The Startup Playbook Podcast

My guest for Ep220 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Adam Ewart, the Co-founder & CEO of Send My Bag. Send My Bag is the international luggage shipping and relocation platform used by travellers and businesses around the world. Adam’s story is a fascinating one. From building a global company out of a small town in Northern Ireland, to turning PR into a powerful growth engine, to deliberately bootstrapping even when VCs came knocking, his journey is full of practical lessons and hard-earned insights. In this episode we dive into: How he turned PR into one of his biggest growth drivers Why he chose to bootstrap despite inbound investor interest The challenges and opportunities of building a large global business out of Belfast Timestamps: 00:02:15 Adam’s early entrepreneurial roots and family business influences 00:07:00 Why Adam never wanted a traditional job 00:08:10 Using part-time wages and student loan to fund ventures 00:10:45 First experiments: Middleman Mobiles and FillAJob.com 00:13:30 The idea for Send My Bag 00:18:20 First customers: student shipping during summer holidays 00:27:00 From domestic student shipping to international expansion 00:29:00 Spotting the airline baggage fee opportunity and PR growth 00:34:00 Leveraging free publicity: Dragons’ Den appearance 00:40:15 Expanding into the U.S. market and securing media coverage 00:45:30 Building Send My Bag into a relocation and global logistics service 00:52:00 Lessons learned on scaling, growth and resilience Our partners: A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podc

My guest for Ep219 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Stirling Mortlock. Stirling is one of Australia’s greatest ever Rugby players. He’s a former Wallabies Captain, World Cup player, and one of the few players to score over 1,000 points in Super Rugby. But his story goes well beyond the field. After retiring, he’s built a career as a founder and investor.  Today, he’s the Co-founder of XV Capital, where he’s backing the next generation of sports-tech and performance-led startups. In this episode we dive into: Lessons from professional rugby and how he’s applied them to his career post sport The rhythms creating environments where people operate at their “optimal frequency.” 00:48:37 Future of Sports-Tech 00:59:38 15 operations silver linings during rehab. Our partners: A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance functi

My guest for Ep218 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Nipun Mehra. Nipun has had an incredible track record in his career. At Amazon he launched their first ever real time inventory management system, was an early team member at Flipkart helping build and scale one of India’s most successful and iconic startups before joining Sequoia India as an investor. In 2020, he Co-founded Ula, a B2B e-commerce platform that set out to modernise retail supply chains for millions of small businesses starting in Indonesia. Ula quickly become one of South East Asia’s fastest growing startups. They went from $0 to $300M in revenue within 2 years. Ola also raised over $140M from leading investors including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Tencent and even raised capital from Jeff Bezos himself, his first investment into this part of the world. But in a candid and deeply honest conversation, Nipun shares – for the first time publicly – the full story of what happened behind the scenes from Ula when he decided to shut down the company and return the remaining capital to investors. From hypergrowth to hard calls, this episode dives into the reality of building a company at scale and the weight of leadership at challenging times. In this episode we cover: Nipun’s lessons from his time with Amazon, Flipkart and Sequoia The hypergrowth journey behind Ula Why he decided to shut down Ula and return the capital vs find another path Coming to terms with the ups and downs of the journey & much more I’m also excited to announce that Nipun will be joining The Komo Club as a speaker for Cohort 2. The program is the world’s first human accelerator, designed to help high performing founders and executives implement the right system and frameworks to help them succeed in business and all areas of their life. You can find out more at thekomoclub.com Timestamps: 00:03:08 Nipun’s background: Early entrepreneurial drive 00:07:00 College startup attempts and discovering India’s nascent internet scene 00:14:47 What Amazon & Flipkart taught him about audacious targets and culture 00:20:38 How to set “aggressive but achievable” goals without crossing into folly 00:29:23 Why Indonesia? The leap of faith that launched Ula in Southeast Asia 00:38:37 Securing Jeff Bezos’ first SEA investment and the six-page memo that closed the deal 00:41:31 Scaling to ~US $300 M GMV in two years during COVID 00:43:20 The decision to shut down Ula and return the remaining capital to investors 00:55:13 Lessons on investor alignment 01:04:45 Nipun’s new venture, lessons from Ula he’s applying <h2 class="wp

