“My first passion in life is Software. My second passion is trying to help unhappy, particularly female, lawyers who feel trapped in their jobs.

My background is as a corporate lawyer. Growing up, I was a classic younger sister in that I wanted to do everything that is different from my sister. She went down the medicine path, so I chose law. I did it for several years, and it even took me to London, but I never found it particularly satisfying.

Around the time I was living in London, I heard about the concept of telehealth businesses, particularly those with a focus on skin. And I thought, “Oh my God, this is exactly what I needed growing up.”

I grew up in Warrnambool, at the end of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. When I was younger, my sister and I had trouble with our skin. But for us, seeing a dermatology specialist meant driving four hours to Melbourne. It was challenging.

Before I left London, I worked a brief stint at Dermatica, a British telehealth company, and that was my foray into the startup world. I enjoyed it, but I eventually came home because of Covid. And that hugely affected the trajectory of my career.

Inspired by both my childhood and my time in London, and seeing the rise of telehealth around the world, I came to Sydney and started Software. And when it came to realising this company and thinking about where there is a need in the community, being from the country was a significant driver for me.

It was a terrifying time to start a company with so much up in the air, but I love what I’m doing so much. We get to have such a positive impact on people’s lives. Compared to where I was two years ago, I’m so much happier. And I want to help other lawyers find that joy as well—there are so many other jobs out there that are much more satisfying.”

Niamh Mooney of Software, a startup providing Australia's first prescription, subscription tele-health platform.

“I had my first job at 14, working in a cafe. I’ve always loved the hospitality industry. I think my personality is well suited to it—my cup is filled by meeting people and building relationships.

I never ended up going to university. Instead, I started my first company at 21. It started as a food blog in Newcastle, featuring local restaurants and cafes. It quickly evolved from that to working with restaurants to do social media management. Within two years, I was managing an agency of 12 people.

I eventually sold the agency, but on the side, I had thought of this idea which was like Tinder for food. I’m a big foodie and wished there was a platform where I could discover nearby restaurants through photos. That’s how Eatsee started and we just ran with it.

Then the thing that changed my entire founder journey was applying to the Launch Festival Sydney Competition. The prize was $100K USD and 12 weeks in San Francisco.

Long story short, we ended up being one of the startups to win. Suddenly, I had this crazy change in my life, moving from Newcastle to San Francisco. I pitched to 170 investors in 3 months, including Sequoia. It was just incredible.

That trip left me more inspired, more motivated. I felt more myself in that environment than I ever had. I came back to Australia realising that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Jess Koncz of Eatsee, a platform to visually discover cafes and restaurants nearby.

“I learned about entrepreneurship thanks to stones. Thousands and thousands of stones.

My dad was an F-16 pilot, so I grew up on Air Force bases all around Europe, moving every 6-12 months. One of the things that my dad did—and how I became an entrepreneur at 8 years old—is he brought home stones from wherever he flew.

He would walk around the base or in the mountains and find me semi-precious stones. Before long, I had this massive collection. And with a tumbler and a stone saw that I received from a friend, I started creating hundreds of pieces of jewelry from these stones.

One day, my dad said, “Why don’t you sell them?” And so I did. My dad taught me about bookkeeping, advertising, and business fundamentals. I was in the local paper. That was my introduction to business.

I eventually went into the army and wanted to also become a pilot, but never became one. I left because I didn’t like how regimented it was and went to university. I studied rocket science, then switched to computer science, but found that boring, so graduated with a degree in statistical sociology.

I started my first company directly out of university: a consulting firm for databases. Eventually, we sold it to Capgemini and my dad forced me to put most of the money into a pension for later. But with the remainder, I travelled around the world for 2.5 years.

I had a very specific trip in mind. I wanted to follow the route of Marco Polo over land. I started in Alexandria, then went over to Tibet, then I flew to the US and went down to Central America, ending up in Nicaragua. It was incredible. That break made me so much wiser.

Since then, I’ve experienced both successes and failures in the business world. But despite how busy things get, I keep returning to this love for travel, which I really should do more often.

I’d encourage my younger self, and any young entrepreneur, to take breaks and just travel. Experience the world. Because you can collect all the money in the world that you want. But when you die, you die. You only take your experiences.”

Peter Bakker of Unhedged, a startup building the next-gen robo-advisor that uses AI and algorithms to get a better result for everyday investors.

“I calculated that, over the years, I actually swam enough to go around Australia twice.

I grew up as a high-level, competitive swimmer. A butterflier. I trained every day at 5AM and 5PM for two hours, doing about 5km every session. At meets, I would see the greats like Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, who were a few years ahead of me.

My parents initially pushed me to do swimming and I’m glad they did. I found it to be a really great way to learn how to stay motivated and practice what I want to achieve.

Since my days in the pool, I’ve done a lot of different things throughout my career: sales and marketing, project management, UX/UI... I’ve also tried a couple of businesses, like a photography business and a digital agency.

At that agency, we were building other people’s dreams. Then, one day, one of my co-founders came to me with the idea of Spacenow and it just made so much sense to me. We wanted to create a way for people to share underutilized assets, reduce waste, and drive sustainability.

To this day, especially now being a startup founder, I really use what I learned from the pool. That sense of determination and not giving up. Swimming really helped me believe that I could achieve anything if I put enough effort and time into it.”

Barrett Ovens of Spacenow, a global peer-to-peer marketplace to rent any type of space on a short term basis.

“It was a VFL grand final, which was a pretty big deal in Victoria. I had played the whole season. Then, only 12 hours before the game, I was dropped for a pretty famous player who came in out of nowhere.I was devastated. But, I didn’t let the emotions get to me. I was determined to turn it into a positive situation.

I finished playing semi-professional football about five years ago, but moments like that final—when I had to face setbacks and build resilience—have helped me beyond the field and in my professional world today.

Like many Aussies, my childhood was defined by sports. I have a brother who’s five years older, so we were constantly in the backyard, playing sports until our mum had to call us in. I’m fortunate to have grown up in an era without iPads and iPhones.

In my early days at uni, I was studying, working at my first startup, and playing semi-professional football. If I hadn’t become a professional AFL player, I actually thought I’d become a lawyer because my father is one.

But then, in my first year, I met a few guys who introduced me to the tech industry and startups, and I thought: this is my passion. I love that rather than going through a corporate hierarchy, you’re in charge of your own destiny.”

Sam Cust of Hyper, a global platform to help validate, build and grow extraordinary technology businesses.

“I grew up on a cattle station in remote Northwest Queensland, 120km from a small country town. It was a very practical upbringing. One time, I pulled a 1976 HJ Holden out of the dump and fixed it. It ran like a dream.

I thought I wanted to pursue a creative career, but I chose nursing. My mum was a nurse and I liked the structure of shiftwork. I thought I could pursue something creative on the side. Little did I know that 13 years later, I would end up doing just that but with a business.

I was a 6th year intensive nurse where I experienced this problem with recruiting agencies and how nurses are placed in on-demand shifts, so I started uPaged.

One of my proudest moments was helping Medibank recruit nurses for the Covid hotline last year. We had 1600 applicants and placed 280 vetted nurses in 4 days. It was really great to see our technology and team work together to make things happen, and we’re now Medibank’s preferred provider.

Nursing taught me strong teamwork and communication. When a patient is crashing, everyone has to work together. I'm grateful for those skills as a founder today. And while startups can be stressful, I often remind myself that, in the moment, it's not life or death."

Zara Lord of uPaged, a healthcare talent marketplace connecting healthcare facilities, nursing agencies and compliant clinicians.

“When I was about 16, I went sandboarding and the dune collapsed, leaving me buried alive.

I remember breathing in the sand and trying to scream. I got really light-headed and just faded out. Next thing I knew, my friends were digging me out.

I wrote a blog post about it and, years later, the production team of “Man vs. Wild'' found it. They were filming a special series where Bear Grylls would take people who had faced serious situations and make them confront their fears.

So 10 days after responding to them, I was on a plane to the Italian Dolomites. We camped up in the mountains with Bear for five days. We went really far underground into these tiny caves that you could just crawl through.

That was really challenging, but I think even more challenging has been recognising when your business is not sustainable and making that tough decision to shut it down. I’ve been fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have to do that once among the five businesses I’ve started.

