A decade ago, Ronen Heine tossed in his career as a corporate lawyer at a top tier law firm for life as a startup founder and adviser. "I was doing lots of fancy work on the outside, but dead on the inside," the founder of Luna tells Startup 360. "It was funny because no one took me seriously. Founders didn't take legal and accounting seriously. It was a startup helping startups start up."But it worked and Luna, his professional services advisory firm, which has worked with the likes of LaunchVic, Rampersand and Fishburners, was recently acquired by Tiger and Bear. Byron Bay-based Ronen talked to cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen about what he's learnt about startup life advising 1000s of startups and their founders about getting their legal and financial house in order to succeed, and his own experience as a founder going through a merger and acquisition. They also took a deep dive into leadership and masculinity. Ronen's been an associate professor at Monash University for the last five years with a focus on men’s leadership and how to best support younger males as they find their way in the world. Simon asks Ronen what founders can do to set a good example for the next generation.His advice is simple - work on yourself to be a better leader "You're going to have young people who are going to follow you, people are going to join you. This is going to be their first place of work. Your influence on them is far bigger than you think," Ronen said. "The interactions they see - there's a male founder who even says, 'Hey, you know what, let's think about gender diversity on our board', such a small thing to say - and the impacts like that ripples out in different ways to different things." Simon and Majella also talk about Elon Musk's Wikipedia AI ripoff - he's literally lifted large slabs of the original for it - and NZVC's new $50 million Fund II , which aims to back up to 60 early-stage startups in Australia and Aotearoa. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Air conditioning is doesn't sound like a sexy startup problem, but Conry Tech cofounder Sam Ringwaldt knows more than most how profound its impact on us and the planet will be as climate change takes hold. "It's a really vicious irony that the main solution that we're relying on to mitigate the change is also accelerating the change faster than nearly anything else," he explained on the Startup 360 podcast. "I mean, there's 864,000 new air conditioners being installed every day from now until 2050." Forget AI data centres or any other power consumer on the planet, air conditioning, something we don't think about because we mostly don't see it, is the only game in town, he explained. "Air conditioning is actually the sector that's expected to drive most of the growth of demand of electricity," Sam explained. "In fact, 50% of the growth of electricity over the next 30 years is all going to be air conditioning. And we're talking about comfort here. We're not even talking about food chains, pharmaceuticals, or the other applications." Startup 360 this week makes air conditioning sexy again as a major climate tech issue. Sam and his eponymous cofounder, 60-year industry veteran Ron Conry, raised $3 million in venture funding this week for their latest revolution, BullAnt, an air-conditioning system that has completely rethought how cooling is delivered, with the potential to save up to 50% of consumption and power bills for users. And if you think it all sounds sedate, Sam recounts the time their engineers were followed home and robbed and factories in Melbourne and Canada were ram-raided, with files and computers stolen in moments that sound like a spy thriller. Sam and Ron were responsible for the last great innovation in air conditioning 25 years ago - back when the Nokia 3310 was the world's best-selling phone, so HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) is overdue for disruption and if anyone's going to do it, it's these two with Sam's wife, Brenda, alongside as Conry Tech cofounder. Also on the show this week, cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen talk about the latest Cut Through Venture funding report for the September quarter. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Preethi Mohan was in the middle of a corporate life at Google when she had a revelation about life as a startup founder. Her latest and 5th startup, Press Play Ventures, a 12-week accelerator program coaches women on the move from corporate life to startup founder, and in just 18 months, has helped 120 women to launch 104 startups. Press Play Ventures won the GSD (Get Sh*t Done) Award, at the recent Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2025. A prolific ideas person who writes down her thoughts in notebooks explained her lightbulb moment to Startup 360 hosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen this week. “It’s just up to me whether this idea happens or not,” she said. “Even when there was chaos, it's like, it's okay. It's up to me - I can find the direction, I can control change, which is a very empowering idea." That thought, that realisation of freedom, electrified her. So she quit her lucrative Google job in late 2019 - yes, just before Covid - for life as a founder. Now she’s running startup 4, NiceTo, which is all about creating connections in the startup sector to succeed, as well as 5, Press Play, with ambitions to make it a global accelerator. Preethi also talked about human empathy in the age of AI. Having that connection of that technology and human empathy, I think it goes such a long way,” she explained. “If we disconnect from that, we're actually just going to lose a whole part of our beings.” Simon and Majella are continuing their extended discussions on Startup 360 with just one guest this week as they introduce listeners to the winners from the Best in Tech awards to unpack what makes them tick. Also on this week’s show, Majella and Simon also talked about pushback against the upcoming SXSW Sydney event by the startup sector and the week’s biggest raises, including $98 million for Heidi Health. