Startup West

In this episode of the Startup West podcast, hosts Jason Balchand and Adam Barrell are joined by Danelle Cross and Sarah Kahle to discuss the upcoming week of West Tech Fest — the favourite week on the calendar for anyone who works in the tech and startup world. We talk about 14 years of WTF, some of the most memorable speakers along the way, the challenges of organising such a large-scale event,...

In this episode of Startup West, Nicholas Chilton from Venture Affairs shares his journey from federal politics to the startup world. He discusses the importance of government relations for startups, the challenges of navigating immigration policies, and the need for advocacy to attract high-skilled global talent. He provides insights into the future of the startup ecosystem in Australia and the i...

In this episode of Startup West, Paz Pisarski from The Community Collective shares her journey in the startup ecosystem, the impact of community during the pandemic, and her recent award at the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards as Future Leader. She discusses the importance of community in business, shares strategies for building effective communities, and reflects on the lessons learned from her...

This episode, we sit down and chat with Wilson Tucker about being an elected member of parliament, some of his achievements in the Legislative Council, and what he's now doing post-politics.

In this episode, Dan Coughlan from Airtree discusses his journey into venture capital, the dynamics of investing in startups, and the recent $650 million fund raised by Airtree. He shares insights on the importance of community in the startup ecosystem, the role of AI in shaping future businesses, and what he looks for when investing.

In this episode, Jason Balchand and Adam Barell kick off the new season with the origin story of So Perth. Adam shares his journey from teaching himself to code at age 12, building a popular online wrestling website, to the "lightbulb moment" that led to the creation of the influential Twitter account, @tweetperth, and its evolution into the So Perth brand.

We chat with Matt Vitale, Founder and CEO of ⁠Birchal⁠ — Australia's largest Crowd-Sourced Funding (CSF) platform. We talk about WA being one of their leading markets and what makes a strong CSF campaign. This episode is an insightful listen for anybody who's considering raising capital through a CSF campaign or just interested in the story of Birchal. Startup West is recorded at Riff Stud...

On this episode, we're joined by Sean Williams, founder of AutogenAI. We talk about the world of generative AI and how he's using it to help companies write better proposals, faster. Sean is a serial entrepreneur and exited his previous company, Corndel Ltd, in November 2020 in a reported £40m+ sale. After a two week holiday, Sean founded AutogenAI which now operates with offices in UK, US...

For the final episode of 2023, Startup West recorded a founders' panel in front of a live audience of more than 400 at Freo Startup Fest, which is part of the annual West Tech Fest, Australia's longest-running tech festival. Host Charlie Gunningham chats with Dr Julia Reisser (Uluu), Amy Carter-James (Raaise) and Jonathan Lilley (Electro Ventures). Each company is heavily involved in developing an...

Danelle Cross (Curtin Uni) and Chris Tan (Spacecubed) talk with Dan Dawson, founder and director of edtech startup Paperly. Originally from New Zealand, Dan saw the need to reduce paper-based bureaucratic systems in schools. Coding 7 hours a night while holding down a full-time job, he was selected to join the Plus Eight Tech Accelerator in Perth in 2022. This year, the newly established early-sta...

We talk with Jemma Iles, who has been working in, and promoting, innovation across various industries including local and state government for the past 20 years. Jemma is also one of the people bringing the new ‘Australian Innovation Management Institute’ (AIMI) to Australia. How can governments and corporates best innovate? What can they learn from startups? How can governments and corporates bes...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with Intan Oldakowska, co-founder and CEO of medtech startup Earflo. She and her team are developing a non-invasive device that drains middle ear fluid in children with chronic ear infections, avoiding developmental delay and the need for surgery. From an idea first borne over at Stanford University, California, the company was recently awarded $500,0...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with serial app entrepreneur, award-winning founder and all-round nice guy Stuart Kidd. When one startup is not enough, how about four or five? Originally from the UK, Stuart arrived in Australia aged 10, then went back to work there after school, developing his eye for design, tech and online businesses. Back in Perth, he set up Apps People, an app d...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with Simon Anderson, CEO and founder of Notis (student engagement platform for schools) and Swayz (prompts friends and family to share video content for you). With Notis, established in 2013 in Perth, Simon has raised US$1M over 10 years and is aiming to have a thousand US schools on board in 2023. Simon raised his first $5K thanks to Curtin Accelerat...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with the CEO of tech recruiting firm Valrose and co-Chair of Women in Tech WA (WiTWA), Tina Ambrose. Growing up in west London, she took on various jobs, found herself homeless at one stage, then later made “the best decision in [her] life” to move to Perth, Western Australia. Working in recruitment, she devised and then set up her own company, and al...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with Ingrid Rodriguez, founder of Eikonic, a dental hygiene product looking to help a billion mouths over the next ten years. Born in Chile, and growing up in Perth, Ingrid studied oral hygiene and after years of practice, saw a need to develop a revolutionary product that would assist the 3 billion people that suffer from one type of oral disease or...

