Startup360: The Mardi Gras edition on politics, high performance and finding a good mentor

Welcome to the Startup 360 with Kayla Medica and Simon Thomsen.

Our weekly show is all about founder fun, finding out what makes people tick and staying human.

For our third show, Kayla and Simon celebrate Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend talking about their favourite works by musicians and writers. Kayla recommends a Japanese all-women band, f5ve, loved by the queer community around the world.

Simon sounds a bit in love with Canadian singer Rufus Wainwright. (Here’s the song he loves, Angus Dei. And here’s Kayla’s choice, F5ve. More on Jeanette Winterson here.)

Listen to this week’s episode:

On the couch this week is politician Jacqui Munro, the youngest Liberal woman to be elected to the NSW Legislative Council, and the NSW Liberal Party’s first LGBTQI+ woman Parliamentarian.

A teenage John Howard fangirl, she confesses, Jacqui’s also shadow assistant minister for the arts, innovation, digital government and the 24-hour economy, so we talk about the art of politics and compromise, acceptance, and startups.

Joining them for 10x, our rapid-fire questions, is Veronica Mason, a high-performance coach, with a passion for resilience and adaptive thinking and member of the LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council established last year by NSW Premier Chris Minns.

She’s also involved with The Pinnacle Foundation, which provides educational scholarships, mentoring and opportunities for young LGBTIQ+ Australians to realise their full potential.

Last year she organised Australia’s first Pride Pitch Night for founders from LGBTQIA+ backgrounds as part of Mardi Gras.

After being outed in high school, Veronica broke her back in several places aged 23, learnt to talk again, and now focuses on helping others.

Kayla asks for the best piece of advice Veronica can give – watch your thoughts, she said, and explains why it’s important.

She also shares what to look for in a mentor.

Simon asked the hard questions, like her favourite part of Mardi Gras.

Startup 360 is a weekly show, talking startups and tech, published every Friday.

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