Open the Pod Bay Doors Innovation Bay

E163 - Clément Aglietta, Co-Founder & CEO, Edda 

 

Our guest this week is Clément Aglietta, Co-Founder & CEO of Edda, a collaborative tool for private equity investors. Edda is an all-in-one solution for deal flow, portfolio management, and LP’s relationship management. The tool is designed to be user-centric and integrates with external databases and other tools. Edda has recently launched into the ANZ market via a partnership with Innovation Bay’s VC community, Aurora. 

 

Clément began his career at CERN, the biggest physics laboratory in Europe, where he learned about quantum physics. He then went on to study design. This gave him the opportunity to join the dots between physics and design and discover a new method of solving problems - a passion that led to the creation of Edda. 

 

Clément’s desire to be an entrepreneur led him to attend conferences and meet investors. He worked at Rebag, a luxury handbag marketplace, and was later invited to join LG Labs as a VC. As a designer turned VC, he noticed the lack of advanced technology in the industry and decided to create Edda. Edda raised the first funding round after building a team and creating the first version of the product. 

 

Edda helps investors manage their deals and portfolio companies by capturing information from emails, synchronizing data, and providing collaboration tools. It provides statistics and creates profiles for companies, while allowing users visibility on the true value of investments and the impact they create, in real time. With a team of 33 (growing to 40 imminently), Edda now has 130 clients in 26 countries and manages around $30 billion in assets across the private and public equity markets. With lofty ambitions to be the global industry leader, and a passion to make a positive impact on people, society and the planet, Edda has big plans for the future. 

 

Quickfire Round:

Book: Build by Tony Fidel, Civilizations by Laurent Binet

Podcast: audio books

News Source: VC news via LinkedIn

Productivity App: Turning off phone notifications 

Favourite CEO: Demis Hassabis from DeepMind 

TV Show: n/a

TEDTalk Topic: Financing impact

Get in touch with Clèment via LinkedIn and learn more about Edda here https://edda.co/ 
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Our guest this week is Kate Pounder, CEO of the Tech Council of Australia. Launched in August 2021, the Tech Council’s mission is to be the peak body representing Australia’s tech ecosystem. The Tech Council addresses 3 key gaps - Research, Policy & Advocacy, and Engagement - across the industry, policy change makers, government and the media. 

 

Launching the day prior to a snap lockdown in Canberra and with two primary school aged children, the last couple of years have been a ride for Kate, but overall a totally energising time. In just under 8 weeks the Tech Council grew from 24 to 100 members and went from 1 full time staffer to 15 in 18 months. With a board made up of some of the most impressive voices in the industry, they have lofty ambitions to reach 1.2 million tech jobs in Australian by 2023 - a goal backed by the federal government who have made it an official national policy.  

 

The currently 160-strong Tech Council membership ranges from representatives from some of the biggest Australian companies (Atlassian, Canva, Seek), up and coming startups (Bryte, AirWallex, Envato), multinational companies (Google, IBM, Microsoft) as well as some of the country’s major employers (Wesfarmers, Woolworths, NBN Co, Commonwealth Bank, NAB). All of them share a common passion to have their seat at the table and be on the forefront of change in the industry, through addressing jobs and skill shortages, reforming migration systems, getting cyber security and privacy reform right, and making sure key tax settings are working effectively to incentivise innovation. 

 

Quickfire Round 


Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Podcast: Planet Money 
News Source: ABC, The Guardian, The Australian, AFR, The Economist 
App: Outlook, LinkedIn, Teams, Slack 
Productivity Tool: Trello 
Fav Tech CEO: No Favourties but Robyn Denholm as Chair of Tech Council 
TV Show: Wednesday, White Lotus 
TEDTalk Topic: Diversity in the tech sector

For more information on the Tech Council of Australia, visit https://techcouncil.com.au/.  
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Our guest this week is Fintech expert Alan Tsen, Head of fmX, IAG’s corporate accelerator program. 

 

Currently in the middle of its fifth season, fmX invites 8 startup companies per cohort to engage in a 12 week program giving participants a unique opportunity to learn how to infiltrate their product successfully into the insurtech ecosystem. 

 

Across the entirely free program, participants gain hugely valuable knowledge through training and face to face workshops to learn how to structure and position their businesses while giving them access to internal technical and design outlets to explore insurance use cases. One unique element of fmX is the potential for startups to partner with IAG. 

 

With an enviable resume which includes practicing international tax law, a tenure as the GM of Stone & Chalk Melbourne, Chair and board member of Fintech Australia and Director of Revenue for startup Chipper Cash, Alan is also a lover of fine wine, even studying to become a sommelier, and writes a hugely knowledgeable Fintech newsletter Fintech Radar.   

