Nihar Vasa

Did you know, 43% of New Zealand's population is made up of GenZs and Millennials? They are your consumers, your customers, your staff, your investors, your creators, your supports and more. So, how are we supposed to create the future they want, if we don't have them at the table? This realisation was a defining moment for The Aotearoa Circle, and fellow board members, when we looked at our mission of restoring natural capital for future generations and realised we did not have enough 'future generation' voices contributing to the mahi. So we created the Rangatahi Advisory Panel (RAP)— a shadow board of under-30 professionals who review and contribute to the work at The Circle. If you would like to know more about the mahi, and the impact rangatahi perspectives have had (and could have for you and your business) join us on the 27th of August for a webinar where you can meet the RAP members, understand why we have this model, and discover how it could benefit your business. We will also have Lucie Drummond, Executive GM Sustainability at Mercury NZ will be joining us to tell us what corporates get from have a Rangatahi Advisory Panel. So, whether you’re a young person wanting to contribute more, or you’re from an organisation that wants to understand intergenerational mahi, I know this will be a very interesting discussion. Register here : https://lnkd.in/gAVNpiSs Bryn Wilson, Caleb Poe, Cameron Johnson, Hinera Parker, Maggie Powell Morgan Pepper, Tim Hodgson, Zoe Tilsley #intergenerational #sustainabledevelopment #diversity

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With over 110 companies including the likes of Canva, Linktree, Employment Hero, Zoomo, Athena & many more, in their fast-growing portfolio, having helped over 250 founders create more than 17000 jobs, Airtree as the one of the most iconic Venture Capital firms in Australia & New Zealand doesn't need an introduction. I am super excited to have joined forces with Airtree as an Angel through their Airtree Explorer initiative for Angels across ANZ. Having just relocated to Australia from Southeast Asia last year, as a part of this initiative, not only do I intend to pick up the nuances of angel investing in Australia but more importantly I am so looking forward to meeting the like-minded individuals, investors, and founders building the next generation of tech companies out of Australia. If you're a founder based in Australia, working on a game-changing idea, please do feel free to reach out for a chat. And, if you're a startup that is already getting good traction & therefore intends to scale within Australia and to larger markets like India, Southeast Asia, USA, I will be happy to share my experience and help with introductions within our network. Also open to helping Aussie founders with their tech & product development, marketing, revenue growth initiatives for the ventures across B2B Tech, AI, Cyber Security, Robotics & Automation, Sustainability, Decarbonisation & Energy Transition, Manufacturing, Carbon Accounting, etc, areas that may have synergies with any of our group companies. If you're building in Australia with a mindset of Global from Day 1, and would like to bounce of ideas, or request an introduction to the Airtree team or any of the fellow angels, I will be open to helping if it is something that aligns with the fund thesis at Airtree. Until then, let's keep the hustle on... 🚀

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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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Any QLD based startups in the agtech or climate tech space see below. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions

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How to Turn Your Business Expenses into Business Class Flights. Necessarily paying too much to travel? Many business owners with $1M+ turnover don’t realise that their everyday expenses (including suppliers and payroll expenses) could be the shortcut to cheap business class travel experiences. Discover your benefit with this calculator.

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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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12 deals before Christmas! A massive few weeks ahead here at Birchal And female founders getting it done. Congrats to Jay Curtin and the team at Got Bakey for closing their $180k raise last week. And thrilled to see Andi Lucas founder of X-Hemp Pty Ltd in The Australian over the weekend. Closing in on $500k raised, doing an amazing job! Other things that piqued our interest this week: IPO market thawing according to Simon Evans at The Australian Financial Review. Klarna announces its plans to list in NY and not London. Australian Business Growth Fund (ABGF) commissioned report released last week identifies $38b equity funding gap holding back growth businesses and Australian productivity. Lots happening over the next few weeks, check it out in the comments. #equitycrowdfunding #csf #investment #startups #australia #founders

