Twista - This Week In Startups Australia

Andrea Myles, founder of the China Australia Millennial Project (CAMP) joins TWISTA to tell us all about the program that's working hard to create a 'megafauna unicorn' - a beast with the beating hearts of Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Ma! Then Slingshot CEO Karen Lawson tells TWISTA all about what's needed to bring innovation and startup-style thinking into Australia's stodgy and risk-adverse boardrooms, a necessary first step to creating a sustainable culture of innovation across the nation.

Emma Weston joins TWISTA to talk about her startup Full Profile -- in a real-world use for the blockchain, Full Profile have crafted a payments solution that removes counterparty risk from farmers' grain sales. It's an early look at the colliding worlds of agtech and fintech. Then City of Sydney Strategy Advisor Charnelle Mondy pays another visit to TWISTA to talk about the now-released Action Plan for Tech Startups - is it a template for Australia's other capital cities? Rural and metropolitan on this episode of TWISTA.

Deb Noller has been doing tech startups for over 20 years, and her latest - Switch Automation - is one of Australia's IoT success stories. Deb is one of those '20 year overnight successes' and she joins TWISTA to share what she's learned along the way to building a successful international startup. The we're joined by Jane Huxley, who took a job at Microsoft Australia in 1989, supporting DOS 5.1! What was it like being the only woman in tech support? Jane's years at Microsoft lead to her current role as Managing Director of Pandora (Music) Australia, bringing another American tech success to Australia? Years of experience and wisdom on this episode of TWISTA!

Just before Sydney startup legend Mick Liubinskas headed off - to spearhead muru-D's efforts in Silicon Valley - TWISTA sat down with him for a whole-show interview. From the early days of the startup scene here in Sydney, the founding of Pollenizer and hitting it big with Spreets, to his work today with muru-D, Mick has been here from the beginning, and he's sharing what he's learned on his journey in this episode of TWISTA.

With the Federal election right around the corner, will it matter to startups if there's a change in government? TWISTA talks with Carthona Capital's Dean Dorrell and journalist Claire Connelly and searches for answers. Also: what's up with Tech Sydney, the US venture capital implosion, and do we really need another peak body?

When Telstra decided to start its own tech accelerator, they lured Annie Parker from Telefonica to get it up and running - since then, it's gone from strength to strength, and Annie sits down with TWISTA to tell us what it takes to make an accelerator a success. Then TWISTA explores the radically changed landscape of social TV viewing with Andrew Julian and Darcy Laycock of Melbourne's Gyde. Their app points the way to a future where we always have too much good stuff to watch.

The federal government recently changed the laws to make employee share schemes - stock options - much easier for Australian startups to provide to their employees. TWISTA was lucky enough to get an hour with Peter Dunne and Toby Eggleston - who provided much of the advice to the government about the right way to implement the new scheme. They know how to make share options work for startups - from tax, to capitalisation, to building employee loyalty. Later, CultureAmp CFO Damian Williams joins TWISTA to explain how their own ESOP covered employees both in Australia and in the USA. There's a lot to learn about ESOPs - and a more than bit of nuance - so this episode is a great place to start.

Two years ago, Facebook's purchase of Oculus breathed life back into virtual reality - and with the Rift's release this week, we're dedicating an entire show to the new worlds of VR. We begin with VR expert Michela Ledgwidge, who gives TWISTA a tour of the new business landscape of VR. Then TWISTA speaks to 8i founder and CEO Linc Gaskin, who's created a new VR technology that records people with incredible fidelity - in three dimensions! Finally, we take a relaxing break from all this excitement with the founders of NowVR. It's virtually real, on this episode of TWISTA!

Our latest news special starts off with Nick Holmes-a-Court's rant about the poor state of the Australian tech ecosystem - is he right? Investor Phil Morle and journalist Paul Wallbank join TWISTA to discuss that and issues as wide ranging as #ideasboom, the interstate war of Innovation Ministers, the collapse in startup valuations, and will the LAUNCH Festival come to Sydney? All the news TWISTA can fit into 40 minutes!

The robots are coming! Led by former Young Australian of the Year Marita Cheng, TWISTA takes a tour of our robot-driven future. Marita runs two startups - including famed accessibility app AIPoly - and she's all about how robots will be transforming our world for the better. Then TWISTA talks to the founders of new muru-D inductee Abyss Solutions, about one very promising future for robots -- beneath the waves.