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Brace for puns with week as Startup 360 talks to Saara Jamieson, founder of Cool Beans Underwear, about how her revolutionary way of taking care of man bits came about. Saara was a finalist in the Best New Founder category of Startup Daily Best in Tech awards (the winner was Rebecca Keeley from Yarn Speech), and in a special extended episode, they spoke to the Brisbane mother of two about how her own journey to becoming a mother led to Cool Beans. It's an important dive into male reproductive health that had Simon rearranging himself when Saara talked about the impact of sitting for 20 minutes or more and how how the additional heat down below has an impact on male fertility and testosterone levels. While reproductive health and fertility tends to focus on women, Saara has taken a deep dive into what blokes need to do to hold up their half of the conception bargain. And the simple truth is that their "beans" are running hot and that's not good for them. Helping her own husband take care downstairs transformed their attempts to become pregnant and the mother of two is now spreading the message to all who'll listen, building a scientifically-backed deep tech startup in the process. An explainer: Cool Beans undies keep the testes away from the body, as nature intended, so they don't become too warm, which can lead to reduced fertility and testosterone. Her product now has TGA approval and she has plans for FDA approval in the US. Simon and Majella took a deep dive into what's going on, as well as discussing being a solo founder, first mover advantage (is there one?) and the impact building Cool Beans has had on other families and the health of men. And Simon couldn't resist asking what it was like to talk to a room of NRL execs earlier this year about a different kind of ball handling skills... The Startup 360 cohosts also discussed the closure of ANZ's VC project, 1835i, the new home for Fishburners at the Tech Central Innovation Hub, and the wash up from the Best in Tech awards.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

This week's Startup 360 is a little different as cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell frock up for the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards. That's the key theme of this week's episode and we celebrate one of the winners by replaying our conversation with Climate Salad cofounder Mick Liubinskas. On Thursday night, Mick was named Industry Champion among 14 winners, with Sydney-based workplace AI agent builder Relevance AI winning both the AI Game-changer category and Startup of the Year awards, having raised a $37 million Series B just a few months earlier. Simon and Majella chat about the big news of the week, including Canva's profitability after the design giant filed overdue financial statements with ASIC that revealed a $200 million loss in 2022 - mostly because the company handed out more than $400m worth of shares to its team. And Strongroom AI returned to the news this week amid its legal battle with in investor EVP, after cofounder Max Mito filed his defence against allegations of fraud by the VC. But the fun part of the conversation is Mick, who spoke to Simon and inaugural podcast cohost Kayla Medica earlier this year, telling stories from a career that's spanned startup founder, startup investor, startup accelerator founder and novelist. Mick talks about his journey and how family brought his focus to climate tech and wanting to lead the planet in better shape for the next generation. He also talks about the price of being a founder, and understanding the sacrifices that need to be made. He also reveals his genius for being able to get more drinks, now matter where he is celebrating in the middle of the night - a skill that no doubt made him popular at the Startup Daily Best in Tech awards as the night wore on. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Charlie Chan's musical career began at age 3 with a ukulele. It broke. But growing up in the '70s, Charlie was part of the dawn of consumer electronics and computers, experimenting with home electronics kits, and by the '90s as the internet age began, they went online to share their music with the world. Now Charlie's embraced artificial intelligence as a new way to create. Charlie joined Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell as a serial founder and entrepreneur to talk about the role music plays in creativity and innovation. "Innovation and creativity are the same word. We just tend to say, 'oh, innovation is this digital thing that we do with computers and, you know, sciencey-type things," Charlie said. "Things that you can prove things that have a hypothesis But on the other hand, creativity is like. We don't understand creativity. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know from one creative moment to the next. Everything's creative. And I think that there's a bit of a disconnect between these two worlds." It's a fascinating conversation about embracing new technology and how to think about being an innovator. In a first for 10x, Simon and Majella's 10 rapid fire questions, they're join by two guests, the cofounders of CarSavvy, Ashlinn Leatham and Lachlan Dunn. It's a fun conversation spanning customer feedback - Ash would head to bars and pubs in Newtown and approach patrons to get them to download the CarSavvy app - to what makes a good, sustainable cofounder relationship and marketing car maintenance. Simon also digs a deep hole for himself attempting to mansplain what makes a great car for women. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

