Preethi Mohan was in the middle of a corporate life at Google when she had a revelation about pivoting to a new career as startup founder.
Her latest and 5th startup, Press Play Ventures, is a 12-week accelerator program coaches women on the move from corporate life to startup founder, and in just 18 months, has helped 120 women to launch 104 startups.
Press Play Ventures won the GSD (Get Sh*t Done) Award, at the recent Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2025.
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A prolific ideas person who writes down her thoughts in notebooks, Preethi explained her lightbulb moment to Startup 360 hosts Majella Campbell and Simon Thomsen this week.
“It’s just up to me whether this idea happens or not,” she said.
“Even when there was chaos, it’s like, it’s okay. It’s up to me – I can find the direction, I can control change, which is a very empowering idea.
That thought, that realisation of freedom, electrified her.
So she quit her lucrative Google job in late 2019 – yes, just before Covid – for life as a founder. Now she’s running startup 4, NiceTo, which is all about creating connections in the startup sector to succeed, as well as 5, Press Play, with ambitions to make it a global accelerator.
Simon and Majella are continuing their extended discussions on Startup 360 with just one guest this week as they introduce listeners to the winners from the Best in Tech awards to unpack what makes them tick.
Preethi also talked about human empathy in the age of AI.
Having that connection of that technology and human empathy, I think it goes such a long way,” she explained.
“If we disconnect from that, we’re actually just going to lose a whole part of our beings.”
On this week’s show, Majella and Simon also talked about pushback against the upcoming SXSW Sydney event by the startup sector and the week’s biggest raises, including $98 million for Heidi Health.
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Startup 360 is more founder fund than founder mode. It’s all about finding out what makes people tick and staying human.
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