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Raft of Bitches
A podcast about women supporting women. Like otters.
Raft of Bitches
Cheryl Mack - Less Vagina in the Room [LIVE @ WestTechFest]
Live from West Tech Fest - the biggest startup and innovation focused festival in Western Australia.
This episode we are joined by Cheryl Mack, CEO of Aussie Angels to discuss democratising angel investing and the investment landscape for startups in Australia. Cheryl arrived in Australia in 2015 and pretty quickly became what The Australian newspaper described as "a force to be reckoned with in the local start up scene".
As CEO of StartCon, she ran the largest start up conference in Australia, as well as creating the Pitch for $1M competition, which saw founders from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond pitching their startups to compete for a total of $1 million in investment. Cheryl is an active angel investor with over 32 startup investments, she leads an angel syndicate with over 450 investors, and she co-runs 361 Angel Club which has more than 500 investors.
We also have some fun little bonus interviews with attendees at WestTechFest!
If you are interested in getting started in angel investing - get in touch with Cheryl on Linkedin here or check out Aussie Angels on their website.
music music
SPEAKER_06:For centuries, we've been told that women are each other's worst enemies. But in reality, we're more like otters than queen bees. Female otters, bitches, if you will, join hands with each other to create rafts that stop them from drifting apart and losing each other while they're asleep. Thriving women have one thing in common. In our experience, they have tight-knit circles of other women who helped them get there by providing information and support. Each episode, we shine a light on an amazing woman and give her a platform to share with us her story, her passion, and the raft of bitches that are supporting us, or her. Today, we are joined by Cheryl, and it is a little noisy around us right now because we are live recording from West Tech Fest. So I'm here with my co-host, Kate Kirwan. A fun fact about Kate, she's actually just returned a couple of days ago from the US, where she was touring around on a diplomatic visa of some sort, which is like such a flex. There was pretty fun being like, I'm actually a guest of the US
SPEAKER_07:State Department. I'm joined by my co-host Jo Minnie today. And a fun fact about Jo is that she has what Cheryl just described as an advent calendar of Christmas outfits. So she has a separate shirt and earring for every single day of December in the lead up to Christmas. And she is rocking one right now.
SPEAKER_06:It's true. It says, tell me what you want, what you really, really want. A famous Christmas carol by the Spice Girls. I love it. We're joined
SPEAKER_07:by a wonderful guest today, Cheryl Mack. And I have a little spiel that I'm going to read you about Cheryl. She arrived in Australia in 2015 and pretty quickly became what the Australian newspaper has described as a force to be reckoned with in the local startup scene. She was the CEO of StartCon, ran the largest startup conference in Australia, creating the Pitch for One Million competition She's also the strategic advisor for several startups and in her spare time mentors quite a lot in different programs. She's an active angel investor with a lot of different investments under her belt and she's now the CEO of Aussie Angels. She's on a mission to democratize angel investing in Australia and New Zealand and we're going to find out a little bit more how. Welcome to the show Cheryl. Thank you so much for having me and I'm excited to be here while we're at West Tech Fest. Yeah we're gonna kick off with a little bit of an icebreaker. So the icebreaker that you've picked for us today, Cheryl, is your favorite quote. Would you like to tell us what it is and why it's your favorite quote? Yes. So my favorite quote is, venture investing is like watching paint dry. If you want excitement, go to Las Vegas. And I realized after I said it, I probably should have remembered who said the quote, but I do not remember who said the quote. I just remember liking that quote. So apologies to whoever said it that I can't remember. That's a great quote, and I did just come back from Las
SPEAKER_06:Vegas, so this is also very topical. I love that. I also love that watching paint dry, boring as hell, takes a really long time, but the end result, worth it. Yeah, exactly. It's an investment. It is an investment in time and boredom. All right, so today we are going to be talking a little bit about investment and a little bit about what you do at Aussie Angels. So just to get us started, because while a lot of our audience might be across this already, for those who aren't, can you explain to us a little bit what an angel investor actually is?