It Takes A Village: The Companies Behind Australia's Startup Success Stories

Join us for an inspiring evening as we bring together the companies that have been part of some of Australia’s most exciting startup journeys.

​In this insightful panel discussion, leaders from Stone & Chalk, Cake, Shadowboxer, Tractor Ventures, and LUNA will share their experiences and explore the pivotal roles they’ve played in guiding startups through critical phases of growth and scaling. This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the companies that have been instrumental in shaping Australia’s thriving startup landscape. Discover the strategies and partnerships that have transformed bold ideas into thriving businesses.

​After the panel, continue the conversation over an evening of networking, featuring delicious bites from Fabbrica. Connect directly with founders, industry leaders, and investors in an inviting and relaxed setting at The Commons George Street, creating opportunities for meaningful exchanges and future collaboration.

About the Panellists

​Jodie Imam, Co-founder & CEO @ Tractor Ventures
Jodie is passionate about helping tech businesses start and grow. Jodie is a founder, an angel investor, advisor and non-executive director. Currently, she is a Co-founder and the CEO at Tractor Ventures, a Fintech company that exists to help founders unlock possibilities with alternative capital!

Previously, she cofounded two-sided marketplace, Occasional Butler, which was acquired by rival Airtasker and depo8 coworking. Jodie led the SBE Australia not-for-profit that accelerates women-led business. Jodie was Director of StartUps at The Wade Institute, and the GM for Fashion label Leona Edmiston. She was also previously an Account Manager for Ericsson Australia and for NCR Corporation in both Sydney and London.

Tractor Ventures funds start-ups, scale-ups and SME's with non-dilutive debt products. Over the past four years, they have deployed $75m to over 200 companies.

​Stephen Graham, Co-founder & General Manager @ Shadowboxer
Stephen (or Ste) is a co-founder of Shadowboxer, a venture studio building and launching disruptive technology products, partnering with founders, venture capitalists and corporate innovators who need a senior cross-functional team to turn ideas into successful businesses.

Since launching in 2020, Shadowboxer has helped 62 startups launch, raise, grow and exit to a combined value of $100m+.

Prior to recently becoming Shadowboxer’s GM, Ste led its strategy practice, with a specialty in product, GTM and brand.

As well as angel investing independently and through Sb Ventures, Ste provides mentoring and advisory services to early stage ventures, with a passion for health, sustainability and construction tech.

Shadowboxer is a Melbourne-based venture studio who build, launch, and invest in disruptive technology businesses. Their venture studio model is designed to help founders and early-stage innovators realise their greatest ambitions at speed with a senior, specialised team and a trusted network of investors.

​Jason Atkins, Co-founder & President @ Cake Equity
Jason is passionate about helping the tech community achieve more from their equity. He sees innovation and entrepreneurship as being instrumental in tackling and solving many of society's greatest problems and believes that a core component of any successful tech company is its equity, through investment and employee equity schemes.

He has authored many blogs, guides and toolkits, and regularly presents on these topics including maximizing your equity, equity plans, capital raising, founder journey and health, and other related cap table matters globally.

Cake is on a mission to empower startups by making global equity simple and fast. They’re a healthy, positive bunch focused on helping founders build a better future for all of us. With decades of experience from startup, scale up, legal, and entrepreneurship, Cake is here to empower founders and their teams, by making global equity simple and fast, moving off spreadsheets and managing equity on Cake like a pro, streamlining cap table management and investor engagement, and issuing equity to employees in minutes in over 50 countries.

​Chris Kirk, CEO @ Stone & Chalk
Chris is a founding member and CEO of Stone & Chalk, a non-profit to accelerate Australia’s transition to a sustainable technology-driven economy. Since its launch in 2015, Chris has held almost every role in the company, and has driven its growth from a single location supporting 100 startups in Sydney to a national network of startup incubators.

Stone & Chalk is now Australia’s largest innovation community, supporting over 2000 emerging technology entrepreneurs.

Prior to Stone & Chalk, Chris had a career in financial services.

​Ronen Heine, Founder & CEO @ LUNA
Ronen is an angel investor, lawyer and startup strategist. After working as a suit and tie corporate lawyer for over 4 years, fed up with how professional services were being delivered to young entrepreneurs, in 2015 Ronen founded LUNA - a startup studio helping startups, for-purpose businesses and social enterprises to launch and grow businesses, by offering a one-stop shop of startup strategy, legal, accounting and investment services.

Ronen lives and breathes startups and is extremely passionate about developing and supporting an ecosystem in Australia, in which young people can thrive in non-traditional careers. He does this not only through 600+ startups who have gone through LUNA but also co-founded Mamilla – a mentor-driven accelerator program and social impact incubator the Good Incubator.

LUNA partners with founders and investors to launch, grow & scale ambitious ideas into world-class businesses. ​Our mission is to support founders to start, build, and scale their startups across Australia and internationally. LUNA provides cross-functional legal, accounting, consulting & education support to create the foundations required for any thriving startup, scaleup or venture capital fund.

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