Could YOU be Giant Leap's new Investment Analyst?
Small Steps Vol. 97: Tesla’s Chinese rival is going global 🚗; coastlines and rising sea levels 🌊; and what the climate crisis is doing to your brain 🤯.
Kick start
✨ Haven’t heard yet? We’re hiring! The Giant Leap team is looking for a new Investment Analyst to help us select and support the next generation of world-changing startups!
In case you’re new here, Giant Leap is a 100% impact venture capital fund that invests in companies harnessing technology and innovation to reimagine industries and create transformational change across climate, health and empowerment & education.
We're looking for someone to be a core part of our team, bringing a fresh perspective and thinking with both an impact and commercial lens. No prior investment experience required – your critical thinking, growth mindset, team mentality and communication skills are what really matter!
We encourage women, non-binary and gender diverse candidates to apply even if you feel that you don’t have all of the requisite skills and experience we are looking for. This is a remote-first job and you can be based anywhere in Australia.
Applications close 11.59 pm AEST on 21 April 2024.
We’re keen to hear from you – Will, Hannah, Charlotte, Rachel, Kat and Adam 😎
What we’re thinking about
🔋 Tesla’s Chinese rival is going global. BYD Co., based in Shenzhen, overtook Tesla Inc. as the top global seller of electric vehicles (EVs) by volume in the final three months of 2023, according to sales figures recently released by both companies. The Chinese automaker sold 526,409 electric cars in the three-month period, topping Tesla’s 484,507 units. This rise is on the back of a government-driven EV boom in China, with BYD and other rival companies presenting more affordable options for consumers who want to go electric, as well as hybrid options.
While China’s subsidies for EVs ended in early 2024, the price war between BYD and Tesla has kept sales strong. The majority of BYD’s market remains in China, but it’s expanding quickly, with production facilities in development in Hungary, Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia.
Given we need rapid adoption of a lot more EVs to help us meet global emissions targets, greater competition and affordability should help push more consumers over the line – which we’re always happy to see.
🏖️ Swept away. Coastal erosion is no laughing matter, with over 1 billion people globally living within 10km of the coast, and the same number living less than 10 metres above sea level. Sandy beaches are particularly vulnerable, which is concerning given their ecosystem importance for biodiversity, carbon storage, agriculture and culture.
We’re going to need some serious green thinking to come up with viable adaptation solutions as our coastlines change in the coming decades, and current attempts have seen varying degrees of success – we saw a prime example of things not quite working a few weeks ago when a 15,000 tonne artificial sand dune built by Massachusetts residents to protect their beach houses from dangerous tides was entirely swept away in just 72 hours. Ouch.
👩🎨 This artist couldn’t be happier that she’s being sued for gender discrimination. If you’ve been to Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), you’ve likely seen Kirsha Kaechele installation artwork titled ‘Ladies Lounge’ — either from inside or outside, depending on your gender identity. Women and non-binary people who enter the space are pampered by male butlers and served champagne while viewing some of the museum’s finest pieces of art, and patrons who do not identify as women are not permitted entry.
A NSW man is claiming the work is discriminatory, but the artist thinks this is fantastic — with this being the artwork coming to life in the courtroom. Kaechele maintains that, in their exclusion from entering, men are experiencing the artwork and its commentary on historical and ongoing gender discrimination.
Giant leaps
🎓 Huge news for HEX: its high school courses can now contribute to a student's high-school ATAR score! This is a massive achievement and will help the HEX team continue to provide a much needed shake-up to the Australian education system.
🌱 Trace is now a certified B-Corp! They’re not just walking the talk, but helping to lead their clients and partners towards a greener and more equitable world.
🎙️ Trace co-founder and Chief Product Officer Jo Auburn also featured on The Responsible Edge podcast, talking about how supply chain transparency is essential to achieving net-zero emissions.
For the road
💸 The many possible paths into VC. Solai Valliappan, partner at gender-lens venture capital firm Scale Investors, details her journey to becoming a Venture Capitalist in the AFR. We highly recommend this quick read to learn about her varied experiences that helped her get to this point, and the importance of taking ownership and accountability for your career trajectory. (Looking to break into VC? We’re hiring right now!).
♟️ The first Neuralink patient can now play online chess… with his mind. Yes, you read that right. Noland Arbaugh, the first patient of Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink and who is paralysed from the waist down, live streamed himself using his mind to move the cursor for a game of chess. Science fiction is becoming scientific reality.
🧠 The profound effect of the climate crisis on our brains. Years after Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York, scientists are starting to find a link between mental health conditions and children who were in utero during the event. They are experiencing a 20x increase in anxiety and a 30x increase in depression than their peers, among other mental health conditions. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence about how the climate crisis affects our decision-making and behaviour – a sign we need more solutions on both fronts, pronto.
🌎 Where are the world’s climate investors? This map from CTVC answers that very question. According to Sightline Climate’s data, the majority of climate investors are focused on either early stage or pre-seed companies (68%) and are based in North America (60% of all climate tech VCs). This is a super helpful list for climate tech founders scoping out funding.
🍼 Parents can soon expect 26 weeks of parental leave. The increase — which recently cleared the Australian Senate — will be phased in over several years. The current total (20 weeks) will go up to 22 weeks in July 2024. It will then increase to 24 weeks in July 2025 and finally 26 weeks in July 2026.
😵💫 Hours of screen time a day won’t keep the doctor away. A new study suggests that increased screen time (over four hours per day) for children under three is affecting their cognition, social and language skills. Meanwhile, a separate study also pinned a myriad of poor health effects — including eye fatigue, back pain and wrist strain — on gamers who play 3+ hours of video-games per day.
💪 Seven times down, eight times up. As founders go through what have been some of the toughest years in recent history for running a startup, ABC columnist Julia Baird reflects on how scientists measure the unmeasurable – in this case, our ability to be resilient during a crisis. She suggests we draw this resilience from two main sources: as a learned behaviour from others in our lives, and from feeling a sense of awe — being astonished or amazed by both people and our surroundings.
💰 Women will be the winners of the next round of intergenerational wealth. A new study from JBWere that over 65% of the $5 trillion that will be passed on through succession will go to women. The finding comes as a result of a number of societal changes: women tend to live longer and are now more likely to gain assets through divorce.
🦄 LaunchVic selects its next 10 unicorn hopefuls. The agency’s 10x program — which was launched last year — has selected a new batch of startups for its program aimed at helping them achieve a market capitalisation of over $1 billion. We’re stoked to see that many of the 10 have strong impact themes, with notable companies including Mindset Health, Telecare and Edrolo.
Save the date
📅 April 5: Applications close for the Cicada x Tech 23 pitch event. Held on August 7, the event provides a platform for 23 promising deep-tech startups to pitch to a room full of investors, policy makers and influencers.
📅 May 2: Applications close for Press Play Ventures’ second cohort. This is a 12-week pre-accelerator program for aspiring female founders and women-led business teams based in Victoria. Thanks to LaunchVic, 25 women can access the program valued at $4,700 through a scholarship. Participants will gain access to a $50,000 Alumni Cash Pool, the community of past and current Press Play founders, and a comprehensive program focused on mindset, startup fundamentals, and networking.