Square Peg's global shift, Linktree's 2023 & SA rocket launches

0:00 Will Richards: You're listening to a Day One FM show. This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Kurnura and the Kulin Nation.

0:08 Gemma Clancy: The Startup Retro is brought to you by Day One, the podcast network for founders, operators, and investors.

0:15 Will Richards: G'day and welcome to the Startup Retro, a weekly show where we help you level up on the Australian startup ecosystem by giving you an insider's view on Aussie startups and venture capital. I'm Will Richards, and on this week's episode of the Startup Retro, I'm super excited to be joined by Cheryl Mack from Aussie Angels, as Gemma is off in Italy for the next few weeks. And in today's episode, we dive into Square Peg's new two funds.

0:38 Emma Grife: Linktree's 2023 accounts results.

0:40 Will Richards: A new partnership in South Australia that will see rocket launches in 2025.

0:44 Emma Grife: SafetyCulture's latest raise and a startup that is growing plastic with algae.

0:48 Will Richards: I also interview Cheryl on her latest project, The Pillars, and I interview Emma Greif from Startmate on their latest cohort.

0:55 Emma Grife: Ooh, and you will also get a handy resource for B2B startups and their sales motions.

1:02 Will Richards: Well, let's jump into the headlines. And the first headline that, that grabbed my attention this week was Square Peg's new fund. And there's probably nothing revolutionary about Square Peg going out and raising a new fund, but what I thought was really interesting about it was that they're focusing more so on international LPs. And I suppose of like the, the big 3 VCs in Australia, they're definitely one with the most global presence, but I think it's a sense that the superannuation funds here in Australia have probably— they're a little bit dry and not super keen to back venture a little bit at the moment. So yeah, Square Peg's sort of using their international— yeah, the international presence to lean on some LPs in the US and Israel.

1:41 Emma Grife: Yeah, I think Square Peg is one of our unique larger funds in that they, they do a bunch of stuff in the US as well as Israel. So it kind of gives you that all-in-one presence in that sense. And they've been like—

1:54 Gemma Clancy: they've—

1:55 Emma Grife: it's not like this is new, they've been doing that for a number of years. Um, and so I think to then diversify across their LP base and get more international LPs totally makes sense, uh, for, for any funds. Um, in particular like the big ones who are, you know, $840 mil AUD is a huge fund.

2:13 Will Richards: Yeah, so this is their 6th fund and it's going to be focusing on the seed to Series A investment, which where they'll be taking a 10 to 20% stake in startups. And then simultaneously, they're also raising a different fund, which is the Opportunities Fund 3. And we've seen this same approach, I think, from the likes of Blackbird 2, who I believe at the end of last year did quite a similar thing, raising two funds simultaneously and one being an opportunities fund. It's quite— it's good to see venture funds basically being like, let's, let's, let's back our winners as well. We've got some in our, in our earlier funds that we can double down on.

2:44 Emma Grife: Yeah, that's pretty standard. Once you get to a certain size, that it just makes sense to create an opportunities fund because you have all this pro rata and when the companies get big and those are the great success stories, like you can't put the pro rata into your current fund. It just doesn't fit the mandate if you're doing, you know, seed to Series A. So once you get to a certain size as a fund, it just makes sense to run an opportunities fund. Otherwise you're just leaving money on the table for yourself and your LPs.

3:12 Will Richards: Yeah, it's, it's actually quite cool because they were interesting. They talk about their investment in Canva, which has a 652% return at the moment. Pretty phenomenal. They only invested in that company once, where the likes of Blackbird have doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down as that company's grown. So it's quite interesting that like Square Peg do obviously mention that they've had a massive return on that business, um, but haven't, haven't doubled down on it. So I'm sure they've learned that lesson.

3:40 Emma Grife: Well, the thing is though, it's easy to get a 652 multiple, uh, return if you only invest once, right? Because you're always going to get the best return from your first investment. So like, yeah, it's, it's great that they mentioned that, but like those of us in BC also kind of know what that—

3:57 Will Richards: You roll your eyes at it a little bit.

3:59 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, obviously.

