadership to venture capital, spotlighting the impact of AI on jobs and society. He also touches on the critical role of fatherhood and shares his thoughts on navigating innovation in Australia’s corporate ecosystem, emphasizing the need for diversity and collaboration.