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Diving into Australia's Climate Tech industry yesterday and "wow" are things getting exciting for startups 🚀 Here are a few things I made as to just how big the market could be: - Firstly, 61 per cent of investors surveyed showed positive investor sentiment for climate tech investments. This is more than double that of the next most positive, being artificial intelligence and big data. - Australia is the 6th most attractive country for renewable energy investment. Its renewable energy sector is expected to attract over $76 billion in external investment and create more than 600,000 jobs by 2030. - A plan for over $1.5B to be raised for Climate Tech companies from 23/24. - As of last year, the total valuation of Climate Tech industry was $4.12B. - 2023 saw $435M worth of international investment. - There is a wealth of funding and grants for startups from the likes of CSIRO, CEFC, ARENA and more. What an exciting start up space to be a part of and excited to see this grow 🔥 #climate #tech #startups #growth SCALERR

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My new favourite thing to do is let customers know there’s space in their package for another item. It’s Clementine Boshevski at Salt Lab Pty Ltd’s new favourite too. We email Clem’s customers 5 minutes after checkout with the option to add more products to their order at 20% off. It returns $14 of new revenue for every $1 she spends with us. Why? + Because the customers already committed, it’s an easy sell. + Because we say “there’s space in your package” it feels like a no-brainer. + Because a little bit of discount incentive mingled with saving on shipping makes it even more obvious. The proof is in the pudding! Don’t forget - along with upselling, we’re also wiping out 90%+ of your order editing tickets. Salt Lab’s advice? Stop spending time solving customer support tickets. Start earning money from a self-service portal that organically upsells. Question - as a consumer, would you take up the space in your package offer?? #Shopify #Ecommerce #Customerexperience

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Is it me or am I just seeing a lot more Aussie & Kiwi founders hitting the global stage? Fundraising in SF, meeting customers in NY, building partnerships in SEA—so good! I feel like the entire ANZ ecosystem has been undergoing a significant shift, and here's why this is important: 🔥 Taking a leap: More founders are stepping out of their comfort zones and going global. They’re not waiting for opportunities; they’re creating their own! Sometimes ANZ can feel closed off to the rest of the world. 🔥Opportunities: Going overseas isn’t just about raising capital. Founders are building networks, learning from different markets, and gaining a global perspective. This is how startups can scale, pivot and innovate faster. 🔥 Ecosystem: This creates a ripple effect. As more founders take the plunge, they pave the way for others, adding back into startup ecosystem. 🔥 Agency: Founders are becoming high-agency because they're creating opportunities and being resourceful. As more founders embrace this notion of building, we’ll begin to see a flywheel effect of bridges being created between ANZ and these other regions which in turn will make it easier for others to follow. Taking the initiative to meet customers, investors, or partners in person is a BIG DEAL, especially when we all know it's much easier to jump on a virtual call. First impressions matter, and they'll remember you for a lifetime.

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A valuable swan song report into New Zealand's SaaS sector by kiwiSaaS Community, summarised well here by Timothy. "4. Content is easily accessible, but knowledge from lived experience is scarce and its hampering our ability to produce more scale-ups." Letting my community know that from late July, I have 2 days' deep SaaS leadership knowledge and lived experience available for fractional or project hire. If you have a commercial acumen gap in your team; need to drive new pricing and packaging; improve your product positioning, value propositions and product marketing; or align your product and GTM teams and motions for revenue growth - let's talk. #growth #commercial #SaaS #leadership

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Join Sydney as she sits down with Naseem Sayani, one of the General Partners at Emmeline Ventures, alongside La Keisha Landrum Pierre and Azin Radsan van Alebeek. With an emphasis on key issues and initiatives, in this upcoming episode Naseem will: 🌟Unpack the unique hurdles women face in startups, from funding gaps to representation roadblocks. 🌟Explain how Emmeline Ventures is igniting change by backing women entrepreneurs and fueling diversity in tech. 🌟Dive into the underfunding crisis in women's health and unlock opportunities for groundbreaking innovation. 🌟Describe the power of diverse perspectives in venture capital and unveil strategies for breaking the inclusivity barrier. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives and actionable insights on promoting equity and empowerment in entrepreneurship and venture capital. 🚀 Interested in becoming a Limited Partner with Emmeline Ventures? Link in the comments! 👉Full episode will be out on Monday. Stay tuned! #WomenInTech #WomeninVC #WomenFounders #VentureCapital #FinTech #WomensHealth

