Adir Shiffman

Over the next 12-18 months, I’m watching who gets acquired / merges. And when that happens, who makes the money between early stage investors, late stage investors, and founders? Liquidation preferences are going to become very important, since preferred shares get paid before the common stock (aka: founders and employees) on the cap table. There are plenty of companies that are unprofitable, have under 20% growth rates, and have already raised 8-9 figures of funding. I’m sure plenty of those private conversations are occurring at HLTH this week. Will be interesting to see how this all evolves.

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What do VCs really want to see from HealthTech Founders? We all know the magic ingredients to building a successful HealthTech start up are unique and require a certain 'order' that can make building look quite different in this space. And it certainly works to different time scales. Yesterday Luke B. and I headed to the HealthTech Roundtable hosted by London Venture Capital Network to get some insights from VCs and ex-Founders about what REALLY matters when you're building 🔨 Thought I'd share the top 4 discussion points I found useful, in case they're helpful to others building in this space. 🚀 Scaling in the fragmented UK Market Each NHS trust operates independently, making it hard to scale with NHS contracts alone. The most successful build initial traction within the NHS, then rapidly expand into private markets (e.g., insurers) or take on international markets like the US or Europe - often sooner than expected. The lesson? Think big from the beginning and prepare for growth beyond the NHS - plan for multiple revenue streams from day 1. 📈 What VCs want to see from you Investors want regulatory rigour and proprietary data that sets companies apart. VCs particularly look for ventures embedded into clinical workflows; a clear marker of clinician TRUST, which is a major hurdle but also a major green flag for VCs. The advice for founders? Think beyond flashy concepts. Focus on gathering real-world evidence, establishing regulatory approval (FDA, MHRA or otherwise), and building solid, clinician-endorsed user bases. 🗺 Evidence is a journey, not a destination There was discussion around conceptualising evidence as a 'journey' rather than a destination, which I rather liked. Emphasising the ability to think creatively and collect a whole range of evidence types at every single step of the way, to build a compelling, rich case of clinician trust, real world impact, and product-market fit. Squeeze evidence out of every single customer conversation, demo, trial. Every drop counts. 💡 Hindsight from Experienced HealthTech Founders It was great to here experienced ex-Founders in the space talk about what they'd do differently next time. I think what I found most interesting was the discussion around the importance of execution, and more importantly, demonstrating pace of execution within a 'slow burn' market. It made me reflect on what hard decisions we need to make around prioritisation, to make sure we're delivering real value as fast as possible. Its so easy to feel the pressure to do everything at once; collecting proprietary data, evidence generation, clinical integration/acceptance, revenue generation. But is it better to move fast on one? We're trying to be super strict on ourselves here at Ogma. But it's hard, and we slip up sometimes. It was a beautiful Autumn day in a beautiful location, here's a pic 📸

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When you’re thinking about starting a business, a domain name is often the first port of call. It’s cheap to buy for 1 year and you can grab it without committing to a website or emails until you’re ready. Choosing a name for your business can be tricky, so snapping up the domain name for your new idea stops someone else grabbing it and sending you back to the drawing board. And if that idea never quite comes to fruition as a real business, you’re only $21.25 NZD out of pocket for a 1 year domain purchase with Rocketspark’s new domain offer. Plus, if you’ve ever run a half marathon, you’ll know that dropping some cash on an event helps give the motivation of turning “someday” into “let’s do this”. Buying a domain name might help turn that pipe dream of a side hustle into “let’s do this”. Even if you’re not quite ready to quit the day job just yet 😉

