Startup 360

Fishburners has a new owner. And episode 60’s guest is Carolyn Breeze, CEO of the buyer, ASX-listed Scalare Partners.

Scalare bought Fishburners from the voluntary administrators this week and the startup community and its members will leave the Tech Central Innovation Hub to become part of Tank Stream Labs.

The move also brings change for cohost Majella Campbell, who’ll wrap up as Fishburners CEO and take a break after 15 torrid months working to right the ship.

Carolyn takes us through her plans for Fishies - pitch nights and a new investment fund to back those startups are afoot, and explains her vision for Scalare, which owns Tank Stream, the Australian Technology Comp, Tech Ready Women and several other brands.

She's also recently taken a deep dive into how Australia’s startup ecosystem performs globally in key metrics such as investment, liquidity, experience and first customers and shares some sobering stats.

Only 34% of startup investment is domestic, she explained, compared to 60-70%. Overseas investors love Aussie startups, but as Carolyn points out, especially in the context of the government's capital gains tax changes, when there’s a liquidity moment, “the international money, and then the operators and the IP are staying over there”.  That hurts Australian startups.

“Our tech workforce is contracting. In every other market it's expanding,” she said.

The Scalare CEO also has some thoughts on the short-term thinking of politicians and the uncertainty created by constantly changing government priorities.

Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, with Ciarán Harte, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

After 3 non-event federal budgets for the startup sector, all hell broke loose on May 12 when treasurer Jim Chalmers announced capital gain tax changes that will reduce the size of the cheque startup shareholders receive in a liquidity event.

The backlash has been enormous and the sector is hoping Treasury will hear their pleas and create carveouts for startups and their investors, as well as small business.

But amid the sound, fury and 47% equity social media memes, what does it all mean?

That’s what Jack Qi, partner from startup advisory and accountancy firm William Buck explains on episode 59 of Startup 360.
Will founders go overseas? Is this the end of Australian innovation? Who are the winners and losers from the government’s changes? Qi unpacks it all in this special edition of the show that puts the sexy back in the Tax Act.

And because Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick, Qi reveals he really wanted to be a fighter pilot - but ended up ensuring startup founders and their employees and investors pay no more tax than they have to, instead. And loves it.

f you want to know the facts amid the fury, this episode is essential listening.
Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! 

Startup founders are told to hustle harder, push through and never let the cracks show. But what happens when the pressure becomes too much?

This week on Startup 360, host Simon Thomsen sits down with workplace mental health advocate Graeme Cowan for a candid conversation about burnout, psychological safety and the hidden emotional cost of building a business.

Graeme, a founding board director of R U OK? and host of the Caring CEO podcast, shares his own experience of crashing after the dotcom collapse and spending five years out of work with severe depression. From that journey came a mission to help leaders create healthier, more resilient workplaces.

“The old saying, a problem shared is a problem halved,” Graeme says - a simple idea that sits at the heart of this week’s episode’s message about vulnerability, connection and asking for help before burnout takes hold.

This episode dives into why startup culture’s obsession with resilience can sometimes fuel burnout instead. Graeme shares practical ways founders can check in with their teams, recognise early warning signs and build sustainable habits before things spiral.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

OpenAI’s APAC startups lead Thomas Jeng has a warning for founders worried AI is about to replace them: calm down. The tools are getting smarter at breakneck speed, but the people building the future are still very much in the driver’s seat.

Speaking with Startup 360 co-hosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell, Thomas - a former founder, VC operator and now OpenAI’s first startup hire across Asia Pacific - unpacked what AI can actually do for startups right now, where the hype goes too far, and why Australia’s startup ecosystem continues to punch above its weight globally.

Throughout the conversation, Thomas’ core message remained consistent: AI is an incredible accelerator, but not a substitute for human insight.
“If you’re breaking new ground, there will inevitably be things the AI does not know,” he said, pointing to the irreplaceable value of customer conversations, market intuition and founder conviction.

The discussion also veered into the increasingly human side of AI adoption. Thomas shared that he uses ChatGPT to help explain Singapore maths to his children, plan family holidays, analyse parenting advice and even think through relationships. But he’s also cautious about over dependence, particularly for kids.

For founders overwhelmed by the pace of AI, his advice was refreshingly practical: don’t try to automate your entire business overnight.
“Probably pretty much everyone can take one step forward,” he said.

Whether it’s improving one workflow, connecting a new data source, or simply learning to prompt better, the biggest gains often start small.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

A decade ago, Joshua Ross and his good mate Adam McCurdie went looking for an idea that would have maximum impact in doing the most good.

So they decided to take on the global ticketing industry and launch Humanitix.

Their second crazy big idea was to give away all the company’s profit.

They’ve succeeded on both fronts. Since Humanitix was founded in Sydney in 2016, it’s given away $21 million to charities and projects, including ethicist Peter Singer’s The Life you can Save. The Atlassian Foundation has helped the pair take on a cutthroat industry and thrive.

Humanitix now operates in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and UK, and Hollywood superstar and kindred spirit Hugh Jackman recently signed on as head of impact.

Josh sits down with Simon on Startup 360 this week to talk about that adventure and what it means to have a not-for-profit social enterprise - something that doesn’t fit the normal philanthropic model.

It’s inspiring and uplifting story of how impact and happiness comes not from the money you make but what you do with it next.