4:01 Will Richards: Okay. And then the next headline, which I think is, um, probably on the other side of, of the spectrum, is some leaked documents that came out of the Lincoln Biotool Linktree. And it was for their 2023 accounts, and it was showing a net loss of $61.6 million, which when you boil down the numbers boils down to every $2 that they spend, they're getting $1 in return, which doesn't sound like a great business, but that's not the business that we're into at the moment, is it?

4:31 Emma Grife: Like, for me, I wanna know how do their investors feel about this?

4:36 Cheryl Mack: Yeah.

4:36 Emma Grife: Because if the board and their investors have signed off on this growth strategy, then like, to me, that sounds totally fine.

4:42 Gemma Clancy: Yeah.

4:43 Emma Grife: The thing is, if this was in the ZIRP era, you know, 5 years ago, nobody would question this. They'd be like, why isn't it $3 for every dollar earned? Honestly, I read that article. It was a bit of a take teardown piece.

4:54 Gemma Clancy: Yeah.

4:55 Emma Grife: I think that it's just a sign of the times where grabbing a startup that is growing so quickly, grabbing their accounts and leaking them, and then saying, "Oh, how dare they spend $2 per every dollar spent," I think is a bit disingenuous. Really, I don't know whether that's good or bad until you talk to their investors and their board. If their board signed off on it, then happy days. Like, they're growing.

5:21 Will Richards: Yeah, and that's— I think their board definitely does, and their investors definitely do believe in, in their story and, and what they're doing. Like, since these accounts have been released, the strategy I don't think has changed at all. In 2023, they made some acquisitions. They were acquiring businesses that were, um, coming up as well, similar sort of link and bio tools but quite different, and also opening the door up to enter the sort of social commerce side of things. And they probably haven't really, you know, hit their strides in social commerce just yet, but that's definitely the strategy that they're coming down. And they have done another acquisition in, in this year as well. So that's definitely part of their strategy. Um, a few acquihires, and the founders have, you know, along the way maybe not seen the writing on the wall a little bit, but they've taken a little bit of cash off the table, um, themselves. All three founders have taken around $7 million off the table in secondaries throughout, throughout the journey. But since these accounts have come out, they've, they've continued raising extra capital and they've made a few acquisitions. So from the way I sort of see it, like I don't think investors are that spooked by it at all. They're pretty confident and pretty comfortable.

6:25 Emma Grife: No, I think most of us laughed at that article.

6:27 Will Richards: It was a classic rear window article by the AFR, that's for sure.

6:31 Gemma Clancy: Yeah.

6:32 Will Richards: And the final headline that I just thought was really, really cool was in South Australia, there's been a partnership signed by Hypersonic Launch Systems and Southern Launch to launch aircraft capable of Mach 5. So they're not sort of, well, they get launched by rockets, but then they fly like airplanes when they're up in the sky.

6:49 Gemma Clancy: And Mach 5, it's Mach 7, is just so fast.

6:53 Emma Grife: It's like, I have to wonder, why do we need to—

6:55 Gemma Clancy: does—

6:56 Emma Grife: why does anyone need to go at Mach 7? Like, why do we need to go that fast? What's the point here?

7:01 Will Richards: I think it might— it must be a defense thing. I assume on the website it's very much like Hypersonic Launch Systems website is very much like engineering. We're pushing the boundaries, but they don't sort of say like why. But I assume the capabilities is definitely being, being developed for, for defense.

7:19 Emma Grife: Well, either way, they're— I mean, they're going to be launching it at Southern Launch Spaceports, which is around Whalers Way, Coonibah. And I guess that also depends on some of those environmental assessments of those areas. But sounds like the launch will be—

7:36 Gemma Clancy: will be going ahead.

7:37 Will Richards: Yeah. So, so they'll, they'll start launching hopefully in early 2025, which, which feels super soon. I did laugh though that They have to pick the launch location depending on endangered species. So there's the potential that a flightless bird, the Southern Emu, is going to change where these amazing spacecraft get selected to launch from. But for an idea of like what the actual spacecraft are, for anyone who's seen Top Gun 2, they're that scramjet at the start of the movie. So the one that— God, who's the actor?

8:08 Cheryl Mack: Tom Cruise?

8:09 Will Richards: Tom Cruise, yeah. How do I forget the main actor?

8:12 Emma Grife: I don't know. I haven't even seen it.

8:14 Will Richards: You haven't seen Top Gun?

8:15 Emma Grife: Tom Cruise is just like the only actor's name that I know offhand. Off the top of my head.