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MELBOURNE EVENT! If you're in eCommerce/Retail and run a growing family owned business OR Manage a small hard working team in Melbourne I want to welcome you to our brand new workshop the "CMO Blueprint" to help you take Control, Save time and Scale Faster than ever! We're sharing the secrets behind the Marketing Operations Model we use with our founder lead/small team businesses scale their marketing stress free and achieve 3X growth agency free. Last year we trialled the workshop in Sydney and it was a sell out now the CMO. BluePrint is coming to Melbourne June 1st! If you’ve been burnt by agencies in the past, feel like you have not enough time in the day to kick all the marketing goals... Join us to take back control, Save time and scale faster than ever by: 🧠 Getting a seasoned Chief Marketing Officer in your business to Audit, Analyse and Design a 1 page 12 month lean marketing plan + spend time with a dedicated specialist in the field you need to improve most 📈 Learn exactly what it takes to create a sustainable marketing budget that has KPI's and keeps you accountable to performance whilst building your brand 🥰 Understand it takes to have an unshakable Mature Marketing Model in your Ecommerce Businesses, saving you time, allowing you to work on Vs in the business 😎 How to use AI tools to, optimise your website conversions, improve emails, write you social media plans, SEO optimised articles & more! ⭐️ How to achieve the golden ratio for growth allowing you to prioritise strategic projects. create focus and actually improve performance Vs bits and pieces of marketing leaving you with a heavy weight and a never ending to do list... 🥰 Implementing a model that real Top Aussie Brands Take marketing In-House by educating themselves and Grow Exponentially Tickets are only $147 and incl up to $1000 of bonuses! like a CRO Matrix, Major Campaign Fool Proof Checklist, lunch included. Come spend a day with us, spaces are strictly limited due to the practical nature of this workshop. We don't want to rush anything, just give you the tools and marketing model to win in the next 12 months! Tickets here: https://lnkd.in/gcQUd7sv

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As an angel investor, I’ve made over 50 early-stage investments across the UK, US, and beyond. Now, as a Partner at Antler in Australia, I’ve experienced firsthand the shifts between angel and VC investing - and these findings have transformed my approach to supporting founders. I share 5 surprising lessons I learned that about angel vs. VC funding that I wish every founder knew in the article below. From the unexpected empathy VCs have (yes, we pitch too!) to why VCs reserve capital for follow-on funding and how market size can make or break a venture-backed business. Thinking about joining our February '25 residency and/or raising your first round? This is an inside look at the mindsets and strategies VCs use when investing, offering takeaways to help you get funded. 👉 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g_jStAWS

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At the Launch Vic Awards Nights, there was a lot of talk about the VC’s in our ecosystem, and quite a bit of mention of Angel Syndicates, but no mention of Venture Studios. In fact when people ask me what I do, I often have to explain what a Venture Studio is. So let me make the Venture Studio pitch. Firstly, what is a Venture Studio? Venture Studios give life to startups in two main ways. 1. Ideas are incubated and validated within the Venture Studio, once validated, the team finds the external resources/ people needed to bring the idea to life. 2. External founders brings ideas to Venture Studios, in which the Venture Studio provides services and resources to the founder in exchange for equity. So who is a Venture Studio good for? High Quality Founders, with scalable ideas: The success of a Venture Studio relies on the success of the startups they work with so naturally Venture Studios are looking for the highest quality founders / startups. Early stage founders who are missing a technical partner: During the early days of your startup, if you don’t have a technical partner, you generally require investment or you need to take significant financial risk to fund your MVP build. While most investors won’t want to invest until you have a functional MVP, this is the exact stage many Venture Studio’s like to play in. Why choose a Venture Studio over a development agency? Your developers will have skin in the game The app development process often goes wrong, because building apps is hard. If things go wrong, it’s easy for relationships to sour, and shortcuts to be made. Since Venture Studio’s success is so heavily tied into the success of their startups, by choosing a Venture Studio you have the peace of mind that your developers are so heavily incentivised to deliver an awesome product. Support beyond development Again because the success of the Venture Studios are so heavily tied to the success of the startup, it’s in the our best interest to ensure you are supported beyond your product build. So when it comes to GTM, capital raising and beyond, we aim to provide support and introductions where we. De-risk your financial position So this is the obvious benefit, get to launch without paying or paying a lot less. All of this is not to say, VC’s, Angel’s, Dev Shops all don’t play an important role in this ecosystem, I just feel the Venture Studio voice needs to be heard a bit louder.