And it turns out that Josh and Wolverine read the same books.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

The global business travel market is worth more than $2 trillion annually, but when most employees seek to get from A to B, how it works is not something many think about.

Altitude AI founder Aimee Armstrong has, transforming the industry to help smaller businesses save time and money thanks to AI.

She's Simon and Majella's guest on episode 55 of Startup 360 this week.

Her story is as fascinating as her ambitions, having previously worked as a motorcycle mechanic and raced Yamaha 600cc motorbikes - so Aimee knows a bit about risk and moving fast too.

She also worked at some of Australia's top tech companies, including Siteminder, Go1 and Domain.

Using AI to redefine how the business world moves, she's companies lower their travel spend and making it easier for employees using an AI travel agent that can book entire trips via work tools such as Slack, and helping them deal with fiddly details such as company travel policies.

It's a great conversation with some travel tips from Aimee too.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson.

This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

The term Sandwich Generation was coined in the early 80s to describe people, aged in their 30s to 60s, who found themselves not only raising a family, but also caring for their parents - "carenting" - at the same time.

In the middle of all those competing demands, they're also trying to build their careers and the pressures can make it all feel overwhelming.

The numbers are stark - caregiving is a second job taking an average 31 hours weekly, in a journey that typically lasts 5+ years. The cost to the caregiver is estimated at around $567,000. The burden falls overwhelmingly to women, who are 70% of caregivers.

That challenge is the problem Melissa Reader set out to solve with her AI startup, Vera.

Episode 54 of Startup 360 focuses on trying to be everything, for everyone, all at once in a heartfelt conversation between Melissa and host Simon Thomsen, spanning work culture, maintaining focus, grief, dementia, family conflict and even voluntary assisted dying - something in the news this week with the loss of broadcaster and musician James Valentine, aged just 64.

Melissa faced tragedy early in her career after losing her beloved husband Mauro, aged 40, to cancer, just after the birth of their third child. She cofounded Vera with Yaniv Bernstein. It's an agentic AI platform that listens to your specific situation and helps turn those pressures into action to help you navigate a range of situations, from your parents to your family dynamics and other constraints.

It's all about tracking what matters, connecting the dots between decisions and most importantly, using AI that never advises, but rather interprets and builds context for human experts to guide you.

Melissa also produces the excellent Club Sandwich podcast with Sarah Macdonald, talking to people on the frontline of caring. Make sure you have a listen after Startup 360.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson.

This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

School and Malachy Doyle were never the best of mates.
Our guest for episode 53 is now 17 and left school for entrepreneurship, founding his first startup Venty.

Never mind the education, even being told when to have lunch got on his goat. And Malachy likes to have control of his destiny.
"I like building cool things," he explained to Majella and Simon, having launched his first business - making and selling Valentine's Day card, when he was just 12.

Venty is an AI‑powered emotional support and journaling app that offers structured, conversational “venting” rather than clinical therapy, positioned as a low‑friction way to process day‑to‑day emotions in 5‑minute sessions.
It's not a replacement for professional mental health help, Malachy explains, but helps a range of people address the daily life anxiety they feel, using AI.

AI is a big theme in this week's show, with Majella and Simon discussing the attacks on the home of OpenAI's Sam Altman in the wake of a critic New Yorker article, and Anthropic's Mythos, a new model so dangerous it can only be offered to corporations, who no doubt will use it wisely for the benefit of all.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson.

This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

If, like Startup 360 cohost Simon and Majella, you have a pile of non-fiction books beside the bed that you're trying to get around to reading, you'll love episode 52's guest.

Shruta Satam left nearly 20 years as a corporate consultant for the likes of Deloitte and PwC to become a startup cofounder last year.

Pustakh (the Sanskrit word for books), launched in Sydney in late 2025.
The idea came from a pattern Shruta watched repeat during her consulting career.

"The smartest, most well-read leaders I worked with would finish a book, feel inspired, cite it in the next meeting, and then change nothing. The gap between knowing and doing was everywhere, and no platform was built to fix it," she said.

Pustakh is an AI-based applied learning platform for non-fiction books. It's not just a summary of 80,000 words handed to you in bite-sized pieces. It gets to know the reader to create personalised action steps, based on their specific goals, challenges, and career stage, so two people reading the same book get two entirely different action plans

She's also building a habit tracker to close the loop by tracking whether Pustakh users are implementing what they read.

The conversation roams from her favourite books to the metaphysical and beyond - and of course the impact of how AI is reshaping the ways we learn.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo. Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson.

This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

The wild thing about building a marketplace for jobs is that you never know what your customers will need.

Airtasker cofounder and CEO admits on episode 51 of Startup 360 that when a man wanted someone to fly from Australia to the US to pick up an engagement ring and bring it back, they deleted, thinking it was a hoax.
A slightly indignant, but also very anxious and hopeful future fiancé set the record straight and the Tasker who said yes is probably still a hit at dinner parties with that story.

Tim shares his story with Simon and Majella this week, from Airtasker's origin story to the lessons of leading for more than a decade, and going public on the ASX in 2021.

The entrepreneur and father has some honest insights on what it takes to build a category creating business and the perils and triumphs that entails, including learning what you can and can't say when you're the the typically open boss of a public company.

As Christians and Jews mark Easter and Passover, Simon and Majella also discuss the latest news: the big Meta court cases in the US over child safety and addiction; and locally, the eSafety commissioner's battle with the social media giants over the under 16s ban.

Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick.

This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson.

This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!