Open the Pod Bay Doors

E158 - Adam Schwab, CEO and Co-Founder at Luxury Escapes   Adam Scwhab runs at a million miles an hour - literally, he runs barefoot marathons! The CEO and Co-Founder of Luxury Escapes, Adam Schwab is our guest this week.    Outside of running one of the country’s most successful, bespoke travel sites, and running really far without shoes, Adam is also a contributing journalist and writer, podcast host, father of two young children, is on the investment committee of Save The Children, and is an angel investor.    An ex-lawyer, Adam and Luxury Escapes co-founding partner Jeremy Same (an ex-banker), started their first business in 2004 - apartment accommodation for backpackers. Fast forward to 2023, Luxury Escape has 510 staff on its books across Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, Ukraine, and New Zealand and will turn over close to $1b this year.    Ian and Adam discuss a heap including: Taking asymmetric risks  How COVID affected the business and helped them pivot their product offering  That every great founder balances incredible self confidence with consistent paranoia  His podcast From Zero  And so much more.    Quickfire Round  Book: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Podcast: Pivot, What The Flux  News Source: AFR, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg  App: BOM  Tech CEO: Jeff Bezos  Productivity Tool: WhatsApp  TV Show/Movie: WeWork, Super Pumped, The Crown - fact based fiction  Ted Talk Topic: n/a  Luxury Escapes are always hiring and Adam’s DM’s are open. Hit him up on Twitter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

E157 James Petrie, CEO & Co-Founder, Nourish    There’s a shift happening in the food that we eat. That is, we’re seeing a transition to plant based food. According to Bloomberg, the plant based food industry is projected to hit $162 billion in the next decade. With a projected population of 10 billion people on earth by 2080, it will be impossible to feed that many mouths with animal-based proteins. Enter Nourish.    Our guest this week is James Petrie, the CEO & Co-Founder of Nourish. Cutting his teeth as a research scientist at CSIRO, James was part of the lipid engineering team, and responsible for one product that mimicked fish oil - all from a canola crop. These learnings inspired the formation of Nourish.    Though not a trivial exercise to make plant-based proteins delicious, Nourish is responsible for the production of fats that have made a breakthrough in the taste and experience of alternative proteins. Nourish engineer yeasts and fungal streams that behave in the same way as animal fats - and taste just as good!    During this chat, Ian and James cover:  How the growth opportunity lying with carnivores  James’s founder story and the transitional changes that come with moving from early to late stage in a startup  Nourish’s raising journey to date  The monolithic size of the market  The importance of demonstrating tangible customer traction to investors  Plus so much more…    Quickfire Round Book: Stephen Webb - If the universe is teeming with life, where is everybody  Podcast: Gaming podcasts - Min-Max  News Course: ABC, AFR  App: Slack  Tech CEO: not one specific person but James respects those who make the journey from startup through scale up and beyond stating “the start of the journey is very different to the middle is very different to the late stages” Productivity Tool: Miro  TV Show: Death In Paradise  Ted Talk Topic: How to make food real using the right ingredients / Transitions from early to late stage in startups  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our first guest of 2023 is Adam Theobald, CoFounder & CEO of Ordermentum, a double sided marketplace and platform for hospitality suppliers and venues to make orders and payments.    Despite a potentially promising career in cricket and a desire to become a physio, Adam studied Computer Science at university going on to complete a Master degree in Commerce. Beginning his career as a stockbroker focusing on technology stocks, Adam moved into roles with voiceover IP company Freshtell (comparable to Skype) and web-based video conferencing company Parkslide (akin to Zoom). With a love of coffee, Adam founded order ahead app Beat The Queue (since rebranded to Hey You who have recently merged with delivery app Yello).    Ordermentum was born in 2014 with 10 customers signed up - the first being Lion Nathan. Despite the COVID curveball that threatened to all but completely wipe out the entire hospitality industry, the company became a savior to locked down dog walkers ordering coffees.    Ordermentum now boast a hugely profitable business that caters to 35,000 venues (or half of the venues in the country), have 650 suppliers signed up, move over $1billion in G&V and process $400million in payments.    