Smart Dust with Andy Tsao – Innovation and the Start-Up Landscape in the COVID-19 Era

Has innovation taken a back seat duringCOVID-19? Let’s find out. Calling in all the way from Santa Barbara is Andy Tsao, Managing Director or Silicon ValleyBank (SVB), headsSVB’s Global Gateway where he assists emerging market innovation companies as they seek US market entry, and US companies looking to expand abroad.

In this episode, Andy and Douglas discuss the current global start-up scene, which countries are getting it right, the impact of COVID-19 on IPO’s ,diversity in the start-up community and China’s answer to NASDAQ.

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SmartDust episode available here

Smart Dust with Mark Tanner –  Qwilr, Innovation and Effectiveness

Having taken on a market considered to be ‘conquered’ by Google and Microsoft, Mark Tanner is living proof that entrepreneurs can still re-write the competitor landscape. Frustrated byPowerPoint and PDF, Mark and co-founder Dylan Baskin created Qwilr – a now global operation offering software for businesses to create elegant web-based forms, proposals and contracts with consistent design principles.

Following in the footsteps of Australia’s other design unicorn Canva, Qwilr just raised $10.8 million in a Series A round led by Airtree Ventures and Skip Capital and have their sights set on further expansion in Europe and the US. Douglas chatted to Mark in this episode about how he took on the tech giants…and won.

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Smart Dust episode available here

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Smart Dust with Nicole Sparshott – On Business and Sustainability

What does a purpose-led global business look like? Nicole Sparshott knows; she’s leading two of them through their biggest transformation yet.

CEO of Unilever ANZ and Global CEO of T2, Nicole is spearheading a sustainability revolution in Unilever – one of Australia’s most iconic FMCG brands – and well on her way to making T2 certified sustainable by2021.

Douglas and Nick chatted to Nicole about reconciling commerce with our carbon footprint, overcoming barriers to achieve sustainable outcomes and more.

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Smart Dust episode available here

Smart Dust with The Hon. Victor Dominello – On Digital Transformation and GovernmentServices

NSW’s journey to become a digital powerhouse is underway and the man at the helm is Victor Dominello, Member for Ryde and Australia’s very first Minister for Customer Service.

His role in this new portfolio is to optimise the citizen experience through a range of digital initiatives, with quite a few already underway.

In this episode, Douglas & Nick talk to Minister Dominello about the Digital Drivers Licence, Digital Check In functions forCOVID-19 contact tracing, cyber security infrastructure and more.

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Smart Dust episode available here