8:18 Will Richards: Yeah, so Tom Cruise at the start of, um, Top Gun 2 is flying one of these, these rockets, uh, one of these, these spacecraft, and he apparently gets it to Mach— I think it was over Mach 10, um, before it blows up, and he somehow survives.

8:30 Emma Grife: But I mean, it's Tom Cruise, obviously.

8:34 Will Richards: But I think it's a really cool, um, indication that Australian space tech is developing and things are actually happening. Um, there's obviously Gilmore Space Technologies who were planning on launching this year as well. And unfortunately that's been delayed a little bit. So I think next year could be a really hot year for Australian space tech.

8:52 Emma Grife: Oh yeah. We'll see, hopefully see a bunch of Australian rockets launched from Australia.

8:58 Will Richards: That'd be cool.

8:59 Emma Grife: Also 5V Capital launching their Frontier Fund 1, a $325 million fund aimed at smaller mid-market companies. It's pretty unique, new type of fund. 5V is normally are like a typical VC. So they're launching a new fund to specifically focus on less VC-backable companies. It's pretty cool.

9:21 Will Richards: Yeah, I think we spoke last week about your wish of more funds in the market that can fill the gap.

9:27 Emma Grife: Yeah, more diversity.

9:28 Will Richards: They're already listening, Cheryl.

9:29 Emma Grife: Yeah, they totally did that because I said so last week.

9:32 Will Richards: Exactly, and they got it all prepared in the last 7 days.

9:35 Emma Grife: Obviously.

9:36 Will Richards: No, really cool to see 5V expanding their horizons with Frontier Fund One.

9:44 Emma Grife: SafetyCulture raises a new $75 million of fresh capital. They also, at the same time, they did about a $90 mil of secondaries exchange. So, Blackbird liquidated a bunch of their SafetyCulture position, along with a few others. So, that's still a huge amount. Like, the total raise was $165, but of that, $75 was fresh capital, which is still a very large amount to be going into the company. The other interesting point there is that they reaffirmed their unicorn status, which was never in question, but the fact that we haven't had any new unicorns crowned this year that I know of, but we have had a few like maintain their unicorn or reinvigorate the crown is very good.

10:28 Will Richards: Yeah, so the valuation came off a little bit.

10:31 Emma Grife: Just slightly.

10:31 Will Richards: A slight $200 million drop in valuation, but still very, very strong at $2.5 billion. And the, The funding round was led by Airtree Ventures for the first time. So Airtree is now on the cap table at SafetyCulture. I believe it's the first time they've come on board, but definitely the first time they've led a round into SafetyCulture. So quite cool to see a new big VC jumping on the SafetyCulture bandwagon, obviously believing that there's a lot of growth still in the company.

10:57 Emma Grife: Yeah, SafetyCulture is such a great story. Like, you know, they were founded in Townsville, they were your typical like working out of the garage. You know, Luke tells the story fantastically well. They actually also have a documentary called Founders, I think.

11:11 Will Richards: Is that on Netflix, that one?

11:12 Emma Grife: I don't know if it's on Netflix.

11:14 Will Richards: It's on one of the streamers.

11:15 Emma Grife: It's on one of the streaming things. Just look it up, Founders. Luke produced that as well, which is pretty cool. So, and they just had such a like humble beginnings and just absolutely exploded now with like 85,000 companies and 2 million users. Just like a really great success story for Australia. Their growth is just I wouldn't say meteoric, but like basically meteoric.

11:39 Will Richards: Yeah, really chugged along nicely. The interesting thing is where do they go next? And there's been a bit of talk after this raise around obviously AI and how they can utilise AI. I didn't realise, but they've got so much workforce safety data, workplace data, just because of the nature of their business. And they've got like, they report 5 petabytes of workplace information, whether that's like surveys being filled in or photos or, or whatever, like videos of people doing, doing work. So obviously that, that information can be leveraged in some way, and AI is definitely going to be a part of that. But they haven't really announced exactly how they're going to do it. So one to watch. I think they're super well placed to use AI in their business, um, for that next phase of growth.

12:23 Emma Grife: Oh, 100%.

