Today, I'm connecting with Anna Prell, VP Operations at Ivo.

Connecting with Mahesh Muralidhar—Canva’s first Head of People Ops, Airtasker’s VP of People, and Simply Wall St’s COO. Today, he’s an investor at Phase One Ventures and is stepping into politics.

Connecting with Savannah Black, Chief of Staff at Crypto Tax Calculator.

Today, I'm connecting with Alexey Mitko, Employee #23 at Canva. Early at Koala®, CFO/co-founder at Eucalyptus, and today, one of Australia's most helpful early-stage angel investors.

Today, I'm connecting with Phoebe Pincus, Chief Operating Officer at Startmate and Co-Founder at Cheeky Run Club.

Today, I’m connecting with Emer McCann, Head of People & Chief of Staff at Simply Wall St.

Today, I'm connecting with Liani Strauss, Chief of Staff at Tracksuit.

Today, I'm connecting with Paul Redfern, Chief Operating Officer at Big Picture Medical.

Today, I’m joined by a co-host: the wonderful Gaby Howard, Head of Growth and Operations at Carted.

Today, I’m turning the mic inward for my first-ever solo episode of Calling Operator. I’m Laura Nicol, your host and Chief of Staff at Co Ventures.

Today, I'm connecting with Anitta Krishan, Chief Culture Officer at Hoogly AI.

Today, I'm connecting with Karan Anand, Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director, Australia at Hnry.

Today, I'm connecting with Sophie Mckay, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan at Notion.

Today, I'm connecting with Olivia (Liv) Panzic, Head of Marketing Communications at TikTok ANZ.

Today, I'm connecting with Rach Matters, Senior Program Manager at Linktree.

Today, I'm connecting with Shipra Mahindra, Principal Product Manager at Octopus Deploy. Let’s just say—Shipra’s peers can’t stop raving about her. She made her mark as the first product manager at Canva, working closely with co-founder Mel Perkins and the early mobile team. Shipra takes us through the highs, lows, and many celebrations that came with launching and scaling Canva’s first mobile app. She shares how she found her rhythm as a product manager and the lessons she's learned, both as a human and a product leader, during rapid growth at Canva, Xero, Creatively Squared, and now at Octopus Deploy. And when she’s not leading product, she’s showing how New Zealand can be an incubator for world-leading, world-class companies as a Partner at Phase One Ventures.

Today, I'm connecting with Harry Uffindell, Chief People Officer at Partly. Harry’s worn just about every startup hat—founder, growth, bizops, revops, people, culture—you name it. But he ultimately found his calling in the people space. Now, he’s scaling Partly, hiring the world’s top 1% talent, and building a culture where people stay excited about their work a decade in.

Connecting with Alice Hehman, a "SWAT team" startup leader who’s built recruiting and operations playbooks for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. An under-the-radar operator, you need to know. Alice knows what it takes to scale operations across borders, from leading domestic recruitment for Facebook to moving to Sydney to build regional teams across Asia–Pacific. Following great people led her to Bret Taylor's startup Quip (a competitor to Google Docs), where she ran business operations, including the USD $750M Salesforce deal and post-merger integration into the Salesforce ecosystem. We get real on keeping your head on straight through hypergrowth and focussing on what we can control through these big business transitions. These days, she's teamed up with Molly Graham (if you haven't read Lessons on Substack, you should) at Glue Club, helping startup leaders be better—and feel better—at work. We discuss what makes a great operational leader, why "glue people" are the backbone of scaling companies and US lessons to shortcut operators in Australia and New Zealand.

Today, I'm connecting with Emma Seymour, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Deputy. Emma is no stranger to navigating big transitions—whether steering a company through acquisitions, adapting through CEO leadership changes, driving profitable growth in uncertain post-pandemic times, or achieving unicorn status. Known for her "throw the ball to me" mindset, I hope Emma's story reminds all of our female-identifying listeners of the power of stepping up before you feel ready. In today’s episode, we discuss: Her CFO leadership journey: From public practice to JobAdder to Deputy, where she became the youngest female CFO of an Australian tech unicorn; Emma’s reflections on becoming a first-time mum while managing a "big job"; Deputy's rise to profitability and unicorn status (for market context, Deputy is the 15th Australian-founded tech company to achieve this milestone); How Deputy’s 80% female leadership team drives business outcomes, enriches company culture, and brings them closer to the customer; Clocking in every day to help customers build a better world for shift workers; Why you should always "throw the ball to me"; Alternative strategies for raising capital at different stages of growth; What’s next for the future of the CFO role in tech.

Today, I'm connecting with Annie Liao, founder and CEO of Build Club. What began as a weekend AI project among friends has now evolved into APAC’s largest AI learning platform. Fresh off closing her pre-seed round and going all-in on Build Club, Annie shares what’s next for her and her team. In today’s episode, we discuss: Annie’s early career journey as a data scientist, consultant, venture capitalist, community builder, operator, and startup founder—and the lessons she gained from each transition; A nod to her recent crowning as a Forbes Australia 30 Under 30 honoree; Scaling the impact of why Build Club started: to empower everyone to build their dreams into reality; Build Club’s internal AI strategy and approach to building; Why providing clarity is the most valuable role a founder can play; Taking a leap of faith to build custom GPTs (a beginner's guide); How to upskill your workforce in AI; The rise of AI workforce manager roles—plus why operators are uniquely suited for this shift. And, of course, I ask the “stupid” questions to help us all accelerate our AI learning journey.