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Niki Scevak has a long and diverse background in the Australian startup ecosystem. From his entrepreneurial beginnings co-founding two software companies, Niki would go on to co-found Blackbird, a venture capital firm which manages over a billion dollars, and found Startmate, an accelerator that has helped 170+ startups since its inception in 2011. In his conversation with Adam he discusses what he sees as gaps in the Australian startup ecosystem, as well as the reasons for feeling optimistic about the future.See the full show notes https://w2d1.com/niki-scevakThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Kate Cornick is the CEO of LaunchVic, the Victorian Government’s initiative to accelerate startups and create new jobs in Victoria. Before taking this position, Kate worked in a variety of roles in startup land, including leading the development of a human resources technology startup through a listing on the Australian Stock Exchange, as well as acting as General Manager at NBN Co. In her conversation with Alex Carpenter, Kate discusses Australia’s low number of startup founders per capita relative to other countries, and potential ways of supporting Australians to begin their startup journey.See the full show notes https://w2d1.com/kate-cornickThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Andrea Gardiner is the founder of Jelix, an investment firm which focuses on early stage technology startups in Australia and New Zealand. In her conversation with Adam, she shares her conviction that disruptive, scalable technology startups are critical for the future economic prosperity of Australia, and highlights the supportive and collaborative of Australia’s startup ecosystem as a key advantage.See the full show notes https://w2d1.com/andrea-gardinerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Cheryl Mack is passionate about supporting founders and has done so in a variety of roles over the years: as a mentor for programs including Startmate and Founder Institute, as CEO of StartCon, as an angel investor with over 10 investments and counting, and most recently as the CEO and founder of Aussie Angels. In her conversation with Adam, she discusses the importance of building communities, and what she sees as the current gaps in the Australian startup ecosystem.See the full show notes https://w2d1.com/cheryl-mackThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

As CEO of Freelance Limited, Matt Barrie overseas the management of both freelancer.com, a service through which 54 million freelancers offer every type of service you can possibly imagine, as well as escrow.com, a global payment system that’s done 5 billion US dollars in payment volume. Freelancer Limited opened on the Australian Securities Exchanged at an incredible 1.03 billion US dollars market capitalisation, making it one of the biggest openings ever on the exchange. In this episode Matt tells the story of the growth of the Australian startup ecosystem as he has seen it from his unique vantage point, and why he believes aspiring startup founders would be best to first work for a company they admire for a year or two before starting their own venture.See the full show notes https://w2d1.com/matt-barrieThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

3 interviews will be released each week starting in January. The audio documentary that will tell the story of the Australian startup ecosystem will be released in June 2022. Sign up to the newsletter https://w2d1.com/newsletter and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This series is made possible thanks to our sponsors & partners.Major SponsorsMYOBStandard SponsorsUTS StartupsThe Guild of EntrepreneursWestern Sydney University's LaunchPadCanberra Innovation NetworkCurtin UniversityCSIROUniversity of South AustraliaLaunchVicThe Office of the South Australian Chief EntrepreneurANSTONewcastle University's Integrated Innovation NetworkThe University of Adelaide's ThincLabFlinders University's New Venture InstituteUNSW FoundersUQ VenturesJames Cook UniversityPartnersStartup DailyFishburnersSpark FestivalSpacecubedStone & ChalkRiver City LabsThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub.Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHi, and welcome to day one, the podcast for regional startups and the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to day one is brought to you by the city of Newcastle and Newihub. Newihub is a growing and vibrant community of Newcastle's startups & founders. It's a central hub where you can learn about what's going on in our ecosystem, with events, available jobs and other resources. I'll tell you more about Newihub later in the episode, but for now, let’s jump into the story of Damien Mahoney.Today, Stackla is a global company with dozens of employees and offices in the US and UK. Many of their clients are household names: McDonald's, Nintendo, Toyota, and Sony just to name a few. But the growth of the company has not always been smooth sailing, and in recent years they've weathered two major storms: the pandemic, which all but wiped out many of their key clients, and a legal battle with Facebook which required Damien to make an incredibly difficult decision to keep the company afloat.But before we hear about how Stackla has been able to emerge from multiple catastrophes, first we need to go back to day one, and hear the story of how a part-time job in radio that was too good to pass up would ultimately lead Damien to become the CEO of a global technology startup.Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel SpencerWant to become a sponsor? Get in touch. Send us an email.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub.Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHello and welcome to a new episode of Welcome to Day One, the podcast for Aussie founders, startups & the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to Day One is brought to you by the City of Newcastle's brand new innovation platform, Newihub. Today on the show you’ll hear from Antony Martin the co-founder of Hone. But first I'd like to tell you about another organisation that is helping startups succeed in our region. The City of Newcastle is a big supporter of entrepreneurship in our region and has recently launched a brand new digital hub called Newihub. Newihub is a growing and vibrant community of Newcastle's startups & founders. It's a central hub where you can learn about what's going on in our ecosystem, with events, available jobs and other resources.Today Hone has 13 full-time team members and a small team of casuals that come and go with big projects, with customers all around the world and right now they're scaling up manufacturing of their device which will enter its first large runs this year in 2021. It's been quite a journey so far. Now, let's go back to day one, where this story begins...Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel Spencer Want to become a sponsor? Get in touch. Send us an email.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub.Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHi, and welcome to day one, the podcast for regional startups and the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to day one is brought to you by the city of Newcastle. The City of Newcastle is a big supporter of entrepreneurship in our region and has recently launched a brand new digital hub called Newihub. Newihub is a growing and vibrant community of Newcastle's startups & founders. It's a central hub where you can learn about what's going on in our ecosystem, with events, available jobs and other resources. I'll tell you more about Newihub later in the episode, but for now, let’s jump into the story of Mike McKiernan.Deckee is a free mobile app designed to provide up to date information to people out on the water when boating, fishing or sailing in order to keep them safe. Deckee is approaching a million dollars raised through investors and is officially endorsed by three state governments in Australia. The Deckee app is also available for use worldwide, and international expansion is one of the priorities for the company moving forward. So how did Mike go from studying visual communications at Newcastle University to becoming an investor-backed entrepreneur overseeing a team of employees and scaling a tech company internationally? To answer that question, first, we need to go back to day one, and hear how a job Mike got as a student would reveal a whole set of problems he didn't even know existed. Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel SpencerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub. Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHello and welcome to a new episode of Welcome to Day One, the podcast for Aussie founders, startups & the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to Day One is brought to you by the City of Newcastle's brand new innovation platform, Newihub.Today on the show you’ll hear from Colin Goudie the co-founder of Social Pinpoint.Social Pinpoint's a software as a service platform aimed at the community engagement space. Most of its clients are councils and large infrastructure projects that needed to create a place for the community to collaborate with them.Now, let's go back to day one, where this story begins...Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel Spencer Want to become a sponsor? Get in touch. Send us an email.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub. Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHi and Welcome to Day One, the podcast for regional startups & the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to Day One is brought to you by the City of Newcastle.Today I'd like to share the story of a Newcastle startup that has been flying under the radar for some time. A local Newcastle startup that has customers internationally. That startup is Coassemble and its co-founder, Ryan MacPherson.Coassemble is a service that helps businesses create their own interactive online courses which can be used to educate their teams or their customers. They are a global company with staff in Denver, Wisconsin, LA, Canada, and Newcastle. They are backed by venture capital, and their latest series A raise was four and a half million dollars. So how did Ryan go from being a PE teacher to CEO of a   global, multi-million dollar company overseeing thirty plus staff? To answer that question, first, we need to go back to day one and hear the story of how a policy of the Kevin Rudd government would dramatically alter the course of Ryan's career.Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel Spencer Want to become a sponsor? Get in touch. Send us an email.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Show NotesSponsorWelcome to Day One is supported and the founder spotlights are made possible by our major sponsor the City of Newcastle’s Newihub.Join the community made up of entrepreneurs from Newcastle & the surrounding areas. Go to Newihub to sign up for your free account.SummaryHello and welcome to a brand new season of Welcome to Day One. The podcast for regional startups & the organisations that support Australian entrepreneurship. Welcome to Day One is brought to you by the City of Newcastle's brand new innovation platform, Newihub. To learn more and to sign up for a free account, click the link in today's show notes or simply go to newihub.com. Today is a special episode titled Innovation in Newy, the goal of today's episode is to understand what innovation is and take a brief look at where Newcastle has come from and where it's heading.Follow on SocialInstagramTwitterLinkedInFacebookMeet Our Supporters (Become One)SingularityUBrian HillLaurel K.Daniel SpencerWant to become a sponsor? Get in touch. Send us an email.