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Hello everyone! Although many of us are based on the Gold Coast—working remotely for global enterprises, local startups, or even commuting to Brisbane—opportunities to connect locally are rare. To help foster a strong tech community here, Pedro Giesel and I would like to invite all tech enthusiasts, innovators, and entrepreneurs to the first Build Club event on the Gold Coast. The idea is to come together to share ideas, build, learn, and have fun. Maybe you're stuck on a problem that's been nagging you for days, and chatting with other builders might help solve it in a few hours. Maybe you need a partner to bring your idea to life. Perhaps you want to practice your pitch and get feedback from the community, meet other builders and founders to form a team or find a co-founder. Maybe you just want to have fun and meet new people. You can probably do all this! Event Details: 📅 Date: 21/09/2024 📍 Location: TAFE Robina 🔗 Event Page: https://lu.ma/mi8wpovd What to Expect: - Networking: Connect with like-minded builders and founders. - Brainstorming: Explore ideas and problems that AI can solve. - Building Sessions: Collaborate on projects—whether you’re coding or using no-code tools. - Speed Demos: Present your creations and receive valuable feedback. - Feel free to bring your own lunch and some fruits or snacks to share. About Build Club (www.buildclub.ai): 🌐 Global Community: Join over 4,000 founders and builders worldwide. 🚀 Opportunities: Demo your products and get feedback from the global AI community and VCs. 🎁 Perks: Access benefits from leading companies like Nvidia, AWS, Stripe, Vercel, and more. 🏆 Hackathons: Participate in frequent events with exciting prize pools and rewards. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We can’t wait to see you there! Annie Liao 🇦🇺, Christie Whitehill, Kirk Reynoldson, Kate Morgan, PhD, Kim H., Barry Pryce, Eden Shirley, Sayan Bhattacharyya, Andrew Ge-Hall, Aninda Saha, Leonardo P., Nissan Dookeran, Corey Fraser, Queensland AI Hub

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Today team humii launches Australia's first and only Online Customer Experience Index. The 'CX Index' is Australia’s first independent, unbiased online CX tracker, providing near real-time performance scores and category-based rankings across 100 of Australia’s leading retailers. Using a standardised set of measurement criteria covering the online store, customer support, delivery, returns and loyalty, retailers participating in the CX Index are continuously shopped and measured by an Australia-wide network of online mystery shoppers. Our system is entirely merit-based. It's not a popularity contest and there are no hidden agendas. We couldn't think of a better partner to launch the CX Index with than the countries most reliable source of retail news and insights. The folks at Inside Retail Australia are the perfect custodians of the index and will help us elevate it's position and ensure it gets the reach and accessibility it deserves. For any questions at all please reach out to our team. You can check out the live index now at the link below 👇

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💰 NSW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 📣 Exciting news for startups and innovative SMEs! Investment NSW has launched their MVP program. And while, yes - you may just be the Most Valuable Player - they're really on the hunt for applicants with a Minimum Viable Product. The program offers grants from $25k - $50k to support businesses in the critical product lifecycle stages between early-stage research and mature investment opportunities. The aim is to drive the commercialisation of highly innovative and new products, providing the necessary funding to turn groundbreaking ideas into market-ready solutions. Key benefits of the MVP Ventures program: → Financial support to bridge the gap between initial research and securing larger investments → Encouragement for the development of pioneering products that can lead to significant market advancements → Assistance in accelerating the path from concept to commercialisation 🖥️ Go to: https://lnkd.in/gj9hsUHR Georgine Roodenrys Nicole T Garofano, PhD, AAIP Cle-Anne Gabriel Lisa McLean Charlotte Connell Sally-Anne Käsner Anna Minns Caitlyn Touzell Neil Makepeace GAICD Mick Liubinskas ⚡️ Michael Batko Louella Carr #CircularEconomy #Sustainability #ZeroWaste #NetZero #NSW #Innovation #Startups #SMEs #MVPVentures #Commercialisation #InvestmentNSW #MVP

