Sanity Check

Welcome back to part 2 of our interview with the legend himself, Niki Scevak, partner and co-founder of Blackbird Ventures and co-founder of Startmate.

In this episode we pick up where we left off with more gold from Niki and David. They discuss the evolution of the startup ecosystem in both Australia and the US and the implications of staying local versus expanding overseas. Niki talks about his love of numbers in the sense of seeking the truth about our reality and gives his thoughts on David's 5 pillars for building a company that reaches $100m in revenue. To wrap it up, Niki shares his secrets on building successful startup communities.

For more from Niki follow him on Linkedin @Niki Scevak and Twitter @nikiscevak

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review to help us reach more people.

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And Done!

This week on Sanity Check we are joined by the incredible Niki Scevak, partner and co-founder of Blackbird Ventures, a venture fund that exists to supercharge Australia's and New Zealand's most ambitious founders. He is also the co-founder of Startmate, a founder community helping the next generation succeed.

Our chat with Niki was so insightful that we didn't want to leave any of it on the cutting room floor. So we have decided to split this interview into two episodes. In part 1, you'll hear about Niki's journey co-founding both Blackbird Ventures and Startmate and the lessons he learnt along the way. He also shares his philosophy on building community relationships, tangible advice for working smarter not harder, as well as his thesis on investing and making quality decisions. Stay tuned for part 2 next week!

For more from Niki follow him on Linkedin @Niki Scevak and Twitter @nikiscevak

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

Twitter: Sanity Check AU

Facebook: Sanity Check

And Done!

This week on Sanity Check we are joined by the incredible Niki Scevak, partner and co-founder of Blackbird Ventures, a venture fund that exists to supercharge Australia's and New Zealand's most ambitious founders. He is also the co-founder of Startmate, a founder community helping the next generation succeed.

Our chat with Niki was so insightful that we didn't want to leave any of it on the cutting room floor. So we have decided to split this interview into two episodes. In part 1, you'll hear about Niki's journey co-founding both Blackbird Ventures and Startmate and the lessons he learnt along the way. He also shares his philosophy on building community relationships, tangible advice for working smarter not harder, as well as his thesis on investing and making quality decisions. Stay tuned for part 2 next week!

For more from Niki follow him on Linkedin @Niki Scevak and Twitter @nikiscevak

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

Twitter: Sanity Check AU

Facebook: Sanity Check

And Done!

In today's episode of Sanity Check we are joined by Manuri Gunawardena, founder and CEO of HealthMatch, a platform that accelerates patient recruitment to clinical trials. As a medical student working in a neuro-oncology research lab, Manuri witnessed patients who had exhausted all traditional medical options, yet struggled to find and access potentially life saving clinical trials. That's where the idea for HealthMatch was born. Since launching in 2017, the business has gone through incredible growth and Manuri was even featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2019.

Key discussion points:

- How entrepreneurs are changing the landscape of clinical trials, improving inefficiencies to deliver better healthcare

- Defying expectations and breaking into new spaces

- The impact of the pandemic

- Combatting sexism & celebrating incredible female founders 

- Raising capital & scaling a company

- The process of learning 

- Navigating working with your spouse 

- Managing data and the path to monetisation 

- Setting milestones

For more for Manuri follow her on LinkedIn @Manuri Gunawardena and check out HealthMatch at http://healthmatch.io

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

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And Done!

In today's episode, your host David Kenney and Sanity Check co-producer Madison Lunz, take a walk down memory lane, recapping some of the best bits, key takeaways and golden nuggets of information from all of the experts we've heard so far. From capital allocation, to hiring people, launching products, selling and managing yourself, we go through it all! And to top it off, it's a battle of the generations, Gen X vs Gen Z! 

For more from Madison, follow her on LinkedIn @Madison Lunz and check out her podcast Babbles with Besties. 

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

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And Done!

This episode of Sanity Check is a little different. We are joined by the incredible Eugene Lawrenz, who has been a been a football coach for more than 15 years, and coach educator for the last 12. Eugene has worked for several State and National Federations in Australia, been Technical Director of several large clubs and high level programs, and travelled the world to learn from some of the best minds in sport. He was also a member of the initial Executive Committee that set up Football Coaches Australia. 

Our very own David Kenney recently received his ‘C’ license as a football coach under Eugene’s mentorship and through that gruelling experience he came to the realisation that every entrepreneur needs a football coach. So even if you’re thinking "but I'm not into football", trust that this episode is still for you. Just like he did with David, Eugene will give you the 'Sanity Check' you need to help you elevate your own life.

