The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

To celebrate this milestone episode 150, we're joined by Simon Holmes à Court in a very rare public interview appearance, and we believe his first about his own story!Simon has stood at the intersection of community, climate action and politics since May 2007 when he began chairing the community cooperative that set out to build Australia’s first community-owned wind farm. Fifteen years later to the month, at the May 2022 national federal election, one of this former Silicon Valley dot com engineer’s startups, Climate 200, harnessed community, climate awareness and politics to play a major role in shaking up Australia’s tired old political order. He is an energy analyst, clean-tech investor, climate philanthropist, director of the Smart Energy Council, The Superpower Institute and more. ***Episode guiding points:This conversation is truly wide ranging and covers a lot of ground. We discuss his upbringing in Perth, Australia with 3 siblings and his parents being on the road a lot, and his father’s South African heritage. Simon reflects on his boarding school experience in Geelong, near Melbourne and how that was physically and emotionally character building. Hear about his aspirations at age 18: set up a computer parts company with a friend to upgrade memory in people’s computers, Studying law but then loved the student organisation AIESEC and going down a different path. Our host, Vidit also was involved with AIESEC during my university studies and couldn’t speak more highly of the training it gave me. Particular aspects of this conversation that stood out to us include:Simon and his wife left the US on sept 10th 2001 with their first child and moving back to Australia, and living in Melbourne (cautious after his boarding school scars)Simon’s discovery of renewable energy during his 14 years scaling a company called Observant: Building remote monitoring technical solutions, and precision water management for farmers and their family cattle stations in the Northern Territory How leadership of the Hepburn Community Farm Project gave Simon exposure to everything from The capital raising, the media, the politics, the engineering side, the commercials of building environmental, on ground engagementThe fascinating story of The kids off naru project, the Sydney opera house and a horse race and Simon learning the power of Twitter through thisLearning clarity of communication and present information in a way that makes people engaged and willing to listen and not switch off?Two concepts that we haven’t stopped thinking about since this conversation is one: First The trim Tab from Buckminster Fuller (listen in to hear this context, small things like a trim tab can drive large scale changes), and second the Henry David Thoreau quote “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”  So be a trim tab and a root striker. Thank you for your support of the 150 episodes to date, this has been the most impactful and enjoyable work our host Vidit Agarwal has done in his life, and is excited for what’s ahead. As always, his details are in the show notes and he loves hearing from you. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy ***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact 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.150+ 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 ***

We're joined by Barnaby Marshall, Partner at Icehouse Ventures and Vignesh Kumar, Co-Managing Partner at GD1 in this special "round table musings" demystifying the fast growing New Zealand tech ecosystem.***Episode guiding points:Think of this conversation as a balcony view of the state of play in the tech ecosystem in NZ and a round table of musings. We deep dive into various aspects including Barnaby and Vignesh’s varied and interesting entry points into Venture Capital and how their prior experiences in different domains helped; Unpacking the historical and current state of play of the NZ Venture ecosystem (Generation 3 as Barnaby refers to it) and examples of the success stories to date such as TradeMe, PushPay, Xero, LanzaTech, Rocketlab etc. We dive into the thesis and fund construction of GD1 and Icehouse, their Investment Committee decision making process (this one is particularly relevant for founders looking to raise capital from VC’s like Icehouse and GD1). We review the cultural change starting to happen in NZ and What would Barnaby and Vignesh change if they had a magic wand. And you may find their areas of learning for the next 6 months intriguing, our host Vidit for one have exactly those points on his list.  It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact 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.145+ 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***

Martijn Wilder is the Founder & CEO of Pollination, a global climate change advisory and investment firm. He is also the chair of the $15B National Reconstruction Fund set up by the Australian Government and was previously Head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and finance practice for twenty years working with governments and bodies to accelerate the global net zero transition.***Episode guiding points:Learn about Martijn’s sunrise in Sydney, Australia being of British and dutch heritage with his parents having immigrated to Aus in their early 20’s and a strong family history of working in the book publishing industry, and influences of his 2 younger sisters. You may be surprised to learn that Martijn wanted to be a vet at age 18, and fell into law and business. Questions our host, Vidit exploring with Martijn include: His Honours thesis at university in economics focused on antarctic legal issues, What made him join and then work at the law firm, Baker Mackenzie for 20 years, How he rose up to partner and his learnings on backing people, climate solutions projects he worked on around the world including buying and selling UN sanctioned carbon credits in 2004, Helping FIJI host the COP, attended by heads of countries, meeting indigenous leaders for regenerative agriculture projects and more. Our host, Vidit was particularly fascinated by how some of these projects actually originate and the realities behind the scenes. We cover Martijn’s journey to being on and chairing various non for profit and government boards including the clean energy finance corporation, the australian renewable agency and most recently being appointed to chair $15B National Reconstruction Fund set up by the Australian Government. Important aspects of his story that are intriguing include the role his wife Jane has played in his life, and of course how and why he decided to set up Pollination nearly 4 years ago now, their thesis, the first 12 months of setting it up with COVID hitting, Raising capital and learn about Martijn’s systems and habits to manage his time and his most recommended newsletter he religiously reads. It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact 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.145+ 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***