12:25 Will Richards: My pick this week was a company called Algenie, which secured a $1.1 million pre-seed funding round, and I love this business idea. They're replacing fossil fuels and plastic. So, a lot of fossil fuels obviously become plastics, plastic bottles, those sorts of things with algae. So, they're growing algae in this super dense way. You know, algae just multiplies apparently, like you leave your pond for a few months unsupervised and there's algae everywhere. They're kind of leveraging that and then turning the algae that they produce into plastic, which I just think is absolutely fantastic.

12:57 Emma Grife: Oh, 100%. If they can get that cost down, which it sounds like they are looking to potentially reduce costs tenfold to $1 per kilogram, then that's a really viable alternative to create some real climate change to— and cut carbon emissions and create eco-friendly materials.

13:14 Will Richards: Yeah. So they're a spin-out of the University of Technology Sydney, UTS, and University of Sydney also invested in the business as well as Better Byte Ventures. And at this stage, it's still, I think, a proof of concept at the moment. So I believe what's been achieved so far is they have now been able to grow algae that can turn into plastic, is basically where they're at. And that's why they've come out and made a bit of noise. What they're trying to do next is basically get some customers on board, some pilot customers to commercialize this. And quite a unique way of commercialization. They're going to license the technology to plastic manufacturers. So plastic manufacturers who want to be a bit more green can start growing some algae themselves and turning into plastic instead of, you know, the traditional methods of using fossil fuels.

14:01 Emma Grife: Yeah, amazing. So many potential applications there, like plastics, textiles. They could also license their technology. Like, this just— it could be a game changer.

14:10 Will Richards: Yeah, it would be awesome. I think the big one is like, it'll all just be automatically biodegradable, so you won't even have to like double—

14:17 Emma Grife: You don't have to worry about it. You can toss it in the garbage if you want because a lot of people do.

14:21 Will Richards: Put in the green waste bin.

14:23 Gemma Clancy: Yeah.

14:28 Will Richards: The Startup Retro is supported by Teamified. So I'm super excited to be joined by Simon Lee, the co-founder of Teamified. Simon, I'd love to get your thoughts on the rise of fractional roles for startups in Australia. It's a trend that I'm seeing really start to kick off lately. How do you sort of see that in the market at the moment, and what does Teamified do to help Yeah, I don't know about you, but everywhere I'm seeing fractional everywhere now.

14:52 Cheryl Mack: If you actually look at the biggest cost on people's balance sheet is their labor costs, right? And 90% of businesses, it's their labor costs is the biggest cost. And so building remote teams is a great way to reduce the cost, but fractional services is also, you know, if you're a small business, do I need to hire a full-time CFO? Do I need a full-time CMO? We'll hit $18 mil revenue this year and I've still got a fractional CFO and a fractional CMO and they do an amazing job. When you're trying to start a business, trying to find who should I partner with, and having someone that at least a vetted CMO or a vetted CTO is just gonna make it that much simpler.

15:25 Will Richards: To learn more about how Teamified can help scale up your business, head to teamified.com.au. So super excited to be joined by Emma Greif, the Chief of Staff at Startmate, who specialises in the founders. Side of the business, which is a super important part of Startmate's whole business with their accelerator and whatnot. So, Emma, thank you for joining us on the podcast. I'd love to, to learn about your story, um, coming from the US to Australia and what it's been like at Startmate for the last year.

15:57 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to chat about the accelerator and what we're doing with the companies in this cohort. A little background on me is I'm American, if you can't tell from the accent, um, and I'm originally from Michigan. I'm from like a small farm town Grew up in Michigan. I went to University of Michigan, and then that's where I kind of discovered startups in college. And from there, I actually joined a growth stage venture firm in New York. So, I was working at Insight Partners, which invests in software and technology companies. And my job was to do sourcing. So, I was speaking to 20, 25 founders a week at the growth stage, really understanding, you know, what are the business metrics that make an amazing high-growth company. But I wasn't spending a ton of time like with founders kind of understanding their problems and like going deep on, on the problems. And we were also very much focused on growth stage and even going a little into the private equity route. So thinking through roll-ups and buyout strategies. And I originally was interested in startups because I love working with early-stage founders. So I was thinking about like how I could basically learn more about early-stage founders. And I had actually studied abroad in Australia a bunch of years ago, and I've always wanted to come back. Spent a couple months at the University of Sydney and absolutely loved it. So I've been, yeah, thinking of ways to hopefully get back and spend more time in Australia. So then I discovered Startmate, which is kind of the perfect opportunity to spend time with early-stage founders. It's the earliest you can go. And yeah, found the, the Chief of Staff Founders role, which is in charge of the accelerator program. So thinking through what, like, what systems we'll implement, and basically how we're going to take the accelerator to the next level. So I help with the selection process, and then I'm also in charge of managing the program. So thinking about what mentors are the right mentors for the cohort founders, thinking through the content sessions we'll run for the founders, thinking through how we help them establish goals at the very beginning of the program, and then also helping them with fundraising at the end of the program. And yeah, I've been here for about a year, and I've been loving it.

