Funding

How many times have you promised yourself that you’ll sort out your finances, exercise, sleep or diet when things aren’t so busy? 

In this Q&A, Phoebe speaks about intentional culture, team structure, policy, learning and development budgets and the cultural initiatives on the horizon. This is your behind the scenes peek at what it’s really like to work at Startmate.

Brianna Fitzpatrick is one of Mr Yum's fresh hires, working in a new role she designed for herself.

One of our 10-year goals is to build a 1-million-person technology city in Australia or New Zealand that attracts ambition, ignites innovation, boosts quality of life and fosters human connection.

“Operations is probably one of the most misunderstood startup roles”, says Dovetail’s Business Operations and Finance Lead Kanav Bhama. But it’s also one of the most far-reaching and exciting roles on offer.

And if you take a closer look at Silicon Valley and other mature technology ecosystems today, you’ll find most VC investors come from founder and operator backgrounds.

Blackbird Associate Mason Yates has amassed more than 50,000 listens since launching Wild Hearts in 2020.

What are the day-to-day responsibilities of a chief of staff? And how do you move into this role? I put these questions to Harrison.ai’s Thuy Thai and Forage's Anna Prell.

Over the next decade, there is an incredible opportunity for the next generation of media companies to rise in parallel with the success of startups across the region.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

When Tash Jamieson made it her mission to make studying fun for her stepson Drake, she had no idea she was building the first iteration of edtech startup Lockpick Games.

Many amazing founder stories have been told, and we love them all. But what about startup marketer stories?

“I didn't go to university because I just didn't know what I wanted to study there. It was the best choice I’ve ever made, even if the motivation might’ve been more rebelliousness or indecision than insight.”

Stephanie Hall has long been a thrill-seeking, socially conscious generalist. So it makes sense she spent the first part of her career suing dolphin hunters, the second part calling for climate action and the third in sextech.

What are the day-to-day responsibilities of someone in talent acquisition? How do you break into this space? I put these questions to EVP’s Head of Talent Fred Callaghan.

A year in review.

An interview is as much of an opportunity for you to assess a startup as it is for the team to assess you. So, what red flags should you look out for and how can you spot them?

According to Blackbird's Niki Scevak, the secret to succeeding professionally and attaining long-term wealth is maximising your rate of learning.

Syndicates can benefit founders who are unable to secure much-needed capital at their earliest stages and angel investors who may not be able to access the cap table directly.

We're updating our standard investment terms to $120k at a $1.5m post-money valuation for founders that haven't raised a prior round, and we'll match the latest valuation of founders who have raised. This will come into effect from Summer22 onward.

"In our last session, I asked Helen how I could repay her for what she taught me and she said ‘pay it forward’. So here I am."

This story is dedicated to all the other storytellers out there with words that deserve to see the light of day.

When re-entering the workforce after maternity leave, Bec Rozencwajg found herself seeking a role with a tangible, positive impact.

From art licensing and plastic waste transformation to chemical procurement and social fitness for Gen Z, Startmate’s Summer22 Accelerator cohort is one of our most impressive yet.

Founders from Linktree, Mr Yum, EntryLevel, Heaps Normal, Dovetail, MyGigsters and more share their hard-won customer-centricity insights.

Tractor Ventures Co-Founder Matt Allen is on a mission to help founders hold onto as much of their equity as they want to, for as long as they like. 

It is easy to look at May Samali's professional achievements and attribute them to talent, luck or a great life plan. But it's years of consistent hard work, effort in the face of fear, failure and honest introspection that's helped her get to where she is today.

Thanks to some encouragement from friends, the Women Fellowship and the power of LinkedIn, Maddi Ingham has a dream role at ChefPrep.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

Hitesh Mehta has a vision to create a better and more equitable healthcare system, and offers valuable insight into the value of persistence when it comes to chasing your dreams. 

Learning to invest in startups is just like training as an elite athlete, says Christie Jenkins.

Jithesh Ramesh has worked at Atlassian, Airwallex and Mastt, to name but a few, and has a wealth of insights to share.

In this article, Steppen Founder Cara Davies reflects on both of her Startmate Accelerator applications.

Employee Share Schemes are commonplace in the startup world... but Australia's ESS approach has typically lagged on the global stage.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

From Culture Amp’s origin story and first product to long-standing focus on community and decision to bootstrap, there are insights galore in this AMA with Rod Hamilton.

'In a world where female founders constantly portrayed as ‘girl bosses’, I found it was hard to get authentic insights into what the journey entails for ‘regular’ women. Then I met Lauren Barber.'

After seven years climbing the management consulting ladder very quickly, Kiara Olrich knew it was time for a change.

When Davina Adisusila quit her job at Atlassian and accepted a job at Eucalyptus, she was prepared for and excited about a change...

