Podcasts about phaedon stough

In this episode, I interview Phaedon Stough, the Co-Founder of Innovation Bay, the longest-running networking group for tech founders, startups, and investors in Australia. He’s also the founder and non-executive director of MitchelLake Global Executive Search and Talent Acquisition, an executive recruitment firm he started back in 2001 with a fellow university friend, focusing on the tech startup space. Surviving a tech crack within their first year and the global financial crisis in 2008, it was the second global recession which formed the foundation for their fast growth. From 2 full-time employees in 2001 to more than 90 within fifteen years, and $80 Million in annual revenues across six cities in Australia, UK, Singapore, and the USA, Phaedon admits that they grew their number of international offices too quickly. Apart from an investor’s $50,000 then another small injection for growth from their new chairperson, they have so far grown organically from profits. Phaedon exited the business operationally a few years ago but he’s still a shareholder. They had a big focus on mental and professional development, helping them learn corners of the business they weren’t strong in. He says he wouldn’t go back into the industry or any other service-based business, and would instead begin a recurring revenue model like a software as a service (SaaS) product. Phaedon believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is finding product-market fit, and the advice he would give himself on day one is, “Keep it simple”, and pricing before anything else. Stay tuned to find out more about his fascinating entrepreneurial journey. This Cast Covers: Starting and growing MitchelLake global executive search and talent acquisition. How focusing on their core clients helped them navigate the tech wreck in 2001-2002. From two full-time employees to 90 within a fifteen-year period, and 6 offices in different geographical locations. Making money, building a team, and getting approached by clients.  Being able to pick projects to do and receiving referral clients from the top five VC firms. How they raised startup funding and achieved organic financial growth. Avoiding service businesses and going more into a SaaS business. The stresses of having to downsize the business and focus on cash during the 2008 global financial crisis. Their quick expansion into different international markets and how he would have done it differently. The interesting challenge of managing people and his struggles with financials. The importance of an entrepreneur understanding why they want to go into a certain business. The impact of keeping really close to the customer and working with them. The difficulty for recruitment companies in recruiting their own staff. Building a kickass culture for all their six locations. The golden rule of startup businesses and how Phaedon invested in his own personal development. How he exited the business and the advice he would give anyone who is looking to exit their business. The value in using a project management platform and keeping it simple when starting a small business. Additional Resources: eBoys By Randall E. Stross Profit First By Mike Michalowicz Small Giants By Bo Burlingham Principles By Ray Dalio Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On first thought, a Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of a superannuation fund seems an unlikely guest for Open The Pod Bay Doors. However, you'll soon hear how Sam Sicilia, Hostplus’ CIO of 10 years, has become a driver for investment into VC, and is overall passionate about tech innovation for the future prosperity of the Australian economy.We were excited to have Sam on the pod who gave us some great insights into Hostplus’ investments. Last year, Hostplus invested over $1 billion into venture capital, making the fund Australia’s largest VC investor, with capital into Blackbird Ventures ($160M), The IP Group ($100M), Artesian ($135M) & Main Sequence Ventures ($70M) to name a few. As one of Australia’s largest superfunds with almost $40B under management, Hostplus has become one of the most influential figures in the Australian tech venture capital sceneSam also discussed how their first dedicated VC investment (into Blackbird Ventures) came about, and delved into the importance of relationships with fund managers, private equity managers & venture capital managers. He also talked about why other superfunds should start investing more into VC, and gave some valuable advice for anyone looking to raise funds from superannuation companies.We were delighted to have had Sam on the pod, and hope you enjoy this episode!

It’s always difficult to “grow the family” and your first overseas hire is a critical part of your expansion strategy. In the US, talent acquisition and retention is very competitive and you must understand the cultural and regulatory landscape. This episode provides advice from successful Aussie founders on how to build your US team.Podcast host Carl Hartmann, founder of Temando and now AFN Director and Co-Founder of Shortlyster, interviews Phaedon Stough founder of MitchelLake Group, an executive search, consulting and onsite recruitment solutions firm with offices located globally. Having worked across dozens of US markets Phaedon shares valuable US tech startup recruitment expertise.

