The History of the Australian Startup Ecosystem: Interview Series

Episode Summary In the Blink of AI: Conversations with AI Innovators Join Georgie Healy on 'In the Blink of AI', your weekly guide to the dynamic world of artificial intelligence. Each episode features interviews with the founders of top AI startups, creative product builders, and industry leaders. With 20 years in engineering and technology, Georgie aims to distill complex AI concepts into engagi...

What will the new economy look like? As startups become the new way of life, Australia must become more open and less restrictive to encourage innovation. Hear entrepreneurs' firsthand accounts of their journey and learn what that has meant to the startup world. This podcast will give you a great insight into Australia’s innovation ecosystem by tracing its history and future. If you're curious as...

What does the future hold for the Australian startup ecosystem? After five episodes focused on the past, this episode will finally be tackling that question and look towards the future. What are our unique strengths and weaknesses as a country? What are the key challenges and opportunities we face? From investors, to academics, to government, to corporates and finally, to entrepreneurs - we highli...

Episode 5 begins during the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic which disrupted every facet of life as we knew it. As lockdowns and other measures were enacted throughout the country, different markets and industries were affected in different, and sometimes unexpected ways. We explore the good, the bad and the ugly, looking at the unprecedented ways in which the Australian startup ecosystem grapple...

This episode kicks off in September 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull was elected as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. Unveiling the National Innovation and Science Agenda as the cornerstone of his "Ideas Boom", we unpack the contents of this policy and explore the myriad of ways it impacted the startup ecosystem. The Australian startup ecosystem continued to enjoy significant growth in the second h...

In episode 3, we take a deep dive into the birth of the Australian startup ecosystem. Although everyone may have a different perspective on what caused this "cambrian explosion", we discuss 7 key catalysts in this episode. We shine a spotlight on the who, what, when, where and why of this critical event that formed much of what we see around us today. But underneath all this growth and excite...

Episode 2 begins in the aftermath of the dot com bust. We explore the story of LookSmart through the lens of its co-founder, Evan Thornley and the tough choices he had to make. Up until this point, founders largely worked in isolation, however, they began to meet up more frequently after the bust, often in pubs or cafes, thanks to community groups like Innovation Bay. Conferences such as TinSHED a...

In this episode, we explore the seed phase of the Australian startup ecosystem, tracing its roots to some of the earliest catalysts to what we see today. Australian pioneers started innovating well before anything resembled an ecosystem and before the term "startup" was used. We tell the story of trailblazers like the Nucleus Group in 1964, Fairlight in 1975, Computershare in 1978 and much more.&n...

Emily Casey is the founder and director of What The Health, a health media company and community that aims to fuel the next generation of health innovation in Australia. Emily initially pursued a more traditional career in medicine before entering the startup world. In addition to What The Health, Emily has worked as a Community Coordinator for Stone & Chalk, a startup hub in Sydney. In her co...

Steve Grace is CEO and founder of The Nudge Group, which works with startups and scale-ups to support them through various stages of business growth. Based in Australia, The Nudge Group has expanded globally with offices in the UK and Singapore. Steve also hosts the Give It A Nudge podcast, and is director of YBF Ventures. In his conversation with host Will Tjo, Steve discusses his belief that Aus...

Peter Tippett is a serial entrepreneur with decades of experience working in startups both in Australia and around the world. He is currently working on three ventures, all of which he co-founded in the last few years: BodyMindLife, a platform for passionate community creators, educators, teachers and students, Vault3, which provides storage services on blockchain, and KULA, which utilises Web3 te...

John Allsopp is an author, web developer and conference organiser who’s been working in Australia’s startup ecosystem for nearly three decades. In 2006 he co-founded Web Directions, a conference series for people creating tools for the internet, at a time when the field was still relatively new. In his conversation with Adam, he discusses the very first Web Directions conference, which he sees as...

Lars Rasmussen is a Danish computer scientist and tech angel investor with a long history of working within the startup ecosystem both within Australia and internationally, including as co-founder of Google Maps, and as Director of Engineering for Facebook in London. In 2015, Rasmussen announced his departure from Facebook to co-found a music startup, Weav Musi, with his partner Elomida Visviki. I...