Ian and Adam cover topics including:  Raises (one of which occurred during the pandemic!) Cricket (of course) Why he supports in-office in a remote moving world The importance of noticing emotional burnout in staff Plans to double his workforce in the next 12 months  The network effect  How important being part of a community is - Adam is a member of Innovation Bay’s Summit (Series A+ Founder Community)  And so much more…    Quickfire Round  Book: Radical Focus, Christina R. Wodtke + Working Backwards (Amazon)  Podcast: Serial  News Source: Sydney Morning Herald  App: Hey You Tech CEO: The Hard Thing About Hard Things  Productivity Tool: Woop  TV Show: Yellowstone, Line Of Duty  Ted Talk Topic: Ability to think on three trajectories - running the right balance between a short, medium and long term success trajectory  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement. Armed with a microphone, and less a wisdom tooth (which was removed around halfway through the festival - by a professional dentist), Innovation Bay’s Co-Founder and familiar host of Open The Pod Bay Doors, Ian Gardiner, tapped 21 people on the shoulder for series of pow wows about business, innovation, a retrospective at what has got them to now, a fast forward of what’s to come for our industry and what’s exciting them, and of course…what they’re hearing, seeing and feeling at Sunrise. Part 3 features an admirable group of people including Flavia Tata Nardini (Fleet Space Technologies), Andy Tsao (Silicon Valley Bank), Matthew Pearson (Fleet Space Technologies & Airspeeder), Lucy Wark (Normal), Tim Moore (Investor), Matt Allen (Tractor Ventures), Alex McCauley (Tech Council of Australia).   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement. Armed with a microphone, and less a wisdom tooth (which was removed around halfway through the festival - by a professional dentist), Innovation Bay’s Co-Founder and familiar host of Open The Pod Bay Doors, Ian Gardiner, tapped 21 people on the shoulder for series of pow wows about business, innovation, a retrospective at what has got them to now, a fast forward of what’s to come for our industry and what’s exciting them, and of course…what they’re hearing, seeing and feeling at Sunrise. Part 2 features a bunch of incredible humans including Joel Connolly (Blackbird), Alex Apoifis (Blackbird), Jekaterina Viktorova (Syenta), Andrea Gardiner (Jelix), Damon Klotz (Culture Amp), Mick Liubinskas (Climate Salad), and Kate Glazebrook (Blackbird).   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement.    Armed with a microphone, and less a wisdom tooth (which was removed around halfway through the festival - by a professional dentist), Innovation Bay’s Co-Founder and familiar host of Open The Pod Bay Doors, Ian Gardiner, tapped 21 people on the shoulder for series of pow wows about business, innovation, a retrospective at what has got them to now, a fast forward of what’s to come for our industry and what’s exciting them, and of course…what they’re hearing, seeing and feeling at Sunrise.    Part 1 features a bevy of incredible humans including:  - Matt Fairhurst (Skedulo)- Al Coleman (Folklore)- Kristen Durham (Zendesk)- Mary Minas (Sense of Self)- Mark Dombkins (Forever Projects)- Jason Neave (Punt Club)- Nan Ransohoff (Stripe)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest for episode 152 is Mina Radhakrishnan, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Proptech startup :Different. Mina co-founded the company alongside her husband, with whom she shares CEO duties. :Different is property management as a service for real estate agents with their mission being to take care of homes and the people in them.    Born in Canada, Mina has spent a lot of time in the US, kick starting her career at Goldman Sachs in New York. She chose a role as Product Manager at Google over Business School and was one of the first employees of Uber, where she went on to become Head of Product and was part of the team that introduced surge prices during busy periods. While running her consultancy on the side to keep close to product and startups, Mina worked with a couple of venture firms (Cowboy Venture and Redpoint) as an advisor and entrepreneur in residence. Through all of this wealth of experience, she knew she wanted to be a founder.    During a round the world trip, Mina and her husband came up with the idea for :Different. They raised their Seed round with Airtree - during the birth of their first child - launched publicly in 2017 and raised their B round last year (2021) - during the birth of their second child. :Different now manage tonnes of properties with efficiency and high quality via their customers that make up the likes of Ray White, LJ Hooker and many other top real estate agencies, and in doing so, have become one of Australia’s fastest growing agencies.    