Startup 360

Back in 2016, around the time LaunchVic was kicking off in Melbourne, Dave McManus left the city for Silicon Valley, determined to become a startup founder. Now he's back in Melbourne and the founder of Lightning Ventures has plenty of stories to tell and advice to share on episode 40 of Startup 360. Explaining Lighting, his no-code innovation studio, which helps early-stage startups rapidly build...

Alex Miller was having rapid success with his subscription management platform Hudled when he spotted a nugget of insight in that startup and launched a second, Rechargly. Like a Marvel movie spinoff, he's now enjoying even more success, as Alex explains on episode 39 of Startup 360. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell asked Alex about the lessons and mistakes along the way and how startup...

This week's Startup 360 kicks off with cohost Simon Thomsen recounting the two days spent in the NSW Supreme Court this week as senior council for the liquidators of failed medtech StrongRoom AI probed cofounder and former CEO Max Mito, and director Divesh Sangvhi, about the potential insolvency of the business. Sangvhi sold his company, Medical Benefits Australia (MBA), to StrongRoom when it had...

Startup 360 cohost Simon Thomsen is flying solo this week, taking a deep dive into philanthropy with Antonia Ruffell, CEO of StartGiving, and the Australian MD of global tech charity initiative Pledge 1%. Technology is transforming the art of giving - with companies such as Atlassian, Canva and now Airtree cofounder Daniel Petre, founder of StartGiving, leading the way. StartGiving is not-for-prof...

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 w...

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 36...

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 rece...

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...

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...

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...

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 ann...

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 f...

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...

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...

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 Newton, cofounder of Elita, a pet genetics and stem cell therapy startup; and Aakash Gupt...

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 advent...

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...

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...

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 o...

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...

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 milli...

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 thi...

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 an...

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, whi...

Just as Techstars Sydney MD Christie Jenkins was about to go hiking in Patagonia, taking her offline for 10 days, she got a call from Sir Richard Branson's Caribbean retreat, Necker Island. They wanted the acclaimed athlete to speak there. It was "a pinch me moment to be on stage talking about investing in women's sport" and Branson is in the front row taking notes while she was speaking. She hung...