Australia’s number 1 startup podcast (1) talks with two of Veintech's co-founders, Nick Buckley and Nik Bappoo, who with a team of 10 are developing a handheld unit that visualises veins to make cannulation (drawing blood) easier. It’s a disturbing fact that the standard ‘miss rate’ for cannulations is around 40%, incredibly high. Once you miss twice, you have to call for help. Set up in 2020, the...

Australia's number 1 startup podcast (1) breezes into episode 101, with Rob Kelly, managing director of Agora Livestock, a price discovery marketplace for sheep, cattle and goats. Growing up on the family farm in Kojonup, in the Great Southern, 250 kilometres south from Perth, Rob was into maths and science at school, and studied ag science at university. After a decade in grains trading, he saw t...

For our 100th episode, a real treat: we speak with the inspirational Professor Fiona Wood AM, who with research partner Marie Stoner invented spray-on skin, ‘ReCell’, made famous after the Bali Bombings, for which she was made Australian of the Year in 2005. Growing up in the north of England, the daughter of a fifth-generation coalminer, the self-confessed “sporty nerd” moved to London to study m...

Australia's number 1 startup podcast (1) welcomes well-known co-host of the Mix 94.5 Brekky Radio Show ('Pete, Matt and Kymba'), and, now startup founder and Plus Eight graduate Pete Curulli. A mad-keen gamer, and co-host of popular podcast for gamers, Game on Aus, he is developing a platform for independent gaming developers, Three Little Pixels, which he plans to launch later this year. Passing...

Australia's number 1 startup podcast talks with former Western Australian of the Year, Bourby Webster, founder of the Perth Symphony Orchestra, who recently stepped away from the CEO role, after 13 years. Growing up in the English countryside, she was exposed to orchestral music from a young age, played viola, and went to Oxford University, where she also got into rowing as a coxswain. Moving to P...

We talk with Joanna Morris, co-founder and CEO of Matilda, a digital platform that informs, connects and assists patients of endometriosis, a painful chronic condition that afflicts 1 in 9 Australian women. A pelvic physio by background, she and her business partner Kevin started the business to improve the lives of the 190 million people around the world that suffer from the affliction. Passing t...

Chris and Steve talk with Dr Mehdi Ravanbakhsh, co-founder of two AI startups – the 7-year-old data analytics and AI company MapIzy and the brand-new cryptocurrency platform, CryptoCrispy. Originally from Iran, with a PhD from the Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany, and 20 years’ experience as an academic, Mehdi moved to Melbourne for his postdoc, then to Perth as an associate professor at the...

Danelle and Chris talk with the founder of social impact startup Donut Waste, Sharka Hornakova. Born in Prague, Czech Republic, she arrived in Perth 13 years ago, and discovered “all the beautiful, happy, no worries people.” Having worked in magazines and digital media, she saw an opportunity to recycle coffee ground waste into new products, such as donut-shaped soaps, skin cream and even beer. A...

Danelle and Chris talk with Nic Terpkos, co-founder and CEO of seasonal jobs site, Waytree. Set up five years ago, the fledgling business had to weave around the COVID pandemic to provide a service to seasonal farmers where back packing part time workers were very thin on the ground. Starting out as an engineer, Nic worked part-time on the startup until he and his two friends and co-founders (Jame...