Ben Thompson is the Founder and CEO of Employment Hero. The company is Australia’s newest unicorn, recently announcing a funding round of $181 million, valuing the firm at $1.25 billion. Ben grew up in Frenchs Forrest in Sydney and finished his schooling in Armidale, rural NSW. After finishing law and economics at uni, Ben took up a number of tenures in Australia including with Sydney Futures Exchange and Perpetual before jumping on a flight to London where he was employed by Interactive Investor International and ran theirs and lastminute.com’s IPO and then by UK’s largest property portal, Right Move. After a number of years in London working and playing hard in the excitement of the dot-com boom, Ben and his (now) wife married and moved back to Sydney to raise their family. Simultaneously, Ben decided he never wanted to work for anyone again and so started his own business. Employment Hero currently services 80,000 SME customers, managing 750,000 thousand employees. With 52% of the world’s GDP spent on wages within SME’s, Employment Hero’s audience is huge and growing as they work on big plans to expand..

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Rebecca Schot-Guppy is the Director of Investment Leverage and Portfolio Management at IAG Firemark Ventures. Previously, Rebecca was the CEO of FinTech Australia, where she made a significant impact on the ecosystem. Prior to Fintech Australia, she worked as a Community Manager at Stone & Chalk. Rebecca found her way into the world of venture through her background in law and biomed. She is a passionate and knowledgeable member of the startup ecosystem with many insights to share.
Ian & Rebecca discuss…- Rebecca’s path into the startup world- Why Rebecca chose to work on the venture side of the startup ecosystem- Rebecca’s role and impact at FinTech Australia- Australia as a Fintech powerhouse- IAG Firemark Venture’s thematic investments- The growth of the the VC sector in Australia- The Firemark Collective and its teams..and more!
Quickfire Recommendations- Book: Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi- Podcast: 7am Podcast- News Source: AFR & The Guardian- App: Superhero- Productivity Tool: Asana- Favourite Tech CEO: Katherine McConnell - Brighte- Favourite TV show: Sports- Ted Talk Topic: Female leadership.

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Ian sits down with Hugo Bieber, Partner at Think & Grow, and Jacqui Tucker, Head of Employment, Taxes & Reward, Enterprise, KPMG, to discuss the 2021-2022 Australian Startup Salary Guide by Think & Grow and KPMG High Growth Ventures. Supported by Tech Council of Australia, the guide was produced with 20 leading VCs, surveying over 3,000 positions across 140 companies and is designed for startups looking to recruit and retain the best talent in the ecosystem. The panel discusses a variety of topics around recruiting, attracting, paying, rewarding, and motivating talent.
Ian and panel discuss the guide in detail, including…

• The need for the salary benchmarking guide within the startup ecosystem
• Difference in salary ranges between early stage startups and later stage startups
• The importance of transparency within the market
• How ESOPs can be used for attraction and retention
• The great resignation and what it means for Australian companies
• The trend toward flexible work arrangements

...and more!
Download the 2021-2022 Australian Startup Salary Guide here: Salary Guide (thinkandgrowinc.com)
For more information on KPMG High Growth Ventures, check out their website: https://www.highgrowthventures.com.au/

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Manuri Gunawardena is the Founder and CEO of HealthMatch. HealthMatch was founded in 2017, after Manuri won TechnCrunch’s Startup Battlefield. It is a Medtech platform built to help patients connect with clinical trials. It operates as a marketplace, allowing patients to have access to the latest treatments and trials.
Manuri is an ambitious founder with an extensive medical background. She is the winner of the 2021 Bold Future Award by Veuve Clicquot and has been named as one of The Australians top 100 innovators of 2021. As a former medical student turned entrepreneur, Manuri is passionate about combining her medical experience and technology to deliver better healthcare.
Ian & Manuri discuss a variety of topics, including…

• The importance of patient accessibility to clinical trials
• Empowering patients as drivers in healthcare
• Manuri’s journey from medical student to entrepreneur
• The impact the Covid-19 vaccine development had on the medical world
• The consumer approach of HealthMatch
• HealthMatch’s recent expansion to the United States

...and much more!
Quickfire Recommendations

• Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• Podcast: The Twenty Minute VC
• News Source: Twitter, social media platforms
• App: Instagram
• Productivity Tool: Miro
• Favourite Tech CEO: Whitney Wolfe Herd (Bumble) & Melanie Perkins (Canva)
• Favourite TV Show: Succession
• Ted Talk Topic: The shift that is happening in healthcare toward more empowered patients

HealthMatch is hiring! More info here.

