Startup 360

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!

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!

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!

This week on Startup 360, we talk to veteran startup recruiter Dexter Cousins about work in the AI era. With WiseTech Global cutting 2,000 jobs, nearly a third of its global workforce, the Commonwealth Bank shedding 300 tech roles, Block reducing its workforce by 40% - 4,000 more jobs gone, the employment landscape is changing faster than ever before as artificial intelligence transforms how people work. Dexter wrote about it for Startup Daily earlier this month, and founded Tier One People a decade ago, which helps fintechs find the people they need. He's now pondering his own role over the next decade. Having grown up in Northern England in some tough times, Dexter's used to being blunt, but he also brings incredible insights into what it means to be a valuable employee in his conversation with Simon and Majella. The pair also discuss the biggest news of the week - the fact that the "mystery weekend" Majella's partner, Brendan, flagged last weekend turned out to be an M&A deal. She's engaged! And has a very heavy ring finger to prove it. Congrats to the pair of them. In other news this week, the release of the Denholm report into Australia's R&D policy is also unpacked, along with Advanced Navigation, has raised $158 million in Series C (although Simon initially shortchanged them $5m). 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!

Startup 360 takes a deep dive into leadership this week with Chris Kirk, one of the OGs with Stone and Chalk . Chris recently announced he was stepping down as CEO after three years, and 11 with the organisation since it began in Sydney. It's not so much an exit interview as a rumination on what he's learnt about what it takes to be a great founder and also leader. Chris took the top job at a time when the not-for-profit's finances were in a perilous state, with losses in the millions, and has returned the innovation hub that's home to more than 500 startups and scaleups in three capital cities to financial stability in an $9 million turnaround. Simon and Majella also talk to Chris about what he learnt from his first CEO role, the support he gathered around him to succeed, and when it comes to holding yourself accountable, how the father of two also does that for family while in a high-pressure job. Chris also talks about the role he plays as regimental sergeant major to hundreds of founders at Stone & Chalk, and knowing when to step in to help and advise someone who might be struggling with "the 57 things you've gotta deal with today to keep your business alive". Episode 47 of Startup 360 is an open and honest conversation about staying the course and knowing that leadership is a marathon and not a sprint. 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!

It’s all about artificial intelligence this week with In the Blink of AI host Georgie Healy joining the show to talk about what many see as the 4th industrial revolution. Majella’s away this week, so Simon enlisted Georgie to talk about this week’s news, including the loss of Techstars Sydney, before they got into the weeds on AI. Georgie’s podcast, In the Blink of AI, is out every Friday and recently spoke with AWS AI guru Rada Stanic, who admits even she’s struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of change in artificial intelligence. Georgie, who recently left Google to focus on her podcast, also turned the tables on Simon asking him about the impact of AI and tech on journalism. They talked about parenting in the age of smartphones - Georgie had a revelation while off her phone for 90 minutes while her son was at Nippers - and ethics in AI, as well as her love of music and her hacks for using AI better. 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.

Startup 360 looks south this week, for a conversation with fintech investor Brian Collins about his new role as CEO of Enterprize Tasmania.Brian, deputy chair of Fintech Australia, and cofounder of fintech VC Triple Bubble with Dom Pym and Judy Anderson-Firth, spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley before calling Melbourne home in recent years.Brian shares the stories of some remarkable Tassie startups, as well as the joys of life on the Apple Isle - from a caring community’s support and collaboration to the food, wine and fun of a MONA visit.He also shares his tips to founders as a long-time mentor to hundreds of startups.While Simon and Majella plot how soon they can head to Hobart to record Startup 360 on location there, they also talk about the big news of the week. First up it’s the release of the annual State of Australian Startup Funding report, which reveals a 24% increase in investment to $5.1 billion in 2025, although the total number of deals fell as later-stage rounds became the focus alongside AI, which received the most funding at $1 billion.Elon Musk was also in the new for the right and wrong reasons, from the merger of SpaceX and xAI, to making plans to visit convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious island, with the release of emails and 3 million files about Epstein contradicting Musk’s previous spinning of the narrative around his involvement with the billionaire, who died in jail in 2019.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!