My guest for Ep217 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Dr. Steven Lu. Dr. Steven Lu is the Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Everlab, Australia’s leading preventative health and longevity startups. With over 15 years of clinical experience, Steven specialised in the prevention and management of complex medical conditions including heart attacks and strokes. After years of treating late-stage illness, he shifted focus to building a proactive model of healthcare, one that empowers people to catch risks early and take control of their long-term health. That idea became Everlab. Since launching, Everlab has scaled rapidly across Australia, combining full-body diagnostics, personalised blood testing, and AI-driven insights to make preventative healthcare more accessible and actionable. The company recently closed a $15M AUD Seed round led by New York based Left Lane Capital. I was proud to continue backing Steven and the Everlab team through Playbook Ventures in this latest round. In addition to our investment, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Steven through The Komo Club, where he’s a featured speaker in both Cohort 1 and 2. The Komo Club has also partnered with Everlab who support our members directly with DEXA scans, blood testing, and 1:1 medical consultations as part of their cohort experience. In this episode, we discuss: Steven’s transition from private practice to founding Everlab The shortcomings of traditional healthcare and Everlab’s approach to solving them The key health pillars every founder should build into their routine How Steven manages his own health and family life while scaling a startup Lessons from building a high-performance team in a highly regulated industry & much more Timestamps: 00:02:13 Steven explains his transition from ICU and private practice to preventative medicine 00:04:31 Migrant childhood between China and Australia builds empathy and listening skills 00:14:00 Night‑shift epiphany in ICU: “we could save more lives by intervening earlier” 00:29:45 Meeting Sam Kothari and transitioning from a boutique practice into a scalable startup  00:51:22 The three pillars: nutrition, movement, rest. Which is the highest‑ROI starting point 00:58:54 Chronic sleep debt in startup life, how to measure sleep quality with objective, subjective and behavioural data 01:09:48 Dangers of visceral fat and how to reduce it 01:30:00 Seed round validation: 40,000+ biomarker data points show significan

My guest for Ep216 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Chris Withers. This week marks 9 years of The Startup Playbook Podcast. What started as a side project in 2015 has now become a platform that’s shared the stories of 200+ founders, investors, and operators — and I’m so grateful to all of you who’ve tuned in, shared episodes, and supported the show along the way. To mark the milestone, I couldn’t have asked for a better guest than Chris Withers, the Founder why Southeast Asia forces breadth and depth 00:38:26 Facing cancer diagnosis while running a venture backed startup 00:56:04 eFishery fraud fallout and Chris’s plea not to write off Asian tech Our partners

My guest for Ep215 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Ben Dunphy. Ben is the Co-Founder and Partner of January Capital, a VC fund that invests in early stage high growth startups in the Asia Pacific region. They also run an $85M growth credit fund, offering scale-stage companies access to non-dilutive capital. I first had Ben on the show back in October 2016 and nearly a decade later, we revisit the journey and dive into:  What’s changed and what hasn’t in early stage investing How January Capital is bridging the gap between equity and debt-based financing in an innovative model The opportunities in Southeast Asia And much more! Timestamps: 00:01:17 Ben’s background: Australia-born, now leading January Capital in Singapore 00:03:16 What’s remained constant vs. what’s changed in nine years of APAC venture 00:05:26 Proving billion-dollar outcomes outside Silicon Valley and the AI paradigm shift 00:09:03 Founding January Capital: spotting gaps and launching with three partners 00:12:41 Why (and when) startups should diversify into credit alongside equity 00:19:21 Misconceptions about “one big Southeast Asia market” and the B2B focus 00:24:07 January’s data-driven deal-sourcing engine and composite talent scoring 00:27:53 Signals of exceptional founders 00:31:00 Advice on timing investor outreach and the benefits of month-long rapport-building 00:39:04 Case study: William Li’s whiteboard pitch for Akulaku and the power of clarity Our partners: Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. <h

My guest for Ep214 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Pan Koutlakis. Pan is the Co-Founder and CEO of EatClub, a platform that uses dynamic pricing to help restaurants fill empty tables during off-peak hours, while passing on great deals to diners. EatClub saw remarkable growth early on, but like many in the industry, the business came to a standstill when COVID hit, with revenue dropping to zero overnight. Pan responded by drastically downsizing overheads, restructuring the company, and rebuilding momentum recently leading the business to secure an impressive $18.2 million Series A round. In this episode we covered a variety of topics including:  How he convinced industry heavyweight Marco Pierre White to come on board Navigating the uncertainty of COVID The power of setting ambitious targets Frameworks