B2B Twin

If you ever thought understanding subtleties around team morale was challenging pre-Covid, then I think you would agree it is only more complicated right now, which makes Teamworki’s innovation timely and vital.

Diego von Söhsten is a co-founder and the CEO at Teamworki, and he explains the origins of this exciting startup and also the basis for the innovation. 

Having lived among remote teams, Diego is intimately aware of the challenge for team members and managers alike. This experience and knowledge and the way Diego is shaping their product and its roadmap gave us plenty of exciting content to cover in this conversation.

Defining your business based on your personal mission and values is courageous and compelling, and that is only the start of what Daniella Boutros, founder and CEO of Buttercreme Lane covered with me on this episode of the Startups’ Roundtable.  

Daniella is famous for her cake creations that have wowed her customers and TV audiences alike, but just near the surface, there is a proud business owner who is intent on letting her values, decency and passion for people, guide the growth of her business.  

I learnt an enormous amount from this  short time with Daniella and I hope you do as well.

Dr Anna Wright covered multiple aspects of a startup’s evolution in this conversation.  From her health trigger that started the BindiMaps journey, through to her PhD and subsequent academic career as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, researching and teaching in the areas of Innovation and Valuation.

In less than two years since launching BindiMaps, Anna is now a recognised leader in the startup ecosystem, lighting a path for non-technical founders to start and build tech companies that can change the world. 

It is her passion for impact that has seen Anna nominated for 2019 Australian of the Year, in recognition of her leadership and commitment to creating a more inclusive world through BindiMaps. Anna was also listed as one of the top 10 Australian Entrepreneurs to watch in 2019.

This episode offers plenty of insights and learnings as Jackson Dickfos, CEO and co-founder of SportsCube shares the path he and his co-founder and CMO, Tim McMurray are charting.  From a university project to a startup that impacts communities, this conversation has a mix of innovation, motivation and reflection.  Also, you will hear how they are using rapid iterations to connect the sponsors and communities SportsCube serves.

Inder Singh is part Allied Legal and part SKALR Group and explains the importance of bringing legal and governance advice and strategy as an essential element of helping founders develop their go-to-market and scale.  Inder discusses some common traps and how startups can plan to avoid pain while setting themselves up for growth. He also shares his perspective on early and constant product validation.

Venues and their events are static when you get to understand the FlipTix model.  Jaime Siegel spoke with me about how FlipTix can help event owners in the post COVID world achieve better economics on reduced capacity events by allowing them to recapture vacated seats.  

A key message is that FlipTix is not a resale platform – they do not resell tickets but sell brand new tickets to fill vacated space.  This created a base for our discussion to explore the benefits to venues, artists, merchandisers, caterers and transport - every part of the entertainment supply chain stands to benefit from the FlipTix model. 

In March 2020, Aggie Pulfer and her team were laid off due to the Coronavirus Outbreak, and this inspired them to look for a way to help those who will be seeking new employment opportunities post-COVID-19. 

This course of events has led to The Interview Master Deck being launched for funding on Kickstarter, and we had the opportunity to explore the accelerated steps in launching this initiative – truly a real-time startup story.

We also had the chance to draw upon Aggie’s coaching expertise to explore the role of coach and mentor in a startup scenario.  Being able to do this with a professionally accredited coach provided me with fresh perspectives and insights.

Also, you will find Aggie’s website here, and these are the books she mentioned that helped her understand Kickstarter and launch her campaign 

1. Kickstarter Launch Formula: The Crowdfunding Handbook for Startups, Filmmakers, and Independent Creators by Salvador Briggman
2. Kick Start: How to Successfully Fund Your First Crowdfunding Campaign on Kickstarter by Cody Smith

Kit Krugman's role as Head of Organization + Culture Design at co:collective was a great place to start our conversation as it allowed us to discuss aspects of leadership, confidence, emotion and the power of teams in driving sustainable change

We were also able to explore women in the workforce through a "change" lens and also with the reality of the pandemic's impact on families.

Milan Steskal provides strong advice in his book How to Launch a Startup, and this prompted me to investigate him further.  I then found that he has a great breadth and depth of experiences which we explored in this episode, including mental health, starting a startup and the role of process and intuition.

Moving from idea to innovation to starting your own venture can be all consuming...and then the selling starts.

In this conversation with Ali Baker we discuss the mindset of founders making the step to entrust sales to someone external to the innovation.  Drawing on work For Startups does with its clients, we move from that point through selecting, course correction and then how to think about the role of process as scaling gets underway.