The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal Archiv
286 Episoden
1 Stunde 15 Minuten
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
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Dylan Babbs is the Co-Founder and CTO of Profound, one of AI’s fastest-growing marketing companies, which reached a $1B valuation within 18 months and has raised $155M+ from Lightspeed, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and others. Previously a design engineer at Uber, Dylan is a licensed private pilot and maps obsessive with a distinctive approach to engineering, product and design.
In this conversation with Vidit, Dylan shares how an obsession with maps shaped his approach to product and design, why years of side projects eventually led him to leave his dream job at Uber, and how meeting James Cadwallader at South Park Commons led to Profound. He unpacks the three things every successful startup needs, why founders should stop “swimming upstream”, and how Profound grew far beyond even the founders’ expectations.
They also explore Profound’s bigger bet on how AI is reshaping marketing, what Fortune 500 CMOs are asking today, the rise of the “marketing engineer”, product taste and speed, and why learning to fly taught Dylan to “run towards the anxiety.”
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Meet Dylan Babbs
02:25 Xero
03:25 Growing up in Silicon Valley
04:35 Why maps are fascinating
19:35 Berlin + starting a business
26:35 Puerto Rico + learning to fly
30:35 “Run towards the anxiety”
38:35 Uber + walking away
42:35 Meeting his co-founder
49:05 3 things every startup needs
53:35 Product taste + speed
56:35 Building Profound
59:35 Fast tracked revenue growth
1:03:35 What Fortune 500 CMOs want
1:07:35 The rise of the “marketing engineer”
1:10:35 Can the giants copy Profound?
1:13:35 Profound’s data moat
1:16:35 Flying, surfing + rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
________
Dylan Babbs is the Co-Founder and CTO of Profound, one of AI’s fastest-growing marketing companies, which reached a $1B valuation within 18 months and has raised $155M+ from Lightspeed, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and others. Previously a design engineer at Uber, Dylan is a licensed private pilot and maps obsessive with a distinctive approach to engineering, product and design.
In this conversation with Vidit, Dylan shares how an obsession with maps shaped his approach to product and design, why years of side projects eventually led him to leave his dream job at Uber, and how meeting James Cadwallader at South Park Commons led to Profound. He unpacks the three things every successful startup needs, why founders should stop “swimming upstream”, and how Profound grew far beyond even the founders’ expectations.
They also explore Profound’s bigger bet on how AI is reshaping marketing, what Fortune 500 CMOs are asking today, the rise of the “marketing engineer”, product taste and speed, and why learning to fly taught Dylan to “run towards the anxiety.”
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Meet Dylan Babbs
02:25 Xero
03:25 Growing up in Silicon Valley
04:35 Why maps are fascinating
19:35 Berlin + starting a business
26:35 Puerto Rico + learning to fly
30:35 “Run towards the anxiety”
38:35 Uber + walking away
42:35 Meeting his co-founder
49:05 3 things every startup needs
53:35 Product taste + speed
56:35 Building Profound
59:35 Fast tracked revenue growth
1:03:35 What Fortune 500 CMOs want
1:07:35 The rise of the “marketing engineer”
1:10:35 Can the giants copy Profound?
1:13:35 Profound’s data moat
1:16:35 Flying, surfing + rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 21 Minuten
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
________
Damien Lewke is the Founder & CEO of Nebulock, an AI-native cybersecurity company building autonomous technology to find threats before they become major attacks. Previously, he worked across CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Arctic Wolf and Northrop Grumman, four leading names across cybersecurity and defence, and studied AI at MIT. Nebulock has since run 300M+ AI-powered investigations and surfaced 4,000+ security incidents missed by existing tools.
In this conversation with Vidit, Damien traces the unconventional journey that led him there, from pursuing professional football in Germany and selling shoes in Los Angeles to discovering cybersecurity through an internship, working in Asia Pacific, and eventually quitting his job without a perfect plan to start Nebulock as a solo founder.
They unpack why cybersecurity is harder today than 12 years ago, how AI could automate hacking at scale, and why even the world’s best security tools still miss attacks. Damien also shares why he interviewed 90 customers in 90 days before writing a line of code, the 30-page manifesto that helped launch Nebulock, what he learned inside some of cybersecurity’s defining companies, and why he still runs 1,000 miles every year.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Meet Damien Lewke
03:50 Xero
04:50 Growing up between America and Germany
14:20 Chasing professional football
21:00 Discovering cybersecurity
24:00 Cybersecurity: 2014 vs today
29:00 The DNC hack CrowdStrike
38:30 Australia, Palo Alto + MIT
47:00 Why he became a solo founder
53:00 Why AI changes cybersecurity
57:00 Building Nebulock
1:00:00 Can the giants copy it?
