Our panel goes deep on the upcoming WeWork SPAC deal that will take the company public, as well as why Airwallex turned down a SPAC offer of their own. In the wake of a major cyberattack on Channel 9, panellists discuss the state of cybersecurity in Australia. The panel also discusses the tech industry’s reaction to Christian Porter’s appointment Industry, Science and Technology portfolio, as well as what the arrival of Second Quarter Ventures, Australia’s first secondary fund means for the startup ecosystem.

David Warren is a co-founder and non-executive director of ASX200 software company Altium. David grew up in the suburbs of Launceston, Tasmania and attended the University of Tasmania (UTAS) where he studied physics and astronomy as an undergraduate, honours and postgraduate student in the late 1970s and early 80s. David recently gifted $2.6 million to UTAS to set up an endowed chair in the field of astrophysics.

In this edition, we talk about recently-announced funds in Australia, including LaunchVic’s $10m sidecar fund to support women-led startups and Investible’s new $50m fund. Piggybacking off of the announcement of LaunchVic’s fund, the panel deep dives into the lack of funding for women-led startups in Australia and what needs to be done to address it. The panel also discusses the Roblox IPO, Vend acquisition by Lightspeed, CBA launching a BNPL competitor to AfterPay, Stripe’s doubling of their valuation. Lastly, NFTs are on the table again as we discuss a $23m raise by OpenSea from Andreessen Horowitz.

In this edition, launched on International Women’s Day, the panel starts by talking about the state of gender diversity within the Australian startup ecosystem and venture industry, where gaps exist and the work that needs to be done. The discussion then shifts to cover major headlines in tech; key topics include how blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFT) will be applied in the future and what can be learned from SpaceX dreaming big and publicly failing fast.

Kristin Vaughan is the Director of the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, the largest dedicated cleantech investor in Australia, created to invest $200 million in early-stage clean technology companies. Prior to joining CEFC, Kristin spent more than a decade in private equity. Kristin previously worked as a management consultant at AT Kearney and holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney.

In this edition, our news panel dives deep into the showdown between Facebook and the Australian government and news outlets. We also discuss new funds from Artesian, Our Innovation Fund and Skip Capital, the status of the New South Wales tech precinct and Judo Bank’s massive $284 million funding round.

Colette Grgic is no stranger to startups. She is the Head of Startup Ecosystem in Australia & New Zealand for Amazon Web Services. In this role, Colette is responsible for the growth of the startup ecosystem at AWS and leads an excellent team who support startups with commercial and technical advice. She also serves as a Director of Heads Over Heels. Prior to her role at AWS, Colette was Chief Innovation Officer at BlueChilli. Colette also founded her own travel tech startup, Arribaa, and managed Autogenie, an internal startup for ASX-listed Smartgroup.

In this edition, we discuss local startup funding news, including raises by Fast, DesignCrowd and Adatree and NAB’s acquisition of Neobank 86 400. The panel also dives deep on cryptocurrency, the GameStop fiasco, what’s happening in fintech and the future of work.

Suse Reynolds is a pillar of the New Zealand startup ecosystem and a passionate believer in the power of angel investment. She is the Executive Chair of Angel Association New Zealand and sits on the board of Angel HQ, the Wellington region’s angel network which she founded in 2006. Since its founding, AngelHQ has invested over $30m in 100+ New Zealand companies.

Dan Krasnostein is an Investment Partner at Square Peg Capital. A Melbourne native, Dan spent the early days of his career working in strategy at Seek before joining Square Peg in 2012 as the first non-founder hire. He spent a few years working for Square Peg in Melbourne before relocating to Tel Aviv where he spent 6 years growing Square Peg’s business in Israel. Square Peg has deployed over $140M in Israel across 13 companies, including Fiverr, Aidoc, Feedvisor and Puresec.