An immersive executive education program for active investors to gain the best practice tools and skills to make successful venture capital investments.
Led by Stanford’s Pedram Mokrian and delivered by a world-class selection of local and international VC experts, you will access one of Australia’s most innovative and diverse entrepreneurial networks. Alongside the online intensive, you will receive 6 months of 1-on-1 mentoring and support, and continued learning through alumni events and bespoke masterclasses.
Program delivery: 10-day online intensive delivered over two 5-day sprints, Demo Day and six months of mentoring
Intensive dates: 2-6 May and 16-20 May, 2022
Cost: $10,500 (+ GST)
Victorian residents are eligible for a 20% fee reduction
Delivered by: Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, Ormond College – Melbourne, Australia
Interested to learn more? Contact our Program Director, Rosh Ghadamian
Program structure Speakers FAQs Apply now Express Interest
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 will 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.
VC Catalyst is delivered by a world-class selection of practitioners and academics. Here are just a selection of the 2021 speakers, including Lead Instructor, Pedram Mokrian.
Founder, Working Theory Angels
Rachael plays many roles supporting the #startupaus ecosystem. She 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 has been sharing her passion for early stage investing through her role as Lead Facilitator for VC Catalyst and now, as Founder of Working Theory Angels.
Executive Director, Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre
Colin McLeod is the inaugural Executive Director of the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre.
Colin is a Professor in the Melbourne Business School where has been the Program Director of the Master of Entrepreneurship degree and the Academic Director of the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship since 2015. He was awarded the title of Enterprise Professor in 2016 in recognition of his contribution to industry and academia.
Colin has a long-standing interest in entrepreneurship. He co-founded his first business in 1992, which expanded to a national company with almost 200 employees, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business in 1995/96 during the first ‘Internet Boom’ (and crash!) and completed a PhD in 1998 that identified some of the key factors that lead to the successful commercialisation of innovation. He has also been a Senior Associate of the Judge School of Business at the University of Cambridge.
In 2007, Colin and colleagues at the University of Melbourne were amongst the first researchers in the world to look at co-production with customers as a source of innovation. Their research was published in the highly ranked Journal of Retailing and has been cited over 800 times by other researchers.
Colin continues to have an interest in the commercialisation of innovation, and he contributed a section called “From Innovation to Entrepreneurship,” to a recent book by Danny Samson and Marianne Gloet titled Innovation and Entrepreneurship and published in 2016 by Oxford University Press.
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. All these companies started in Melbourne and have raised venture capital in the US and Australia, and have expanded to offices in Silicon Valley, Berlin and Manchester with partner operations in India, Malaysia and Uganda.
Colin was a member of the Executive Committee that raised almost $200 million to construct the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre at the Austin Hospital and is a member of the AFL Research Board.
Adjunct Prof, Stanford University
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.
CEO, Tractor Ventures
Matt is a software developer, ex-CTO, ex co-founder, ex-recruiter, ex-BD guys. 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.
Partner, AirTree Ventures
With a background in M&A law and tech banking, James is a seasoned VC investor. James joined AirTree from Accel Partners, the fund behind companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Slack, Etsy and Atlassian, James loves supporting the next generation of great Aussie and Kiwi founders and so far at AirTree, he has lead investments in Prospa, Paxata and 90Seconds.
General Partner, Blackbird Ventures
Nick invests in Australian founders with global ambition at Blackbird Ventures. He also runs Startmate, Australia’s premier startup accelerator. Previously, he co-founded Sessions, a health coaching company, which MyFitnessPal acquired in 2013.
He also co-founded We Are Hunted, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012.
Co-Founder and Partner, BBG Ventures
Nisha Dua is a Co-Founder and General Partner at BBG Ventures, a NYC-based seed fund which invests in consumer start-ups with at least one female founder. BBGV invests across commerce, connected communities, future of work, personalized health and wellness, and Gen Z. At BBGV, Nisha has invested in over 60 start-ups including Zola, The Wing, Pymetrics, KiwiCo, Spring Health, Future Family and Winky Lux.
Nisha has spent the last decade working in media, tech, strategy and law. She was the GM of AOL’s millennial site, Cambio, which she re-launched as a site “for girls, #BUILTBYGIRLS” in partnership with Girls Who Code. She founded the #BUILTBYGIRLS WAVE platform, which has connected over 5000 girls with professionals to help them build their first networks in tech.
Nisha was previously Chief of Staff for the AOL Brand Group, working on strategy, operations and special projects. Nisha cut her teeth as a management consultant for Bain & Company and an M&A lawyer at Blake Dawson. She received her Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws from UNSW.
Founder, Eleanor Venture
Kylie is the founder of Eleanor Venture, an early stage venture capital firm, which makes it easy for private investors to build their own diversified technology portfolios, fitting their own investment theses. In its short history, Eleanor has invested in over a dozen great Australian startups, including Fresh Equities, Jig Space and Goterra, making material capital contributions to their growth journeys.
