Think & Grow

Director Growth & Partnerships APJ

At Think & Grow, we are your global growth partners 🚀 We empower founders, leaders and executives across the globe to develop their businesses.

How we help founders of fast-growth tech companies: 

Workshops: Identify and close the gaps in your business to gain clarity on your leadership, team and strategy.

Growth: Have the support and expertise to scale sustainably and successfully locally and overseas.

Hire: Attract the change-leaders and advisors you need to accelerate your business.

Advisory: Create a scalable culture to empower your people to push boundaries and propel growth.

Head of Sales APAC

River City Labs

Startup Mentor

Startupbootcamp

SCALERR

As the Global Head of Consulting, I hold a dual role in driving the development and execution of global growth strategies for startups and scaleups, while also leading the consulting practice and strategic partnerships on a global scale. With a comprehensive understanding of sales, partnerships, business development, and strategic planning, I provide expert guidance and innovative solutions to startups worldwide, empowering them to navigate the complexities of scaling and achieve sustainable growth.


Key focusses of my role:

•	Drive Revenue Growth and Market Expansion: Identify new business opportunities and strategic partnerships globally, enhancing client revenue and market reach.
•	Expand Strategic Partnerships: Build and leverage a network of C-suite executives, venture capital funds, ecosystem builders, and government entities to drive growth.
•	Execute Go-to-Market Strategies: Orchestrate global go-to-market strategies for clients, to achieve significant revenue growth, market share expansion, and customer acquisition.
•	Develop and Lead Sale Functions: Built end-to-end sales functions for clients, providing strategic sales advice.
•	Implement Scalable Sales Playbooks: Create tailored sales playbooks, optimize resource allocation, increasing efficiency, and accelerating time-to-market.
•	Advise on Capital Raising: Guide clients on capital raising strategies, offering pitch coaching, deal guidance, and investor outreach strategies

Global Head of Consulting

Scale Facilitation® 

Access New York™ facilitates global revenue stage, small to medium size companies to access the US market. Our core mission is to commercialize and scale the latest technology and innovations into the market.

This means we provide a comprehensive ecosystem to our portfolio companies, far beyond just sourcing capital in exchange for equity. Our experienced team, located in Australia and the United States, provide targeted guidance and management across all aspects of commercialization and scaling.

Role Overview:
Conceptualized and Launched 'Access New York': Established a leading investment program for
tech businesses expanding to the US, with investment sizes of $1M-$10M USD.
• Pioneered Tailored Investment Strategies: Developed customized approaches that maximized
global entrepreneurial opportunities, resulting in a diverse, high-performing portfolio.
• Identified High-Potential Tech Companies: Conducted market assessments, competitor analysis,
financial analysis, and due diligence to evaluate companies for US market success.
• Led High-Performing Investment Team: Directed a team in strategic investment decisions and
provided guidance to the investment committee.
• Expanded Strategic Relationships: Cultivated new and existing relationships, driving revenue
growth and business expansion with government partners, enterprises, venture capital firms, and
community organizations.
• Developed Partner Strategy: Implemented strategies to identify new partners, generate revenue,
and align with business goals.
• Mentored Portfolio Companies: Advised on global go-to-market strategies with a focus on US
expansion, enhancing market entry and growth.
• Streamlined Investment Lifecycle Management: Built scalable workflows supporting internal
teams, founders, and stakeholders throughout the investment lifecycle.

Investment Fund Lead Australia & New Zealand - Access New York

RunwayHQ

Runway is a regional not-for-profit startup ecosystem aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in their entire startup journey. From coming up with a business idea through to launching and scaling their business.

OVERVIEW
•	Cultivated Key Relationships: Built strong working relationships with stakeholders, mentors, coaches, and partners within the Runway and Australian startup ecosystems.
•	Identified Partnership Opportunities: Strategically targeted prospective organizations and government departments to establish valuable partnerships.
•	Led Corporate Opportunity Discovery: Unearthed corporate opportunities and managed the tender process for relevant government-focused applications. Successfully winning a $300k government tender.
•	Drove Business Development: Identified and pursued new business development opportunities, leading initiatives that expanded market reach and increased revenue.
•	Managed Sales Pipeline: Oversaw the sales pipeline process, converting opportunities to ensure a robust and continuous revenue stream.
•	Acted as Brand Ambassador: Represented Runway at local and national levels, enhancing brand presence and engagement within the ecosystem.
•	Directed Marketing Strategy: Managed and executed marketing strategies in alignment with overall business goals, driving brand visibility and growth.
•	Senior Leadership: Managed team performance and behaviours to optimize their contributions towards achieving business objectives.
•	Advised and Mentored Startups: Acted as a strategic advisor and mentor, focusing on sales, business development, and go-to-market strategies for startups and businesses within the Runway ecosystem.

