Alex Sumsky

Want to Pitch your way to Austin, Texas? 🤠 This year, the winners of the SXSW Sydney Pitch Competition will be flown out to Texas to attend (and pitch at) SXSW Austin 2025. 🔥 That’s right - free flights, free entry + once in a lifetime opportunity to pitch at SXSW Pitch Awards Ceremony. (Pretty awesome prize pool if you ask me.) Whether you like it or not, pitching opens up doors for your startup. Even without a killer prize pool like this, there’s a lot to be gained from a good pitch. In fact, it could just be the thing that makes or breaks your startup. So, how do you make sure you’re pitch-perfect? Practice and feedback. Fortunately, Fishburners is hosting a workshop on Mastering the Art of Pitching this Wednesday, so you can get the full low-down from the experts. A rep from SXSW will also be there alongside Martin Karafilis and pitch coach Peter Browne to pass you all the insights and feedback you need.  Tickets are free for Fishburners members, $15 for non-members. Or, if you’re more of a 1:1 kind of person - you can get feedback on your pitch in a private mentor session by joining the Fishies community. Memberships start from $10/week :) (Also - yes, I badly photoshopped a cowboy hat to Martins's photo and yes... I am losing my marbles 😃)

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📢 Want a crash course in angel investing and venture capital? If you're interested in learning more about angel investing and the world of venture capital, we're hosting an intro series on this topic across multiple sessions, kicking off today! Sign up details below 👇

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This scenario is more common than people think. It will also get worse as African venture sttuggle to raise money and accept unfavorable terms. Selling early or merging is not a bad outcome unless you want to eventually work for nothing. A great learning example on the importance of not just accepting any term sheet out of desperation. So many want to go to the media to announce and forget the minor details. The investor is also in business to win.

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For Ep200 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, we went deep with our guest for this episode, Jason Wyatt, the Co-founder & CEO of Marketplacer. We spoke about everything from how and why he decided to pull away from 8 different companies he was involved in, to go all-in on Marketplacer to challenges when hiring and scaling globally and the importance of strategic investors like Salesforce Ventures on his way to raising over $85M for the company... But we also spoke about overcoming challenging situations such as dealing with personal loss and also making some tough decisions in business... In this clip from the podcast, Jason shares why he shut down a large part of the business, turning off 35% of the companies revenue, to focus on the long term vision and what its meant for the business operations today. The full episode is now available on all major podcasting platforms. I'll add a link in the comments. A big thank you to Bob Schwartz, Richard Hankin and Sam Salter for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our partners for this episode (and long term supporters of the show): Scendar - Australia's OG startup accounting firm Vanta - Automate 90% of the workflow for compliance frameworks like SOC 2, ISO27001 and more. Signup at vanta.com/playbook to get USD$1000 off your plan

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It’s been 6 months since Alo Yoga's parent company announced they were looking for capital at a $10B valuation. In my mind, this would have been a done deal, so I’m sitting here wondering why they haven’t announced a fundraise. I used data only available on Particl to break down the business of Alo to find out what's going on. https://lnkd.in/gYd8XNWc - The parent company did an estimated $1.6 billion in 2023 and they’re likely profitable. - Their growth has been explosive across eCommerce, ~75% YoY, and their sanctuaries, ~130% YoY, with a significant opportunity to expand. - They are a clearly positioned market leader and have cultivated a passionate community who are obsessed with the product that has extremely high sell-through. I'm a big believer that Alo hasn't even had their moment yet and this is a brand that will be here for the long haul. But I do think it's really interesting they haven't announced a fundraise. What do you think? Is there something I’m missing? #businessbreakdown #aloyoga #fundraising #venturecapital #startup #thebusinessoffashion