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Some more great coverage off the back of the #GlobalSearchAwards win, this is in New Zealand from the Fairfax Media, The Southland Times & #ThePress Stuff, telling the story of Ben McIntyre's journey, teaming up with Dan Sim and taking the world by storm with Kia Ora Digital. One helluva story - congrats Ben, Dan, and the whole team. It's a privilege being part of this SEO 2.0 movement, where it's all about generating revenue from organic search for our eCommerce and SaaS clients worldwide. #EveryConversationIsGold #BuildingAnOrganicRevenueRocketShip #WaitUntilTheTechnologyIsReleasedForKeywordRevenueAnalysis

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What happened in mental health last week? ⏺ Kinoxis Therapeutics Pty Ltd raises a $14.5m Series B ⏺ The FDA rejected Lykos Therapeutics MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD ⏺ Sleepio (the digital care program for sleep improvement from Big Health) gains FDA clearance ⏺ clare&me raised €3.7m from YZR Capital, Material Ventures, Kodori Ventures and Antler If you want insights on mental health innovation, subscribe to The Hemingway Report and follow me Steve Duke 📩 #mentalhealth #behavioralhealth

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An entrepreneur on why he started his company. One thing he said really resonated with me about why you should start a company: “if you want to test yourself” This is a good reason to start a company: To see what you’re made of. It’s also why you would do anything really hard. Like climb a mountain, sail across an ocean or spend a week in the wilderness. To see what happens when things get really difficult. Do you step up or go to pieces. And when you do any of these things you better have someone in your team with a sense of humour: https://lnkd.in/ewAPZCCh

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For the past 5 years, our team of analysts and leading retail experts have reached out to consumers and retailers alike to discover just what it is that makes Australian retail tick. Groundbreaking findings from this research form the basis of our Consumer & Retailer Sentiment whitepaper, featuring global comparisons through Ebeltoft Group's worldwide research. We then take these findings and share them with our CEO Community in a series of webinars that deliver: - key insights around emerging trends in consumer sentiment and behaviours - roadmaps that transform loyalty, retention, and customer centricity strategies - and improved focus on the trends that drive engagement. If you've missed any of these webinars, click the link below to watch now: https://lnkd.in/dgwPGw9j Future-proof your business today. Contact myself, Brian Walker, or Anastasia Lloyd-wallis now. ☎ +61 2 9460 2882 ✉ [email protected] 🌐 retaildoctor.com.au 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑦 20-𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑟 2024 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑟 & 𝑅𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟: https://lnkd.in/dVmhCgp4 Anastasia Lloyd-wallis Brian Walker Ebeltoft Group Retail Doctor Group The Retail Doctor Academy https://lnkd.in/g_mYEUB8 #AnastasiaLloydWallis #AusRetail #AustralianRetail #Benchmarks #BrianWalker #CEOCommunity #ConsumerBehaviour #ConsumerInsight #ConsumerInsights #ConsumerSentiment #DataDrivenRetail #Ebeltoft #FitForBusiness #FutureOfRetail #Insights #Limbic #LimbicConsultant #LimbicRetail #Live #LiveWebinar #NeuroRetail #Neuroscience #RDG #RDGInsights #Retail #RetailCEO #RetailDoctorGroup #RetailExcellence #RetailGrowth #RetailInnovation #RetailLeadership #RetailManagement #RetailNetworking #RetailSentiment #RetailStrategy #RetailTraining #RetailTrends #RetailUpskilling #RetailWebinar #SalesSkills #Sentiment #SustainableRetail #Webinar

