The Sachin and Adam Show

This week we interviewed the NSW Minister for Digital Victor Dominello.  Sadly on the day of releasing this podcast, Victor announced he is leaving State Politics.  He was known as one of the truely tech savvy politicians in Australia and had a massive following on social media because of it.   Under his leadership the NSW Government released initiatives like The Service NSW app, QR code check-ins, the Digital drivers license and the Dine and Discover vouchers.   We talked to him about his journey into politics, his learnings and his passion for technology. Enjoy!

This week we interviewed the brilliant and passionate entrepreneur Ronni Kahn. Through her food waste charity Ozharvest, she has provided over 200 million meals to people in need, all from food that would have otherwise have been thrown out.    She has a remarkable story that took her South Africa to Israel to starting a global organisation.   We chatted to her about her upbringing, the inspiration behind Ozharvest and how she grew it into what it is today.

This week we interviewed Duncan Anderson, the founder of edtech startup Edrolo. Edrolo is out to change the way that students learn in the classroom. Duncan is an inspirational figure and an incredibly brilliant figure. He's constantly learning about himself, the world and provides so much wisdom to young people about how they can think more deliberately about their career and impact.  We discussed his career development at Goldman Sachs and Google, how he came to found a company, building Edrolo, the edtech ecosystem and more.

Paul Bassat shares insights on his journey building Seek, transitioning from law to tech startups, and his investments in major companies. He discusses balancing planning and serendipity, navigating uncertainty in crypto markets, and SquarePeg's high-conviction investment approach.

Hosts discuss career updates, goals, balancing chaotic lives, playing the empathy game live, prioritizing real-life connections, transitioning to busy schedules, embracing change, exploring new ventures, seeking fulfillment through curiosity and impact, planning future guests, embracing bold actions and authenticity, contemplation on life's big questions, finding happiness in simple pleasures, and reflecting on aspirations and values.

Ben Thompson shares his journey of building a billion-dollar company, navigating economic challenges, and discussing the future of work. Insights on remote work post-COVID, startup funding struggles, and the importance of understanding SaaS unit economics. The podcast also explores favorite books, leadership qualities, space exploration, and fostering collaboration among innovators.

We talked to master content creator and investor Sahil Bloom. Sahil had a meteoric rise over 2020-2021, accumulating more than 550k twitter followers and 70k followers on his Substack, as he became extremely well known in the business world for his profound insights.  Whilst we talked with him about content creation and investing, we also dived into a bunch of different topics such as vulnerabilities, relationships, mediating your ego and prioritising in your 20s.  If you like the episode, please send it to a friend! Enjoy

This week we have Blackbird Partner Niki Scevak. Topics include the significance of studying history and psychology in investing, career frameworks, and Blackbird's plan to become a top-tier investment firm. It also explores the importance of education, psychology, and history in investing, maximizing learning in startups and investing, the rise of Eucalyptus and Blackbird's vision, and the skills of a venture investor.

Disclaimer: Airtree is one of Australia's biggest VC funds, not crypto funds, as was mistakenly said in the introduction. This week we talked with John Henderson, a partner at Airtree Ventures which is a leading Australian venture capital firm. John acts as the lead in Airtree's crypto and web3 investments and he's previously been an entrepreneur, operator, consultant and lawyer. Just recently Airtree raised $700 million worth of funds, with $50 million of that dedicated to crypto and web3 investments.  This episode we dived deep into understanding the crypto and web3 movement. This entailed talking about the movement from web1 to web3, what web3 really means, decentralisation, web3 use cases,  NFT's, other thematics John is passionate about and how he makes investment decisions.

Sir Ronald Cohen is known as 'the father of British venture capital' and the 'father of impact investment'. He brought venture capital to the UK through his firm Apax Partners, which went on to control over $50 billion of assets and was one of the earliest investors in Apple. Then at the age of 60 he wanted to focus more on social issues so he pioneered impact investing throughout the world by partnering with governments and creating the firms Bridges Funds Management and Social Finance. He’s also recently written the brilliant book ‘Impact: reshaping capitalism to drive real change’. He talked to him about how leaving Egypt during the Suez crisis influenced him, how he founded Apax Partners at 26, his thesis for impact investing and his reflections on life. Ronald’s work in impact investing have been a terrific service to humanity and his life is a testament to his hard work and passion.