James Tynan

Partner

2023 - Current

Principal

2020 - 2023

CEO

2018 - 2019

Startmate brings together the best people in Australian startups to fund and support the next wave of founders. Since 2011 we've invested in 105 companies that now have a combined value of over $700m. These companies include: Bugcrowd, Upguard, Morse Micro, Workyard, Propeller, Flirtey, Edrolo Happy Inspector, Amber, Vero and many many more.

VP Strategy and Operations

2015 - 2017

Responsible for strategy, ops and products for Khan Academy's work in classrooms and with educators. Highlights included creating Khan Academy's Adoption (marketing) team, launching our first brand campaign and the US's largest education challenge, and setting the direction and a new product vision for classrooms.

Business Development

2013 - 2014

I created the Business Development team at Khan Academy launching over $40m in partnerships with companies such as Bank of America, Pixar-Disney, Comcast and Hyatt.

General Manager, Purpose

2012 - 2012

Purpose is a 60 person startup that creates online political movements. The founders started GetUp (1 in 20 Australians are members) and Avaaz.org (14m members across every country in the world) and AllOut (largest online LGBT community in the world). The founders brought me on, after raising $3m in seed capital, to lead the development of a service that would apply their skills in online activism to the consumer space. This initiative became Peers.org - an advocacy platform for collaborative consumption.

Pro-bono advisor

2006 - 2012

Working pro bono for the Children’s Hospital Westmead’s Diploma of Child Health program—a course teaching paediatrics to family doctors. This involved digitising lectures, sourcing and directing technology providers such as Sony to deliver hosting and streaming services. This enabled the program to grow across Asia where I worked with doctors on the ground to define optimal teaching and reporting models.

Consultant

2009 - 2012

I led teams of healthcare and IT professionals to design new modes of care for chronic illness utilizing fiber networks. I also managed internal teams to deliver on country-wide recruitment of doctors and patients in Australia's largest ever chronic care trial and developed strategies for rollout of Australia's electronic health record. I helped deliver the Implementation Plan for Australia’s $43 billion fibre optic network investment–the National Broadband Network. This study provided advice on rollout of the Fiber-to-the-Premises network, competition and backhaul economics, and public vs private funding. I also delivered organisational growth strategies for the iron ore and metallurgical coal business units of one of the world’s largest miners and the revenue growth strategy for one of Australia's most popular sports.

Co-Founder

2000 - 2009

I founded and ran a profitable business in digital archiving services for some of Australia’s top private schools—this involved the capture, storage, indexing and then distribution of school-based events in digital form. I developed the initial strategy for the business, sourced investment, hired and trained 5 employees, developed client relationships and delivered on service contracts. In late 2008 I sold the business and managed the transition of our clients.