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Investing in AI with Ash Fontana 🤖

First Cheque episode with a prolific early-stage AI investor.

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DayOne.FM
June 11, 2024

🎧 First Cheque 🎧

First Cheque exists to share some of the most interesting and informative early-stage investing conversations in Australia, and around the world.

🤖 Meet Ash Fontana 🤖 

"I invest in technology cycles, not market cycles." - Ash Fontana

On the latest episode of the First Cheque podcast, co-hosts Cheryl Mack from Aussie Angels and Maxine Minter from Co Ventures interview Ash Fontana.

A leading expert on AI, Ash spends his time investing in startups building machine-learning-based products, advising governments or corporates on AI, and other coaching partners at investment funds.

Ash has invested between $20K to $20M in a company, and has been the first or largest investor in category-defining companies such as Canva, Kaggle and Tractable.

Ash launched Zetta Ventures, the first venture capital fund focused on AI and Infrastructure startups with B2B business models investing $1-5M in pre-traction startups, then left the fund in 2021.

Before Zetta, Ash launched AngelList’s fundraising platform that now manages over $15B. Prior to AngelList, he co-founded Topguest (acquired), was a Macquarie Capital top-ranked analyst in private equity, investment banking, and equity research.

In 2021, Ash published his first book, “The AI-First Company: How to Compete and Win with Artificial Intelligence” - an executable guide for applying AI to business problems.

In this episode, Fontana shares an insightful inside-look into his investment philosophy, advocating for the significance of first-check investments in shaping the trajectories of startups.

First Cheque is supported by our wonderful sponsors, Vanta, Scendar and Turo.

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Scendar – Australia’s OG startup accounting firm catering to all stages of your business’ life.

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Turo – The world’s largest car-sharing marketplace, and it’s the perfect app for travel.

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FinTechFun

The tech visionary and powerhouse behind Sub11, Chris Titley hosts FinTechFun’s insightful interviews with founders and executive leaders in finance. Each episode a deep-dive into the Aussie FinTech scene, the FinTechFun podcast explores finance topics from lending to AI and crypto - all with a sprinkle of fun.

Listen to the latest episode of the FinTechFun podcast in conversation with the innovative co-founder of Co-operty - Lynda Coker.

In the episode, Linda shares her journey from corporate finance to fintech startups and the significance of co-ownership in today's housing market.

Co-founded alongside Liz Rochaix, Co-Operty has created collaborative pathways to property ownership.

Listen to the episode to learn more about the legal and fractional aspects of co-ownership, tenancy in common, and the importance of having flexible property investment strategies.

📣 Earning Ears on LinkedIn 📣 

On Earning Ears, Adam Spencer interviews community leaders about how they attract people into their ecosystem, engage audiences in a meaningful way, and keep their attention.

On the sixth episode of Earning Ears, B2B SaaS marketing expert Kayla Medica discusses LinkedIn experiments and how to make the most of the valuable marketing channel for your goals.

In this episode, you’ll learn from Kayla’s experiments including:

  • how to find right content format,

  • considering the value of engagement vs reach, and

  • using different customer acquisitions strategies.

Catch up on the previous Earning Ears interviews:  

🚀 EP5: Michael Batko from Startmate - how feedback loops are crucial for growth. Listen to Batko 

🎯 EP4: Bree Fedele from Airtree - how to create content marketing that converts with your audience. Listen to Bree 

🧡 EP3: Paz Pisarski from The Community Collective - how to build strong communities. Listen to Paz 

📧 EP2: Gemma Clancy & Will Richards from Overnight Success - how to grow a newsletter subscriber list with thousands of engaged readers. Listen to Gemma & Will 

🤖 EP1: Yaniv Bernstein at The Startup Podcast - how to create value through podcasting, community and business. Listen to Yaniv

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