This week on Startup 360, we talk to two founders who presented at Cicada x Tech23. Engineer Nick Hazell is back with his second climate tech startup, Algenie, having previously raised $120 million as cofounder of plant-based meat venture v2food. Also on the couch is Ana Belgun from CSIRO-developed digital twin pioneer Terria. They were among 23 founders who shared their startup stories at the annual deep tech expo, in Sydney. Cohost Simon Thomsen was there and keen to share their ideas with the Startup 360 audience. Cohosts Simon and Majella Campbell talked to Nick, an engineer who came from R&D in the food sector, about the lessons be brought to a second go, at tackling the problem of carbon emissions. Algenie is an algae biotech company using groundbreaking technology for algae production at scale at an affordable price. The term describes everything from plankton - a vital part of the marine food chain - to seaweeds, and as well as being a major oxygen producer, it also soaks up CO2. His hope is that Algenie can help replace fossil fuels and last year the startup raised $1.1 million in pre-Seed funding. Nick talks about gardening leave from v2food, going from a startup in a "hot" sector for investors, to having to go back an educate people from scratch; why he's driven to tackle big problems and the nexus between engineering and science and how "innovation of having different voices in the room sort of looking at the same problem from different angles and solving it together." Ana spent nearly a decade at CSIRO's Data61 before cofounding Terria in late 2024. Terria makes it easy to build advanced maps and digital twins, for faster, smarter decision-making, and she talks about their potential for big ideas, including Australia's much talked about high-speed train. Ana also explained by the Terria team banned all meetings on a Wednesday, and why having "a really good product mindset and go to market and brand" is essential to be a successful deep tech startup commercialising research. Simon and Majella also talked about the big news of the week - PsiQuantum's $1.5 billion raise. When Majella asked him what he'd do with $1 billion, Simon said he'd share it among the startups at Tech23. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta and is a SmartCo Media production. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net.

When you talk to Pete Horsley about his career in tech, it doesn’t take long to see that his work is deeply personal. His eldest sister, Jo, was born blind, autistic, and with an intellectual disability. That experience shaped the way he views the world, as he explains to Majella Campbell. As a child, Pete loved showing off Jo’s talents, like her uncanny ability to tell you the day you were born from the date. It taught him an important lesson: value doesn’t always look the way society expects.Pete is the founder of Remarkable, the accelerator backed by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supporting startups building technology for people with disabilities. He’s also a passionate voice for inclusive design, reminding us that technology we take for granted — the keyboard, speech-to-text, touchscreens — were first created to solve accessibility challenges. Pete shares why disability isn’t about “some of us”, it’s about all of us. When we design for diversity, we don’t just build better products, we build a better world. One of the latest startups supported by Remarkable is Hailo in Brisbane, cofounded by Santiago Velasquez. Born blind, he quickly discovered that public transport wasn’t designed for people like him. Buses would pass by because he couldn’t hail them, or he’d be dropped off at the wrong stop late at night with no easy way to get home. Hailo is an app that will transform the way people with disability navigate public transport. A major trial in Victoria is about to get underway and as Simon remarks, the idea has the potential to make public transport easier for everyone. Santi's visual impairment inspired his life as an entrepreneur - the only blind startup CTO in the Southern Hemisphere, he jokes. After failing a uni subject in his electrical engineering degree because the course materials weren’t available in an accessible format, he sent out to invent a solution. It was the spark that lit his first startup and set Santi on the path to solving problems not just for himself, but for millions. His ambitions are boundless, including being the first blind person on the Moon. If anyone can, Santi will. Also this week, Simon and Majella discuss the latest data from Blackbird on investing in female founders, and the end of the Sydney Startup Hub as we know it. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.