James Cuda is the CEO and Founder of Savage Interactive. Based in Hobart Tasmania, Savage Interactive, http://savage.si/ is the creator of the number one creativity app for ipad globally, Procreate.   James started life as an artist in Sydney, taught himself multimedia design, started a consulting firm, which he shut down to focus 100% on building Procreate.  His vision and passion was to build the best creativity tool in the world. He works as the CEO & Founder and also Head of Product.  Procreate has won an Apple Design Award (one of only a very few Aussie companies to have achieved this), which saw him being flown over to Apple in CA.  He is now a frequent visitor to the Apple campus in Cupertino. James started the company in Hobart and now has over 20 people based in the Hobart HQ.  He has resisted the pressure of hiring people outside of Hobart, as he believes that proximity is important to building a strong working culture.  The app is exclusive to the ipad, which is now being used by professional artists around the world. Customers include companies like Pixar and Netflix. He has never raised external funding, and has grown the whole company organically. The company is run by James and his wife and his first engineering hire. James believes strongly in a a results orientated working culture, he provides the team with the autonomy and a very collaborative working environment.  Understanding the pressures of growing a small business, he also is a strong believer in rewards and takes the entire company and their families once a year to a retreat on Richard Branson's island in the Caribbean.  Which is a long way from Hobart!James has a vision for the business that is driven by a passion for art and a desire to build something better than anything else.  This comes across clearly in the podcast, James is driven by a very strong desire to build something truly exceptional.The company is now looking at a range of product enhancements, as it continually finds ways in which to better the app. 

This week on the pod Phaedon Stough was lucky enough to talk with Steve Killelea; accomplished entrepreneur, business magnate, one of Australia’s most prolific philanthropists and founder of a global think tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace.You may never have heard of Steve, he's one of those quiet over-achievers, who has spent most of his business life working under the radar, yet has successfully built two software companies which he founded and turned into highly successful global businesses, as well as being Australia's largest donor foreign aid.Steve founded Integrated Research Ltd (IR), an Australian publicly-listed company with a 25-year heritage of providing performance management and payments software for business-critical computing. Through Steve’s direction as CEO and now as Chairman, IR has built an impressive, world-class customer base to make it one of Australia’s leading software companies. IR listed on the ASX and it's current market cap is $664 million of which Steve retains about 40% of the company.Steve has always had a strong passion for sustainable development, and in 2000 established The Charitable Foundation (TCF), one of the largest private overseas aid organisations in Australia. It aims to provide life-changing interventions reaching as many people as possible with special emphasis on targeting the poorest of the poor. TCF has substantially impacted the lives of over 2.3 million people.In 2007 Steve founded the international think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), dedicated to building a greater understanding of the interconnection between business, peace and economics with particular emphasis on the economic benefits of peace. IEP’s ground-breaking research includes the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading measure of peacefulness. Steve’s founding of IEP was recognized as one of the 50 most impactful philanthropic gifts in Australia’s history.Steve currently serves on a number of influential Company Boards, Advisory Boards and President Councils. In 2010 he was honoured as Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the global peace movement.It really was a pleasure to speak with one Australia's great entrepreneurs and a man who's made it his life's work to make the world and better more peaceful place. We hope you're inspired by Steve's story as much as we were.

After a little break we're back and ready to open the pod bay doors again.To kick off the year we thought we'd let our co-founders, Ian Gardiner and Phaedon Stough interview one another. This year Innovation Bay celebrates 15 years of supporting Australian founders and the startup ecosystem. It's been quite a ride from those initial gatherings of a few people in a dingy bar to a national community of over 3000 members spread across Australia.In case you don't know much about them, Ian Gardiner has a day job with Amazon Web Services, helping startups across Australia and New Zealand. Previously Ian was the CEO and founder of Viocorp, a software company supplying a video publishing platform for corporates and government. In 2009 Ian won the NSW Pearcey award for Technology Entrepreneur of the Year.Phaedon Stough, has worked with entrepreneurs and high growth tech start-up across APAC, EMEA and NA. Founding Mitchellake in 2001 to help entrepreneurs scale their companies via human capital solutions. Phaedon was the on board of Australia's first incubator, Pollenizer and later co-founded The Australian Founders Network in San Francisco to help Aussie entrepreneurs living overseas collaborate and support each other.Quite a dynamic duo we think you'll agree. Buckle up as these two 'veterans' cover everything from Innovation Bay's humble beginnings, their own personal journey's as startup founders, reflect on the changes in the Australian ecosystem over the past 15 years, share thoughts on the work that still needs to be done, and announce lots of new initiatives coming 2018.

Slight change in format this week. Ian is off in Hawaii cycling up a volcano, so has handed the microphone over to his Innovation Bay co-founder Phaedon Stough. He caught up with Patrick Llewellyn, the CEO of Accel-backed Aussie startup success story 99Designs. 99Designs is one of the world's largest graphic design marketplaces. There are few who have executed such rapid global growth as successfully as Patrick.To date, 99designs has hosted more than 245,000 graphic design contests and paid out more than $60 million to its community of 250,000 designers around the world.