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today I’d like to share with you the story of Naomi Findlay. Naomi is a remarkably hard-working woman with a ridiculous amount of active projects, all of which aim to position her as Australia’s queen of property renovation and home styling. She has a digital video series, Renovie, hosted on Youtube with nearly two hundred episodes and approaching two thousand subscribers. She has a blog and hosts a weekly podcast, Reno Radio. She has appeared on TV shows including Channel 9’s Location Lifestyle Living and Channel 10’s The Home Team. She created an app, Rapid Reno Mate, designed to make home renovation a breeze. She has designed and runs courses and workshops to assist people in many facets of renovating, styling and selling their home. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! The list goes on and on.Perhaps even more remarkable is that creating beautiful spaces was not the first career path Naomi chose for herself. In fact, Naomi is Dr Naomi Findlay PhD, and in a previous life worked for around 15 years in radiation oncology in Australia and around the world. To learn why Dr Findlay would completely overhaul her career in pursuit of a new life, first, we need to go back to day one, and hear the story of how two conversations with two mentor figures spaced a decade apart would end up sending Naomi down two very different paths.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today you’re going to hear the story of BYKKO and it’s founder Monica Zarafu.Born in Romania, Monica moved to Australia in two thousand and ten. Motivated by a need to mitigate the threat of climate change, and seeing the mass adoption of bicycles in parts of Europe, Monica is aiming to do more than build a successful business. With the lofty ambition of reshaping the way we think about transport in Australia, Monica has been working hundred hour plus weeks to build BYKKO as a proof of concept, with the hopes that an electric bike sharing model could be adopted by governments and used as part of integrated public transport systems. But before we dig into the details of how Monica believes electric bike sharing can change transport in Australia, first we need to go back to day one, and learn about the research Monica undertook which ultimately led her to believe that, as she says, “bikes are the future”.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Meet Melanie Mury from IMBY (In My Backyard). IMBY operates in the proptech space (Property Technology) and is working to consolidate the development application process or at least make it easier to navigate. Melanie started IMBY with her partner in life and business, Chris Mury. This isn't just a story about a business venture, this is a life story, one that started and changed forever when Melanie was 18 years old and decided to head overseas.Let's go back to day one where this story begins. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today you’re going to hear the story of Linda Bergskas and Visionise. Linda started Visionise, a full-service fashion branding service after she sold her own international fashion brand in search of a more balanced lifestyle. With such a successful career and a large network within the industry, Linda found herself constantly being asked for her expertise to help start and grow fashion brands. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

In this episode guest host Andy Jones goes on a walking tour with Becky Kiil, founder of Newcastle Afoot, a top rated walking tour and cultural experiences business. On top of her already hectic work life, Becky is also volunteering her time as festival coordinator for Big Picture Fest Newcastle, a project which received over $200,000 in grant money to bring local and international mural artists to the city in October 2020. In this conversation Becky discusses the challenges of managing a work-life balance, and her love for the city which she now calls home.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today I’d like to share with you the story of Your Food Collective. Your Food Collective is serving over 1400 people since they opening in 2017 at an 80% customer retention rate with a very good average order value. They have hubs all over Newcastle where you can collect your orders and catch up with your local champion and they’ve recently entered the Sydney market too.Your Food Collective is growing and bringing truly fresh food to everyone. Now, let’s go back to day one, where this story begins…This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today you’re going to hear the story of Eat Your Water featuring Liam Scanlan.Before we go back to the beginning, here’s where we are today, Liam has been named one of the top 50 people in e-commerce in the whole of Australia. In November 2019 alone over 100,000 people went through the Eat Your Water store and Eat Your Water has one of the lowest cost per purchases at 27 cents per purchase with an average order value of $56.Very impressive numbers and Liam is an impressive guy and is only 23 years old. Now, let’s go back to day one where this story begins…This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Today you’re going to hear the story of Startmate featuring the head of operations at Startmate, Michael Batko.Startmate is the leading tech accelerator in Australia and they take 10 to 15 companies and new stage founders in each cohort and help them from three to four months to get them to the next stage of their business.They look for just the most ambitious founders and then work with that talent. Startmate doesn’t necessarily specialise in a certain area or industry. Startmate just focuses on the most ambitious founders and work with them to create immense value.Let’s go back to day one, to a pub in Surry Hills where this story begins…This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy