Science meets VC

Jobkeeper Update. Welcome to a special edition of Science meets VC podcast Todays episode is less about science and more about economics and stimulus packages for the startups and investors David Kenney, Partner at Hall Chadwick is going to give us an update about the Australian Government Stimulus package including the job keeper program David is an old friend of has been an active supporter of Australia’s startup ecosystem New legislation was passed last night, our discussions include updated eligibility criteria as of April 26th This is not financial advice David and I are not your accountants or lawyers Please seek your own financial advice PS Apologies for the sound quality, various WFH issues mean we cant get access to our normal studios

Recorded Wednesday 25th of March 2020. Last month most people had never heard of an epidemiologist now everyone thinks they are one. We have a real Epidemiologist on the show, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, aka The Health Nerd talks COVID19. What the key measures are when discussing epidemiology, what we have to watch, which countries have performed well, what the current situation is in Australia.

The inside story of the creation of the Australian plant-based meat company V2 Food. From incorporation to millions of revenue shipping to 450 stores in less than 12 months. Phil Morle Partner at Main Sequence Ventures and Nick Hazell CEO of V2Food. We cover: New Product Announcements How the company was formed How they got to market so quickly Their rapid expansion plans this year (already doing multi-millions in revenue) Venture Science & what it means for Main Sequence Ventures CSIROs role in Venture Creation as a science powerhouse Full disclosure: Our fund Main Sequence Ventures helped create V2 Food and is a significant shareholder in the company.

3 short interviews with a few of my favourite teams from the CSIRO ON Accelerator, Hydrogene, Quantum Brilliance and Redback Systems. CSIRO ON Accelerator is an accelerator program that takes University researchers and helps turn their technology into a product and launch a startup to get it out into the world.

Super interesting discussion from an expert in the Nuclear field. Dr. Mark Ho is a Nuclear Engineer at ANSTO (Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) and President of the Australian Nuclear Association. We talk - How to reduce our reliance on coal-fired power plants, powering the country in a decade when they start to shut down. - What steps we need to take to get Nuclear Power in Australia. - Nuclear reactors, how many are there globally, what % of the worlds power do they generate - Australia's Nuclear capability - ANSTOs Nuclear medical business - Safe storage of waste fuel - How long does it take it to build a Nuclear Reactor - Who is leading the world (Hint think red)

Our good friend Dominic Dirupo from Alphastation explains the process of making an Initial Public Offering or listing your tech, biotech or medtech company on the ASX. We talk about all the steps that need to happen, the mistakes that entrepreneurs make, we discuss the costs, what companies are suited and not suited, traps for young players and steps you can take if you want to get ready.

What can we grow? - Synthetic Biology is one of the most fascinating and promising technologies of the future. It offers the ability to grow all sorts of new materials, foods, pharmaceuticals and various chemicals at scale cheaper and faster than traditional methods. I interview some of the worlds leading researchers in Synbio at the Australian and New Zealand Synthetic Biology Conference in Brisbane, including - Professor Kirill Alexandrov Professor of Synthetic Biology at Queensland University of Technology https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/kirill.alexandrov - Associate Professor Dr Claudia Vickers, Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Leader https://people.csiro.au/V/C/Claudia-Vickers - Matt Gardner CEO of the California Technology Council who is helping QLD build a new Synthetic Biology industry https://www.californiatechnology.org/mattgardnerbio - Dr Madeline Mitchell CSIRO Plant Molecular Physiologist who is building new versions common plants including ironing free and coloured Cotton https://people.csiro.au/M/M/Madeline-Mitchell

Dr Juxi Leitner CEO Founder of LYRO Robotics. Juxi and his team won the Amazon Robotics Challenge. We talk Robotics, Computer Vision and how he managed to beat the world's best robotics teams to win the Amazon Challenge.

Dr Heba Khamis from Contactile - Giving sense of touch to Robots, we discuss robotics, learn how the hand and fingers work and why its so hard to for a robot to have the same sense of touch and feeling as a human. We talk about how Heba and her team have engineered a solution to provide this sense of touch in a scalable flexible sensor.

Dr Farzane (Fary) Ahmadi founder of Laronix is on a mission to help sufferers of laryngeal cancer who have had a full Laryngectomy. Fary is building an artificial electronic voice box that works by taking sound from the throat and amplifying it with the mouth. Laryngectomy is the removal of the larynx and separation of the airway from the mouth, nose, and esophagus. In a total laryngectomy, the entire larynx is removed. This is crippling for sufferers as it means you can't talk anymore and sufferers experience all sorts of social problems as a result.

Interview with Dr Pete Ayre founder of CardioBionic manufacturer of the Bionic Heart LVAD. We cover Pete's first heart startup Ventracor, working with the Famous Heart Surgeon Dr Victor Chang, how they got their original heart into +400 patients and his new startup that is building a lower cost, simpler more mechanically reliable heart for the world.

Today's guest is Dr. David Snowden a University researcher turned successful entrepreneur. David is the founder of Metamako a Sydney based high-speed switch networking company recently acquired by Arista Networks.

Today's guest is Stella Xu, our new Investment Associate at Main Sequence Ventures. Stella most recently worked for The Trade Desk, a hyper-growth Nasdaq listed company in the digital media space as a media trader. She is an expert in helping businesses scale their online acquisition. Stella has also been named as the 30 under 30 and a woman to watch by the online marketing authority site B and T. In this episode, Stella shared her experience in helping businesses grow revenue by 20x through real-time trading campaigns. She discussed the cost-efficient strategies startups can use to target the most relevant users with personal messages.

Today's guest is David Jones, founder of Threatmetrix the Unicorn Australian company that many of you probably have never heard of, that very quietly sold last year to UK based Relx for $850 million USD (>$1b AUD). David has a number of other ventures running now and is an angel investor in local tech companies and discusses the challenge of taking a tech startup global.

Todays guest is David Burt Executive Manager of the CSIRO ON Accelerator, Australia’s largest researcher accelerator ON is Australia's national science and technology accelerator program serving Australia’s 43 Universities, the CSIRO, and other publicly funded research institutes. David talks about the 2000 researchers the program has helped to either launch startups or connect with industry to commercialise their research. David discusses the future of the ON program when the original Federal Government Budget allocation runs out next year.

Todays guest is Professor Michael Biercuk, Michael is a quantum physicist, innovator, and Director of the Quantum Control Laboratory at the University of Sydney and founder of Q-CTRL one of Australia's first Quantum Computing Startups. We talk Yoctonewtons, Quantum Computing, transitioning from Professor/Researcher to entrepreneur and a big announcement. Full Disclosure: Main Sequence Ventures was one of the original seed investors in Q-CTRL.

Todays guest is Professor Alistair McEwan who is a prolific prototyper of medical devices especially measuring the brain and sensing various different signals from the body.

Dr Samantha Khoury & Dr Nham Tran are researchers at the University of Technology Sydney, as well as holding research fellowships with Stanford and The Chris Obrien Lifehouse. They have recently commenced the startup journey as co-founders launching miSerumDX - which is a liquid Liquid Biopsy Cancer Diagnostics tool that they have had very promising initial results and are in the process of commercialising the test.

Meat George Peppou founder of cultured meat startup VOW, George is creating a new type of lab-grown meat and has successfully cultured and grown pig cells in the lab. As a guy who can make real bacon in a lab George is set to be one of the world most popular people. This episode covers everything you might have wanted to know about alternative proteins, the market, regulatory hurdles and what unique types of meat we might be able to culture that we simply can't get today. My apologies in advance for the sound quality, my mic failed so my voice is a bit quiet but George is loud and clear.