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Connect to Capital

Connect to Capital

By Scale Investors

Is the secret to raising capital really all about who you know? At Scale Investors, Australia’s leading gender diverse investment network, we believe that access to investors, advice and education is the crucial missing piece of the capital-raising puzzle. For too long it’s been limited to an exclusive club. We believe it's time to open access. It’s time to Connect to Capital. Hosted by Catherine Robson, chair of the Scale Investors, this podcast provides open access to an impressive network of Australia’s most successful and thoughtful venture investors. Connect with their stories of success.
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Alister Coleman, founder of Folklore Ventures, on the importance of mental frameworks

Connect to CapitalJan 06, 2022

00:00
42:14
James Crowe on what the exit looks like from the other side, and on keeping a clean cap table.

James Crowe on what the exit looks like from the other side, and on keeping a clean cap table.

James Crowe is a partner of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and is 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 around the world with acquisitions, investments and joint ventures for strategically important technologies.

James is an enthusiastic angel investor and co-founder of Skalata Ventures - Australia’s first fully-integrated seed investment program, designed to help early stage companies prepare to scale and grow into significant, sustainable and global businesses.

In addition to all this, James is also committed to Legal Innovation and his award-winning work in this area has received global recognition by Harvard University, the US Association of Corporate Counsel and the Financial Times.

While James recognises the importance of academic credentials, he reckons for those new to the startup technology scene, you can learn just as much from hit comedy TV show Silicon Valley.

Links from the episode

Australian Investment Council (formally AVCAL) Free templates

Skalata Ventures

The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries 

Silicon Valley - TV Sitcom and great introduction to startup life. 

How Google Crushed My Company (by Unlockd co-founder Matt Berriman) 

Unlockd advertising start-up blames Google as it goes into voluntary administration 
Oct 13, 202236:26
Georgie Turner of Tidal on product led and sales led go to market strategies and why sales experience is always a bonus.

Georgie Turner of Tidal on product led and sales led go to market strategies and why sales experience is always a bonus.

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 and a fundraising gun. Georgie has extensive experience in investment banking as well as enterprise sales, working closely alongside founders to develop successful go-to-market strategies. She brings wisdom and dedication to help founders optimise their business and prepare for the next round of fundraising. Formerly Bailador, Rackspace, Lazard.

Books:

Still Life by Sarah Winman 

Klara and the Sun: by Kazuo Ishiguro



Sep 30, 202238:43
Lisa Fedorenko - steering a 130 year old family company into highly impactful investments

Lisa Fedorenko - steering a 130 year old family company into highly impactful investments

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 Investment Management), venture capital (at Reinventure), and venture debt (at Marshall Investment Management). Lisa is now the investment manager at Alberts, a unique family business with over 130 years of history and a commitment culturally rich, inclusive, healthy and sustainable world.

Lisa is fluent in English, Russian and French and as a raging extrovert never stops being inspired by the entrepreneurs she works with.

Companies mentioned

Uluu

Baymatob

Like Family

Books:

Anyone looking to get into VC should read:


Sep 22, 202239:26
Sam Sicilia - Hostplus Super fund CIO shares some of his skills

Sam Sicilia - Hostplus Super fund CIO shares some of his skills

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 behaviour fascinating and has a special affection for the beauty and precision of well-crafted language.

While he certainly would not include this on his business card, Sam has a PhD in mathematical modelling and theoretical physics and really stumbled into finance by accident via academia in 1994. 12 years later found himself establishing what would become one of the most successful investment teams in the country, and key supporter of Australia’s then nascent venture capital ecosystem.

What I really liked when researching Sam’s background, is that he is much less interested in listing his qualifications and much more interested in talking about the skills that have helped him achieve success:

• Lateral Thinking.
• Intuitive Reasoning.
• Problem Resolution.
• and Decision-making under uncertainty.

All of which have been required in very good measure over the last decade and a half in financial markets.

Companies

Zoox -  acquired by Amazon for well more than $1 billion 

Vaxxas – Vaccine delivery patches

Aug 11, 202237:27
Kristin Vaughn - investing for environmental and business returns.

Kristin Vaughn - investing for environmental and business returns.

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 Vircent, Kristin invests from pre-seed all the way to late-stage growth companies across 4 main areas Clean Energy; Mobility And; Smart Cities; Food And; Agriculture; the Circular Economy.

Prior to joining the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Kristin spent more than a decade at top tier Australian private equity firm CHAMP Ventures and prior to that was a consultant at leading management consulting firm AT Kearney. Kristin holds a first class honours degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney and the energy she has for her work is palpable.

Kristin Vaughn on LinkedIn

Aug 11, 202236:59
Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor - Food systems and Agtech innovation with Tencious Ventures

Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor - Food systems and Agtech innovation with Tencious Ventures

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 accelerator programs and consulting to established agribusinesses, all the way to helping industry, universities and government develop and implement forward-looking initiatives in food system innovation. 

Sarah is also the host of the AgTech...So What? podcast, telling stories of innovators building the food systems of the future. Sarah holds a Masters in System Design and Management from MIT, and a Bachelor of Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University in the US. 

Matthew Pryor is the other half of the co-founder team at Tenacious Ventures and a Partner at AgThentic. He was previously co-founder of Observant, an Australian agtech pioneer acquired by Jain in 2017. He was the founding chair of Rocket Seeder, a food & agriculture innovation accelerator, and having achieved multiple significant exits himself, Matthew is dedicated to promoting Australian agri-food innovation globally. Both Sarah and Matthew are passionate about helping Australia take its rightful place as a leader in the technologies which will solve global food and environmental challenges. Its such an important mission. 


Companies 

Geora - https://www.geora.io/ Simple and secure technology for farmer networks to track and finance global agri-supply chains. Founder Bridie Ohlsson  

Rapid Aim - https://rapidaim.io/ A precision pest management tool for today’s farmer. Founder Nancy Schellhorn, PhD  

Goterra - https://goterra.com.au/ Modular, autonomous waste management units using insects to consume food waste, directly where waste is produced or at a central site. Founder Olympia Yarger 

Resources 

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz  

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by Annie Duke

Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups-Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $100,000 into $100,000,000 by Jason Calacanis  

Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be by Dr Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter 


Other 

20 minute VC podcast 

Heavyweight podcast 

Aug 06, 202247:28
Karyn West - Steering institutional investors to greener pastures

Karyn West - Steering institutional investors to greener pastures

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 handedly launch an unknown American manager in Australia and then when on to established Apostle in 2008.

Now with over 30 years of experience in the finance sector, Karyn refutes that her success is anything magical, it is just the outworking of years of honing her skills, network and always being able to see things from her client’s perspective.

Links

United National Principals for Responsible Investment UNPRI 

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson 

Fear and Greed podcast 

Jul 21, 202231:08
Jackie Vullinghs - The most important attribute in VC... is a surprise

Jackie Vullinghs - The most important attribute in VC... is a surprise

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 Academic Excellence, the Dunster Prize for History and the Sarah Springman Prize for simultaneous excellence in both academic study and university sport), these days she is much more impressed by behaviours than badges of success. And when it comes to being a great venture capital investor, she believes that there is one attribute that trumps all the others, more important that curiosity, analytical skills, sales acumen and operating experience. Jax believes that the one trait that trumps all others is agency. The ability to develop a plan and take action, without anyone’s permission.

Jax is driven by the joy of making connections - between ideas, and between people. She also loves seeing companies where growth is driven by raving fans who feel compelled to spread the word. Years ago that led to an obsession with direct to consumer and creator-led brands. Today, despite its volatility she is fascinated by how Web3 is allowing creators to reward fans with ownership in their communities and can't wait to see the emergent behaviour that evolves as a result.

Links

Jackie Vullinghs on LinekdIn 

Behaviour over badges  - Substack newsletter

The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop  

Complexity by M. Mitchell Waldrop

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner.

A Man for All Markets: Beating the Odds, from Las Vegas to Wall Street by Edward O. Thorp Endurance by Alfred Lansing

Companies

Grow Super - Super admin software

eucalyptus - healthcare technology company

Jul 16, 202235:24
Libby Briggs - educator, facilitator, entrepeneur and designer of the EmpowerEd program.

Libby Briggs - educator, facilitator, entrepeneur and designer of the EmpowerEd program.