Co-founder of Melbourne startup Hava, Pete Gatt, makes the most of the migration to the cloud, producing SaaS visualisation tools that any cloud computing customer can use to save money. More than that, Hava has been funded - via Melbourne Matt Allen, who joins us on the show - through the new Blackbird 'Flock' fund, which favours close relationships between VC partners and Australian startups. Then TWISTA has another chat with Startup Muster CEO Monica Wulff, who has some big plans in store for this year's survey. Clouds and community, on this episode of TWISTA!

As executive chairman of Catapult Sports, Adir Shifman has created a SaaS monster in the sports space that's worth a quarter of a billion dollars. After taking the company public on the ASX late in 2014, Adir has quardrupled shareholder value - and he tells TWISTA why he's just getting started. Then TWISTA speaks with Yvonne Everett, who reveals the inner secrets of how to be an effective director for a startup - it's all about relationships! Getting big and doing it right, on this episode of TWISTA.

The founders of Eora3D tell TWISTA how the search for a better paraboic reflector led them to accidentially build a cheap and 3D scanner that went on to become a huge success on Kickstarter. Then TWISTA pops out to Perth to chat with Newton Labs founder Simon Vincent. As the name implies, Newton Labs helps mining companies deal with the consequences of gravity - and very large boulders!

The Innovation Policy mooted by the Federal Government has radically changed the startup scene. TWISTA talks to StartupAUS CEO Peter Bradd to find out what it really means. Then we chat with Monica Wulff, CEO of Startup Muster, who shares some of the results of their 2015 survey of the Australian startup community. Finally, Santa's coming - well, sort of. We talk to Rory Cunningham of the ASX, who tells TWISTA it's a lot easier to raise money through a public offering than you might think!

TWISTA takes a deep dive into the hot new zone for tech startups - fintech. Will the banks be disrupted? Will the 14 billion dollars invested this year bear any fruit? TWISTA talks to Stone and Chalk founder and CEO Alex Scandurra about his long-term vision for Australia's fintech ecosystem. Then we turn Eric Frost, who's SimpleKYC is one of the first companies to be mentored in Stone and Chalk.

Brisbane - it's long overdue, but TWISTA makes up for a lack of attention with a killer episode. We start with tech legend Steve Baxter, founder of River City Labs and the biggest booster of Queensland's startup ecosystem. Then TWISTA talks to Aaron Birkby, who runs the muru-D accelerator out of Baxter's River City Labs. Finally, we speak to Wayne Gerard, founder and CEO of Red Eye - has Wayne started Australia's next unicorn? All of that - and a first-class rant from Steve Baxter - on this special episode.

The oldest business - agriculture - meets the newest tech in data analytics and robotics on this special episode of TWISTA. We talk to Ros Harvey of The Yield about how her firm uses data to drive better outcomes for oyster farmers, then Doug Fitch from Agworld talks about going global in agtech. Finally, Andrew Bate of Swarmfarm Robots predicts a future for farmers that's just around the corner and nearly unrecogniseable. TWISTA goes to ground - and finds gold there.

A huge pivot toward startups and innovation by Malcolm Turnbull, huge policy outcomes from Wyatt Roy's Policy Hack event, a huge IPO from Australia's most-beloved tech startup, Atlassian, a huge new $200M fund from Blackbird ventures, and huge issues with diversity still plague tech. TWISTA's huge news special pairs SCALE Investors managing director Laura McKenzie and Austrlia's snarkiest tech journo, Stilgherrian, with the biggest news issues in our biggest news special yet!

With the recent change of leadership the whole language of Australia has changed. We're talking lean, agile, flexible, and responsive government - all traits of startups. But governments around Australia have realised startups as equally potent engines of job and wealth creation, so they're working on improving the startup environment. NSW Minister for Innovation Victor Dominello tells us about NSW's new Data Analytics Centre, Charnelle Mondy tells us about the City of Sydney's draft plan for promoting startups, and Michelle Williams gives us a peek into the forthcoming StartupWeek Australia. Find out if government can play a role in Australia's startup community, on this episode of TWISTA.

TWISTA visits the other side - Perth! From our temporary digs within Perth's Spacecubed co-working space, TWISTA chats with Matt Macfarlane of Yuuwa Investments, Justin Strharsky of Unearthed, and Brodie McCullough of Spacecubed, and learn about the scene and strengths of the startups coming out of Western Australia. More mind-blowing startups are coming out of the West than we'd ever dreamed, and we hear about them on this episode of TWISTA.