Episodes Archives - Page 9 of 10

mpesceJuly 19, 2018July 22, 2018

Episode S06E04 – Great to Good with Rachael Lonergan and Andrea Gardiner

TWISTA talks to Rachael Lonergan, who turned the lessons learned from a breast cancer diagnosis into startup CanDoApp – but can her idea for good also be profitable?

Then we speak with Jelix VC CEO Andrea Gardiner about shifting the model of how a VC fund works – by opening the doors to a new range of investors who gain a bit of guidance as they take their first steps into angel investing.

We’ve got a great startup ecosystem in Australia – but can we take it from great to good?

Thanks to TWISTA sponsors MYOB and UTS for making our show possible!

mpesceJuly 12, 2018July 12, 2018

Episode S06E03 – Creative Tech Special

Creative tech has produced some of Australia’s most successful startups – businesses like Canva and Envato (both interviewed here on TWISTA). And now there’s a place for creative tech startups to be born, grow, and thrive – The Studio at Sydney’s Startup Hub. TWISTA talks to the doyenne of Australia’s creative tech scene, Chantal Abouchar, about the half-decade journey that brought The Studio into being – and what’s next for Australia’s creative tech community.

We follow that up with a mind-blowing interview with Oovvuu co-founders Ricky Sutton and Greg Moore. Their mission to ‘repatriate’ the $20 billion taken away from media organisations by Google and Facebook is both audacious and has been very well executed. In five years of talking to Australian startups, Oovvuu may be my favourite.

Creative tech is going big, on this episode of TWISTA.

A bit extra for our web visitors — here is Chantal Abouchar’s AFTRS masters thesis that led to the formation of The Studio: Inventing the Future. Chantal Abouchar MSAB thesis. ver Feb 2015

mpesceJuly 7, 2018

Episode S06E02 – Going Nova with Main Sequence Ventures

Australia has an incredible tradition of innovation – typified by the CSIRO, which gave us WiFi, plastic banknotes, one of the best modern lifestyle diets, and much more besides. The CSIRO is an engine for the nation’s science – but too often science misses the opportunity to commercialise its innovations for the benefits of the innovators – and the nation.

The new Main Sequence VC fund – backed by CSIRO and the Australian Federal Government – looks to change that by identifying the scientists with the ‘spark’ that would make them great entrepreneurs. TWISTA sits down with Main Sequence general partner Mike Nicholls for a tour through Australia’s “deep tech” investment landscape – and how it could well lead to a new generation of fundamental breakthroughs!

In a new segment profiling all of Australia’s many incubators and accelerators, we speak to SBE Australia’s Sue Hogan about their E3 program for entrepreneurs.

To learn more about SBE Australia or their E3 program, click here.

mpesceJune 19, 2018July 22, 2018No comment

Episode S06E01 – Jason Calacanis and Angels in Australia

Four years ago Jason Calacanis charged us with creating the first international podcast worthy of his “This Week in Startups” branding.

Jason Calacanis

In those four years Australia’s startup community has grown from strength to strength – and legendary angel investor Jason Calacanis joins us to launch series 6 of TWISTA with a wide-ranging conversation about what it takes to make it in the news business, how he grades each investment offer presented to him, why ICOs aren’t the end of angel investing – and how Australia can build upon its incredible startup success.

An interview 23 years in the making – on this episode of TWISTA!

Update 11 July 2018 – This morning INSIDE.COM announced it’s raising a round of funding to expand its operations – with Jason leading the round. Find out more here.

mpesceSeptember 7, 2017June 9, 2018No comment

S05E07 – Anne-Marie Birkill & Maxwell MRI

TWISTA visited Brisbane’s River City Labs two years ago – and my goodness, how much has changed. The new government has put nearly half a billion dollars into funding various startup activities – including a lavish new ‘Precinct’ for the startup community.

TWISTA talks to two residents of The Precinct, Anne-Marie Birkill, Managing Partner of OneVentures, then we catch up with one of the most mind-blowing startups we’ve ever had on this show, Maxwell MRI (now Maxwell Plus) co-founders Elliot Smith and Matt Brown. It’s all happening in Queensland, on this episode of TWISTA.

mpesceAugust 24, 2017June 10, 2018No comment

S0506 – VR Special with Tim Ruse & Kain Tietzel

In the year since our last VR special, cyberspace has exploded – and virtual reality has become a real business. We speak two the founder-CEOs of two of Australia’s most successful VR startups, starting in conversation with Zero Latency‘s Tim Ruse, then closing in a chat with Start VR‘s Kain Tietzel.

Virtual reality is a real business – with real customers and real revenues. We go exploring the new _business_ landscape of virtual reality in this special episode.

mpesceAugust 9, 2017June 10, 2018No comment

S05E05 – Space Special with Tim Parsons & Jason Held

Over the last 3 years, the Space Race has roared back into life. Not just the ‘big space’ of SpaceX and BlueOrigin, but lots of startups – some of them Australians – taking us back to the stars.

TWISTA explores this new era of rocket science with Delta-V Founding CEO Tim Parsons, then explore the Space-Command-as-SaaS market with Sabre Astronautics CEO Jason Held. This special is out of this world!

mpesceMarch 22, 2017June 10, 2018No comment

S05E04 – News Special with Dean Dorrell & Paul Wallbank

In our news special for Series 5, co-host Claire Connelly talks to Carthona Capital’s Dean Dorrell and journalist Paul Wallbank about Australia’s struggle to commercialise research, the arrival of Silicon Valley tech accelerator powerhouse 500 Startups – in Melbourne, Uber’s no good very bad week and what start-ups get wrong about the press.

mpesceMarch 7, 2017June 10, 2018No comment

S05E03 – Wyatt Roy

TWISTA Co-hosts Claire Connelly and Mark Pesce in conversation with Wyatt Roy, the former Parliamentarian and Assistant Minister for Innovation, freshly back from his travels overseas, and deep into an artificial intelligence startup.

Together we take a post-mortem look at the the government’s “Ideas Boom” as we ask Wyatt ‘what happened’? The inside scoop from the ultimate source, on this episode of This Week in Startups Australia.

mpesceFebruary 21, 2017June 10, 2018No comment

S05E02 – Paul Shetler

TWISTA co-host Claire Connelly in conversation with Paul Shetler, the former chief of the Digital Transformation Office (now the Digital Transformation Agency).

With more than 20 years experience, Shetler has worked in digital transformation for both the UK government’s Cabinet Office and the UK’s Ministry of Justice, as well as in the US private sector for companies including Oracle and Microsoft.

Shetler recently had some frank words for Turnbull administration – and the public service more broadly – and its role in the quote ‘predictable’ raft of recent IT failures across the ATO, ABS and Centrelink, to name a few.