Silicon Beach Radio - Strange Destinations with Dan O’Grady

Rugare Gomo is a High Performance Coach, Investor, Lawyer and Philanthropist. In the past 18 years of his life, the incredibly diverse range of experiences Rugare has had, has led him to focus on what he loves to do: having entrepreneurs WIN at growing and scaling their business. Rugare is the Founder of the Gomo Foundation an award-winning organisation which exists to empower young African women to enable them to take control of their own lives and reach their potential. Their first programs are in Zimbabwe where they provide scholarships for young women to attend Secondary School through to University. Rugare’s commercial experience, leadership roles and community engagements in Australia, Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe have exposed him to work with startups, venture capitalists, CEO’s of big business, billionaire families, prime ministers and more. In his spare time, you may find Rugare dancing to Beyoncé. #rugaregomo (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn) #Iamlivingmylegacytoday #leadership #highperformancecoaching #socialenterprise #empoweringwomen #gomofoundation (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn) @rugaregomo (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn) @gomofoundation (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn) http://www.gomofoundation.org.au/ http://www.rugaregomo.com/ To find out about upcoming events organised by Melbourne Silicon Beach - Australia's fastest growing startup community - go to: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Melbourne-Silicon-Beach/ Melbourne Silicon Beach is proudly sponsored by: Victory Offices http://bitly.com/VictoryOffices_SD   MYOB   http://bitly.com/MYOB_SD   Allied Legal   http://bitly.com/AlliedLegal_SD   Your host, Dan O'Grady can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danogradysimpateco   and at http://www.simpateco.com.au/   Intro & outro music by Dan O'Grady

Courtney Blackman explores the ways in which creativity and an adventurous spirit have shaped her life and career - fashion, journalism, real estate, marketing, networking, tech and of course renovating a heritage listed opera house! Courtney is Head of PR & Marketing at YBF Ventures – Melbourne’s top startup hub for tech and innovation, Courtney looks after the company’s public-facing reputation and leads the internal and external communications teams. She is a member of YBF’s executive leadership team. Since starting at YBF, Courtney has put the YBF brand in front of millions of eyes via traditional marketing and editorial placements. In her first year, YBF reached 21,530,721 people via traditional media and 4,705,315 via social media. She designed, developed and currently oversees content production for three direct-email products and has increased direct communication by 1188%. Courtney and her team hosted over 400 events in 2018, most open to the wider tech ecosystem. Courtney manages the ongoing content strategy for YBF’s own news page, a YBF Medium account and YBF’s own YouTube channel and multiple social media platforms. Under her leadership the YBF marketing team has grown social media followers by over 8,000%, and in April of 2019 the company was awarded ‘Best Instagame’ by the Coworky Awards out of the States. YBF was also shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Small Business Champion Awards. Courtney has been active in pushing gender equality and produced Australia's first fintech awards celebrating women and cultural minorities in 2018 – the Lift Off Awards. The awards were supported by the Victorian Government, Lander & Rogers, Xero, Visa, ConsenSys, Vinomofo, Foreigner Brewing Co. and the British Consulate-General Melbourne. Prior to moving to Melbourne, Courtney was a London-based entrepreneur working in fashion and music. She founded and grew Forward PR, a media firm that became one of the most respected agencies in London working across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Courtney’s team secured coverage in tens of thousands of outlets (print, digital, television and radio) including Vogue, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, BBC – resulting in millions of pounds worth of equivalent advertising. Her team created and managed hundreds of events (catwalk shows in London and Paris, product and album launches, etc.); successfully aligned celebrities and influencers and negotiated numerous unique collaborations. Courtney was a board member of the Ethical Fashion Forum; a judge for the WGSN Global Fashion Awards, Scottish Fashion Awards and the Fashion Monitor Journalism Awards; a commentator for NBC's Today Show and a presenter for Fashion One Television. She was a regular guest lecturer at universities and even helped develop the PR program at Southampton Solent University. Courtney also founded, grew and ultimately sold London’s premier professional fashion networking club. As MD and Chairperson, she secured top names as event speakers – British Vogue Editor, Edward Enninful; male model, David Gandy; heiress and accessories guru, Lulu Guinness; and British GQ Editor, Dylan Jones; forged lasting partnerships with Swarovski, Condé Nast, Pulse Films and the V&A Museum and secured and maintained relationships with sponsors. She served as Producer for The Industry TV and Editor-in-Chief of its digital magazine. Personal interests include the arts. Outside of YBF Ventures, Courtney is the editor of a London-based men’s lifestyle magazine called Candid Magazine where she oversees a team of more than 12 global editors and contributors. The magazine features original content in the fields of arts, fashion, film, music and celebrity interviews. Courtney and her partner also spent thirteen years historically restoring and operating an opera house in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and owned and operated a contemporary art gallery in the town. In the first quarter of 2019, the Lunenburg Opera House was sold to a society, which will carry on their original vision of being a beacon of the arts for Nova Scotia’s South Shore. http://linkedin.com/in/courtneyblackman http://www.ybfventures.com/ http://www.candidmagazine.com/ http://www.lunenburgoperahouse.com/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/lunenburg-opera-house-finds-new-owners-1.5112765   To find out about upcoming events organised by Melbourne Silicon Beach - Australia's fastest growing startup community - go to: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Melbourne-Silicon-Beach/ Melbourne Silicon Beach is proudly sponsored by: Victory Offices http://bitly.com/VictoryOffices_SD   MYOB   http://bitly.com/MYOB_SD   Allied Legal   http://bitly.com/AlliedLegal_SD   Your host, Dan O'Grady can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danogradysimpateco   and at http://www.simpateco.com.au/   Intro & outro music by Dan O'Grady

