00:28:14 · S2, Charlie Gearside
[00:28:14] S2: Well, I think a lot of that is actually creators. Right? Steven Bartlett just announced this, like, partnership with Stan Store, which is, like, essentially this platform that allows anyone to monetize them being a creator and like, 75,000 people on it. But he talked about how one of the biggest tailwinds of this Gen Z generation is literally wanting to work for themselves and wanting to be creators and, you know, earning a $100 a year from something they're passionate about. You know? Being an artist or whatever and and and monetizing your art through courses, etcetera, etcetera. And that, I think, is becoming a lot more popular. Yep. And people are increasingly wanting the freedom to choose. And I also think people are like now, especially with what happened in '22, they're recognizing that stable careers, quote unquote, aren't that stable. Like, you see [00:28:59] S0: it in the news all [00:29:00] S2: the time that big companies are doing so many layoffs. So I think this notion that Australians are told around what is a stable job, what is a stable path, and that stable job doesn't get you to buying a house even if you get promoted six times, you know, like it... [00:29:13] S0: Yeah. It's like the, you know, the the fire the fire way to get wealthy or [00:29:18] S2: the Yeah. [00:29:18] S0: Foot investigative... Yeah. Way to get wealthy. It's like, everyone's like, that's the safest way. Yeah. It's like, dude, that that relies on you having a job. Yeah. Like,
00:29:18 · Charlie Gearside, S2, Adam Miller
[00:29:18] S0: Foot investigative... Yeah. Way to get wealthy. It's like, everyone's like, that's the safest way. Yeah. It's like, dude, that that relies on you having a job. Yeah. Like, [00:29:26] S2: it's... But also with that job, like, you're never actually probably gonna be out or afford a house in the suburb that you wanna live in. Like, that's the reality if you wanna stay in Sydney. [00:29:35] S1: So you just mentioned before this, like, try hard culture, which gets a little bit cut down in Australia. What what do you think are, like, the, solutions to this? Like, what do we need to embrace instead? Is it embracing more weirdness, wackiness, people that are speaking louder? Like, what what does the media need to do as well in that?
00:29:57 · Charlie Gearside
[00:29:57] S0: The media is a really good point. I think... Yeah. I I think it's a really tough answer because it's it's, like, baked into our culture. Right? Probably goes, like, hundreds of years back, and it's probably linked to, like, British stiff upper lip kind of stuff. The the media stuff is a good one. Like, you look at the state of journalism in Australia and particularly, like, business journalism, it's like... Yeah. It's so much easier to tear something down to, like... Than to build it up. And I think a lot of what journalism is these days is essentially, like, peeking away at things. And I mean, because it's an awesome story. It's like a really interesting story, like, bringing someone down or, like, saying why something won't work or or whatever. And I think a lot of... In the Chernanbourne world of, like, modern journalism, it's like, that's just the easiest thing to do. And it really disappoints me when I... You know, you look at papers like The Fin that, like, are supposed to be business publications, and they'll blow smoke up, the backside of, like, the big end of town. Yeah. And then when you see people trying to get off the off the ground, like, the way that they treat startups is with, like, thinly veiled disdain a lot of the time. Yeah. I think the media has... And our our own consumption habits is a huge factor in that.
00:31:33 · Adam Miller
[00:31:33] S1: I wonder if it's not just about changing existing journalism, but it's about countering that with just more optimism from the entrepreneurs and creators. Because in America... So they don't have the problem as bad. But there is still this problem where, like, any organization that becomes a big media company, whether it's TechCrunch or the information, or, like, New York Times stuff, like, there's a lot of anti tech sentiment there too, but it's counted by this huge barrage of people on Twitter Yeah. That have this sort of techno optimistic media platform and all these individuals with big voices, which we don't really have in Australia as much. Like, when there is, like, a bad article in the film, like, you don't get this huge outcry No. In Australia where it's like, fuck them. And it's like, go to the startup, go
00:32:17 · Charlie Gearside, S2, Adam Miller
[00:32:17] S0: to the entrepreneur, or whatever. No. You're a 100% right. And that was... So part of the... Once once I left Eucalyptus, I'd started chatting to a few VCs and Alexei, my co founder, we had this idea that maybe we would, like, create a AI orientated sort of, like, news platform. A little bit like ground ground news Yeah. That's sort of become. But we came to the realization that helping people consume better news and, like, countering bad journalism, essentially, isn't gonna beat bad journalism because bad journalism appeals to our, like, emotions Most pretty lizard brains. Right? And so you're a 100% right because the only way to to, like, beat them is to join them and just do it in a better way and be more optimistic and open minded and and hope that that product is just as interesting, if not more interesting. Like, you have to get some sort of enjoyment out of, like, what the world... You have to paint a picture of the world and what it could be and inspire rather than sort of just like, this sucks. Like, yeah, you have to beat those endorphins that come from bringing... Breaking something down, you know? [00:33:34] S2: Gearside to a million subs is what saves Australia. That's what I'm hearing. [00:33:38] S0: That's my, [00:33:38] S1: like, fucked up. Felt it. That's a new campaign slogan. That's... I told them to in subs. We're gonna hammer that [00:33:46] S0: on FODGU list. Exactly. Just like run paid ads to it or something like that.
00:33:46 · Charlie Gearside, S2
[00:33:46] S0: on FODGU list. Exactly. Just like run paid ads to it or something like that. [00:33:50] S2: And and kind of with this deep line of sight that you've had into the Australian startup ecosystem, what are the things you think we need to change to kind of broaden that narrative to the rest of Australia, but also internally to kind of produce more, you know, generational companies like [00:34:06] S0: I've got nothing but, like, really great things to say about the Australian ecosystem. Like, lot of people say, oh, we don't, like, think big enough or we don't, like... Or or the VCs are too conservative. [00:34:17] S2: Yeah. That's when the founders don't race all the time. Right? [00:34:20] S0: Yeah. But, also, I think it's, like, it's possible... It's it's definitely possible there's evidence of, like, VC's backing pretty crazy ideas. Mhmm. And the ecosystem, like, we have a track record thanks to, like, your Atlassians and your Canva. Like, we're starting that we have experienced founders. So I think we're on the right track. I think, like, the deep tech stuff is a real... I'm I'm hoping I'm hoping that some of these software company successes lead into Yeah. Bigger deep tech successes? Like, who's that... The Go1 guy doing the Definitive? [00:34:55] S2: Yeah. Vu Tran. He's an investor in ours. [00:34:57] S0: Is he? Yeah. Like, that guy just seems like an absolute weapon. Yeah. Like, almost like, hey. I've I've solved a hard problem. Now I'm gonna go after, like, a a much harder problem.