Pitch Day is upon us!
Only a few more sleeps to go till our final pitch day when 17 teams will be battling it out for one of the 10 spots!
Mick, Ben & I have said many times how seriously impressed we are with the quality of the startups – but honestly we’re not kidding. They all have amazing ideas with many of the teams already launched & generating revenue.
We have a fantastic balance with more than half focussed on the B2B space with super-broad representation across apps, software, hardware & marketplace platforms.
I’m also personally delighted that more than 50% of our final 17 have female co-founders on board – this is a very very happy stat!
A lot of folk have asked me how we’re selecting the final 10 – so I wanted to introduce you to our fabulous panel of judges who will be helping us select them.
We have eight judges in total who have a fantastic mix of experiences across digital, angel investment, venture capital & the startup space. I’m excited to see what they think of our finalists & really can’t wait to see who they pick on Monday.
Here’s a little more about our awesome panel…
Charlotte Yarkoni
Co-Founder of muru-D & Executive Director of Global Applications & Platforms at Telstra. As the co-founder of muru-D, Charlotte is our head judge.
Before joining Telstra, Charlotte was VP of Cloud Services at VMware & was CEO of Xeround, a cloud services based startup, providing subscriber management software products to communication service providers.
Her network in the US is a major asset to the muru-D programme & she’s passionate about helping the Australian startup ecosystem be as strong as it can be.
Rick Ellis
Rick joined Telstra in January 2012 to lead the newly created Telstra Media Group, which combines the Digital Media & IPTV (DM&I), Sensis and Telstra Television divisions.
Telstra Media Group’s brands and services are some of the biggest brands in Australia including AFL.com.au, NRL.com, MOG, BigPond Movies, Sportsfan, & Foxtel
Rick was formerly Chief Executive Officer of TVNZ, and has held a number of senior leadership positions in the industry in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He’s a hugely passionate supporter of startups and is one of the lead sponsors behind muru-D.
Aliza Knox
Aliza Knox is currently the Managing Director of Online Sales, APAC at Twitter.
Formerly, Aliza held leadership positions at Google where, amongst responsibilities for Commerce, Online Sales and Operations across Asia-Pacific, she was also responsible for Google’s Women in Leadership programs for the region.
Aliza has over 2 decades of experience in Consulting & Financial Services, having worked for Boston Consulting Group, Visa International & Charles Schwab.
David Mckeague
Co-Founder of Incoming Media – a predictive mobile content delivery platform, an Aussie who is no stranger to Silicon valley.
David was also Business Development Manager of NICTA’s Security and Environment Business Team. He has extensive experience in systems engineering and the commercialisation of research in areas such as mobile network, big data analytics, image processing, security applications and the energy industry.
Monique Talbot
Monique is an Internet Entrepreneur. The Founder and CEO of SheSaid.com.au, launched in 1999, which has been a trusted source of information for women on fashion, beauty, travel, lifestyle, health, love and entertainment for over a decade.
SheSaid is Australia’s largest independent free online magazine for women, reaching internet-savvy females who are shopping focused and brand conscious.
Monique also successfully launched Tempest media in 1999, which she then sold to Adconion Media group in 2007, so she knows what it’s like not just to raise funding, but also how to successfully exit a business.
Han Kotterman
Han Kotterman is the Executive Director, Strategy and Business Development for Telstra International Group.
He was previously Acting CEO and Executive Vice President, Customer Service & Operations of CSL Limited. In the latter role, Han led the Customer Service and Operations of CSL as well as the Customer Experience Management team.
Han has over 20 years of experience as a senior executive, management consultant, board member and international tax lawyer.
Pete Cooper
Pete is an experienced innovator and investor in financial technology. He has a proven track record of success in most stages in the industry value chain over 20 years and more than a dozen countries. Now consulting to and investing in primarily financial technology innovators and actively working with them to deliver internationally.
He’s an experienced CEO of many startups and has sat on the boards of many larger scale companies as well, and has been an active mentor in the Australian startup scene for years.
Stuart Fox
Managing partner of Artesian Ventures, a principal investor in early stage ventures in Australia and China. Artesian partners with accelerators, incubators, angel groups and universities to create early stage venture capital co-investment funds such as the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund and Slingshot Venture fund.
In addition to direct investments he is an investor/mentor with Sydney Angels, Innovation Bay, Newcastle’s Slingshot accelerator, Illawarra’s iAccelerate program, Clean-tech accelerator Ignition labs, SydVentures and Springboard Australia which supports entrepreneurial women.
I’m sure you’ll agree that’s one hell of a panel.
To the 17 teams pitching on Monday, I wish you all the best of luck, remember to bring the passion & just knock it out of the park!