for making strategic long-term bets And much more! Timestamps: 00:01:10  Pan’s Adelaide upbringing, law-and-economics studies & first jobs in hospitality 00:08:41  Joining Rocket Internet’s ‘Suppertime’ and witnessing growth-at-all-costs firsthand 00:10:17  Founding EatClub 00:13:08  Cold-emailing Marco Pierre White, why the celebrity chef came on board 00:16:12  Structuring deals with celebrities 00:22:22  Signing the very first restaurant (on the first cold-call) and refining the MVP 00:27:58  EVP’s initial pass, eventual investment and the overnight COVID revenue crash 00:56:15  Tough cuts, shutdown of U.S. ops, and doubling-down on R&D during lockdown 00:39:32  Founder/Investor relationship 00:47:58  How he thinks about product roadmap and what features to build 00:55:07  Post-pandemic rebound, UK market entry & closing the $18.2 M Series A Our partners: A big thank you to Dan Szekely, Jonte Shaw and David Hodges for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.<br

My guest for Ep213 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rob Phillpot. Rob and his co-founder Leigh Jasper have played a huge part in shaping Australia’s tech landscape, building Aconex into one of the country’s most iconic companies, taking it public in 2014 and ultimately selling it to Oracle in 2017 for $1.6 billion. Since then, Rob has dedicated his time to advising startups, supporting philanthropy, and investing through his family office, Gravel Road Ventures. Most recently, Rob, Leigh Jasper, and A Cloud Guru founder Sam Kroonenberg teamed up to launch Glitch Capital, a $50 million founders fund backing the next generation of global tech companies. In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, including: Aconex’s journey to a $1.6B exit and overcoming multiple near-death experiences What it was like to sell a company when he didn’t want to Why advising founders is 20% strategy and 80% psychology The secrets behind building a high-performance culture Balancing big ambitions with family life What Glitch Capital looks for when backing startups And so much more. Timestamps: 00:01:50 Rob’s background 00:06:27 Meeting Leigh Jasper: did school-friends always know they’d start a company together?   00:09:15 Switching tracks: advice for people stuck in a career they don’t love 00:11:07 Startup ecosystem in 2000 and the early days of Aconex 00:13:46 Staying positive: how did Rob and Leigh keep morale when things looked bleak?   00:18:22 Strength in vulnerability 00:21:58 Cultivating Aconex’s culture and common founder mistakes 00:37:58 The real story of the Aconex sale 00:43:13 Life after the exit: what did stepping away from Aconex feel like?   00:49:48 What Rob looks for as an investor 00:58:13 80% psychology: common founder struggles Rob sees as an advisor   01:00:48 Family, fitness and cooking dinner: balancing startup life with home life   01:07:05 Philanthropy focus: why Rob created the Gravel Road Foundation and how he thinks about giving Our partners: A big thank you to Ben Leach, Andrew Barron and Bill Phillpot for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at <

My guest for Ep212 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Matt Loop. There are few people who’ve had as much influence in shaping the tech landscape in this region as Matt. He began his career at Salesforce, where he was one of their earliest hires in Australia, before going on to lead sales at LinkedIn, first in ANZ, then later as Head of Enterprise in North America. After that, he returned to Australia to take on the role of Head of Asia Pacific at Slack, helping the company scale its presence across the region. Today, Matt is the VP and Head of Asia at Rippling, a workforce management platform that’s transforming how businesses manage their people, IT, and operations. Just last month, Rippling announced a $450 million Series G round, valuing the company at $16.8 billion. In this episode, we dive into a range of topics, including: How to build and lead high-performance teams Matt’s approach to hiring and what he looks for in candidates The frameworks he uses to choose which companies to join Balancing a high-impact career with family life And so much more. Timestamps: 00:02:07 Matt’s career arc: Salesforce, LinkedIn, Slack, Rippling 00:08:45 Building Salesforce APAC 00:12:29 GTM Advice to founders 00:16:48 Leaving Salesforce: spotting comfort creep & moving to LinkedIn 00:24:27 Leadership frameworks from all his previous experiences 00:30:15 Cultivating Rippling’s high performance culture 00:35:09 Frameworks for evaluating potential career opportunities 00:46:13 Hiring “good humans” with a growth mindset 00:50:02 Networking and personal branding 00:55:13 Stepping back from the day-to-day and seeing the bigger picture 01:00:10 Finding your own version of balance Our partners: A big thank you to Katrina Loop, James Demetrios and Andrew McCarthy for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and sec