Patch is my fifth and, coming from a property family, it seems like a natural progression to do this today. It’s something fun that I really want to bring to life.”

Mark Allen of Patch, a prop-tech startup that allows people to place offers on any property, even if it's not listed for sale.

“I come from a very strict, Asian family. When I was younger, I was really creative—I used to write and draw a lot. But I was always pushed by my parents towards doing medicine or law.

I actually studied law in uni, but my true passion is in creating things. I love building something from the bottom up. I had my first startup when I was 21—a sustainability cafe, run by students for students.

I eventually quit law to go into marketing. It was like an epiphany; I realised I didn’t like what I was doing. I think that had a lot to do with burnout.

I found my first job as a content writer by happenstance—I fell into it and it kind of spiraled into startups. My parents never really liked me going into startups, but I did it anyway. And I persevered.

I’ve been going for over 5 years now. I eventually met my cofounder, Jax; I got to quit my job and come to this startup full-time. It’s been one of my dreams and I get to realise that with a bunch of good people.

My path has taught me you have to follow your passion—if what you’re doing isn’t what you want to do, don’t do it. At the end of the day, you’re going to have to live that life.”

Cassie Puah of GGWP Academy, an e-learning and influencer marketplace platform focused on providing education and opportunity for gamers globally.

“The most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done is climbing Kilimanjaro while experiencing altitude mountain sickness.

I remember it was 4AM and -15 degrees. After hiking for six days, we were an hour from the summit. That's when the symptoms started. AMS can be deadly because you lose all the water in your body and throw up everything.

I was like a dead man walking, but I knew I had to get to the top. I couldn’t give up after months of planning and days of climbing. So I continued. And, somehow, eventually, completely exhausted... I made it. Reaching the summit was incredible, one of the best things I've done.

I’ve faced other challenges over the years. I had to compete intensely to get into a top Indian engineering university. From there, getting to Goldman Sachs after my MBA, then building a fast-growing startup in India! But I've never worked harder than I do today. And when times get tough, I think about that hike.

Having that unstoppable attitude in startups is so important—like what mountaineers call "summit fever." That feeling of knowing you’re after something. That you just have to continue to push harder and, eventually, you’ll get there.”

Anish Sinha of upcover, an insurtech simplifying insurance for small businesses, independent contractors, and freelancers.

“While other kids had their parents bring home toys for them, my dad used to bring home tax returns. I’d sit there and take off the perforated parts of the paper. He ran his own accounting business and my mum was a bookkeeper so, from a very early age, I was fascinated by business.

I grew up in an Italian migrant family in Melbourne that really focused on education as a path to building a better quality life. That was driven by my dad—he's one of 8 siblings and was the only one to go to uni.

At 17, passionate about tech, I taught myself to code and started a web design business. After studying Information Systems in uni, I went to work at EY. I initially focused on security and ethical hacking, then moved into consulting, which took me to South East Asia to do business globally.

From there, I went to London Business School, where I was constantly surrounded by people who believed they could change the world. That was inspiring.

In 2019, I returned to Australia to help bring the global fintech movement here. Building a fintech is a challenge multitudes greater than anything I’ve done before, but it’s something I’m excited to tackle every day.”

Daniel Cannizzaro of Parpera, an Aussie fintech that aspires to improve the economic prosperity of people, communities, and societies.

“I remember being seven years old and feeling the pressure to get 100% in everything at school. In Singapore, everyone feels that competitiveness. You’re just drilled to think that way. So from my early years there, I think I was culturally programmed to have an innate drive to succeed.

Then I moved to Australia with my family when I was 10. There was definitely a lot less pressure here, but I still felt driven to do well in school.

After high school, I almost became a dentist. But my parents made me speak to several dentists to learn about the job and I realized you’re staring at teeth all day. And I thought, I don’t want to do that.

I ended up studying software engineering. My year was actually the first year that UNSW offered it, so it was a bit of an experimental degree. I did it because it seemed like the right thing to do and I haven't looked back since.

Since that degree, I’ve been in both the corporate and startup worlds. And often, I've deliberately taken roles that made me uncomfortable so I could build more soft skills and learn things in a tried and tested way. Looking back, I feel like my whole career has been a training course preparing me to build Avertro today.”

Ian Yip of Avertro, a cybersecurity software company helping leaders manage the business of cyber.

“I remember being 10 years old, visiting Pakistan, and helping customers at my uncle’s textile shop. Growing up, this happened every summer vacation—my cousins and I would be sent to help at our uncles’ shops and businesses. I learned early that life, like business, is about ups and downs.

Throughout my career, I’ve constantly asked myself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” It’s helped me make tough decisions, whether deciding to pursue consulting after the .com burst, leave that role for Cisco, or enrol in an MBA.

That question also led me to startups. I remember meeting the founder of Careem just after their seed funding and he described an opportunity to build a $100M business in four years. I thought I’d regret it if I didn’t join, so I did. It turns out he was completely wrong—four years later, we were a $1B+ company.

That desire to put myself out of my comfort zone also led me to Australia. I was initially here on a sabbatical year to relax, but I was quickly bored and found an opportunity to join the startup world. I thought, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Well, Covid presented quite the crisis, but we’ve truly come out more resilient and persistent.”

Uzair Moosa of Hey You, a mobile app helping people to order ahead at local cafes and restaurants.

“Growing up in Vietnam, everyone around me was super competitive, so I also had to be competitive. It became a habit. Whenever I’m surrounded by really motivated people, I don’t want to fall behind. Sometimes it’s frustrating because I have to keep pushing myself harder and harder, but that’s led me to the point where I am right now. 

I grew up with an entrepreneurial mindset because generations of my family have been business owners, including my parents. After moving to Australia in my teens, I studied finance and became a qualified CPA at 26. During university, I founded three other businesses. Then one day, I realised business is all about sustainability and purpose, so aircrex was born.

One of my greatest learnings from the previous companies that I think about today is the importance of being able to speak to your audience. With aircrex, we’re building a product that really resonates with the younger generation, so we can help students like my younger brother achieve their goals. It’s exciting work. I’m really passionate about fintech because better understanding finances can enrich and change people’s lives.”

Caroline Tran of aircrex, a fintech company that provides simple, social, and modern banking services to young Australians.

“My parents put me in tennis lessons when I was five. Growing up, there was a big wall at our house and I’d always be practicing, just hitting against it for hours. I eventually got quite good and, for over a decade, I competed in a lot of junior and state tournaments, up until I was 18.

My favourite part about tennis was the grind of matches, especially when you’ve got the mental edge over someone as you’re deep in a set or a tiebreak. I really hated losing. I wouldn’t miss a lot and would consistently hit my winners, so I could generally out-grind the other players. But as we got to the next level, I had some shoulder problems that meant I couldn’t ever serve as big as a lot of the other guys. That was eventually why I didn't try to pursue it further overseas.

Today, I feel like the startup world and tennis have the same lessons, just at a different pace. In both, you have to stay focused and take calculated risks at the right times, and I love that parallel. But more than anything, tennis taught me about grit. And that’s just as important in a startup as it is on the court.”

Alex Millar of Hudled, a SaaS startup providing a real-time dashboard for teams in growing companies to track and optimise their software stack.

“As first-generation immigrants from India, my family’s always been pretty entrepreneurial and working on businesses. So while I wasn't one of those people who’s constantly been reading about startups, I was surrounded by business. My first job was stacking shelves at Coles. I did that for a few years, then started tutoring. Later, I worked at a bookstore—that was probably one of the best jobs, I got paid to sit there and read. Growing up, my parents had a party shop, so I helped with that on weekends. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all these jobs helped me learn a lot of the business rules. A small business is definitely different from a startup, but what doesn’t change is that you have to make your customers happy. Like when I was delivering goods for the party shop, I was the customer service rep: I had to set up the AV, mics, lighting, and smoke machines. I quickly learned how to talk to customers—there’s a certain nuance to working and empathizing with them. Or at Coles, there's a difference of 90 seconds between saying a product is in Aisle 4 versus walking them there and chatting with them, but to a customer, that means the world. I think that philosophy’s true for a lot of startup tools, like Paul Graham's idea of “do things that don't scale.” Another tool I have as a tech founder today is writing: I discovered that if I’m struggling with something, like big decisions or imposter syndrome, I’ve found it helpful to write. Oftentimes, writing can make things seem smaller or give them the right frame of reference. I don't recall anyone specifically saying I should write, I just got it from different sources and I thought, I'll try it. And it stuck, because I got value out of it. I think those are the best things: when you decide to do something because you can feel the why, rather than somebody telling you to do it.”