Rajini Carpenter took an engineering role at Deputy because she wanted to experience the rollercoaster that is startup growth.

It’s crucial that early-stage founders prioritise research, work systematically and embrace both validation and invalidation, according to Great Question Co-Founder Ned Dwyer.

When Alisha Geary googled “Go To Market Strategy Template”, Google let her down.

What are the right-fit career growth levels for a startup and when should you implement them? Emer McCann has done her own research

Emily Casey has carved out a niche for herself and launched a healthtech venture. Here’s how she got there.

Underlying all of Ajay Prakash’s success (and failure) is a commitment to “rapid prototyping and testing”.

Katrina Hau's childhood was dominated by a strong feeling of being other, but she credits her formative years for her present-day passion for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Tsamara Ramadhanti comes from a family of accountants, so while tech has always caught her eye, she saw herself studying business and following in her family’s footsteps. 

When Mentorloop Co-Founders Lucy Lloyd and Heidi Holmes embarked on their first capital raise, they planned to find a lead investor. “But that’s not how it worked out.”

Customer centricity means putting the customer at the centre of everything a business does. It involves building a deep understanding and empathy with a select group of customers, promoting customer loyalty.

Time-poor founders and operators are often hesitant to take on interns. But the right intern can “be a dream”, says Normal Founder Lucy Wark.

Our new Talent Engine is a platform for startups wanting to build better teams. 

No more Minimum Viable Product for us. We're all about building a Minimum Lovable Product for our target users. 

Ambitious interns can provide enormous value to the startups they join, says Culture Amp’s Director of Engineering Enablement Paul Hughes.

Here's how Ryan Walker efficiently works through survey feedback and crafts a story that best highlights key information.

Zara and Sam just wanted to help their friends sound intelligent when they went out on dates. Now, they run a rapidly growing news platform followed by over 365,000 young people.

Tom Richardson might not be “a conventional angel”, but he did just sign a $20,000 cheque to contribute to Mr Yum’s post-seed round.

Daisy Johnson has always gravitated toward the unfamiliar (and has the passport to prove it), so it makes sense she found her way to startupland.

Happy Birthday, Startmate!

Out of all our Student Fellowship sessions, Geena Grant was most excited about Linus Lee’s ‘Crash Course in Pulling Off the Impossible’.

As a professional creative, Izabela Barakovska was understandably drawn to James Nau’s Student Fellowship talk.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

Kyle Forster is a PhD-qualified engineer specialising in aerodynamic design and a small business owner... and up until a year ago, was an Aerodynamicist on Mercedes' Formula 1 team.

LiGR Co-Founder Luke McCoy might be playing the sportstech game, but he isn’t worried about his competitors. 

The key difference between what an elite athlete does every day and what an operator in a high-growth startup does every day is largely in the role title. 

Gopi Sara is a self-confessed ‘aspiring startup founder without an idea’, but he says angel investing offers him the taste of early-stage startup life he craves. 

When asked to sum up the Folklore experience in five words, Folklore Chief of Staff Bree Kirkham says bold, ambitious, unconventional, good-humoured and smart.

They say you won’t recognise your company and product by the end of Startmate’s Accelerator. When my co-founder and I heard first this, we had a little laugh to ourselves...

Carola Velazquez Silva was born in Mexico, loves figuring out how things work, and has had her dream job in sight since she was four.

If Muso's founding story was a movie, “Hustlin’” by Rick Ross would lead the soundtrack.

The Startmate Fellowship exists to tangibly increase the economic growth generated by startups by systematically removing the bottlenecks to finding exceptional talent and upskilling the leaders of tomorrow.

When you mix the right ingredients together, in the right order, with the right proportions in the right environment, magical things can happen.

Vanessa Iezzi has long been the one her friends turn to for advice. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense she ended up in the people and culture space.

To disrupt the notion of a traditional career pathway, more students need to choose startups as their first option upon graduation.

Careers in startups are generally filled with high levels of risk and unexpected turns. And Sam Wong’s career is no different, writes Student Fellow Monique Leung.

In the first week of the W21 Student Fellowship, the Pitchblak team ran a no code session. Here are Angela Huang's takeaways.

For students on the cusp of making career-defining decisions, Folklore VC Partner Hannah Field's journey is both inspiring and reassuring.

When Mike and Tracie sold their consulting business in 2017, they realised they were hungry for a different kind of professional challenge.

Adam Flynn describes the journey from first engineer at e-commerce startup Wish to VP of Engineering at Seachange as “deeply, deeply, deeply difficult”.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

Many of the insights shared in Ask Your Developer are relevant to a budding marketer wanting to supercharge a tech business. 

"I wasn’t expecting anything; I was sure we had a horrible application."

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.

Dive into Startmate CEO Michael Batko's GBU update to learn what we've been up to this month.