community Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Teaching the World AI – Annie Liao

October 8, 2025October 9, 2025
by Claire

What happens when a group of friends gathering at Starbucks on Sundays to experiment with ChatGPT evolves into a global movement spanning more than 40 cities?

That’s the journey of Build Club, and its founder Annie Liao has some compelling insights about what it takes to actually make AI adoption work—not just in theory, but in practice.

Annie, who recently raised over $1.7 million and relocated to San Francisco, has a front-row seat to how AI is reshaping work. From her early days in data science at Westpac to strategy consulting at BCG and venture capital, she’s now solving what she calls the “AI adoption problem” that enterprises are struggling with worldwide.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

Why Annie’s “AI Champions” approach has been Build Club’s most successful way of helping companies embrace AI
How she struck partnership deals with big names like Nvidia and Lovable
Annie’s prediction we’re all likely to have agents working overnight on our behalf and what that means
The AI tools Annie uses in her daily workflow, and
What makes San Francisco’s AI ecosystem fundamentally different from Australia’s

From her vantage point in the Bay Area, Annie shares what excites her most about seeing people use AI for the first time, why there might be too many no-code tools flooding the market, and the practical steps anyone can take to position themselves for what’s coming next.

Enjoy this episode with the indomitable Annie Liao.

Useful links:

Build Club website

Annie Liao on LinkedIn

Interview

Purpose Powered Pioneer – Annie Crawford

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024
by Claire

Few people can say they’ve founded a non-profit that raises millions while creating a community that helps supporters achieve extraordinary physical challenges. Annie Crawford is one of those rare individuals.

As the founder of CanToo, a high-profile Australian charity running for nearly two decades, Annie has revolutionised fundraising for cancer research. CanToo organises physical challenges like ocean swims and half marathons, where participants receive months of professional coaching in exchange for fundraising commitments.

As a result, more than 20,000 people to date have achieved impressive physical challenges, and more than AUD$33 million has been raised to fund cancer research.

Aside from CanToo, Annie’s had some fascinating career experience including helping to build a very successful Biotech startup in San Francisco.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

How a Kombi van trip around Europe with her parents and 6 siblings impacted Annie’s world view (can you imagine 9 people in a Kombi van?!)
How Annie places values at the heart of what she does and how she built CanToo
Her ingredients for building a sustainable and successful organisation, and
How Annie learnt to overcome an almost paralysing fear of public speaking

Annie is a very down to earth and modest person and you can tell that her life and priorities have been shaped by family tragedy. With CanToo she’s built an incredible and fitting legacy.

Enjoy this episode with the inspiring and values-driven Annie Crawford.

Useful Links

CanToo website – check out their latest physical challenges

Interview

Deep Tech Community Builder – Sally-Ann Williams

June 26, 2023June 26, 2023
by Claire

We’re really excited about the wonderful guest we have for you on episode 169 this week: Sally-Ann Williams.

Sally-Ann (aka Sally) is CEO of Cicada Innovations, Australia’s leading deep tech incubator for startups and scaleups with everything from quantum computing to life sciences, ag-tech, space and hydrogen startups. Cicada provides office space, custom labs, specialised equipment and training.

Over the years, Cicada has helped its resident companies raise 1.7 billion dollars in funding and they’ve also had 1.4 billion dollars in successful exits.

And right at the heart of the Cicada ecosystem is Sally.

Before joining Cicada, Sally spent nearly 13 years at Google in diverse roles mostly in the engineering team. There she was responsible, amongst many other things, for bringing street view to Australia and influencing school curriculum to ensure better teaching of technology and STEM subjects. She’s also always been a huge proponent for the start up ecosystem and women in particular.

In this episode you’ll hear how

Sally coped working with Google’s tech engineers without any technology background
How she goes about building or harnessing diverse systems to deliver positive long term change
The biggest challenge Sally faces running a deep tech incubator
Why she thinks seaweed is actually more exciting than generative AI; and
Her strategies for coping with chronic imposter syndrome.

Sally definitely sits in the box seat of what’s happening at the forefront of tech so we’re confident that you’ll find this conversation with her super interesting.

Enjoy this episode with deep tech and community champion, Sally-Ann Williams.

