Twista - This Week In Startups Australia

CONNECTED LABOUR SPECIAL - TWISTA speaks with OneShift founder and CEO Gen George, who's building a huge Australian tech startups by disrupting an old-fashioned labour market. Gen is an amazing 24 year-old entrepreneur and every startup entrepreneur needs to listen to what she has to say about building a business. Then TWISTA goes to Melbourne to interview Trang Du, founder and CEO of Two Square Pegs, a 'matchmaker' for talent with the businesses who need that talent. Connected labour is the future of work, and it's all in this episode of TWISTA.

MASSIVE SERIES 2 PREMIERE - Canva founder and Australian legend Cameron Adams joins TWISTA to talk about making products design-centered and customer-focused, then AirTree VC partner Craig Blair gives us the unvarnished (and disturbing) truth about why, after reviewing over 200 business plans, AirTree VC has found it impossible to invest in more than a handful. Every Australian entrepreneur needs to hear what Craig says.

TWISTA had planned to return in February - until we heard about Startup Muster (online at startupmuster.com), the largest-ever snapshot of the startup ecosystem in Australia. Over 400 respondents reveal in detail the who, where, when and why of Australian tech startups. Survey compiler Murray Hurps joins us for a deep dive into the data - some of it quite unexpected. What are we doing right? What can we do better? Find out on this special episode!

It's the holiday season, when fashion retailers earn most of their profits, so Jess Wilson, a very bright 23 year-old with a background in fashion tells TWISTA how she's created a global fashion retailer with a mobile app - and has customers in 86 countries! Later, TWISTA sits down with Blackbird Ventures MD Rick Baker. We explore the VC process, and ask Rick what sorts of investments he finds most exciting.

In this special episode, TWISTA is joined by legendary incubator pioneer Phil Morle, and serial-entrepreneur-now-journalist Paul Wallbank in a wide-ranging discussion about the big news stories affecting startups in Australia. In the first segment, attorney Raena Lea-Shannon joins us to discuss changes to employee stock option plans recently announced by the government, and what that will mean for Australian startups' ability to recruit great talent.

Ned Moorfield has built taxi disruption app GoCatch into a $20M business, and recently locked down $5M in investment - he'll tell TWISTA how to get investment without pitching to a VC, and how GoCatch grew its business by lingering around airport parking lots. After that, Ronald Tucker of BitTrade Australia blows some minds with interesting statistics about the growth of Bitcoin as a currency for remittances.

Ian Davidson and Danny Adams of GoFar tell TWISTA how their hardware plug-in to the OBD (Onboard Diagnostics Port) will save Australian drivers a combined $400 million in fuel, each and every year. Then we talk design and obsession with Frosh Media's Dain Hedgepeth. His Skater App, is the first that truly recreates the skateboarding experience within a mobile game.

TWISTA speaks with legendary entrepreneur and angel investor Ian Gardiner (VIOCORP, Innovation Bay) about the state of the startup scene in Australia, then AirTasker founder and CEO Tim Fung talks about how his firm is revolutionizing the labour market.