Sarah Hamilton is the co-founder of Bellabox, Asia Pacific’s market leading beauty box that she co-founded with her twin sister, and raised investment from leading investors including SquarePeg. Sarah is now an investor, and advisor to many of the leading companies and CEOs in the consumer and beauty industry, and a graduate of the Wade Institute VC catalyst program! ***Episode guiding points:Learn about Sarah’s sunrise in Geelong, just outside Melbourne, Australia being one of 4 kids and the influences of her dad, who ran a carpet and furniture store and mum who worked in the business and loved the commerce and numbers. Questions our host, Vidit enjoyed exploring with Sarah include: The role of growing up in an entrepreneurial household and how that led to her start in a career in finance roles in the magazine and advertising industry in Australia, and then London and New York, the business model of that industry and key differences between the UK and US markets, how and why she decided to come back to Melbourne and start Bella Box with her twin sister, how they outlived 11 competitors in the beauty subscription category, early days of social media and low customer acquisition cost and learnings from raising venture capital investment.We cover her journey to becoming an angel investor and the role the VC catalyst program from Wade Institute played in providing practical learnings, and the ins and outs of investing + Vidit was fascinated by Sarah’s reflections on what she thinks differentiates venture capital and private equity, her transition from founder to an advisory and measuring times per month rather than times per week. Listen in for the full context on this one!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.145+ 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.xyzThe Wade Institute is a leading centre for entrepreneurial training based at Ormond College, the University of Melbourne and they deliver education programs to accelerate learning, creation and connection, with facilitators being many of previous guests on this very podcast! ***

Toby Hall is an experienced not-for-profit and healthcare executive, having most recently served for 8 years as CEO of  St Vincent’s Health Australia, Australia’s second largest healthcare provider, until February 2022. Prior to St Vincent’s, Toby was the CEO of Mission Australia for nearly a decade, and during his time at Mission, Toby oversaw the group’s contribution to the formation of Goodstart Early Learning. Toby maintained involvement with Goodstart through a seat on the Board until 2014.Prior to Mission Australia, Toby was COO of World Vision Australia and before that, CEO of South Taranaki District Council. Toby is a director of UNICEF Australia, chaired ASX listed Sterihealth prior to delisting and was a director of Working Links the largest welfare to work provider to the U.K government. He is a qualified accountant with an MBA.***Episode guiding points: Learn about Toby’s sunrise in Oxford, England with his father being head of physics at Essex university and mother a music teacher. I was fascinated to hear Toby share his influences including the different role English grammar played in high school and moving to South Africa at age 8, to then working in the music industry and being fascinated by the fashion industry but falling into finance. Questions our host, Vidit enjoyed exploring with Toby include: What were the key things he took away and had to delete from his time working at the then prominent investment bank, Solomon Brothers, How to create an environment of allowing team members to be vulnerable, the importance of realising that people aren’t just brining themselves to work, they’re bringing their whole life. Vidit asked Toby about the interview process to get his CEO roles at well known organisations like Mission Australia and St Vincents Health and listen in for his candid views on the transition from operational roles to board and chair roles, and what is the key difference, you might be surprised by the answer. 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***

Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture capital funds in the USA and internationally -- and is widely recognised as one of the most prominent LP's (Limited Partners) thanks to her decade plus time in the industry and initiatives such as #OpenLP. Beezer was born in London, UK and now lives in Austin, USA. ***Episode guiding points: Learn about Beezer’s sunrise in London and then Boston with her British father, who was a professor and American mother, who was the first in her family to attend college. Questions our host Vidit asked Beezer for her transparent views on include: Her relationship with money growing up, what made her decide not to pursue an initial career interest in Politics, how Sapphire created their LP arm from the ground up and how to build a brand as a newbie — and we dive into various aspects of the VC ecosystem today including What should be the right size of VC funds, geographical and thematic diversification, investing in emerging managers and key criteria to factor in, value of pre-marketing and relationship building, how many fund ones graduate to fund three and beyond and why that matters.And as always we cover areas you may not have heard before including 5 hall of fame LP’s Beezer would love to be in a room with to learn from, her personal biggest learning to date and the announcement of Sapphire’s new emerging manager program with CALstrs, the California State teachers retirement fund, one of the biggest pools of retirement savings in the world. 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***

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! ***