Twista - This Week In Startups Australia

TWISTA opens series 5 with Monica Wulff, CEO of Startup Muster, who goes through all the key points of the recently released 2016 survey of Australia's startup ecosystem. Then TWISTA speaks to Elanation co-founder Katherine Maree Pace and Aimee Atkins about building a lifestyle tech company that starts with a 'child-centred' design process.

When the Next Payment Platform rolls out in October, Australia will be a world leader with an open platform for payments - open to banks and any other company that wants to provide a payments product or service. This could make Australia the best environment to nurture a payments startup - if we take advantage of the opportunity. TWISTA talks to NPP Australia CEO Adrian Lovney and SWIFT Oceania head Bill Doran about the potential and reality of this once-in-a-generation transition

How do we get more and better women entrepreneurs in Australia's startup ecosystem? SheStarts Managing Director Nicole Hazell tells TWISTA to start by recruiting the best, putting them through a bootcamp, then give them the resources they need to succeed. Then TWISTA closes out Series 4 in conversation with ecosystem mentor Nicole Williamson and journalist Claire Connelly - and drops two bombshell surprises!

TWISTA series sponsors Braintree Payments gave TWISTA a brief to do a series of special episodes focusing on payments - perhaps the most-rapidly-changing area of fintech. We start our second payments special with an overview of the payments landscape provided by banking and payments maven Andrew Davis. Then we sit down with Kaushik Sen and Paul Bennetts, co-founders of Spaceship, a superfund for millennials that's focused on tech investments.

Ten years ago, Cyan Ta'eed decided that photographers needed a better connection to the marketplace, co-founding Envato, growing it into a monster force in creative collaboration, and quietly leading a business that's now worth nearly half a billion dollars. Rebecca Wilson decided that the media industries had overlooked a goldmine in the over 60s, and founded Starts At 60 to capitalise on the newly empowered market of seniors - cashed up and ready engage. Both Cyan and Rebecca have charted their own direction, against the tide - and both are well on the way to startup success.

We've had a federal election, the announcement of some huge VC funds, yet still find ourselves mired in sexism in the tech industry. Fortunately our expert panel of SCALE Investors Managing Director Laura Mckenzie and award-winning journalist Claire Connelly cuts through the noise to deliver some excellent analysis about the latest developments in Australia's startup ecosystem.

In this episode two founders from the Dolphin Tank Accelerator join TWISTA to discuss their SaSS businesses. First, Tania Walter, co-founder of Obzervr, tells TWISTA how field service can be automated into great savings for connected businesses. Then BookingBoss co-founder Renee Welsh details how ticketing and payments - big pain points for any tourist attraction - form the foundation of what may grow into a multi-billion-dollar business. One of these startups could well be Australia's next unicorn - and they're both on this episode of TWISTA.

SBE Australia has spent half a decade building a 'sisterhood' of amazing startup entrepreneurs helping each other build global scale businesses. Chair Topaz Conway talks to TWISTA about taking an entrepreneur through a process designed to broaden the mind and activate the potential of Australia's top female founders. Then Maxine Sherrin, Program Director for Sydney's Spark Festival, joins TWISTA to talk about how Spark will help Sydney's startup community share its passions with the broader community - and how that community is already responding. Two amazing guests with great insights on making better startups.

TWISTA series sponsors Braintree Payments gave TWISTA a brief to do a series of special episodes focusing on payments - perhaps the most-rapidly-changing area of fintech. We took that as an opportunityt to speak with two of our favourite Stone and Chalk startups. TWISTA begins with John Bush and Walta Kazzi of Easyshare, who are transforming personal payments, the sharing economy - and making lives heaps easier for anyone living in a share house. Then we speak with Spriggy founder Mario Hasanakos. Spriggy's debit card helps kids from age 8 and up to learn how to master money - establishing patterns that will serve them through their entire lives. Payments hit home on this special episode of TWISTA!

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!