An immersive executive education program for active investors to gain the best practice tools and skills to make successful early stage high growth venture capital investments.
VC Catalyst is an exclusive multi-part program designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the venture investment space. Delivered online, the program has been developed to maximise engagement and collaboration.
This program is one-of-a-kind in Australia, delivered by Wade Institute and sponsored by LaunchVic. You will engage with a curated cohort of diverse participants and experts from local and international markets who will share best practice skills, networks, and thought leadership to help you craft a strong investment thesis.
VC Catalyst also includes the rare opportunity for six months of expert mentoring, continued learning and development through alumni events and masterclasses, and access to Australia’s most innovative entrepreneurial network.
Express Interest Apply now Download brochure
Program delivery: 10-day online intensive delivered over two 5-day sprints, Demo Day and six months of mentoring
Intensive dates: 8-12 May and 22-26 May 2023 (TBC)
Cost: $10,500 (+ GST)
Note: Fee increase to $10,990 (+ GST) from 1st November 2022.
Victorian residents are eligible for a 20% fee reduction
Delivered by: Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, Ormond College – Melbourne, Australia
Powerful network of VCs, angel investors, experts and fellow investors for generating future deal flow
Tools to successfully navigate and engage with the venture capital ecosystem
Insight and guidance from 1-on-1 mentoring with some of the world’s leading VCs and VC investment education experts
Actionable strategies and tools for building and managing high-yield portfolios
Methodology to assess opportunities against your personal investment philosophy
Exposure to startups, deals and investment opportunities
Express InterestI think investing into early stage startups requires a leap of faith. And I think what I learned about myself [from VC Catalyst] is that I’m ready to take that leap. I’m quite comfortable with that risk level.
Elina Wilson (VC Catalyst alumna, 2019)
ONLINE INTENSIVE
We bring together academics and industry practitioners to deliver immersive and relevant content.
DEMO DAY
Demo Day is an opportunity to put your learnings into action and get front row access to exciting startups.
1-ON-1 MENTORING
Your mentors will help you over six months as you seek to implement what you have learned.
The VC Moment is a new report on how venture-backed companies can transform Australia for the post-COVID era.
A deep dive into the Australian VC ecosystem, the report explores where the opportunities lie, and how investors can harness them to create a thriving technology export sector that will bring our innovation to the world. From software-as-a-service, to healthcare, deep technology, cybersecurity, space technology and agtech, the report shows that the startup sector is thriving, and investors today have a unique chance to break into the local VC ecosystem from its early stages.
There’s no time like the present for Australia’s VC ecosystem. The VC Moment demonstrates why investors have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the nation’s economic future.
Read moreSome of the most compelling opportunities are in niche areas easily overlooked, but with the potential to grow exponentially for decades. We have seen this in health-tech where computing power has intersected with existing clinical practices and diagnosis, and long established models and practices have essentially become redundant.
Alister Coleman, Managing Partner, Folklore Ventures
VC Catalyst is delivered by a world-class selection of practitioners and academics. Here are just a selection of the 2022 speakers, including Lead Facilitator, Rachael Neumann.
Founder, Flying Fox Ventures
Lead Facilitator Rachael designed the VC Catalyst curriculum with Professor Colin McLeod. She is a leader, investor, educator, and mentor extraordinaire in the #startupaus ecosystem.
Rachael is currently Founding Partner at Flying Fox Ventures and was previously Founder of Working Theory Angels. She has worked with thousands of early-stage startups as Head of Startups for Amazon Web Services ANZ, as a Partner at Startmate, and in her two Federal Government appointments distributing funding for the Accelerating Commercialisation & Boosting Female Founders Initiative programs.
Rachael is passionate about helping companies scale and increase their impact through differentiated customer experiences and new product development.
Executive Director, Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre
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.
Adjunct Prof, Stanford University
A founding faculty member of Stanford’s VC Unlocked program, instructor at UC Berkley’s Haas School of Business and former Principal at Mayfield Fund, one of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture firms, 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.
