During my 22+ years of founding & scaling businesses, I came to realise that entrepreneurs solve the world's biggest problems. However, a lack of access to smart money & global markets inhibits so many from changing the world.I now invest in and advise impact tech startups and funds to achieve the UN SDGs, with a focus on climate and diversity.I am a partner at Third Hemisphere, a climate, tech, and finance media relations firm for innovators & leaders who are breaking new ground & changing the world for the better.I've invested in a large portfolio of tech and impact companies through VC funds and as an angel, coached/advised hundreds, and manage media and marketing for organisations such as Virescent Ventures, Australian Ethical (ASX:AEF), MONEYME (ASX:MME), The Riverside Co, Cicada Innovations, Volt bank, XREF (ASX:XF1), and OMG (OpenMarkets).But how did I get here?In 1999 I finished school and, because I've always loved helping people, started a psychology degree. After experiencing a dark period, I was on the couch of a psychopharmacologist who turned my life around & was then diagnosed with cancer. Before he died, Dr John Anderson changed my life. He said to me;“If you can get to the end of your life, look back, and know that you made every step count, you will die a happy man.”So making every step count became my guiding principle, and I will be forever grateful to John for setting me on this path.That is why I got into business with my brother & opened 8 retail outlets across Sydney & Singapore when I was 20. Business became my vehicle to make enough money to have a big positive impact on the world.At 24 I founded a health food company called RioLife, because the Acai industry operated on the triple bottom line principle: it's good for the people (fair trade), the planet (Greenpeace endorsed), & we could make a profit. We also donated 1% of our revenue to a charity school for the children of the women who harvested our berries.At 30, after publishing "From Idea to Startup" and coaching ~200 startups, I was asked to take over as President in Australia for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (G20 YEA).Five years of work with UN agencies & the G20 proved that high growth early-stage companies create the innovation & jobs the world needs, and that access to smart money & global markets are the greatest accelerators.Now through Third Hemisphere and family investment vehicles, I back founders who solve the world's biggest problems and generate outsized returns.
Listed skills include Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Start Ups, Business Planning, and 46 others.