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, for sure. So an angel investor is typically somebody who is investing in companies at the very, very earliest stages, typically before they have revenue, before they have customers, sometimes before they even have a product. And they're called angel investors because emphasis on the angel, because they come down and bestow upon poor, risky companies with nothing. Here's my money and go build something. So that's where the term angel comes from. But they're essentially private individuals investing their own personal money into really early stage, very risky businesses. And how did you get started in angel investing, putting your own money on the line? Was it really nerve wracking when you first started? How did you actually make that first investment? Kind of, but not really. No, I almost fell into it. I was working for a couple of startups just for sweat equity. So like working in exchange for equity in the company. So I was like, oh, that's not like investing. And so I was doing that and I was talking to one of the founders after work one day, you know, having a drink. And he was like, oh yeah, we're just trying to close our round. I was like, cool. How much do you have left? He's like, oh, about 20 grand. I was like, oh, interesting. I thought that in order to angel invest, you had to invest like hundreds of thousands of dollars that like, you know, you had to put that much into one company. You just need 20? Okay, I could do that. It helps you get back to running the company, and we can go on our merry way. I was like, all right, sweet, done. And then that happened again with another startup that I was working with, and then I was like, ooh, hmm, interesting. I think this is angel investing, and maybe I should learn what I'm doing before I keep doing this. And so I called up a number of my investor friends, people that knew a lot more about these things than I did, and I said, hey, I think I started angel investing by accident. Tell me everything I need to know. Go. And so first they were like, well, so the bad news is that you're probably going to lose the money that you've already invested because there's no way you knew what you were doing. So pretty likely you're going to lose that money. But the good news is that if you stop now and don't make any more investments, you won't lose any more money. And I was like, oh, hmm, well, that doesn't sound... Is there an option B? And they were like, yeah, yeah. Are you sure you want to hear it? Because option B is you write another 18 or so checks. And then you might have a chance at making it all back and then some. And I was like, okay, great. I'll go with that option.
SPEAKER_06:Wow. That's a ballsy move right there.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. And now I'm 32 individual company investments in. So...
SPEAKER_06:That's insanity. And I know that one of the things that you're involved with is what you like to refer to, I think, as democratizing angel investment. Can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like and how is that different from someone just giving away$200,000 to a potential investment?
SPEAKER_07:Well, it's not that different. So the thing is, this is an asset class. It's within the alternative bucket, alternative investment bucket. I mean, it's a subsection. which is early stage venture, which is a high risk, high reward asset, which means that there's a really big likelihood that you're going to lose your money on any individual investment. But there's also a very small likelihood that you do really, really well. And when I say really, really well, I mean like on an individual investment, the ones that do really well could like thousand to three thousand x return so like i give you a dollar and you give me three thousand dollars back like that's a crazy return right so there is incentives to go down this route and those who do this really well are very very very wealthy there's a reason that the guy who invested in uber in the early days and facebook in the early days are now billionaires it's because of this concept of being able to invest in these risky businesses and get a really really good return that's not to say that every single one will, but that this is the potential. So all of that is context to say that this ability to invest in this asset class has typically been restricted to very wealthy individuals. But it doesn't need to be like that because a lot of the time startups are actually looking for what we call smart money. They want investors to come in who can not only provide cash, but also provide expertise and strategic value. And a lot of the people that can provide that expertise and strategic value aren't necessarily the people who can write$100,000 checks. And so, for example, when I started angel investing and I was told, go make a whole bunch of other investments, I was like, okay, well, the first two I wrote were 20K each. If I have to go make another 18, I probably can't keep writing 20K checks. I need to write smaller checks so that I can make more investments. And so I started trying to get into deals where I could write a 10k check and found that extremely difficult my check was small I wasn't very well known other angels didn't want to have me on like around like in the cap table or in the deal with them and and so it was really difficult but I did manage to talk my way into a number of investments and then fast forward a couple years and I started getting other investors coming to me being like hey can I get in on that like how do I invest alongside you and I found myself being like oh I don't know your check size is kind of small so I was like wait this is so silly. We should be able to open up better pathways for investors who want to access this asset class to be able to invest in these types of companies because they are smart. They are usually at a period of life where it makes sense to take more risk. Like if you are young, investing in riskier things makes a whole lot more sense than when you were older. Unfortunately, the way that the regulations are set up, it usually means that they tend to be more accessible to older people who have more assets and income. So we are on a mission to open up access to this asset class for those who want it. It doesn't make sense for everybody, but for those who want to get involved in investing in early-stage tech businesses, then we want to make that possible.
