#95 Andrea Gardiner - Founder and CEO of Jelix Ventures and Ian Gardiner - Co-Founder of Innovation Bay

In this episode, I interview Andrea and Ian Gardiner. Andrea is the founder of Jelix Ventures, an early-stage venture capital manager dedicated to supporting startups across Australia and New Zealand. Ian is the co-founder of Innovation Bay, Australia’s leading and longest running startup community. Together, Andrea and Ian have become major pillars in the startup scene, investing in over 45 companies and supporting hundreds more.

Throughout the episode, Andrea and Ian talk in-depth about what distinguishes great founders from the rest and the traits they carry that convince investors to fund their companies. Furthermore, they explain why space and energy are some of their favourite themes to invest in and why they think these categories are vastly underrated.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Andrea/Ian Gardiner Podcast
• 0:39 Introduction
• 4:58 The Biggest Learning Curve Andrea Faced from Doing Syndicated Deals to then Running a Fund
• 5:56 The Birth of Innovation Bay and the Australian Tech Scene
• 8:25 How Ian and Andrea Spend Their Day to Day in Business
• 9:18 The Investment Decision Process at Jelix VC
• 11:01 The Key Traits Andrea and Ian Look for In Founders
• 17:37 What Seperates Top Founders from The Rest
• 20:08 Founders that Have Wowed Andrea and Ian Over the Years
• 24:38 How Important is The Founder in The Success of the Startup?
• 28:57 The Industries Jelix VC Prefers to Invest In
• 34:24 Why Andrea and Ian Love Investing in Space Companies
• 36:06 The Most Underrated Theme of Recent Times
• 37:32 The Best Advice Andrea and Ian Have Evder Receive
• 42:25 The People that Inspire Andrea and Ian
• 45:40 What's Next for Jelix VC, Andrea and Ian
• 49:11 Outtro