 

Quickfire Round


Book: Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara 
Podcast: Got Somme - Aussie wine podcast 
News Source: Twitter 
App: Tana, Oura 
Tech CEO: Andy Grove  
TV Show: Ru Paul’s Drag Race
TEDTalk Topic: The State of Fintech in Africa  

While recruitment for the next season of fmX won’t officially kick off until October this year, Alan is always on the lookout for startups with amazing ideas that might fit the fmX mould. Get in touch with Alan alan.tsen@iag.com.au or follow along on Twitter @alantsen.
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Did you know that dogs get cancer at the highest rate of any mammal in the world? Or that 80% of dogs get dental disease? How about that 50% of cats and dogs are overweight or obese? Pretty startling statistics, right? 

 

Well, Anna Podolsky, Founder & CEO of direct to customer pet wellness business, Lyka, is on a mission to make our furry friends healthier and live longer, more fulfilled lives. Named after Anna’s 14 year old border collie, the concept for the business was borne when Lyka showed signs of being unwell and, after not recognising any of the ingredients in her generic food, began cooking for her fur baby. 

 

Lyka employs 160 staff - doubling almost every 6 months - each with a deep love and care for animals. The company has so far raised $40 million in funds and has created 15 million meals for their loyal and very sticky customer base of furry friends and pet parents. 

 

Ian and Anna cover a range of topics including: 


Building the foundations for business success as a management consultant at Bain 
Traveling around the world with a border collie 
Practicing 10 thousand hours of gymnastics 
Her Dad’s kitchen as first production facility 
The importance of building a purpose-led culture 

And lots more… 

Quickfire Round:

Book: The Power of Moments - Chip Heath, Dan Heath 

Podcast: Masters of Scale 

News Source: Morning Brew 

App: Headspace 

Tech CEO: Bob Iger 

Productivity Tool: Remember The Milk 

TV Show: The Block (guilty pleasure) 

TED Talk Topic: Kibble is the new cigarette

 

Get In Touch: 

Lyka are always recruiting, check out their open roles: https://lyka.com.au/careers 

Have a pup and ready to make the switch? Head to: https://lyka.com.au/ 

Connect with Anna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-podolsky/ 
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Our guest this week is Anuj Goel, Head of Technology Sector and Executive Director at Macquarie Capital. 

 

Anuj joined Macquarie’s Technology, Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMET) team in 2006 following a short period working as an actuarial consultant.​

 

Today, Anuj focuses on helping Technology companies with M&A, IPO, trade sales, capital raising and other strategic priorities. In addition, Anuj is actively involved in Macquarie’s principal investing activities having been involved with companies such as Seek, oOh!media, PEXA and Temple & Webster. ​Leading a team of 22 staff across advisory and investment, some days Anuj will be solving complex problems with a large ASX company - the next - helping a Series A company think about their growth and investments. 

 

Anuj and his team have a broad technology coverage across online businesses, classifieds, FinTech and software, and are building capabilities in emerging sectors like AgTech.

 

Ian and Anuj discuss a number of topics including: 


Macroeconomics and a potential continuation of a flat economy
Trends in the tech debt market and how corporates are going after growth 
The difference between VC and PE and the relationship between them  
Pre-planning for the IPO market 
Investment opportunities in AI

And so much more! 

 

Quickfire Round: 

Book: Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography 

Podcast: Alan Watts on YouTube

News Source: Letter of Intent, AFR 

App: YouTube, Outlook 

Tech CEO: all CEOs bring different things, Shemara Wikramanayake (Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Group) is inspirational. 

Productivity App: n/a 

TV: Carl Pilkington 

Ted Talk: How do you find your purpose? 

 

Learn more about Macquarie Capital HERE 

Connect with Anuj Goel HERE 
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E158 - Adam Schwab, CEO and Co-Founder at Luxury Escapes

 

Adam Scwhab runs at a million miles an hour - literally, he runs barefoot marathons! The CEO and Co-Founder of Luxury Escapes, Adam Schwab is our guest this week. 

 

Outside of running one of the country’s most successful, bespoke travel sites, and running really far without shoes, Adam is also a contributing journalist and writer, podcast host, father of two young children, is on the investment committee of Save The Children, and is an angel investor. 

 

An ex-lawyer, Adam and Luxury Escapes co-founding partner Jeremy Same (an ex-banker), started their first business in 2004 - apartment accommodation for backpackers. Fast forward to 2023, Luxury Escape has 510 staff on its books across Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, Ukraine, and New Zealand and will turn over close to $1b this year. 

 

Ian and Adam discuss a heap including:


Taking asymmetric risks 
How COVID affected the business and helped them pivot their product offering 
That every great founder balances incredible self confidence with consistent paranoia 
His podcast From Zero 

And so much more. 

 

Quickfire Round 

Book: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Podcast: Pivot, What The Flux 

News Source: AFR, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg 

App: BOM 

Tech CEO: Jeff Bezos 

Productivity Tool: WhatsApp 

TV Show/Movie: WeWork, Super Pumped, The Crown - fact based fiction 

Ted Talk Topic: n/a 

Luxury Escapes are always hiring and Adam’s DM’s are open. Hit him up on Twitter. 
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