Professor of Management, University of Melbourne
Peter Gahan is Professor of Management at the University of Melbourne and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Workplace Leadership, where he was Foundation Director from 2012 to 2017. He has previously held academic and visiting positions at UNSW, Monash, University of South California, The European University Institute, Cardiff Business School, New York University and Stockholm Business School. Professor Gahan has also worked as senior public servant as Director of Workplace Innovation in the Victorian Department of Industry, Innovation and Regional Development. He has undertaken commissioned research for both state and commonwealth governments on areas related to employment relations, regulatory arrangements to support workplace innovation, and the consequences of various regulatory labour market reforms. Over the last 25 years, Professor Gahan has published widely on conflict and negotiations, employment relations and collective bargaining, high performance workplaces, labour markets and the future of work, and the consequences of labour market regulation. His current research focuses on two major drivers of change at work: workforce ageing and how technology is transforming the nature of jobs. Peter is currently exploring how older works are perceived by others (co-workers, managers and customers) in the workplace and how these perceptions influence hiring decisions, promotion and performance evaluations.
Co-Founder and Partner, Qualgro
Through 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
David Kenney is widely recognised as the leading legal advisor to businesses/start-ups/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
Jill Klein joined Melbourne Business School in 2009 as a Professor of Marketing and is also a Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Medical School.
After completing her PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan, Jill joined the faculty at Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. In 1997, she joined INSEAD. Jill has also held visiting positions at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration.
Jill’s research has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Management Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, British Medical Journal, and more, with a focus on decision making biases and how they affect decisions in both business and medical settings.
Jill teaches Managerial Judgement, Decision Making and Resilient Leadership on the MBA, Executive and Senior Executive MBA programs, Advanced Managers Program, Specialist Certificate in Clinical Leadership, and a variety of executive education programs.
Jill has also appeared in the Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Guardian and other international media outlets.
Head of Distribution, Square Peg Capital
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.
Founder and Director, HelloCFO
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
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
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
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 Manager, Rampersand
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.
Partner at Giant Leap
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. Giant Leap has invested in 20+ companies to date.
Rachel is also the Co-Chair of Startup Victoria, a non-profit, grassroots organisation supporting startup founders build great businesses.
Rachel’s background is in management consulting and corporate finance, and she previously co-founded a non-profit organisation to raise funds and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease.
Partner, Main Sequence Ventures
Mike Zimmerman is a Partner with Main Sequence Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm investing in deep-tech companies creating future industries. Main Sequence manages the $240M CSIRO Innovation Fund, backed by CSIRO, the Australian government, Temasek and other institutional and private investors. Mike has over 20 years of startup operating and investing experience in Australia and the US, been a founder or executive in several venture-backed companies and worked with several dozen companies as an advisor, director and/or investor. He has an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Amherst College.
Managing Partner, Giant Leap Fund
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.
Venture Analyst, Tenacious Ventures
Komal Patel is an experienced, strategic leader committed to driving impact and innovation across private, public, and philanthropic sectors. She brings a passion for sustainable and inclusive growth in business and society to her work.
Komal currently serves as a Venture Analyst at Tenacious Ventures, where she conducts scouting and due diligence on emerging agtech startups in Australia and around the world. She also serves as a Principal Advisor at Agthentic Advisory, where she supports clients across the agtech industry, including agribusinesses, government institutions, and industry associations, to future-proof their organisations and develop strategies to drive innovation and adoption at scale.
Komal brings a global track record across the US, UK, India, and Australia, working on topics including supply chain data and transparency, food & ag, climate, and health. She also has experience working with Australian agrifood and tech startups focused on supply chain transparency and alternative proteins.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Duke University and an MBA and Certificate in Sustainability from MIT Sloan.
CEO & Co-founder, Geora
Bridie is the CEO and co-founder of Geora. Since 2016, Bridie has navigated the intersection of blockchain and agriculture heading up the blockchain pilot program at AgriDigital, and the subsequent commercialisation of this program by co-founding Geora. On the basis of this work, Bridie authored use cases in a range of publications including CSRIO Data61’s Architecture for Blockchain Applications as well as in the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ e-Agriculture publication Blockchain for Agriculture, Opportunities and Challenges. Bridie speaks regularly on the opportunities presented for farmers by emerging technologies including on global stages such as the World Trade Organisation and the Asian Development Bank.
Bridie is an active member of the Standards Australia Blockchain Technical Committee – Smart Contracts Working Group (IT-041) and the Australian National Blockchain Roadmap, Supply Chain working group. Bridie was recently awarded the THRIVE Australia Female Founder Award, and was a 2020 finalist for Fintech Australia’s Emerging Fintech Leader of the Year.
Bridie holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts studying at both the University of Sydney and Sciences Po, Paris.
Managing Partner, Inventures
Chris is an Australian entrepreneur and super angel.
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. Chris is a founding investor and Chairman of vacation rentals platform Holidu and has invested in more than 60 startups. He worked as Venture Partner with VC funds EQT Ventures, Project A and SquarePeg Capital prior to establishing Inventures and Inventures Collective, an Angel Collective backing ambitious founders building frontier technology to positively impact
Partner, Folklore Ventures
Hannah is a Partner at Folklore Ventures (formerly Tempus Partners). She has spent her career with high growth technology companies including Dropbox, Pandora, and Canva where she was heading up business development and operations, and helped Australia’s best technology companies secure amazing engineering talent in her prior work at Lookahead Search. Before life in tech, was a freelance violinist and built a Grammy-winning contemporary classical music record label.
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.
