Spotlight #15 - Startups & Operators
Batko OS - increase your surface areas for luck to strike.
I’ve been slacking on the Spotlights and I know that many of you click-through to connect with investors, hire or find a job.
So here is a big update >> I have
8x Startups
7x Operators and
23+ 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
1) Get Investment - Angel Spotlight
Vadim Petrichenko
Industry: Tech, B2B SaaS, D2C, Marketplace, Social Impact, Disruptive & Innovative.
Stage: Pre & Seed only.
Check Size: Typically up to $10k.
Investments to date: Early Stage, Pre-Rev in “Brieft”
Open to pitches for pre & seed investment in early stage startups and passionate founders. Particularly interested in founders solving big problems in new, novel ways.
Comfortable being an active investor where I can help, or a passive funder.
2) Invest - Startups Keen to Connect
🚨 Disclaimer* 🚨 This is not financial advice, nor a recommendation. Please connect with the founders directly to hear more.🍷 Cropsy Technologies
Growing intelligence from the ground up.
Problem
High value crops, like wine grapes, need constant care and attention. But growers have no idea of the state of their crop at any moment. It's not their fault, the industry is just well overdue for a technological revolution! Cropsy provides an affordable and easy to use system that scans the crop every time a grower takes their tractors out to do daily jobs. By collecting millions of data points on disease, pests, nutritional problems, fruit counts, post counts, etc. we craft a digital twin of the vineyard, allowing growers to track every single plant over time. Our ultimate goal is to build a profile for every vine and track it's performance over time, so growers know they're making the best decisions for their crop. In the future, Cropsy will be the eyes of every autonomous robot/actuator.
Our big mission can be divided into 3 main stages.
1. Monitor (by collecting data, showing trends, and discovering facts).
2. Optimise (crop care tasks based on the data so growers can make the best use of their land and resources easily).
3. Automate (all the tasks done by humans with autonomous machines that are powered by the Cropsy "brain").
Cropsy is the end-to-end solution for growing intelligence in AgTech.
Solution
Our patented hardware collects high quality and consistent image no matter the time of day. We stick this hardware onto existing tractors which already drive around the vineyard doing other jobs. This is the big advantage; Cropsy solution is very easy to adopt as it doesn't impede workflows. All the images are processed on board the tractor, and results are pushed to the cloud to be displayed on a beautiful SaaS platform.
How do you know it's a problem?
We've just completed a successful paid trial with one of NZ's largest winegrowers. They've committed to buying more hardware units (6-7 x $10k), and we're discussing funding to accelerate our functionality pipeline ($100k - $150k). We found a serious disease the growers and scouts (people who manually inspect the crop) didn't know about just before Christmas holidays. We found it at a stage which was still small enough to treat, so the changed their spray plans as a result.
We've made our first enterprise sale to NZ's largest winegrower just providing one functionality - find and geo-tag all the vines on a 600ha estate ($10k).
We're also expanding to kiwifruit with NZ's sole kiwifruit exporter. In one week, we collected some kiwifruit data and built a berry counter. We're now discussing funding ($100k - $300k) to accelerate development of functionality in kiwifruit, and this is directly transferable to grapes.
What's your central unique insight?
Nobody is building hardware like ours to capture good quality data from the ground; that was the first problem we encountered when trying to monitor crops with machine learning. It was necessary to develop a piece of hardware which is affordable and easy for growers to use and adopt so we could capture high quality and consistent data. This makes the machine learning process not only faster, but unlocks an unprecedented level of accuracy which is very difficult to achieve in field conditions
🎦 Atlasshorts
Bringing independent films to schools and libraries globally.
Problem
Indie filmmakers struggle to show their work to anyone other than the die-hard enthusiasts. Teachers and libraries rely on a homogenous list of content suppliers.
Solution
Indie filmmakers upload films to Atlasshorts — We serve the content to millions of users. Atlasshorts unlocks an entirely new revenue stream for indie filmmakers. Our community connects users to films and visual art, users to users and films to more films.
How do you know it's a problem?