Marshall Hughes, founder of Passel shares his tale of a self-confessed "space nut" growing up in a job oriented community, falling into a career in logistics and becoming an entrepreneur due to a software glitch. We also talk about energy versus time management, parallel universes and how Australian startups tend to look the world in a unique way. Marshall has over 25 years experience in logistics, and until 2016 was Chief Operating Officer of Myfreight; a freight management, brokerage and software company based in Ringwood. In 2016 Marshall founded Passel - a service for retailers where shoppers deliver on their way home to online shoppers. Passel launched in Melbourne in April 2018 and has since expanded to stores in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Mornington. Launch in Ireland and Northern is planned for late 2019 after Passel won a worldwide competition and funding from the cities of Dublin and Belfast. When not working on Passel, Marshall is a Productivity coach and tries to spend some time with his wife Jackie, and 5 children ranging from 18 months to 19 years. www.passeldelivery.com To find out about upcoming events organised by Melbourne Silicon Beach - Australia's fastest growing startup community - go to: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Melbourne-Silicon-Beach/ Melbourne Silicon Beach is proudly sponsored by: Victory Offices http://bitly.com/VictoryOffices_SD   MYOB   http://bitly.com/MYOB_SD   Allied Legal   http://bitly.com/AlliedLegal_SD   Your host, Dan O'Grady can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danogradysimpateco   and at http://www.simpateco.com.au/   Intro & outro music by Dan O'Grady

The story behind EPIC Experiences: Having just turned 30, Meray had it all... successful job, her own apartment and just the right number of friends to hit the town with or visit that new show. Then what felt like overnight, everything changed. Friends got married, babies arrived and everything had to be pre-booked months in advance. Unique dining experiences, outdoor activities, how to classes all the things this city had to offer were suddenly out of reach... Meray had no one to go with. Spotting a gap in the market, Meray launched Epic Catch. "Shared experiences" was the business model and EPIC Experiences the conduit; a seamless end-to-end booking platform, that finds you someone to go with. Simply swipe for an event, swipe for a like-minded individual, confirm the booking, start chatting, share an amazing experience. EPIC Experiences takes care of it all for you. Awards EPIC Experiences has won: March 2017 Vic Startup Launch pitch competition Academy xi 90 second pitch, the uber of x Finalist in the Slingshot NRMA accelerator program http://www.epicexperiences.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/meray/ To find out about upcoming events organised by Melbourne Silicon Beach - Australia's fastest growing startup community - go to: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Melbourne-Silicon-Beach/ Melbourne Silicon Beach is proudly sponsored by: Victory Offices http://bitly.com/VictoryOffices_SD   MYOB   http://bitly.com/MYOB_SD   Allied Legal   http://bitly.com/AlliedLegal_SD   Your host, Dan O'Grady can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danogradysimpateco   and at http://www.simpateco.com.au/   Intro & outro music by Dan O'Grady

Paul Baron moved away from corporate life to become an adviser, investor, and advocate for startups and innovation. His knack for putting out fires is both figurative and literal, he is an expert problem-solver and volunteer firefighter in his spare time.  "I’ve enjoyed a career that spans consulting, government and large corporates but have recently returned to my startup roots this time as an investor. I also work as a consultant and as adviser mostly in the tourism, digital and government areas. My son thinks I’m like Kenny (from the rental toilet film rather than South Park) perhaps because I love meeting people from all walks of life and chatting to them about their lives and their passions." https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcbaron/ To find out about upcoming events organised by Melbourne Silicon Beach - Australia's fastest growing startup community - go to: https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Melbourne-Silicon-Beach/ Melbourne Silicon Beach is proudly sponsored by: Victory Offices http://bitly.com/VictoryOffices_SD   MYOB   http://bitly.com/MYOB_SD   Allied Legal   http://bitly.com/AlliedLegal_SD   Your host, Dan O'Grady can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danogradysimpateco   and at http://www.simpateco.com.au/   Intro & outro music by Dan O'Grady