SPEAKER_06:So I can see that there's a really important aspect there, not just of giving this opportunity to younger people, but also having people who, as you said, are in that time of their life where they can be riskier, but also potentially are going to be more aligned with what a lot of these startups are doing. I know for a fact that my father is probably not going to understand the nuances of investing in a tech business that's doing something that's really new and different, whereas my husband, who works in tech, is a lot more likely to do that. 100%, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:What
SPEAKER_05:is your name? My name is Isabelle Charter. And what brought you to West Tech Fest today? I was a panelist at the investor panel to talk about angel investing.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, exciting. And how did that go for you?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it was very, very cool. It was a very interesting discussion.
SPEAKER_06:So we were here today to do a live recording of our podcast, Raft of Bitches. We've explained to you what a raft is. Can you tell me who is in your raft?
SPEAKER_05:In my raft, oh, I have too many people. Definitely my sisters are big ones there. My partner, big one there. And I have lots of friends. I think in each area of your life, you need a raft. So I do triathlon. I have my gym crew, you know. I have my work crew. So I think really knowing what's important to you and the people who value those same things makes a huge difference.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, great. I love that. A different raft for every kid.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. My name is Alena Cerides.
SPEAKER_06:And what's the best advice that you've ever received or what's your advice that you like to go out with to other people?
SPEAKER_03:Don't be afraid to get out there, shine your light, twinkle your sparkle and connect with people because there's so much out there and you will never know if you don't reach out and see.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_06:So what is your advice for someone who is in their 30s, who's looking at getting into angel investing and maybe hasn't done anything like that before and doesn't know where to start? What was like if I came to you today and was like, hey, I want to start angel investing, but I have like$5,000. That's it. Where do I start?
SPEAKER_07:I mean, if you said, hey, I want to get started with$5,000, I'd probably tell you, look, it's probably not an asset class that makes sense for you. Like at the very least, you're looking at maybe$50,000 to get started and then at least that every 18 to 24 months over a period of time. Generally, we say that you want to get to a minimum of 20 investments, ideally 40. Now, you don't have to do all that at once. It doesn't have to be in the first year. For example, in five years in, I've made 32. So it can be over a period of time, but you have to have a view to being able to build a portfolio. The portfolio approach is the reason that those investors who were early investors in Facebook and Uber and Airbnb is the reason that they are so successful is because they didn't just invest in Uber and Airbnb and Facebook. They invested in a portfolio of companies of which those happen to be within it. We all wish that we could just make three investments and there are those three, but it does not work that way. So you have to build a portfolio in order to have a chance at hitting on one of those mega winners. So if you'd have come to me and say, hey, I've got five grand, I would advise you probably not the best asset class for you to come into. But let's say you came to me and you're like, hey, I really want to get into this. I want to build a portfolio. Then my first push to you would be to think about like why are you why are you wanting to do this and what's the goal is it to build wealth if so in what time frame and what for or is it to grow your career or is it to learn about a particular sector and and what that looks like for you because it's not something you should get into lightly it is a lot of work I spend a lot of time and a lot of effort finding good deals to invest in and sometimes I find something and then I still can't get into the deal so this is it is a time intensive thing now there are ways to circumvent that and shortcut that namely joining a syndicate so you can leverage the work that someone else has done but still it does involve time so I would advise you if you are actually I can't advise anyone side note guys this is not advice this is no type of financial advice please take note but I would say I would suggest you may want to look into joining syndicates because syndicates are a fantastic way to learn so I run my own syndicate so fair warning I am biased but I do think that syndicates are one of the best ways to learn it's part of the way that I learned you essentially just sign up and you say hey I would love to know next time you're investing in something let me know and so I have a whole bunch of investors that subscribe to my deal flow and when I decide to invest in something with my own personal money I write up the notes on why I'm investing in that company and it includes things like what's the problem they're solving the solution the go to market the competition a whole bunch of things and then I share that with all those people and I go hey guys I'm investing in this company here's why and then they read that and some of them decide, awesome, I'm going to invest in the same thing alongside you, and they will send money to the same place, and it gets sent to the company in one go. So, syndicates are a great way to get started. I would also really recommend education. When I first started five years ago, there was no angel education. It was, you know, learn on the go. But now there's tons of great programs. There's in-person ones that some of the universities run. There's communities that some of the VCs run, like First Believers and Airtree Explorers. And then there's online ones, namely, again, shameless self-promotion. We run an online course called Venture Academy and Angel Academy. It gives you a really great basis of, like, here's what you need to know, here's how to get started. I would not recommend that you get started without doing some level of education and uh and finding people to invest alongside so don't just start writing twenty thousand dollar checks no i would not recommend that at all do
