The Dion Guagliardo Podcast is a show that brings on Australian business people, leaders and innovators from a variety of industries to discuss entrepreneurship, work ethic and how they achieved success
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In this episode, I interview Sophie Doyle, the founder of The Fable. The Fable is an e-commerce company specialising in women’s work fashion. Founded in 2015, Sophie has grown the brand into a multi million dollar business that operates internationally. Throughout the episode, Sophie speaks about the challenges she’s faced within the business such …
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#78 Ilan Israelstam - Co-Founder of Betashares
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In this episode, I interview Ilan Israelstam, Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder of Betashares. Betashares is one of Australia’s largest financial services companies known for their ETF products. Founded in 2009, Ilan has helped grow the business to now have over $40 billion assets under management, over 150 team members and more than 1m clien…
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In this episode, I interview Nick Morgan, Founder of Vudoo. Vudoo is a software company that enables consumers to purchase products wherever they see them online such as a article or video, rather than having to go to the company’s store. Founded in 2016, Nick has grown the company to now have 35 employees, raised almost 20 million in funding and a…
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#76 Alex Naoumidis - Co-Founder of Mindset Health
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In this episode, I interview Alex Naoumidis - co-founder of Mindset Health. Mindset Health is a Melbourne-based company that develop digital programs to help better manage chronic health conditions. Founded in 2018, Alex with his brother and cofounder Chris, now generate revenue of over $10 million annually with the company valued at $77 million do…
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In this episode, I interview Simon Bugeja, managing director of Lucia’s Group. Lucia’s started as Australia’s first Italian pizza bar founded by Simon’s grandparents ion 1957. Growing up in the family business, Simon found success by expanding into the retail sector and moved into producing and selling goods like pasta sauce, olive oil and pesto. B…
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#74 Saxon Wright - Co-Founder of Huskee and Pablo & Rustys
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In this episode, I interview Saxon Wright - co-founder of Huskee and founder of Pablo & Rusty's coffee roasters. Coffee lovers will be familiar with the Pablo and Rusty's brand that Saxon started in 2003 and still owns today. Huskee was born out of an idea to eliminate single-use disposable coffee cups and now employ 30 people and recently merged w…
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In this episode, I interview Jordy Kay, co-founder of Great Wrap. Great Wrap is a material science company that has created Australia’s first compostable and environmentally friendly stretch wrap. Founded in 2019, Jordy and his co-founder Julia have grown the business to now have raised $30 million, employ 20 people, and are currently amidst expand…
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#72 Ben McHarg - Co-Founder of Life-Space Group
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In this episode, I interview Ben McHarg, co-founder of Life-Space Group. As the managing director of the family-owned business, Ben helped drive the strategic direction of the company to owning their own brands. This strategy ultimately led to the rapid growth that saw the business sold to supplement giant By-Health for $700 million in 2018. Throug…
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#71 Simon Beard - Co-Founder of Culture Kings
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In this episode, I interview Simon Beard - co-founder of Culture Kings. Culture Kings is a premium streetwear company founded by Simon and his wife Tah-nee in 2008. Together, they grew the business from a market stall on the Gold Coast to a $600 million valuation and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. This was a wide ranging and insightful c…
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#70 Julio Ribeiro - Founder of Inventia Life Science
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Inventia is a science and technology company focused on building devices that can create advanced cell models that help accelerate drug discovery and biomedical research. Founded in 2013, Julio Ribeiro has grown the company to now have over 70 employees and scale internationally to the US, Europe and many more locations. Throughout the episode, Jul…
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In this episode, I interview Tim Levy, founder of Qoria. Qoria is a global technology company that is dedicated to keeping children safe in digital environments. Founded in 2014, Tim has grown the company to have over 500 employees and be listed on the ASX where it now has a market cap of around $500 million. Throughout the episode, Tim talks about…
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In this episode, I interview Izhar Basha - founder of EHPLabs. EHPLabs is a sports nutrition company that develops various supplement products. Founded in 2012, Izhar has grown the company globally with revenue forecast to reach $500 million in 2025. Izhars’s story is fascinating. Coming from humble beginning as a refugee from Fiji at age 5 he talk…
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#67 David Dicker - Founder of Dicker Data