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, it's hard to think of anyone better to design educational experiences for founders.

Libby loves working with business builders and has found that being surrounded by other incredibly entrepreneurial and accomplished women inspires her to be more engaged, take risks with her own business and strengthen her skills in supporting women-led ventures.

As facilitator Libby is passionate about supporting founders to hone their skills, grow in confidence as they talk about their businesses, create a strong narrative in their pitch and extend their networks for growth and scale. As the project manager she is agile and adaptive, working to create the best online education programs for female founders.

At Scale we feel so lucky to work with Libby!


Resources

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World - Book by Melinda Gates

Cut Through Venture - Australian startup funding ecosystem newsletter

AirTree Open Source VC - free legal documents, checklists and databases 

Right Click Capital's Garry Visontay - curated list of blog posts, eBooks, reports and tools 


Jul 07, 202234:23
Alexandra Clunies-Ross of Artesian Investments infects us with her enthusiasm

Alexandra Clunies-Ross of Artesian Investments infects us with her enthusiasm

Jun 23, 202237:38
Adam Milgrom - 100% impact with Giant Leap
Jun 16, 202233:13
Kara Frederick - Well prepared to stand by the many things she believes in.

Kara Frederick - Well prepared to stand by the many things she believes 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 then spending 15 years as an investor and adviser for financial services technology in New York and San Francisco she found the love of her life, moved to Sydney, and became as she calls it an accidental Australian.

Kara has thrived in her adopted home, with her firm Tiger instrumental in the $1.2 billion USD deal to list Tritium on the NASDAQ, and advising HR tech leader Culture Amp on the capital raise which propelled them to unicorn status, amongst numerous others notable deals.

Kara is committed to the future of education and diversity in tech, volunteering her time as a director of SBE Australia, Princeton University’s Alumni Schools Committee, and as an active mentor in the tech ecosystem.

Kara’s well publicised departure from Westpac’s corporate venture arm Reinventure and subsequent litigation, highlights her commitment to standing up for what she believes in and using her actions, as much as her words, to be a role model for others to be brave.

Companies

Tritium

Cover Genius

Indebted

Podcasts

Invest like the Best

Bloomberg

CNBC

Mentors and Heroes

Robyn Denholm – Board Chair, Tesla

Didier Elzinga CEO of Culture Amp

Daniel Petre Cofounder and Partner Emeritus of Airtree VC Rob Koczkar Managing Director, Adamantem Capital
Jun 09, 202236:24
Scott Gunther - On strategic, rather than purely financial VC for IAG Firemark Ventures, corporate VC fund

Scott Gunther - On strategic, rather than purely financial VC for IAG Firemark Ventures, corporate VC fund

You know you are doing a good job as a venture investor when your portfolio companies rave about the value you add to their company completely independently of the capital you have provided. That’s certainly the case with this week’s guest Scott Gunther, General Partner of IAG’s Firemark Ventures.

Scott describes Firemark as a strategic rather than a financial corporate venture investor, investing in startups to bring their capability inside the big insurer IAG to transform how it delivers insurance to customers. By early this year Firemark had made 33 investments across 18 portfolio companies and had achieved 6 exits including several IPOs.

However Scott sees the real measure of success in the ability of IAG to meaningfully partner with investee companies and is very proud of the 13 corporate agreements across the portfolio to create mutual value.   

With years of both designing and delivering digital transformations across multiple industries, Scott possesses the skills and experience of both strategy and execution - a differentiator at the Board table that investee companies rave about.

Links

Scott Gunther on LinkedIn 

About IAG Firemark in Interface Magazine, Issue 27, and in the Australian Financial Review 

AI leadership coaching app, Bunch AI

European startup news media, Sifted

Crunchbase - VC research

How to create Google alerts 


EmpowerEd

EmpowerEd is a 10-week program that is detailed, practical and high touch.

Combining online learning, small cohort facilitated sessions, mentorship, networking and personalised support. The program has been specifically designed to decode the world of angel investing and venture capital for women-led startups across Australia and designed in a way that supports you, the founder- every step of the way!

Want to know more about the Empowered program? Apply here and don’t forget to use the code Connect to Capital for a 25% scholarship for the August 2022 program. Starting August 9th.

