Changing Landscape of Australian Startups with Barry Winata from Metagrove Ventures

In this podcast episode, Barry shares his journey into venture capital, explaining how his background in tech led him to explore the startup ecosystem and angel investing. He discusses the check size for investing, emphasizing the importance of showcasing value to startups. Barry also talks about building relationships with potential investors and his experience with the VC Lab program. He highlights the startup landscape in Australia and his strategy for attracting LPs to his fund. Barry shares insights on sourcing deals, evaluating founding teams, and the challenges faced by founders and VCs during fundraising, and much more!

Timestamps

[00:00:35] Barry discusses his background in tech and his fascination with helping build cool stuff, leading him to explore angel investing.

[00:01:07] Barry talks about his transition from working in large corporations to the startup ecosystem, learning about fundraising, and building networks in the angel investing community.

[00:04:23] Barry shares his thoughts on the amount of money one should invest as an angel investor, considering relationships with founders and the value one can offer.

[00:11:27] Barry discusses his experience with the VC Lab, an accelerator for emerging fund managers, and the importance of inspiring the next generation of venture capital investors.

[00:13:39] Barry talks about the traditional focus on B2B SaaS companies in Australia but also mentions the emergence of successful B2C companies like Atlassian and Canva.

[00:15:42] Barry explains how Meadow Grove started as a community and evolved into a fund, with LPs being sourced from within the community through one-on-one conversations and cold outreach.

[00:20:52] Discussion on how building a network makes deal sourcing easier over time.

[00:21:05] Exploration of various ways deals come in, including through personal networks, accelerators, and outreach.

[00:22:57] Explanation of how personal networks can help filter deal flow and increase the quality of investment opportunities.

[00:31:44] Discussion on the challenges faced by founders and VCs in raising funding and the misalignment in expectations.

[00:34:02] Recommendations for founders on fundraising strategies, including bootstrapping and conserving cash.

[00:36:22] Exploration of how previous successful investments influence decision-making and the importance of evaluating investments based on changing market conditions.

Barry’s Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrywinata 

Website: https://metagrove.vc

My Links 

 Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes

 YouTube:  lifeselfmastery

 Twitter: rohitmal