Meet the Founders
This series showcases some of the talented and inspirational founders that make up our innovation ecosystem in NSW.
Season 2
Season 2 of Meet the Founders will introduce you to some of the wonderful residents of the Tech Central Innovation District. Learn more about the scaling businesses that play a role in creating this vibrant tech precinct.
You will meet residents working with cutting edge businesses at The Quantum Terminal to thriving scaleups residing within the Tech Central Scaleup Hub, accessing the support they need to build strong links to international markets. Hear their stories below.
BTQ
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Hi, I'm Liz Jackson, Associate Director of Programming and Engagement within the Entrepreneurship unit for the NSW Government. And I'm joined here today with Nicolas Roussy Newton from BTQ and we're talking all things quantum terminal today. Let's hear a bit about your business.
Nicolas Roussy Newton, BTQ BTQ builds post quantum software and semiconductors, we're a Canadian company with offices in Vancouver, Taipei, Tokyo and here in Sydney at the Quantum Terminal, and we're thrilled to be here. We have a partnership with Macquarie University on quantum algorithms research. We're expanding our team here this year.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Since you moved into the Quantum Terminal, how has your business grown?
Nicolas Roussy Newton, BTQ Just being based here, tapping into this amazing ecosystem, that's been very just beneficial for the entire company, participating in events like the Quantum Australia Conference, meeting other companies at the Quantum Terminal, other quantum startups, quantum entrepreneurs, quantum researchers, and tapping into that has been very exciting.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Within New South Wales, what does that growth trajectory look like?
Nicolas Roussy Newton, BTQ We're primarily focused on expanding our team here, but also to just do more outreach here, so we're a returning sponsor of the Quantum Australia Conference, we're also a public company now, so we're looking to do outreach with investors here.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Talking on the job creation front, can you tell us a little bit about the types of skills you're looking for in the roles you're looking to fill in the next, say, 12 to 24 months?
Nicolas Roussy Newton, BTQ We're looking at researchers with quantum engineering backgrounds, quantum software, quantum hardware, as well as cryptographers post quantum cryptographers and also business development partnerships.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Nicolas, thank you so much for joining us today. We are very excited for what the next few years look like for BTQ.
Nicolas Roussy Newton, BTQ Thanks so much.
Disruptors Co.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Hi, I'm Sally Walkom. I'm the Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the NSW Government, and I'm here with Gavin Heaton, who is the founder and co-CEO of Disruptors Co. Gavin, can you describe what Disruptors Co does and the problem that it's solving?
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. So, we work mostly with large organisations and government to help them act and perform like startups. And we work with scaleups that are trying to become big enterprises. And so, we bridge that sort of full-service innovation agency model.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW So, helping a scaling startup for example, what sort of support do you provide?
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. We have some clients that are trying to scale a business in Australia which is already in existence overseas. So, when they come here, they don't have a network that they can tap into for either clients, suppliers, relationships and so on. So, we help bridge those gaps.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW So, you're based here at the Quantum Terminal at Tech Central. Why did you decide to locate here?
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. Well, one of the challenges with startups is that they feel quite unrooted, sort of ungrounded. So, having a space where they can come and settle and be here is really important. But we also need to be central in terms of location. So, location in terms of public transport. And the second part about that is the happy collisions. So, it's not just about whether you are in a location that is adjacent to an innovation ecosystem, for example, it's whether you bump into people who are going to help you grow your business or think in different ways. And those happy, unexpected collisions are what really helps drive a choice to come here.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Has Disruptors Co had any collaboration with the NSW Government?
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. A lot of startups will come to us and ask what they can do to get support from government so we can direct them in the right way there. So, we provide sort of pathways, direction and programs as well.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW And what are your plans for the next 12 months?
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. So we have some fairly interesting ambitions this year. One of it's actually around the ESG and Sustainable Development Goals and how we can start to position startups in Australia towards these global ambitions. We've got a fairly large small business agenda happening this year as well. And what we're trying to do there is build capacity so small businesses can become bigger businesses and you don't do that with small thinking, and you don't do it with small processes, you do it with scalable thinking and scalable processes.
Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Thank you for joining us today, Gavin, and for sharing your thoughts. We're really excited to see what happens next with Disruptors Co and with of course with all these great startups that you support.
Gavin Heaton, Disruptors Co. Okay, thank you.
Douugh
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Hi everyone, I'm Carol Freigh, I'm the Associate Director for Entrepreneurship at Investment NSW. I'm here today in the heart of the Tech Central district with Andy Taylor. Andy is the CEO and founder of Douugh. We're here at the Tank Stream Labs Scaleup Hub. Andy, thanks for taking the time to have a quick chat with me today.
Andy Taylor, Douugh Thanks for having me.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Tell me a little bit about your scaleup and what is the problem you're solving.
Andy Taylor, Douugh Douugh is best described as a consumer fintech business really focused on helping everyday Australians build long-term wealth through micro investing. Setting up a savings habit on a weekly, fortnightly basis to sweep small amounts of money into a diversified portfolio.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Fantastic. Have you received any government support whilst building your startup and your team?
Andy Taylor, Douugh Yeah, look, as I think I mentioned to you before, R&D for us has been invaluable in building out this technology platform. A lot of investments gone into that R&D. I think we've invested close to $20 million now in the platform and we wouldn't have been able to do that without the support of the government, you know, it's a fantastic scheme. So, we're very grateful.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW That's good to hear. Can you tell me a little bit about why being a resident at either the Startup Hub or Scaleup Hub has been beneficial to you and why it's been an asset in supporting your growth?