18:01 Will Richards: That's awesome. I love that you've come across to Australia 'cause I think there is a bit of a feeling that some Australians feel like they need to go to the US to learn and really get involved in a startup ecosystem. But it's great to hear the story the other way around of someone from the US coming into Australia. And it sounds like Startmate is the perfect place to learn more about founders. So that's cool. I'd love to touch on the application process 'cause we're gonna do a bit of a deep dive on Startmate's cohort for Winter 2024. But I would love to touch on application process for startups to get into the cohort? Because it is so different to, I think, every accelerator in Australia really, because you rely so much on the community of mentors to basically vet the startups. Could you touch on what your experience has been like, um, sort of wrangling the mentors into, into evaluating startups?

18:51 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, now I can definitely touch on that. Going back to this, the accelerator application process, I mean, what it looks like for founders is You fill out an application online. It's a series of questions and also a small video submission. Once you submit that, our community, which is a lot of our mentors, our First Believers, which is our angel investing kind of training program, a lot of our mentors and First Believers will jump in and then evaluate the application. So what that looks like is we've actually built a portal for them to go in and ask questions to the founders to— Um, basically add commentary on where we think we should basically dig deeper when we have an interview with the founders. And we also bring in experts depending on their, yeah, background knowledge. So we're able to have mentors with like specific background knowledge relevant to the startups that are applying.

19:46 Will Richards: That's cool. And then what's the, when you get to the pointy end of a startup, you know, getting into the Startmate accelerator, Could you give a sense of how many mentors have probably had a look at that startup and given it some sort of evaluation? 'Cause I remember hearing, I think it would've been probably a year ago that there was around like 600 people or so that were evaluating the cohort. But I'd love to know like how many of those interact with each one or do some sort of, you know, 'cause obviously you get around like 1,500 applications or so each cohort. Like when you get to the pointy end, how many people have sort of evaluated each startup?

20:21 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, that's a good question. So, this past cohort, we had several hundred selectors and mentors on the platform. And we make sure that each application is reviewed at least, like, by 4 or 5 selectors or mentors. But we'll have some applications that, you know, are particularly interesting, and we'll have a lot of people, a lot of eyeballs on them, and a lot of comments and follow-up questions. And then, on our side, we have, like, a leaderboard. So, we actually have some mentors and selectors that will go through and review every single application. And this past intake, we had over 600. So we had some selectors that had basically carved out like hours, potentially days in their schedule to review every single application.

21:04 Will Richards: Oh my God, that's incredible.

21:05 Gemma Clancy: Which is pretty cool.

21:06 Will Richards: Yeah, that's awesome. So let's jump into the cohort that's going on right now. So they're about 50% of the way through the Accelerate at the moment. Could you tell me a little bit about about each startup and, and what they've maybe achieved to date in the accelerator?

21:20 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, so in the Winter '24 cohort, we have 11 startups, and it's kind of across the board in terms of what the categories are. So I'd say a little over half are software, and then we have a couple hardware climate tech-oriented companies. So at the very beginning of the program, we help them establish goals for the 12 weeks, and a lot of these goals are focused on customer conversations. So making sure that the founders are laser-focused on speaking to customers building the product, going back to speak to customers, and basically creating that feedback loop. And then the tighter that feedback loop is, the closer you can get to basically signing those customers up because you've built something that solves the problem. So when we think about like what they've accomplished so far, they've been super laser-focused on speaking to customers, building the platform, and trying to get that first revenue in the door. And like I said, it's very across the board in terms of what they're focusing on. So I can just kind of go down the list.

22:16 Emma Grife: Yeah.