Useful Links

Sally-Ann on Linkedin

Cicada Innovations website

Interview

Life Beyond Work – Natalie Yan-Chatonsky

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023
by Claire

Our guest this week is founder and author, Natalie Yan-Chatonsky.

Natalie founded her start up Full Time Lives some years ago and she’s just launched a book, called ‘The Art of Full Time Living’ which is a guide to help turn women’s mid-life transitions into fulfilling and rewarding transformations for their second half of life.

Natalie is on a pioneering quest to ensure mid-life women take the time to think proactively about living fulfilled and connected lives in the decades ahead, whether that’s post kids leaving home or stepping back from a full time career.

We know Natalie well and she’s bowled us over in the past few years with her dedication and commitment to making a difference to women’s lives, particularly the second half of their lives.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

Natalie has carefully navigated her various career transitions
She originally started researching big life changes ahead of her father’s potential retirement but it’s ended up being her life that’s changed the most
Why she worked 7 days a week for a year in order to complete her book; and
The magic ingredient and habit that’s made all the difference to her focus and productivity.

Whatever life stage you’re at right now, there are lessons in here for all of us… A life proactively shaped is a life that will make us more fulfilled.

Enjoy this episode with the disciplined and purposeful Natalie Yan-Chatonsky.

Useful Links:

Natalie’s website Full Time Lives

Natalie’s book – ‘The Art of Full Time Living’

Natalie on LinkedIn

Interview

Championing the Circular Economy – Lisa Saunders

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022
by Claire

Our episode this week is packed with great advice and stories thanks to our guest, social entrepreneur Lisa Saunders.

Less than three years ago, Lisa and her partner Adrian decided they had to do something to stop so many household goods from being sent to landfill. Specifically, they made a life changing decision to prevent as many electronic appliances and tech products as they could from being thrown away.

As a result, ‘Arnie’s Recon’ was born. It’s a completely free service that takes your old electronics (think phones, computers, fridges, cables etc.) and ensures they’re recycled and not sent to landfill. Plus, as you’ll hear, this startup has already created more than 80 different products and spawned others around them to start complementary businesses.

CEO Lisa’s stories of adapting to start-up life after a career in leadership development and coaching, and particularly getting used to literally getting her hands dirty in her day job are really fascinating.

Plus you’ll hear:

How Lisa’s ten years of doing Karate has helped her to stay mentally calm and not be triggered by difficult people and bullies
Plus, the clever and simple thing she says to herself to stay in that calm state when others around her are not
How she and her partner navigate having to pivot as they grow their enterprise
The simple thing she does when she needs to think creatively
And the magic of this model that stops so many electrical appliances and tech from going to landfill.

We love the ethos and the business model behind Arnie’s Recon and we think you will too. So enjoy this conversation with the passionate and resilient Lisa Saunders.

Useful Links:

Arnies Recon Website

Arnies Recon on Facebook

Lisa Saunders on LinkedIn

Clare Graves Spiral Dynamics Explanation

Interview

Vicki Saunders – Reinventing the Game for Female Founders

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019
by admin

In our episode this week we meet an entrepreneur who’s been on a 30 year quest to find ways to create environments and networks for people to innovate and solve problems that matter. We’re talking about the amazing Founder and CEO of SheEO, Vicki Saunders.

Vicki grew up in Canada on her family’s farm where she learnt early on to work hard and problem solve. However, her pathway to becoming an entrepreneur took place, unusually for a young Canadian woman, in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

Vicki spent 4 years in Prague where she started multiple businesses learning as she went along. She also built a community of entrepreneurs there, before returning to Toronto to found Canada’s first ever incubator.

Fast forward many years and Vicki was mentoring a brilliant young female entrepreneur who was struggling to get funded. She realised then that the system was broken for women… with female-founded startups receiving less than 4% of all venture capital funding.

Vicki decided she had to do something to change this and figure out a way to get more women’s business ideas funded.

And so SheEO was founded. Now operating in 5 countries, SheEO is a network of women who support, finance and celebrate female innovators who run ventures solving important world problems.

In this episode learn:

What it was like as an entrepreneur in Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down
How Vicki created Canada’s first incubator, floated it on the stock exchange; and then got fired
Why she thinks the environment you surround yourself in is so critical to your success
How women’s radical generosity is changing the world, and how you can get involved.

Enjoy this episode with the visionary and passionate Vicki Saunders.