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🎊 Big News from Our Team at Titanium Ventures! 🎊 Today, we’re thrilled to share that we've evolved from Telstra Ventures to Titanium Ventures! Why Titanium? Because it captures the essence of who we are and aspires to be—a firm that supports exceptionally strong and resilient entrepreneurs, those who thrive under pressure. Titanium is not just a metal with the highest durability and strength-to-weight ratio; it represents the extraordinary capability and determination of the leaders we back—leaders who consistently punch way above their weight. Our commitment remains steadfast: to unearth and scale the most promising ventures in AI, digital, and software sectors. With 99 investments, including 12 IPOs, 17 unicorns and 42 liquidity events, we’re just getting started. Holding almost US$1B in funds under management and having returned US$678M to our investors, we are more driven than ever. This is more than a name change—it’s a reaffirmation of our promise to accelerate the extraordinary, fueling the growth of standout disruptors. We've been doing this for over a decade, and it's what our investors and founders expect us to do for many more to come. Here's to the next chapter in our journey with all of you! #VentureCapital #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TitaniumVentures

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Congrats to Baller League on raising $25m Series A led by EQT Ventures and $8m Seed co-led by Dreamcraft Ventures. 💥 ⚽️ 🙌 Felix Starck founded Baller League in 2023 with an aspiration to lead a new era of #football with a fast-paced, six-a-side and 30 minute format. After two amazing seasons in Germany during 2024, the league is launching in UK and US during 2025, featuring hungry up-coming players in tandem with megastars like Ronaldinho, Usain Bolt, Luis Figo, John Terry, IShowSpeed and KSI. ✨ 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 The #Dreamcrafters are proud to have co-led Baller League's Seed round in July 2024 with our friends from Oakvale Ventures, and we're excited to see the Baller Team secure a massive Series A led by our friends from EQT Ventures only six months later 🔥 📈 "Baller League’s rapid graduation from Seed to Series A is nothing short of remarkable. Raising their Seed round in July and securing their Series A in December highlights the team’s exceptional drive and focus. It’s great to be part of supporting an exceptional team and company that hits the sweet spot in our investment strategy with its #DigitalEntertainment focus and founded in #Germany. We’re especially proud to have brought in value-adding co-investors for their Series A round, ensuring the team is supported as they continue their great momentum." - Carsten Gjoertler Salling 🤗 Read more about Baller League and round in Financial Times and EU-Startups - find the links in the comments 👇 #Startups #VentureCapital

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This post is great for Startmate, but don't ignore the headline: "9 out of 10 times VC loses money". This is a truth a lot of startup founders just don't get... when you take VC, you think you've made it... but *most of the time* a VC writes a check it goes sideways. Getting VC is NOT a magnificent milestone... it's the start of a very risky journey. Think about that: your investor comes to your board meeting... and 8 or 9 out of every 10 board meetings they go to they know "this company ain't gonna make it". I'm not against VC's and I had a terrific VC in my company, but I don't think enough founders *understand* the realities of venture capital, *particularly* in Australia, where the whole ecosystem is quite immature and a long way behind the US. #VentureCapital #fundraising #VC #startups #founders

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David Fogarty has a net worth of $500M 💵 and this is how he runs his FB Ads. You could be running your Ads completely wrong... 😵 Costing you literally millions 💲 Came across a great point from David Fogarty founder of The Oodie and Investor on Shark Tank where he shared his personal KPIs when running top performing ads on Facebook. You can change these performance settings by: -> logging into your FB Business Manager -> Go to 'campaigns' -> Find 'Columns: Performance' (Top Right between breakdowns and view setup) -> Select 'Customize Columns' and now most importantly delete all of the preset metrics on the right and replace with these 💯 1. Delivery 2. Attribution Settings 3. Date Created 4. Bid Strategy 5. Budget 6. Amount Spent 7. Purchases (Total & Cost) 8. ROAS 9. Add To Cart (Only if in CPG) 10. Outbound Clicks and Outbound CTR 11. Cost Per Outbound Click 12. CPM 13. Reach 14. Impressions 15. Video Average Playtime (Only if Video Creative) Comment below a trick you learned while running or managing ads. Full video in the description!

