Curiosity Center

Yesterday’s Forbes Australia Business Summit brought together some of the country's brightest minds in business, from groundbreaking entrepreneurs to influential CEOs. A huge thank you to all our speakers and attendees for making this day one to remember. 💬 Peter Freedman AM, Founder & Chair of RØDE Microphones, on scaling a global brand. 💬 Lorna Jane Clarkson, Founder of Lorna Jane, on resilience and redefining activewear. 💬 Anthony Eisen, Co-founder of Afterpay, on building a $39B business through collaboration and trust. 💬 Cody Simpson, Athlete and Performing Artist, on winning mindsets and the art of reinvention. 💬 Jennifer Child, CEO of Oroton Group, on transforming a century-old brand. 💬 Craig Blair, Co-founder & Partner of Airtree Ventures, sharing insights into venture capital opportunities. 💬 Vidit Agarwal, Founder & CEO of Curiosity Center, on investment trends shaping the future. 💬 Kyah Bell, Co-founder of Black Excellence Fund, on fostering diverse investment ecosystems. 💬 Bede Moore, Chief Commercial Officer of Antler, on where smart money is moving. 💬 Livia Wang, Founder of Access Corporate Group, on hybrid leadership strategies. 💬 Melinda Petrunoff, Country Manager for Pinterest ANZ, on navigating the new workforce. 💬 Chris Andrews, CEO of La Trobe Financial, on leading through economic shifts. 💬 Kimberley Marlay, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Kyndryl ANZ, on embracing AI-driven transformation. 💬 Jim Freeman, CTO of Kyndryl ANZ, on the seven trends defining tomorrow. 💬 Zara McDonald & Michelle Andrews, Co-founders of Shameless Media, brought their signature wit and insight as hosts of the Forbes 30 Under 30 panel. 💬 Hamish McKay, Co-founder of Order Editing, on tech innovation. 💬 Ariarne Titmus, Olympic swimming champion, on discipline, resilience, and focus. 💬 Dylan Coyne, Co-founder of Updoc, on connecting with brands in the attention economy. 💬 Sarah Liu, Founder & Managing Director of TDC Global, on leading through hybrid workforces, AI-driven transformation, and navigating uncertainty with innovation. A special thanks also to RSPM Creative, our MC Felicity McVay, our partners Kyndryl, La Trobe Financial and our 30 under 30 panel sponsor Pinterest for making the day possible.

Over the last few months, I've been hosting invite-only dinners for Founders, Execs and VC's in different cities. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement soon! Recently, we held successful dinners in Sydney and Melbourne, each with 25 attendees, supported by KPMG and Herbert Smith Freehills. The anonymous survey rated the events an average of 4.9/5—this survey can often be a reality check as I know well! Last Thursday in Sydney, I hosted our latest edition supported by another of our Curiosity Center partners (Vanta), with a slightly different audience: a group of 12 founders and senior execs from startups, without any VCs in attendance. Having attended many dinners, I find it frustrating when conversations are limited to just the person seated next to me. To address this, I designed this dinner to be discussion-oriented and luckily, my one prepared question sparked an engaging conversation that lasted the entire 2.5 hours! Some key insights from the dinner last Thursday: -- Hiring Strategies: Recruiting software developers was a hot topic, particularly regarding the balance between onshore and offshore talent. -- Go-To-Market Approaches: We explored the pros and cons of sales-led versus product-led strategies, highlighting how different approaches can shape growth trajectories. -- Operational Excellence: Importance of establishing effective operational rhythms at each funding stage (Seed, Series A, Series B) to ensure sustainable growth. -- Growth Planning: We shared strategies for building the foundational blocks necessary to double business performance over the next 12 months.

We can’t wait for this special session coming up in November at the Forbes Australia Business Summit 2024! Our very own, Vidit Agarwal will be moderating this panel addressing Venture Capital & The Next Billion Dollar Idea featuring: - Craig Blair, Co-Founder & Partner, Airtree - Bede Moore, Chief Commercial Officer, Antler - Kyah Bell, Director, First Australians Capital Buy your tickets now at https://lnkd.in/g3dXQdzi Forbes Australia Sarah Alexandra Bree Lauren John James Elicia Jackie Kelland Raaj Mike James Sarah Michael Seamus Curiosity Center Bethany Maeve Jess Shivaune Damian Charlie Maggie Chris Kobe Fenella Caroline

What's better than spending quality time with the best Founders and Investors, jetting around the country? 2 weeks ago, I hosted the Melbourne edition of this invite-only dinner with 25 of arguably the top (Post Seed/Series A) Founders and some VC's. It was rated 4.9/5 and the pressure was on to deliver in the next one. Last week, I hosted the Sydney edition featuring again, 25 of arguably the top (Post Seed/Series A) Founders and some VC's, carefully handpicked, and again it has been rated 4.9/5 in the anonymous survey. "Wish the dinner went for longer to have more quality conversations with everyone" said one survey response. The best part of hosting events over the years (quality over quantity) has been.... The range of formats we've done, from large public events for 200 attendees to intimate 1:1 fireside chats for 40 attendees to invite-only dinners for 25 attendees, and others we don't share publicly. Only possible because of the support of a LOT of people involved, thank you. + Thank you again to our incredible commercial partners in KPMG High Growth Ventures and Herbert Smith Freehills for supporting us with these dinners!

