The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Piruze Sabuncu is a Partner at the Venture Capital firm Squarepeg. She was born in Turkey and currently lives in Singapore. Piruze built and scaled the startup that's now a global juggernaut, Stripe -- in Southeast Asia as employee #1 in the region, following a stint as a founder and working at companies including Dell and Mckinsey.***Episode guiding points: Learn about Piruze’s sunrise in Turkey, the influences of her big family and the beauty of Turkish culture including reflections on stories from her childhood walking her own path and questioning the status quo in a traditional culture. You might be surprised to hear her primary school teacher thought Piruze would become a diplomat!We cover her move to the US and 10 years living there and how it kickstarted a wild journey of a lifetime both personally and professionally; how and why she started her career in tech in the 2000’s in Austin, Texas of all places! The real benefits of studying an MBA and what gave her the self belief to go found a startup post MBA rather than following her classmates into a global firm.Questions our host Vidit loved hearing Piruze’s beautiful views and reflections include: The decision to shut down her startup and join Mckinsey, and the role her visa expiry played, first visiting Singapore and South East Asia just as their startup ecosystem was starting to boom in the 2010’s, loosing her dad and of course we dive into her Stripe experience being their first hire in South East Asia and playing a critical role in building out the business there, including the importance of knowing your customer, the importance of hiring, favourite question to spot talent and make sure to listen through for Piruze’s next re-invention to enter the world of Venture Capital and the serendipity with which she joined Square Peg + the one difference and one similarity between south east Asia, Israel and Australia. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.140+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

Aneetha De Silva is the managing director, government for Aurecon’s Australia and New Zealand business is a leading public infrastructure expert. She is also President of Roads Australia and sits on the boards of Aurecon Group, LaunchVic, the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation and the North East Link State Tolling Corporation.***Episode guiding points: Learn about Aneetha’s sunrise in Singapore, at a time when wasn’t the city it is today and Aneetha calls it a fight for survival, and the influences of her parents with her dad being a professional cricketer and building the family business.This conversation is candid and applicable to life and work, whether you’re early in your journey to more established — we cover Aneetha’s adjustment period coming to Australia halfway through her law degree, to then unpacking the behind the scenes of a successful career in infrastructure, roads and government projects and what that work entails including $2B dollar projects (critical to our society), private and public partnerships and more.Questions I loved hearing Aneetha’s organic reflections include: How to go into a new environment and build relationships whilst learning the area, Connecting with people 1:1 vs in a group setting to build relationships, Spotting and nurturing talent, Balancing working on the bigger picture and getting in the details, Influencing local governments in different cultures and how does one get accepted onto boards, and we cover the importance of family, switching off and more.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.140+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. ***

Carol is recognised as one of most dynamic business and community leaders with a diverse career across property, the arts, finance, investment, entrepreneurship, government and health. Her roles include being Board Member of the RBA, Founding Chair of the Women's Leadership Institute, Director of the Trawalla Group, Chair of the Climate Council and more. ***Episode guiding points: Learn about Carol’s sunrise in Melbourne, Australia in what she describes as a large, present and loving family with deep entrepreneurial roots and immigrating from Europe. She talks about her 3 siblings and influence of her parents who were married for over 70 years.Topics we cover include: How subjects should be taught in high school to set up both boys and girls for success, her desire at age 18 to be an international lawyer with a focus solely on her career and how that thinking evolved when she met her husband, Allan in law school. A key theme you will notice through this conversation is Carol’s deep passion for empowering women in a range of industries and I asked Carol about how she became the first female president of the Property Council, being influenced by the feminists of the 70s, changing the time and venues of board meetings and learning the importance of patience when her kids were born.I loved the stories Carol shares including why she created the Women’s Leadership Institute and how it provided a platform for her to speak up and get people to listen, activism on twitter posting pictures of all men board rooms and tagging journalists to drive action, and how Carol and her husband Alan created the framework for their family office and foundation Trawalla to focus on art, ideas, innovation and scholarship. And don’t miss Carol’s tactical reflections on how to balance time, and being persuasive whilst building meaningful relationships.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.140+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. ***

