Valve sure knows how to blow up the internet. Less than a couple of weeks, stories are still flowing thick and fast about every available ounce of information on Valve’s new gaming machine. The latest? It’s confirmed (more or less) that it won’t bundle a new Valve original game, like Half-Life, with the device. For… Read more »
Here we go again. Private school fee letters for 2026 are arriving, and for many families the numbers are confronting. Many schools appear to be lifting fees by something between 5 – 7%. For financial advisers, these costs have shifted from being background noise to a central conversation in financial planning. As fees rise faster… Read more »
If you’ve been in the workforce for more than about five minutes, you’ve met them: The boss who thought the title automatically made them brilliant – and would like you to know about it – the same one who called “urgent” meetings that could have been an email, or could have waited until next week. The… Read more »
If you’re a young person in Australia, you probably know new social media rules are coming in December. If you and your friends are under 16, you might be locked out of the social media spaces you use every day. Some people call these rules a social media ban for under 16s. Others say it’s… Read more »
Alex Miller was having rapid success with his subscription management platform Hudled when he spotted a nugget of insight in that startup and launched a second, Rechargly. Like a Marvel movie spinoff, he’s now enjoying even more success, as Alex explains on episode 39 of Startup 360. Listen here Cohosts Simon Thomsen and Majella Campbell… Read more »
Sydney drinks brand Hopr has gulped down $3 million in a Seed round after being turned away by local VCs. While consumer brands often turn to crowdfunding for capital, founder Jose Ramirez turned to boutique advisory firm TWIYO to build its cap table, which includes New Zealand exec John Bromley, former Matildas player Sue Read, and… Read more »
Over the next decade, Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire. The Tesla board recently proposed a US$1 trillion (A$1.5 trillion) compensation plan, if Musk can meet a series of ambitious growth targets. Australia’s corporate pay packets aren’t quite on that scale. Yet even here, it was recently reported departing Virgin chief executive Jayne… Read more »
Currents, the Gold Coast startup community-building group backed by Torus Ventures, has acquired Michael Batko’s Startup Striders. The purchase price was undisclosed, and the deal was completed entirely in cash. Startup Striders began in 2023 as a Saturday morning run and coffee meetup in Sydney. Since then it has become a large community with more than… Read more »
I’ve often wondered why October feels so bloody busy. Every year, without fail, a cavalcade of major games are launched around late September and early October. They often smother one another; before you can finish one, another blockbuster is already out. You could argue that it’s a fantastic launch window for the run-up to Christmas,… Read more »
For 60 years, Warren Buffett has written an annual letter to shareholders of the company he’s run since 1965, Berkshire Hathaway. He acquired the small textile company for US$18 a share to fire the CEO. Buffett subsequently described it as “the dumbest stock I ever bought” despite the fact that today, Berkshire Hathaway Class A… Read more »
After give years of self-funding, sexual wellness brand Normal has turned to crowd-sourced funding (CSF) platform Birchal for its first external raise. Normal, cofounded by sex coach, author and educator Georgia Grace and ex-McKinsey consultant and social scientist Lucy Wark, is Australia’s top female-founded sexual wellness brand, offering products to help people, especially women, have… Read more »
When I began reading Elaine Castillo’s Moderation, a new American novel about the psychological damage of online moderation, I had to pause. I’d read novels that confronted difficult material before, but this one blurred the line between bearing witness and re-enacting pain. The book follows Girlie, a content moderator for a social media giant whose… Read more »
This week’s Startup 360 kicks off with cohost Simon Thomsen recounting the two days spent in the NSW Supreme Court this week as senior council for the liquidators of failed medtech StrongRoom AI probed cofounder and former CEO Max Mito, and director Divesh Sangvhi, about the potential insolvency of the business. Sangvhi sold his company,… Read more »
If only I’d waited. A year on from purchasing a Steam Deck, and it now seems like Valve has launched a device specifically targeted at gamers like me. This time last year, caught up in the hype, I purchased a Steam Deck OLED. I was elated when it arrived in the mail; finally, a device… Read more »
Recently, I had a tough conversation with my 12-year-old son. Australia had just announced that from December 2025, no one under 16 will be allowed to create a YouTube account. The idea is simple: protect kids from harm. But here’s the problem – this ban won’t do what it promises. In fact, it risks making… Read more »
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