$100k in REV, $75k of REV generated from the University of Melbourne, 500+ indie films signed up, 18 development trials in AUS, NZ, the UK and the US.
What's your central unique insight?
Only ~5% of films produced globally are represented in libraries and schools.
🩺 KeyLead Health
Accelerate new cures with holistic medical insights.
Problem
Lack of medical holistic insight at-scale delays finding cures, costing lives and billions of dollars for healthcare providers.
Solution
We provide a multi-sided data platform for patients, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies to capture and analyse real-world and historical medical data to derive holistic insights
How do you know it's a problem?
The global pandemic showed how delays in finding cures can quickly add up (COVID costs the world $8-15 trillion). Finding cures quickly results in saving more lives and reducing the cost of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases in Australia alone cost $12.5B every year.
Since July 2020, we have onboarded 10 Clinicians in 5 therapeutic areas and more than 2500 patients are currently using our services and this is growing exponentially. We have also achieved $100k in revenue and have been included in more than $1m worth of clinical grants.
What's your central unique insight?
By providing a flywheel architecture where the input from eachy player (patient, clinician and pharmaceutical companies) provides value for all other players, we can solve this problem.
👩⚕️ Medexpert
Expert comprehensive cancer care for all.
Problem
Empowering patients to manage their diagnosis, treatment and recovery to make them live longer, well and with better quality of life.
Solution
Medexpert will me a comprehensive cancer care platform that will help to transform cancer care in a global scale and help patient live longer, live well and have benefits to patients, health care providers and insurance companies. Developing a comprehensive cancer care platform with expert advise and information that anyone can access from anywhere with regular expert advise and second opinions. This would help to reduce hospital cost and admissions so making benefits to all health systems. The patients would be able to consult internationally accredited group of selected specialists who are leaders in their field and get the best available help for their condition.
How do you know it's a problem?
Cancer care is responsible for 5–7% of healthcare costs in high-income countries, reaching approximately $290 billion per year in 2010. Thera are around 150,000 cancers annually in Australia and 400,000 in UK.
What's your central unique insight?
Founders are experts with have more than 25 years of international cancer care experience in UK, Australia and India. Having worked in world leading hospitals and being involved in both treatment and research we are keen for patients from everywhere be able to have access to and be able to have the best quality care and evidence based care for their cancer. The founders have extensive research experience and keen for all patients to have better access to the latest developments and findings and also increase access to clinical trials.
📝 Flexile
Flexile makes quoting complex products faster, easier and 100% accurate!
Problem
Quoting, we help B2B companies quote fast and accurately which saves them significant amounts of time and money, helps them sell more and makes them more competitive. Flexile is a Configure Price and Quote (CPQ) application.
Solution
We solve the problem with a better CPQ application based on product objects rather than product line items that is so much more affordable to on-board that it is now accessible by much smaller organisations than the Enterprises that traditionally buy CPQ. We assist businesses to move from spreadsheet based quoting to an online system that includes their business rules, handles discounting and approvals and syncs with their CRM.
How do you know it's a problem?
As co-founders we know it's a problem as we have worked in businesses with complex products for 15+ years each and witnessed it first hand. At these businesses we tried implementing traditional CPQ solutions but they were disappointing at best and unsuccessful at worst. So far we have beaten the market leader (salesforce CPQ) to win customers and have initial product market fit (10+ paying customers). We have customers with 40 users down to 5 from IT, Telco, Software, Commercial Air Conditioning and Audio Visual industries.
What's your central unique insight?
Traditional CPQ, CRM and Billing systems all store products as single line items because of their relational database structures. Flexile stores product objects (In an object oriented database) that makes management and implementation much faster and easier. Flexile is also designed to solve the UI/UX challenges that most traditional CPQ does not seem to be trying to solve.
🔢 Four2
AI powered offers for your subscribers.
Problem
Consumer subscription companies struggle to intelligently optimise the prices, deals, plans, and offers they give their customers.