Andy Taylor, Douugh I think in the early days it worked out really well because we were a small team. You know, we obviously built the team up. We took a bigger space. And then when we actually IPO'd the business, and you know, raised effectively our series A, you know, we stepped out, took our own office. But I think with COVID and the move to more remote working, it made a lot more sense to come back into this environment due to the flexibility and I guess the amenities, you know, it's such a great space.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW You've raised a significant amount of capital in the last 12 months. What's on the horizon? You're obviously growing, and the team is growing, what does the next 12 months look like for Douugh?
Andy Taylor, Douugh It's actually been a challenging 18 months. I think initially we were very focused on the US market and servicing the US market from Australia was challenging, especially during COVID. We've now sort of closed the doors in the US to focus on our home market here of Australia. So, we've effectively had to pivot the business in the last 12 months specifically to really capture the opportunity that's now emerging from rising inflation. But I think like any startup, you have to evolve and adapt to the changing environment, and it is changing so quickly.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Andy, thank you for taking the time to join us today and continued success wished to you for yourself and all the team at Douugh.
Andy Taylor, Douugh Thank you very much.
Palo IT
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Hi, I'm Liz Jackson, Associate Director within the Programming and Engagement unit in the Entrepreneurship team for the NSW Government. I'm here today with Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, from Paolo IT at the Tech Central Scaleup Hub. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your organisation.
Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, Paolo IT So, I'm the co-founder of Paolo IT. We're a tech innovation consultancy. Initially, the problem that we're trying to solve for customers was helping them to design and build digital products and also run their digital and technology transformation. Now in 2017, we changed the vision of our company to tech for good and since then we're trying to help them leverage technology as a force for good and to launch more sustainable products for their customers.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Tanguy, tell us about your journey from starting off at the Sydney Startup Hub with only yourself as one employee moving to Tech Central Scaleup to now having 80 employees.
Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, Paolo IT You're new to Australia, you don't know anyone and you're looking to connect with your ecosystem and the Tech Hub was amazing for that because joining all the other startups and that ecosystem was a great way to connect with my peers and with likeminded people. So, as we grew and as now, we're a bit bigger, of course we want to help new startups that are coming in to grow because I remember five years ago how it felt when you're just on your own to start a business.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Why Tech Central? What value does it bring to your organisation in being a part of this community?
Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, Paolo IT The value for us is to stay connected with the entrepreneur industry and ecosystem and being aware of what all the startups are doing because as you know a lot of innovation is coming from those types of organisation. For us being located here we're at the heart of all of this and it's really good because we can collaborate with that ecosystem, work with them, support them but also learn a lot from some of the initiatives that are going on.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW What does the next 12 months look like for Paolo IT?
Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, Paolo IT What's really exciting for us is everything around impact and sustainability and it's not only the right thing to do, it's also a massive business opportunity for our customers so we're trying to really build the knowledge and the expertise and help them to take that shift into more sustainable businesses.
Liz Jackson, Associate Director, Programming and Engagement (Entrepreneurship), Investment NSW Tanguy, thank you so much for joining me here today and it's so wonderful to hear about your journey. I wish you all the very best of luck.
Tanguy Fournier Le Ray, Paolo IT Thank you very much.
Vault Cloud
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW Hi, I'm Carol Friel with the NSW Government. I'm here in the heart of the Tech Central district today at the Tech Central Scaleup Hub with Rupert Taylor-Price, CEO and founder of Vault Cloud. Rupert, thanks for taking the time to have a quick chat with me today. So, look, tell us a little bit about Vault Cloud, what you do and the marjor problem you're solving.
Rupert Taylor-Price, Vault Cloud So we're a New South Wales business. We've been around for just over ten years, and we specialise in cloud for government and critical infrastructure. So, if it's national security, safety, critical or has sensitive citizen information, that's the space we operate in.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW We only opened the Scaleup Hub last year. You were one of our first to move in.
Rupert Taylor-Price, Vault Cloud I was. So, we've been here for, I think, three months now. So it's still pretty new. Our main client is government, so being around government was really important to us. There's a lot of co-working spaces, there's a lot of startup hubs but we're not a startup like, that's not the phase of the business we're in. So, the ability to have a community that we could work with and collaborate with was really useful to us.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW So you've told us that you've been doing some work with NSW Government. Would you like to maybe tell us a little bit more about how that works and when that relationship began?
Rupert Taylor-Price, Vault Cloud The NSW Government actually approached us to join a whole of government agreement and so we entered into the whole of government agreement with them about three years ago. The thing that was really surprising to me was when we went to other state governments and federal governments, we asked who are other technology companies that have won a whole of government agreement? And it turns out that there were none. It turns out that Vault was the very first Australian company to get a whole of government agreement in the history of Australia with a state or federal government. So that was, that was a pretty amazing step forwards between us and the NSW Government.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW And what a vow of confidence to know that you were the first to get that whole of government agreement, especially working in such a critical space as cybersecurity, which is for government such a priority. You've got some really significant growth plans over the next 12 months. Can you tell us a little bit about what that might look like for Vault?
Rupert Taylor-Price, Vault Cloud There was a lot of supply chain disruption when COVID happened. And so, governments have kind of woken up to the fact that there's actually some serious vulnerabilities within the way government can deliver services to citizens. So, we're seeing a massive shift in government buying behaviour towards organisations like Vault and hence being at Tech Central's amazing because we get to connect with that. And so, we're undergoing pretty, pretty exciting growth at the moment.
Carol Freigh, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship, Investment NSW That's brilliant. Well, look, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today and tell me about your history and where you're going from here. I'm going to be tracking this journey to see where you are in 12 months' time, because I feel like there's going to be a lot more of Vault Cloud here in Tech Central. Thank you for joining me today, Rupert.
Rupert Taylor-Price, Vault Cloud Thank you.