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From $4m to $60 million in 3 years I was part of a digital team that grew online retailer My Pet Warehouse from a tiny acorn to a mighty oak, in the competitive Australian pet market. This is how we did it. We had a visionary CEO Philip Bartholomew he knew that; ✓ Having the biggest and best range would ensure repeat customers and a high AOV - (in retail, if you can’t get the big brands on board, should you even start?) ↳ Our buyer Luke was the best in the business ✓ Strategically positioning your warehouses across Australia (Perth, Melbourne, Sydney & QLD) would ensure the quickest delivery times ✓ Hiring the best and letting them get on with it ✓ Understanding that seasonality for pet supplies is everything by rigidly sticking to a content and promotions calendar for all channels ✓ We grew our social audiences by competitions, expert Q & As ✓ PPC: My CEO Philip told me, “Stephen, you can grow the Google Ads account limitlessly, once you obtain a non branded ROAS of 525%”. Bing Ads also accounted for $100,000 per year in sales at a better ROAS than Google ✓ Email was huge - aggressive targets on new subscribers + investment into the best enterprise email segmentation software + adhering to seasonal trends from content calendar ✓ Asking brands we stocked for a marketing budget. *Attention marketing managers*: if you’re promoting other brands, make them pay for it. ✓ SEO: A 3 year phased aggressive strategy that started with; ↳ SEO audit by yours truly before I even arrived in the door that mapped out short, medium and long term initiatives; ↳↳ Short term: Intensive Backlink clean up from mess of previous agency ↳↳ Medium term:  Addressing category and product SEO optimisation with copywriter (over 50,000 products) ↳↳ Long term: Develop and maintain a content calendar that tapped into the many experts we had to choose from, because we were selling their products. When our CEO then invested in a PR campaign that saw him on the biggest news channels / publications in Australia, such as SKY NEWS, that’s when all of our web pages elevated up further up the rankings ✓ Working alongside and developing a close relationship with Andy Danks, our web developer made SEO changes that were needed quickly. Andy also constantly tested Conversion rate optimisation strategies #mypetwarehouse #retail #ecommerce #petstore

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Federal budget 2024 💰 At Sprint Ventures our investment thematics are based on our mission to build a better future with a global macroeconomic focus, so annual budgets are fundamental in understanding growth industries bolstered with government funding. Sprint invests in HealthTech, Aged Care, Infrastructure and ClimateTech as well as AI and productivity. While the budget this year wasn’t revolutionary there are a few relevant initiatives: ▪️The Care economy was a key theme with focus on the Aged Care Royal Commission, NDIS and higher pay for workers. Mentions of digitisation is encouraging in strengthening these health industries. ▪️Focus on the Energy Transition particularly in critical minerals, hydrogen and renewables, which requires significant capital investment. It’s great to see the government stepping in with the capital to support the energy transition. As my friend Simon Thomsen correctly reported there’s not much for startups unfortunately. Some small business tax concessions but that’s it. Thanks to PwC for the invitation to your budget lunch, Richard Yetsenga for a great keynote and Oriel Morrison for her excellent interview of Richard. #federalbudget2024 #venturecapital #macroeconomicinvesting #buildabetterfuture

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This is an incredible breakdown by Carla Penn-Kahn from Profit Peak. People often talk about the lack of talent in market in certain specialism's, however what I've observed as lacking more is the ability of break things down in the way that Carla has done below. Most businesses use revenue as a pretty significant yard stick for performance in their businesses. This helps not only the focus on the commercial team but the business can build a reward / commission model to help incentivise the achievement of revenue targets. Often tactics are used to help stimulate more revenue, what is regularly overlooked is how that tactic cascades through the business. What impact outside of driving revenue does the tactic have, does it involve discounts, freebies, additional work - all of this adds up. After all there's a reason for the saying "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" #profitability #criticalthinking #ecommerce #acquisition #retention

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All the Top Startups goodness! We’ve just released our Top Startups in New Zealand list, a data-backed ranking of the 5 emerging companies that you should be paying attention to right now: https://lnkd.in/d4fgJDu2 This follows last week’s release of Australia’s Top Startups list: https://lnkd.in/dV2KCqmc Check out both lists and let me know — what trends are you most excited about in the startup environment right now? #LinkedInTopStartups

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💰What would you spend $24m on? The Australian government seems to think a comparison website with 20 participants is fair value. 😡🤬 This is not getting the exposure it deserves, with only one report out there. When people are struggling with a cost of living and housing crisis, the government is p***ng money away on projects like this. Heads should roll. And top tip, next time, use Upwork #australian #government #joke https://lnkd.in/gqu_uwrt