Episode 28 of Startup 360 is a little different, with cohost Simon away at a company offsite and Majella moving Fishburners out of the Sydney Startup Hub. So we've picked out two of our favourite interviews of the last six months to shine a light on them once again. Irish-Australian teenager Liam Fuller starred on Startup 360 in April, as one of our most watched and listened to episodes. He was 17 at the time, and came to Australia, birthplace of his equally entrepreneurial dad, Shane, for a holiday after being suspended from high school over a viral photo taking a client call sitting in a toilet cubicle. While here, he started cold-calling local VCs to raise for his second startup QuickFind AI, an agentic AI ordering system for retail procurement, and made a three-hour train trip to Sydney for a 20-minute meeting with Square Peg’s Paul Bassat. Liam ended up banking a A$2.15 million pre-Seed round led by Square Peg - not a bad 18th birthday present. The 10x we wanted to share once more was from episode 3 with high-performance coach Veronica Mason. She's a member of the NSW LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council and last year organised Australia’s first Pride Pitch Night for founders from LGBTQIA+ backgrounds. After being outed in high school, Veronica broke her back in several places, aged 23, learnt to walk again, and now focuses on helping others.She's a font of wisdom, from what to look for in a mentor to how your mindset shapes the world. It's a wonderful, inspirational conversation. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.

Nicole Gibson is a remarkable founder who thinks deeply about what it means to be human in the world of tech. The CEO of inTruth Technologies, the world’s first emotion bio-tech, is a very special guest on Startup 360 this week, sharing her journey from teenage student struggling with serious health issues and the profound impact one educator had on her life, to how she hopes we can all be better people by coming to understand who we are using tech. She's on a mission to reshape the future of personal well-being, leadership, and human connection, having served as the youngest Commonwealth Commissioner for Mental Health, and also founding Love Out Loud (also writing a book with that title), a movement dedicated to fostering authentic human connection and conscious leadership.Nicole's conversation with cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen is one of the rawest, most authentic and generous discussions Startup 360's seen in 27 episodes as she talks about bridging the gap between AI, emotional intelligence, and human potential. Meanwhile, Simon takes the chance to quiz Majella about her day job as CEO of Fishburners, as it prepares to move out of the Sydney Startup Hub, which is being shut down by the NSW government, and the new direction and vision she has for the Fishburners community of hundreds of startups, as well as the broader ecosystem. Also joining them for 10x, the show's rapid-fire questions, is David "Dutchie" Holland from Employment Hero. The man in charge of talent solutions at the HR tech unicorn has been there since it was a team of 12 back in 2016, which has now grown to more than 1,600 people. Dutchie shares his insights into scaling a startup, and the joy of nicknames. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human.

