Next Generation Innovators Podcast

Kellie Hush surprised the industry when she resigned from what some have described as the best job in Australian media, Harper’s BAZAAR's Editor-in-Chief. Under Kellie’s six-year leadership, the magazine went from strength to strength, entering a new era of iconic covers and innovative features. Yet Kellie decided to back herself, depart the magazine, and went all in to launch new retail brand, The Way, alongside her own fashion consulting company. As Creative Director of The Way, Kellie created the brand from the ground up before surprising the industry again when she decided to exit the business. Here, Kellie shares her valuable advice on conquering the fashion industry, making hard choices and knowing when to take the leap.

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Season 3 of Next Generation Innovators will begin on Monday, February 17. Hosted by Brooke Boney and presented by Future Women and THE OUTNET, Next Generation Innovators taps into the stories behind some of Australia’s most successful entrepreneurs and how they’ve scaled their ideas into global businesses. While we gear up for season 3, let's revisit our favourite insights and learnings from season 2 with leading entrepreneurs Kit Willow (KITX), Sarah Davidson (Matcha Maiden), Claire Kimball (The Squiz) and Katherine McConnell (Brighte).

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At only 26-years-old Manuri Gunawardena is set to revolutionise the way lifesaving treatments are tested. She’s featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, won the Australian version on Tech Crunch Startup Battlefield and she has backers from What’s App and Google. Gunawardena wants her startup HealthMatch to be the go-to platform to connect the sickest patients with potentially life saving trials, and she’s already raised millions of dollars with some of the industry’s heavyweights from Australia to the US.

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According to Dr Catriona Wallace in five to ten years’ time AI could play a much bigger role in our lives. Wallace is the founder and executive director at Flamingo AI. The ASX listed company is a provider of Machine Learning based technologies.

Dr Catriona Wallace has been recognised by the Australian Financial Review as the Most Influential Woman in Business & Entrepreneurship. Catriona has also achieved Advance Australia’s highest award in Technology & Innovation for Australians working abroad and recently won the FinTech Leader and Overall Excellence in Finance award by Women in Finance

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When Sarah Holloway returned from a trip to Africa, she came back with more than memories of an Instagramable adventure. Within days of being home in Melbourne from the trip with her fiancé Nick Davidson, the 30-year-old then lawyer began drastically dropping weight. A few months later she crashed with adrenal fatigue.  Doctors to discover she had been suffering with a parasite for months.

During her recovery Sarah took a work trip to Hong Kong where she discovered matcha green tea powder. Sarah and her partner Nick became hooked and decided to launch a social media-driven side hustle selling matcha powder, investing just $5000. Just six months after Matcha Maiden launched in 2015, US retailer Urban Outfitters placed a monthly, 3000-package order for six months (selling across their US stores) after discovering the brand on Instagram. Sarah took a leap of faith, and quit her job to focus on the booming business full-time. In 2016 the pair opened a vegan cafe Matcha Mylkbar in Melbourne, Matcha Mylkbar. Sarah has gone on to launch a podcast, Seize The Yay. 

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Three years ago Claire Kimball quit her lucrative job in corporate affairs with Woolworths to start a business from her lounge room.

Today, The Squiz employs three people…. is on its way to reaching 50 thousand subscribers...and was recently award newsletter of the year by Mumbrella 

In addition The Squiz Today podcast, an eight minute news update released at 6 am each weekday, is consistently in the top 10 of Australian news podcasts. 

With the tag line - your short-cut to being informed  The Squiz has become an important part of the day for tens of thousands of busy women and men.

Before Woolworths Claire worked as an advisor to National Party MP Larry Anthony and she is also partially responsible for helping Tony Abbott become Prime Minister.

Head to www.thesquiz.com.au to sign up. 

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If life was a poker game, you could say Katherine McConnell went ‘all in’ on her idea for Brighte in 2016, redrawing on her mortgage and leaving her 14-year career as an asset manager at the “Millionaire’s Factory” aka Macquarie Bank.The risk paid off.

Today Katherine is one of Australia’s most exciting entrepreneurs. In 2019, Brighte, a digital payment platform, offering zero-interest payment plans for installation of solar panels, batteries and insulation, has secured $15.5 million in Series C funding, as it prepares to make a move into Australia’s home improvement sector. In October 2019, the start-up had over 40,000 applications and 34,000 loan approvals.

Brighte is an incredible product market fit with impressive growth, but for Katherine the mission is to build a company that lasts and makes a difference.

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Imagine starting the job of your dreams at one of the biggest tech disruptors is history, then three weeks later the biggest scandal to rock Silicon Valley hits. That’s what Jodie Auster faced when she joined Uber. While others would run, she stayed and she listened, and she was part of changing the global culture from the ground-up. But let’s go back to the beginning.

In 2007, Jodie was at a professional crossroads. Wanting to transition from medicine to business, she enrolled in an MBA at Melbourne Business School. After graduating, Jodie consulted for Bain & Co, before a new startup called Scoopon came knocking, launching Jodie into the world of tech.

Jodie moved to Silicon Valley in 2013, leading startup Thumbtack through a period of enormous growth. She relocated back to Australia when an opportunity to head up the local arm of UberEats in Jodie's home town on Melbourne presented itself. In 2018 took on the role of General Manage ANZ at UberEats.

Jodie is raw, honest and an eternal optimist.

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Kit Willow is one of Australia's leading sustainable fashion designers. At just 23, Kit launched her first label, Willow. Willow quickly became one of Australia’s leading labels, and a go-to brand for celebrities and models like Cara Delevingne. In 2013, Kit left the company she founded in a shock. While most people would be crushed by the experience, not Kit Willow. She picked herself up, dusted herself off and launched KITX in 2015. Much like Willow before it, KITX went off with a bang. Kit is a truly inspirational and genuine sustainability warrior who believes in planet over profit.

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Cyan Ta'eed is a serial entrepreneur. She's the co-founder of Envato, a digital assets marketplace, founder of Hey Tiger, an ethical chocolate company and recently founded Milkshake, an influencer marketing tool. Cyan worked as a freelance graphic designer before starting Envato, in a Bondi garage in 2006. In 2016, she debuted on the AFR Young Rich List when Envato, was worth $186million dollars. In 2019, Envato,is valued at more than a billion dollars, landing Cyan and her husband Collis  on the AFR Rich List with a net worth of $974million. She recently stepped back from the day-to-day running of Envato, to focus on other enterprises, one of those being Hey Tiger, an ethical chocolate company that donates a percentage of all sales to supporting cocoa farmers in Ghana. As the CEO of the company she doesn’t take a salary. This year, Cyan launched Milkshake, an Instagram plug-in that allows influencers to create beautiful websites.

Cyan is an entrepreneur who believes in businesses doing good. She loves the early stages of a start-up, an inspiration quote or too, and thinks entrepreneurship is like a muscle.

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