In this episode, we get the chance to catch up with Anne-Marie Perret, an independent advisor and significant contributor to the Canberra innovation ecosystem through her roles as mentor and board member with several ventures. Anne-Marie is also an active member of the Griffin Accelerator (which works alongside the Canberra Innovation Network) as advisor, board member and angel investor.

I was particularly keen to explore the importance of advice and governance with Anne-Marie and discuss how this adjusts through different phases of a venture. We framed the discussion around 'small g' governance and 'big G' governance as needs change through scale and sophistication of investors, markets and stakeholders. We speculate that the inflection point for transition was where capital raising moves beyond friends and family and the importance of due diligence from all parties as new capital comes into a firm.

We also discuss the concept of being ready for a board, with the associated benefits of discipline, mentoring and networks and the countervailing loss of control that may be felt by the founding team. Anne-Marie reflects on engaging with mentors and advisors, the discipline of always asking the second question and being interested in the answer and not always being in 'pitch mode'.

With the recent AICD Australian Governance Summit and the increasing interest in innovation governance, management and strategy, I hope that this podcast presents a timely set of insights.