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?

1. Get Investment - Angels keen to connect

2. Invest - Startups keen to connect

3. Hire - Operators ready for a startup job

4. Apply - Latest startup jobs

5. Join - Startups that just raised

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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.

>> Get in touch here.

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.

>> Get in touch here.

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.

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3) Hire - Operators ready for a startup job

Aashlesha Venkatachalam

>> Get in touch here.

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

>> Get in touch here.

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

>> Get in touch here.

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

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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)

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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

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* The information contained in this Startup Spotlight Series (the Information) is provided for information purposes only. No warranties or representations are made by Startmate or myself with respect to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the Information and no part of the Information may be relied upon for any purpose whatsoever.

The provision of the Information to any person does not constitute, and may not be used for the purposes of, an offer of securities or interests of any kind to that person or an invitation to any person to apply for the issue of securities or interests of any kind. In preparing the Information, neither Startmate or I have taken any account of the investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any particular person, and prospective investors must not construe the Information as tax, legal or financial product advice. Before making any decision to invest, prospective investors should:

(a) connect directly with the founders of each portfolio company to find out further information;

(b) seek and rely on their own professional advice, in particular by obtaining appropriate tax, legal, financial and investment advice in light of their own circumstances; and

(c) conduct their own independent investigation and analysis regarding the Information.

No responsibility or liability is accepted by Startmate, its related bodies corporate, or any of their respective officers, employees, agents or advisers, for any of the Information, any omission from the Information or for any action taken by any person on the basis of or in reliance on the Information; and

The Information is only intended for persons who are “wholesale clients” within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and to US persons who are “accredited investors” as defined in Regulation D of the US Securities Act 1933.