Cheryl Mack

Scaling isn’t just about resources—it’s about networks with “boots on the ground” insight. Startup ecosystems like French Tech Australia (FT AU) connect founders to mentors, resources, and markets, offering local knowledge that is crucial for expansion. These networks lend credibility, open doors, and provide on-the-ground insights to navigate new markets with confidence. From strategic partnerships to market access, ecosystems are invaluable in a startup’s journey from local success to global presence. Tip: Use your ecosystem’s resources proactively—growth is faster with the right boots on the ground. How has your network helped you scale? Share your experiences below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/gmuYeYDB #StartupGrowth #ScaleUp #BusinessNetworking #GlobalExpansion #StartupCommunity #EcosystemSupport #InnovationHub #EntrepreneurTips #MentorshipMatters #CrossBorderBusiness Resumption - Sales, Marketing, and Operations Consulting

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🌟 Exciting news in Australian tech! 🌟 Cyan and Collis Ta’eed, co-founders of Envato, have achieved a $375.2 million exit as Shutterstock acquires their company. Envato, a marketplace for creatives, was built from scratch without external funding, proving you can build a massive business and a fulfilling life. 🌐 Key Highlights: $375.2M exit with Shutterstock acquiring Envato. Co-founded by Cyan, a notable female entrepreneur. Bootstrapped success, no external funding. Continued focus on work-life balance and philanthropic efforts. Cyan and Collis remain directors, with Cyan continuing to inspire women in tech. This story highlights the power of innovation and dedication. 🚀👩‍💼 Inspire future women entrepreneurs with “When I’m an Entrepreneur” https://ow.ly/MF4Q50SmWaN Read more: https://ow.ly/ROAa50SmWaM #TechNews #FemaleFounders #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Envato #Shutterstock

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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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Helping startups thrive in Australia requires a deep understanding of their needs. The previous Startup Muster report offered crucial insights into the sector's current state. It's essential to refresh this knowledge base to gain an updated perspective on opportunities for fostering innovation. #Startups #Innovation #AustraliaTech

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🚀 Unlock the Power of Funding for Your Startup! Join me for an exclusive webinar with Tim Clark from Hyper Startup Studio! In this session, we will be unpacking and guiding you through: 🌏 Navigating Australia’s Grants Landscape – Discover what’s available, how to apply, and which grants are best suited for startups and scale-ups at every stage, from pre-seed to high-growth. 🔍 R&D Tax Incentive 101 – Get a clear understanding of how the Australian R&D Tax Incentive works, eligibility criteria, and top insider tips to maximise your claim and drive innovation. 💡 Maximise Your Funding Potential – Learn strategic, actionable tips to secure grants and incentives that can fuel your growth journey and set your business up for success. Whether you’re in the early stages, heading to market, or scaling up, this webinar is packed with essential insights to help you harness grants and incentives for your startup’s advantage. Don’t miss out! DM me to get the link to access the webinar.

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Venture-backed founders sign up for a binary outcome: Go Big or Go Home. Which is why it is so puzzling to see so many of these founders pivot away from growth to "sustainable" low-growth profitability, according to Tim Doyle, founder of Eucalyptus. Low-growth, sub-scale venture-backed companies have no future -- even if they are able to turn a small profit. Don't waste your life force building a zombie company! -- It was heaps of fun getting some of Tim's hot takes in today's BONUS episode of The Startup Podcast, with me and Chris Saad.

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Day #2: The Importance of User Experience (UX) in Mobile App Development User Experience (UX) is a cornerstone of mobile app success. A well-designed UX ensures your app is intuitive, engaging, and meets user needs effectively, leading to higher satisfaction and retention rates. Here’s why UX is critical in mobile app development: 1. Enhances Usability • UX design focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it easy for users to navigate and complete tasks without frustration. 2. Boosts User Retention • Apps with seamless UX encourage users to return, reducing churn rates and building loyalty. 3. Increases Engagement • Thoughtful UX design encourages interaction, helping users stay engaged with your app’s features and services. 4. Improves Accessibility • A great UX considers diverse user needs, including accessibility features for those with disabilities, ensuring inclusivity. 5. Drives Conversions • Apps with optimized UX lead users smoothly through conversion funnels, whether it’s making a purchase, subscribing, or completing a form. Key Elements of Exceptional UX in Mobile Apps • Consistency: Maintain uniform design elements throughout the app. • Speed: Ensure fast loading times and smooth transitions. • Feedback: Provide clear feedback for user actions (e.g., button clicks, form submissions). • Personalization: Offer tailored experiences based on user preferences. Investing in UX is not just a design choice—it’s a strategic move that directly impacts your app’s success and profitability. Make user experience a priority in every phase of development! Connect with our UX specialist to fulfill your requirements. Reach out to us at +91 8448552528 or email us at [email protected]. Visit our website: https://nzsoftech.com #MobileAppDevelopment #UserExperience #UXDesign #AppSuccess #AppDevelopmentTips #MobileUX #UserRetention #AppEngagement #UXMatters #InclusiveDesign