TAKE 10MINS TO APPLY NOW:  https://scale-investors.mykajabi.com/empowered


Jun 02, 202231:04
Steve Baxter - Telling it like it is

Steve Baxter - Telling it like it is

Steve Baxter says it like it is. He is not shy about being controversial and he is comfortable with the discomfort of disagreement. But as one of Australia’s most visible tech entrepreneurs, active investor and mentor to numerous startups, he has done more than almost anyone in the country to popularise early stage technology investment. He also provides some of the most useful and easy to remember advice to entrepreneurs, like ‘execution is everything’ and ‘don’t treat your business as a cash register’.

Steve has been championing Australian startups and entrepreneurs since he founded River City Labs, Brisbane’s well-known co-working hub in 2012.  But many of us are most familiar with Steve as a result of his appearance as a ‘Shark’ on Channel 10’s Shark Tank Australia.

These days Steve is energised by TEN13 an investment syndicate platform for sophisticated investors to invest alongside him and the experienced Investments team that supports him.

It was a real treat to speak with Steve – and like me I am sure you will not die wondering what he really thinks.

Links

https://www.stevebaxter.com.au/

https://www.ten13.vc/

River City Labs


EmpowerEd

EmpowerEd is a 10-week program that is detailed, practical and high touch.

Combining online learning, small cohort facilitated sessions, mentorship, networking and personalised support. The program has been specifically designed to decode the world of angel investing and venture capital for women-led startups across Australia and designed in a way that supports you, the founder- every step of the way!

Want to know more about the Empowered program? Apply here and don’t forget to use the code Connect to Capital for a 25% scholarship for the August 2022 program. Starting August 9th.

TAKE 10MINS TO APPLY NOW:  https://scale-investors.mykajabi.com/empowered





May 26, 202243:03
Matt Allen – Geek turned business guy, investor, advisor and mentor
May 19, 202246:35
Dan Phillips – Letting the entrepreneurs be the stars
May 13, 202238:46
Nicole Small – A fast ‘no’ is just as important as every high conviction ‘yes’

Nicole Small – A fast ‘no’ is just as important as every high conviction ‘yes’

May 05, 202237:05
Jonathan Hannam – Revolutionising property with technology to make the world a better place
Apr 29, 202239:24
Tristen Langley: Perception shattering O.G. of Australian tech and VC investing.

Tristen Langley: Perception shattering O.G. of Australian tech and VC investing.

The best thing about working with Scale Investors, is that I am regularly introduced to someone who completely smashes my perception of what is possible. That’s how I felt when I met Tristen Langley, who could be described as one of the original gangsters of Australian technology and venture capital investing and I was amazed that I had never heard of her.

Originally from Sydney, having secured first class honours in science and the university medal from the University of NSW, Tristen spread her wings initially completing graduate studies in software engineering in Germany and then an MBA from Stanford delivering her straight into the heart of Silicon Valley as the late 1990’s tech revolution was in full swing.

Over the following nearly 2 decades, Tristen has had a front row seat to the highs and lows of technology and venture, and has sourced, led or been operationally involved with private investments that have returned over $8 billion to investors.

Tristen seems to be able to live life completely to the beat of her own drum, now splitting her time between her home in California and her exquisite eco-friendly wellness retreat in Peru, situated between Machu Picchu and the Incan capital of Cusco.

Generous with her time and oozing with enthusiasm, the most striking thing about Tristen is how evidently she lives her values of integrity, excellence and diligence. Her story really is perception shattering!

Links

Tristan Langley on LinkedIn 

Wilka T'ika, Tristen’s yoga retreat in Peru https://willkatika.com/

Shaman healing Peru https://www.samadihealing.com/

Book: Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways by Sarah Steinn Greenberg


Apr 21, 202237:29
Kylie Frazer - Co-founder and Partner at Flying Fox Ventures

Kylie Frazer - Co-founder and Partner at Flying Fox Ventures

Kylie Frazer is a co-founder of Flying Fox Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, which makes it easy for private investors to build their own diversified technology investment portfolios. Flying Fox has invested in more than 30 great Australian startups including Fresh Equities, Jig Space, Goterra and Mr Yum, making material capital contributions to their growth journeys. Flying Fox’s model is designed to focus exclusively on early stage tech investments, long recognised as one of the most prospective yet neglected segments of the Australian venture capital market.

