The Path - A Telstra Ventures Show

In this episode of The Path, Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Ventures' Operations Partner, and Andrew Butt, co-founder and CEO of Enable discuss the digitisation of the global supply chain, finding a lucrative gap in this market, successfully determining product fit and finding the right investors to build a truly global software company.   Enable is a SaaS solution to manage complex global trading agreements between suppliers and customers by automating rebate management.

In this episode of The Path, Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Ventures' Operations Partner, and Thomas Brunskill, co-founder and CEO of Forage discuss equality of access to education and training, building a bridge between the world of learning and the world of work and how the recruitment landscape has changed dramatically.   Forage is a virtual work experience platform where recruiters and organisations train and find the next generation of talent.

Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Ventures' Operations Partner, and Bassam Tabbara, founder and CEO of Upbound discuss the future of cloud innovation, attracting employees who share your vision and maintaining the original culture as the business grows. "It's a very exciting space we're in and a very opportune time to be in cloud computing," enthuses Bassam.  

In this episode of The Path, Yash Patel, General Partner at Telstra Ventures, and Hussein Fazal, co-founder and CEO of Snapcommerce, discuss personalized messaging and its role in changing the way people shop on their smartphones, the role of the celebrity investor (like Steph Curry), trusting your business partners and employee culture. Snapcommerce, formerly Snaptravel, found its niche by working out what the customer used messaging for. Now its mission is to "change the way people shop on their phones."

In this episode of The Path, Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Ventures' Operations Partner, and Asad Khan, co-founder, and CEO of LambdaTest, discuss the role of the CEO, the importance of stories, business culture and harnessing an insane vision. LambdaTest is a testing infrastructure company that allows users to run manual and automated tests on their websites and web apps across 2000+ different browsers, browser versions, and operating system environments. The platform has performed over 12 million tests in just three years and is now being used by over 350,000 users across 132 different countries.

Subscribe to The Path in one Click: http://bit.ly/TelstraSub Reinventing insurance to change the world. In this episode of The Path, Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Ventures' Operations Partner, and Phil Edmundson, founder, and CEO of Corvus, discuss Phil's passion for making the world a safer place by helping organizations mitigate or eliminate negative impacts when bad things happen.   Topics addressed in this episode:   1. How to find the right investment partner 2. Why it's vital to work with venture capital investors with subject matter expertise 3. How to create a working environment where mutual respect is front and center. 4. The importance of human connection in driving business growth 5. Hear insights into expanding into international markets 6. Why creating a frictionless environment for customers is non-negotiable. 7. How to play to your strengths   About Corvus Insurance A tech startup team with insurance DNA. The team has decades of experience in commercial insurance and decades more building and growing technology-enabled companies.   They're underwriters, data scientists, product builders, and engineers united by a mission: to make the world a safer place by helping organizations mitigate or eliminate the impact of adverse events. They're inspired by the intelligent, tool-building corvid family of birds that gives them their name. Visit them: https://www.corvusinsurance.com/

Visit us at http://www.telstraventures.com In this 1st (1 of 2) episode of The Path, Gup Ghuliani, Telstra Venture's Operations Partner, speaks with Andrew McLeod, C3O and co-founder of Certn. Hear how Andrew built a massively successful human risk intelligence solutions business to accelerate the 'global trust economy.' Andrew believes that trust is a two-way street, and that breaking down barriers between employers and candidates gives businesses access to a global talent pool they would have otherwise been unable to reach. Andrew shares his journey of starting the company with two close friends, focusing on culture first, and scaling the company's intense-but-fun work culture that he likens to his university rugby team. Tune in to hear about what the trust economy entails and how it has become more relevant than ever at a time where in-person engagements are not always possible. Of course, Andrew also provides insights into how he approached friends and family first and identified mentors to help scale the business. ABOUT CERTN Since 2017, Certn has built the most direct connections to local and international human risk databases – including courts and police services. Our proprietary identification verification solution enables businesses to effectively validate someone's identity and make better trust-based decisions. With a focus on user experience, our award-winning solution offers the fastest, most comprehensive reports ever made. Focusing on real-time background screening solutions for technology, retail, property management, financial, and gig service industries, Certn's human risk intelligence solutions focus on accelerating the background check process, without compromising on accuracy and compliance. As companies and employees shift to remote hiring and work due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a trusted and intuitive background screening solution continues to grow. In assisting the growth of the global trust economy, Certn's machine learning technology allows for a seamless screening process that connects individuals to relevant organizations and life-changing opportunities. Website: https://certn.co/