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Will you build this community with me? Josys has teamed up with Think & Grow to build a new event for Australia’s tech and business community. It is November 12th at the Sydney Scaleup Hub thanks to venue partner Stone & Chalk. The event is called “Grow. Scale. Develop” and we are dedicating it to the “GSD” team of Finance, IT, and Operations. They form the backbone of every company. They keep the lights on, manage a million delicate, confidential projects, and are always, always asked to do more with less. But, no matter what, they get *it* done. With this event, we will create a community of peer-mentors, off-the-record honest discussion, and a celebration of the GSD team. It’s a half-day event featuring a content track for each team before everyone comes together for executive panels and networking. Here's what on tap: - Finance: How CFOs lead growth and value creation, how to build a CFO team, how to prepare for your next round (Speakers: David Bicknell Kevin Fisher Jun Yokote) - IT: rightsizing security for your growth stage, turning critical incidents into critical growth, operating in a global market (Speakers: Ian Yip Andy Rana Wendy Glasgow) - Ops: how to design productivity and urgency, how to unlock scale through a merger, how to lead a team for high performance (Speakers: Sten Pittet Matthew Geleta Vicki Slavina) - Group Session: preparing for growth, preparing for 2025 (Speakers: Aliza Knox Skye Theodorou Jun, Wendy, Vicki, and Kevin) Spaces are limited - if you are a Finance, IT, or Operations leader register below. Founders are of course welcome as honorary members of the GSD team. https://lnkd.in/ghrVAqjp

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Little did I know I was coming down with something, and so all the warm, reassuring things I meant to say at the start of my talk about if I, as an arts and communications grad, a former maths-despiser, and UX-type, could get my head around commercial concepts, then so can you… Well, that part just fell out of my head. What’s left are some (I think) pretty useful tools and concepts for product people who want to try to lift their financial awareness. Don’t let perfectionism get in your way! #productmanagement #value #viability

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I contributed to the outstanding 🚀 Cut Through Quarterly Report Q3 It's an in depth report and a highly encourage all Australian tech Founders and CEO's to read it A few key Insights for Q3 2024 📊 The latest report highlights some major shifts in the Australian startup and M&A ecosystem: • 💡 Total funding dropped to $695M in Q3, but deal volume hit a five-quarter high with a surge in accelerator activity. • 🌱 Seed-stage deals dominated, showing strong early-stage investor sentiment even as larger deals slowed. • 🌍 Investor focus continues to shift towards alternative exits, like secondary sell-downs and private equity buyouts. On page 24 of the report I have provided a less talked about perspective on sub-scale M&A -- While unicorns often steal the spotlight, a crucial driver of the entrepreneurial landscape lies in 6 & 7-figure exits. These deals provide life-changing outcomes for founders and serve as a foundation for long-term ecosystem health. In Australia, only 2% of businesses exceed $10M in revenue, making the sub-scale M&A market both vibrant and undervalued. This is similar to global markets like the US and EMEA. Smaller acquisitions fuel entrepreneurship, offering liquidity and the chance to reinvest in new ventures—proof that the startup engine is powered by more than just billion-dollar valuations. #Entrepreneurship #M&A #Startups #GrowthExits #Flippa #VentureCapital #AustralianStartups Chris Gillings Five V Capital Cut Through Venture

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Ai can make a whole lot of noise with not a lot of clarity around what KPIs it impacts. This is a great example of the high-impact use of Adobe Commerce Ai functionality and how it directly impacts conversion rates 👇

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