Spotlight #14 - Startups & Operators
Batko OS - increase your surface areas for luck to strike.
Alright - we’re back!
This is a big one as I haven’t posted in while.
How is Puddle Pod going?
Glad you asked.
Cohort 1 is now at the tail end at Week 8.
It’s also the reason why I haven’t been posting here, as I’ve been writing so much content for the first Productivity Huddle (=Puddle) cohort.
Here was some of the Mid-Program feedback:
When describing Puddle Pod to a friend, I’d say “it’s the best way to audit how you manage your life and implement, simple, quick and effective changes that enable you to destress and bring order to your chaos. In the first four weeks, I feel twice as effective at work, more present with family/friends and more calm throughout my work day”
Feel calmer, more in control, more effective at work, more present outside of work.
Love my pod! It’s the dot connecting of a ha moments, accountability and network,
1) Invoice me? I feel like this is worth $$ already even as a pilot. And it’s connected to 2) I want to share some of the content with family members, even maybe org a “pod” with them so I strongly feel that it needs to be paid for too. Is sharing ok? Fair?
For me, Puddle Pod isn’t really a community of people passionate about productivity. Rather, it’s been a place for a highly ambitious (but disorganised) person to come to learn how to build processes and structure into my work and my life. For the first time (ever)... I hit inbox zero after implementing week 3 content (and I’ve been able to successfully stick with it).
💕
[Wiping some water from my eye.]
It’s going well.
👉 If you want to hear more about Cohort 2 - sign up here.
I heard Startmate is Hiring?
Yes! Yes we are 🤗
We have two epic roles >> tell your Family and Friends 🙏 🙌
Product Manager (Talent) - build the systems to get Fellows hired! (Victoria)
Chief of Staff - save me #halp (Autralia and NZ)
Finally - onto the Spotlights
Today - I have 2x Startups, 3x Product Operators as well as A LOT of startup jobs for you!
😇 Angel Spotlight
Do you want to be featured as an Angel? Fill this out (10mins)
💸 Startup Spotlight
Do you want to be featured to Angels/VCs? Fill this out (10mins)
🛠 Operator Spotlight
Looking for a job? Get featured in the next Operator Spotlight - fill this out.
Have an ops job you want featured? Hit reply and send it my way.
What’s in this Edition?
Get Investment - Angels keen to connect
Invest - Startups keen to connect
Hire - Operators ready for a startup job
Apply - Latest startup jobs
Join - Startups that just raised
1) Get Investment - Angel Spotlight
N/A in this feature.
2) Invest - Startups Keen to Connect
🚨 Disclaimer* 🚨 This is not financial advice, nor a recommendation. Please connect with the founders directly to hear more.🎨 Book An Artist
Making it easy to find and hire an artist.
Problem
Finding the right artist for a project is extremely hard, due to a number of factors when finding the artist - they need to match the right style for the project, right location, right availability, needs to be professional and reliable, needs to fits within your budget, need to be trusted with deposits and quality of service
Solution
Book an artist simplifies the process by creating an artist marketplace that has all the information needed to find the right artist and a trustworthy process to hire the artist.
How do you know it's a problem?
$815K in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) since its inception in 2019. Year-on-year revenue growth of 300% from 2019 to 2020.
100% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth since Q2 2020 despite COVID-19. Nov 2020 GMV $100K, Revenue $21K.
Brands include Netflix, Rebel Sports, KFC, Weir, Melbourne Rebels, Randwick City Council, City of Port Phillip, Hoyts etc. alongside with 100s of restaurants, cafes, residences, small businesses.
What's your central unique insight?
Art seeking people browses and finds the artwork around them from galleries, word of mouth, referrals, local artist websites until they settle for whatever they find. BAA provides the platform for commissioning the artwork from the right artist that matches their style and budget requirements - every time.
🕺 ZILIO
3D Fitting Room for online shopping.
Problem
The confusion around Sizing and Fit when shopping online for clothes.
Solution
We have created the technology that integrates into retailer websites and shows the fit of clothes on personalised and accurate 3D avatars through colored heatmaps, garment geometries and slack/stretch measurements.
How do you know it's a problem?
As cofounders with Fashion Retail experience, the endless faces of frustrations and anger when shoppers return ill-fitting clothes from online shopping tells us that it's a problem, maybe. But numbers tell, 1 in 3 garments bought online are returned with sizing & fit being the no.1 biggest reason, only 3% of all online traffic is actually converted into sales because there's no confidence in buying online and up to 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned.
We have signed 6 fashion labels as ZILIO's foundation clients so far. We also have interviewed hundreds of shoppers, all confirming that 'sizing & fit' is their biggest problem when shopping online and that they desperately need something like ZILIO. Last year, we were accepted into Startup Bootcamp Milan's FashionTech 'Emerging Talents' program backed by Prada, with only 3 startups out of 1500 globally were accepted, proving that we were solving a real problem with a very real solution.
What's your central unique insight?