Leigh Jasper is a leading entrepreneur, investor and business executive. Leigh previously co-founded Aconex, the world’s most widely used cloud collaboration platform for managing construction projects. As CEO, he led Aconex through multiple capital raisings, to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2014 and company sale to Oracle Ltd for $1.6 billion in 2018.Leigh is a founder of SecondQuarter Ventures + Saniel Ventures, and is a director of SEEK Ltd, Salta Properties, the Burnet Institute, Buildxact Pty Ltd, Zuuse, Matrak and the Jasper Foundation. He is also the Chair of LaunchVic.***Episode guiding points: Learn about Leigh’s sunrise in Rutherglen in country Victoria growing up around the family business, a car dealership — with his dad also being a member of parliament and mum’s influence raising Leigh and his sister.We cover a lot in this conversation so strap in — importance of loyalty, meeting his Aconex founder Rob Philpott during boarding school, and how they first decided to start a business together and why it became Aconex. It was fascinating to learn that Aconex was started during a time when the concept of SaaS (software as a service) was quite new with no AWS and no real concept of customer pricing models. Some of the areas of the Aconex journey we dive into include: The importance of doing sales as a founder, their first expansion out of Australia, optimism bias and narrowing focus and Leigh’s most painful learning.Find out about Leigh’s transition following the Aconex sale to Oracle, learning to say no, tracking his time, setting up a foundation with his life, his advice to founders on selling some equity to be more risk on with a financial safety net and more.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***

Ben Grabiner is a Partner at Side Stage Ventures, a newly formed Venture Capital firm in Australia. Previously he co-founded Platoon which was acquired by Apple. Platoon was created during Ben's time working at Local Globe, as an early employee at the firm. (Local Globe is now recognised as a leading seed stage VC fund in Europe). It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***00:55  - Where were you born and live now? 02:06 - What was your first job and now? 02:39 - High Flyer in Ben’s life 03:28 - Big family with 3 siblings 07:08 - Independently minded 08:50 - Career aspirations at age 18 11:25 - First date with media and tech 14:00 - Leaving corporate to found his first startup 16:45 - Struggling to raise capital 18:36 - UK startup ecosystem in 2014 20:14 - Joining Local Globe as a VC investor 24:00 - The problem that led to creating Platoon 28:25 - Business model with music labels 30:35 - Reflections on differences between the two startups he’s built 32:09 - How did the sale to Apple happen 34:55 - Balancing family and career 37:30 - Moving from the UK to Australia 40:50 - Building a network from scratch 42:54 - Origin story of Side Stage Ventures 45:09 - Applying a founder mindset to building a VC 47:17 - Uncovering unique founders early on 48:55 - Growing Side Stage with co-founder in Markus 50:17 - Rapid fire final sprint*** 

Private equity managers from Telstra Super and Australian Super discuss how super funds impact the Australian VC industry, exploring career transitions, professional journeys, and the impact of super funds on society through VC investments. They also discuss interactions with founders, evolution of Australian VC investments, managing expectations during startup failures, and the benefits of Superfunds investing in venture capital for innovation and retirement growth.