SPEAKER_06:as i say not as i do
SPEAKER_07:yeah oh i wish i could go back and change my initial journey i mean they weren't the worst two checks i could have written by all means but i definitely would have chosen differently had i known everything that i know now So you mentioned that there was a lot of challenges in the early days because of the networks that you had or didn't have. Didn't have. How did that process kind of change for you? How did you go and get in the right rooms to know the right people? I just kept bugging people. Yeah, cool. Just annoy people. I love that. Yeah, I did. I just kept asking questions. I kept... showing up where I wasn't necessarily supposed to be. I kept asking people to let me in. I kept... Literally, I asked a lot of questions. And when you ask a lot of questions about investing, people... tend to be like, oh, well, you must be interested in that. Okay, like, how can I help? And as I learned more and more about what I was supposed to be doing, I got better at it and was able to, again, convince some founders to take my money. And then when I was helpful to those founders, it helped convince the next set of founders to take my money. And then when I was helpful for them, it snowballed. To their credit, there are a lot of investors in this country who are very helpful. You know, I called up some of the partners at Airtree and they were really helpful. I called up Kylie Fraser I called up Rain Ong and Matt Brown at Black Nova, and it just snowballed from there. So I think reaching out is probably one of the best things that you can do. Most of the investors in this country are happy to help out if that's the pathway that you want to go down. And I was just very insistent. What you've described sounds a little bit like a raft of sorts. Does it now? Yeah. I would love to know... what your raft of bitches or your rafts in your life look like. You may have more than one raft. What does your raft look like and do you want to give a shout out to anyone specific? Yeah, I mean, is it only women? No, whoever you want. Okay. Great. I will call out a woman first, though. Her name is Maxine Minter, and she has been one of my biggest champions and supporters since day one of starting Aussie Angels, and I just learned so much from her. But there are a number of investors that have been helpful for me along the way, namely some of the women partners at Airtree Ventures. Jax and Alicia are some of the best champions of investors and founders in general, but they've been super helpful for me. I will name some men now. Matt Brown. at Black Nova was actually one of the first people to help me get into deals that I wouldn't have gotten into otherwise so if you are just getting started often times you are you have to decide or figure out whether you're considered a wholesale or a retail investor and if you are a retail investor meaning that you're not wealthy then you don't have access to invest in a number of things and so he was one of the first people that helped me figure that out and get into something that I wouldn't have gotten into otherwise so mad respect for him and then and my team with Aussie Angels, they are just some of the, I couldn't ask for better. And how important do you think it is for, both for investors, but also for founders to have that raft or network around them? Oh, so important. first of all angel investing is a team sport there is no version of this where you are successful without being part of a team like it is super collaborative and if you are doing it on your own without consulting other people I like I would be willing to bet you are not being successful so angel investing is a team sport there's you have to do it with others and collaborate I think being a founder is also a team sport in many ways not least of which that you have a team around you of course but founders leveraging off peers is another really important important piece of that success factor because it's really hard to be good if you don't see what good looks like. And that applies across a lot of areas, angel investing included. I see a lot of angel investors getting started and they tend to invest in what they see. And if they don't see what good looks like, i.e. getting exposure to a really good company, then it's hard for them to recognize that maybe the company that's in front of them isn't necessarily the best investment.
SPEAKER_06:That's a lot of information in a very short period of time.
UNKNOWN:Thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Can I ask you, what is your name? Dr Amelia Harre. I came here with my two podcast co-hosts. Our podcast is called Raft of Bitches, which is, I'll explain quickly because it sounds a little bit. Sounds amazing. Female otters, called bitches, link arms with each other when they fall asleep to stop anyone from floating away. We kind of like the metaphor of that. So I would like to ask you, who is in your raft?