When Jim Cooper, CEO of Blue-X, a California-based innovation services company for startups, moved to the US three decades ago, he had some trepidations. Now he loves it, but the former Sydneysider is back "home" for Christmas and in his shorts, to share his experiences on the final Startup 360 episode for 2025. Jim, who coaches an AFL team in Orange County, not far from Disneyland, has some strong thoughts on the Australian mindset and how to hustle."We've only got really one metric and that is at the end of the fourth quarter, we've got more points on the board than our opposition," he said. "So I treat every single startup as if it's three-quarter time with five goals, two, down, and we need to do something in the next 20 minutes to turn this game around so that we can win it. He also believes tall poppy syndrome is a thing in Australia and tells cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell it's holding us back, alongside the "report economy" endless reports, and no action. "We gaze inward, we see what we're missing and then we do very little about it except write a report. We don't address the problem head on. We like to be safe and we like to say a lot of safe things in Australia," he said. "We like to be very comfortable and polite. We don't like to tell the hard things that people don't like to hear. We can't confront that in Australia and I think that's a real fault of ours, being on the outside looking in and kind of seeing that now, you know, it makes me, it makes me cringe. It kind of makes me a little bit angry as well." And don't get him started on aphorisms like "punch above our weight".Episode 41 of Startup 360 is an extended Summer edition, diving into what Jim Cooper's learnt about startup life - he first launched accelerators in the US in 2010, and has worked and advised around the world on innovation and company building. It's also the last episode for 2025. Have a wonderful Summer and happy new year! The show will be back at the end of January, just as everyone packs up the beach umbrellas and heads back to work. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Alex Miller was having rapid success with his subscription management platform Hudled when he spotted a nugget of insight in that startup and launched a second, Rechargly. Like a Marvel movie spinoff, he's now enjoying even more success, as Alex explains on episode 39 of Startup 360. Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell asked Alex about the lessons and mistakes along the way and how startup No. 2 came about. "What we discovered [in Hudled] is that accounting firms were managing hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of their clients. And in the Hudled dashboard, which was supposed to help them track all of this, they were hiding it," Alex recounts. "And we just couldn't work out why because it was coming off their credit card, it was their spend, but they didn't consider it as their own." So so they launched, Rechargly, so accountancy firms can bill clients quickly and correctly for software disbursements - a pain point that, surprisingly, many neglect or get wrong. Rechargly now delivers the bulk of the revenue and Majella and Simon wanted to know how to spot an opportunity and go all-in. "It's always tricky, isn't it? Because things were working with Hudled and to take a step back in order to go forward faster is always a really hard decision," Alex explained. "And when our team sat down and we were evaluating what was in front of us with what we knew versus what we discovered about what could be, it was, it was really challenging at the time." As well as a great convo with a serial founder who kicked off with a paddleboard importing business with a mate, this week's show discusses the latest from Blackbird-funded New Zealand startup Kiki, now starting out again in London after being shut down in New York, having paid $224,000 in a settlement - 3x the total revenue generated there - with the city over Kiki's illegal operations there. Also getting Simon riled up are 350 researcher jobs being cut at the national science agency, CSIRO, in the face of flatlined federal funding. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read ⁠StartupDaily.net⁠ for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Startup 360 cohost Simon Thomsen is flying solo this week, taking a deep dive into philanthropy with Antonia Ruffell, CEO of StartGiving, and the Australian MD of global tech charity initiative Pledge 1%. Technology is transforming the art of giving - with companies such as Atlassian, Canva and now Airtree cofounder Daniel Petre, founder of StartGiving, leading the way. StartGiving is not-for-profit, funded by Petre, who was inspired by his time working with Bill Gates, to change the culture of giving in the local startup sector. As Antonia explains: if you just look at the top 50 biggest philanthropists in Australia, a few years ago, 1% of that giving came from the tech sector, and now it's 21%. And just looking at the commitments that have been publicly made by those, particularly those sort of wealthier end of the tech founders, we think there's the potential for $20-30 billion dollars of untapped potential giving to come through the pipeline in the next few years." The research commissioned by StartGiving also found at people working in the tech sector were more than twice as likely than others to already be giving to charity, with $19 billion in commitments already made. English-born Antonia has had her own remarkable career in philanthropy and social impact over the past two decades, starting out of the Prince’s Trust - now the King's Trust after its founder, King Charles, took the throne. After moving to Australia, her roles have included CEO of Australian Philanthropic Services, and nowadays, she's a director of UNICEF Australia and chairs The Giving Academy Advisory Committee at the Centre for Social Impact, among several other hats. Last month she joined Pledge 1%, now chaired by Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar, who was instrumental in establishing it a decade earlier, to lead its first team outside of the US. More than 1,800 companies across Australia are part of a global community of 19,000-plus Pledge 1% members in 130 countries. They include the unicorns Atlassian, Canva, Airwallex, Culture Amp, and Employment Hero. Their commitment is to give 1% of equity, profit, product, or employee time to projects and causes that help others. Simon and Antonia spend time discussing leadership, kindness, and how to support others to make the world a better place in an inspiring 40 minute conversation. To learn more, check out StartGiving and Pledge 1%.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don’t forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production.