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As anyone who has had to deal with Centrelink can report the process of getting into the system is very challenging. However, this latest mandated twice a year CPI adjustment is welcome. $28 a fortnight for a single pensioner for instance. More details below. #CouncilOfEldersAgedCare

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💜 HOW ARE WE GENUINELY HELPING AUSSIE BUSINESSES? I'm fortunate enough to have founded YO Digital to help Aussie #DTC #eCommerce businesses to gain better actionable outcomes and ultimate more profitability for their business. As the economy tightens its belts, cashflow is king and we help businesses to reduce their GO TO MARKET spend via #Ai Powered marketing. Think $0 CPA! Yes, we own that unique proposition in market and the results are starting to shape up for our clients. Want this for your #DTC business or your clients? DM Deryll Naidoo or Aaron Abush today!

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So, Bill Shorten trumpeting a 20% NDIS growth rate. A claim that is more a work of fiction than fact. The real drivers of NDIS financial strain include NDIA’s micromanagement, high pricing anchors, double inflation, adversarial legal processes, & various external factors. Let's peel back the layers of this bureaucratic onion, shall we? Participant Growth: Dec 2023 to Mar 2024, active participants inched up from 646,449 to 649,623. That’s a blistering 0.5% quarterly growth. Annualized, it's a far cry from the fantastical 20%. More like the gentle hum of a bureaucratic snail. Cost Growth: Plan inflation sank from 11.2% to 7.5% over the same period. Over two years, average payments per participant crept up by 6.8% annually, with median payments inching up by 2.5% annually. Exposing the Real Issues Behind NDIS Cost Blowouts: Additional Cost Drivers: Pandemic-Related Disruptions: COVID-19 caused temporary spikes in costs and demand & distort long-term financial sustainability assessments. But let's face it, who didn't panic buy a year's worth of toilet paper? Consistent Underspend on Plans: Participants aren’t splurging; they’re actually underspending. Underspending by about 22%, with a plan utilization rate of 78%. More like planning for a luxury cruise & ending up with a staycation. NDIA-Initiated Reassessments & Administrative Costs: NDIA’s penchant for frequent reassessments, mostly NDIA-initiated, fuels administrative costs & chaos. 40,708 in Q3 2023-24 alone. It’s like having your groceries checked at every aisle. No wonder admin costs are through the roof. Inflated Costs Due to High Pricing Anchors: NDIA sets prices above market rates, their price limits exceed standard market rates.. This mean providers charge maximum rates, inflating costs. It’s like insisting on champagne prices for tap water services. No wonder the budget’s feeling the strain. Impact of Double Inflation: Rising costs of goods/services & wages exacerbate NDIS financial pressures. It’s a financial squeeze play & everyone’s feeling it, including the NDIS. CPI inflation at 7.8% & wage price index growth of 3.1%. Excessive Legal Costs Due to AAT Process: The adversarial AAT process drives up legal costs, with participants facing top-tier NDIA lawyers. Rigid NDIA policies lead to increased AAT cases & legal costs. Compliance & Fraud Measures: New measures add much higher administrative burden & costs to prevent "waste & fraud" New ICT System: Rollout of a new ICT system involves significant initial investments & transitional costs. Provider Travel Costs: High travel costs for providers add to overall expenses, not fully accounted for in original projections. Bill, how about ditching the dodgy stats and focusing on these structural issues? Or is that too much like actual governance & not enough like political theater? https://lnkd.in/g5VfC_jX

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10 people to follow 👀 on LinkedIn if you want to follow commentary on startups and subsequent verticals in Aus : In no particular order and there are heaps more so please don’t be offended 🤔 but this is a start :) Emily Casey 🚀Gemma Clancy Dickie Currer Jacqui Duncan 😱 Rayn Ong Cheryl Mack Maxine Minter Haris Qureshi Simon Thomsen Sophie Robertson By following them and reading their material not only keeps them posting but keeps you up to speed 🚝 with what’s happening…. Thank you to all for ongoing learning !! #startupaus #lists #learning #fintech

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