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In this episode, I interview David Dicker, founder of Dicker Data. David started the business in 1978 has grown it over 46 years including listing it on the ASX where it now has a market capitalization of around $2 billion, making David one of Australia’s wealthiest people in the process. Throughout the episode, David talks about business in a very…
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#66 Adam Jacobs - Co-founder of The Iconic and Hatch
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In this episode, I interview Adam Jacobs - founder of The Iconic and Hatch. Founded in 2011, Adam quickly grew The Iconic, a fashion e-commerce company, to now have just under 1000s employees and over $500m over revenue in 2023. Adam has now moved onto Hatch, helping young Australian’s find work with employers that match their skills and values. Th…
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ResApp is a biotech company that commercialised technology to diagnose respiratory illnesses based on an audio recording of a patient’s cough on their phone. After proving immensely useful for diagnosing COVID-19 during the height of pandemic, Pfizer acquired the company for $180 million. Throughout the episode, Tony discusses the path of listing o…
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#64 Amanda Price - Head of High Growth Ventures at KPMG
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Having founded and worked in multiple startups both here and in the US, Amanda has grown the venture quickly having now helped over 300 of Australia’s fastest growing companies with their expansion, especially those looking overseas. Throughout this episode, Amanda provides fascinating insights into the future of Australia’s tech scene and how we c…
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CitrusAd is a software company that provides retailers with a system for merchants to compete for ad space on their websites. Starting in 2017, Brad Moran grew the business quickly before it was sold in 2021 for $205 million. Throughout the episode, Brad talks about the harsh reality of building a startup. I was fascinated by his insights on this o…
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LocknCharge makes products for organisations to securely store their physical devices. Taking over the family business, James has led the growth of the company to now manage over 5 million devices, employ 100 staff, and operate internationally. Throughout the episode, James talks about the importance of perseverance as he reminisces about the door-…
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#61 Steven Maarbani - CEO of VentureCrowd
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In this episode, I interview Steven Maarbani - CEO of VentureCrowd. VentureCrowd is Australia’s leading digital crowd funding investment platform for alternative assets. Steven has helped grow the platform to crowdfund over $310 million for projects. Throughout the episode, Steven talks about the importance of trusting your own intuition and the da…
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#60 Adrian Cester - Founder of Flavour Makers
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Flavour Makers is a food manufacturing business that develops products such as spices, baby food, curry sauces and much more. Founded in 1992, Adrian has grown the business to now employ 330 people and turn over $220m per year. Throughout the episode, Adrian talks about the importance of taking action when others won’t as this strategy helped get t…
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#59 Maxim Shklyar - Co-Founder of InstantScripts
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InstantScripts is an online telehealth platform that enables customers to receive online medical scripts, consultations, and more. Founded in 2018, Maxim has helped grow the company to recently be acquired by Wesfarmers for $135 million. Throughout the episode, Maxim talks about how keeping a small but efficient team has enabled telehealth to thriv…
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In this episode, I interview Craig Blair - co-founder of AirTree - one of the largest Venture Capital firms in Australia. AirTree has been an early investor in some of the country’s biggest startups, such as Canva, Mr Yum and LinkTree. Founded in 2014, Craig has helped grow the business to now manage over $1.3 Billion with over 80 active investment…
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#57 Brad Lorge - Co-Founder of Premonition
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Premonition was an AI driven logistics company that helped couriers orchestrate their drivers and deliveries in the most efficient manner. In 2022, one of Australia’s largest startups - Shippit, acquired Premonition for $20.5 million. Throughout the episode, Brad explains how logistics makes up 20-30% of man-made emissions and by making the space m…
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HotDoc is Australia’s largest platform that connects doctors to patients. Patients can easily book appointments with their favourite clinics while doctors can easily manage their patients. Founded in 2012, Ben has grown the business to now have 11 million patients and 20,000 doctors on the platform. Throughout the episode, Ben talks about how stayi…
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#55 Justus Hammer - Founder of Spreets and Mad Paws
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Spreets was a deal comparison website that famously sold for $40 million only 12 months after it started. MadPaws is his current business - an all in one marketplace for all of your pet needs. Throughout the episode, Justus emphasizes the importance of skill, luck and timing all contribute toward being successful. Justus also mentions how sometimes…
