Cicada x Tech23 special: lessons from a 2nd-time founder & killing off meetings

This week on Startup 360, we talk to two founders who presented at Cicada x Tech23.

Engineer Nick Hazell is back with his second climate tech startup, Algenie, having previously raised $120 million as cofounder of plant-based meat venture v2food.

Also on the couch is Ana Belgun from CSIRO-developed digital twin pioneer Terria.

They were among 23 founders who shared their startup stories at the annual deep tech expo, in Sydney.

Cohost Simon Thomsen was there and keen to share their ideas with the Startup 360 audience.

Cohosts Simon and Majella Campbell talked to Nick, an engineer who came from R&D in the food sector, about the lessons be brought to a second go, at tackling the problem of carbon emissions. Algenie is an algae biotech company using groundbreaking technology for algae production at scale at an affordable price. The term describes everything from plankton - a vital part of the marine food chain - to seaweeds, and as well as being a major oxygen producer, it also soaks up CO2.

His hope is that Algenie can help replace fossil fuels and last year the startup raised $1.1 million in pre-Seed funding.

Nick talks about gardening leave from v2food, going from a startup in a "hot" sector for investors, to having to go back an educate people from scratch; why he's driven to tackle big problems and the nexus between engineering and science and how "innovation of having different voices in the room sort of looking at the same problem from different angles and solving it together."

Ana spent nearly a decade at CSIRO's Data61 before cofounding Terria in late 2024.

Terria makes it easy to build advanced maps and digital twins, for faster, smarter decision-making, and she talks about their potential for big ideas, including Australia's much talked about high-speed train.

Ana also explained by the Terria team banned all meetings on a Wednesday, and why having "a really good product mindset and go to market and brand" is essential to be a successful deep tech startup commercialising research.

Simon and Majella also talked about the big news of the week - PsiQuantum's $1.5 billion raise. When Majella asked him what he'd do with $1 billion, Simon said he'd share it among the startups at Tech23.

Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human.

This episode of Startup 360 is supported by Vanta and is a SmartCo Media production.

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