Twista - This Week In Startups Australia

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.

Australia has produced three tech unicorns: Atlassian, Freelancer and Campaign Monitor. TWISTA talks to Chris Strode, founder and CPO of Invoice2Go, well on its way to being Australia's fourth unicorn! After we talk to Chris, Sydney Seed Fund founder Benjamin Chong joins us for a discussion of the kinds of qualities the very earliest startups need to survive and thrive. It's another huge series opening, so join TWISTA on a unicorn hunt!

TWISTA's final episode of Series 2 opens in conversation with Peter Bradd, Fishburners co-founder, and the new CEO of StartupAUS, with a mandate to build bridges between politicans and the tech community. Then we talk to Alex Haggerty, founder of Taggd, which has launched one of the most unusual - and unusually lucrative - startups in recent memory, connecting Instagram to ecommerce to close more sales. Finally, we'll review and reflect upon the highs and lows of Series 2. Moving foward and looking back on this episode of TWISTA!

Failure is part of the life-cycle for almost every tech startup. Yet it's the one thing most entrepreneurs will never discuss. TWISTA shines light on this darkest of subjects in conversation with Nikki Durkin, who fought the good fight with startup 99dresses, but eventually ran out of money. Then Jesse Black talks about the journey from winning a Startup Weekend to drawing the final curtain on a product that even he didn't want to use. Finally, Melbourne Matt Allen interviews a notorious serial entrepreneur - by the name of Mark Pesce - about what it felt like to liquidate his own startup. We fearlessly confront the entrepreneur's darkest hour in this episode of TWISTA.

On our latest news special, TWISTA is joined by Dean Dorrell, Principal and Founder of Carthona Capital, and ZDNet's Josh Taylor. We start off speaking with SparkeHelmore's Daniel Atkin, who's developed a set of open-source legal documents startups can use to assist them in preparing the paperwork for seed funding. Then we're off into a discussion of changes to immigration law (and how it will transform VC in Australia), Ingogo's crowdinvesting raise with VentureCrowd, and why every telco has to have an incubator. All the news important to startups, on this episode of TWISTA.

At every stage of its existence the startup faces challenges relating to growth. Vinomofo co-founders Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier talk to TWISTA about the sacrifices involved in growing one of the country's most successful online retailers, then Blrt founder Anurag Chakradhar talks about what it's like to have a product that's so hot, he's worried he can't grow fast enough. Finally, TWISTA reconnects with GoFar co-founders Danny Adams and Ian Davidson, who just finished a successful $200K Kickstarter campaign, and have grown from a 2-person shop to (at times) nearly 20. Mo growth, mo problems, on this episode of TWISTA.

The universe next door - or as it styles itself, New Zealand - has a thriving startup ecosystem. TWISTA talks to Chris Twiss, who runs the Seed Ventures arm of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund. Then, Nick Sherwing and Jonah Merchant of BizDojo talk about creating a co-working space that helps startups in Auckland and Wellington thrive. Finally, we visit the offices and factory floor of Auckland's hottest hardware startup, StretchSense. What's it like to be the first employee at a startup growing like mad? We ask Antoni Harbuz and Shin Jeong Park. All of that and more in this episode of This Week in Startups Australia - and New Zealand!

The tech industry is a very imperfect reflection of the world it builds products for. How can mostly-white, mostly-middle-class, mostly-men build great products for cultures they've never experienced? We see lots of young girls interested in coding become discouraged and quit the field by the time they go to university. Where are the women founders and women investors? Paul Wallbank joins TWISTA to discuss a recent article he's written detailing some of these persistent problems. Then we have a long chat with Scale Investors CEO Laura Mckenzie, who is building a strong network of female angel investors and female tech founders into something completely unique - and uniquely potent - in Australia.

TWISTA is from our break to get some schoolin'. First up, MyEdApp co-founder Rowan Kunz tells TWISTA about the importance of listening to teachers before you design a product for the education market. Then, legal eagle Kurt Falkenstein talks us through the right - and wrong - ways to incorporate and organize your Australian startup. So put your learnin' cap on, and tune in!

Legendary entrepreneur and investor Pete Cooper and Fairfax tech editor Ben Grubb sit down with TWISTA to discuss the news of importance to Australian startups, including positive changes to the Employee Share Scheme; BugCrowd's $6M raise; politics, politicans, metadata collection and startups; why so many fintech accelerators in Australia? and the business of Apple Watch.

James Moody, CEO of TuShare, tells TWISTA how he discovered another startup - Sendle - within his startup TuShare. (And why on earth would anyone run two startups simultaneously?) Later, Murray Hurps joins TWISTA to talk politics - which MPs are perceived as being the most friendly to startups? Next, we go around the world to peek at East Africa's hottest startup, Kopo Kopo. Finally, Murray and Mark review the big winners of Launch 2015 -- what do they tell us about the startups we'll be seeing out of Australia?

Scott Handsaker wants to make sure Melbourne isn't left behind by Sydney as a center of excellence for technology entrepreneurs. Scott talks to TWISTA about what it takes to provide an environment that allows founders the best possible chance for success. Then TWISTA asks Chris Guzowski why it's so hard to buy Bitcoins - and why ATMs might make that process a lot easier.