Ric Richardson is an Australian inventor who first came to prominence as a result of his invention of Software Activation, a technique used in software anti-piracy. Ric founded the Uniloc Company and entered an agreement with IBM to commercialise the invention, which Ric says has now been used on two and a half billion computers globally. In 2011 a US court awarded Uniloc $388 million in damages a...

Brad Parsons is CEO and founder of Movus, a company that provides monitoring tools for industrial equipment with the mission of preserving the earth’s resources by improving the efficiency and life of industrial assets. At the time of recording Movius is active in 16 countries, and has ambitions for further growth. In his conversation with guest host Will Tjo, Brad discusses how he has seen an inc...

Eloise Hall and Isobel Marshall are the founders of Taboo, a social enterprise that sell organic cotton pads and tampons, with all profits going towards eradicating period poverty. The Eloise and Isobel were first introduced to the social enterprise model of business in 2016 while students at high school, and began designing what would become Taboo during the summer holidays before commencing thei...

Joshua Flannery is the Founder and CEO of Innovation Dojo, an organisation active in both Australia and Japan which was founded in 2016 to support startups and entrepreneurs. Josh (as he prefers to be called) has had a variety of roles in both Australia and Japan’s startup ecosystems. In his conversation with Adam, Josh discusses what he sees as some key differences between Australia and Japan’s s...

Markus Kahlbetzer is CEO and founder of BridgeLane, which labels itself an “alternative investment company” and aims to bring innovation to more traditional industries including agriculture and real estate. Markus also founded Tank Stream Labs, a technology focused coworking space and community hub in Sydney. In his conversation with guest host Will Tjo, Markus discusses how he has seen Australia’...

Pauline Fetaui is General Manager at River City Labs, a startup community hub in Brisbane, as well as founder of CheeHoo, a personal assistant app designed to help busy people get things done. Originally from a corporate background, Pauline joined the startup ecosystem when she joined the River City Labs team in 2019. In her conversation with guest host Will Tjo, Pauline discusses what she sees as...

Kim Heras is Partner at 25Fifteen, a “startup studio” which as Kim describes in the episode is a model of startup support similar but distinct from accelerators and incubators. Kim has contributed to the growth of startup communities in Australia through many roles, including as Director of Fishburners, as Co-Founder of Pushstart, and as Chairman & co-founder of TechSydney, all of which are or...

Darryl Lyons is the Entrepreneur in Residence at both James Cook University in Cairns, Queensland, and at Farmers2Founders, a national Agri-tech organisation that helps aspiring entrepreneurs and founders from early idea validation through to business growth and international commercialisation. After running several businesses with mixed success, Darryl first encountered the startup world around 6...

Yolanda Redrup is a senior journalist with The Australian Financial Review, with a focus on technology and healthcare. Yolanda first began covering Australia’s startup ecosystem in 2013, and has covered the growth of the industry in the years since. In her conversation with Adam, Yolanda discusses what she sees as some of the catalysts for the huge growth that the Australian startup ecosystem has...

Dr Megan Sebben is the Program Manager at CSIRO’s Kick-Start Program, an initiative designed to help innovative Australian startups and small businesses develop their business and grow by providing funding support and access to CSIRO’s research expertise and capabilities. Megan has extensive experience in environmental research and consulting in both the public and private sectors.  This is a spec...

Alex Scandurra is the founding CEO of Stone & Chalk, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to support Australian startups, scaleups, corporations and governments at every stage of their innovation journey. Alex is also Co-Founder and Director of Spark Festival, a two week program of events covering all things startup, innovation and entrepreneurship. In his conversation with guest host Will...

Phil Ireland is Co-Founder and CEO of Hone Carbon, a mission-driven business with the objective of unlocking the potential for carbon storage in Australia’s agricultural environments. Prior to starting Hone Carbon in 2020, Phil’s work largely focused on climate change advocacy and policy. In his conversation with guest host Will Tjo, Phil discusses how he sees mission-driven companies as fitting i...