Solution
Four2 uses machine learning to understand data generated by customers, segments into groups wth similar behaviour, and suggests what to offer individuals based on past experience of similar people.
How do you know it's a problem?
D2C market is growing 20% YoY, online spending 70% YoY. Four2 had 4 paid pilot customers, 3 are converting to our ongoing pricing + we've acquired 2 new businesses last month. Business' data volume is growing 62% YoY - an asset they want to monetize.
What's your central unique insight?
Everyone is not the same, so providing different experiences from a digital product (based on behaviour) means better outcomes for everyone.
🌲 Lord of the Trees
We rebuild ecosystems using drones, AI, robotics and proprietary seedpods on our way to planting 1 trillion trees.
Problem
Sadly, the earth’s forests are suffering from unprecedented levels of deforestation.
18.7 million acres of the earth’s forests are lost per year* (that’s the equivalent of 27 soccer fields per minute!) and about half of the world’s tropical forests have now been cleared.
Solution
Our proprietary, precision-planting drones represent a revolution in seed deployment and restoring ecosystems on a vast scale.
In areas destroyed by bushfires, disrupted by mining or cleared for agriculture, we will use our 18 years of forestry research and unique seedpod expertise to facilitate companion planting and restore healthy and robust habitats to their former glory in a fraction of the time it currently takes.
Our modified and pre-programmed drones are weather-sealed, shock resistant, equipped with advanced features including deployment confirmation and settings to vary drop rates and allow for different seed types.
Once on-site, they’ll enable the scanning, interpretation, and focused distribution of seedpods to affected areas within just 30 days.
One person on foot would have to work full-time every day for a YEAR to plant the 432,000 seed pods that one of our pilots with a swarm of five drones can deliver in just 12 hours at a rate of 2 seedpods per drone per second!
And, as these state-of-the-art machines can operate night and day, over a million trees could be planted in just 48 hours.
Only 40% of seedlings planted manually will survive to become trees, while our rigorously tested technique achieves a 75% success rate.
How do you know it's a problem?
The UN have identified that we have 10 years to plant these 1 trillion trees to make an impact on the global challenges faced by climate change. This cannot be achieved by planting seedlings by hand. Technology must play its part.
What's your central unique insight?
The sheer scope of the problem cannot be undone by traditional hand planting methods. Technology must play it's part now.
🏡 EasyRent
The first SaaS marketplace for student sublets on a mission to disrupt the rental market.
Problem
No student should waste $3k every single summer paying rent for an empty room.
Solution
Providing a double sided marketplace that allows students to list their rooms up to 9-months in advanced and subletters looking for accommodation over the summer a platform to find a suitable place. Streamlining the entire process top to bottom and making it bloody easy.
How do you know it's a problem?
Over 500 sign ups from students demanding a 9-month rental meaning they only pay rent from February-November. Surveyed 160 students in 2019 and 120 of these didn’t want to pay rent over the summer. Surveyed 80 UOA students last week and 40 said their rooms will be empty this summer while paying rent.
What's your central unique insight?
I’m a student, I get it. I’ve been through the problem myself. I have worked in property for 3 years so I understand the landlord well too.
3) Hire - Operators ready for a startup job
Amanda Cowan
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Senior Associate (Corporate) @ Herbert Smith Freehills
I have unique exposure to the healthcare sector through my partner's recent treatments for cancer. I would love to be a part of improving healthcare in any way I can. He is a stand-up comedian performing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, so let me know if you would like discount tickets or some recommendations!
Ideal Next Industry: Consumer products, healthcare (but open to anything)!
Ideal Next Role: Chief of Staff, or another diverse role across commercial / operations / legal.
Bryce Chee
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Business Analyst @ Drawboard, Operations and community liaison @ Stone and Chalk, Marketplace Quality Analyst @ Carousell
I care deeply about people. I really like getting to know why they tick, what drives them, and what are they are truly looking for. This has helped me greatly in life and is a relevant skill when pursuing a career in Product.