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Our biggest course update to date: 48 New Video Lessons! From mastering Klaviyo audits to supercharging with ChatGPT, this update covers it all. 🚀 Limited Offer: 25% Off Apply HOT25 at checkout to unlock over 8 hours of high-impact training in 97 lessons. What you'll learn: - Optimizing with Klaviyo audits - List growth strategies with 🇺🇦 Sidhartha Sekhar Sahoo - SMS integration in automations with Bogdan Birtom - Tracking your skills journey - Boosting email marketing with ChatGPT Start 2025 ahead of the game—don’t miss this discount! [Link to course in comments] 👇

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Why GP Carry Economics for Syndicates are Superior to Venture Funds Sharing #2 of 5 learnings Zachary Ginsburg posted via Last Money In Media yesterday on reflecting back after 500 SPVs completed. 500 SPVs is not a typo :) – “The carry economics are arguably far superior for Syndicate GPs than the carry economics for fund GPs. We previously put out an article discussing the economics of venture, and the reality is that while venture can be the best performing major asset class the returns are skewed to the top funds with the average fund barely returning 1x capital back. There is no major asset class that has dispersion of returns quite as high as venture capital. This underscores the benefits for Syndicate GPs. For one, it means the time to actually receive carry income can be extremely quickly. Despite starting Calm Ventures in 2020, we had one nice exit in 2021 (~10x outcome in 12 months). While the returns from that investment were only ~10% of the capital deployed to that point, we still received carry (over a half million dollars). In a traditional fund if you returned only ~10% of capital back, you would not be seeing a dollar in carry from that sale. To further underscore the GP benefit, as mentioned, around half of funds return <1x DPI. Meaning half of GPs aren’t seeing a dollar in carry from their funds. You can have a <1x fund in SPVs and still receive an enormous amount of carry distributions. To take the extreme case, let’s say we invest $1M each into 100 investments via SPVs over the course of 3 years - so $100M invested total. 99 of those investments go to zero and one 100x’s or returns $100M. While LPs in aggregate didn’t make any money (we received $100M in distributions and invested $100M), the GP actually makes almost $20M dollars (20% carry x $99M in returns on the single performing investment). It’s worth pointing out that while the carry economics are superior, the fee economics are substantially worse for Syndicate GPs, who often aren’t drawing any consistent income or salary.” Link to full post w/4 other key learning in comments. -- Powered by Sydecar and Forge, Last Money In Media is the most actionable venture capital newsletter. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis, global syndicate leaders with 800+ SPVs closed.

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Watch Video: https://lnkd.in/g9g8i6vQ So the revolution of Social Media, our decentralised TikTok Killer App called OWN is launching this year. Here’s a recent interview that puts it into a nutshell.: #socialmedia #decentralized #creatoreconomy

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Great and insightful post. My imposter feelings show up most right after significant wins. The upper limit issue of self-worth and the internal thermostat freaking out when the temperature gets higher than set is a very real thing for me. I can generally absorb losses and rise up in defiance more easily than the weird void when wins happen, I want to share and celebrate but don’t want to upset others not at that level, and then feel kind of lonely. Working on it. Awareness comes first. We don’t know our limits until we bump up against them. And then we get through or over them. I just wouldn’t have thought that “too good” is as much of a limit as “not good enough”. I think that the imposter syndrome is a combination of both.

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Physical + Digital = Winning. The ROI in Building Bali is insane! At 80% occupancy: $300 - 1.71 years $375 - 1.37 years $450 - 1.14 years There are fluctuations. It's safe to say 2-3 years. ❤️ Let's talk other MMM 👉 conversions.so 