SPEAKER_02:I've got so many wonderful women in my raft. They are the ones that really keep me afloat. So I've got women who I use as consultants and advisors within my business. I've got my friends and my family and the women that support me in that sense because business is a really hard game and getting that emotional support. I've got female colleagues, female clients. I couldn't agree with you more. I feel like I am definitely with my bitches.
SPEAKER_04:Love it. My name's Petra Trinke. I actually work for international education for the state government.
SPEAKER_06:What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received or is there a piece of advice that you like to give to people?
SPEAKER_04:I think the best piece of advice that could only be just for me is I had a past principal say to me, Petra, don't ever change. Don't change for anyone. Be true to yourself and you be you. And I've carried that throughout my career and I'm hoping that people can live a bit of me and experience me because I ain't never going to change.
SPEAKER_06:So I've got a question for you, Cheryl, because last year I was fortunate enough to attend the Breakfast for West Tech Fest. So for those of you who don't really know what West Tech Fest is, it's a festival, what a surprise, that's held in Western Australia. And it's about investment and startup sort of landscape in the world, but I think predominantly in Australia, from my experience. And this was the first event that I'd ever been to for West Tech Fest and it was the breakfast. And I've got to say that you are not representative of the standard person that was at that breakfast. They tended to be somewhat older and somewhat maler. Is maler a word? It is now. So less vagina in the room. Yeah, correct. Got it. Correct. Yeah, you're picking up what I'm putting down here, Cheryl. So... I have a question. There was a lot of talk about how do we get more diversity in the investment landscape. And interestingly, it's from both sides. So one of the things that was brought up is that most investors are male. But then also that most investment goes into businesses that are founded by men. And I can see... and obviously not being an investor myself and not having firsthand experience with this, but I can see how not having women investing would exacerbate the problem of not having investment in women. What's your experience looked like in this space? Have you got any sort of personal experience that speaks to this? Yeah,
SPEAKER_07:absolutely. So there's a concept that I call the cycle of funding, which is that... typically, historically, founders have been more male skewed. Like there have been more male founders than they have been female founders, both here in Australia and in the US. And so what that means is that that creates a scenario where if you are a male founding a business and you go out to raise funding, the very first round of funding is usually called the friends, family, and fools round. Now, if you are going out to your friends and family, you tend to, I think this is just human nature, you tend to approach people that reflect yourself more. And so males tend to have more male friends. That is just human nature, right? As a generalization. So they go to their friends who are predominantly male and they ask for money. And those predominantly male investors give their friend male money. That male uses the money to grow their business and let's say there's a big exit. It's like Facebook and... They all get rich. Now, those male investors who now have significant wealth from doing so are better able to then go and fund the next generation of companies or start their own company. Now, when they go to fund the next company, they go, oh, well, what does success look like? I want to get a good return again. Let me try to invest in something similar that I just invested in so that I can do well. They then become a founder who then goes to their friends who happen to be male. And so the cycle starts again. Either way, the cycle starts again where predominantly male founders get funded and predominantly males get rich and so on and so forth. So this cycle of funding is not necessarily their fault. It's more down to human nature. But it does mean that we have to consciously try to break this, both us as women trying to get into these circles, but also men consciously saying, OK, well, you know what? Actually, I'm going to make a conscious choice to go out and find a more diverse investor base. And so we need to break the cycle. That's the main thing that I think we need to do. It is a complex problem and I recognize that there's, you know, this is an area that is going to require a multifaceted solution to it. But the area that I think I can influence is breaking the cycle and helping more women become investors if that's what they want to do and get into deals and be able to profit from really big outcomes.
SPEAKER_06:My name is Carina Sharp. I work for the government of Western Australia and whilst I'm not directly involved in the event, I have colleagues that support it and I just wanted to come down and see it for myself. We're actually here obviously for our podcast. We just did a live recording down there and our podcast is called The Raft of Bitches. Now that you're from government, I feel a little bit awkward about saying that, but basically the concept of it is women supporting women. So what we call your raft is your support network, often of other women who you know, help you with information, help you when you're down, support you, help you take the next leap, all of that kind of stuff. Is there anyone in your raft? Who is in your raft? Good question. I think having a good raft is really important, and mine would be, I think, a mix of people, including my family, so my mum and my sister, definitely, but then professionally as well. I've been really lucky to work with so many amazing women, both my managers and colleagues, and have benefited so much from their guidance and support and I think that in turn has left such an impression on me that I try to do that now as well with my team members and also I would think for me as well I used to play competitive level volleyball with a team of women. You need that raft or you need to stick together and support one another to be able to achieve that collective outcome or goal so I think that my time in sport really highlighted the importance of that as well. Yeah nice and I love the idea of being the raft that you were given yourself. That's lovely.
SPEAKER_00:My name is Simi Das and I'm an experimenter and that's why I'm here to meet a lot of people who have already done experiments and probably doing it. So it's a nice place to catch up with like-minded
SPEAKER_06:people. We've just explained to you what a raft is. Who is in your raft?
SPEAKER_00:I would say it's my family and few friends and my little girls who believe in me.
SPEAKER_06:What is a piece of advice, the best piece of advice that you have received or advice that you would like to give out maybe to your girls or whoever?
SPEAKER_00:We always think about a lot of other things. We always underestimate the power which is within us. And I think that's your superpower, believing in that and ignoring all that noise around yourself.
SPEAKER_06:Fantastic. Thanks very much. Thank you. Hi, my name is Laura Potts. So our podcast is called Raft of Bitches. I know it. Oh, you do? Oh, great. We're actually, I'm on the podcast after you guys. Oh, excellent. So, yes, the New Beginnings one. And can I ask you, if you're familiar with our podcast, are you familiar with the concept of the raft? Who is in your raft? Well, I have to say my professional network because at the Fogarty Foundation we're an entirely female team and the women above me have done such incredible things. Our chair, Annie Fogarty, was Australian of the Year a few years ago and just really amazing influences and then I guess in my private life my sister she always calls herself my biggest cheerleader and yeah I have to definitely count a lot to her for sure. Oh lovely my sister is also in my raft I have to say. Great bond isn't it? Yeah it is.
SPEAKER_07:What's next for your show? What's next? It's a big question. Yeah. I mean, like, after this, I plan to go out and have some drinks with some people from this conference. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, no, you meant more of like a strategic. For sure. Either one, either way. Yeah, look, I think for us at Aussie Angels, it is about making sure that emerging fund managers, and when I say emerging fund managers, I mean anyone who's making the shift from investing their money personally to managing other people's money, whether as a fund manager or maybe they're just bringing their friends along and making introductions, or maybe they're starting a syndicate. But we want to give that group of people superpowers to be able to really supercharge our ecosystem and help drive funding into their hands, but also for them into the next generation of world-changing startups. And we have no shortage of them in Australia. What I do believe that we need to support better is emerging fund managers and give them the tools they need because while I'm not you know we're not specifically focused on women but if you break down barriers it tends to benefit women more than other demographics it tends to benefit minority demographics than others
SPEAKER_05:yeah
SPEAKER_07:I have a little bit of a different question for you there's a lot of people that I think are a bit scared about tech generally and about startups because they there's so much they don't know and understand and things move so quickly they're like how do I stay educated and stay up to date on what's going on when things move really quickly do you have any words of advice for people who are just like oh Cheryl can do that because she's super smart but how do I do that because I don't know what's going on and it seems really intimidating to me from the outside do you have any advice for those listeners who might be listening to the show I think that's a really interesting perspective and I would first question what is that fear and maybe let's get to the root of that is it a fear of being left behind is it a fear of feeling inadequate or embarrassed, and try to understand where that fear is coming from, because I suspect that it is not a fear of technology itself, but a fear of some type of deep-rooted emotion that we could probably address. Once we've addressed that, my next push would be that this isn't