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Max Cunningham is currently the Group Executive of Listings at ASX. Previously, he was the Head of Equity Capital Markets at Goldman Sachs in New York and the Director of the Macquarie Group in London. Max has a wide array of global experience and provides unique insight into the state of the Australian market.
Max and Ian discuss many topics, including…

• The emergence and growth of the tech sector in Australia
• Tech becoming the largest sector for issuing secondary capital
• Why some US companies choose to list in Australia
• The potential future of work in Australia
• Macro-trends that could positively impact the ecosystem
• The importance of building community

...and much more!
Quickfire Recommendations

• Book: Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Podcast: The Ideas Exchange Podcast, Conversations with People Who Hate Me
• News Source: The New York Times
• App: PhysiApp
• Productivity Tool: “My wife”
• Favourite Tech CEO: Richard White, WiseTech
• Favourite TV Show: Ozark, Fauda
• Ted Talk Topic: “The confluence of capital power and political power”

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Welcome to another edition of the OTPBD News Special, our series which analyses the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups. This week, we’re focusing on news stories centred around climate tech and renewable energy.
Meet this week's panel…

• Mick Liubinskas, Climate Salad
• Ali Cluines-Ross, Artesian

Topics we discuss: Australia's goal of net zero emissions by 2050, The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Grok Ventures becoming Australia’s first $1b VC fund to invest in climate tech, Loam Bio raising a $40m Series A with backing from Marc Benioff (TIME Ventures) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (Grok Ventures), Australian energy company Woodside partnering with US-based solar startup Heliogen, Square Peg backing waste reduction startup Zero Co in $6m raise, Bitcoin mining coming to Byron Bay with a data centre powered by renewable energy, and Atlassan’s new 40-storey HQ which will operate on renewable energy.
Additional information can be found below:

• https://www.climatesalad.com/
• https://events.humanitix.com/climate-salad-showcase-2021
• https://www.globalclimatelandscape.org/

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Steve Fanale is the CEO and Founder of DriveYello, a company that helps businesses provide last mile delivery service to their customers. DriveYello’s mission is becoming the smartest gig economy management platform. Steve has been an active member of the startup ecosystem since the early 2000s, before it was fully established in Australia. Steve’s story of founding and building DriveYello is one of tenacity, resilience, talent, and leadership. He is an open and passionate founder, who shares a variety of insights around his experience.
Steve and Ian discuss...

• What Steve learned during his time as a professional sportsman
• Steve’s varied career history and how it led him to where he is today
• How the idea of DriveYello came to be in 2014
• The gig economy in Australia and how gig economy businesses operate and scale
• How DriveYello was able to enable businesses to survive during Covid-19 lockdowns
• Steve’s experience as a Summit member and how it has provided him support
• What is next for DriveYello

...and much more!

Quickfire Recommendations

• Book: Fanocracy by David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott
• Podcast: The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
• News Source: Listening to podcasts and news and doing an investigation to validate
• App: Stake (investment app), Apple Fitness
• Productivity Tool: Trainual
• Favourite Tech CEO: Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar, Atlassian
• Favourite TV Show: Ted Lasso
• Ted Talk Topic: “the mental health of startup CEOs”

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Nicky Jackson is the founder and CEO of RangeMe, a product discovery and sourcing platform that allows retailers and suppliers to connect. RangeMe owns and dominates within the United States market, where they currently have 200,000 active suppliers and 10,000 retail buyers in their network. RangeMe works with over 75% of leading US-based retailers.
Nicky has spent several years working for large multinational companies, bringing brands to market. RangeMe was founded in 2013 after Nicky developed her own skincare range and found it difficult to get a foot in the door at major retailers. She recognised this pain point and sought to create a platform that could seamlessly connect retailers and brands to one another. Nicky’s story is an amazing one of tenacity, hustle, product focus, and team culture.
Ian and Nicky discussed a broad range of topics, including…

• The challenge of securing funding for RangeMe prior to the existence of a thriving startup ecosystem
• The story of RangeMe’s acquisition and why they decided to go forward with it
• Why RangeMe expanded to the US with a base in San Francisco
• How RangeMe built an efficient team and established an effective team culture
• The growth of the Australian startup ecosystem since RangeMe was founded
• RangeMe’s current focus on globalising the platform

...and much more!
Quickfire Recommendations

• Book: The Happiest Man of Earth by Eddie Jaku OAM
• Podcast: How I Built This
• News Source: Family group chat, LinkedIn, SMH
• App: Smiling Mind, Spotify, Peloton app
• Productivity Tool: Slack
• Favourite Tech CEO: David Shein, Our Innovation Fund
• Favourite TV Show: Looking for recommendations
• Ted Talk Topic: “the power of going global and expansion” or “the fear of failure”

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Welcome to another edition of the OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly series which analyses the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.
Meet this week's panel...

• Matt Allen, Tractor Ventures
• Andrea Kowalski, Tidal Ventures

Topics we discuss: The Global Startup Genome Report, Clearco tapping into the Australian e-commerce boom, early stage venture capital fund Tidal Ventures launching Tidal’s Expert Network, new Sydney VC fund Black Nova, the Iconic teaming up with circular economy provider Airrobe, Lawpath’s recent $7.5m raise, Kate Morris & Justin Ryan joining together in a new private equity venture: Glow Capital Partners, and several recent raises in Fintech.

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Welcome to another edition of the OTPBD News Special, our fortnightly series which analyses the news that matters for Australian and Kiwi startups.
Meet this week's panel...

• John Henderson, AirTree Ventures
• Stew Glynn, TEN13

Topics we discuss: Christian Porter resigning as Industry Minister, Immutable securing $82 million in funding, Canva raising $200 million at a $40 billion valuation, Microsoft acquiring Brisbane-based Clipchamp, BNPL platform Scalapay becoming a unicorn, Delegate Connect’s $10 million seed round, Insurtech Open raising $31 million in a series B, and Startmate proposing a change to startup investment rules.

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