Having worked in Fashion Retail for so long, you understand on quite a deep level what shoppers want and need in their shopping journey (partly from all the complaining we hear). One of those insights is that shopping online is very much like rolling the dice and to increase those odds, some people buy 10 things with the intent of returning 8. To many others, it's just not worth the trouble. The numbers back this. If we solve the sizing & fit problem in online shopping, we give back the confidence in shoppers when shopping online and we'll watch Fashion eCommerce blow up as we've removed the one thing that's been holding back the entire industry.
3) Hire - Operators ready for a startup job
Aashlesha Venkatachalam
Location: Sydney
Past Roles: Product strategy - Deloitte Au; Venture Lead, Deloitte Ventures UK/Strategy + ops consulting, Deloitte UK; Banking product strategy + delivery, Santander UK
A blend of functional experience across product, strategy & ops, op risk, finance & accounting + client project delivery exp + internal ops delivery = I combine big picture thinking with pragmatic, roll sleeves up capability.
Ideal Next Industry: With a background in financial services / professional services, ideally would love to move into FinTech / Cyber / Health + well-being + femtech / VC
Ideal Next Role: Product strategy / strategy and ops ninja / partnerships and community builder
Deepti Tuli
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Owner
With adaptable business and technical skills over the years, I have gathered experience working across small to medium, large-scale complex projects like Chatbot implementation, Data Transformation and migration, Business Intelligence and Regulatory projects, Risk and digital transformations, Wealth management product development, investment banking process as well as system improvement initiatives for multiple function areas including Finance, Change, IT, IB Operations, Treasury, Risk, Regulatory, Financial Assets & Sales
Have strong experience working in Process consulting, Business and IT transformations, Business improvement, Product development, Systems and Business Analysis, Consulting, Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid Project Delivery approaches Project and Program Management and People Management.
Outside of work, I am passionate about Diversity and Inclusion within STEAM sector. Have been volunteering in various capacities with local non-profit organisations that encourage women to study and make career in STEAM sector.
Also passionate about adopting a cleaner and healthier way of eating and living with a broader goal of larger human good and reducing toxic overload for a healthier next generation.
Ideal Next Industry: Fintech, Financial Services, E-commerce, Regtech
Ideal Next Role: Product Owner, Business analyst, Program Manager
Tinashe Mutepfa
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Product Lead @ Momentum Energy, Senior Product Manager @ NAB
I am the Kanye West (Old Kanye to be specific) of Product.
Ideal Next Industry: Fintech, B2B or B2C SAAS
Ideal Next Role: VP Product, CPO
4) Apply - Latest startup jobs
These are new roles that were posted in the last couple of weeks.
Startmate Alumni
UX Designer @ Cake (Australia)
VP of Operations @ amber (Melbourne)
Content Marketing Lead @ Komodo (Christchurch)
Head of People & Culture @ HappyCo (Adelaide)
Product Marketing Manager @ Propeller (Sydney)
Product Designer & Art Director @ Mindset (Melbourne)
Brand and Communications Coordinator @ SwoopAero (Melbourne)
Content & Social Media Manager + BD Manager @ Josef (Melbourne)
Graphic Designer, Program Director, Marketing Roles @ jigspace (Melbourne)
Startups
Data Analyst @ Brighte (Sydney)
Operations Lead @ Multitudes (Auckland)
Product Manager @ GoodHuman (Melbourne)
Strategy & Operations @ DoorDash (Melbourne)
Product Owner/Manager @ ShiftCare (Sydney)
Head of People & Culture @ Harrison.ai (Sydney)
Marketing, Design & Sales @ HealthMatch (Sydney)
Customer Success Manager @ Raisely (Melbourne)
Offline Marketing Associate @ HelloFresh (Sydney)
Country Launcher - Australia @ FirstAML (Australia)
Employment Relations Expert @ WhoGivesACrap (Melbourne)
Enterprise Account Manager and more @ Auror (Melbourne)
Ecosystem
Chief of Staff @ Tempus Partners (Sydney)
Portfolio FP&A Manager @ Blackbird (Melbourne)
Program Manager @ Stone&Chalk (Melbourne)
Investment Analyst @ Family Office (Hobart)
Lead Venture Investor @ Woolworths Ventures (Sydney)
Talent Community Manager @ x15 Ventures (Sydney)
Communications Manager @ AirTree (Sydney)
Founding Team for Tech Fund @ SquarePeg (Melbourne)
Community Manager @ StartupVic (Melbourne)
Operations Manager & Investment Analyst @ SecondQuarter (Sydney)
5) Join - Startups that just raised
Pro tip: Companies often time their fundraising PR when they are ready to hire.
EmploymentHero - $45m incl OneVentures, AirTree and SalesforceVC - human resource platform
Deferit - $15m incl Carthona - defering bills
ShoreTrade - $8m - seafood marketplace
VendorPanel - $4.5m incl Leigh Jasper, Andrew Sypkes - procurement tech
CarClarity - $1m led by EVP - car financing marketplace
Huddled - $640k - software subscrition management
Quashed - $600k led by IceHouse - insurance platform
GGWP - $425k - esports influencer platform
Mastt - incl Legih Jasper - project management
It’s awesome. Article is so helpful. Good work.