The Judging Panel and Advisory Panel for SXSW Sydney Pitch is made up of a selection of key industry leaders, experts and investors, all of whom have their finger on the pulse of ground-breaking, impactful and exciting startups. 

The SXSW Sydney Pitch Judging Panel is responsible for judging and selecting winners within their category at the Pitch finals and grand final (18 and 19 October). The SXSW Sydney Pitch Advisory Panel will work closely with the SXSW Sydney team prior to the event to screen and judge all online applications and support the selection of who will move forwards to pitch in the finals.

Pitch training for finalists is kindly provided by Phil Ore and 25eight who have supported thousands of Startups grow their business.

Our SXSW Sydney Pitch Judging Panel for 2023 are:

GRAND FINAL

Steve Maarbani

VentureCrowd, CEO

Cal Henderson

Slack, Co-founder and CTO

Melanie Silva

Google Aus & NZ, Managing Director & VP

Samantha Wong

Blackbird Ventures, Partner

Jackie Vullinghs

Airtree, Partner

FINALS

HEALTH

Emily Casey

Side Stage Ventures, Principal

Taryn Williams

#Gifted, theright.fit, Wink Models, Founder

Maxine Minter

Co Ventures, General Partner

GAMES

Liza Boston

Flower Capital, Managing Partner

Lisy Kane

Kepler Interactive, Senior Producer & Co-founder Girl Geek Academy

Johan Toresson

Raw Fury, Head of Scouting

FINTECH

Marisa Warren

ALIAVIA Ventures, Co-founder & Managing Partner

Toby Norton-Smith

CBA x15, Managing Director

Les Delaforce

Minderoo Foundation, Head of Indigenous Entrepreneurship

SPACE

Aude Vignelles

Australian Space Agency, CTO

Jason Held 

Saber Astronautics, CEO

Bill Bartee

Main Sequence Ventures, General Partner

AI/ROBOTICS

David Siroky

Dell Technologies, GM of AI APAC & Japan

Annie Liao

Aura Ventures, Investor & Shirts of Startups

Alisha Outridge

Tunecore, CTPO

Dan Krasnostein

Square Peg, Partner

CLIMATE 

Megan Fisher

EnergyLab, CEO & Director

Eytan Lenko

Boundless, CEO

Mick Liubinskas

Climate Salad, Co-Founder

Our SXSW Sydney Pitch Advisory Panel for 2023 are:

HEALTH 

Makenzie Thomas

Medtech Actuator

Kelsey Doorey

Airtree

Phaedon Stough

Innovation Bay

Alex Knight

VentureCrowd

GAMES

Jon Satterley

Fortress Australia

James Chan

Rocket Ride Games

Lee Naimo

Screen Australia

FINTECH 

Rebecca Schot-Guppy

Firemark Ventures

Paul Levins 

EverCase & Xinova

Jessy Wu

Afterwork Ventures

SPACE 

Alessandra Monerris-Belda

Australian Space Agency

Clare Birch

Blackbird

Hemant Chaurasia

Fleet

AI/ROBOTICS

Alan Jones

M8 Ventures

Vicki Stirling

The Startup Network

James McClure

Antler

CLIMATE

Zhaina Sultanova

Plug and Play

Ethy Levy

Kinneret Impact Ventures

Dr Clyde Hutchinson

Team ABC Ventures

Jonathan Hannam

Taronga Ventures