Tractor Ventures

🎉 BIG NEWS ALERT 🎉 (Drumroll please… 🥁🥁) We have now FUNDED 200 COMPANIES!! 🚜 🚀✨ This is more than a number to us - it’s: 200 tractors fueled for the future, getting the funding they need to fuel their engines and drive their missions forward… 🚜 200 businesses sowing the seeds to help spark innovation, create impact, and generate opportunities for growth and change in their industries… 🌱 200 teams ploughing through milestones, empowered to turn their bold visions into reality, expanding their reach and making waves… 🌊 (𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴...) It’s been an incredible journey so far - and we’re just getting started.  And despite turbulent times recently (like we’re all facing), our team is more focused than ever to help more founders and Tractors fuel their engines! The best is yet to come! 💥 But most importantly, we would not have reached this milestone without our amazing team (past and present), partners, shareholders, and our amazing Tractors who’ve made this milestone possible. We couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you 🫶 Let’s keep pushing boundaries and achieving milestones together. Here’s to the next 200 ! 🙌🚜

In the halls at South-by (FYI - cool way of saying SXSW), team Tractor Ventures stopped to have a chat with Dr Sheridan Gho, Research Innovation Specialist at iAccelerate - the University of Wollongong's very own accelerator and incubator. Sheridan talks about iAccelrate and how they help founders (through their incubator, accelerator, capital and high quality office spaces). She also talks about the vibrant startup community within Wollongong - being a big reason you'd live there! Thanks Matt Allen and Sheridan Gho for the chat.

In my last post from our SXSW Sydney vox pop series Ben Lyons turns the mic 🎤 on to me, to get some answers to common questions about Tractor Ventures 🚜: What is Tractor Ventures funding? What is different about Tractor from other debt finance companies? What should founders think about using Tractor funds for? How do we think about security for our lending? Answered very succinctly! 😅

Jodie Imam answering the key questions about our funding with TV reporter Ben Lyons 😄

Oh hai Lucy Cooke! All the way from WA!

For those of you following along with our SXSW Sydney vox pop series this was our first warm up one. Its a bit of fun and great to hear Matta's views on funding tech companies distilled into a few sentences 😂 Its not for everyone, but Tractor Ventures funding works for many growing tech companies. And did you know Matt left Sydney because its humid there 😂 😅

After appearing on many panels together and recently teaming up to win a debate on alternative capital Vs VC funding or bootstrapping, this time I get to ask the questions of Patrick Stewart from Radium Capital : - Firstly why did you go to SXSW Sydney? - Secondly why to you live in Sydney?, and then most importantly - How can Radium help growing tech companies? Both Radium and Tractor Ventures offer easy to access capital for important parts of the growth capital journey. Many of our founders have used both types of funding as part of their capital mix. Thanks for your time Pat, its always a pleasure.

Talking to Ben Ross about the things he saw a SXSW. Has AI moved past LLMs? He reckons so. What's next? // Propel Ventures

Last week at SXSW Sydney we talked to lots of founders and had some fun with our video crew at the same time. In this quick video I met Sophie Pank from rikta.ai. I loved hearing about the real problem Rikta is solving for our front line workers and how it 'really is' when you choose to live in Sydney 😂 💜 Thanks for your time Soph and to the crew Stefan Whitecunas, Dan Siepen, 🚜 🏳️🌈 Olivia Doherty, Matt Allen Tractor Ventures #SXSW2024

Highlights from my week at SXSW: Day one: - Recording vox pops with the team and Stefan Whitecunas. Not sure how the ROI will be but my goodness it was so much fun 🤩 we spoke to lots of great people we happened to bump into 😉 - Great meeting with Travis Miller, Daniel Steen, Raj Bhat, Matt Allen and Javier Quintanilla at iPartners new HQ - Seriously fun event hosted by us Tractor Ventures, LUNA, Shadowboxer, and Stone & Chalk at The Commons! Awesome conversation about how it actually takes a village and sharing the stories we don’t usually hear. A room full of friends, partners and founders set the tone for the week. So great to hang out with my Tractor Sydney team mates Matta, 🚜 🏳️🌈 Olivia, Darragh, Ian Kinsley (ACCA), Dan Siepen, and Francine Hackett - Then the party of the year at Ace Hotel hosted by Side Stage Ventures, Linktree, Leonardo.Ai and UNIFIED Music Group … jam packed with tech and music people of all walks of life. Super fun and energizing.  Day two:  - More video recording, lots more fun chats - Lunch with Cheryl Mack, Chris Gillings and Matta at the USA club - official SXSW lunch spot complete with fried chicken, chips and hot dogs plus fun chilled vibes  - Investable party at the Sales Force tower where I enjoyed so many laughs with aj koch, Tom Dawkins, Luke Halpin, Ron V., Jason Neave, Tim Brewer and Jasmine Batra Day three:  - Finally got to attend a few sessions, KPMG session on reading the future to 2050 with AI and Tarot. Thanks for the insights Sarah Vega, Petah Marian, Rosh Singh and Myfawny Wallwork. The standout quote for me was "AI won't replace you but a person who uses it will!" - HubSpot networking drinks and having a great chat with Preethi Mohan, Nan Meka, Shilpa Mohan and AJ! - Airtree x Linktree x Me&u party for 400 founders and investors. Too many great conversations to list Day four:  - I was invited to be a SXSW mentor and got to meet five interesting entrepreneurs. Thanks Rita Yates and Brianna - The Weirder Together session with Ben Lee and Ione Syke talking to Max Quinn and Alexi Wasser (people who are all way to cool for LI 😂 ). Favourite quote from this was "parties are underrated, there should be more hedonism and debauchery"! The blend of music, film, arts and tech was truly inspiring! Unfortunately I did not find Dominic Pym