Manish Pahwa of StackGo, a SaaS startup providing a simpler and faster way for B2B software vendors to integrate to SaaS platforms.

"We had one year on our tickets. It was a backpacking, round-the-world trip that I’d always planned to do after I graduated from my Master’s program in London. Before that, I had spent 19 years in Dublin, where I was born. We went to South America, and to the Caribbean, and then to New Zealand. We spent way longer than we had planned in New Zealand: we got visas, lived in Queenstown, got ski passes, got a car, and stayed there for six months. I worked in a restaurant as a waitress and went snowboarding everyday – I had the best time ever. We lived in a share-house with about 18 people, just people from all over the world. One of my best friends came from Central America and it was just a big group of friends. Then we got here, to Sydney, with only a month or two left on our tickets. And we just never went home. There was really no set decision – we just arrived as backpackers and there was a huge Irish contingency here. Everyone was living their best life. I got a job at a bank and they ended up sponsoring me. Everything just fell into place, not one thing was planned. But I always wanted to have my own business and I eventually fell into startups. Again, no plan. I didn't make a conscious decision to leave from corporate to startups or anything like that, but the startup life has been great. I think my year of traveling the world taught me to always be flexible with your plan, because if we had structured a plan, we would have done our year of travel and been back in Dublin after 12 months. So, I suppose, have a loose plan but be very flexible. And that can apply to everything in life. Just enjoy yourself and don’t stress about anything because everything just works out fine. It's the best time of your life."

Annie Slattery of ConX, a SaaS platform built for SMB construction contractors to manage the pre-construction process with estimating and tender management tools.

“I was sitting in the library, studying for a biology exam in high school, and drawing up these little characters while doing practice problems on Punnett squares. And I remember thinking that the concept would be so awesome as a game. You could have these animals with different traits that could be crossed, and you explore an open world where everyone would have their own unique creature. Like the game Spore. That idea made me want to create the game and I actually made a very basic version of it as one of my projects in school – just a little prokaryote swimming around and collecting food. Got full marks. And, of course, for me to make this evolution game, I had to learn how to code. So, really, learning about genetics turned out to be one of the most pivotal moments in my life. Because it led me to coding, and coding is my whole world today. I really do enjoy it. But if I ever found myself with infinite money and didn’t have to work, I think I’d go back to uni and do degrees in genetics and maths. There’s still so much I want to learn.”

Blake Lockley of Portant, a no-code document automation startup that deletes repetition from people’s workday.

“I was a super curious child, always outside and exploring. I grew up in a military complex because my dad was in the army and it was safe for me to just wander. I think that environment really helped me develop a good perspective on life. I remember playing next to helicopters, watching them take off. Sometimes they would fly back with wounded soldiers, who had been out in the jungle fighting the guerillas in Colombia. I would see them being carried into the hospitals. I saw friends lose their dads in the war and that was pretty hard. It really taught me appreciation and not taking things for granted. My parents were good at making it clear that we were very lucky, growing up in a safe environment in what was a really unstable Colombia back in the 80s and 90s. In middle school and high school, I failed pretty much every math, science and English class, but I was always outstanding in drawing and art, and things that were not structured. Finishing high school, I knew that I had to pursue a career in something creative. I chose to pursue industrial design because I had no idea what to study, but I knew which university I wanted to go to in Colombia. And that was probably the most creative degree I could pursue outside of arts, which I knew was going to be really tough for me to get a job. I applied for it and got in. At the beginning I had no idea what to expect, but I ended up loving it. Doing my degree, I had to ask a lot of questions, ask a lot of why’s, and be able to understand why people behave in some particular way. So that was pretty much the backbone of many things. The key reason why I'm doing what I'm doing today, starting my own business, is because I always question everything. And I've done that since I can remember, from my years in the military complex to my years working for big companies. That questioning of how things are done, that curiosity, is what has taken me to where I am today. And that's something I bring to my work everyday. To always try and understand the why.”

Gerardo Vacca of Remote Social, a consumer tech company, providing the ultimate destination for remote and hybrid teams to come together online to build connection and culture through play and shared experiences.

“I discovered software engineering in high school and I loved the combination of creativity and problem solving. Even now, that combination is the philosophy of my life.

In fact, I do puzzles when I want to relax. I love the challenge. I play anything from Sudoku to games. One game, I played 1000 levels of it over several years. I like not only the distraction, but also the adrenalin from solving the problem. I also use that passion for problem solving as an entrepreneur today.

I was born in Hyderabad in India; growing up, I was more into sports than education. Sports were a big thing in my family. Then in grade eight, I took a software programming class and I loved it. I decided that would be my career. I used to spend days and days on that class, even though we only had one or two hours of class each week.

I continued down that path in university, first in India, then later moving to Australia to pursue a Master’s in computer science. I chose Australia because I grew up hearing about the US all the time—I have relatives all throughout the US. So I decided that I would do something different. One day, I got a phone call from a distant relative in Australia and he suggested moving here. So I did some research and within 2 months, I arrived in Melbourne with one suitcase. It was my first time in Australia.

I eventually got an MBA as well, because I knew from a young age that I wanted to start my own business. I’ve always loved the complexity of it. Today, I’m working on my fourth startup.

Everyone talks about worldly problems, but not many people act on them. I think the common factor among entrepreneurs is that they try to do something about them—whether it is a success or failure is only secondary. I think my problem solving, business skills, and braveness have made me the entrepreneur I am today.”

Srikanth Muthyala of KOKO, an app humanising AI by providing users the ability to speak to their business software with nothing but an app, their voice, and a question.

“I remember in Year 8 Food Tech class, we made this plaited loaf bread. And my teacher was so effusive about how good mine was. She said it was the best thing she’d ever seen in a Year 8 class. And I thought, “Maybe I’m good at cooking.”

At the end of high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My two favourite classes were Chemistry and Hospitality. So I ended up doing both, studying Biochem at Sydney Uni and working full time as a chef at the same time.

Balancing the two was brutal. I tried to cram my classes Monday to Wednesday and half of Thursday, then work 8-10 hours on Thursday night, double shift on Saturday and a single shift on Sunday, and then go back to class on Monday. I look back at how I used to drink like 10 coffees a day. Now, I drink a sensible two.

Despite the grind, I loved the atmosphere of a commercial kitchen. It’s this very high adrenaline, very intense, very hard working environment. I found that really appealing.

I eventually entered the world of startups because I thought it would be an effective way to have an impact and work on building stuff to create value. I also love the frantic, urgent energy of a startup; it reminds me a lot of a commercial kitchen. And you have a real focus on value creation and making things.

Today at Vow, we’re tackling the scalability problem of food animals with cultured meat. I think it’s the only thing I could be working on which tickles my technology nerd side, as well as my culinary nerd side. It’s just so exciting and so rewarding.”

George Peppou of Vow, a startup rebuilding our food system from the ground up by making meat with animal cells, and not the animals themselves.

​​“My co-founder, Nick Ingall, and I actually met at the start of high school in Darwin. Back then, we had no idea that we would start a company together. As teens, we both wanted to be sports stars—I wanted to be a football player, and Nick was really good at cricket and AFL. But, with time, we learned we weren’t quite good enough to “make it.”

We parted ways in Year 11 when I moved to Adelaide, and we went on to have different professional careers. Nick went to Perth for a bit; I moved to Sydney. I pursued my dream of becoming a soccer player and played for a club until I was 26.

When I felt that the sporting career wasn’t going to take off, I decided to see the world and moved to London. Nick, in parallel, saw the opportunities in London and moved there 6 months later.

We both started off in tech recruitment at a company called Red Commerce. Then over the years, sometimes together, we worked at companies like Spotify, Atlassian and SafetyCulture, seeing periods of massive growth. We’ve both taken great learnings and built a passion for this space from those experiences.