Passionate about introducing more investors to the joys of early stage tech investing, Kylie is a regular contributor at Australia’s leading investor education providers: Wade Institute’s VC Catalyst; The Australian Graduate School of Management’s Angel Education Program and Scale Investors’ very own InvestEd platform.

Kylie brings empathy to the founder experience, having founded two technology businesses herself. She has almost two decades experience as a corporate transactions lawyer, and just as I could have nerded out with her about tax law and web 3 all day, there is almost no topic about which she does not have a thoughtful and well considered opinion.

Links

Not Boring by Patrick Mccormick (@Packy McCormick)


Apr 15, 202251:55
Rachael Neumann - An epicenter of Australian investing?

Rachael Neumann - An epicenter of Australian investing?

Rachael Neumann is Founding Partner at Flying Fox Ventures, but she is so much more than that. In fact it feels like Rachael Neumann is at the epicentre of the Australian startup ecosystem and has been instrumental in bringing some of the secrets of silicon valley’s success to our shores to enable both Australian companies and investors to thrive.

Rachael was enticed here to be Managing Director of Eventbrite Australia, growing the tech business in our region, having previously been a consultant at Bain & Company in Silicon Valley and throughout Australia, advising Technology, Private Equity, Consumer Products and Retail businesses.

Her love of early stage companies was evident in her choice to head up Startups in Australia & New Zealand for Amazon Web Services, responsible for driving both quantity and quality of startups in our region. Along the way Rachael became an invaluable strategic advisor and investor and a Partner in Startmate, Australia’s most ambitious accelerator. She’s passionate about helping companies scale and increase their impact through differentiated customer experiences and new product development.

Rachael also works to create the right policy environment that’s conducive to a thriving sector, and served as Chair of the Board for StartupAus - Australia's national startup advocacy and lobby group - with a federal ministerial appointment distributing commercialisation and acceleration funding on behalf of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

Educated in the States with an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and two Masters degrees from Columbia University, Rachael has bounced between Australia and the US for the last ten years and now proudly calls Melbourne home, alongside her partner and two children.

Links

https://www.flyingfox.vc/about

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachaelneumann/

Apr 12, 202256:03
Michael Da Gama Pinto - Life lessons to make any company a success

Michael Da Gama Pinto - Life lessons to make any company a success

You will be hard pressed to meet anyone more genuine and keen to help than Michael Da Gama Pinto, the CEO and Founder of The Foundry Group. When we talked about recording a podcast together, rather than wanting to focus on the two exceptional Australian brands he helped achieve international success in Aēsop and Swisse or the operational expertise he brings to his portfolio companies, helping management teams with the right capital structure and resourcing to take advantage of favourable industry conditions, he wanted to share a couple of very personal stories which he thinks really demonstrate essential learnings from his journey. He wanted to share not because they would cast him in the most favourable light, quite the opposite. But because Michael is always thinking of the most effective way to help founders truly absorb the learnings which will underpin their success.

Michael is focused on the Health, Wellness and Beauty space, believing a passionate believer in the multiplier effect of taking care of body and mind, and leaving a positive mark on the world.

The majority of profits made from the investments by Michael and his family are donated to charities supporting health, employment and education initiatives.

But what Michael feels is his most important and proudest achievement, is being the father of three beautiful children.

Contact Michael via LinkedIn 

Book – The Art of Stillness 

Mar 31, 202233:10
Jana Bobosikova - Czech by origin, EPIC by choice

Jana Bobosikova - Czech by origin, EPIC by choice

We are lucky enough to be joined this week by Jana Bobosikova the founder and CEO of EPIC Brands – the health and beauty venture studio based in California.

Jana has a fascinating background, describing herself as being Czech by birth, global by choice. She has lived and worked in Europe , the UK and the US and has studied areas as diverse as EU financial markets, monetary policy, and theology and religious studies with an honours thesis on The South Korean Economic Miracle and the Spirit of Protestantism.