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Startup founders and supporters Startup Muster the only comprehensive survey of Australian startups and their supporters. The survey reaches throughout the ecosystem to count every person that contributes to supporting founders and startups 🎉 Calling all diverse founders - we need you and your voices and experiences to be seen and heard 📣 We can’t measure what we can’t see and we can’t change what we don’t know - this survey is so important ✊🏼 Fill in the survey today 📝https://startupmuster.com #startup #diversity #entrepreneur #founder #culturaldiversity String Nguyen Mikaela Jade FTSE Dor Akech Achiek Nirary Dacho 🌏 Usman Iftikhar UNSW Founders UTS Startups

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🎬 New Episode Alert! 🎬 This week on The Growth Cartel's Weekly Wrap, we dove into the latest insights on startup investments and the importance of diversity in leadership. 📊 The release of the Cut Through Venture's report and its impact on the Australian startup ecosystem 👩‍💼 Why diversity in leadership is not just important but essential for driving innovation and success in the startup world. 🚀 Watch the full conversation for even more on AI, Quantum tech, and major investments shaping the future! We cover the biggest developments of the week, what we have coming up and you won’t want to miss it. 👉 Catch the full episode here and stay up-to-date with all things startups, funding, and leadership: 📺 YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gV3vb3cb 🎧 Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gzUMQVH7 🍎 Apple - https://lnkd.in/gg_wuMQ3 #InvestmentTrends #Diversity #Leadership #GrowthCartel #StartupCommunity #Innovation #CutThroughVentures

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There's a limited number of venture capital firms with over 300 companies in the portfolio, and of those, an even more limited number who have over 3,000 investors making up a large and diverse network of Kiwis (around the world) who want to back New Zealand startups. These days, we also have a nice mix of financial institutions, KiwSaver funds, family offices and other institutional investors backing our larger flagship funds. This week we caught up as a team to hear directly from our investors (large and small) and from our startups (new and old) on what we can do better. There's definitely some homework for our humble tech team and much to my relief, most of the feedback on investor reporting and founder network effects lined up nicely with our product roadmap. We'll be rolling out some big changes to the platform coming soon to improve the investor, founder and startup operator experience. My favourite insight was that the more time a founder or investor spends with us (and with the wider network), the more they like us. So good things will continue to happen from more time in the market and from bringing people together. This week was a good reminder of how privileged we are to do truly world-class work from a remote island in the middle of nowhere, with world-class founders, world-class investors and a team who cook a mean taco.

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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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🇦🇺Australian AI companies made a powerful impact at Tech Week last week, showcasing how they’re transforming industries like health, financial services, and supply chain. With 650+ AI companies leading in areas such as AI-powered diagnostics and compliance management, Australia’s AI sector is on track to add up to $600 billion to GDP by 2030. Exciting times ahead for AI innovation! If you’re looking to connect with the forefront of Australian fintech and AI solutions, reach out to me for more insights on the game-changing opportunities in this space! #AIAustralia #Fintech #Innovation #TechWeek Kirstyn Thomson | David Wise | Diana Pang | Dinie Halim | Dila Raffar | Madeline Ferguson | William Johnson

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We have two strongly-held values at Something New ✨ — reinforced at the start of each dinner. 1) confidentiality: this is all totally "off the record" .. we run these events under chatham house rules / cone of silence, safe space for folks who aren't yet "open" about their plans to leave and start something new (i.e. with current employer, colleagues) 🤫 👀 2) spirit of service: don't come in asking "what's in it for me" ... join us and ask "what can I do for someone else here." The chances the exact person you need (co-founder, early believer, etc) is in the room at that moment is ultimately fairly low... but the chances someone in that room knows someone outside it they can introduce you to are much higher. Rising tides lift all boats 💪 ✨

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In case you missed it: NZ is raising* the tax exempt 💰 thresholds for share scheme benefits companies offer employees. The maximum value of shares provided to employees will rise from NZ$5,000 to $7,500 annually, and the maximum discount on shares will increase from $2,000 to $3,000. This change to the tax exempt scheme will be good news especially for large (& particularly listed) businesses that want to implement a company-wide share scheme on top of existing remuneration and perks. Offering shares is a great way of aligning the incentives of teams and the business. It can give employees more understanding, a sense of belonging and responsibility for what is going on in the company. With that said, I don’t personally subscribe to the opening statement that “technology companies are among the startups which will benefit from increases to current thresholds…”. I'll follow-up with a blog soon unpacking why this tax exemption is largely redundant in this sector, and specifically what could be addressed to support early-stage ventures. *These changes are set to take effect on April 1, 2025, as part of the 2024-25 Taxation Bill.

