What’s the secret to a good pitch?
Make it succinct, realistic, and easily understandable.

How/where can startups get the best advice when it comes to approaching investors?  
Other sophisticated investors who you know won’t invest in your sector. For example, an investor who solely invests in the mining sector can provide valuable insight for a company or individual seeking investment in the SaaS sector.

Make it succinct, realistic, and easily understandable.

What’s the most common mistake people make when pitching?
Focusing too much on a product or service’s feature set. Market validation is king.

What would you change about the investment process?
It should be informal and investors should be pitching companies.

What needs to change/improve for Australia to become a global leader in tech?
Investors need to become more founder-friendly and our mindset needs a sharp shift from conservative to calculated risk-friendly.

Would you ever invest in someone without a background in business or finance?
Yes, I’m more likely to do so.

What’s the best part about being an investor?
Meeting great minds tackling wicked problems.

What’s the biggest risk you take as an investor?
Investing in people, not ideas. Founders need to be coachable. 

How do you define value?
Holistically – every stakeholder should win.

What do you think the tech industry will look like in ten years?
Wildly different. Automation will have kicked up a gear and I believe the focus will be on interpreting and presenting data as opposed to creating it.

The focus will be on interpreting and presenting data as opposed to creating it.

How involved do you like to be once you’ve invested in a project – do you take a back seat or do you expect weekly reports?
Depends on the stage of the company, but generally, I prefer to be on the Advisory Board.

What product or service that already exists, do you wish you had funded?
Instagram.

If you could give Mark Zuckerberg one piece of advice, what would it be?  
Privacy is more important than you could ever imagine.

What advice would you give to startups starting out?
Listen to other people less. You are your own champion, make calculated risks and know that the most important opinion comes from your client/customer!

Make calculated risks and know that the most important opinion comes from your paying client/customer!

Where’s the best place in the world to start a company?
Where you can be your most creative and untethered.