During her chat with Ian we learn about:  Her time on the board for Airtasker Her advisory role with Antler Her position on the board for Australian Tech Council - a lobby group working with gov to create 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030  Her founder journey and the double edged emotional rollercoaster of decision making  Her advice for founders and investors in the current and coming climate (Winter is coming - like it does every 3 years) How much she values the written word    Quickfire Round:  Book: Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austin  Podcast: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (NPR News Podcast)  News Source: Twitter App: Calm  Tech CEO: Mina doesn’t want to put anyone on a pedestal, everyone has something to learn   Productivity Tool: BarTender. BetterSnapTool  TV Show: Star Trek: The Next Generation   Ted Talk Topic: Power of the written word to persuade people See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Tanner is the Co-Founder and COO of Qwilr - an online platform that allows the customer to easily create visually compelling sales and marketing collateral at speed. The aim is to deliver a better buyer experience by combining content, price quotes, e-sign, and sales transactions into a single, mobile-friendly webpage. It’s the ultimate productivity boost for sales and marketing teams, with automation, analytics, code-free design and collaboration capability, all in one platform.   In this episode we hear about Mark’s passion for politics and study of History, Government & International Relations at Sydney University. How Google poached him from a startup to help launch Google Play Books, Google Play Magazines & Google Newsstand. Returning from a couple of years in New York we learn how reconnecting with old school friend Dylan Baskind led to the creation of Qwirl.    Ian and Mark discuss Qwilr’s journey and deep dive into Mark's expertise in sales and go-to-market plan. Tune in to hear more on: Choosing a company name and re-branding Founder-led sales, the importance of a sales team  Building and scaling your team Fundraising process International expansion The hardest and best parts of building a startup   Quick fire round: Book - ‘How Will You Measure Your Life’, Clayton Christensen Podcast - Acquired News Source - Twitter App - Twitter Tech CEO - Joe Thomas, Loom Productivity Tool - Loom TV Show - White Lotus  Ted Talk Topic - ‘The journey of sales’ or ‘wisdom on how to measure your life’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WinVC is a women VC investor-led initiative aiming to facilitate the success of women VC investors and women-led VC firms, and attract more women from diverse backgrounds into VC investment roles. WinVC’s aim is to bring together women in VC to learn from one another, develop new opportunities, facilitate collaboration and help foster female talent in the industry.  On this week’s episode, our guests are WinVC’s incredible founders, Andrea Gardiner, CEO & Founder of Jelix Ventures; Ingrid Maes, Founder & Managing Director of W23; and Michelle Deaker, Founding Partner & Managing Director of OneVentures.  According to a recent report by Deloitte and SBE titled Accelerating women founders: The untapped investment opportunity, only 0.7% of all private start-up funding in FY22 went to solely female founding teams, despite funding increasing tenfold between FY18 and FY22. A separate AIC report highlights that just 25% of VC investors are female, with VC female partners sitting at 15%. Andrea, Ingrid and Michelle have joined forces for WinVC to tackle the issue of diversity in VC head on. They firmly believe that diversity leads to better decision making and fund performance. And that having more diversity (ie women in VC) will lead to better investment decisions will being made which will help our startup ecosystem in Australia, in turn bolstering the county’s economy.  Quickfire Round:  Read - The Economist, Atomic Habits, Harvard Business School Website Watch - The Power of the Ring, Blacklist, Extraordinary Attorney Woo  If you’re a woman in VC and are interested in membership, please head to the WinVC website (https://winvc.com/) to express your interest. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Weingarth, CEO of Slyp, discusses reimagining receipts as a tool for post-transaction engagement, engaging major Australian banks, raising $40mil for Slyp, and aiming for widespread adoption. Slyp's innovative business model shares network costs with merchants and banks, without charging consumers, and plans for global expansion and sustainable initiatives.