Startup 360 cohost Majella Campbell is making her own news, with the Fishburners CEO releasing a manifesto on new ways of nurturing early-stage startups. It comes as Fishburners prepares to move out of the Sydney Startup Hub after seven years, as the NSW government shuts it down. This week's guests are Paloma Newtown, cofounder of Elita, a pet genetics and stem cell therapy startup; and Aakash Gupta, cofounder of boostrapped remote work team building and wellness startup Hooray Teams. Motivated to by the health issues her own dog, Edgar Allen Paws, faces, she launched Elita (which raised $1.1m, pre-Seed) with her partner-in-life, biomedical engineer and dog coparent Jackson Gritching. Paloma talks about her varied career - from hospitality to deep tech navigation startup Baraja, and cofounding the workplace advice site Grapevine - the leadership challenges of going from manager to founder, and how to get on with your cofounder when you also go home with them at the end of the day. She's a powerhouse of ideas, but as a proud and focused feminist, reveals some telling moments in what she's experienced as a female founder, and how to cope on those days when you "feel like a genuine failure". Meanwhile, Aakash is dealing with one of the great issues of modern workplaces - managing remote teams and keeping everyone inspired.He launched Hooray Teams, which runs virtual team-building events for remote, distributed and hybrid teams two years ago. His global customer base includes one company with people in 23 locations, and Aakash shares his tips on how to get everyone getting along - trivia is popular - and the challenges of dealing with diverse cultures. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta.

Everyone knows the startup-founded-in-a-garage origin story, but Kinde cofounder David Berner can top that. He was in a caravan travelling in outback NSW with his family, with his two cofounders in Sydney, when they built their developer platform, which takes care of "the boring but essential stuff" to help founders move faster. Kinde in a rare-breed, with two technical cofounders, and Dave adventures led him to settle in the hinterland behind Byron Bay to raise his family of three kids, which the startup's team also stretches from Sydney to London. Episode 25 of Startup 360 discusses his love of music, the importance of creativity for founders, and life as a country dad running a high-tech business - he keeps his kids well away from screen addiction, arguing that if his parents can get proficient on an iPhone, there's no need for their grandkids to be early adopters. Cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen also caught up with industry legend Murray Hurps from UTS Startups and the founder of the annual national ecosystem survey Startup Muster. There's a songline between Murray and Majella as the former and current CEOs of Fishburners, and how evolving technology is transforming the role of founder. For a kid who dropped out of school to play around with software, and now runs a thriving university startup community, Murray has some firm views of learning and education, as well as  entrepreneurship as the "exploitation of privilege". Majella asked him for advice on how to be a successful founder and Murray turned to the wisdom of Fishburners cofounder Pete Davidson. "Find someone that shares your circumstances, that has done what you're trying to do, figure out how they did it, and then copy them quickly and do it better," he said. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Happy horse's birthday! The way the cofounders of podcasting community engagement startup Dome met is positively old-school in an era of swiping left and right. Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi met at an International Women's Day event in Sydney, and the mutual love for the pop culture podcast Shameless launched their friendship. Six months later, their idea for Dome became the Australian entry in the global final of the Red Bull Basement startup competition and they were headed to Tokyo. Sophie and Bella are the first duo to sit on the Startup 360 couch and share their stories. Both in their early 20s, they discussed the yin and yang of being cofounders, explained the problems they're looking to solve in the $130 billion podcasting industry, and talked about the influence of family - Sophie's grandfather is a former NSW Premier - and the appeal of being a startup founder (while trying to finish a uni degree). Startup 360's second guest, for 10x, our rapid-fire questions, is Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media, the independent publisher that last week acquired Startup Daily and assets of its publisher, Pinstripe Media. British-born Will, whose wife is Australian and works in tech, has spent his life in media, working on the admin side at prestigious titles such as The Economist and Wall Street Journal, as well as next gen brands such as Buzzfeed. Startup 360 cohost Simon Thomsen couldn't resist asking his new boss about the nexus between tech and media, his advice for Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos as the paper comes under fire from readers and key staff depart the loss-making title, and, perhaps went too far in bringing up the Melbourne Demons after the side's shambolic loss lass weekend. Cohost Majella Campbell wanted to know how Will stays chilled, especially when a billionaire from the Murdoch family is gunning for you.It's a chance to hear more about the future of media from someone on the frontline. Simon and Majella also discuss Gilmour Space's first attempt to launch Vegemite into space on a home-grown rocket, Build Club's massive win with Swedish vibe coding platform Lovable, and the Australian government's YouTube ban for under 16s. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Usually the one doing the reporting, Startup Daily and its parent company Pinstripe Media is in the spotlight this week, having been acquired by SmartCompany’s Private Media. AJ Koch fills in for Simon to share how it came together.  We also keep the celebratory theme going with two phenomenal guests behind some significant raises from the past week.  Chris Wirasinha is the founder of Linkby, the mediatech that just closed a $23M Series B raise. After a successful exit from his first venture, youth media business Pedestrian.tv, Chris shares how different the experience is the second time around. Not only is he at a different stage of life, Linkby is already an international business, having setup already in New York and aggressively growing in the US market.  The conversation with Chris spanned everything from hustle culture to NBA teams to founder fashion.  From founder we move to investor, welcoming Brendan Hill from Ten13 into the hot seat to discuss two of his portfolio companies who were in the news this week. Everlab, a medtech with a fresh $15M raise, and Liam Fuller, the 17 yr-old Irish sensation who had a whirlwind tour of Australia that helped him land $2M seed capital for his startup Source. Brendan’s inner database of startups, raises, and investors in unmatched, and the discussion gives a good insight into how an investor goes about their business, builds community, and stays in the loop.  This week’s episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Kish Modi had a rule with friends and family once he was out of intensive care and began his treatment for leukaemia: no crying when they came to visit. His mum , a 157cm (5' 2") powerhouse, laid down the law to everyone who came to visit Kish in hospital. "She's like, no tears, zero emotion, rational conversation only positive thoughts only. No one's allowed to cry in front of Kish," he recalls of his life and death battle with blood cancer on Startup 360 this week. Kish, now in remission after 18 months of brutal treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, is preparing to launch a new startup, Hey Buddy, with longtime collaborator Stevan Premutico (me&u, Dimmi). Cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen were left in awe of Kish sharing his story. His career moved from management consulting to startups with HelloFresh, me&u and now Hey Buddy, an AI concept for hospitality that's still in stealth mode. Kish talked about what drives him and how he sees the world after facing a life-threatening illness, his passions and love for his partner, Paul, in a moving conversation about founder life and the fight for life. Majella and Simon discuss this week's news, including ASX-listed Scalare Partners acquiring Tank Stream Labs, Elon Musk's Grok going generative Nazi, and Linkby's $23 million Series B raise. Their guest for 10x, the rapid-fire questions, this week is Jack Rathie, cofounder of DDLoop. The AI-based legal due diligence platform helps lawyers make sure all bases are covered when doing a deal and when Jack shared the story of how they pulled up the details for StrongRoom.AI when it imploded, revealing a range of tells that flagged problems, Simon's mind was blown.A science fiction fan, Jack also shared three books he recommends sci-fi fans should read. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Aubrey Blanche has been part of building culture at two great Australian tech companies, Atlassian and Culture Amp. The self-confessed "proudly woke" data nerd, who believes that bringing empathy to the numbers is vital, sat down with Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell to talk about workplace inclusion, how business is dealing with the impact of Trump's war on woke, and her own experiences as a former US citizen who now calls Australia home. It's a fascinating conversation about creating kinder workplaces and how she thinks about DEI - it has a branding problem - and her business Mathpath, a combination of math and empathy. Aubrey had "a front row seat" as Atlassian listed on the Nasdaq and became a force across the Pacific, and the cultural differences. "I learned so much about the deceptive levels of difference between American and Australian business culture. And it was something that really took me by surprise when I first came to Sydney," she said. "One thing to note is that Americans come across as incredibly arrogant to Australians, but it's really important to say to Australians that it's not necessarily that we're all sociopaths, but rather that there is such a level of competition that self promotion is a survival strategy in American business in a way that there's just a different set of norms here." Aubrey believes you need to measure to management and talks about the asking the right questions to get the best out of your teams and how focusing small details can make a big difference for everyone. Simon and Majella also discuss the latest VC funding numbers, which saw women founders receive just $1 in every $200 invested in Australia in the June quarter. On a brighter note, accessible beauty tools startup ByStorm is collaborating with celebrity Celesete Barber's makeup brand Booie, to ensure sisters are doing it for themselves. Joining Simon and Majella for 10x, their 10 rapid-fire questions is founder turned VC investor Ben Chong from Right Click Capital, who talks about why he launched the Founder Institute in Australia, and how asking the hard questions early on reaps bigger rewards for founders and investors down the track. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Black Pearl Group founder Nick Lissette had an idea for a AI-driven sales agent for small business about five months ago. It took 90 days to develop and launch Bebop, the latest product from his New Zealand listed tech company, and within 45 days, it hit $1.2 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Black Pearl's previous innovation, Pearl Diver, took 45 days and within two years hit NZ$10 million. Nick, the company's CEO (and briefly CTO), is Startup 360's first international guest, joining cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell from Aotearoa to talk about everything from AI to investing, rugby, music and his belief in teamwork. He describes Bebop as like ChatGPT, but built for sales and revenue growth. The Black Pearl boss, who could have been a professional musician had he not blown his audition in the UK studios of Sir George Martin (of The Beatles fame), is funny, fast-paced, a wild card, focused, stubborn, and jack of all trades. It's a cracking conversation filled with plenty of great insights on what it takes to run a listed company from WellingtonHe also revealed their currently exploring a dual listing in Australia, for the 13-year-old tech business, and how hard it was to find the funding to back Black Pearl Group (NZX:BPG), heading to the US and refusing to come home until he had the cash. Black Pearl shares jumped 30% on the NZ exchange this week after he announced the success of Bebop and the potential the company sees in artificial intelligence products. In other news, Simon and Majella talked about philanthropy by tech founders, and how Australian founders are among the world's best when it comes to turning small amounts of VC funding into valuable companies.Also joining them for 10x, the rapid fire questions (but they lost count so it could be more) is Spanish-born design guru Miguel Anton from Xeito Studios, who explained how hard it is to make things look simple, why great design matters, and how to think about luxury in a conversation that spans his time working for billionaire Bernard Arnault at LVMH, to the genius of Apple and Labubus. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free! This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Ammonia is the second most-produced chemical on the planet and without it, we wouldn't be able to feed the world. But making it has been energy intense - until an accidental scientific discovery at the University of Newcastle created the potential for a more environmentally friendly way to produce it. That discovery is a new startup, Facet Amtech, and cofounder James Bradley joined Startup 360 this week to explain how it works and talk about life as a second-time deep tech founder Ammonia is normally produced a high temperatures under high pressures, but when a materials science was sawing samples in half to examine them, he noticed a smell. It was ammonia, created at room temperature just with water and ambient air. Scaling up that discovery is the goal of Facet Amtech, which recently completed CSIRO's annual ON accelerator program, which helps scientists turn research into commercial ideas. Facet Amtech is also one of 23 startups chosen for Tech 23, the annul deep tech showcase by Cicada Innovations. Bradley, who's been entrepreneur-in-residence at Newcastle Uni's startup hub, I2N, previously founded a climate tech hub he was forced to close because of Covid-induced supply chain problems and talked about the lessons from that and getting back in the saddle with a new idea, as well as a family with three kids. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell also talked about Kiwi accomodation startup Kiki's move to London after being forced to shut down in New York, and fellow Aotearoa agtech scaleup Halter's $155 million Series D, and the NSW budget for startups, with Simon arguing the $80 million worth of announcements isn't nearly enough. Also joining us for 10x, the rapid fire questions, is Tennille Eyre, head of CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program, to talk about the importance of science and what hanging out with super smart people as they develop ideas that can transform the world is really like. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It's all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Listen to your gut and trust it, says Bree Kirkham from F5 Collective, a venture firm backing women-led startups. Kirkham, who worked for pioneering tech brands including ClassPass, Uber and Airbnb, had plenty to say about women in tech on episode 18 of Startup 360 this week. Cohost Simon Thomsen asked the mother of two what advice she'd give to classroom of young girls. "I think a lot of girls and a lot of women question themselves all day, every day and question their path and question their role in society and question what they should do based on the mark they got or their parents expectations or just what society is throwing at them," she said. "And I think my biggest thing is trust your gut, because I do think if you follow your passion and you follow what you're good at, then a success will naturally flow your way. I genuinely think that. The second thing I would say is that there's no wrong turn... I encourage girls and women to not put that pressure on themselves that they have to get every step right and to know that there isn't a wrong turn and you can always pivot and move into something else and actually take value from what you learned in a previous step." It was a spirited conversation about women founders and what F5 Collective has learnt from studying their success and how it falls outside traditional VC models. Looking at the data around why women aren't receiving funding led them to write A Theory of Change, their thesis on backing women. Simon and Majella discussed the big news of the week, including Canva's acquisition of Magic Brief, Sally-Ann Williams stepping away from Cicada Innovations after six years at the helm, and the latest twists in turns in Blackbird-backed short-term rental startup Kiki, which is shuttering in New York for a second time. Their 10x guest this week is Sam Garven from Hello Canopy, a workplace reporting app that allows employees to raise issues in a way they can trust, as well as giving employers the ability to see issues and trends and respond. The former environmental scientist was also a cofounder of Grapevine, the workplace harassment advice site launched last year. The conversation spanned everything from office romances to red flags in the workplace and setting culture in startups, as what gives Sam the shits about dealing with HR. Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

ETF - exchange traded funds - have become a popular investment since OG fintech entrepreneur Graham Tuckwell pioneered the sector in Australia more than 20 years ago. The local market grew by nearly 40% last year to around $250 billion, but a decade has passed since a new player appeared on the seen bearing a familiar name. David Tuckwell is following in his father's footsteps with ETF Shares, which launched this month after taking part in the Macquarie University Incubator program. The fintech is offering lower fees and access to US markets. Tuckwell says the sector will be worth more than $20 trillion within 20 years. He sat down with Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell to explain ETFs - Simon compared them to buying a box of groceries - and what he learnt from his philanthropist dad as he follows his father's trade. They discussed parenting, journalism - David worked in the sector before getting a real job - life lessons, the transformative opportunity of going to university, philanthropy and the bank of Mum and Dad backing your startup. "There's those old three Fs about when you start a business, friends, family and fools being the ones that first back you," David said. "We're no different in that regard. We've got a major family member, hopefully he's not a fool in my dad." Simon quipped that Graham Tuckwell's financial success - he runs a VC firm out of London and donated $100 million to his alma mater, ANU in Canberra, for student scholarships - suggests not.David also talked about how he wants his kids to grow up."I also want them to be strong and able to face the world because family is obviously loving and nurturing," he said."But when you're out there facing the market - I think startup founders understand this almost better than anyone - in fact, the real world can be a bit of a cold, hard place." Their second guest for 10x, the rapid-fire questions is 2nd time founder Peter Cole, from legal tech startup CourtAid.ai. He was inspired to launch the law research platform because of a legal dispute involving his first startup, Gathera, which ended up wasting four months of his time. It launched 12 months ago and now has 14,000 users in Australia, New Zealand and UK markets. Peter talked about the potential of AI and how it gives startups the ability to compete with the biggest tech companies in the world. "When you're talking about these AI businesses, everyone, including the big boys, are using the same models like they're all using OpenAI," he said. "No one has access to 300,000 GPUs to train a whole new model, except for the big end of town, which means it ends up becoming an even playing field in that sense, where suddenly a small company like myself have access to the same resources these big enterprise players have, which means we can build products just as good as the big enterprise players. So I think there's going to be a huge shift in startups coming through and competing with the enterprise players." This episode of Startup 360 is supported by ⁠Vanta⁠, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.