VC Catalyst

Lauren is a community strategist and disruptive innovation expert, specialising in generative AI, web3, fintech, the sharing economy, and early-stage investing. As VC Business Development Manager for ANZ at AWS Startups, she focuses on fostering connections with emerging founders and supporting startups to scale globally. Previously, Lauren was Principal at Startmate, where she led founder scouting, investment programs, and media, and as Partner of Platform at Reinventure Fund, she shaped Australia’s fintech ecosystem.

Dan is a passionate advocate for using business and finance to create a sustainable and equitable future. As a founding partner at Ecotone Partners, he brings extensive experience in impact investing, having previously served as CEO of Impact Investment Group (IIG), one of Australia’s largest impact fund managers. Prior to this, Dan was the inaugural CEO of Impact Investing Australia, where he helped shape Australia’s contribution to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing. With a 13-year career at JBWere and Goldman Sachs JBWere in various senior roles, including COO and Acting CEO, Dan combines financial expertise with a commitment to positive social and environmental impact.

A founding faculty member of Stanford’s VC Unlocked program, former Principal at Mayfield Fund and instructor at UC Berkley’s Haas School of Business, Pedram brings extensive VC knowledge and experience to the Wade Institute. Whether early-stage startups, Fortune 50 companies or the World Bank, Pedram shares his experience from working with hundreds of business leaders and entrepreneurs across five continents.

Rachael is a former Chair of the Board for StartupAus, Partner in Startmate and was a founding Board member of LaunchVic. In her previous role as Head of Startups ANZ at Amazon Web Services, she was charged with growing out the market, driving quantity and quality of startups in ANZ. Additionally, Rachael is a strategic advisor and investor to a number of founders and their early-stage companies. She shares her passion for early-stage investing as co-creator and Founding Partner for VC Catalyst and Founder of Flying Fox Ventures.

Colin is a Professor at the Melbourne Business School and was Academic Director of the Master of Entrepreneurship from 2015-18. He is currently a Director/Investor/Co-founder of six early stage companies in retail technology, online training, wireless technology, employee management, aged care and wearable biotechnology and co-created the VC Catalyst curriculum with Rachael Neumann.

Matt is a software developer, ex-CTO, ex co-founder, ex-recruiter, ex-BD guy. In his own words, that’s a lot of ex’s! Now he’s focussed on early-stage investing with a bias towards founders building enduring companies over the long haul.

Jodie is Co-CEO at Tractor Ventures and is passionate about helping businesses start and grow. She was previously General Manager at SBE Australia, set up the Innovation Bay community in Melbourne, is an advisor to multiple startups and mentor at Startmate. Jodie also has experience as cofounder of two-sided marketplace, Occasional Butler, which was acquired by rival Airtasker and depo8 coworking space.

Kate is the CEO of LaunchVic, the Victorian Government’s startup agency and has considerable experience in technological innovation across start-ups, academia, corporates, and government.
An experienced non-executive director, Kate is currently a member of Charles Sturt University Council. She previously led the development of an HR start-up through a listing on the ASX. She held the position of Senior Telecommunications Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and has also worked as a General Manager at NBN Co.

Kylie is Co-founder of Flying Fox Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, which makes it easy for private investors to build their own diversified technology portfolios. Flying Fox has now invested in more than 45 great Australian startups. Passionate about introducing more investors to the joys of early-stage tech investing, Kylie is a regular contributor to leading investor education programs including VC Catalyst and Airtree’s Explorer Program.
Kylie brings empathy to the founder experience, having founded two technology businesses. She has almost two decades experience as a corporate transaction lawyer and is a capable company director.

A champion of startup women, Nisha counts startups like Glamsquad, Zola, Modsy, goTenna, Pymetrics, Lola, Beutycon and The Wing as part of her portfolio at BBG. Nisha is also the founder of #BUILTBYGIRLS, an organisation committed to giving young women the tools to help them build the world of tomorrow in a tech-enabled economy.

Ben is an active angel investor and founder of Archangel VC which invests in pre-seed and seed stage companies in Australia and New Zealand. He’s worked with dozens of startups including as an advisor or mentor and was voted a Startmate MVP. Prior to early stage investing, Ben worked at a corporate venture capital firm investing in the US and China where he achieved several exits. Before investing Ben worked helping companies grow and launch new initiatives in the areas of SaaS, cybersecurity and healthcare.

Jill has held positions at Kellogg Graduate School of Management, INSEAD, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. She currently teaches Managerial Judgement, Decision Making and Resilient Leadership in the MBA, Executive and Senior Executive MBA programs as well as the Advanced Managers Program.

Leila is responsible for building relationships with investors, raising Square Peg’s funds and investor relations. Leila has considerable experience in working with institutional investors, family offices and financial advisors, as well as raising funds across multiple asset classes and strategies.

Previously, she was an Executive Director in the Institutional Sales team at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) (2009-2017). Prior to that, she managed relationships across asset consultants and research houses for GSAM.