Air conditioning is doesn't sound like a sexy startup problem, but Conry Tech cofounder Sam Ringwaldt knows more than most how profound its impact on us and the planet will be as climate change takes hold. "It's a really vicious irony that the main solution that we're relying on to mitigate the change is also accelerating the change faster than nearly anything else," he explained on the Startup 360 podcast. "I mean, there's 864,000 new air conditioners being installed every day from now until 2050." Forget AI data centres or any other power consumer on the planet, air conditioning, something we don't think about because we mostly don't see it, is the only game in town, he explained. "Air conditioning is actually the sector that's expected to drive most of the growth of demand of electricity," Sam explained. "In fact, 50% of the growth of electricity over the next 30 years is all going to be air conditioning. And we're talking about comfort here. We're not even talking about food chains, pharmaceuticals, or the other applications." Startup 360 this week makes air conditioning sexy again as a major climate tech issue. Sam and his eponymous cofounder, 60-year industry veteran Ron Conry, raised $3 million in venture funding this week for their latest revolution, BullAnt, an air-conditioning system that has completely rethought how cooling is delivered, with the potential to save up to 50% of consumption and power bills for users. And if you think it all sounds sedate, Sam recounts the time their engineers were followed home and robbed and factories in Melbourne and Canada were ram-raided, with files and computers stolen in moments that sound like a spy thriller. Sam and Ron were responsible for the last great innovation in air conditioning 25 years ago - back when the Nokia 3310 was the world's best-selling phone, so HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) is overdue for disruption and if anyone's going to do it, it's these two with Sam's wife, Brenda, alongside as Conry Tech cofounder. Also on the show this week, cohosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen talk about the latest Cut Through Venture funding report for the September quarter. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free! Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance.

Brace for puns with week as Startup 360 talks to Saara Jamieson, founder of Cool Beans Underwear, about how her revolutionary way of taking care of man bits came about. Saara was a finalist in the Best New Founder category of Startup Daily Best in Tech awards (the winner was Rebecca Keeley from Yarn Speech), and in a special extended episode, they spoke to the Brisbane mother of two about how her own journey to becoming a mother led to Cool Beans. It's an important dive into male reproductive health that had Simon rearranging himself when Saara talked about the impact of sitting for 20 minutes or more and how how the additional heat down below has an impact on male fertility and testosterone levels. While reproductive health and fertility tends to focus on women, Saara has taken a deep dive into what blokes need to do to hold up their half of the conception bargain. And the simple truth is that their "beans" are running hot and that's not good for them. Helping her own husband take care downstairs transformed their attempts to become pregnant and the mother of two is now spreading the message to all who'll listen, building a scientifically-backed deep tech startup in the process. An explainer: Cool Beans undies keep the testes away from the body, as nature intended, so they don't become too warm, which can lead to reduced fertility and testosterone. Her product now has TGA approval and she has plans for FDA approval in the US. Simon and Majella took a deep dive into what's going on, as well as discussing being a solo founder, first mover advantage (is there one?) and the impact building Cool Beans has had on other families and the health of men. And Simon couldn't resist asking what it was like to talk to a room of NRL execs earlier this year about a different kind of ball handling skills... The Startup 360 cohosts also discussed the closure of ANZ's VC project, 1835i, the new home for Fishburners at the Tech Central Innovation Hub, and the wash up from the Best in Tech awards.Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!

Charlie Chan's musical career began at age 3 with a ukulele. It broke. But growing up in the '70s, Charlie was part of the dawn of consumer electronics and computers, experimenting with home electronics kits, and by the '90s as the internet age began, they went online to share their music with the world. Now Charlie's embraced artificial intelligence as a new way to create. Charlie joined Startup 360 cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell as a serial founder and entrepreneur to talk about the role music plays in creativity and innovation. "Innovation and creativity are the same word. We just tend to say, 'oh, innovation is this digital thing that we do with computers and, you know, sciencey-type things," Charlie said. "Things that you can prove things that have a hypothesis But on the other hand, creativity is like. We don't understand creativity. We don't know where it comes from. We don't know from one creative moment to the next. Everything's creative. And I think that there's a bit of a disconnect between these two worlds." It's a fascinating conversation about embracing new technology and how to think about being an innovator. In a first for 10x, Simon and Majella's 10 rapid fire questions, they're join by two guests, the cofounders of CarSavvy, Ashlinn Leatham and Lachlan Dunn. It's a fun conversation spanning customer feedback - Ash would head to bars and pubs in Newtown and approach patrons to get them to download the CarSavvy app - to what makes a good, sustainable cofounder relationship and marketing car maintenance. Simon also digs a deep hole for himself attempting to mansplain what makes a great car for women. Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human. Startup360 is a SmartCo Media production. This episode is supported by Vanta, helping startups unlock market opportunities through automated compliance. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and don't forget to read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!