My guest for Ep149 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Phil Morle, Partner of Main Sequence Ventures

Phil started his career as a Theatre Director, before taking those skills into tech initially as CTO of file-sharing company, Kazaa before going on to Co-found the first tech incubator in Asia-Pacific, Pollenizer.

He is now a Partner at CSIRO’s venture capital fund, Main Sequence Ventures, which has $490M in funds under management to invest in emerging Australian deep-tech and science based startups to solve the world’s biggest problems.

In this interview we discussed:

• Why 50-50 equity splits between co-founders are a bad signal to investors
• Taking leaps and having a high velocity of learning
• The art of Flearning
• The important balance between “soft skills” and Venture science
• & much more!

Timestamps 

• 2.26 – How Phil got started in theatre and transitioned into building startups
• 10.19 – Common mistakes and traits Phil has seen in business since working with startups 
• 19.54 – The importance of taking leaps and the success of Spreets
• 28.25 – Decision to close Pollenizer after two final chances and the importance of closing when it’s the right time
• 38.00 – The importance of reputation and being willing to put your reputation on the line
• 44.51 – The power of giving employees equity for motivation and commitment 
• 49.14 – Bringing together the CSIRO and Hungry Jacks to create v2food
• 56.48 – The important lessons for startups working with large companies 
• 1.03.34 – Collaborative work with businesses and coming together to share experiences
• 1.09.11 – Identifying opportunities and the balance between soft and hard skills in founders 
• 1.13.55 – Main Sequence Ventures new fund and what projects they are working on
• 1.18.24 – Where to find Phil and Main Sequence Ventures 

Links Mentioned 

Phil’s Links: 

• Phil’s LinkedIn
• Phil’s Twitter
• Main Sequence Ventures

Companies Mentioned

• Main Sequence Ventures
• Pollenizer
• Spreets
• Hungry Jacks
• CSIRO
• Y Combinator

People Mentioned 

• Mick Liubinskas
• Dean McEvoy
• David Burt
• Jack Cowin
• Nick Hazell
• Paul Graham

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to Nick Hazell and Mick Liubinskas for their help with research for this interview! ?

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams

Other channels:

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Find all links to the podcast here.

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