Gabrielle joined Main Sequence Ventures, a deep tech venture capital firm managing the CSIRO’S Innovation Fund, in 2019 bringing over 15 years of financial markets experience. She has a strong focus on ESG principles and is deeply involved in a number of company creation opportunities. Her goal is to help deep tech entrepreneurs and their teams access the knowledge, networks, and capital they need to build globally significant companies. Gabrielle previously worked in investment banking at ABN AMRO and Morgan Stanley and investment management at Challenger.

A seasoned entrepreneur and VC investor, Jules is currently Partner at Mindset Venture in Los Angeles. Prior to this, she was Partner at IBM’s Blockchain Accelerator in NYC and Co-Founder of Prose Ventures, an independent fund focused on professional services. Jules has exited three major startups including Evolve Law and Hire an Esquire. She has degrees from UCLA and LSE and is a Kauffman Fellow and mentor for young women.

Lucy is Principal on the VC investment team at Square Peg, whose focus is empowering exceptional founders across Australia, Israel and South-East Asia. Stages: seed, Series A, Series B. Lucy was previously a management consultant at Bain with experience across strategy, org design, private equity and digital products with an industry focus in financial services. She also worked at Go1 in their Series B stage to help scale their partnerships channel.

Paul is an international investor with extensive experience in Silicon Valley, the UK and Australia. Following a prolific career in strategic communications and leading many startups through to major acquisition, Paul cofounded rampersand to invest in and support Australian early-stage technology companies.

Rayn has been an active angel investor for the past 7 years. He has invested in over 70 startups and funds including Blackbird, Instaclustr, Propeller Aero, Carbar, Eucalyptus & Fresh Equities. Rayn is a venture partner at Archangel Ventures, an early-stage angel fund focusing on the first 2 funding rounds. In his free time, Rayn loves to collect startup tshirts and Linkedin recommendations.

Nicole is founder of Start Small Ventures, an advisory firm providing capital raising and growth strategy support to startups and supporting early-stage investors with investment strategy and approach. She was previously Investment Director at Rampersand. Prior to that Nicole spent seven years in SEEK’s strategy team, following on from a number of years in strategy consulting and investment banking. Her journey has given her broad insight into investing, product strategy, general business operations and fast growth environments, all very useful when it comes to finding—and helping—the best tech startups in the country.

Will is Managing Partner at Giant Leap, Australia’s first and only 100% impact venture capital fund manager. Giant Leap invests in exceptional, rapidly scalable businesses that blend financial returns with deep social and environmental impact, across three impact themes: sustainable living, health and wellbeing and empowering people. Will has 15+ years of experience in financial services specifically within venture capital, private equity, property investment and corporate finance. . He is also a non-executive director of Alberts Group and a mentor with Startmate.

Chris is a venture capitalist at Five V Capital and a Partner of the angel syndicate Cut Through Angels. Prior to joining Five V in 2022, Chris spent nine years in New York, where he held various operating roles at OnDeck, and led Mastercard’s startup accelerator and corporate venture program for North America. Before moving to the US, he was an investor at TDM Growth Partners and part of KPMG’s M&A team in Sydney. Chris is the founder of startup ecosystem publication Cut Through Venture, and the publisher of The State of Australian Startup Funding report. Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Yale University.

Hugh began his entrepreneurial journey while studying medicine at Monash University in Melbourne. Founding Dialogue Consulting during his studies, he provided risk management and strategy advisory services to various clients. In 2013, he launched Schedugram, later rebranded as Sked Social, to streamline Instagram scheduling. Recognising the challenges faced by first-time founders, he co-founded Galileo Ventures with James Alexander in 2020, focusing on seed-stage investments and mentorship. Hugh has been recognised by Forbes and Australia’s top 30 under 30 founders. He holds a BHumSci/BMedSci(Hons) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sam is a Partner at Blackbird, a multi-stage venture capital firm with $2 billion in assets under management. Originally from Australia, she now heads up the office in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), where she raised its inaugural $60M New Zealand fund in 2020 and its second $80M New Zealand fund. Sam has broad investment interests including digital healthcare, robotics and IoT and B2B software, including AI. Sam sits on the boards of Halter, Harrison AI, Partly, FirstAML, Foundry Lab and Workyard. Sam is passionate about diversity in technology and venture capital and spear-headed the release of the Model Code of Conduct for the Startup Community as well as a venture capital internship program for women.
Prior to joining Blackbird she was a legaltech startup founder, an e-commerce product and strategy manager, and practiced in corporate and litigation teams at Minter Ellison before career-pivoting into startups in 2010.

Josh has 10+ year’s building community and programming across the Victorian startup sector and is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and innovation in the tech sector. In his role at LaunchVic, he supports the growth of the Victorian startup ecosystem, with a focus on early-stage AgTech. Josh wants to empower founders to reach their ambitions by creating and delivering engaging events, programs, and content that connect them with resources, opportunities, and networks. Outside of work, Josh supports the queer tech community with the local chapter of Out in Tech, a global non-profit organization and is also President of Melbourne’s Queer Rowing Club.