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Pivot Labs is our free online startup incubator supporting first-time founders Our focus is ‘dual use’ - building a commercial product that might also have a defence / security application My Co-founder Mark Adams and I have supported a bunch of founders with: ▶ Getting started / developing ideas ▶ Finding early customers / customer discovery / product ▶ Finding and evaluating potential co-founders or hires ▶ Fundraising / pitching / decks ▶ Identifying and hiring fractional advice (legal, financial etc) ▶ Spinning out (corp, uni or gov) ▶ Reviving ideas / dealing with difficult situations ▶ And just general emotional support We’ve been experimenting with formats for helping founders including: ▶ Online 30 minute focussed calls with founders booked via Calendly, as and when they want contact ▶ Pairing entrepreneurial-curious innovators (with a bit of free time, and the need for something on the CV) with busy founders who welcome the extra hands ▶ A slack community for the founders we support alongside government innovators, investors, experienced founders and operators If any of this sounds interesting do please get in touch, we particularly welcome: ▶ Founders ▶ Future founders ▶ Those who’d like to help the above

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Many Aussie/Kiwi founders eventually face the decision of: what market should I go to next? Often, the answer they land on is the US. The key decision points then become: 1) when should I enter the US? 2) how should I break in? I spent the last 2 weeks with US VCs in San Francisco and New York, exploring those two questions and understanding what they've seen work and what they've seen fail. If you're in the early stages of building a venture scale business, I wrote the below as a simplified guide for thinking through those two decision points: https://lnkd.in/gY2JzByV

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What’s happening in Aussie healthtech? 💊🎉 🧬 Presagen’s Life Whisperer IVF embryo AI tech was acquired by Japan's Astec, to expand its use globally 🧫Cartherics Pty Ltd raised $15m to support a clinical trial for CTH-401, a cell therapy targeting ovarian cancer 🧠 Tessara Therapeutics, Psylo, & USyd snagged a $3m CRC-P grant 🤰 Kali Healthcare bagged a $2.65m CRC-P grant to advance its AI-enabled wearable for pregnancy monitoring 💉 Vaxxas, is raising $100m for clinical trials for its needle-free vaccine patch 🩺 ANDHealth+ invested $3.25m of MRFF grants into 5 startups as part of its digital & connected health accelerator program: Eugene, Atmo Biosciences, Immunosis, Metabolic Health Solutions, Humanetix 💊 Wesfarmers Health expects $6bn in revenue this year as it expands digital & pharmacy operations 📱 Medibank partnered with League to enhance customer experience with AI-driven personalisation across its services for 4.2M customers 🖥️ Bupa is offering eligible members 3 free telehealth consults/ year 🚀 Cortical Dynamics Limited, Microbio, & Resonait join the Biomedical AI Sprints Accelerator by ARM Hub & MTPConnect 🧠 Griffith University launched a clinical trial using olfactory nerve bridges from patients' cells to treat chronic spinal cord injuries 💼 SA’s Upper House voted 10-9 against a proposed law restricting abortions after 28 weeks 💡 > 400k Aussies downgraded from "gold" health insurance due to cost-of-living pressures Keen for the links & delicious deets?? 🍩🙌 Take a gander at last week's newsletter in the comments below👇😊 --- PS - if you liked this and are keen to join >8550 legends getting health tech and innovation news dropped direct to your inbox, subscribe to What the Health, linked in the comments below! 💜 📩

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A founder's perspective on Founder Mode: It's about craftsmanship and soul Last week Brian Chesky and Paul Graham ignited the tech startup world with a discussion around "founder mode", which Paul summarizes in this post - https://lnkd.in/gC7swj59 This comparison of founder mode vs. manager mode and stream of bad advice around it really resonates with me as a multi-time founder. I find there are two areas in particular that get systematically eliminated in the process of moving from product-market fit to "building the machine" and scaling up an organization. 🔮 🛠 Craftsmanship: Early days require a lot of craftsmanship - as if you're designing and building custom homes for a small set of early customers. You need to inspire them with your vision, co-create with them, and make constant decisions about how to iterate, where to influence, and how to listen - all shaped with a view to repeatable and scalable patterns you can leverage to scale. This requires a lot of top-down intuition and hands-on crafting to get right - it also benefits from strong and fast decision making from the founder(s). As companies grow, this founder craftsmanship is easy to see as an enemy of scale that needs to be removed in favour of proven process. While it is true that this is not easy to scale, it is possible and worth it to figure out. I saw Zuck do this at Facebook as we scaled, shaping high impact initiatives and role modelling his craftsmanship to high potential people in his "Zuck reviews" for important new products and key initiatives. Combine this with a clear set of values and entrepreneurial people and you can keep the founder's touch on key initiatives without giving in to manager mode. 💙 🙏 Soul: A founder-led business can be felt much easier than it can be described. There is a passion, a set of values, a purpose that gives the company indescribable depth when done right - that feels magical and gives the company soul. This is the part of founder mode that enables people in the company to embody the same values, act with the same standards, and channel the inner purpose and passion of the founder. It attracts people that are entrepreneurial and secure in their abilities. People who see a founder's touch as a secret ingredient to add, not a box to be checked or worse to be avoided. My former Meta (at that time Facebook) colleague Fidji Simo wrote a great perspective on founder mode for non-founders in the information today, which I also see as possible. Founder mentality is a mindset and combined with an ability to imprint a sense of craft and soul into a company. I think founder-led companies like Meta and Shopify have shown a pattern to study and replicate in scaling startups, they have also produced a talent pool to mine for leaders that can operate in founder mode as the company scales. What do you think? Curious to hear your thoughts on founder mode... it's been a fun one to think about over the weekend. 🤔 #foundermode #founders #yc

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