I think growing up in Darwin has led me to where I am today. Working in talent acquisition, I meet people from all walks of life. That reminds me of Darwin—a really small city, but a melting pot for culture and people. My background is actually Portuguese Timorese; my parents migrated on a boat in 1975 after civil unrest.

My childhood had deep roots in community and building close relationships because Darwin’s a place where you know your neighbours. You walk outdoors barefoot with no shirt on. You can’t go down the street without seeing someone you know. I think that environment instilled really strong values around connecting with people, which I bring to Lab 17 every day.”

Simon Bernardino of Lab17, a company specialising in talent expansion, helping businesses hire and retain as they rapidly evolve.

“I grew up with two contrasting cultures. My dad is the eldest son of 10 siblings and immigrated from Hong Kong by himself when he was 16. My mum is a third-generation Chinese-Australian; her family arrived in the 1800s, so very Australian on that side.

While I grew up with these two very different perspectives, we were not too dissimilar to your average Australian household. Other than, you know, my parents were kind of obsessed with being good at maths.

Growing up, I went through a lot of different phases for career choice. When I was five, I told my babysitter that I wanted to be a barrister. Throughout high school and uni, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I ended up studying Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality at uni because I thought it was interesting. For a while, I wanted to be a hotelier, so I worked in hotels, then worked at Macquarie in real estate investment banking working on hotel investments.

Then, I started watching the show, Entourage, and I wanted to be like Ari Gold, so I went and worked in talent representation, helping agents representing models and actors. That serendipitously led to startups through an opportunity to work on amaysim, then Airtasker.

Thinking about my career, I definitely feel lucky, but also believe in the adage that you create your own luck. For example, when I was applying to work at talent agencies, I actually made this really ostentatious, colour brochure about myself and sent it via snail mail to all these different companies in Australia and the US.

I said, “Hey, I’m marketing myself. I think I can help market some of your celebrities and talent.” Everyone ignored me except one lady named Ursula Hufnagl at Chic Management and she said I could come in and work for free for a while, so I did that for a few months. I know not everyone has that privilege, so I feel lucky in that regard as well.

Of everything in my career to date, my proudest moment—probably with some recency bias—is our Airtasker IPO. It was validation that some other people out there think what we’re doing is valuable. I think until then, you feel more of that imposter syndrome.

I’m really proud that when we did IPO, we stopped to smell the roses and enjoyed it. But we didn’t focus so much on the money or numbers—what really mattered to people was that we had created something that was useful to society, useful to the community, and created jobs. I think our whole team, my mum, my dad—we were all really proud of being able to do that.”

Tim Fung of Airtasker, a local services marketplace connecting people and businesses who need work done with people wanting to work.

“Saturdays. I feel such a sense of joy on Saturdays.

For over 20 years, I had a six-day week with a 3:30am start. That’s just common in the industry. And now, on Saturdays, I don’t have any phone calls, or trucks and drivers, or deliveries. That whole world’s behind me and I really value having two days off.

I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I remember, as a kid, saying I want to work for myself. After school, I tried a bunch of stuff. Firstly, accounting, then a mechanics apprenticeship—I quickly realised neither were for me.

I ended up working in my family business, a meat wholesaler, and did that for 25 years. When my father retired, I ended up running it. During that time, I also set up a home delivery business for wholesale meat called Butcher Man.

That experience really opened my eyes to the world of e-commerce and just how amazing, systemised, automated, and fluid it was. I ended up selling that business, then realised nothing similar existed in food service so I started fiddling about.

Today, working on Foodbomb, I’ve never enjoyed working so much. I get out of bed really keen to get into the office. I arrive every morning at 7am, buzzing to go.”

Paul Tory of Foodbomb, an online ordering platform that aggregates wholesale food suppliers into a single site.

“I wanted to be a fighter pilot when I was younger. My godfather was one. But, fun fact: I recently went on a fighter jet and it was so bad, so intense. I almost passed out. My first, and probably last, time!

I grew up in the countryside of France, in Burgundy, before I moved to study in Paris at 18. At university, I studied software engineering. I chose it because I spent a lot of time playing video games as a kid.

After also studying in London, I did the last year of my degree in San Francisco. When I graduated, I realised I wasn't excited about coding all day. But I thought marketing was really cool. I started by interning at an advertising agency, which turned into a full time role.

I eventually moved back to London and started getting more involved in startups, doing marketing in retail and e-commerce. I learned a lot in that environment.

But after five winters in London, I needed some sunshine and came to Sydney. Starting a company was always something I thought I could do, I just needed to be in the right place at the right time. Then I found Antler’s startup program and it just made sense to join.

Today, I have cofounders, investment and a product in the market. It’s a really exciting time.”

Paul Boudet of Meetric, a SaaS product to help managers have super productive meetings.

“I’d tell my younger self not to be so shy. I think perhaps because of my Chinese background and being an immigrant, I grew up not being as open to sharing my thoughts like in Western cultures.

My family was born in Vietnam and was part of the immigration wave to France. My parents took a chance and arrived on a boat. They moved without knowing any French or anyone.

Like my parents, in my mid-20s, I moved from France to Australia with just my luggage. I think that really helped me understand my parents better, living the challenge of moving somewhere to build everything from scratch.

Arriving in Sydney, I knew I wanted to create my own thing. My father has his own business and inspired me—I guess I had some entrepreneurial blood.

In France, I had worked at a creative agency and also co-founded a company. I ended up pursuing UX after going to a school focused on web design and really enjoying it.

Over time, I’ve gotten over my shyness by pushing myself to do things, like starting a design Meetup or doing public speaking courses. I’ve learned that everything is about connecting with people, so I try to be really open and confident. It’s getting easier.”

Philippe Hong of Raw.Studio, a design and development studio focused on UI/UX, branding, market research & growth.

“It was the 4th of April, 2018. I was about to buy the ABN. That was the point when I was deciding: do I do this or not?

I used to get up at 4AM to work on my idea. I had done several months of research to that point, and when I was at work, it was all I would think about.

So I went for it. I left my accounting job when I had just turned 20. I was ready to get out there in the world.

I’m really lucky to have grown up with two entrepreneurial parents. My mum had her own catering business and cafe, and now has a restaurant. She also owns racehorses. My dad is a financial advisor with his own practice. They both always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted.

I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I was 16. Doing business studies at school, I found myself really passionate about starting my own business—I just didn’t realise I would do it so young.

Today, we’re only 0.01% of the way there with Gecko. I’m really excited to keep growing it. At the same time, I learned recently that everyone who’s in their 20s and 30s is technically a time billionaire. It’s something important I try to keep in mind—we’ve got so much time. I’ve learned to have patience and run my own race.”

Ben Kennedy of Gecko, a community marketplace to hire event items easily and securely.

“There were about 500 people in the audience. Getting in front of them to sing was one of the most terrifying things I’ve done.

I got into theater at Scouts because my girlfriend at the time made me sign up for it. Next thing I knew, there’s a show happening. I never thought I could get up on stage, but everyone was expecting me to get out there so I just did it. That was life-changing.

The best piece of advice I ever received came from my dad. He told me to always have a hobby that’s different from your job. So if you ever have a bad day at work, you can just escape.

For me, I knew I’d always work with computers. My dad was a university professor. I had my first email address in 1990. I created my first web page in Year 6.

But outside of computers, theater is my passion. It’s helped me with everything—if you met me about 15 years ago, there’s no way I’d have done this interview. It’s given me the confidence to present, to talk to people, to just go and do things.

It’s really helped me get to where I am. So that’s why I decided to stay involved and give back. Today, besides being a startup founder, I’m a producer of an amateur show in Melbourne with over 80 cast members. I love it.”

Mark Rosenberg of Lasertrade, a global marketplace for pre-owned medical capital equipment.

“The biggest, best piece of advice I ever received was from my cousin when I was 17.

Growing up in a town of 600 inhabitants in Argentina, I thought I had my whole life figured out: I would attend university in Córdoba, get a job, find a wife, buy a house. That was my plan.

But one day, an older cousin suggested I “go study in the US, learn English, live that experience.” I thought it sounded pretty good. So I ended up going for an exchange and spent 6 months at a high school in Pennsylvania. That trip completely changed my life.

When I returned home, I thought, “Screw my plan, I’m going to Europe!”

I ended up studying engineering at a university in Italy. It was all taught in Italian and for the first two weeks, I ended every day with a headache from following the teachers.