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#54 Dorry Kordahi - Founder of DKM Blue & Swanky Socks
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In this episode, I interview Dorry Kordahi, founder of DKM Blue, Swanky Socks and the former owner of Illawarra Hawks Basketball team. DKM Blue, Dorry’s main business, specialises in the development and delivery of promotional merchandise, corporate uniforms and PPE. Starting in 2002, Dorry has grown the company to now be generating tens of million…
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Agworld is an agriculture technology startup that creates data management tools to help farmers and agronomists work more efficiently. Founded in 2009, Doug and his co-founders grew the business and eventually sold in 2021 for $100 million. Throughout the episode, Doug talks about the importance of staying the course of your business and persisting…
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#52 Nick Humphreys - Co-Founder of Linktree
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Linktree is a tool allows you to create a directory to multiple websites from one URL link. Starting in 2016, Nick and his co-founders have grown the company tremendously to now have over 40 million users and was valued last year at $1.3 billion dollars. Throughout the episode, Nick talks about the difficulty of trying to control a rapidly growing …
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In this episode, I interview Daniel Petre, Co-Founder of AirTree - one of the largest VC firms in Australia and New Zealand. Over it’s lifetime, AirTree has been an early investor in some of the country’s biggest startups, such as Canva, Mr Yum and LinkTree. Founded in 2014, Daniel has helped grow the business to now manage over $1.3 Billion with o…
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#50 Paul Miller - Founding Partner at Deutsch Miller
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Deutsch Miller is one of the top boutique legal firms in Australia specialising in corporate law and dispute resolution. After moving across the world from London, Paul recalls how he started the business from scratch and his journey along the way. Throughout the episode, Paul talks about the importance of networking and relationship management as …
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#49 Bruce Mackenzie - Founder of Humanforce
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In this episode, I interview Bruce Mackenzie, founder of Humanforce. Humanforce is a workforce management software company which has been recently acquired for $60 million. Humanforce specifically targets the “standing-workforce”, making software products to help manage shift and roster driven workers such as retail and hospitality staff. Founded i…
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#48 David Robinson - Co-Founder of Internet 2.0
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Internet 2.0 is one of Australia’s leading cybersecurity companies and is now worth $50 million. Founded in 2018, the company has gone on to make various cybersecurity products including Malcore which made headlines for exposing exactly how much data social media companies take from us. Spoiler alert, TikTok was over double the amount compared to t…
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#47 Grant Pestell - Managing Director of MPH Lawyers
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Being in the firm for 25 years, Grant has helped grow MPH Lawyers into one of the most successful law practices in Western Australia. Since 2002, he has also worked extensively in the innovation space such as AI, robotics and automation through advising founders on investment, partnerships and scaling. Throughout the episode, Grant talks about the …
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28 is an online fitness platform and community that provides workouts that anyone can do in under 28 minutes. Founded in 2016, Sam has grown the platform to help over 500,000 people stay fit and has recently sold the company for $71 million. Throughout the episode, Sam explains the importance of building a strong team to offset your weaknesses is e…
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#45 Will Davies - Founder of Car Next Door, CEO of Uber Carshare
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Car Next Door was a peer-to-peer car sharing service that set out to challenge the one person, one car mentality. Starting in 2013, Will and his co founders grew the company up until their recent deal with Uber at an estimated valuation of 50 million to create Uber car share. Throughout the episode, Will talks about the intricacies of building a tw…
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#44 Joseph Healy - Co-Founder of Judo Bank
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Judo Bank is one of Australia’s largest and most trusted banks for small to medium-sized enterprises. Starting from a PowerPoint idea in 2016, Joseph and his co-founders have grown the business to now be valued at over $1.5 billion, have over 600 staff and a loan book of $9 billion. Throughout the episode, Joseph talks about Judo’s philosophy of me…
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Stu is a third-generation publican of his family business that now owns around 90 venues and is worth an estimated 1.4bn dollars. Throughout the episode, Stu talks about how consumer behaviour has changed over time, the strategy of acquiring venues and words of wisdom from his friends and mentors such as Gerry Harvey. Stu also discusses the benefit…
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#42 Kevin Gosschalk - Founder of Arkose Labs