 Tom Humphrey is an Investor with Blackbird Ventures, a globally top ranked venture capital fund supercharging the most ambitious founders. Prior to Blackbird, Tom was a partner with Access Ventures based in Denver USA and was on the management / founding teams of two successful startups. Tom was COO of OurDeal, a “group-buying” ecommerce website in Australia that over 12 months scaled to a team of 80 and a successful exit to News Corp, and then became COO of Kanopy, a B2B video streaming platform that he guided to an exit in 2018 delivering a 14x return to investors. In this episode #138 w Tom Humphrey, learn about:Tom’s sunrise in Sydney, Australia being the youngest of 4 siblings, with his mother a high school teacher and then business executive and dad an architect. I loved his reflections on how his older sister, stayed up at night and sometimes missed school because she was looking after Tom, and then their journey later in life building Canopy for nearly a decade to now being one of the top 10 M&A exits for a tech company out of Australia. 14x return on investmentI asked Tom about the key differences between Australian and US culture given his 10 years living, studying and working in the US, his reflections on his time in Bhutan and learning about the economics of happiness, his insecurities and how he manages them, how he’s learn what good looks like in sales and go to market for startups, the concept of deposits in the care bank to be a great manager and his balancing act on decision making with analytics and gut feel. We also cover his transitions from consulting to a a startup at a time when startups weren’t the buzz they are today and his reflections on what he would change if he could start his career today.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***03:30  - Where were you born and live now? 03:57 - What was your first job and now? 04:57 - High Flyer in Tom’s life 07:09 - Youngest of 4 children 09:01 - Sports, Studious and Adventure 10:29 - Australia vs USA friendship culture 13:04 - Hungry not the proven 14:08 - Falling into Law due to a timetable clash 16:33 - Should you join a startup straight out of university? 19:40 - FullStack message 22:13 - 7 to 85 people in 10 months 24:46 - Economics of happiness 28:05 - Learning how to lead people 31:04 - Joining his sister in building a startup in the US 33:34 - Experiences taking VC capital money 36:06 - Door knocking universities in the US 39:13 - Learning sales and go to market 41:40 - Chip on his shoulder 44:39 - Learning from founders 45:45 - Slack vs HipChat vs Microsoft teams 47:18 - Strength of talent in Australia vs the world 52:44 - Most valuable career experiences 56:38 - Perception of self worth and happiness 58:52 - Deposits in the care bank and connection to leadership 01:01:54 - Building trust with a new team member 01:04:34 - Balance with analytical and intuition muscle 01:08:30 - Being a VC or working at a startup? 01:10:55 - Final sprint rapid fire***

Michael Traill was the founding CEO of Social Ventures Australia from 2002 -14. Prior to this role, Michael spent 15 years as a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Macquarie Bank's private equity arm, Macquarie Direct Investment. In his time there, the Macquarie Direct Investment team invested in 43 businesses generating a gross rate of return of 32.3%. Michael chairs Australia’s largest charitable foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, is a Director of Australian Retirement Trust, MH Carnegie & Co., Australian Philanthropic Services and Hearts & Minds Investments and was previously Chair of Goodstart Early Learning.  Michael also chairs the Federal Government Social Impact Investing Taskforce and is the author 'Jumping Ship - from the world of corporate Australia to the heart of social investment’, Winner Ashurst Business Literature Prize 2017.In this episode #137 w Michael Traill, learn about:His humble upbringing in country Victoria, with his father being the first in 4 generations to go past grade 10, Michael’s chip on his shoulder being the country kid and making it to rooms where he felt out of place like Harvard and Macquarie and success at age 18 being a career in politics but how he ended up in the business world.I ask Michael about his reflections on his Harvard MBA and was that a hindrance or accelerant, his most painful learning and Questions he asks perspective candidates looking to join his team so he can understand them intimately.And of course we cover how and why he jumped ship from the business world to social investment a day before his 42nd birthday, the difficult first year of making the transition, the role of superannuation in funding climate and impact solutions, and the legacy he wants to leave.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***03:29  - Where were you born and live now? 03:48 - What was your first job and now? 04:22 - High Flyer in Michael’s life 06:03 - Father being the first in 4 generations to finish grade 10 08:48 - Chip on his shoulder 11:14 - Standing up and having a voice 12:08 - Influence of athletics and sport 14:44 - Success at age 18 16:25 - Career serendipity and entering business 20:32 - Unlocking opportunities thanks to Harvard MBA 25:10 - Fullstack message 27:34 - Founding the private equity business at Macquarie Capital 31:14 - State of Private Equity and VC 35:43 - Most painful learnings 38:53 - Questions he asks perspective candidates 42:21 - “Jumping ship” to from Banking to Social Impact 44:05 - First year of making the transition 49:57 - What’s different about the social purpose capital market? 54:28 - Role of superannuation in ClimateTech as Chair of $240B fund, Australian Retirement Trust 56:57 - Raising institutional capital for first time fund managers in impact investing 01:00:10 - Three questions to ask to have an impactful life 01:03:35 - Legacy 01:06:00 - Final sprint rapid fire***

