Startup 360

It's a special episode of Startup 360 this week with Earthletica cofounder Bronte Campbell. The triple Olympic gold medallist and a former World Champion's had a bit of a career pivot since Paris. She's now CEO of the sustainable activewear brand after competing in four Olympics - her first as a teenager in 2012. Bronte and cofounder Libby Babbett are now raising capital for Earthletica on the crowdfunding platform Birchal, having already generated more than $200,000 in revenue, selling out its first-year products. She decided to tackle a key problem in the $600 billion activewear market - it's made from virgin plastics and harsh chemicals. Earthletica uses recycled and organic materials, avoids PFAS (the forever chemical) treatments, and is designed with end-of-life recycling in mind. Startup 360 hosts Simon and Majella talk to Bronte about what a winning mindset and focus in sport brings to founder life, overcoming setbacks and discussing a subject close to her heart, creating a winning team culture. Bronte's delved deep into it, having dealt with the worst and helped create one of the best cultures in Australia's Olympic swimming team, and what she has to say about the science is fascinating. It's an inspiring conversation with a sporting great, now doing amazing things on the founder field. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Startup 360 takes a deep dive into leadership this week with Chris Kirk, one of the OGs with Stone and Chalk . Chris recently announced he was stepping down as CEO after three years, and 11 with the organisation since it began in Sydney. It's not so much an exit interview as a rumination on what he's learnt about what it takes to be a great founder and also leader. Chris took the top job at a time when the not-for-profit's finances were in a perilous state, with losses in the millions, and has returned the innovation hub that's home to more than 500 startups and scaleups in three capital cities to financial stability in an $9 million turnaround. Simon and Majella also talk to Chris about what he learnt from his first CEO role, the support he gathered around him to succeed, and when it comes to holding yourself accountable, how the father of two also does that for family while in a high-pressure job. Chris also talks about the role he plays as regimental sergeant major to hundreds of founders at Stone & Chalk, and knowing when to step in to help and advise someone who might be struggling with "the 57 things you've gotta deal with today to keep your business alive". Episode 47 of Startup 360 is an open and honest conversation about staying the course and knowing that leadership is a marathon and not a sprint. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a slightly different Startup 360 this week with no special guest, so cohosts Simon and Majella take the time to kick around the big news of the last few weeks, from Canva buying two more startups, to WiseTech slashing 2000 coding jobs in favour of AI, UpGuard's $105 million raise and SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear returning as CEO ahead of an AI rebuild of the workplace safety platform. Simon and Majella also cover Growth Summit in Melbourne, where Aconex cofounder Leigh Jasper offered advice on staying the course in business, and VCs explained what "you're too early" means. The pair also crack open a can of Australian Coffee Culture's Australian-grown coffee. Cofounder Shreya Gupta was a guest on the show in November, and Majella had an update on Dome - founders Sophie Greiner and Bella Filacuridi were guests in August - with the podcasting community engagement startup launching with its first podcast, all about tackling the juggle between work and raising a family. They also discuss Uber after Simon made a post about surge pricing on LinkedIn that's had more than 60,000 impressions in just 48 hours. What's your take - just the free market working or a price gouge that's outside the acceptable boundaries of business? This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s all about artificial intelligence this week with In the Blink of AI host Georgie Healy joining the show  to talk about what many see as the 4th industrial revolution. Majella’s away this week, so Simon enlisted Georgie to talk about this week’s news, including the loss of Techstars Sydney, before they got into the weeds on AI. Georgie’s podcast, In the Blink of AI, is out every Friday and recently spoke with AWS AI guru Rada Stanic, who admits even she’s struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of change in artificial intelligence. Georgie, who recently left Google to focus on her podcast, also turned the tables on Simon asking him about the impact of AI and tech on journalism. They talked about parenting in the age of smartphones - Georgie had a revelation while off her phone for 90 minutes while her son was at Nippers - and ethics in AI, as well as her love of music and her hacks for using AI better. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Startup 360 discusses leadership - and how to do it without being a jerk, with Karlie Cremin, CEO of Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia. Karlie wrote a book about it - Don’t Lead like a Jerk - and Simon and Majella talk to her about the ups and downs of being the boss, confessing the jerk bit can happen to anyone - what you do next is what matters.Karlie reminds us that first and foremost, we're not machines, we're humans and that means there are good days and bad ones. It's a fascinating dive into what it means to lead and hang around to the end, when she reveals the simple trick that transformed one CEO's life, both at work and home. The news Simon and Majella discuss this week includes digital twins platform Neara raising $90 million to become Australia's newest unicorn, Startmate's plan to back social enterprise startups to create generational businesses that make the community better, and Deel's $21 million global Seed-stage startup comp, The Pitch. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Startup 360 looks south this week, for a conversation with fintech investor Brian Collins about his new role as CEO of Enterprize Tasmania.Brian, deputy chair of Fintech Australia, and cofounder of fintech VC Triple Bubble with Dom Pym and Judy Anderson-Firth, spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley before calling Melbourne home in recent years.Brian shares the stories of some remarkable Tassie startups, as well as the joys of life on the Apple Isle - from a caring community’s support and collaboration to the food, wine and fun of a MONA visit.He also shares his tips to founders as a long-time mentor to hundreds of startups.While Simon and Majella plot how soon they can head to Hobart to record Startup 360 on location there, they also talk about the big news of the week. First up it’s the release of the annual State of Australian Startup Funding report, which reveals a 24% increase in investment to $5.1 billion in 2025, although the total number of deals fell as later-stage rounds became the focus alongside AI, which received the most funding at $1 billion.Elon Musk was also in the new for the right and wrong reasons, from the merger of SpaceX and xAI, to making plans to visit convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious island, with the release of emails and 3 million files about Epstein contradicting Musk’s previous spinning of the narrative around his involvement with the billionaire, who died in jail in 2019.Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Startup 360 for 2026. For the first episode of the year, Majella and Simon talk about the big news of Summer: ·       The sudden collapse of parcel delivery platform Sendle ·       The end of SXSW Sydney ·       Airwallex calling in lawyers to ask media to take down critical stories Our guest for episode 42 is Maddi Ingham, cofounder of GreenPay, a social enterprise payment processor that donates 50% of its profits to biodiversity and conservation. Maddi started her career in management consulting at BCG, working with Australia’s largest companies to solve their most pressing problems. She admits she likes chaos and the adrenaline rush of dealing with things when they go wrong. She was also Chief of Staff at Verve Super, supporting the launch of their investment product, and leading Verve’s sale to Future Group, and talks about the role and how it’s the perfect training ground for life as a founder. Startup 360 is more founder fun than founder mode. It’s all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay - anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Jim Cooper, CEO of Blue-X, a California-based innovation services company for startups, moved to the US three decades ago, he had some trepidations. Now he loves it, but the former Sydneysider is back "home" for Christmas and in his shorts, to share his experiences on the final Startup 360 episode for 2025. Jim, who coaches an AFL team in Orange County, not far from Disneyland, has some strong thoughts on the Australian mindset and how to hustle."We've only got really one metric and that is at the end of the fourth quarter, we've got more points on the board than our opposition," he said. "So I treat every single startup as if it's three-quarter time with five goals, two, down, and we need to do something in the next 20 minutes to turn this game around so that we can win it. He also believes tall poppy syndrome is a thing in Australia and tells cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell it's holding us back, alongside the "report economy" endless reports, and no action. "We gaze inward, we see what we're missing and then we do very little about it except write a report. We don't address the problem head on. We like to be safe and we like to say a lot of safe things in Australia," he said. "We like to be very comfortable and polite. We don't like to tell the hard things that people don't like to hear. We can't confront that in Australia and I think that's a real fault of ours, being on the outside looking in and kind of seeing that now, you know, it makes me, it makes me cringe. It kind of makes me a little bit angry as well." And don't get him started on aphorisms like "punch above our weight".Episode 41 of Startup 360 is an extended Summer edition, diving into what Jim Cooper's learnt about startup life - he first launched accelerators in the US in 2010, and has worked and advised around the world on innovation and company building. It's also the last episode for 2025. Have a wonderful Summer and happy new year! The show will be back at the end of January, just as everyone packs up the beach umbrellas and heads back to work. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, test and launch software without needing a technical founder or large amounts of capital, Dave describes it as "the IKEA model of software development". "The way people build software is they go out, they find the tree, they chop the tree down, they hack the tree in half and they hand whittle all the pieces for the chair," he said. "Whereas the new model is out of the box, bang, click, click, bang - the pieces assemble a chair and it looks pretty much the same, does the exact same thing, hosted on AWS, with the exact same infrastructure that your custom-coded dev's doing without headaches, for like, a 10th of the price." Lightning has worked with more than 60 startups, combining lean product strategy with no-code tools. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell were keen to know more about Dave's experience in San Francisco. "I think the Bay Area is very open and accepting of people, especially if you're having a go, it's amazing," he said. "I think they've got an advantage in San Francisco - seven miles by seven miles - so it's such a small area and you've got so many successful people. The personal life and the business life kind of intertwine. You could be at a house party having a chat with someone - and this actually happened to me in the kitchen at a house party - saying, 'Oh, what are you doing?' They're like,'Oh, I work in tech'. I'm like, 'Oh cool'. "Anyway, turns out that guy was the cofounder of Weebly that sold to Square for like $300 million. He was like the most modest, humble guy. So yeah, you get the opportunity to meet incredible people." On the penultimate show for 2025, Majella and Simon also talk about the leaked details of Blackbird's investor day, "AI slop" as word of the year, and the ban for life on GetSwift's cofounders to prevent them being company directors in Canada. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 No. 2 came about. "What we discovered [in Hudled] is that accounting firms were managing hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of their clients. And in the Hudled dashboard, which was supposed to help them track all of this, they were hiding it," Alex recounts. "And we just couldn't work out why because it was coming off their credit card, it was their spend, but they didn't consider it as their own." So so they launched, Rechargly, so accountancy firms can bill clients quickly and correctly for software disbursements - a pain point that, surprisingly, many neglect or get wrong. Rechargly now delivers the bulk of the revenue and Majella and Simon wanted to know how to spot an opportunity and go all-in. "It's always tricky, isn't it? Because things were working with Hudled and to take a step back in order to go forward faster is always a really hard decision," Alex explained. "And when our team sat down and we were evaluating what was in front of us with what we knew versus what we discovered about what could be, it was, it was really challenging at the time." As well as a great convo with a serial founder who kicked off with a paddleboard importing business with a mate, this week's show discusses the latest from Blackbird-funded New Zealand startup Kiki, now starting out again in London after being shut down in New York, having paid $224,000 in a settlement - 3x the total revenue generated there - with the city over Kiki's illegal operations there. Also getting Simon riled up are 350 researcher jobs being cut at the national science agency, CSIRO, in the face of flatlined federal funding. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 no cash, having already rented the company's IP to the startup, which is was also, frequently unable to pay for on time. Simon recounts how Mito told the court that they company's approach to board minutes was "informal", and when one director raised concerns that the acquisition had gone through, Mito explained that "We had a bit of an issue with board members not always remembering details." What also emerged was that both MBA and StrongRoom were behind on the tax obligations, and the ATO was chasing both companies for money, as well as issuing Sangvhi with Director Penalty Notices for non-compliance. The details emerging from the public examination into the company's failure left both Startup 360 hosts a little gobsmacked, especially when it came to company governance, and the liquidators appear to be taking a close look at the actions of both men and their compliance with the Corporations Act. On a happier note, the also shared some excellent advice from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, now 95, in his final shareholder letter as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His excellent advice includes: "Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them." Their guest this week is Shreya Gupta, cofounder of Australian Coffee Culture, which is championing Australian-grown coffee - it accounts for just 1% of the 6 billion cups of coffee we drink annually - in a new range of ready-to-drink pick-me-ups. Shreya takes about moving from corporate life to startup founder and why Australian coffee beans deserve a special place in our cups. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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-profit, funded by Petre, who was inspired by his time working with Bill Gates, to change the culture of giving in the local startup sector. As Antonia explains: if you just look at the top 50 biggest philanthropists in Australia, a few years ago, 1% of that giving came from the tech sector, and now it's 21%. And just looking at the commitments that have been publicly made by those, particularly those sort of wealthier end of the tech founders, we think there's the potential for $20-30 billion dollars of untapped potential giving to come through the pipeline in the next few years." The research commissioned by StartGiving also found at people working in the tech sector were more than twice as likely than others to already be giving to charity, with $19 billion in commitments already made. English-born Antonia has had her own remarkable career in philanthropy and social impact over the past two decades, starting out of the Prince’s Trust - now the King's Trust after its founder, King Charles, took the throne. After moving to Australia, her roles have included CEO of Australian Philanthropic Services, and nowadays, she's a director of UNICEF Australia and chairs The Giving Academy Advisory Committee at the Centre for Social Impact, among several other hats. Last month she joined Pledge 1%, now chaired by Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar, who was instrumental in establishing it a decade earlier, to lead its first team outside of the US. More than 1,800 companies across Australia are part of a global community of 19,000-plus Pledge 1% members in 130 countries. They include the unicorns Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, Culture Amp, and Employment Hero. Their commitment is to give 1% of equity, profit, product, or employee time to projects and causes that help others. Simon and Antonia spend time discussing leadership, kindness, and how to support others to make the world a better place in an inspiring 40 minute conversation. To learn more, check out StartGiving and Pledge 1%.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 worked and Luna, his professional services advisory firm, which has worked with the likes of LaunchVic, Rampersand and Fishburners, was recently acquired by Tiger and Bear. Byron Bay-based Ronen talked to cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen about what he's learnt about startup life advising 1000s of startups and their founders about getting their legal and financial house in order to succeed, and his own experience as a founder going through a merger and acquisition. They also took a deep dive into leadership and masculinity. Ronen's been an associate professor at Monash University for the last five years with a focus on men’s leadership and how to best support younger males as they find their way in the world. Simon asks Ronen what founders can do to set a good example for the next generation.His advice is simple - work on yourself to be a better leader "You're going to have young people who are going to follow you, people are going to join you. This is going to be their first place of work. Your influence on them is far bigger than you think," Ronen said. "The interactions they see - there's a male founder who even says, 'Hey, you know what, let's think about gender diversity on our board', such a small thing to say - and the impacts like that ripples out in different ways to different things." Simon and Majella also talk about Elon Musk's Wikipedia AI ripoff - he's literally lifted large slabs of the original for it - and NZVC's new $50 million Fund II , which aims to back up to 60 early-stage startups in Australia and Aotearoa. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 360 podcast. "I mean, there's 864,000 new air conditioners being installed every day from now until 2050." Forget AI data centres or any other power consumer on the planet, air conditioning, something we don't think about because we mostly don't see it, is the only game in town, he explained. "Air conditioning is actually the sector that's expected to drive most of the growth of demand of electricity," Sam explained. "In fact, 50% of the growth of electricity over the next 30 years is all going to be air conditioning. And we're talking about comfort here. We're not even talking about food chains, pharmaceuticals, or the other applications." Startup 360 this week makes air conditioning sexy again as a major climate tech issue. Sam and his eponymous cofounder, 60-year industry veteran Ron Conry, raised $3 million in venture funding this week for their latest revolution, BullAnt, an air-conditioning system that has completely rethought how cooling is delivered, with the potential to save up to 50% of consumption and power bills for users. And if you think it all sounds sedate, Sam recounts the time their engineers were followed home and robbed and factories in Melbourne and Canada were ram-raided, with files and computers stolen in moments that sound like a spy thriller. Sam and Ron were responsible for the last great innovation in air conditioning 25 years ago - back when the Nokia 3310 was the world's best-selling phone, so HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) is overdue for disruption and if anyone's going to do it, it's these two with Sam's wife, Brenda, alongside as Conry Tech cofounder. Also on the show this week, cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen talk about the latest Cut Through Venture funding report for the September quarter. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 recent Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2025. A prolific ideas person who writes down her thoughts in notebooks explained her lightbulb moment to Startup 360 hosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen this week. “It’s just up to me whether this idea happens or not,” she said. “Even when there was chaos, it's like, it's okay. It's up to me - I can find the direction, I can control change, which is a very empowering idea." That thought, that realisation of freedom, electrified her. So she quit her lucrative Google job in late 2019 - yes, just before Covid - for life as a founder. Now she’s running startup 4, NiceTo, which is all about creating connections in the startup sector to succeed, as well as 5, Press Play, with ambitions to make it a global accelerator. Preethi also talked about human empathy in the age of AI. Having that connection of that technology and human empathy, I think it goes such a long way,” she explained. “If we disconnect from that, we're actually just going to lose a whole part of our beings.” Simon and Majella are continuing their extended discussions on Startup 360 with just one guest this week as they introduce listeners to the winners from the Best in Tech awards to unpack what makes them tick. Also on this week’s show, Majella and Simon also talked about pushback against the upcoming SXSW Sydney event by the startup sector and the week’s biggest raises, including $98 million for Heidi Health. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 own journey to becoming a mother led to Cool Beans. It's an important dive into male reproductive health that had Simon rearranging himself when Saara talked about the impact of sitting for 20 minutes or more and how how the additional heat down below has an impact on male fertility and testosterone levels. While reproductive health and fertility tends to focus on women, Saara has taken a deep dive into what blokes need to do to hold up their half of the conception bargain. And the simple truth is that their "beans" are running hot and that's not good for them. Helping her own husband take care downstairs transformed their attempts to become pregnant and the mother of two is now spreading the message to all who'll listen, building a scientifically-backed deep tech startup in the process. An explainer: Cool Beans undies keep the testes away from the body, as nature intended, so they don't become too warm, which can lead to reduced fertility and testosterone. Her product now has TGA approval and she has plans for FDA approval in the US. Simon and Majella took a deep dive into what's going on, as well as discussing being a solo founder, first mover advantage (is there one?) and the impact building Cool Beans has had on other families and the health of men. And Simon couldn't resist asking what it was like to talk to a room of NRL execs earlier this year about a different kind of ball handling skills... The Startup 360 cohosts also discussed the closure of ANZ's VC project, 1835i, the new home for Fishburners at the Tech Central Innovation Hub, and the wash up from the Best in Tech awards.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 agent builder Relevance AI winning both the AI Game-changer category and Startup of the Year awards, having raised a $37 million Series B just a few months earlier. Simon and Majella chat about the big news of the week, including Canva's profitability after the design giant filed overdue financial statements with ASIC that revealed a $200 million loss in 2022 - mostly because the company handed out more than $400m worth of shares to its team. And Strongroom AI returned to the news this week amid its legal battle with in investor EVP, after cofounder Max Mito filed his defence against allegations of fraud by the VC. But the fun part of the conversation is Mick, who spoke to Simon and inaugural podcast cohost Kayla Medica earlier this year, telling stories from a career that's spanned startup founder, startup investor, startup accelerator founder and novelist. Mick talks about his journey and how family brought his focus to climate tech and wanting to lead the planet in better shape for the next generation. He also talks about the price of being a founder, and understanding the sacrifices that need to be made. He also reveals his genius for being able to get more drinks, now matter where he is celebrating in the middle of the night - a skill that no doubt made him popular at the Startup Daily Best in Tech awards as the night wore on. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell as a serial founder and entrepreneur to talk about the role music plays in creativity and innovation. "Innovation and creativity are the same word. We just tend to say, 'oh, innovation is this digital thing that we do with computers and, you know, sciencey-type things," Charlie said. "Things that you can prove things that have a hypothesis But on the other hand, creativity is like. We don't understand creativity. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know from one creative moment to the next. Everything's creative. And I think that there's a bit of a disconnect between these two worlds." It's a fascinating conversation about embracing new technology and how to think about being an innovator. In a first for 10x, Simon and Majella's 10 rapid fire questions, they're join by two guests, the cofounders of CarSavvy, Ashlinn Leatham and Lachlan Dunn. It's a fun conversation spanning customer feedback - Ash would head to bars and pubs in Newtown and approach patrons to get them to download the CarSavvy app - to what makes a good, sustainable cofounder relationship and marketing car maintenance. Simon also digs a deep hole for himself attempting to mansplain what makes a great car for women. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 annual deep tech expo, in Sydney. Cohost Simon Thomsen was there and keen to share their ideas with the Startup 360 audience. Cohosts Simon and Majella Campbell talked to Nick, an engineer who came from R&D in the food sector, about the lessons be brought to a second go, at tackling the problem of carbon emissions. Algenie is an algae biotech company using groundbreaking technology for algae production at scale at an affordable price. The term describes everything from plankton - a vital part of the marine food chain - to seaweeds, and as well as being a major oxygen producer, it also soaks up CO2. His hope is that Algenie can help replace fossil fuels and last year the startup raised $1.1 million in pre-Seed funding. Nick talks about gardening leave from v2food, going from a startup in a "hot" sector for investors, to having to go back an educate people from scratch; why he's driven to tackle big problems and the nexus between engineering and science and how "innovation of having different voices in the room sort of looking at the same problem from different angles and solving it together." Ana spent nearly a decade at CSIRO's Data61 before cofounding Terria in late 2024. Terria makes it easy to build advanced maps and digital twins, for faster, smarter decision-making, and she talks about their potential for big ideas, including Australia's much talked about high-speed train. Ana also explained by the Terria team banned all meetings on a Wednesday, and why having "a really good product mindset and go to market and brand" is essential to be a successful deep tech startup commercialising research. Simon and Majella also talked about the big news of the week - PsiQuantum's $1.5 billion raise. When Majella asked him what he'd do with $1 billion, Simon said he'd share it among the startups at Tech23. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta and is a SmartCo Media production. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 from the date. It taught him an important lesson: value doesn’t always look the way society expects.Pete is the founder of Remarkable, the accelerator backed by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance supporting startups building technology for people with disabilities. He’s also a passionate voice for inclusive design, reminding us that technology we take for granted — the keyboard, speech-to-text, touchscreens — were first created to solve accessibility challenges. Pete shares why disability isn’t about “some of us”, it’s about all of us. When we design for diversity, we don’t just build better products, we build a better world. One of the latest startups supported by Remarkable is Hailo in Brisbane, cofounded by Santiago Velasquez. Born blind, he quickly discovered that public transport wasn’t designed for people like him. Buses would pass by because he couldn’t hail them, or he’d be dropped off at the wrong stop late at night with no easy way to get home. Hailo is an app that will transform the way people with disability navigate public transport. A major trial in Victoria is about to get underway and as Simon remarks, the idea has the potential to make public transport easier for everyone. Santi's visual impairment inspired his life as an entrepreneur - the only blind startup CTO in the Southern Hemisphere, he jokes. After failing a uni subject in his electrical engineering degree because the course materials weren’t available in an accessible format, he sent out to invent a solution. It was the spark that lit his first startup and set Santi on the path to solving problems not just for himself, but for millions. His ambitions are boundless, including being the first blind person on the Moon. If anyone can, Santi will. Also this week, Simon and Majella discuss the latest data from Blackbird on investing in female founders, and the end of the Sydney Startup Hub as we know it. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices