First Cheque

About First Cheque

First Cheque is powered by Deel & Pear Tree. Founders scale faster on Deel — set up payroll, hire anyone anywhere, and handle visas, HR and compliance in 150+ countries from one platform. Get started: https://deel.com/dayone Pear Tree builds high-performing offshore teams without the agency middleman. Day One listeners get a free team audit + 20% off your first hire: https://dayone.fm/peartree First Cheque is dedicated to open-sourcing conversations with experienced investors globally. Our aim? To enhance the craft of early-stage investors, from those writing their first cheques to the veterans in the game. Hosted by Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter, First Cheque is a Day One® show. Day One is the podcast network dedicated to founders, investors, and operators. Tune in for an enriching experience as we uncover the secrets to becoming a skilled early-stage investor. First Cheque on Day One https://dayone.fm/show/first-cheque Sign up to get your weekly insights into the inner workings of early-stage investing. https://dayone.fm/newsletter/ This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

Publisher

Day One®

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Oct 2023

Latest episode

27 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

33 of 70 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   27 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Why Australia Has More AI PhDs Than Anywhere | First Cheque

   Cheryl Mack and Maxine Minter interview Blackbird partner Tom about Australia's surprising AI talent advantage and the challenges of commercialization.

2. 

   13 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   VC Jargons 101: What Investors Really Mean When They Say “It’s Not a Fit"

   Cheryl Mack and Maxine Minter decode venture capital jargon, explaining what investors truly mean by common phrases and offering founders clarity in fundraising.

3. 

   30 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Trust Over Likability: How Charles Hudson Built a 450-Company Portfolio

   Cheryl Mack and Maxine Minter interview Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures about building a solo GP fund and prioritizing trust over likability with founders.

Inside a recent episode

Why Australia Has More AI PhDs Than Anywhere | First Cheque

Published 27 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] We've got six of the top 100 universities in the world for AI courses and research. The other kind of big piece to it is immigration, and we're attracting a lot of, specifically from Asia, a lot of talent down to our PhD programs from Asia. So if you look at our PhD programs in Australia, UNSW, ANU, et cetera, 88% of all students that are going through our PhD programs here are immigrated talent. They did their undergraduate overseas, majority in China, then India, and then all over Southeast Asia. So there's this kind of talent dynamic here, which is really interesting. And that's sort of feeding into the ecosystem here. […]

Who has been a guest on First Cheque

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Tom
• Charles Hudson
• Eric Ries
• Ilana Elbaz
• Ben Grabiner

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

149,173

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

4.9 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 67 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

68

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

77

Contact First Cheque

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about First Cheque