My guest for Ep211 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jodie Imam. Jodie is the Co-founder & CEO of Tractor Ventures, which provides non dilutive capital (between $100,000 – $1.5M) to tech enabled companies. Since launching in 2020, Tractor has deployed nearly $100M, has 230 customers and is tracking at $5M in annual revenue. Prior to this, Jodie was the Co-founder of Occasional Butler which was acquired in 2020. She was also a member of Cohort #1 of the Komo Club, and in this episode we dive into a range of areas including: Lessons from launching, growing and exiting Occasional Butler How she uses content to attract talent and customers to Tractor Ventures Systems and frameworks she utilises to manage a busy schedule between running a high growth business, multiple board seats, and a busy personal life How personal goals created through The Komo Club have had a significant impact on her number one priority in life And much more! Timestamps: 00:01:54  Jodie’s background 00:03:29  How Jodie’s childhood shaped her perspective on life and business 00:05:49 Early career: building Occasional Butler and co-working space Depo8 00:07:39  The decision to go all in on Occasional Butler 00:08:50  What Jodie would do differently second time around with Occasional Butler 00:11:36  How to build credibility as an early stage startup 00:13:47  Selling Occasional Butler to Airtasker while raising two young children 00:18:04  Founding Tractor Ventures with Matt & Aprill 00:21:11  Early days of Tractor Ventures 00:24:10  Challenges with the business, restructuring 00:28:09  Culture design: 4-day workweek, 90-day scorecard & Level-10 meetings 00:30:14  LinkedIn content engine that drives both deal flow and hiring 00:44:09  Personal goals, The Komo Club & intentional parenting 00:54:49  How Jodie structures her day and week Our partners: A big thank you to Olivia Doherty, Andrew Fitzpatrick and Matt Allen for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — a

My guest for Ep210 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was James Fuller. James is the Co-founder & CEO of Hnry. Hnry automates taxes for sole traders, so they never have to think about tax again. The company started from a spreadsheet that James and his wife and Co-founder, Claire, created to solve their own problem. […] The post Ep210 – James Fuller (Co-founder & CEO – Hnry) on turning a spreadsheet into platform processing $2.6B appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep209 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Mat Ellis. This episode is a little special. Not only is it Mat’s first-ever podcast interview, but we’ve also been close friends since grade 7. And many years ago, after months of trying, I finally convinced him to join as one of the co-founders of […] The post Ep209 – Mathew Ellis (Co-founder & CTO – Kismet) on vertical ownership and high performing teams appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep208 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jane Martino. Jane has had an incredibly successful career as a director, investor, advisor and founder of a number of companies that have successfully exited. She’s best known as the Co-founder & Chair of Smiling Mind, one of the worlds leading mindfulness and mental health […] The post Ep208 – Jane Martino (Co-founder & Chair – Smiling Mind) on founder mental health, mindfulness & multiple exits appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep207 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Vice President and General Manager for Asia-Pacific & Japan at Monday.com, Dean Swan. Dean spent 11 years at Microsoft before becoming the Country Manager for Australia & New Zealand at Dropbox. He’s now the Vice President and General Manager of APJ at Monday.com. When […] The post Ep207 – Dean Swan (VP for APJ at Monday.com) on growing Monday.com zero to $100M+ in APJ appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep206 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Adam Schwab. Adam started his career as a lawyer before transitioning to startups and has had a number of successful businesses, but is best known as the Co-founder & CEO of Luxury Escapes. Luxury Escapes is one of the world’s leading travel brands, revolutionising the […] The post Ep206 – Adam Schwab (Co-founder & CEO – Luxury Escapes) on reinventing Luxury Escapes & Scaling to $1B+ GTV appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep205 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Damir Cuca. From tinkering with toys and electronics and immigrating to Australia as a child without knowing the language to building and exiting two successful businesses, Damir’s career has been a masterclass in determination, resilience and growth. He’s best known as the Founder & CEO […] The post Ep205 – Damir Cuca (Founder & CEO – Basiq) on building and exiting 2x startups and being a father of six appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep204 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was George Hartley. George is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of Bluethumb, Australia’s largest art marketplace. Since its launch in 2012, Bluethumb has grown into the leading art marketplace platform, connecting over 23,000 artists with buyers and selling more than $100 million worth of artwork. In addition […] The post Ep204 – George Hartley (Co-founder & Co-CEO – Bluethumb) on lessons from building a $100M art marketplace appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep203 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is the Co-founder & CEO of Zeller, Ben Pfisterer. Ben is a