Subscribe to The Path in one Click: http://bit.ly/TelstraSub This week, I'm excited to welcome Jing Wang, co-founder and CEO of FinTell Financial Services, a leading independent technology provider that's helping financial institutions adapt to the digital economy with its big‒data risk management products and solutions. • Tell me about the company, why you started it, the problems you solve, and how you're helping financial institutions adapt to the digital economy. • Leadership/Management o I understand this is your first startup since you left Amex. How does your experience running a startup differ from a corporate leadership role? o How has your professional network from your corporate days helped your startup? o How have you grown the company to become one of the four top fintech providers in China? o What are some of the tough decisions you've been faced with during your startup journey? How did you choose which path to follow? • Funding the company: o Why did you need funding? o What is your approach to selecting the right investors? o How have investors helped you most? • What's next?: o What are your growth ambitions? o How have tightening regulations impacted Fintell, and how are you navigating these headwinds? BIOGRAPHY Jing Wang is the Co‒Founder, CEO, and Board Chairman of FinTell Financial Services, a leading Chinese financial technology company that provides advanced big‒data risk management products and solutions to a variety of financial institutions and service providers. Additionally, he serves as a corporate advisor to multiple financial companies across China where he advises Chairs, CEOs, and CROs on business strategies and economic growth opportunities. Jing began his professional career in finance with American Express where he held numerous leadership roles throughout his 17 years with the company, including Senior Vice President‒Head of Enterprise Model Validation. In this role, he oversaw and was responsible for global model governance, model risk management, and independent model validation. Following American Express, Jing was the Corporate Vice President at Baidu, Inc., one of the largest search engines in China, which offers dozens of search‒based products, including map, image, video, and news tools.

Episode 2: Gautum Tambay of Springboard THE PATH: An Entrepreneur's View on When and How to Raise Capital Welcome to The Path, hosted by Gup Ghuiliani, Operating Partner at Telstra Ventures. In this videocast and podcast series, we uncover how successful entrepreneurs navigate the world of venture capital to scale rapidly. For each episode, we invite the founders of successful businesses to share their experiences and insights on what they're going through and the changes they've made going forward. Today, we talk with Gautam Tambay, co-founder and CEO of Springboard, a mentor-led online education platform that provides upskilling and reskilling courses for people looking to learn in-demand skills. Watch the interview on video In this episode we ask Gautam: What motivated you to start Springboard? What challenges did you have in building the company? What metrics do you use to measure early business success? The pandemic has accelerated demand for alternate learning. How does Springboard ensure students stay engaged? Genuinely learn new skills? Get hired? What challenges did you have in deciding whether to take VC capital or not? Where are you on your funding path, and why did you need to raise capital? How did you choose which path to follow? What was your approach to selecting the right investors? You raised your Series B last summer, despite social distancing. How did your approach to raising venture investments change? What advice would you offer young entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for their fast-growing businesses? How did you develop your leadership style as a young entrepreneur? What advice would you offer others? Why You Started Springboard, Early Growth Your Funding Path/Leadership: What's Next? Your goal is to educate 1m people in 10 years. How will you get there? (both internal and external drivers).  How will university partnerships play a role? Building a network of mentors is core to Springboard. Are there other models that you look to in benchmarking this program going forward (consulting, university professors, Backroads travel company, etc.)? How will student placement change? Will you link content and projects to more tailored placement (eg did well in this facet of data science as such marketing attribution would be a great career) Do you have an exit strategy? If so, what is it? If not, why not? Springboard Funding Info Springboard raised $31 million to expand its mentor-guided education platform to more geographies. Springboard, an online education platform that provides upskilling and reskilling training courses to people looking to learn in-demand roles, has raised $31 million in a new financing round as it looks to expand to more geographies. The Series B financing round for the San Francisco-headquartered startup was led by investment firm Telstra Ventures . Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures, as well as existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital, and Learn Capital also participated in the round, said the seven-year-old startup, which has raised more than $50 million to date. https://www.springboard.com/

Welcome to the first episode of The Path, hosted by Gup Ghuiliani, Operating Partner at Telstra Ventures. In this videocast and podcast series, we uncover how successful entrepreneurs navigate the world of venture capital to scale rapidly. For each episode, we invite the founders of successful businesses to share their experiences and insights on what they're going through and the changes they've made going forward. Today, we talk with Nick Bulcao, co-founder and CEO of Airspace, a shipping service for critical, valuable goods that's disrupting the entire industry. Check out the YouTube version of this show here: https://youtu.be/p4T0iBQ-aB4 In this episode we cover: 1. Why did you decide to start Airspace? 2. What early failures almost wiped out the company? 3. When did you decide to raise capital? 4. What mistakes did you make deploying the capital and how did you rectify them? 5. How do you grow from 5 to 50 employees and now 150 – double in the next 12 to 18 months. 6. What's next on the horizon? 7. When you talk to other entrepreneurs, what lessons learned do you give them to be successful? 8. Do you have an exit strategy? GUEST Info Nicholas Bulcao is Co-Founder and CEO of Carlsbad, Calif.-based Airspace, a leader in time-critical shipments. Bulcao is a well-established entrepreneur and has successfully owned and scaled businesses within the logistics industry for nearly 20 years. Bulcao founded Airspace in 2015 after he discovered a major communication and visibility problem in the industry, and set out to deliver a solution. Bulcao has seen tremendous growth within Airspace and is responsible for leading the company's nearly 150 employees on all strategic decisions and investment opportunities throughout the U.S. and in its ever-expanding international markets. Learn more at https://www.airspace.com/