22:17 Gemma Clancy: Born is one of the companies. Born is Australia's first luxury postpartum hotel. And what they've accomplished so far is they actually sold out of her August stays within a week of starting the Startmate program. And she has a couple open bookings for September and October, so is looking for moms that are interested in an experience like Born, which is a luxury postpartum hotel in Sydney. Bugster is another company in the cohort, and they have created an AI-powered code testing platform for QA engineers. Since starting the program, they've built out exciting new functionality and onboarded a bunch of users in Australia and LATAM. Fairgo is another company, and they've created an AI-powered live conversational video interviewing platform to screen candidates. And he's been super focused on building out integrations with Ashby and JobAdder and some of these other platforms that are going to allow him to scale. And then another exciting company is Hertech. Hi. Heartech has created an electric firefighting pump that's far more efficient in terms of flow of water and the pressure. And this firefighting pump is also connected to a software platform that manages incidences and, and fleet. So they, throughout the program, have built out a smaller electric pump and then also built out more features on the fleet management and incidents management platform. And they also recently attended like the largest conference in APAC for fire services organizations. So super exciting next steps there on launching some pilot programs. Another company in the cohort is Anytek, and Anytek has this highly efficient oil extraction technology for use in supplements. So an example is if you're looking to use vanilla extract, the current process is you have to dry out the vanilla, and it's super time-consuming and also energy-consuming. So what Anytech does is basically allows you to take that vanilla extract without having to do the drying process. And they're working on product certification and, and securing partnerships for the first commercial plant. Another company in the cohort is Preve, which I, I think that you've spoken about before, and they've built AI-powered physiotherapy memberships. So this helps physiotherapy clinics deliver better treatment and then also helps patients stick to tailored care plans. and during Week 0, this was actually really interesting. They had built out, or built out a plan for an MVP, but weren't going to launch until September or October. And after the Week 0 of the accelerator, they decided that they were going to launch over the weekend. So they put together a scrappy MVP, launched over the weekend, and have since onboarded dozens of physiotherapy clinics, which is pretty impressive. Another company is Recant, and Recant— Recant. Has built a social media moderation tool. So this allows influencers and public figures to stop abusive messages coming into their inbox on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. And they're currently building on a waitlist for both influencers and then also agencies to trial the platform. Tendle is another company in the cohort. They're using AI to auto-generate tender documents. So any business that basically submits tenders for government projects would really benefit from using the Tendle platform, and they've signed their first several customers up, which is a huge win. Another company is Totex. They have created an all-in-one sustainable system that provides heating, cooling, hot water, and pool heating, and they're working on rolling out the unit to customers in a pilot program. And then the last two are Trova and Zello. So Trova is building the provider network and tech infrastructure enabling digital health companies to expand internationally. Mm-hmm. Internationally. And they, throughout the program, actually built up a provider network in their first target market, which is Brazil. They then launched in Brazil. So now they're focused on repeating that process in their other target markets and then getting their first enterprise digital health companies on board. And then the last company is Zello. So Zello is a fitting room assistant for fashion retailers. And they've made really exciting process in the accelerator, reaching out to dozens of retailers and actually secured a couple, uh, large retailer pilots to roll out in, in store. So yeah, that's kind of an overview of, of a quick one-liner on each company and what they've accomplished.

26:42 Will Richards: Fantastic. I love how each of them have their own like little like signs of progress and launching, you know, deciding to launch a business within a weekend instead of a few months is, is such, I think, a testament to, to what the Startmate Accelerator can do for companies. Just changing that perspective of, you know, get, get your thing in front of customers as soon as possible and get some sales on the board.

27:01 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, yeah. And I think a theme of this cohort, like you mentioned, is a lot of the companies coming in were very much at the MVP stage, so didn't have existing customers and had just basically built something less than a year old and are thinking through how to get those first customers. So having a focus throughout the accelerator program on connecting them with the right mentors to basically uplevel their sales ability and product positioning and think through go-to-market strategies. It's been really helpful and we've seen a ton of progress in just like the 7 weeks so far. And then looking forward to the next few weeks before Demo Day when the companies are going to present on stage.

27:42 Will Richards: Yeah, perfect. Like, let's talk about Demo Day because it's always a bit of a party.

27:45 Gemma Clancy: Yeah.