1:05:00 90 customers before writing code
1:12:00 Hiring exceptional people
1:20:00 AI vs AI: the future of cyber
1:24:00 Running 1,000 miles + rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
________
Damien Lewke is the Founder & CEO of Nebulock, an AI-native cybersecurity company building autonomous technology to find threats before they become major attacks. Previously, he worked across CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Arctic Wolf and Northrop Grumman, four leading names across cybersecurity and defence, and studied AI at MIT. Nebulock has since run 300M+ AI-powered investigations and surfaced 4,000+ security incidents missed by existing tools.
In this conversation with Vidit, Damien traces the unconventional journey that led him there, from pursuing professional football in Germany and selling shoes in Los Angeles to discovering cybersecurity through an internship, working in Asia Pacific, and eventually quitting his job without a perfect plan to start Nebulock as a solo founder.
They unpack why cybersecurity is harder today than 12 years ago, how AI could automate hacking at scale, and why even the world’s best security tools still miss attacks. Damien also shares why he interviewed 90 customers in 90 days before writing a line of code, the 30-page manifesto that helped launch Nebulock, what he learned inside some of cybersecurity’s defining companies, and why he still runs 1,000 miles every year.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers.
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Meet Damien Lewke
03:50 Xero
04:50 Growing up between America and Germany
14:20 Chasing professional football
21:00 Discovering cybersecurity
24:00 Cybersecurity: 2014 vs today
29:00 The DNC hack CrowdStrike
38:30 Australia, Palo Alto + MIT
47:00 Why he became a solo founder
53:00 Why AI changes cybersecurity
57:00 Building Nebulock
1:00:00 Can the giants copy it?
1:05:00 90 customers before writing code
1:12:00 Hiring exceptional people
1:20:00 AI vs AI: the future of cyber
1:24:00 Running 1,000 miles + rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 21 Minuten
This episode is supported by Xero, helping businesses use AI with more control through JAX, its in-platform AI finance partner. Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months at xero.com/highflyers. Terms apply.
________
Luke Anear is the Founder and CEO of Mitti, the global technology company formerly known as SafetyCulture. Founded in 2004, Mitti has grown into a US$1.6 billion company with 850+ employees, helping tens of thousands of organisations improve how work gets done. Today, it is expanding across AI, computer vision and insurance, building on more than 3.5 billion workplace images and an insurance business that has already written US$115 million+ in premiums.
After more than 20 years building the company, Luke stepped away from the CEO role completely exhausted. Eighteen months later, he’s back in the chair, has made more changes in five months than he says he did in the previous decade, and is rebuilding the business for the AI era.
In this candid conversation, Luke shares how dropping out of school and cycling through 18 jobs and businesses shaped him, including living in his car before making $42,000 in a single night, and why he regrets selling 28% of SafetyCulture for just $2 million. Vidit and Luke unpack the chaos of scaling from 25 to 300+ employees, why stepping away became “one of the best things that ever happened” to him, what he’s doing differently in his second stint as CEO, and his ambition to build Mitti into a $10 billion revenue business.
They also explore why AI is pushing software from horizontal to vertical, Mitti’s expansion beyond traditional SaaS, the surprising lesson Luke learned on a job site in Nepal, and the more personal side of a founder who flies helicopters, makes films and once took his children out of school to travel the world making documentaries together.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Why SafetyCulture became Mitti
02:10 Introduction
07:00 Xero
10:15 Living in his car to making $42K overnight
20:30 How SafetyCulture really started
25:30 Selling 28% for $2 million
31:30 Stepping away and returning as CEO
36:00 The mistakes of scaling too fast
44:15 Why AI is making software more vertical
46:30 What Nepal taught Luke about global expansion
54:00 From SaaS to insurance
1:03:00 “I was cooked”: burnout and becoming a different CEO
1:15:00 Documentaries, his kids and flying helicopters
1:23:00 Rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
________
Luke Anear is the Founder and CEO of Mitti, the global technology company formerly known as SafetyCulture. Founded in 2004, Mitti has grown into a US$1.6 billion company with 850+ employees, helping tens of thousands of organisations improve how work gets done. Today, it is expanding across AI, computer vision and insurance, building on more than 3.5 billion workplace images and an insurance business that has already written US$115 million+ in premiums.
After more than 20 years building the company, Luke stepped away from the CEO role completely exhausted. Eighteen months later, he’s back in the chair, has made more changes in five months than he says he did in the previous decade, and is rebuilding the business for the AI era.