returning guest on the show. Our last interview was in August 2020 when Ben had left his role as Country Manager for Square to launch his new company, Zeller, which had just come out […] The post Ep203 – Ben Pfisterer (Co-founder & CEO – Zeller) on becoming the fastest Australian company to achieve unicorn status appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep202 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder of Farmers Pick, Josh Ball. Farmers Pick helps save food waste by rescuing wonky food that is often discarded by supermarkets and making it available to order by consumers. Since launching in 2020, they have saved 7 million kilograms of produce and the […] The post Ep202 – Josh Ball (Co-founder – Farmers Pick) on using tech to save 7 million kg of food waste appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep201 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Cheryl Mack. Cheryl started her journey launching and growing Startcon, which was Australia’s largest startup conference at the time. She’s now involved with a number of different projects including The Pillars, 361 Angel Club and the First Cheque Podcast but she is best known as […] The post Ep201 – Cheryl Mack (Co-founder & CEO – Aussie Angels) on how to get started as an angel investor appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep200 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jason Wyatt, the Co-founder & CEO of Marketplacer. Jason’s journey started with a bike marketplace called BikeExchange, the global success of this marketplace led to others wanting to create and launch their own versions of marketplaces. These opportunities led to him launching 8 Joint Ventures […] The post Ep200 – Jason Wyatt (Co-founder & CEO – Marketplacer) on shutting down 8 companies to go all in on Marketplacer appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep199 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jaimie Fuller. Jaimie’s journey has been full of highs and lows. He is best known as the former CEO and Executive Chairman of compression apparel company SKINS. SKINS was a global phenomenon with elite athletes and sporting teams all around the world using their products. […] The post Ep199 – Jaimie Fuller (Former CEO & Chairman – SKINS) on building SKINS and bouncing back from bankruptcy appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep198 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rohan Workman. Rohan is the Co-founder & CEO of Skalata, a seed stage venture capital firm that was established in 2018 and count a portfolio of over 80 companies across their 2 funds. Prior to this, he was the Director of MAP, Melbourne Uni’s Accelerator […] The post Ep198 – Rohan Workman (Co-founder & CEO – Skalata) on taking risks & balancing speed with discipline appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep197 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Paul Stovell. Paul is the Founder & CEO of Octopus Deploy, a company he started as a “nights and weekends” project for 2 years before going full time in 2012. The company was bootstrapped for almost a decade until 2021 when they raised USD$172.5M (roughly […] The post Ep197 – Paul Stovell (Founder & CEO – Octopus Deploy) on turning a weekend project to a $100M ARR business appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep196 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Cam Falloon. Every great story starts with overcoming adversity and Cam is no different. Cam picked up a serious back injury which made it difficult for him to walk…to the point where it would take him 15mins to walk a 12m hallway and being told […] The post Ep196 – Cam Falloon (Founder & CEO – BFT) on overcoming adversity and scaling to 700+ studios globally appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep195 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Leigh Jasper. This is a special edition of the podcast. A few weeks ago, we celebrated hitting 8 years of the podcast. To celebrate the milestone, we hosted an in-person event with our community which included a “live” podcast recording with returning guest Leigh Jasper. […] The post Ep195 – Leigh Jasper (Co-founder & Co-CEO – Firmable) on jumping back in the founder seat after a $1.6B exit appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep194 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jon Gregory. Jon is the Founder & CEO of Vitruvian. Vitruvian is an all-in-one digital home gym that uses AI to adjust resistance in real time to help users get the most out of their workout. Since launching in 2018, they have gone on to […] The post Ep194 – Jon Gregory (Founder & CEO – Vitruvian) on product led growth and relentless positivity appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep193 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Llew Jury. Llew is the General Partner and Executive Chairman of Sprint Ventures, a Queensland based VC with two funds and 18 portfolio companies that is investing in companies that build a better future. He has just helped Sprint secure funding from QIC’s VCDF for his third early stage […] The post Ep193 – Llew Jury (General Partner & Exec Chairman – Sprint Ventures) on nurturing talent and building generational companies appeared first on Startup Playbook.