27:46 Will Richards: And I think it's the best startup pitch event in Australia each, each time you guys run it. What's planned for Demo Day this year?

27:53 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, so Demo Day this year is going to be super exciting. It's our largest Demo Day ever, and we have said that a couple years, like a couple.

28:02 Will Richards: I see, I think you say that every accelerator.

28:04 Gemma Clancy: That is true, we do say that, but this is actually like significantly bigger than even the last one. So, the last two cohorts, the Demo Days have been around 1,000 people, and this one, we're going to be above 1,000 people, which is super exciting. It's going to be at the State Theatre in Sydney. It's Monday, October 14th, and it's going to kick off at 6:30. And then we're going to have a massive after-party following. So the tickets are currently available. We have early bird pricing right now. It's just $20 a ticket. It definitely is a massive party. So we definitely encourage, you know, anyone to attend if they haven't already. It's really inspiring to see the founders present on the companies they've built, the progress they've had so far, and basically where they're headed in the future. And it's also a great opportunity to meet people in the startup ecosystem. There are not many events in which you're going to have like close to 2,000 people in the same room celebrating startups in Australia. So yeah, I would really encourage anyone in town to attend. And it's also conveniently the same week as South by Southwest. So if you're planning to attend South by Southwest, definitely come to Demo Day on that Monday.

29:13 Will Richards: Perfect. Yeah, it's a, it's a great environment because there's so many people in the room who have helped or been a part of the startup's journey as well throughout the accelerator, whether it was like telling them to apply to the accelerator or helping them get selected or during the accelerator process as well, being a mentor or introducing them to a customer. So when you get there and after they all pitch, it's so cool to chat to other guests over a beer or two and sort of, you know, what was your favourite startup? And they'll say, oh, it was this, but I also helped them like introduce them to their first customer. And it's a really nice environment for— Yeah. For anyone to attend.

29:47 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, no, totally agree. And it's, yeah, very diverse crowd, like everyone from investors to founders to students to operators, really across the board.

29:55 Will Richards: Perfect. Well, thanks, Emma. Thanks for joining me to chat about the latest accelerator at Startmate. Can't wait to, to see them pitch at Demo Night.

30:04 Gemma Clancy: Yeah, I'm so excited. Thanks so much for having me.

30:10 Will Richards: So Cheryl, we hinted at it last week, But I think we sort of buried the lead a little bit about a project that you're working on that is adjacent to startups, but I, it's, I wouldn't define it as a technology startup, that's for sure. And it's your project that you're doing with a few real awesome ecosystem leaders called The Pillars in Sydney. Would love to, to learn about what the inspiration was behind The Pillars and what you're hoping to achieve with it.

30:32 Emma Grife: Yeah, absolutely. So no, it is not a tech startup, but it is very unique in the sense that there is no private club in Sydney or Australia in general that is for our generation. And I think that concept of a private club is so, so valuable for so many people in building network, in helping them grow their careers. And the fact that there just isn't something that is like really targeted towards that next generation of both wealth and tech, it created an opportunity for us. So, myself and a few other co-founders, namely Brad Delamere, Steve Gray, Matt Brown, John Louie, and Emma Blomfield. They— so, there's 6 of us. Yeah, we just thought, let's create a space where we can bring tech and finance together and hopefully have an influence on where the next generation of investment goes. So, we have a number of like family offices, particularly the like latest, the newest generation of family office people who are really thinking about what to invest and pretty disenfranchised with of their parents' mining and real estate strategies and wanting to get into tech, but just not feeling like they have the tools to do so. So, our goal is to bring all of those people together, exited tech founders and/or successful tech founders together with that generation of family offices and bring everyone together in one building, in one place to meet and spend time together. And if that creates a shift and supports people to invest in different ways than amazing. If not, I think there's still going to be tons of value created.

32:15 Will Richards: Yeah, that's awesome. I think it's, yeah, it's that serendipitous moment of Australia's tech ecosystem now mature enough where we probably have enough like exited founders, there's been enough wealth created, but there's still so much potential. So now having this like this location where people can, it's, and it's not forced networking, it's more just like having that third place in the world to go to. Like it's a mix between, I wouldn't say it's even coworking, but it's a mix between a coworking space dining experiences, recreation, and wellness, right? Yeah. So, yeah, it won't be forced networking. It'll be more just like serendipitous, like, oh, what are you working on? Like, that looks really cool. And yeah, I'm sure there'll be a lot of, a lot of cool things coming out of it.