These dates Jana is Focused on driving high-growth tech-enabled consumer brands with multi-platform revenue, relevancy, innovation, and impact. She really is EPIC!

More about Jana:

Jana Bobosikova on LinkedIn 

Mar 24, 202240:13
Mike Zimmerman: Dragging science out of the lab and into our futures.

Mike Zimmerman: Dragging science out of the lab and into our futures.

Our guest on Connect to Capital this week is Mike Zimmerman, a partner at Main Sequence Ventures, the Innovation Fund of the CSIRO, the Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research.

Mike has adopted Australia as his home, after more than 20 years as a founder, executive or investor in a wide range of technology companies both here and the US.

Mike is a committed deep tech investor passionate about working with Founders to help them achieve their ambitions and working with companies that are bringing a step change in new value to existing industries.

At Main Sequence, Mike leads the Supercharge Industrial Productivity Challenge, and also invests in the Feed 10 Billion People challenge and Next Intelligence Leap Challenge

Mike also sits on the Board of the Australian Investment Council, the Investment Committee for the State of Queensland’s Business Development Fund, and the Global Board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Association.

Earlier in his career, he worked with Bain & Company and Goldman Sachs. He has an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Amherst College. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone who has the combination of Mike’s experience, intelligence, insight all while being super generous with his time.


Links

Mike Zimmerman on LinkedIn

Inspirational portfolio founder Jamila Gordon 


Mar 17, 202239:15
Andrea Gardiner: Extreme sports to extreme commitment to the Australian startup landscape

Andrea Gardiner: Extreme sports to extreme commitment to the Australian startup landscape

Mar 10, 202244:25
Ian Gardiner: A man with world class smarts and stamina

Ian Gardiner: A man with world class smarts and stamina

When Ian Gardiner was 10 years old, he was the fastest kid in his class to solve the rubix cube. He was also quick enough to sense a business opportunity so he sold the solution to his classmates. Despite the modest circumstances of his childhood in Glasgow, he went on to secure a place at St Peter’s College Oxford and row not once, but twice in the prestigious Oxford Cambridge boat race, the culmination of 6 hours of training 6 days per week for 7 months on top of demanding Oxford academic expectations.

What becomes of a man who has the sort of innate smarts and stamina?

Surprisingly he has found himself halfway around the world, and together with his wife Andrea Gardiner one half of the possibly the most dynamic couple in the Australian startup eco-system with their firm Jelix ventures. Ian is also the co-founder of the wonderfully expansive network of technology and investment enthusiasts Innovation Bay and for good measure the host of probably my favourite Australian startup podcast Open the Podbay doors.

Along the way Ian became a Member of YPO, had a stint as the Head of Startups at AWS in Australia/NZ, has won the Pearcy award for IT Entrepreneur of the year. He is a Passionate startup mentor, Cyclist, gamer, skier, husband, geek, and father (but not necessarily in that order).

Links and resources

Ian Gardiner on LinkedIn

Jelix Ventures 

Podcasts

Open the Pod Bay Doors 

Other

Oxford Cambridge boat race

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors
Scale Educated


Mar 03, 202243:00
Ben Armstrong – what is the perfect background for a VC investor?

Ben Armstrong – what is the perfect background for a VC investor?

Ben Armstrong is a co-founder of Archangel, an early stage venture fund and investment syndicate. He and his partners work with great technology founders to build game changing companies together. They are industry agnostic and have backed over a dozen companies including Bardee, Fresh Equities, Pearler, Sendle and Shipeezi.

Ben seems to have the perfect background for venture with degrees in both computer science and law and deep experience working with other talented people to change industries including SaaS, e-commerce, health care and fintech. He has been a product manager, strategist, people leader, investor and board director, in addition to spending 6 years at Telstra Ventures.

While Ben has enjoyed lots of success launching new businesses, bringing new products to market, built new $100M+ business units, he has the humility to admit that he has also learnt a lot from what didn't work and dealt with the consequences of failed initiatives including his own start up.

Links and resources

Ben at Archangel

Podcasts

The Twenty Minute VC

Companies

Bardee
Fresh Equities
Pearler
Shipeezi

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors
Scale Educated

Feb 24, 202237:21
Marisa Warren believes world-changing women-led tech startups are not hard to find

Marisa Warren believes world-changing women-led tech startups are not hard to find

Marisa Warren has more than 20 years experience in tech as a venture capital investor, advisor and operator working for companies like SAP, Microsoft and Workday. After an award studded career, Marisa left big corporate in 2015 to pursue her passion for early-stage businesses. Whilst living in New York, Marisa founded ELEVACAO a global pre-accelerator for women tech founders. Fast forward to today and ELEVACAO has empowered over 175 women across the U.S. and Australia to raise significant capital and achieve 3 successful Exits.

In 2020 Marisa turned her first hand understanding of the difficulty women founders face raising capital into an opportunity, co-founding ALIAVIA Ventures with previous podcast guest Kate Vale. Based in LA, ALIAVIA invests early stage venture capital in female founders who are building world-changing enterprise and consumer tech businesses. Together Marisa and Kate have amassed angel investments with a valuation of $1.2 billion including investments in Vurbl, HowToo, Wakefully, Requipper and Eugene.

While very much at home in Silicon Valley, Marisa still sometimes longs for an Australian coffee!

Links and resources

Marisa Warren on LinkedIn

Books

Good to Great

Podcasts

Techcrunch Equity Podcast

Companies mentioned in the episode:

Wakefully
Vurbl
How Too
Requipper

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors
Scale Educated

Feb 17, 202242:49
Daniel Madhavan: investing with purpose for people and the planet

Daniel Madhavan: investing with purpose for people and the planet

Feb 10, 202238:41
Kate Vale - a giant of Australian tech empowering women startups to thrive in the US

Kate Vale - a giant of Australian tech empowering women startups to thrive in the US

Kate Vale founded ALIAVIA Ventures in 2020 with Marisa Warren, on a mission to invest in the highest potential female founders in Australia and the US, and help them achieve outsized success. 

And Kate knows plenty about fast paced scaling, having established Google in Australia and New Zealand, growing revenues from zero to more than $500 million over a six year period. She then moved on to head up Spotify in the region, being their first Australian employee and managing all aspects of the business.

After years of angel investing, Kate brings her wealth of experience as an operator and investor to the ALIAVIA portfolio companies, with a unique vantage point from her home in California to help Australian startups tackle the highly prized US market.

Links and resources
ALIAVIA

The CMO Podcast

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors
Scale Educated

Feb 03, 202249:20
Nick Crocker from Blackbird Ventures trajectory - journalism to investing

Nick Crocker from Blackbird Ventures trajectory - journalism to investing

Our guest this week is Nick Crocker who is a General Partner at Blackbird Ventures, one of Australia’s largest and most successful venture firms.

He is an investor in a string of flourishing startups including Culture Amp, Applied, Eucalyptus, Dovetail, and Beyond Ag.

Nick knows the world of venture capital well, having co-founded one of the first companies that Blackbird funded called Sessions. As co-founder and CEO of Sessions, Nick was dedicated to creating technology to help people live better, healthier lives. Sessions was acquired by MyFitnessPal 2013 which itself was acquired by Under Armour in 2015, with Nick proceeding into the role of Chief of Staff for their entire Connected Fitness business.

On the side, Nick co-founded We Are Hunted which was acquired by Twitter in 2013. Returning to Australia from Silicon Valley, Nick was the inaugural CEO of accelerator Startmate before handing the CEO baton to our previous podcast guest Michael Batko.  

Nick is endlessly curious and while studying Political Science and Law at the University of Queensland, he worked as a journalist with News Ltd. His love of writing if evident in his fascinating substack newsletter and while he knows lots about integrated hardware/software products, he never wants to limit the types of founders he connects with in case he misses the next one who absolutely inspires him.  And somehow, he manages to do all this while being a role model as a husband and father.

Links and resources

Nick Crocker's Substack

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors
Scale Educated 

Jan 27, 202245:42
A fresh take on raising capital from Michael Batko CEO of Startmate

A fresh take on raising capital from Michael Batko CEO of Startmate

This week, Catherine Robson speaks with Michael Batko and the word she would use to describe him is prolific.  Not only is Michael the CEO of Startmate, the accelerator whose aim is to be the epicentre of startup ambition across Australia and New Zealand, he speaks multiple languages, creates incredible weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual content, and is so captivated by the energy of startups that rather than confine himself to working with just one, he wants to cultivate as many as he can.