In this candid conversation, Luke shares how dropping out of school and cycling through 18 jobs and businesses shaped him, including living in his car before making $42,000 in a single night, and why he regrets selling 28% of SafetyCulture for just $2 million. Vidit and Luke unpack the chaos of scaling from 25 to 300+ employees, why stepping away became “one of the best things that ever happened” to him, what he’s doing differently in his second stint as CEO, and his ambition to build Mitti into a $10 billion revenue business.
They also explore why AI is pushing software from horizontal to vertical, Mitti’s expansion beyond traditional SaaS, the surprising lesson Luke learned on a job site in Nepal, and the more personal side of a founder who flies helicopters, makes films and once took his children out of school to travel the world making documentaries together.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Why SafetyCulture became Mitti
02:10 Introduction
07:00 Xero
10:15 Living in his car to making $42K overnight
20:30 How SafetyCulture really started
25:30 Selling 28% for $2 million
31:30 Stepping away and returning as CEO
36:00 The mistakes of scaling too fast
44:15 Why AI is making software more vertical
46:30 What Nepal taught Luke about global expansion
54:00 From SaaS to insurance
1:03:00 “I was cooked”: burnout and becoming a different CEO
1:15:00 Documentaries, his kids and flying helicopters
1:23:00 Rapid fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 18 Minuten
Flavia Tata Nardini is the co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space Technologies, the Adelaide company using satellites, seismic sensors and AI to help find the critical minerals needed for the energy transition. Since starting with just A$25,000, Fleet has grown into a global space and mining technology company valued at more than A$800 million.
In this candid conversation, Flavia shares how losing everything as a child shaped her relationship with money, identity and risk, why moving to Australia left her with little choice but to build her own company, and how Fleet searched for product-market fit across everything from beehives and cattle to pipelines and vineyards.
Vidit and Flavia explore the mining breakthrough that transformed Fleet, the A$100 Rocket Lab launch that helped save the company, raising children while building a startup, finding the right partner in life and business, and why Fleet now plans to take the same seismic technology it uses beneath the Earth to the Moon.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
01:00 Who is Flavia
03:42 The Day Her Family Lost Everything
14:02 The Childhood Dream That Never Left Her
19:12 Leaving Rome and Becoming Someone New
24:22 What the Space Industry Got Wrong
27:08 Why Australia Forced Her to Become a Founder
35:35 How Fleet Space Really Began
38:38 Betting on an Industry She Barely Knew
41:15 The Moment Fleet Became More Than an Idea
45:05 Building a Company With the Person You Love
49:36 The Messy Search for Product-Market Fit
54:12 The Bet That Changed Fleet Forever
55:45 Using Satellites and AI to See Beneath Earth
01:01:02 Building a Global Deep-Tech Company From Adelaide
01:05:15 The $100 Satellite Launch That Saved Fleet
01:09:15 From Founder Mode to Leading an $800M Company
01:14:40 Taking Fleet’s Technology From Earth to the Moon
01:16:00 Rapid Fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
In this candid conversation, Flavia shares how losing everything as a child shaped her relationship with money, identity and risk, why moving to Australia left her with little choice but to build her own company, and how Fleet searched for product-market fit across everything from beehives and cattle to pipelines and vineyards.
Vidit and Flavia explore the mining breakthrough that transformed Fleet, the A$100 Rocket Lab launch that helped save the company, raising children while building a startup, finding the right partner in life and business, and why Fleet now plans to take the same seismic technology it uses beneath the Earth to the Moon.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, Xero, JP Morgan and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
01:00 Who is Flavia
03:42 The Day Her Family Lost Everything
14:02 The Childhood Dream That Never Left Her
19:12 Leaving Rome and Becoming Someone New
24:22 What the Space Industry Got Wrong
27:08 Why Australia Forced Her to Become a Founder
35:35 How Fleet Space Really Began
38:38 Betting on an Industry She Barely Knew
41:15 The Moment Fleet Became More Than an Idea
45:05 Building a Company With the Person You Love
49:36 The Messy Search for Product-Market Fit
54:12 The Bet That Changed Fleet Forever
55:45 Using Satellites and AI to See Beneath Earth
01:01:02 Building a Global Deep-Tech Company From Adelaide
01:05:15 The $100 Satellite Launch That Saved Fleet
01:09:15 From Founder Mode to Leading an $800M Company
01:14:40 Taking Fleet’s Technology From Earth to the Moon
01:16:00 Rapid Fire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 31 Minuten
Mel Silva is the Managing Director of Google for ANZ. She has held senior leadership roles across Asia-Pacific, including leading Google's APAC Go-to-Market Strategy & Operations from Singapore. Today, she oversees one of Google's most influential regional businesses, and serves on the board of the Sydney Opera House.