Chief People Officer, Blackbird
Justin is currently Chief People Officer (CPO) at Blackbird. He was previously Head of HR at Google, with 10,000 employees in 50 countries Google, at a Silicon Valley startup, and in consulting, as well as an advisor to Google Capital and advisor to several startups. As the CPO at a Silicon Valley unicorn, he built and led the 100-strong People function. During this time we debuted on a number of Fortune Best Places to Work lists, as well as FastCompany’s World’s Most Innovative Companies.
ounder, Managing Partner at Folklore
Alister is the founder and Managing Partner of Folklore Ventures, a first cheque to forever investment firm, which believes in the
power of founder vision and the potential of teams, right from the start. He previously co-founded ShippingEasy, a SaaS company delivering fulfilment automation to eCommerce merchants that was acquired in 2016 and has more than 15 years’ experience as a VC, founder and adviser to technology companies.
Co-Founder and Partner, Flying Fox Ventures
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 invested in more than 30 Australian startups, including making material capital contributions to their growth journeys. Kylie has a legal background and is a regular contributor at Australia’s leading investor education providers including, VC Catalyst and Airtree’s Explorer Program.
Co-Founder and Partner, BBG Ventures
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.
Professor of Management and Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), University of Melbourne
Peter Gahan is Professor of Management and Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) (Faculty of Business and Economics) at the University of Melbourne. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Workplace Leadership, where he was Foundation Director from 2012 to 2017. Peter has previously held academic and visiting academic positions at UNSW, Monash University, University of South California, The European University Institute, Cardiff Business School, New York University and Stockholm Business School.
Co-Founder and Partner, Qualgro
Throughout his time at Qualgro Peter has lead investments in SaaS, data, marketplaces, messaging, and hardware. Previously Director at Singtel Innov8 and Co-Founder of Optus-Innov8, Peter has long held leadership positions in business, corporate and product development. He is also an investor and mentor at Startmate.
Partner, Hall Chadwick (Sydney)
David Kenney is widely recognised as the leading legal advisor to businesses/startups/scale-
ups in Australia. An advisor, partner, mentor, angel investor, he understands the challenges in business, raising capital and growing teams and revenue. With a background in corporate finance, accounting and international tax, he sits on many advisory boards across a range of sectors.
Professor, Melbourne Business School and Melbourne Medical School
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.
Head of Distribution, Square Peg Capital (Melbourne)
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.
CEO, LaunchVic
Kate is CEO of LaunchVic, the Victorian Government’s startup agency and has significant experience in technological innovation across start-ups, academia, corporates, and government and is an experienced non-executive director. In early 2022, Kate’s was awarded
the Global Policy Champion award at the annual Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC).
Founder and Director, HelloCFO (Melbourne)
Bryn is the Founding Director of HelloCFO, a specialist accounting and advisory practice supporting startup and high-growth businesses.
With a diverse background covering tax and accounting, corporate finance and CFO services, Bryn delivers practical advice drawn from a wealth of experience with clients ranging from VC backed startups, high-growth disrupter businesses and ASX listed entities. Bryn currently supports numerous Seed to Series B stage startups operating within Australia and globally in sectors spanning SaaS, fintech, hardware, agtech, and consumer internet.
Partner, Mindset Ventures (Nashville)
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.
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, rampersand (Melbourne)
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.
Venture Partner, Archangel Ventures (Sydney)
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.
Investment Director, Rampersand (Melbourne)
Nicole joined Rampersand after seven years in SEEK’s strategy team, following on from a number of years in strategy consulting and investment banking. That 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.
Investment Manager, Giant Leap Fund at Impact Investment Group (Melbourne)
Rachel is a Partner at Giant Leap, Australia’s first 100% impact venture capital fund. Giant Leap invests in exceptional, rapidly scalable businesses that blend financial returns with deep social and environmental impact. We invest across three impact themes: health and wellbeing, sustainable living and empowering people. Rachel is also the Co-Chair of Startup Victoria, background is in management consulting and corporate finance.
Managing Partner, Giant Leap
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. The portfolio includes Sendle, Glam Corner, Perx, Goterra, Applied, Work180, Amber, and Mindset.
Principal, Square Peg
James is a Principal on the investment team at Square Peg, empowering exceptional founders across Australia, Israel and South-East Asia. He previously ran both Startmate, Australia’s most powerful startup network, investing in early-stage companies each year and helping them grow, and the Startmate Fellowship. Prior to this James was based in the US where he helped scale Khan Academy from YouTube success to the biggest ed-tech organisation in the world. As VP of Strategy and Ops, he built the BD and Adoption (Marketing) functions and ran the Educator/Classroom business.
