Open the Pod Bay Doors

Our guest this week is Max Cunningham, CEO of FCX. FCX is Australia’s only end-to-end registry, capital raising and trading platform for private companies whose aim is to make owning and transacting private company shares simpler.    Max is an industry veteran. From his early career experiences to the development of a groundbreaking technology platform, Max's story is one of passion, expertise, an...

This week’s special guest is Silvija Martincevic , CEO & Board Director of Deputy . Silvija is a passionate advocate for purpose-driven companies and brings a wealth of experience to Deputy from her background in socially responsible investing and previous roles at Groupon.   Deputy, founded over a decade ago, is a leading company specialising in smart scheduling and workforce management. Thei...

This week’s very special episode was recorded at our recent full community event. The Globe, hosted by Macquarie, brought together our four communities of early and later stage founders and CEOs, VCs and angel investors, to connect, learn, discuss and shape the future of our industry. Ian sat down with five of our incredible members for this all star line up featuring: Yash Varma, Founder & Pa...

E163 - Clément Aglietta, Co-Founder & CEO, Edda    Our guest this week is Clément Aglietta, Co-Founder & CEO of Edda, a collaborative tool for private equity investors. Edda is an all-in-one solution for deal flow, portfolio management, and LP’s relationship management. The tool is designed to be user-centric and integrates with external databases and other tools. Edda has recently launche...

Our guest this week is Kate Pounder, CEO of the Tech Council of Australia. Launched in August 2021, the Tech Council’s mission is to be the peak body representing Australia’s tech ecosystem. The Tech Council addresses 3 key gaps - Research, Policy & Advocacy, and Engagement - across the industry, policy change makers, government and the media.    Launching the day prior to a snap lockdown in C...

Our guest this week is Fintech expert Alan Tsen, Head of fmX, IAG’s corporate accelerator program.    Currently in the middle of its fifth season, fmX invites 8 startup companies per cohort to engage in a 12 week program giving participants a unique opportunity to learn how to infiltrate their product successfully into the insurtech ecosystem.    Across the entirely free program, participants gain...

Did you know that dogs get cancer at the highest rate of any mammal in the world? Or that 80% of dogs get dental disease? How about that 50% of cats and dogs are overweight or obese? Pretty startling statistics, right?    Well, Anna Podolsky, Founder & CEO of direct to customer pet wellness business, Lyka, is on a mission to make our furry friends healthier and live longer, more fulfilled live...

Our guest this week is Anuj Goel, Head of Technology Sector and Executive Director at Macquarie Capital.    Anuj joined Macquarie’s Technology, Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMET) team in 2006 following a short period working as an actuarial consultant.​   Today, Anuj focuses on helping Technology companies with M&A, IPO, trade sales, capital raising and other strategic prioriti...

E158 - Adam Schwab, CEO and Co-Founder at Luxury Escapes   Adam Scwhab runs at a million miles an hour - literally, he runs barefoot marathons! The CEO and Co-Founder of Luxury Escapes, Adam Schwab is our guest this week.    Outside of running one of the country’s most successful, bespoke travel sites, and running really far without shoes, Adam is also a contributing journalist and writer, podcast...

E157 James Petrie, CEO & Co-Founder, Nourish    There’s a shift happening in the food that we eat. That is, we’re seeing a transition to plant based food. According to Bloomberg, the plant based food industry is projected to hit $162 billion in the next decade. With a projected population of 10 billion people on earth by 2080, it will be impossible to feed that many mouths with animal-based pr...

Our first guest of 2023 is Adam Theobald, CoFounder & CEO of Ordermentum, a double sided marketplace and platform for hospitality suppliers and venues to make orders and payments.    Despite a potentially promising career in cricket and a desire to become a physio, Adam studied Computer Science at university going on to complete a Master degree in Commerce. Beginning his career as a stockbroke...

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement.  Armed with a microphone,...

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement.  Armed with a microphone,...