From there, I went to Sweden for my master’s in industrial management. That’s when I had my first encounter with startups. Listening to founders give guest lectures, I realised I want to be an entrepreneur.

Reflecting on my career, I think if I had stuck with my younger self’s plan, that version of Santi would be a very boring person today. So I’m definitely grateful for my cousin’s advice.”

Santi Bravo of Hudled, a startup helping teams in growing companies track and optimise their software stack.

“When I did my work experience in high school, I applied to work in a morgue. Growing up, I was aiming to become a forensic psychologist and microbiologist. I love medicine, anatomy, and autopsies, as morbid as that is. I find it super fascinating.

But things changed because life gets in the way. That’s the truth. After high school in Perth, I took a gap year, which ended up being almost two, in London and Europe. The plan was to start uni after that. But when I got home, I needed a job to pay the bills. So I got a job in the travel industry, got good at it, liked it, and stuck with it. I never went to uni.

I ended up doing that for six years, before moving to recruitment. Eventually, I took a break and decided to open my own business—I’d always wanted to do that. That started me down the path of entrepreneurship.

I think if I had stuck to my earlier plan, I might be in a morgue today. Not dead, but working in one like Ducky from NCIS. Realistically, that path is probably unachievable now. 

But I have other goals I want to achieve. The number one thing is to get my pilot’s license to fly planes; to be able to make enough money that I can afford to do that.”

Benjamin Gregory of Stylefit, a 3D/AR furniture software company empowering shoppers with an immersive experience.

"I hurt my lower back right out of high school. Nothing debilitating, but after games, I could barely walk. Growing up, I played rugby union a lot on state and regional teams. It was my first passion, what I wanted to do long term. But then I got injured.

Studying civil structural engineering was my Plan B—I only applied to uni in case a rugby career didn’t work out. I picked it because my dad had his own construction company and I grew up loving the industry. 

Ending rugby was tough, but the transition was shielded by a full-time, dream job as a student civil engineer that I got just after my last season of rugby. I ended up working and studying throughout uni.

In one entrepreneurship class, I had to develop a business plan. With some classmates, I also entered our idea into a business school competition. Eventually, that turned into our global, 20-person company today.

The lecturer is still on my mail list and every time I send an update, his response is “You guys are really going!” I still can’t believe it all started in his class.

Years later, I’m still very thankful for rugby—it helped me build self-discipline, teamwork, organisation, and work ethic."

Hartley Pike of Sitemate, a startup building digital workflow and productivity tools for the built world.

“I started studying digital media in university, but I ended up being so passionate about fitness and the gym that I pivoted into exercise physiology. I think that comes from my dad's side of the family, which is very sporty. All my cousins played sports; my brother’s a professional athlete. Family Christmases were always outside, kicking a ball or playing tennis. Growing up, I didn't excel in any sport in particular, but I tried everything.

That background has made me feel capable of doing anything today because I feel comfortable trying new things, whether with sport or in business. I don't fear anything because subconsciously, I'm like, I've always tried everything and it's worked out.

Opening LOCKEROOM is probably one of the proudest things I've done. It’s still early days, but it’s been 8 years of testing and failing in other gyms, building a model, learning the skills, and understanding how to hire the right team to build this. It was particularly challenging with the Covid lockdowns, but we wanted it really badly. There’s no magic bullet to success, but the small, consistent things, day in and day out, can get you there – sports really taught me that.”

Lachlan Rowston of LOCKEROOM, a company building Australia's premier gym for industry and business leaders.

“I went and worked in Wuhan for a year in the automotive industry after studying engineering in university. I was born and raised in Paris, but have Chinese origins and wanted to learn more about that part of my background. I also spoke some Mandarin, so I helped a school there create a program on entrepreneurship. And from that experience, I knew that when I returned to France, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. 

My time in China really taught me that if you try something, it will either work out or something will come out of it because people want to be involved in interesting opportunities and around people with energy. If you surround yourself with the right ecosystem, things can happen very fast, which I’ve tried to replicate in Australia. 

As a founder today, I think my main strength is that I really, really care about the people that I work with. I try to get the best of them and to help them grow into the best version of themselves. I think that’s influenced by my mother, who is a psychologist. Growing up, that was always part of the conversation—understanding how your actions make other people feel. I come back to that often.”

Guillaume Ang of Upflowy, a no-code SaaS tool enabling growth leaders to build and experiment with seamless sign-up flows without relying on engineering.

"People are often surprised to hear that I started out as a full-time house DJ in Sydney. At 19, I dropped out of an art education degree and picked up a job as a nightclub lighting operator, pressing buttons every Saturday night, watching the DJ do his thing. One day I just asked the DJ if he'd teach me... and he did. I'd spin the first hour or two while the club got warmed up and he would take over from there. I learned an awful lot about the psychology of reading a crowd of people and rotating the dance floor. That was fascinating stuff that showed me a lot about human behaviour and seeing how people operate en masse. It would later become my basis for understanding user experience—what people want and how to give it to them. One of my best memories from that period was headlining the retro room at a party in the Hordern Pavilion. It was on the night after Fatboy Slim had played there, so I had his turntable setup: a rotating DJ booth in the middle of the room. And as I'm in the middle of this sea of several thousand people, I led the entire room through the YMCA. It was awesome. 15 years on, I was getting older, but the patrons were not, so I retired from DJ-ing. In the mid-90's I taught myself basic design, HTML, and CSS with a friend's copy of Photoshop. That quickly saw me shift into design leadership and UX as the digital age started taking over, and that kicked me off into joining companies like Telstra, Atlassian, Auth0, and Deputy. Every time I moved from one thing to another I always stayed super curious and inquisitive. Always learning. I don't have a university degree, but I think you can learn everything you need with self-taught resources. I taught myself back-end programming using Google's Udacity platform several years ago. I've learned to just go in and do things until someone tells you that you can't (hint: they won't). I would encourage anyone else to just continue chasing their dreams and don't feel like you need to study too hard to be able to start doing something. Just go start doing it and you'll get there."

Mike Fitzbaxter of Remote Social, a consumer tech company, providing the ultimate destination for remote and hybrid teams to come together online to build connections and culture through play and shared experiences.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been growing plants. My mum used to say that I could grow a tree out of a chopstick. I grew up in the vineyards, in the south of France in Bordeaux, and at home, I had a little plot where my dad was forbidden to mow. That’s where I grew anything that I could—it was my little garden. Once, in primary school, my teacher gave everyone five beans that we had to grow over the two-week Easter break. So in our garage, I set up a big fish tank that kept the moisture at a certain level and had lights with a timer as well. And the last weekend of the break, I had to go to my grandparents’ which was an hour drive away. So I insisted on taking the fish tank. A few days later, back at school, everyone had a few sprouts but mine was this overgrown, extraordinary thing. I really love that when you work with plants, they’re alive. I like that they evolve over time; they’re not just an object. I eventually had a career in marketing at Disney and Louis Vuitton, but when I moved to Australia, I wanted to do something that resonated more, so I did Environmental Studies. When I graduated in 2007, “climate change” was a dirty word, so I’m glad to see, almost 15 years later, that we’re getting on top of the political agenda and people are talking about it. Today, my startup restores ecosystems and plants trees using drones. We do full ecosystem restoration with the help of science, technology, and Indigenous culture. Most days it feels like I’m on a rollercoaster with no seatbelt on, but that’s been a challenge in a very good way—there’s a lesson every day and it’s exhilarating.”

Aymeric Maudous of Lord of the Trees, a global reforestation project that uses precision drone technology to plant seeds and restore ecosystems in degraded land after mining, bushfires, and agriculture.