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Users have long believed that their phones were listening to them and that their private conversations were influencing the ads they were being served. Previously Cox Media Group confirmed the existence and use of this capability: "CMG claims that its so-called 'Active Listening' software uses artificial intelligence to 'capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations.'" (https://lnkd.in/g6G36qZc) Now Apple has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $95 million over claims that Siri eavesdropped on conversations without consent. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2019 and claims that non-consensual conversation information and data were sold to third party advertisers to target consumers with personalized ads. Apple, though settling the case, denied the practice. But if even partly true this is a major black eye for the company, which has built the iPhone brand around privacy. I'm inclined to believe there's some truth here otherwise Apple would have no incentive to settle. If that's correct it's extremely disappointing. Apple will be tempted to get more involved with ads as a source of revenue. They have them for the app store, the News app and soon probably elsewhere. They may eventually have paid-search in Siri results (TBD). People will be inclined to believe the reports/allegations regardless of the full story because people are more and more skeptical of authority and conspiracy minded. https://lnkd.in/gaZdytXE

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Many founders dream of getting a $1B exit, but how do you handle this situation if you don't want to sell? This is something Leigh Jasper faced with his previous company Aconex. After spending over 20 years building the company and rejecting multiple acquisition offers, Aconex was eventually acquired by Oracle for $1.6B in 2018 despite Leigh not wanting to sell the company. In this clip from Ep195 of The Startup Playbook Podcast, Leigh shares what that process was like, the duty founders have to shareholders in the company and the need to separate your identity from your company. In the full episode we covered a range of topics including: - Leigh's lessons in scaling and exiting a $1.6B company - His journey in navigating the post-acquisition process - Why founders should take some "chips off the table" via secondaries - Why he decided to start a company again (and things he's keeping/changing the second time around) & much more! The full episode is now available on all major podcasting platforms (i"ll add some links in the comments!) Once again a big thank you to Vanta for partnering with us for the event and Linktree for hosting us. Thanks to Andrew Sypkes and Paul Perrett for their help with research for this interview 🙏 Big shout out to our partners for this episode: Scendar - Australia's OG startup accounting firm Vanta - Automate up to 90% of the workflow for your SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance. Get USD$1000 off by heading to vanta.com/playbook LaunchVic Firmable SecondQuarter Ventures Saniel Ventures #podcast #startup #playbook8

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What’s happening in healthtech? 💊🎉 💰The Vic Gov will invest $7.5M to fund researchers to create 50 new startups  run by Breakthrough Victoria 💻 Safewill, bagged $17M to expand services like digital wills, power of attorney, & probate assistance 🧘‍♀️ Pronto Pilates snagged $1.6M in crowdfunding, to disrupt reformer pilates with affordable, trainer-free classes 💼 Hostplus committed $125M to VC, backing startups through IP Group plc Innovation Fund 📜 Private companies will now have to upload health data to My Health Record thanks to the Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 🧪 Aussie women will soon have access to at-home chlamydia & gonorrhoea tests 🤖 Baymatob won ‘AI Innovator - Healthcare’ at the Aus AI Awards for its maternal health tech providing early warnings for complications 🧬 The Fed Gov launched Genomics Australia, a national body to lead & coordinate genomic research, with a $30M commitment over 4 years 💼 Aus's $15B National Reconstruction Fund begins investing in deep tech, allocating $300M to boost quantum, robotics, & clean energy innovation ~~~🌎 US & Beyond the Borders 🌎~~~ 💍 ŌURA raised $75M, reaching a US$5B+ valuation, partnering with Dexcom to integrate glucose monitoring data into its platform 🧠 Headspace laid off 13% of its staff & is transitioning all therapists from employed roles 📈 WHOOP adds psychedelics tracking to its Journal feature, letting users log ketamine, LSD, & psilocybin use ⚽ David Beckham codeveloped longevity supplement brand IM8 Health with biotech company Prenetics, launching a longevity drink 💻 Eli Lilly & Company, the global pharma, invests S$42M in Singapore to launch a Digital Health Innovation Hub 🛠️ Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers trained a surgical robot using imitation learning from surgery videos Keen for the links & delicious deets?? 🍩🙌 Take a gander at last week's newsletter in the comments below👇😊 --- PS - if you liked this and are keen to join >8700 legends getting health tech and innovation news dropped direct to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter, What the Health, linked in the comments below! 💜 📩 #healthtech  #health  #healthcare  #digitalhealth  #medtech  #biotech

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