32:56 Emma Grife: Oh, I've been to some clubs overseas that are fantastic. You just, you show up and there are people there that are just like part of the like environment atmosphere that you show up to like hang out with others, but it's very relaxed. And so one floor of the, so we We've taken on the lease on a 4-story building in the middle of Sydney CBD, just between like Martin Place and Barangaroo. And it's on Barrack Street. And it's just a beautiful building. So, the bottom floor is a restaurant that will be open to the public. But we've actually— and this, I can announce this because it did get leaked— but we're working with the Bentley Group, Bentley Restaurant Group for that. And then the other 3 levels are all the like private club.

33:38 Gemma Clancy: Mm-hmm.

33:38 Emma Grife: Club level, working level, and then wellness level, along with a secret rooftop bar that I am pushing to be named Cheryl's Bar.

33:47 Will Richards: Good luck with that.

33:48 Emma Grife: I know.

33:49 Will Richards: In terms of like the perfect, um, because we've got some listeners who I think are in, well, obviously they're in the startup space, and there's definitely a lot of investors around who listen, engage with our content. Who do you think is like the perfect, the perfect person to, to get involved with The Pillars?

34:03 Emma Grife: Well, I will say the membership is, uh, a pretty penny to join on an annual basis. If you would like to know more, feel free to reach out to me Exactly. It is invitation only, so you can't actually just, you can't apply to join. So, please, if you are interested, reach out to me. But if you are, if you have a family office and want to learn more about investing in tech, then probably a very good fit. If you are an investor, so high net worth investor or a VC, then it would be a great fit for you. And then if you are a like Series B beyond tech founder or exited tech founder would probably be a very good fit for you as well.

34:44 Will Richards: Is it a place for builders as well? Like, what if you're— because I think in chatting with Steve as well, he was definitely talking about it's a place for exited founders as well. But then on the, on the other hand, he was saying as well, like, it's going to be a place that he sees a lot of value being created in terms of, you know, you get all these ambitious people who've achieved a lot What about people who are, you know, well on their journey? Let's say they're Series B, C, D, E onwards, who are, you know, at the helm of a really impressive business. Like, is it something that you want those sorts of founders engaging with as well?

35:18 Emma Grife: Yeah, absolutely. So, founders of Series B and beyond.

35:21 Will Richards: Okay, cool. Fantastic. Yeah, one to check out, I think. And then also I'm waiting for the Melbourne one to open in a few years.

35:27 Cheryl Mack: Yes.

35:27 Will Richards: I'll start saving now.

35:29 Emma Grife: And what's your pick of the week?

35:31 Will Richards: Yeah, so my pick for cast this week was an article on a website called Unusual VC. And I'm not sure if you've ever been on Unusual VC before, but I checked it out. I got recommended it this week and it's just a treasure trove of awesome content that's really actionable. And the article that I jumped on was called Go-to-Market Funnel Stages, Metrics and Goals for B2B Startups. And that's a mouthful, but what it really is is, Yeah, identifying the go-to-sales motion for B2B startups. And for me, this was super useful in working with a client this week who is going through this motion right now. So being able to work out what's the best approach for their business and what they were probably missing in their pipeline. So really digestible for B2B founders.

36:18 Emma Grife: Perfect, sounds great.

36:24 Gemma Clancy: Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Startup Retro.

36:27 Emma Grife: We would love to hear what you thought of the show, so feel free to reach out to us directly on LinkedIn with your feedback. That's Will Richards and Gemma Clancy.

36:33 Will Richards: And if you've enjoyed this episode, we would love if you could follow us on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review so more people can find us.

36:40 Emma Grife: Catch you next week.

36:47 Cheryl Mack: Listen to The Unfunded Podcast, brought to you by the Day One Network and hosted by me, tech writer Joan Westenberg. We're sharing the no-holds-barred untold stories from entrepreneurs who have decided to build a business on their terms. I'll be interviewing successful founders and operators on the grit and ingenuity it takes to build and scale independent startups without the support of traditional venture capital funding. Subscribe to the Unfunded Podcast now, wherever you get your podcasts.