“Spending 10,000 hours on something is supposed to make you a master—if you’re talented at it. Growing up, I must’ve spent 10,000 hours tuning and fixing our TV, figuring out how it works. We had one of those TVs with the set-top box, and all that time spent tinkering with settings and signals to get a clear picture must have inspired my engineering mindset. I’ve always been inquisitive about how things work. I studied Electronic Engineering, then worked in the telco space. But I had always wanted to travel out of Johannesburg, so I quit my job to go travelling. I was in Majorca, Spain, when a mate was working on a big, Russian-owned, 80 meter superyacht—and he got me a job on it. Two months later, I was in charge of the electronics on a different super yacht: Microsoft’s Paul Allen’s. 18 months later, I was doing IT and AV on Steven Spielberg’s superyacht. Working on superyachts is completely mind blowing. As an engineer, it’s a giant puzzle. You’re faced with tech problems everyday—problems you’ve never seen before and you have no idea what certain things do, but you need to make it work, now. There were some crazy moments—once, we were crossing the Atlantic and there was an electrical issue. So, there I was in the 40 degree engine room in a puddle of sweat, desperately trying to fix a problem I’d just encountered. I loved applying engineering philosophies and learnings from university, and I still have that mindset in the startup world today. I’m always wanting to fix things, to make them bigger and better. I like to see a problem, or have an idea, and be able to quickly prototype a solution. It’s not like you know exactly what you have to do when you’re problem solving, but you ideate, iterate, and improve—and I love that. I’m really grateful for the chance to use these skills daily.”

Andre Bergh of Tradable, a startup that designs and develops proprietary digital asset trading, portfolio management and market-making software.

“Whenever someone asks me how many languages I speak, I usually say 20-25, including all the programming languages I know. And from that group, English was probably the most difficult to learn. It has so many words from different languages and different sounds, a lot of it just doesn’t make sense. But it’s also been the most useful. I wanted to learn it because I always felt like Turkey, where I’m from, was not big enough for me. Even now, I feel like Earth is not big enough for me. I always look for new things to discover and, growing up, I knew that I would probably end up in another country. So I decided English was a good step to take for the future, so I could talk to more people and read more books. I actually studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering in university because I decided to stay in my town and that was the only degree taught in English. I learned a lot by watching American TV shows: Lost, Prison Break, How I Met Your Mother... And knowing the language today, I feel free. It is the freedom to reach more information. But... if I could pick any language to learn and use, it probably wouldn’t be English. It would probably be JavaScript. It doesn’t have many meanings or different spellings. You learn it once and it works everywhere!”

Sam Erkiner of Feather, a consumer-tech startup that empowers creators and instructors to easily manage and monetize their virtual events, on-demand classes, and other digital content.

“My parents migrated here as refugees back in ‘94 after the first Gulf War. My dad was in the war in Iraq and managed to escape to Turkey; that’s where I was born. When I was two, we moved to Australia and received asylum while living in government housing.

I have so much appreciation for my parents for everything they went through. I could never repay them enough. Growing up, I always saw them working hard across different businesses, from factory work to owning a farm. My dad, who’s somewhat retired now, has always had a passion for oil painting, which he does full-time now. He’s living his dream as an artist, which makes me really happy.

In fact, growing up, my dad was adamant that my three siblings and I had to always practice art. I remember once when we were very young, we wanted to play outside. But my dad insisted we couldn’t play until we drew a stool in detail. He wanted to teach us 3D shading and other techniques. It was one of those things where the more we rushed it, the more he didn’t like it and the longer we had to stay inside. I remember I was there for two hours that day.

But lo and behold, about an hour into that session, we heard a massive smash and the whole house shook. A car had just hit the front of our house and demolished the entire front yard—exactly where we would have been playing had we gone outside. That day really made me appreciate drawing.

With all the art lessons, I think my dad was really trying to teach us routine—that if you keep doing something, you’ll get better. And that’s the mindset that I have as an entrepreneur today. With Chipin, I’m super excited to have the opportunity to work on something I’m passionate about. And for me to have that opportunity, I’m forever grateful to my parents.”

Fadi Aziz of Chipin, a crowd-gifting app helping groups of people buy better gifts for those they care about.

“I moved to Australia from Beijing when I was 17. I came over by myself to complete high school in Tasmania. My parents thought Tasmania was nice and small, so I wouldn’t have the chance to hang around many other Chinese people, because they really wanted me to learn English.

After high school, I moved to Melbourne for uni. Once I got here, I liked how friendly the people were. The city reminds me a lot of Beijing, with its mixture of culture, art, and music. I think Sydney, being more fast-paced, feels like Shanghai.

I majored in accounting because my mum used to be an accountant and she had a big influence on me. From her, I learned that accounting is the language of business. After graduating, I joined Nike—it was a big company, so I got to learn and see a lot. And not to mention the great employee discount!

I eventually had a lot of friends come to me to ask for tax advice. So I started self studying, learned how to use Xero, and took steps to work in the public service accounting area. Around then, by coincidence, I also met one of my co-founders, who had just started his own accounting firm business.

Despite being in the accounting world today, I wanted to be a singer when I was really young. I haven’t let go of that completely. Today, I actually go to my friend’s restaurant on Friday nights to play the guitar or keyboard and sing, in both Mandarin and English. I play a bit of jazz as well. I love jazz. It’s something different after working the whole week, a good release.

As I look to the future, one of the milestones I want to achieve is to have a Luca Plus invoice be the first e-invoice sent to Mars. (Meaning we’ve settled there, which would be great for humanity.) I think it would be great to make that happen.”

Ray Wang of Luca Plus, an e-invoicing, cloud-based software solution for SMEs, bookkeepers, accountants and auditors.

“My childhood was tough—I lived in a basement with three families. Each family had their own room, plus one shared kitchen and one shared bathroom.

Growing up in Zagreb, Croatia, my parents knew that once we were in a certain class, it was hard to break out. So when I was 7, we moved to Australia, the land of opportunity, to start a new life. I couldn’t speak any English and went to a tiny primary school where I was the only immigrant student.

Within two weeks of moving, my parents had jobs, despite also being unable to speak English. They worked in factories and other blue-collar jobs. Both worked two jobs at a time, just trying to make ends meet. Seeing that made me have a very strong work ethic. Just work, work, work. No play.

I knew from an early age that I loved building things from scratch. I was always obsessed with electronics and started to code when I was 11. I used to make my own circuit boards and sell my gadgets at school. I had so many orders I couldn’t keep up.

I get to use that passion for building things at Basiq today. I love being a founder. But despite all the thrills of the startup world, I think my favourite part of the day is walking through the door when I arrive home and my six kids come running over to give me a hug. It’s amazing. That’s definitely the best part.”

Damir Ćuća of Basiq, an open banking API platform that provides the building blocks of financial services.

“I’m quite different to a lot of agtech founders because, whilst I’m a farmer now, I didn’t grow up as one. My co-founders are farmers—5th and 6th generation. But in my former life, I was actually a practising lawyer.

At some point in my secondary schooling, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. Growing up, doing well at school meant being a doctor or a lawyer. I wasn’t good with blood, so I focussed on humanities! Law became my whole and sole focus—I did not even contemplate another career and went on to study law at Melbourne Uni.

During Law School, I realised that whilst I found the Law intellectually interesting, I wasn’t sure if I had the desire to practice it. So by the time I was admitted at 23, I was already thinking, “What am I going to do?”

I did practice for a while, and I'm glad I did, but I realised quite early that I was not cut out for the “partner track.” And in those days—the 90s—it was still pretty archaic. It was not just issues around gender stereotypes and sexism, which were rife, but more about whether I was growing into the best version of myself.

Almost straight after I was admitted, I got a fortuitous phone call from a recruiter looking for an in-house junior lawyer for the Australian Wheat Board. I jumped at the opportunity and that started my career in agriculture. I knew straight away I had found my tribe, and an industry that I’m still incredibly passionate about.

I later returned to school to do an MBA, then joined a company that was founded by one of my co-founders at AgriDigital. And that kickstarted my personal entrepreneurial journey.

Starting a company didn’t feel risky or intimidating because I grew up watching my father have his own business. At home, the trials and successes of being a small business owner were regular meal time conversation. I feel lucky to have grown up with that because it didn’t feel like a massive step to start my own company. It just felt right.”

Emma Weston of AgriDigital, a startup powering trust in global agri supply chains.

“I grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father. And my escape from that was to grab a pen and paper and just draw. That’s how I fell in love with drawing and art; I eventually studied graphic design in college.

I lost my dad to suicide when I was 11, which is a big driving force for why I really wanted to start a non-alcoholic beer company. Because I think a lot of people have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and there’s a need to service that.

The way Heaps Normal has gone, we’re not catering for that market as such—we’re catering for people who enjoy beer but want to cut down their alcohol consumption. But, if anything, I think my father is one of the founding reasons why I wanted to do this.