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Arkose Labs is a SAAS company that protects its customers against cyber criminals. Founded in 2016, the company has raised 130m USD and has grown to now protect some of the biggest tech companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, Roblox and many more. Throughout the show, Kevin lets us in on the fascinating world of defending against cybercrime, the impo…
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#41 Mark Woodland - Founder of Xplor & Kismet
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Working as a receptionist at his Mum’s business, Mark quickly became frustrated at the repetitive processes and boldly claimed “How hard could it be to build software”. Since then, Mark started and grew his childcare software company Xplor to a substantial 100 million dollar valuation. Only two weeks after “retiring”, Mark founded his second compan…
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Sidekicker is Australia’s largest online staffing platform that is re-inventing casual and temporary work for businesses and workers. Founded in 2012, Tom and his co-founder Jacqui have grown the company to now have 130 employees and raise $43m to date including Seek as a major investor. Throughout the episode, Tom explains the importance of not ge…
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Shippit is Australia's leading multi-carrier shipping software and connects stores with the best courier at the time of purchase. Founded in 2014, William and his co-founder Rob, have grown the company to now have 175 employees and tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. They've raised over $100 million in capital with a valuation of over $3…
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#38 John Fargher - Co-Founder of AgriWebb
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AgriWebb is a digital platform that helps livestock producers with record-keeping, compliance and productivity. Starting in 2014, AgriWebb has now grown to the point where 25% of Australia’s farm animals are managed under the platform. To date, they've raised over $40 million at a market cap of over $100 million. Throughout the episode, John discus…
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In this episode, I interview Geoffroy Henry, founder of Ofload. Ofload is a digital B2B platform that helps shippers and road freight carriers connect to minimise wasted space in vehicles. In only three years from 2019, Geoffroy has raised $100m in funding which has led to the company now having 120 employees and making $100m in annual revenue. Thr…
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#36 James Bruce and Stafford Fox - Founders of StrangeLove
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In this episode, I interview James Bruce and Stafford Fox from boutique beverage company StrangeLove. Starting out in Byron Bay, the guys grew the business to become one of Australia’s trendiest drinks companies and have recently been acquired by Asahi. Throughout the episode, James talks about how differentiating themselves through creative and un…
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In this episode, I interview Giovanni Pino, co-founder of Sourci. Sourci is Australia’s largest sourcing company that connects individuals and businesses to manufacturers in China, India, Vietnam and many more. Starting out in 2017, Sourci has grown exponentially, expanding from a two-person startup to a team of almost 30 generating tens of million…
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#34 Jeremy Mujis - Co-founder of Grown Alchemist
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In this episode, I interview Jeremy Mujis - founder of Grown Alchemist. Grown Alchemist is a skincare company that produces a range of innovative skin and beauty products. Recently, global beauty giant L’Occitane Group bought a large stake in the brand for a reported $50 million. Throughout the episode, Jeremy provides deep insight into the traditi…
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In this episode, I interview Vu Tran - founder of Go1. As described by Vu, Go1 is the Netflix or Spotify of workplace learning. They aggregate training programs from all around the world and bring them into one platform - making them available for any company. Recently, the company’s valuation hit an astonishing $2.8 billion after a $140 million ra…
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#32 Julie Mathers - Founder of Flora & Fauna
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In this episode, I interview Julie Mathers. Julie is the founder of Flora and Fauna, which is a successful beauty and personal care e-commerce brand that was voted number one in e-commerce in 2019 and 2021. The business recently sold for around $30 million last year. Not long after the sale, Julie has since gone on to acquire her new project, a bab…
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#31 Mick Liubinskas - Founder of Climate Salad
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In this episode, I interview Mick Liubinskas. This is a very special episode as Mick was our very first guest on the podcast. While we covered his career in tech last time, this episode we focus on his latest venture - Climate Salad. Climate Salad is a fast-growing ecosystem for climate technology entrepreneurs, investors and supporters. Mick discu…
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In this episode, I interview Jon Gregory, founder of Vitruvian. Vitruvian is a fitness technology company that is famous for their “Trainer+” device. This device is a smart resistance training system that uses artificial intelligence to adjust weight dynamically to provide the perfect workout for the user. Since 2018, Jon and his team have raised $…
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