an all-or-nothing game. There is so much more that I don't know even if I seem like I'm across a lot of technology, there's always somebody who knows more than me. And there is definitely somebody that knows more than me in a particular field of technology. I'm one of those generalists. I know just enough about everything to be dangerous. But I know there's very little that I know very deep about. So if you were one of those people that's like, hey, I'd really love to get to know a little bit more, like, You can start on the internet by just Googling a couple of your favorite topics. I guarantee you there is some sort of newsletter out there that you can start to read. Newsletters are great. They're a really low commitment way to start to learn. And then the next thing I would say is start going to events. You can go to events and almost anonymously ask some really dumb questions and start to learn a bit about anything that you're interested in. Or don't ask questions and just sit and learn and you'd be surprised at how far you'll get. That's great advice. And perhaps a little plug for West Tech Fest, you could come to an event just like this. Yes, show up at this event. Man, if you just walked around and talked to all of the exhibitors here and just asked them, like, hey, so what is this? Tell me about your battery-powered bike. Tell me about your super-fast electric charger. Like, they are just happy to share. So you just learn a lot by asking each person at their booth what their thing does. I
SPEAKER_06:love that. Cheryl, how can our listeners help you? Who are the people that that you need in your raft. You mentioned the place that you want to go next. Do you want to grow Aussie Angels? Do you want to get more people on board, more diversity on board? If we met someone, who would be the ideal person for us to connect with you or connect with your network?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, so first I would say that if you are at all angel curious, being at all interested in angel investing. Angel curious. If you are angel curious, yeah. Even if you don't have the funds to actually start to invest yet, but if you want to learn more about this space, it's incredibly interesting. So I would welcome you to go to www.venture.academy. We run an online course. It's self-paced, online, couple hours, but absolutely packed full of really, really great insights from investors all over the country. So I would encourage you to do that. And special, you know what? Because I like your listeners and we're here at West Tech Fest, you can all have 20% off the course. So use the code WTF West Tech Fest, all capitals 20. And then my ask would be that if you know of anybody out there who is angel curious or who is looking to up their investment game, please send them my way. I love being known as the angel Sherpa, the place to write your first angel check, the place to start to learn Learn about angel investing and the place to get into early stage ventures. So if you know of anyone or if you hear in passing, someone's like, oh, I've been thinking about getting into angel investing. Be like, hey, have you heard of Aussie Angels? Go check out Aussie Angels. I love that so much. Thank you so much for being on the show, Cheryl. So there's actually two reasons that drew me to you, other than that you're here in Perth, which is a limited resource. But you're LinkedIn, you're wearing this ridiculously adorable unicorn hat. And I'm like, she's one of us. A little bit of fun, a little bit of sparkle. And other reason is my mom's name is also Cheryl. And it's spelled the same way, which is not as common. Yeah, it's a bit of an older person's name. I was named after my dad's sister who passed away very young. So I can imagine when that name might have been popular was a few years ago. But I like my name. Yeah, it's not common. It's great. Yeah. When we were talking about you on the show, my phone kept auto-correcting to Cheryl Cowan. So shout out to my mom if she's listening.
SPEAKER_06:Hello,
SPEAKER_07:Cheryl,
SPEAKER_06:on the show. Excellent. And Cheryl with a C. Yes. How can people connect with you if they want to reach out and pick your brain about something?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, for sure. A number of ways. You can jump on the Aussie Angels website and just shoot a message to our contact support, which is, I think, hello at aussieangels.com. You can also jump on LinkedIn and find me. I'm very easy to find. I have a unicorn hat on. So if you search Cheryl, you usually don't even have to put my last name because the first thing that comes up is me with a unicorn hat. I am not the best at LinkedIn messaging, but my email that is on my LinkedIn is an email that I use and you can reach out to me there. Amazing. Thank you so much, Cheryl. Unfortunately, once again, we are utterly out of time.
SPEAKER_06:That's right. But if you have a fun story about either being a founder or you're dabbling in angel investment we'd love to hear from you and where can people reach us we are on instagram at raft podcast or you can email hello at raftpodcast.com and for previous episodes or to find out more don't forget to check out our website raftpodcast.com thanks for listening rafters catch you next time Yeah, exactly. I think we should all feel very good about our level of professionalism because it's obviously going to be great. What do you think, Kate?
SPEAKER_03:I totally agree. What could go wrong with this whole situation?
SPEAKER_06:We're so prepared. I'm thinking nothing at all. I'm thinking it's going to be perfect from start to finish.
SPEAKER_04:Flawless. Flawless.