In one of her most candid interviews, Mel shares the story behind leading Google. From growing up in a family business to taking career risks that meant pay cuts and missed promotions, she reflects on the setback that changed everything, the mentor who saw potential she couldn't yet see, and why learning to separate instinct from her inner critic transformed both her career and her leadership.
Vidit and Mel explore leading Google through Australia's landmark News Media Bargaining Code, returning from parental leave to a transformed company, building leaders who can one day replace you, balancing ambition with motherhood, and how AI is reshaping the way we work, learn and lead.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
02:18 Growing up in a family business
08:41 The career move that changed everything
14:55 Joining Google after a pay cut
22:36 Losing the MD role
31:18 The move to Singapore
40:27 Australia's News Media Bargaining Code
52:11 Leading Google through crisis
1:04:52 AI: Google's biggest platform shift yet
1:18:30 Parenthood, ambition & identity
1:31:42 The future of Search
1:43:15 Leadership lessons
1:49:30 Quickfire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
In one of her most candid interviews, Mel shares the story behind leading Google. From growing up in a family business to taking career risks that meant pay cuts and missed promotions, she reflects on the setback that changed everything, the mentor who saw potential she couldn't yet see, and why learning to separate instinct from her inner critic transformed both her career and her leadership.
Vidit and Mel explore leading Google through Australia's landmark News Media Bargaining Code, returning from parental leave to a transformed company, building leaders who can one day replace you, balancing ambition with motherhood, and how AI is reshaping the way we work, learn and lead.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG,, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
TIMESTAMPS
02:18 Growing up in a family business
08:41 The career move that changed everything
14:55 Joining Google after a pay cut
22:36 Losing the MD role
31:18 The move to Singapore
40:27 Australia's News Media Bargaining Code
52:11 Leading Google through crisis
1:04:52 AI: Google's biggest platform shift yet
1:18:30 Parenthood, ambition & identity
1:31:42 The future of Search
1:43:15 Leadership lessons
1:49:30 Quickfire
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 36 Minuten
Vandita Pant is the Chief Financial Officer of BHP, one of the world's largest resources companies, with a market capitalisation of approximately US$150 billion and annual revenue of around US$55 billion.
This is Vandita's first-ever podcast interview.
Growing up in Delhi, India in a family of academics, Vandita reflects on her childhood dinner table debates, teachers and love of books for shaping the curiosity that has defined her career. After studying at Shri Ram College and IIM Lucknow, she built a global career across India, Singapore, Japan and the UK before joining BHP, where she now helps oversee the financial strategy of a company at the centre of AI, electrification and the energy transition.
In this conversation, Vandita shares why she deliberately pursued unfamiliar challenges, the career setback that unexpectedly led her into risk management, what it was like helping steer RBS through the Global Financial Crisis, the leadership lessons from earning trust in Japan, why she believes the modern CFO is a value creator rather than a scorekeeper, how she thinks about AI and capital allocation, and why Australia and India have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deepen their economic partnership.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the 12th episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Other guests in this series include Bank of America's Head of Capital Commitments Gautam Chari, Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Australia's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
This is Vandita's first-ever podcast interview.
Growing up in Delhi, India in a family of academics, Vandita reflects on her childhood dinner table debates, teachers and love of books for shaping the curiosity that has defined her career. After studying at Shri Ram College and IIM Lucknow, she built a global career across India, Singapore, Japan and the UK before joining BHP, where she now helps oversee the financial strategy of a company at the centre of AI, electrification and the energy transition.
In this conversation, Vandita shares why she deliberately pursued unfamiliar challenges, the career setback that unexpectedly led her into risk management, what it was like helping steer RBS through the Global Financial Crisis, the leadership lessons from earning trust in Japan, why she believes the modern CFO is a value creator rather than a scorekeeper, how she thinks about AI and capital allocation, and why Australia and India have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deepen their economic partnership.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the 12th episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Other guests in this series include Bank of America's Head of Capital Commitments Gautam Chari, Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Australia's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
1 Stunde 18 Minuten
Caroline Rawlinson is the CEO of Culture Amp, the global employee experience platform trusted by more than 6,000 organisations and 25 million employees. Underpinned by people science and AI, Culture Amp helps organisations build high-performing teams at scale. Before joining Culture Amp, Caroline held executive leadership roles at MYOB, Trade Me and Fletcher Building across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
In her first ever in-depth interview, Caroline shares the journey behind becoming CEO of Culture Amp. She reflects on growing up in Auckland, captaining hockey teams, meeting her husband at McDonald's, landing a role at PwC despite knowing almost nothing about finance, and the forgotten career goal she wrote down at 28: "I want to be CEO."