ASK SMARTER NOT HARDER QUESTIONS: Sign up to our Expert Question Library, on https://sanitycheck.com to get access to Eugene's Top 10 Questions to ELEVATE Yourself!

For more from Eugene, follow @elevate_football and @manlywarringahfa on Instagram

Eugene is now launching a new project called ‘Elevate Yourself’, offering mentoring to those who really want to change their lives but are struggling to figure out how to make it become a reality.

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

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And Done!

In this week’s episode of Sanity Check we are joined by the fantastic Julia Pimsleaur, founder and Chief Empowerista of the social venture, Million Dollar Women. MDW has one simple mission; to help one million women get to one million in revenue. In this chat with Julia we discuss her role in empowering women in business, the emphasis on raising capital vs growing sustainable scalable businesses, combating the gender pay gap through investing in female entrepreneurs, growing a business and problem-solving during a pandemic, and most importantly accelerating into the turn. You’ll thank us later.

ASK SMARTER NOT HARDER QUESTIONS: Sign up to our Expert Question Library, on https://sanitycheck.com to get access to JULIA PIMSLEUR’S free ebook, Million Dollar Moms.

For more from Julia, follow her on LinkedIn @Julia Pimlseur and on Twitter @JuliaPimsleur

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

Twitter: Sanity Check AU

Facebook: Sanity Check

And Done!

Surprise! We have a very special BONUS episode of Sanity Check with the incredible Dominic Di Tommaso. Dom is a parkour athlete and professional freerunner for Red Bull and Team Farang. He boasts an impressive 1.3m followers on social media who eagerly consume his gravity-defying acrobatics. But it wasn’t an overnight success for Dom. It took many years of practice, persistence and patience to get to where he is today.

Some key points from our chat with Dom.

-  Dom’s role in developing the sport of parkour

-  Balancing being a content creator and professional athlete

-  Building a career through social media & reframing the “influencer” business model

-  Showmanship and selling yourself

-  Persisting through the hard times

-  The 5-year reflection point

ASK SMARTER NOT HARDER QUESTIONS: Sign up to our Expert Question Library, on https://sanitycheck.com to get access to DOMINIC DI TOMMASO’s’ TOP 5 QUESTIONS ON BUILDING A CAREER ON SOCIAL MEDIA

For more from Dom, follow him on Instagram @domtomato, Twitter @Domtomato and Facebook @therealdomtomato. 

Check out his new show Ultimate Tag every Sunday night from March 7th on Channel 7.

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

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And Done!

In today’s episode of Sanity Check we are joined by the Godfather of Growth-Hacking, Sean Ellis. Sean is an entrepreneur, angel investor and startup advisor, having successfully brought five companies to market that exceeded billion-dollar valuations including Dropbox and Eventbrite. He is also the author of the wildly successful book Hacking Growth, that has propelled breakout growth success at some of the world’s biggest companies. In this chat, it only seems fitting Sean shares his guide to...you guessed it growth, with some real life lessons along the way.

ASK SMARTER NOT HARDER QUESTIONS: Sign up to our Expert Question Library, on https://sanitycheck.com to get access to SEAN ELLIS’ TOP 7 QUESTIONS ON EVALUATING A STARTUP GO TO MARKET OPPORTUNITY. 

For more from Sean, follow him on LinkedIn @Sean Ellis, Twitter @SeanEllis and check out The Breakout Growth Podcast.

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

Twitter: Sanity Check AU

Facebook: Sanity Check

And Done!

In this week’s episode of Sanity Check we are joined by Mor Assouline, VP of Sales at Okendo. Despite quitting his first sales role only thirty minutes into the job, scaring himself off sales for almost three years, Mor managed to turn it all around. Today Mor is a 2X VP of Sales for SMB SaaS startups and a successful GTM sales operator. In this chat, Mor gives us a sanity check on the importance of discovery, not only for improving sales outcomes but also getting what you want out of all areas of life. Mor shares his sales strategies from lead to close including reducing churn, increasing closure rates, scheduling demos, storytelling, building your sales processes to support revenue at different stages of development and more (no pun intended)!

ASK SMARTER NOT HARDER QUESTIONS: Sign up to our Expert Question Library, on https://sanitycheck.com to get access to MOR ASSOULINE’S TOP 10 QUESTIONS ON DISCOVERY.

For more from Mor, follow him on Linkedin @Mor Assouline, Twitter @mistamor and check out his podcast SaaS Talks.

Sanity Check is an independent podcast. To support the show please subscribe and also rate and review to help us reach more people.

To stay up to date be sure to follow us on:

Instagram: @sanitycheckofficial

LinkedIn: SanityCheck

Twitter: Sanity Check AU

Facebook: Sanity Check

And Done!