Founded in 2017 by Zoe Milgrom and Kunal Kalro, Eugene offers medical-grade genetic testing and counselling services to people anywhere at any time. With a few drops of saliva, Eugene can identify variations in genes that may lead to disease, allowing you to proactively take control of your own health. Eugene was the first company in Australia to make medical grade genetic testing available to consumers directly and at-home, and has screened over 12,000 people across Australia!***Welcome to installment #24 of the Investment Memo series and overall episode #136 on the show. Submit this EOI for your company to be considered in future episodes of this special series!  Today, we’re unpacking the healthcare company that is Eugene, and I’m joined by the two co-founders Zoe Milgrom and Kunal Karlo.Founded in 2017, Eugene offers medical-grade genetic testing and counseling services to people anywhere at any time. With a few drops of saliva, Eugene can identify variations in genes that may lead to disease, allowing you to proactively take control of your own health.Learn about how they first met, their experiences and motivations to start Eugene, what exactly is genome sequencing and why it’s critical to each of us, how the cost of sequencing a human genome has dropped from $2.7B to nearly a thousand dollars, Eugene’s business model and go to market strategy, their suite of products and how they’re building broader community education and awareness of genetic risks. I must admit I learnt a lot in this conversation.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***03:35  - Where were Zoe and Kunal born and live now? 04:19 - What were Zoe and Kunal’s first jobs and now? 06:55 - Origin story of Eugene 13:01 - How Kunal and Zoe agreed to be co-founders 17:25 - First product launch 19:50 - Unpacking Genome sequencing 23:00 - $2.7Billion to $1,000 24:46 - Finding a solution to improve healthcare outcomes 27:20 - Fullstack Advisory 28:09 - Scientific and regulatory approval 30:10 - Go-To-Market strategy 34:15 - Business Model and Economics of B2B and B2C 35:37 - Education and awareness of genetic risks 43:40 - Product offerings at Eugene***

James Alcorn is a partner at Zetta Venture Partners, one of the world's leading AI focused VC investors, serving technical founders building AI-native companies. Zetta has partnered with the founders of Kaggle, Domino Data Lab, Nabla Bio, and other leading franchises.In this episode #135 w James Alcorn, learn about:Given the extensive focus on AI and it’s exponential mainstream growth, I wanted to bring on someone who understands this space from various angels, the technological shift, business models, venture capital investment opportunities and what founders should know.A couple of weeks ago, I contacted my network and one name that kept coming up was James Alcorn so here we are. James is a partner at Zetta Venture Partners, one of the world’s leading AI focused VC investors since their inception in 2015.This episode can be best described as an introduction to AI, whilst being a deep dive into various aspects. I asked James about Zetta’s origin story given they’ve been 100% focused on only AI since 2015, his thoughts on AI today vs 5 years ago, what exactly led to ChatGPT becoming mainstream, open source vs priopetiary models, infrastructure vs application layer and more.And yes, we cover a lot of questions that founders and investors are asking today including IP protection, metrics for investment, valuation, geographical differences and we end with a special rapid fire final sprint, make sure to listen through for this special conversation.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***💥 This episode is brought to you by Fullstack Advisory, Australia's top tech accounting firm, designed specifically for innovative tech founders and investors. They provide founder-friendly support across Accounting & Tax, R&D Tax Incentives, Bookkeeping, and CFO Advisory -- so you can focus on what you do best, innovating and growing your business. Get in touch with Stuart and the team today! ***03:30  - Where were you born and live now? 04:02 - What was your first job and now? 05:19 - Entry into VC with Zetta 06:11 - Zetta as an “AI only” investor 07:39 - Rate of growth in AI today vs 5 years ago 09:55 - What exactly is Artificial intelligence? 13:06 - What led to ChatGPT breakthrough in late 2022? 14:50 - Open source vs proprietary models 17:52 - Large availability of compute today 19:46 - IP protection for early stage startups 24:33 - What makes an AI startup investible? 28:50 - Startups vs incumbents in platform shifts like AI 32:40 - LLMs in infrastructure vs application layer 36:19 - Differences in USA vs Israel vs China 38:12 - Are AI startups more capital intensive? 41:40 - Automated speech recognition (ASR) 46:00 - Vector databases 51:10 - AI progress in Australia 55:25 - Final sprint rapid fire