Connect to Capital

What a way to end the season! Amanda Price is one person I have been dying to connect with for such a long time. To my absolute delight she shared so much of her journey and importantly herself, one I think so many in this space will resonate with and perhaps share her lived experience.  Amanda’s background as a startup operator put her at the forefront of the nascent Australian startup world...

Tracey Warren has busted into the startup scene like a lotus flower, currently flourishing at significant speed! If you didn’t know, Tracey is the CEO at F5 Collective, the newest women focused fund to enter the Aussie market. Her energy is infectious and I vibed her passion and conviction on backing women founders.  F5 Collective invests in women building high-growth tech ventures at early s...

We, and by we I mean my business partners co-CEO Chelsea Newell and CIO Roo Harris always say, if we could clone Phil Dolan we would do it in a heartbeat. He is our number one advocate and supporter.   Phil Dolan’s list of credentials are akin to the super long list of credits at the end of a great movie. He has played a multitude of roles over his illustrious career and is at the cuttin...

Jodie is the co-CEO and co-founder at Tractor Ventures, I was really looking forward to learning more about Jodie to better understand how she got to where she is today. I find Jodie one of the most interesting people in the startup ecosystem, she has a humility about her and a voice I could listen to all day!  Jodie’s passion for helping businesses start and grow is evident throughout our co...

Born in South Africa and living in the Middle East in his formative years, instilled a level of risk management and always having a plan B. This alongside sailing and the philosophy of water clarity has translated into Neil’s investment style.  Neil Stanford is a highly accomplished executive and currently the Executive Director of heading up the Venture Capital team at Breakthrough Victoria....

Michelle Deaker loves doing hard things. She has a first class honours degree in science, a masters majoring in physics and chemistry, a PHD in applied science and has represented her country in a super demanding sport. But Michelle is best known for her outstanding contribution to innovation that can make a real difference in people’s lives. Michelle co-founded OneVentures one of Australia's lead...

Yish Koh is the managing director at Kit, a smart money app for kids and their parents, which is part of x15ventures, CBA’s innovative corporate venture operation. Despite having 1st Class Honours and University Medal in Chemical engineering and commerce from Sydney University and being described by those she works with as an inspiring leader, Yish is a recovering insecure overachiever who has had...

After growing up in Texas, Hannah Parton Cyr studied chemical engineering and nanotechnology at the University of Southern California. Following that, she began her career in the Transportation sector in Australia where she worked across corporate strategy, safety and supply chain. After completing her Masters of International Economics and Finance from the University of Queensland, she joined the...

Tracie Clark GAICD CPA is an active Angel investor and investment professional with over 25 years’ experience in investment management, financial services, accounting and business strategy. After early roles in accounting and investment banking she founded two successful financial services companies. She is heavily involved in Perth’s startup community and has a passion for supporting innovation a...

Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leading provider of revenue based financing to SAAS companies. She has a deep understanding of the entrepreneur's journey and the importance of growth capital. Previously, she was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the venture capital arm of National Australia Bank, where she invested in and served as a director for several global f...

Noga Edelstein is a corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur and investor, who has experienced every stage of the startup lifecycle from inception and launch, to funding and exit. She co-founded on-demand home services startup UrbanYou, which scaled rapidly Australia-wide to secure leadership of one of the largest technology-disrupted markets, consolidated the industry with three M&As, and success...

Kerri Lee Sinclair   is an Investor, operator, entrepreneur, and global citizen exclusively focused on driving positive outcomes for those dedicated to building the new world, or transforming the broken. She has spent over 20 years working across the high-growth eco-system, from co-founding her own start-up which sold to Microsoft in 2007, through to working in some of Australia’s leading tec...

Les Szekely has a bit of a cult following as an angel investor. After multiple successful exit, he has a reputation for finding great founders, then backing them with boundless energy, creativity and the humility to know when to get out of the way. Les’ path to investing is unusual. He got a taste for power of business when he established a thriving clothes retailing operation at Paddys Market in...

James Crowe is a partner of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and one of the few lawyers who is equally as passionate about technology and all of its transformational potential, as he is about the law.  With a degree in computer science majoring in Artificial Intelligence, in addition to his honours degree in law, James has over 25 years' experience assisting companies in Australia and arou...

Georgie Turner is excited about the potential of Aussie startups. Partly because she has been entrepreneurial since she was a child, and partly because Australians have plenty of first hand experience of the world’s most pressing problems, Georgie believes nothing motivates quite like a mission to save the world! Described by her fellow investing partners at Tidal Ventures , as a go-to-market guru...

Lisa Fedorenko is passionate about helping create a fairer world through increased diversity and sustainability. After completing a triple major in Advanced mathematics, computer science and econometrics in her combined Commerce/Science degree, she began her career in equity research sales at Credit Suisse before moving into a range of finance roles spanning value investing (at Montgomery Investme...

Sam Sicilia is Chief Investment Officer at Hostplus , one of Australia’s largest and most successful superannuation funds.  With its roots serving the hospitality and related industries, Hostplus has a unique member profile with an average member age of just 37. As the leader of the investment team, Sam is also quite unique. Described by some as a polymath, Sam loves numbers, finds human beha...

Kristin Vaughn is managing partner of Virescent Ventures , where Cleantech Innovation Meets Commercial Ambition. An offshoot of Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation , Virescent invests in founders, technologies, and businesses that help achieve zero emissions and beyond. Kristin beleives there's no need to choose between emissions impact and commercial outcomes. Along with her team at Virc...

It is an extra special episode this week with 2 great investors sharing their passion for agtech and the specialist fund they co-founded Tenacious Ventures.  The first half of today’s duo is Sarah Nolet , an internationally recognized food systems innovation expert who has been instrumental in building the early stage agtech ecosystem in Australia - from advising dozens of startups, designing...

Karyn West is the founder and managing director of Apostle Funds Management .  I think of her as the fund whisperer, with a seemingly mystical ability to connect institutional investors, like the big Australian super funds, with the exact specialist investment management capability they maybe didn’t even realise they needed. Karyn left the security of a great job at Rothschild, to single hand...

Jackie Vullinghs Jackie Vullinghs is affectionately known by most people as Jax. Far from her birthplace in the UK, she now finds herself as an investing partner at one of Australia’s most successful venture firms Airtree. Despite winning most of the prizes there are to win growing up (1st class honours in History at Cambridge, 3 Cambridge Blues in Women’s Lacrosse, the Bundy Scholarship for Acade...

This week we have an extra special guest, Libby Briggs who is the superstar designer of Scale’s entrepreneur education program, EmpowerEd . Libby is steeped in rigorous pedagogical training and experience having taught for 9 years at one of Melbourne’s highest achieving academically selective schools. Having then emersed herself in the startup world with SBE Australia and started her own business,...

Alexandra Clunies-Ross wanted to be lots of things when she was growing up – a doctor, a lawyer an actress and a journalist. As the portfolio Manager for Artesian's clean energy / climate tech VC funds and the Female Leaders Venture Fund, she has sort of found a way to be a bit of all those things. She has built a formidable network of scientists and technical experts to enable her to cover the en...

Adam Milgrom grew up in a very entrepreneurial family and being the third generation of business builders, he always know that he would somehow be involved in selling stuff. However early he had an epiphany that he would only be successful if he was selling stuff that he really believed in and which would make the world a better place. Since then, he has been committed to combining his interest in...

Kara Frederick believes that chance favours the prepared mind. From her life trajectory, it is also clear that fortune favours those that are prepared to take chances. Kara is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tiger Financial Group, the investment firm dedicated to empowering Australian growth companies into global markets. After growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, attending Princeton and...