Startup 360

About Startup 360

Every Friday, Startup 360 hosts Simon Thomsen and Julie Trell, dissect the news of the week in ANZ startups, before they’re joined by a guest to explore what makes them tick. Think of it as your startup guide to staying human. It’s all about lifting the bonnet on people to understand how they see the world and what inspires and drives them, and what they’ve learnt from both success and failure.

Publisher

Startup Daily

Category

business · news

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

11 Feb 2025

Latest episode

5 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

83 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Nov 2026

   Heidi’s Dr Simon Kos on AI and keeping the humans in tech

   How do you scale healthcare without losing the humans at its core? Startup 360’s guest this week, Dr Simon Kos, unpacks that challenge and how his goal to achieve that has shaped his career as a founder, CEO, Microsoft exec and now chief Medical Officer at Australian AI unicorn Heidi Health. Simon's career as a doctor began in critical care, where teamwork, information and decisions can mean life or death. He decided to focus on digital health because helping one patient at a time wasn't enough. He knew impact came with scale. It’s a conversation about learning where you fit in and knowing when it’s time to hand over the baton. Simon reflects on leaving Microsoft, becoming a CEO just before Covid, discovering the difference between a "peacetime" and "wartime" startup leader, and recognising when the cost of work cost is too high a price paid by family. He also explains for founders how a freemium model accelerated Heidi's growth, navigating lengthy hospital sales cycles, and making decisions in a tightly regulated industry. AI can help solve problems, but for Simon, it's about using it to restore human connection, not replace it. A final note - this conversation was recorded before Heidi held an all-hands announcing a restructure that will see 18% of its team, more than 100 people, made redundant, along with two of the three cofounders departing. Dr Simon remains as CMO. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free.

2. 

   30 Oct 2026

   Failing forwards: Minnie Isaac on beauty, dignity and building dewwie.com

   Beauty can be frivolous, intimate, commercial and deeply tied to dignity.Simon and Julie sit down with Assyrian-Australian writer, creator and founder Minnie Isaac, the force behind White Rabbit Social and personalised skincare platform dewwie.com, for episode 81. Minnie traces a path from debilitating endometriosis and adult acne to building an online community grounded in honesty, accessibility and practical support. She explains why self-neutrality can be more useful than forced self-love, how asking one knowledgeable friend turned a $50 content quote into $450, and how “walkaway power” helps founders negotiate without shrinking themselves. Minnie, on the recent performers at Startup Standup, also shares the candid lessons from setting out to do the right thing at White Rabbit Social by paying contributors generously before the business model could sustain it, and offers a useful operating philosophy: keep stumbling upwards, falling a little further forward each time. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere.Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free.

3. 

   23 Oct 2026

   The founder mindset for doing good, with Mark Dombkins

   Forever Projects founder Mark Dombkins shares with hosts Simon and Julie how entrepreneurial thinking drives social impact while prioritizing dignity and trust.

Who has been a guest on Startup 360

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

• Mark Dombkins
• Bobbi Mahlab
• Susan Toft
• Ranya Alkadamani
• Mark ‘Z’ Zmarzly

Reach and audience

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

Spotify

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100

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

Quality

59

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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