You always hear people talking about purpose and Simon Sinek’s “start with why.” I was always so aware of that stuff but never really understood it. Then, a few years ago, I had pretty severe burnout and that made me really look at why I do what I do.

And, I thought, if we can start something that is going to prevent another child from growing up with alcohol abuse in the family and, also, help me make sure that my kids don’t have to experience what I went through, then right there are two pretty powerful why’s to get out of bed every morning.”

Pete Brennan of Heaps Normal, an independent, non-alcoholic beer in support of mindful drinking and your own normal.

“I was told at multiple times in my life that I wasn’t enough: not smart enough, not strong enough, not social enough.

In uni, I studied a biotech degree because I was told I wasn’t smart enough to do it. I had to prove that I was.

I ended up working in a medical lab after that and thought I wanted to pursue research. But I eventually realised that you spend your whole life researching one topic that may never see the light of day. And I decided I couldn’t do that. I bounced around doing different things before I eventually pursued the path of entrepreneurship.

Despite being in a startup today, the most helpful course I did at university was one around taking a scientific idea and being able to explain it to a non-science person. I think that’s really helped me recognise that you need to be on the same level as the person you’re speaking to.

In my role at CAASie, I have to talk to all these different people and sell what we’re doing. And I’ve learned to do it by brute force. I was an extremely shy kid—I still am very shy—and facing that has been terrifying. But I’ve had to be confident. Had to be. There’s definitely this stubbornness in me. I think most founders have that because otherwise you wouldn’t, and couldn’t, just keep going.”

Taryn Syratt of CAASie, an open marketplace for buying billboard ad space on a pay-per-play basis.

“The name Matchboard comes from the fact that I’m obsessive about board games. I also have a love of language. You can see I have my Scrabble ring on. As a teenager, I would spend my weekends at Scrabble tournaments.

I started competing when I was 10 and I won the junior division of the NSW State Scrabble Championships. I used to sit in bed at night and just flip through a dictionary. That’s how nerdy I was. Even today, I wind down every night with an online Scrabble game.

My love for languages also goes beyond English—I speak five languages, including being a government translator in Japanese and German. I also speak Hebrew at home and studied French.

My high school in Sydney had a lot of exchange students and I think that’s how I developed a love of other cultures and languages. After studying three languages for my HSC, and graduating from uni with double honours in Japanese and German, I thought I would end up as a translator or language teacher.

But after I graduated, I ended up going into the business world with an incredible Japanese company, and they’ve inspired the way I do things today. Our culture at Matchboard reflects some very Japanese values, like having a big emphasis on long term relationships and trust, really investing in customers, and treating them like gold.”

Sharon Melamed of Matchboard, a business matchmaking platform providing the fast and smart way to find suppliers online.

“While I knew from an early age that I wanted to be an engineer, I never thought I would be working with lasers. But I lucked out: my rugby coach in Canada was a university professor and one day, he asked if I wanted to work with him over the summer. That set me down this path.

After finishing my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in laser technology in Montreal, and also having written a screenplay for a movie while studying, I thought my career could go in either direction. Not knowing which to pursue, I decided to just move to China with a one-way ticket and ended up there for 1.5 years, teaching English.

Eventually, I felt the pull to return to research and that brought me to Sydney. During my PhD, I was also watching 10 movies a week—I had a job writing movie reviews. My most memorable experience was getting to interview Jerry Seinfeld at a movie premiere.

Besides learning about lasers, the other gift from rugby was learning grit. Over 10 years, I played on mostly losing teams. That was great because it meant every time you went to play, you knew you were going to get hammered. But you still had to go into every tackle giving everything. And that is the essence of grit.”

Cibby Pulikkaseril of Baraja, a company developing revolutionary LiDAR technology for self-driving vehicles.

“Back in the day, my mum multitasked carrying me and my brother while she worked at a deli. She had moved to Australia from Vietnam, didn’t understand a word of English, and worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.

My parents split when I was young. Being raised by a single mum really shaped my work ethic—I saw how hard she worked and the struggles she went through to bring us to where we are today.

School was never my forte, but I always believed that I could do something with my life. At one point, I wanted to drop out to be a chef, but my mum wouldn’t let me. Her dream was for her two sons to get a degree, so I worked hard to finish and get into uni.

After uni, I entered the corporate world. But eventually, I wanted to work for myself so I started my own social media marketing agency. Then, through first being one of my clients, I met Benjamin. We both had a eureka moment as we renovated our homes, and so we started StyleFit together.

My mum’s super proud of me being an entrepreneur today—she shares all our news with friends and family back in Vietnam.

At the end of the day, I really want to give back to her. That’s the story of what drives me today.”

Brendon Ha of Stylefit, a 3D/AR furniture software company empowering shoppers with an immersive experience.

“I founded this company because my son was a professional esports player. So that led me down a very interesting path to getting to know the gaming and esports industry.

I was involved in the industry for 3 years with my son before GGWP was formed. It took me two days to go from selling my previous startup to registering this startup. It was really quick, really definite.

Before I founded this company, I was in the recruitment space. Before that, I was in marketing, communications, retail, project management, training facilitation... In my 20s, I was even a jewelry designer. A good broad range. I think I’ve built a lot of very transferable skills over the years.

I used to be more of a gamer. Now I don’t really have the time for it, but my family does enough gaming for me. My son and my husband are both avid gamers. All of our team are gamers in some shape or form.

For me, personally, it’s about the industry, the people, the community, the opportunity to be in a really cool ecosystem. I’ve never been in an industry that has such a broad range of amazingly talented, creative individuals. I just love the diversity of it.”

Jax Garrett of GGWP Academy, an e-learning and influencer marketplace platform focused on providing education and opportunity for gamers globally.

“I’m a Bondi girl, born and bred. Growing up, I remember going to the beach with my parents and picking up rubbish for Keep Australia Beautiful Day. We did it every year.

After completing an arts degree in uni here, I went over to the UK and started my career as a web developer and digital consultant.

I came back to Sydney in 2010, had a few kids, and after about six years, I decided I wanted to do something with a lot more purpose. I think that’s a pretty common journey for people when they have kids—they start thinking more about the world around them.

Years later, with my kids, I found that I was back on the same Sydney beaches, picking up the same rubbish. And that sparked something in me as I realized that I could put all my skills in service design to work on something more purposeful.

So I started researching what we could do about stopping the problem of plastic at its source. Today, my goal is to change the system for takeaway food so that every time you get a meal delivered, you don’t have to feel guilty about the packaging. Also, to inspire people to care more about the environment. I want to help lead that change.”

Naomi Tarszisz of RePlated, a startup making reusable food containers for businesses to support the switch to reusables and a circular economy.

“I was quite shy as a kid and have always loved the outdoors. I grew up in the UK, in the middle of nowhere around lakes and rivers. I also did quite a lot of travel, always in relation to fishing, the outdoors, boats, kayaking… anything to do with water. I love being on the water—it’s where I feel most at ease.

I was never sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I’m fascinated by business and startups. I was doing combined honours in university, but during my degree, I realized I was there because I thought I had to be there; I had just “followed the sheep.” So I quit and got my first salaried job in the Fly Fishing travel industry.

I worked on about six varying startups over the years. Eventually, I set up Flotespace because I realized if I was going to give a real crack at it, I had to go out on my own and put all I’ve learned into one company.

Funnily enough, despite having quit university, I was recently asked by one to do a talk for their tourism and business degree students. It was a reminder to me that if you believe in something enough, you can achieve so many things—you don’t need a stamp or title to validate your skills.”

Hugh Treseder of Flotespace, an online boat rental marketplace and concierge booking service for your next celebration, event, or escape.

"The theme of my life is a random walk—which has led me to great adventures and finally to the other side of the world.

I grew up in a little town in Germany and spent my first 20 years in a bubble. At 16, I had my first startup with two friends. One owned a vineyard, the other could code. So together, we built an internet shop to sell wine.

In university, I found a 3-year program to study software engineering for half the year and work at Audi for the other half. Of the two spots available, I got in because someone dropped out last minute. That launched my career.