Getting out of your screens and ears, and into high definition, LIVE and in-person is always fun. We've loved seeing so many of you at 30+ events over the past 4+ years that we've either organised independently, in collaboration with a partner or Vidit has moderated an event at Forbes, SXSW, Blackbird's Sunrise and many more. Who do you want to see at our next event? Tell us in the comments!

We announced a number of strategic commercial partnerships a few weeks ago, and briefly mentioned a couple more in the works: Welcome Vanta! Vanta just raised a $150 million (USD) in Series C funding at a $2.45 billion valuation, led by Sequoia Capital. Earlier this year, Vanta announced that it had surpassed $100 million in ARR in its financial year ending in January. Initially, Vanta focused on helping businesses obtain ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC 2, and similar certifications. Now the company is aiming to go beyond that to become part of a larger and more holistic discussion about trust. Stay tuned for a number of initiatives coming up across our ecosystem of on-demand intelligence products at the Curiosity Center! Jonathon Andrew PJ Konner Stevie Georgia Johann Vidit

Something always goes wrong. The marketing collateral my team had organised fell through....at 8:30pm the night before. I hurried across to the nearest Officeworks store, laptop in hand, Canva open and printed 25 name cards for this dinner the next night. I'm now a self proclaimed expert in all things printing. AMA. A few nights ago, I loved hosting a very special and exclusive dinner with 25 of arguably the top (Post Seed/Series A) Founders and VC's in Melbourne. The latest addition in our 'Wondery' by Curiosity Center series of invite-only and bespoke dinners, programs, courses and workshops. We sent out an anonymous survey request afterwards, and as I've learnt anonymous responses can sometimes be a good reality check -- but attendees rated the event an average of 4.8/5 and I loved reading the qualitative responses (two of them below) 🙏 + “Great people. The founders were in similar worlds to me, which made the networking helpful from a professional perspective. On a personal perspective, the people were all great which made it very enjoyable. Would definitely come to another one, thanks Vidit really appreciate the invite." + “Great collection of people that I normally don't get to see." A big thank you to two of our incredible commercial partners in KPMG High Growth Ventures (who we've done a number of awesome things with now); and our newest partners, the world class law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills. "Play long-term games with long term people." The High Flyers Podcast

They’re changing the world. Young people are. One of my favourite ways to spend time is with high school and university students. I learn more vs sharing my learnings with them. Such a thrill this morning to be in Melbourne and spend it with the amazing students in University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship co-delivered with Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship. Loved also learning from two of the awesome judges I was alongside in Bianca La Serra and Guy Franklin. Our key steer to the budding startup founders: focus on the customer, customer, customer. Thanks to Sangeeta Mulchandani, May Flaming and team for having me!

Excited (and a bit intimidated) that I've been invited to join the judging panel for the Forbes 30 Under 30 award for the Technology and Venture Capital categories. Blown away by the quality of the shortlisted candidates already. Here’s to learning from the best and stay tuned for the final list out in October for this inaugural edition in Australia! #Forbes #30u30

New City. Redundancy. Uncertainty. It was a really hard time that I didn't talk about to many. Grateful for the family and friends who got me through it. Add covid and lockdowns to the mix. That was early 2020. To now....proud of celebrate 4 years this week, and announce a number of strategic partnerships that have been years in the making! This all started with no grand plan except self belief and will to build and cultivate an identity. The birth of The High Flyers Podcast and subsequently the parent company, Curiosity Center which has expanded to Programs, Events, Investing, Consulting and more. Grateful to a lot of people who’ve supported me. -Sent 437 cold emails. -Released 170 podcast episodes in 202 weeks. -Organised 25+ live and in-person 7-Star Events. -Launched 10 editions of the Association Series. -Earnt our first revenue only -- 12 months post launch. -Hired 3 Associates. -Coached 23 fellows, sharing my mistakes and learnings. -Consulting to Venture Capital Firms, Accelerators and Startups on New Programs, Storytelling, Investing, Go-To-Market, Product, Sales/Marketing and Commercialisation. -Made 100's of mistakes including some big ones I'll write about one day. -Invited to present at SXSW, Forbes etc. In the early days of this craziness, a few people believed in me when not many did: Tapiwa, Ben, Genevieve, Ridley, Michael, Edoardo, Florian, Mum, Jo and many others since (they know who they are). The goal since January this year, 2024 has been simple: "Do what other's don't." Happy to report this goal is on track: - 85% of podcast episodes this year have featured guests in their first ever public interview or their first interview in 5 years about their story in-depth. - Expanded beyond Tech and Startups - Launched the invite-only "Wondery" - Signed win-win long term partnerships "The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me." -- Will Smith Always believe. I'll continue to learn and make mistakes. The best is yet to come.