Vidit and Caroline explore the big learning in Shanghai when she was a first time CFO that changed how she leads forever, the partnership that made an international executive career possible, succeeding Culture Amp's founder as CEO, balancing today's business with an AI-native future, building high-performing cultures at global scale, and why the closer she came to becoming CEO, the harder it became to believe she could.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00 Who is Caro?
00:03 Growing up in Auckland
00:10 Talking her way into PwC
00:16 The best commercial leaders
00:21 Designing a career with intent
00:24 "I want to be CEO"
00:28 Building confidence in others
00:30 Why direct conversations matter
00:34 The China lesson that changed everything
00:43 Becoming CFO at 33
00:49 Ambition, marriage & family
00:56 From CFO to CEO
01:03 Taking over from Culture Amp's Founder at the start of 2026
01:10 AI and the next era of software
01:16 Advice for future CEOs
01:18 Rapid Fire Sprint
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
In her first ever in-depth interview, Caroline shares the journey behind becoming CEO of Culture Amp. She reflects on growing up in Auckland, captaining hockey teams, meeting her husband at McDonald's, landing a role at PwC despite knowing almost nothing about finance, and the forgotten career goal she wrote down at 28: "I want to be CEO."
Vidit and Caroline explore the big learning in Shanghai when she was a first time CFO that changed how she leads forever, the partnership that made an international executive career possible, succeeding Culture Amp's founder as CEO, balancing today's business with an AI-native future, building high-performing cultures at global scale, and why the closer she came to becoming CEO, the harder it became to believe she could.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00 Who is Caro?
00:03 Growing up in Auckland
00:10 Talking her way into PwC
00:16 The best commercial leaders
00:21 Designing a career with intent
00:24 "I want to be CEO"
00:28 Building confidence in others
00:30 Why direct conversations matter
00:34 The China lesson that changed everything
00:43 Becoming CFO at 33
00:49 Ambition, marriage & family
00:56 From CFO to CEO
01:03 Taking over from Culture Amp's Founder at the start of 2026
01:10 AI and the next era of software
01:16 Advice for future CEOs
01:18 Rapid Fire Sprint
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India).
1 Stunde 18 Minuten
Jesse Zhang is the Co-founder & CEO of Decagon, one of the world's fastest-growing AI companies. In just two and a half years, Decagon has grown to around 500 employees, raised approximately US$500 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and Bain Capital Ventures, and today powers AI customer service for many of the world's largest airlines, banks, retailers and technology companies.
In this rare in-depth conversation, Jesse reflects on growing up in Boulder, Colorado, an intensely disciplined childhood shaped by maths competitions and Chinese immigrant parents, graduating from Harvard in just three years, and why his first startup taught him far more than his second.
Vidit and Jesse explore how Decagon found its billion-dollar opportunity by interviewing hundreds of customers, why they reached US$1 million in ARR with just two people, how to hire exceptional talent, why speed has become the ultimate competitive advantage in AI, building one of Silicon Valley's leading AI companies, and what it really takes to scale from founder mode to leading 500 people.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00:00 Who is Jesse Zhang?
02:10 The Huawei story that shaped Decagon
07:20 Why Maths Olympiads create successful founders
13:05 Leaving Harvard a year early
17:40 The startup that nearly broke him
23:30 Losing two co-founders
29:15 Why he started again
34:20 The question that found Decagon
40:10 Hitting $1M ARR with just 3 employees early on
45:25 Learning enterprise sales from scratch
50:35 Building AI agents before the hype
56:15 Why Decagon is beating bigger rivals
1:02:20 Hiring only "serious people"
1:08:15 Letting go as CEO
1:13:10 Marriage, sleep & startup obsession
1:17:05 What he's really building
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India),
In this rare in-depth conversation, Jesse reflects on growing up in Boulder, Colorado, an intensely disciplined childhood shaped by maths competitions and Chinese immigrant parents, graduating from Harvard in just three years, and why his first startup taught him far more than his second.
Vidit and Jesse explore how Decagon found its billion-dollar opportunity by interviewing hundreds of customers, why they reached US$1 million in ARR with just two people, how to hire exceptional talent, why speed has become the ultimate competitive advantage in AI, building one of Silicon Valley's leading AI companies, and what it really takes to scale from founder mode to leading 500 people.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00:00 Who is Jesse Zhang?