Chief Operating Office, Tractor Ventures
Jodie is currently COO 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.
Investment Manager, Rampersand (Sydney)
Taryn is Investment Manager at venture capital fund Rampersand working to seek out, invest in and support founders of earlystage technology start-ups to grow. She is passionate about increasing diversity in innovation and supporting women founders
who currently receive only 3% of venture funding. Taryn previously worked at Goldman Sachs in Investment Banking in Sydney and London, as well as for the Light Warrior Group in Melbourne.
Investor, Blackbird
Christie is a member of the Investments team in Blackbird’s Melbourne office. She was previously a Partner at Athletic Ventures, a syndicate of Australian elite athletes investing in startups. She also was (and still is!) a pro athlete – she has worn the green-and-gold for Australia in the sports of Trampolining, CrossFit and Beach Volleyball. Christie spent a decade in management consulting, is a keynote speaker on high performance psychology and also spent a year working in the circus.
Managing Partner, Possible Ventures
Melbourne-based Chris is an international entrepreneur, executive, business builder, and super angel, having invested in more than 60 startups. He built and sold price comparison business Getprice to News Corp, eCommerce marketplace Next Commerce to Future PLC and programmatic ad marketplace Hynt to Zalando. He spent 7 years living in Germany, and also worked as Venture Partner with VC funds EQT Ventures, Project A and SquarePeg Capital.
LaunchVic is Victoria’s startup agency. Established by the Victorian Government in 2016 as an independent agency responsible for developing Victoria’s startup ecosystem. Their investment into our program will improve the local investor education landscape and help create the next generation of startup Angel and Venture Capital investors.
LaunchVic
Best practice learning bringing together leading academics, investors and experts to deliver immersive and relevant content.
Active mentoring to complement deep learning with ongoing feedback and guidance to help you tailor the tools and tactics for you.
Unrivalled access to leading Australian and international investors sharing their playbook for venture capital investing.
Apply now
Our Program team will be in touch with further details.
Who is this course best suited to?
VC Catalyst has been created for active investors with a demonstrated history of investment. We are primarily seeking participants with the capacity to invest and who possess the ability to make a sizeable impact on Victoria’s startup ecosystem. We recommend reaching out to us directly to discuss whether this program is the right fit for you.
Am I obligated to make any investments during the course?
There is no obligation to make an investment during the program. We do however encourage active investors to take advantage of Demo Day and the 1-on-1 mentoring relationship to support making a deal if that aligns with their investment plan.
How do I apply for a scholarship?
We are committed to ensuring that the VC Catalyst program includes a diverse range of participants, faculty and guest speakers.
To ensure this, we have five full tuition scholarships on offer for each cohort.
Merit will be awarded to participants who have shown an active commitment to diversity and inclusion and will use their attendance in the program to promote and support a more diverse investment landscape. You will have the opportunity to apply for a scholarship during the online application process.
Who are the teachers/faculty and what are the class sizes?
VC Catalyst will be taught by a diverse set of world-class experts and practitioners in venture capital investing and the startup space. 2019 speakers included Stanford’s Professor George Foster, Square Peg Capital and SEEK’s Paul Bassat and BBG Ventures’ Nisha Dua.
VC Catalyst class size will range from 20 – 30. The program cohort has been kept deliberately small to facilitate optimal discussion and collaboration.
Do you accept applicants from outside of Victoria?
Applications are open to both Australian and international residents. The first 15 Victorian active investors who apply will receive a 20% fee reduction.
Who will my mentor be?
All speakers and faculty, alongside experienced Australian investors, will be made available for one-on-one mentoring throughout the six-month mentoring period. You will have limited access to the entire cohort of mentors during this period.
What’s the application process? How will you select the participants?
All applications are to be made online. Participants will be selected on their suitability to the program and to create a diverse cohort of participants. You will be notified of your application outcome shortly after submission.
I’ll be unable to attend one of the days/sessions, how will I make this up?
In-depth class materials will be provided where a participant is unable to attend a session. However, exposure and interaction with faculty and fellow participants is an incredibly important component of this program and so it is strongly encouraged that you try and attend all sessions. Let our program manager know as early as possible so that we can try and accommodate you.