Welcome to a special milestone edition of the podcast, celebrating 8 years of the show! On this day in 2016, I published the first 6 episodes of this podcast. Over the last 8 years I’ve sat down with almost 200 successful entrepreneurs and investors to unpack their journey, lessons and insights. I’m so thankful to […] The post Ep192 – Rohit Bhargava (Host – The Startup Playbook Podcast) on lessons from 8 years of podcasting (AMA episode) appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep191 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Stew Glynn. Stew started his investing career after joining Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter in building out his family office, Transition Level Investments. In 2019, they then launched TEN13 VC, where Stew is a Co-founder & Managing Partner. TEN13 is a global deal by deal venture […] The post Ep191 – Stew Glynn (Co-founder & Managing Partner – TEN13 VC) on lessons from investing $100M appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep190 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Taryn Pieterse. Taryn is a Partner of Rampersand VC, a dedicated seed fund that has invested over $100M across its funds, counting companies such as Sendle, Skedulo and Expert360 as part of its portfolio. Prior to joining Rampersand, Taryn worked in Investment Banking at Goldman […] The post Ep190 – Taryn Pieterse (Partner – Rampersand) on Rampersand’s AAA approach to investing appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep189 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, was Jalal Shaik. Jalal is the Founder & CEO of Gameface.AI, a company that uses AI and machine learning to provide accurate and relevant performance insight for sports. In 2022, Gameface was acquired for $33M by now publicly listed company, Slinger Sports after having only raised […] The post Ep189 – Jalal Shaik (Founder & CEO – GAMEFACE AI) on AI, persistence and M&A pitfalls appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep188 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jessy Wu. Jessy is a partner of AfterWork Ventures, a $20M pre-seed and seed stage Venture Capital Fund. She has a background in English literature and linguistics and has used her power of storytelling to build a powerful brand not just for herself but also […] The post Ep188 – Jessy Wu (Partner – AfterWork VC) on brand, storytelling and community powered VC appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep187 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was George Peppou. George is the Founder & CEO of Vow, a company on a mission to create a new category of food that is good for you, your health and the planet. Unlike all the other players in this space, Vow isn’t looking to reproduce […] The post Ep187 – George Peppou (Founder & CEO – Vow) on talent, health and building the future of food appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep186 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rohen Sood. Rohen is a General Partner at the Reinventure Group, a Venture Capital fund with a dedicated focus on Fintech companies. Reinventure raised $150M across 3 funds, with the bank, Westpac, being an anchor LP in the fund to invest into emerging global fintech […] The post Ep186 – Rohen Sood (General Partner – Reinventure) on the story behind investing in Coinbase appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep185 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Maxine Minter. Maxine is the Founder & General Partner of CoVentures a $5M pre-seed fund. Alongside her role at Co Ventures, she is also the Founder of Co Lab, a platform that matches Founders & CEOs with executive coaches. In this interview we covered a […] The post Ep185 – Maxine Minter (Founder & GP – Co Ventures) on pre-seed, performance and mental models appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 184 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is Adrian Osman. Adrian is the Co-founder & COO of Me&U formerly known as Mr. Yum. He started his career as the Founder of pitchblak, an agency that helped hundreds of Australian entrepreneurs to validate and test their startup ideas. From that agency, the idea […] The post Ep184 – Adrian Osman (Co-founder & COO – Me&U) on metrics, ratios and mergers appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep183 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder of EVP, Howard Leibman. Howard is the Founder and General Partner of EVP, a VC fund focused on investing in B2B software companies in Australia and New Zealand. In 2023, they raised $100M for Fund 4, taking its total funds under management to […] The post Ep183 – Howard Leibman (Founder & General Partner – EVP) on being the “founder whisperer” appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep182 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rolf Weber, the CEO of Marley Spoon Australia. Rolf joined Marley Spoon as their Australian CEO in March 2015 Prior to this he co-founded, BrandsExclusive in 2009, before they were eventually fully acquired in 2014. He then went on to launch and invest in a […] The post Ep182 – Rolf Weber (CEO – Marley Spoon Australia) on building culture through resilience appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep181 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was James Tynan, Partner at Square Peg Capital. Square Peg Capital is one of Australia’s largest venture capital funds. In 2022, Square Peg closed a $860M fund, taking its total funds under management to $2.4B across all of its funds. Prior to this, he founded Tiny […] The post Ep181 – James Tynan (Partner – Square Peg Capital) on storytelling & entering the business olympics appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep180 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Daniel Petre. Daniel is the godfather of Australian tech and venture capital. Back in 1988, Daniel joined Microsoft as their Managing Director for Australia before being promoted as one of the 5 VPs of product under Bill Gates. He would then go on launch over […] The post Ep180 – Daniel Petre (Co-founder – Start Giving) on family, philanthropy and truth seeking appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep179 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Ben Thompson, the Co-founder & CEO of Employment Hero. Employment hero is one of Australia’s great startup success stories. The business launched in November 2014 and fast forward almost a decade later, they have 2.5M users and 300,000 SME customers globally and in 2023 they […] The post Ep179 – Ben Thompson (Co-founder & CEO – Employment Hero) on growth, PMF & principles appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep178 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Creative Cubes, Tobi Skovron. Tobi has had a fascinating career journey to date He started his first business, Pet Loo with Sim, who is now his wife, and a $20,000 investment from his father-in law. They grew that business to […] The post Ep178 – Tobi Skovron (Co-founder & CEO – Creative Cubes) on the curse of ambition appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 177 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Sam Kothari, the Co-founder & COO of Everlab. Sam is an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word having previously run everything from tuition businesses and ice cream shops to starting a popular Poke bowl chain across Sydney and Mebourne called, Poked. He […] The post Ep177 – Sam Kothari (Co-founder & COO – Everlab) on building world class teams and reinventing the primary care experience appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 176 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Luke Anear, the Founder & CEO of SafetyCulture. Luke is one of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs. He started SafetyCulture in 2004 out of a garage in Townsville, initially as a lifestyle business, before conversations with Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes the co-founders of Atlassian, […] The post Ep176 – Luke Anear (Founder & CEO – SafetyCulture) on lessons from building a $2.7B company appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep175 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Ed Hooper, the Co-founder & CEO of GXE. Ed was previously the Co-founder & CEO of Omny Studio, which was an audio management platform used by media companies and podcasters to grow their audience, reduce production costs and monetize their platform. Omny was later acquired […] The post Ep175 – Ed Hooper (Co-founder & CEO – GXE) on frameworks, exits and investing appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep174 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & VP of Brand & Marketing of Eight Sleep, Alexandra Zatarain. Back in 2014, Alex moved from NYC to Silicon valley to launch a smart mattress company as 4 “outsiders” to the silicon valley startup scene. They wanted to build and create a […] The post Ep174 – Alexandra Zatarain (Co-founder – Eight Sleep) on branding, company DNA and category creation appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 173 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Kismet, Mark Woodland. Mark has had a fascinating journey to date. He joined the military to fulfil his brothers dreams before leaving to do “admin” for his mums childcare business. That experience led him to starting Xplor education, a […] The post Ep173 – Mark Woodland (Co-founder & CEO – Kismet) on timing, leadership & high performance appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 172 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures, Ben Grabiner. There are few people in the Australian startup ecosystem with the background on both sides of the table as Ben! He was an investor at Local Globe, one of the leading VC funds […] The post Ep172 – Ben Grabiner (Co-founder & General Partner – Side Stage Ventures) on VC as a product appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep171 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, was Micha Kaufman the Co-founder & CEO of Fiverr. Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger launched Fiverr in 2010 as a marketplace to connect freelancers to people and businesses. The pitch was simple, you could hire people for tasks around the world for $5 or less. Like […] The post Ep171 – Micha Kaufman (Co-founder & CEO – Fiverr) on risk, virality and frameworks appeared first on Startup Playbook.