02:10 The Huawei story that shaped Decagon
07:20 Why Maths Olympiads create successful founders
13:05 Leaving Harvard a year early
17:40 The startup that nearly broke him
23:30 Losing two co-founders
29:15 Why he started again
34:20 The question that found Decagon
40:10 Hitting $1M ARR with just 3 employees early on
45:25 Learning enterprise sales from scratch
50:35 Building AI agents before the hype
56:15 Why Decagon is beating bigger rivals
1:02:20 Hiring only "serious people"
1:08:15 Letting go as CEO
1:13:10 Marriage, sleep & startup obsession
1:17:05 What he's really building
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India),
1 Stunde 15 Minuten
David Eckstein is the CFO of Legora, one of the world’s fastest-growing enterprise software companies, which grew from $1 million to $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just 18 months.
David reflects on his parents’ divorce, graduating from college in three years, and realising at 22 that he was “living someone else’s life” before leaving investment banking for Silicon Valley.
Vidit and David explore his journey through Box, OpenDNS, Menlo Security and Vanta to Legora; helping sell OpenDNS to Cisco; investing in more than 100 startups; and how 16 years of relationships helped Legora attract $1.5 billion in investor demand and raise a $600 million Series D.
They also discuss the changing role of the CFO, AI economics and token spend, how to diligence a startup before joining, lessons from exceptional founders, Legora’s extraordinary growth, and David’s philosophy of loyalty and giving more than he takes.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00:00 Meet David Eckstein
00:05:00 Why Loyalty Drives Everything
00:13:00 The Obsession With Permanence
00:23:00 “I Was Living Someone Else’s Life”
00:28:00 How Relationships Helped Raise $600M
00:38:00 The New Economics of AI
00:45:00 Lessons From Four Hypergrowth Companies
00:55:00 Why He Bet His Career on Legora
01:05:00 What Makes Legora Special
01:12:00 The Hardest 25 Days of His Life
01:15:00 Give More Than You Take
01:21:00 Rapid Fire
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
David reflects on his parents’ divorce, graduating from college in three years, and realising at 22 that he was “living someone else’s life” before leaving investment banking for Silicon Valley.
Vidit and David explore his journey through Box, OpenDNS, Menlo Security and Vanta to Legora; helping sell OpenDNS to Cisco; investing in more than 100 startups; and how 16 years of relationships helped Legora attract $1.5 billion in investor demand and raise a $600 million Series D.
They also discuss the changing role of the CFO, AI economics and token spend, how to diligence a startup before joining, lessons from exceptional founders, Legora’s extraordinary growth, and David’s philosophy of loyalty and giving more than he takes.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
00:00:00 Meet David Eckstein
00:05:00 Why Loyalty Drives Everything
00:13:00 The Obsession With Permanence
00:23:00 “I Was Living Someone Else’s Life”
00:28:00 How Relationships Helped Raise $600M
00:38:00 The New Economics of AI
00:45:00 Lessons From Four Hypergrowth Companies
00:55:00 Why He Bet His Career on Legora
01:05:00 What Makes Legora Special
01:12:00 The Hardest 25 Days of His Life
01:15:00 Give More Than You Take
01:21:00 Rapid Fire
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
1 Stunde 15 Minuten
Episode #263 features Gautam Chari, Managing Director and Head of Capital Commitments (Asia Pacific) at Bank of America.
Growing up in Mumbai, Gautam thought his path was already written. Like many students of his generation, he became a civil engineer, started work on construction sites and expected to spend his career building physical infrastructure. Instead, a series of bold decisions took him to Australia, into investment banking, and eventually to one of the world's largest financial institutions.
In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Gautam reflects on the teachers who changed the trajectory of his life, the culture shock of moving from Mumbai to Adelaide, breaking into investment banking without a finance background, living through 9/11 in New York, and the lessons from building a global career across Sydney, London, New York and Hong Kong.
Vidit and Gautam explore why the best careers are rarely linear, the difference between confidence and conviction, how great leaders develop judgment, why listening is an underrated superpower, the AI investment cycle, and why the Australia-India relationship will be one of the defining economic stories of the coming decades.
This is Gautam's first-ever podcast interview. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the eleventh episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Previous guests include Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Ex Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
Growing up in Mumbai, Gautam thought his path was already written. Like many students of his generation, he became a civil engineer, started work on construction sites and expected to spend his career building physical infrastructure. Instead, a series of bold decisions took him to Australia, into investment banking, and eventually to one of the world's largest financial institutions.
In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Gautam reflects on the teachers who changed the trajectory of his life, the culture shock of moving from Mumbai to Adelaide, breaking into investment banking without a finance background, living through 9/11 in New York, and the lessons from building a global career across Sydney, London, New York and Hong Kong.
Vidit and Gautam explore why the best careers are rarely linear, the difference between confidence and conviction, how great leaders develop judgment, why listening is an underrated superpower, the AI investment cycle, and why the Australia-India relationship will be one of the defining economic stories of the coming decades.
This is Gautam's first-ever podcast interview. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the eleventh episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Previous guests include Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Ex Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
1 Stunde 3 Minuten
Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are our favorite episodes from our back catalogue, published as frequently as possible. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. This is a replay of Episode 202, originally released in April 2025— one of our most loved classics.
Brad Banducci is the recent CEO of Woolworths Group, one of the world's largest retail businesses, generating more than $65 billion in annual revenue, employing over 200,000 people and serving millions of customers every week.
In this rare interview (and his first since he left Woolworths after 8+ years) Brad reflects on growing up in South Africa during apartheid, the lessons learned from his entrepreneurial family, and the experiences that shaped his identity, ambition and worldview long before he stepped into the CEO's office.
Vidit and Brad explore his remarkable journey from engineer and management consultant at Boston Consulting Group to leading one of the Southern Hemisphere's most complex organisations. They discuss intrapreneurship versus entrepreneurship, making high-stakes decisions with imperfect information, leading through transformation at scale, and the leadership philosophy behind one of his most memorable ideas: being directionally correct beats being perfectly right.
They also unpack failure, purpose, family, curiosity, succession, building leaders who outperform you, and why the best executives spend less time chasing certainty and more time moving towards what matters.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
Brad Banducci is the recent CEO of Woolworths Group, one of the world's largest retail businesses, generating more than $65 billion in annual revenue, employing over 200,000 people and serving millions of customers every week.
In this rare interview (and his first since he left Woolworths after 8+ years) Brad reflects on growing up in South Africa during apartheid, the lessons learned from his entrepreneurial family, and the experiences that shaped his identity, ambition and worldview long before he stepped into the CEO's office.
Vidit and Brad explore his remarkable journey from engineer and management consultant at Boston Consulting Group to leading one of the Southern Hemisphere's most complex organisations. They discuss intrapreneurship versus entrepreneurship, making high-stakes decisions with imperfect information, leading through transformation at scale, and the leadership philosophy behind one of his most memorable ideas: being directionally correct beats being perfectly right.
They also unpack failure, purpose, family, curiosity, succession, building leaders who outperform you, and why the best executives spend less time chasing certainty and more time moving towards what matters.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
1 Stunde 10 Minuten
Episode #261 features Ameet Bains, CEO of the Western Bulldogs, an AFL club with more than 65,000 members, $100 million in net assets, and a reach spanning elite sport, community programs and one of Australia’s fastest-growing regions.
Ameet reflects on growing up as the son of Indian migrants, embracing both Australian and Punjabi cultures, and the entrepreneurial sacrifice his parents made to fund his education and future.
Vidit and Ameet explore his journey from lawyer at MinterEllison and Toyota to AFL executive, the setbacks and missed opportunities that ultimately shaped his career, and the leadership lessons learned from managing player contracts, building high-performing teams and leading through intense public scrutiny.
They also discuss sustaining success in elite sport, balancing ambition with family, the future of AI in organisations, engaging Australia's rapidly growing Indian community, and why humility, service and long-term thinking matter more than headlines.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
Ameet reflects on growing up as the son of Indian migrants, embracing both Australian and Punjabi cultures, and the entrepreneurial sacrifice his parents made to fund his education and future.
Vidit and Ameet explore his journey from lawyer at MinterEllison and Toyota to AFL executive, the setbacks and missed opportunities that ultimately shaped his career, and the leadership lessons learned from managing player contracts, building high-performing teams and leading through intense public scrutiny.
They also discuss sustaining success in elite sport, balancing ambition with family, the future of AI in organisations, engaging Australia's rapidly growing Indian community, and why humility, service and long-term thinking matter more than headlines.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
1 Stunde 32 Minuten
Episode #260 features Maxine Minter — Founder and General Partner of the Pre-Seed Venture Capital Fund, Co Ventures.
Maxine reflects on growing up between Australia, Japan and Europe, speaking Japanese before English, and raised by a fiercely entrepreneurial single mother.
Vidit and Maxine explore her childhood, the influence of her grandparents, executive coaching, the idea of “generative ambition”, and the lessons learned from building companies, backing founders and how and why she started her own VC fund, Co Ventures.
