The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Pitching to Giant Leap 2.0
Small Steps Vol. 74: How to impress an impact investor 🔎; ethics and the AI arms race 🦾; and a landmark resolution for climate justice ⚖️.
Kick start
💭 Ever wondered what impact investors are really looking for? Is it all about the mission, or does financial performance matter too?
At Giant Leap, we understand that running a startup is hard, and that pitching for investment is even harder. That’s why we review every single pitch we receive (read: over 15,000 slides per year).
In the spirit of making the founder experience a little smoother and more equitable, we’ve updated our cheat sheet on how to pitch to our fund.
Check it out for guidance on our impact and commercial screens, the right stage to speak to us, and how to catch our attention.
What we’re thinking about
🤖 Ethics and the AI arms race. You’ve no doubt heard about the open letter signed by hundreds including some of the biggest names in tech, urging the world’s leading AI labs to pause development of powerful large language models for 6 months so that safety research and policy can catch up with the emerging “profound risks to society and humanity”. While we’re sceptical that the letter will have a major effect on the trajectory of the AI arms race, it serves as a much-needed reminder that research into keeping these tools safe continues to take the back seat.
AI ethics must remain front of mind, particularly given the race is only heating up - as seen with Alibaba’s entry into the generative AI market this week with its model Tongyi Qianyen, and Baidu’s launch of Ernie Bot last month.
🌍 A step toward climate justice. The UN General Assembly has passed a landmark resolution requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provide an advisory opinion on nations’ obligations to protect the climate from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Countries from the global South have hailed this as a milestone in their decades-long struggle for international climate justice, as less developed countries are most affected by the effects of the climate crisis, despite having contributed the least to its causes. While the essential next step will be the issuance ICJ’s advisory opinion itself (which could take up to 18 months), the resolution is a key step toward ensuring polluting countries can be held legally accountable for their actions.
New paths
✈️ Swoop Aero is looking for Assembly Crew, an Inventory Controller and a Paint Technician in Melbourne, as well as taking general expressions of interest.
🎧 Mindset Health is taking general applications for roles in Melbourne.
🙌🏾 The Anyone Can Community Startup Program is hiring for an Entrepreneurship Program Manager and paid Workshop Facilitators and Mentors in Victoria. Applications close Friday 14 April at 12 pm!
🧠 EU based? Applied is hiring an Operations Manager in London (hybrid).
🧀 Considering a move? Change Foods is after a Research Scientist in San Jose, California.
🔥 Also, check out our Giant Leap Fund jobs board for over 80+ available positions or fill out our expression of interest form. There’s even more jobs at ethical companies on the global B-Work job board.
Giant leaps
🎉 Modo, the latest addition to Giant Leap’s portfolio, has announced its successful pre-seed raise! The team scored a great write-up in The Australian (paywalled), talking about how the app will help improve mental wellbeing by addressing overwhelm at its source. Join the waitlist to be first in line when the product is launched - just enter your email at meetmodo.com.
👗 Evrnu co-founder Stacy Flynn scored an incredible feature article in Inc. Australia on how she is driving a more sustainable fashion industry, despite being a ‘reluctant entrepreneur’.
💄 Conserving Beauty’s founder Tass Nicolao and her right-hand woman (read: Community and Partnerships Manager) Sage Mellet starred on the Seize The Yay podcast, discussing how founders find joy in their work.
🎙️ Keeping on podcasts, Seer Medical featured on the Medical Alley podcast discussing its groundbreaking epilepsy technology.
💊 And another podcast - Perx Health founder Hugo Rourke featured on the latest episode of Build It. They’ll Come, discussing how Perx revolutionises chronic illness treatment compliance through its behavioural-science backed reward system.
For the road
💬 Office hours for women and gender diverse founders. Are you an early-stage startup founder with burning questions about VC, fundraising or your impact strategy? Join Giant Leap’s Katarina Throssell and Scale Investors’ Roo Harris for office hours on 4 May 2023! The link to sign up will be released on LinkedIn on Thursday 20 April.
🥗 Taking climate tech abroad. Climate Salad is fielding expressions of interest for its international trade missions later this year. There are currently four missions in the works: Singapore in June, the US in September, Europe in September, and the US again in October.
💸 Gender pay transparency. From next year, Australian businesses with over 100 employees will need to report any gender pay differences, thanks to new federal reforms. Huge win.
👩🏻⚕️ Closing the gap in women’s health. Analysis from McKinsey & Co contends that despite the plethora of new data sources available in healthcare, few of them are being applied to further women’s health. The solution starts with something as simple as separating existing health data by sex, to ensure that meaningful datasets are created.
🍔 What is a ‘beef’ burger? Policy makers and regulators are grappling with whether taste or contents are more important when categorising our food. Your first lab-grown beef burger may taste like the real thing, but only have a total of 5% beef in it. Umami-flavoured soy and pea proteins carry the flavour and apparently can fool even the most sophisticated palate.
🌏 Nature as infrastructure. As Australia emerges from its climate policy wars, Dr Ken Henry, Executive Director of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, suggests Australia reframe its conservation efforts. Much like under-investing in infrastructure, we stand to suffer long-term consequences from neglecting spending on conservation.
📱 TikTok has been banned on Australian government devices - but now what? Is a nation-wide ban on the cards? Perhaps. As this Guardian explainer contends, if the US goes down this route, Australia may follow.
⏱️ Timing is everything. Listen to Kate Morris, founder of Adore beauty, discuss the journey to building an inspiring business on the latest podcast episode of You’re In Good Company.
🌚 One step closer to a beach holiday on the moon. Scientists have discovered a new source of water on the moon, in the form of tiny frozen beads. This has left researchers hopeful for another planned mission to the moon’s south pole later this year, which is home to a crater believed to be filled with frozen water.