Michael has Polish heritage but grew up in Austria and calls Australia home.

He had the chance to follow the traditional path into consulting and corporate life with jobs at Amex, PwC, and KPMG but he fell in love with the startup world. He more than doubling the team at Madpaws and was then part of the five-fold increase at expert360.com, including the $13M Series B capital raise.

In this episode Michael’s advice for founders who are thinking about raising capital might just be the best I have ever heard and his enthusiasm about building a city dedicated to startups is infectious.

There is no doubt he loves what he does and is always happy to help!

Links and resources

Everything you could want from the world of Michael Batko including his thoughts from Twitter, his newsletter on substack, resources, book and podcast summaries. 

The Australian 100 Innovators 2021 

The Courage to be Disliked: The Japanese phenomenon that shows you how to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga 

Follow Michael on Medium - the list of books he has reviewed is incredible.

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/
Scale Educated - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/scale-educated


Jan 20, 202238:44
Partner at The Foundry, Federica Nicolao just can’t say no to terrific women entrepreneurs
Jan 13, 202236:50
Alister Coleman, founder of Folklore Ventures, on the importance of mental frameworks
Jan 06, 202242:14
Paul Naphtali, cofounder of Rampersand VC on his journey from strategic communications to VC

Paul Naphtali, cofounder of Rampersand VC on his journey from strategic communications to VC

This week, Catherine Robson talks with Paul Naphtali who is the cofounder of Rampersand VC, the early stage Australian technology fund established in 2013 to help close the funding gap for Australian and NZ startup founders.

Paul returned to Australia after working in Silicon Valley and the UK to sprinkle some of the magic he learned as a marketing and strategic communications guru for a number of highly successful venture-backed tech companies.

Paul has had some fantastic investment wins, but is always looking for ways to make himself a better investor and the Australian ecosystem stronger.

Links and resources

Paul and Rampersand VC

Books Paul recommends:

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis which explores the close partnership of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky

Masters of Scale podcast with Reid Hoffman 

For more information about Scale:
Scale Investors - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/

Scale Educated - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/scale-educated

Dec 30, 202151:36
Rachel Yang, partner at Giant Leap on the questions she always asks founders

Rachel Yang, partner at Giant Leap on the questions she always asks founders

This week, Catherine Robson talks with the amazing Rachel Yang. Rachel is a partner at Giant Leap, Australia's first 100% impact venture capital fund backing founders who are using business as a force for good. 

Rachel escaped the clutches of a traditional corporate path in management consulting and corporate finance, since then, her career in venture has flourished. She's admired across the startup sector for her integrity, intelligence and capacity to create value through collaboration, always ready to invest in making the ecosystem stronger. 

Rachel is the co-chair of Startup Victoria a nonprofit grassroots organization, which supports startup founders to thrive. And she's also a member of the Victorian State Governments innovation Task Force. Rachel is a fabulous person to spend some time with.

Links and resources

Scale Investors - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/

Scale Educated - https://scaleinvestors.com.au/scale-educated

Giant Leap - https://www.giantleapfund.vc/

Start Up Victoria - https://startupvictoria.com.au/

Dec 23, 202144:34
Introducing Connect to Capital

Introducing Connect to Capital

Is the secret to raising capital really all about who you know? At Scale Investors, Australia’s leading gender diverse investment network, we believe that access to investors, advice and education is the crucial missing piece of the capital-raising puzzle. For too long it’s been limited to an exclusive club. We believe it's time to open access. It’s time to Connect to Capital. Hosted by Catherine Robson, chair of the Scale Investors, this podcast provides open access to an impressive network of Australia’s most successful and thoughtful venture investors. Connect with their stories of success, learn from their mistakes and collect pearls of wisdom as these accomplished industry leaders share their experience and disclose priceless advice. At Scale Investors we believe that knowledge is power and education is a key driver in removing the investment gender gap. We are thrilled to grant access to these pivotal conversations and play our part in providing entrepreneurs the opportunity to create a better future. Together, let’s empower investment.

Dec 21, 202101:31