A few years later, by chance, I entered a recruiting competition by McKinsey. I got the offer and took it, out of curiosity and wanting a challenge, to see if I was good enough to do it. One day, I found a gold mining project in WA. I applied, got in, and found myself in the Australian desert two weeks later.

Eventually, I decided to pursue my own startup. Even if I could’ve been an entrepreneur earlier, realistically, I needed these 20 years of experience to be able to build Upstreet today. So, I’d tell my younger self to just stay hungry, stay curious and keep trying different things."

Christian Eckelmann of Upstreet , a startup facilitating a share reward program, allowing people to earn shares when they shop.

“A few years ago, a good friend invited me to join a motorcycle trip: a 3-week adventure riding cafe racers through the desert for charity. We started in Barcelona, got a ferry over to Morocco, traveled down through the Sahara, and over the Atlas Mountains. It was hard-going and it was hot; definitely more of a challenge than a vacation.

During that trip, we got chatting about how it would be great to combine our love for classic motorcycles and adventure, but then give some creature comforts to it all. As I started looking into it more, I realized that there was this world of, not so much motorcycles, but classic cars, where people would go to rallies if they owned a classic car or aspired to drive one. So that’s where the startup idea came from.

I’ve worked in tech for 15-20 years, and the industry has been very kind to me, but I’m excited to be back to working with my hands. Growing up as a kid, I always used to build stuff with my dad. He’s an engineer, so we’d always be stripping down cars and motorcycles and building them up again. It was a real bonding thing with my dad. And that’s where my love for cars comes from.”

Daniel Harman of The Stable, a startup that provides curated, immersive experiences that celebrate classic cars, timeless design, wanderlust travel, and artisan products.

"I was going to study ancient and classical civilizations in university. But I completely messed up my history A-level in sixth form and just failed a unit. I don’t know what happened, I got 100% in a lot of my business class exams. Then I was planning to take a gap year before uni to go and teach English in China for a few months, but that all fell apart at the last minute because the school pulled out. So I thought, maybe I’ll go to uni earlier than planned. And I was literally searching for courses that weren’t full. I ended up doing a double honours degree in management and marketing, and I loved it. When I left uni, I wanted to go into marketing, but looking back, I have no idea why 21-year-old me thought that was a good idea. I graduated in 2009 during the recession in the UK. There weren't many graduate jobs, especially in marketing. But I was lucky enough to get a three-month, summer job in marketing in Jersey. And I ended up staying in Jersey for five years. Eventually, I thought, if I want a big career, I have to live in London. I guess that was drilled into me as a kid: you've got to live in a big city if you want this glamorous job. So I moved to London... and really didn't enjoy it. I had gone from living on the beach in Jersey to getting the Tube every morning and it was grim. So I was 27 and decided to take a gap year. I planned a two year working holiday visa for Canada and a six months placement in a surf school in Costa Rica, but by the way of Hong Kong, Australia, Fiji, and Thailand. So I left the UK and was like, “Guys, I'll be back in three years, see you soon!” But I got to Australia and never left. I'm one of those people who thinks everything happens for a reason. And I think probably messing up that A-level was a good thing because it made me work a bit harder after that. And I'm incredibly grateful for my life and everything I've been able to do in terms of traveling, where I've been lucky enough to work, and the group of friends I’ve met along the way. I think every mistake or everything that hasn’t gone to plan has led to something else that's been better."

Laura Johnson of Strivin, a platform to supercharge careers, featuring a personalized hub of content, connections, mentors, and events.

“An earthquake, a missed flight back to Australia, and an expiring visa turned my Indonesian holiday into an emergency flight to Tokyo with a girl I had just met. That then sparked an 18 month adventure to Europe. That earthquake really taught me that sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and turn a challenge into an opportunity. I ended up working for a med tech start-up in Berlin that had a real purpose, which helped to really open my eyes to what is possible. And I realised for me, my purpose is climate change, or rather, taking action to stop it. I wasn’t passionate about climate change growing up, but that’s changed over time. I think I’ve always been someone who’s looking for a challenge and my background in consulting taught me to look at bigger and bigger problems. And I don’t think there’s a bigger problem at the moment than climate change. Visiting the Great Barrier Reef, for example, really helped to bring an appreciation for nature and also just to see the destruction that’s happening in Australia. You see these beautiful photos of the coral, but you get there and everything’s dead. It’s really a whole other thing to viscerally experience it. I think I spent a lot of my early career focusing on getting promoted or increasing my salary or these kinds of arbitrary goals. But now, I have a purpose and a mission. It's been harder than I ever imagined, but it’s so much more much more rewarding because I’m progressing towards something meaningful.”

Matt Heath of Make Your Change, a non-profit startup, providing a "one-stop shop" for the environmental justice, sustainability and climate action movement in Australia.

“I grew up in the Highlands of Scotland, where Braveheart was filmed. They actually auditioned my school for extras in the movie, but I unfortunately didn't get a place. It was the very stereotypically Scottish landscape and I lived quite an outdoors life, a lot of skiing and mountain biking. I was in Scotland until I was 18, when I moved to England to go to university, then I got a job as a systems engineer in the aerospace industry. Later, I joined a growth stage startup, making helmets for American football teams and the US military. I don't know if it's just having been lucky or not, but getting people to pay you to learn how to do something is amazing, like when I transitioned from engineering to marketing. I guess a lot of people would try and solve that problem by going to university. I tried to solve it by getting a marketing job and learning on the job, trying not to be completely out of my depth. To get that job, I just used all my skills from project management to get a similar role in marketing, and then I just slid along into more marketing meetings, advertising meetings and just learned by doing. It wasn’t super intentional, I was just interested in how it works. I think of myself as a jack of all trades, but master of none – someone who solves problems systematically and creatively. I also really like to learn on my own, from YouTube and blogs, in particular; you can really learn anything online. And you don't even have to pay for it. I sometimes think it is just like copying other people, copying what they do and working out why that works. They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but it turns out it's also the best form of learning. I use all these skills in the startup world today and I enjoy it because I think something that has always been important to me is creating something, something larger than yourself. If somebody loves something that I've made, that's great – that's how I get my biggest kicks in life and I guess that's what a successful business is. That’s the key for me to find satisfaction and keep my engine running.”

James Fyfe of Portant, a no-code document automation startup that deletes repetition from people’s workday.

"Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my cousin’s place, playing on her Game Boy all day. It’s one of my fondest childhood memories. We had one of those bootleg cartridges from China with 50 games in one – which was great, I played Pokemon a lot – but the downside was that you couldn't actually save your game. So I played the same games over and over from the start. I was that kid, always wanting to play games. It defined my childhood. There are even photos of me from friends’ birthday parties, sitting in a corner and playing a Game Boy while everyone posed for the camera. When I was around 12, I got my own Game Boy Advance from my parents and it meant a lot because we didn’t really have a lot of money. We only ever bought one game for it, Super Mario Advance, but I played it every day and I loved it. While I didn’t know it at the time, my childhood of gaming taught me a lot about resilience, all those endless days training in the earliest levels, losing, and doing it over and over again. You would think it gets boring playing the same games over and over again but it developed my ability to focus on a task, not get distracted, and just keep going."

Joy Zhang of Coder One, a consumer-tech startup building the future of AI Sports by making programming and AI fun and accessible, and connecting tech-driven companies with top tech talent.

"My five year old recently asked me if Santa Claus is real, and I asked her, “What do you think?” She replied, “Nah, I don’t think he’s real. I think it’s just someone dressed up as a Santa Claus to deliver presents. The real Santa Claus is in the North Pole.” The happiest moments of my life are when my kids do or ask things that demonstrate their character. They go from being a child that you look after to coming out with insane comments or views of the world that speak to the fact that they are individuals. And that just makes me feel fantastic. The most important thing in the world to me is being a dad. My own dad passed away when I was quite young, so I always felt that his words of advice shaped me as a person and as a dad myself. He always knew how to have fun and have a good sense of humour. I find that my time with my children is the happiest when we’re playing a silly game or something. And as they grow up, like my dad taught me, I’m teaching my kids gratitude – being grateful with what you have is such a healthy mindset. I’m always reminded that you can’t have everything in the world, but you can be happy if you remember to be grateful."

Matt Collis of StackGo, a SaaS startup, providing a simpler and faster way for B2B software vendors to sell through SaaS marketplaces.