They also discuss the specifics of how the best Aussie founders go global, the realities of venture capital, AI, partnership, importance of play, and why the biggest opportunities often come from stepping outside the boxes others expect you to fit into.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
Maxine reflects on growing up between Australia, Japan and Europe, speaking Japanese before English, and raised by a fiercely entrepreneurial single mother.
Vidit and Maxine explore her childhood, the influence of her grandparents, executive coaching, the idea of “generative ambition”, and the lessons learned from building companies, backing founders and how and why she started her own VC fund, Co Ventures.
They also discuss the specifics of how the best Aussie founders go global, the realities of venture capital, AI, partnership, importance of play, and why the biggest opportunities often come from stepping outside the boxes others expect you to fit into.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
1 Stunde 1 Minute
Episode #259 features Ryan Neelam, CEO of the Australian Government's Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR). A career diplomat, Ryan has represented Australia at the United Nations, negotiated global development goals, led through the Hong Kong protests and COVID-19, and spent his career helping Australia navigate an increasingly complex world.
Ryan shares his journey from migrating to Australia as a child from Malaysia, growing up with Indian and Malaysian Chinese heritage, and accidentally finding his way into diplomacy. He reflects on representing Australia at the UN, negotiating alongside countries with vastly different worldviews, leading through the Hong Kong protests and COVID-19, and why luck plays a bigger role in successful careers than most people admit. Vidit and Ryan explore diplomacy as the art of persuasion, how trust is built across cultures, and why understanding different perspectives has never been more important. They also discuss the rise of India, Australia's biggest opportunities with its fastest-growing diaspora, clean energy, innovation, and the future of one of the world's most consequential relationships. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the tenth episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations, spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Previous guests include Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Ex Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
Ryan shares his journey from migrating to Australia as a child from Malaysia, growing up with Indian and Malaysian Chinese heritage, and accidentally finding his way into diplomacy. He reflects on representing Australia at the UN, negotiating alongside countries with vastly different worldviews, leading through the Hong Kong protests and COVID-19, and why luck plays a bigger role in successful careers than most people admit. Vidit and Ryan explore diplomacy as the art of persuasion, how trust is built across cultures, and why understanding different perspectives has never been more important. They also discuss the rise of India, Australia's biggest opportunities with its fastest-growing diaspora, clean energy, innovation, and the future of one of the world's most consequential relationships. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
________
Welcome to the tenth episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations, spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Previous guests include Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Ex Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.
1 Stunde 27 Minuten
Episode #258 features Cristina Cordova — employee number 28 at Stripe, an early hire at Notion, former Partner at First Round Capital, and now COO of Linear.
This conversation is less about startup tactics and more about ambition, identity and operating inside some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies before they became obvious to everyone else.
Cristina reflects on growing up in Los Angeles with a single mother, becoming fiercely independent from a young age, and navigating worlds that initially felt completely foreign to her own. She shares the emotional complexity of spending more than a decade inside elite tech environments, from joining Stripe in its earliest days to helping scale Notion during its breakout years.
Vidit and Cristina explore what separates companies that become deeply loved from those that simply grow fast, why some people thrive in ambiguity while others struggle as organisations scale, and how her “run through walls” mentality became both a superpower and a source of tension as companies matured from dozens to thousands of employees.
They also discuss partnerships and developer ecosystems at Stripe, community-led growth at Notion, building products with taste and quality, AI and modern software companies, founder psychology, career reinvention, and the challenge of building a meaningful life when work becomes such a large part of who you are.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.
This conversation is less about startup tactics and more about ambition, identity and operating inside some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies before they became obvious to everyone else.
Cristina reflects on growing up in Los Angeles with a single mother, becoming fiercely independent from a young age, and navigating worlds that initially felt completely foreign to her own. She shares the emotional complexity of spending more than a decade inside elite tech environments, from joining Stripe in its earliest days to helping scale Notion during its breakout years.
Vidit and Cristina explore what separates companies that become deeply loved from those that simply grow fast, why some people thrive in ambiguity while others struggle as organisations scale, and how her “run through walls” mentality became both a superpower and a source of tension as companies matured from dozens to thousands of employees.
They also discuss partnerships and developer ecosystems at Stripe, community-led growth at Notion, building products with taste and quality, AI and modern software companies, founder psychology, career reinvention, and the challenge of building a meaningful life when work becomes such a large part of who you are.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.
________
Get in touch with us via email at contact@curiositycentre.com
Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.
Show notes and more episodes here
Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube
Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here
Contact us via our website
________
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), David Haber (GP, a16z), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, US Tennis), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica) and more.