Interesting: It's not something I pursued but I've been known to set up remote virtual assistant teams particularly well. Almost considered turning it into a startup at one point! Hit me up if you're looking for some help :)
Ideal Next Industry: Mental health
Ideal Next Role: Associate Product Manager
Dan Ash
Location: Wellington
Past Roles: Product Owner @ Flint Wealth, Data Analyst @ Open Polytechnic, VP Product / Co-Founder @Thirdweb
I think I have managed to overcome tall poppy syndrome - easier said than done here in NZ
Ideal Next Industry: I have worked in online education, digital media / publishing, and more recently fintech - I'd love to go deeper on any of these but I'd be perfectly comfortable jumping into a totally new area too.
Ideal Next Role: Product Manager / Product Owner / Product Analyst
Suvam Ganguli
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Co-Founder @ ConsultUrth, Manager, Transaction Analytics and Reporting @ ME Bank
I am passionate about thought and the rights of thinkers. I believe in taking the time to think and reflect each day.
Ideal Next Industry: Sustainability Tech
Ideal Next Role: Finance Controler
Atanas Chernev
Location: Sydney
Past Roles: Corporate Development Manager @ AGL Energy, Commercial Finance Manager @ AGL Energy, Associate Director, Valuation and Business Modelling @ EY
A lot of people think that good financial modelling = being an "Excel wiz" or knowing Excel inside-out with all the tricks and fancy formulas. There is a lot more to be said about your input data, structuring, navigation, transparency of calculations and use-friendliness of calculations and outputs. You should be able to print out a good financial model and read it like a book.
Ideal Next Industry: Energy, Sustainability, Technology, Fintech, VC
Ideal Next Role: Head of Commercial Finance, Head of Corporate Development
Kelan Luecke
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: SMSF Accountant (unofficially - operations) @ MJC Partners
I'm in the early stages of being diagnosed with ADHD, which is something that I had never really considered until I learned more about what it really meant - and then it explained a lot. Ultimately it means I think differently to most people, but importantly for me a lot of the struggles it causes made me develop processes and systems to manage these to the benefit of myself and also my extended team at work.
Ideal Next Industry: Venture Capital, Renewables/Sustainability, Fintech
Ideal Next Role: Operations Analyst/Manager, Chief of Staff
Gonzalo Rodriguez
Location: Melbourne
Past Roles: Account Manager, Customer Success Manager, Co-Founder
I have founded my own startup and failed. Now I am in the process of understanding the steps we took in the wrong way and how to take profit from this experience.
Ideal Next Industry: Any Startup at an early stage (Seed, Pre-seed)
Ideal Next Role: Customer Success Manager
4) Apply - Latest startup jobs
These are new roles that were posted in the last couple of weeks.
Startmate Alumni
Operations Manager @ PyperVision (Oz)
Operations Coordinator @ HeapsNormal (Oz)
Content Marketing Manager & Customer Success Manager @ Mentorloop (Oz)
Policy and Advocacy Manager & Brand and Communication Manager @ Swoop Aero (Oz)
Startups
Head of Design @ SafetyCulture (Sydney)
Finance Manager @ Immutable (Sydney)
Social Media Controller @ Vow (Sydney)
Head of People & Culture @ HelloFresh (Sydney)
Risk & Compliance Manager @ Sharsies (Sydney)
Junior & Mid-Product Analyst @ Culture Amp (Melbourne)
Sales Development Representative @ See-Mode (remote)
Digital Marketing Assistant / Intern @ ShiftCare (Sydney)
Content Designer & UX/UI Designer @ Carted (Sydney)
Head of Growth, Customer Marketing Specialist, Customer Success Team Manager @ HotDoc (Melbourne)
Ecosystem
CFO @ LaunchVic (Melbourne)
Idea Validator @ 11point2 (Adelaide)
Project Officer @ Medtech Actuator (Melbourne)
Venture Architect @ BCG DV (Sydney)
Financial Controller @ Folklore Ventures (Sydney)
Investment Associate @ Skip Capital (Sydney)
VC Analyst & Marketing Manager @ IceHouse Ventures (Auckland)