On November 10 and 11, Sunrise, Australia’s leading ideas and innovation festival run by our friends at Blackbird, returned to Sydney for their most ambitious event since its inception in 2014. Taking over Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks, Sunrise opened its doors, inviting around 1,000 of its closest pals, all primed to explore the optimism and wonder of human achievement.    Armed with a microphone...

Our guest for episode 152 is Mina Radhakrishnan, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Proptech startup :Different. Mina co-founded the company alongside her husband, with whom she shares CEO duties. :Different is property management as a service for real estate agents with their mission being to take care of homes and the people in them.    Born in Canada, Mina has spent a lot of time in the US, kick starti...

Mark Tanner is the Co-Founder and COO of Qwilr - an online platform that allows the customer to easily create visually compelling sales and marketing collateral at speed. The aim is to deliver a better buyer experience by combining content, price quotes, e-sign, and sales transactions into a single, mobile-friendly webpage. It’s the ultimate productivity boost for sales and marketing teams, with a...

WinVC is a women VC investor-led initiative aiming to facilitate the success of women VC investors and women-led VC firms, and attract more women from diverse backgrounds into VC investment roles. WinVC’s aim is to bring together women in VC to learn from one another, develop new opportunities, facilitate collaboration and help foster female talent in the industry.  On this week’s episode, our gue...

Paul Weingarth is the CEO and founder of Slyp - a fintech startup and platform sitting between retail/merchant services and banking. The vision of Slyp is to completely reimagine what a receipt could be used for. Rather than a receipt being the end of a transaction, Slyp are developing a network allowing a relationship between the merchant, bank and customer to begin at the end of the transaction....

Joining us for Episode 148 is the fascinating George Peppou, Founder and CEO of Vow Food, a cultivated meat company, founded and operated in Sydney. Vow is made up of a multidisciplinary team of scientists, technologists and designers, working together in the relentless pursuit of better food. By making meat with animal cells, and not the animals themselves, Vow is creating the world's most tantal...

Joining us for E147 is Angela Clark, Co Founder of Wallet Nation. Angela is a specialist in business transformation, customer experience, innovation and digital platforms. Angela’s experience spans multiple industries, customer segments and services, across education, media, payments and financial services.  Angela has previously led companies as a CEO and Managing Director, founded her own start-...

Our guest for episode 146 is Australian politician Hon Ed Husic MP. Elected to the House of Representatives as the Federal Member for Chifley in 2010, Ed is currently serving as Minister for Industry and Science.  Passionate about the digital economy creating the jobs of the future, Ed has a long-standing interest in the impact of tech on our economy and community and his portfolio appointments an...

After a two year hiatus, Innovation Bay and ARENA teamed up once more for the ARENA Renewable Energy Founder Forum.    Across the course of the evening, four promising founders from a pool of 40 applications in the renewables space were invited to pitched their business to a room of experts and enthusiasts in the industry.    We heard from ARENA's Darren Miller, past alumni 5B’s Dr Nicole Kuepper-...

Louise Nobes is the founder of the Australian arm of 42 - a globally innovative software engineering and coding trade school. 42 is free to attend with entry criteria being that you must be 16 to attend and either undergo a strenuous 2 hour logic test (and pass) or a 4 week intensive bootcamp (and pass).    An ex-social worker, Louise is incredibly passionate about supporting underprivileged and u...

Wayne Gerard wears a number of hats. By day, he is the Co-Founder & CEO of RedEye and the current Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. He lives on a working farm outside of Brisbane, is a trail runner and is deeply passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship, the climate, helping others and making a difference with the time we have!    Wayne spent 10 years in the ARMY straight out of school, first...

Joining us for E142 are Katie Heathcote, Associate Director Technology - Export Services for Investment NSW and Ryan Edwards-Pritchard, CEO and Founder of Fintech company Cape. Katie’s role at Investment NSW sees her meet hustle with NSW tech companies that are at the right stage to scale globally. Investment NSW provides advice and mentoring to companies into which markets they should select to s...