Head Of Sales & Partnerships

Trigger Group

Trigger Group are a go-to-market sales acquisition start up specialising in B2B SaaS. We're a start up representing scaleups in the technology SMB space! We represent some of the biggest global hospitality and logistics businesses: DoorDash, Wish.com, Lightspeed, and Hubster/Otter.

OVERVIEW
•	Managed International Sales Operations: Led and executed inbound and outbound sales strategies for SMB and enterprise SaaS clients in hospitality and logistics, including DoorDash, Wish.com, and Lightspeed Commerce.
•	Built Organizational Structure: Played a key role in scaling the business from 20 to 150+ employees, developing internal structures and processes for effective growth.
•	Scaled and Deployed Sales Teams: Aligned sales teams with business priorities and objectives, ensuring optimal deployment and performance.
•	Advised on Go-to-Market Strategies: Collaborated closely with clients to develop and implement successful go-to-market strategies for new markets.
•	Implemented Sales Planning and Performance Management: Directed planning, target setting, performance management, and execution of key sales activities.
•	Provided Senior Leadership: Led and coached a global workforce of 150+ staff, directly managing 4 Regional Sales Managers, a Learning & Development Manager, and 3 Sales Operations Executives.
•	Fostered High-Performance Culture: Cultivated a positive and high-performing workplace environment.
•	Managed Financials and KPIs: Oversaw P&L, KPIs, sales budgets, and forecasting, collaborating with internal stakeholders to drive profitable growth.
•	Nurtured Executive Relationships: Built and maintained executive-level relationships with clients, navigating pre-sales processes and conducting needs analysis.
•	Led Market Development and Negotiations: Identified new market opportunities and spearheaded commercial negotiations with prospective clients.

Imperium Tourism Holdings

Imperium Group are a private equity group that own a number of youth focused tourism brands. The umbrella company is Travel Freedom Group, which has over 50 retail locations in ANZ operating under the brands PeterPans, Backpackers World Travel, StudentUni Travel, Travel Freedom, and The Travel Project

The role included:

•	Design and implement effective customer-centric Sales, Product, and Business Development Strategies across five separate retail (55 retail locations), Contact Centre, and online businesses 
•	Plan, implement, and control the marketing strategy for key AU & NZ markets, in-line with sales, marketing, business plan objectives and targets for increased revenue and market-share position
•	Actively provide leadership, mentorship, and guidance to Regional Sales Managers, eCommerce Manager, Contact Centre Manager, and Training & Development Manager on direct sales strategy, people management, marketing activity, and performance management
•	Create and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders
•	Recruit, coach, and develop high performing sales and customer service teams across the organization
•	Enhance team performance through incentives, rewards, and recognition
•	Use data to forecast sales and manage budgeting process and expenditure 
•	Report weekly on business performance to the Group General Manager, Managing Director, and Board, in line with company guidelines and expectations 
•	Lead and develop people and people strategy working in partnership with HR to ensure continuous improvement, talent development, and staff engagement initiatives are in place and actioned 
•	Monitor competitors’ products and sales strategy
•	Business Development - Manage key partner relationships, contract negotiations, sales, and logistics with current and prospective partners to collaborate on healthy growth initiatives to deliver strong commercials

Head Of Sales Australia & New Zealand

STA Travel

•	Oversee the operations and sales of every retail site within the Region
•	Provide leadership, guidance, and coaching to sales management team
•	Develop Regional and retail site business strategies to protect revenue and hold sales teams accountable to deliver expected results. 
•	Lead and influence sales team to conceptualize, plan, drive, and manage all Regional sales initiatives to achieve the targeted sales growth
•	Recruit, coach, and develop high performing sales and customer service teams across the Region
•	Build a strong sales and staff culture that creates winning mentality along with staff loyalty
•	Collaborate with, and influence the Product and Marketing teams to help support regional initiatives especially surrounding local market activities
•	Building and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders 
•	Deliver weekly reports on Region results to Senior Leadership as well as deliver presentations at key product events

Regional Sales Manager - Victoria & South Australia

•	Provide leadership, guidance, and coaching to 6 sales consultants 
•	Managing all aspects of retail stores business environment and operations
•	Maintaining customer service quality and standards of the team 
•	Implementing and adhering to daily, weekly, and monthly activities
•	Develop and implement local marketing strategies 
•	Driving financial results and KPI’s and holding team accountable

Retail Store Manager

•	Mastered service and sales processes to maximise productivity and profitability 
•	Developed loyal clientele base due to in-depth knowledge and ability to match customers’ needs
•	Be an integral part of the team to help achieve store objectives
•	Customer service and sales to consistently achieve expected company KPI’s
•	Recognised top 10% performing sales consultant in United Kingdom

Senior Sales Consultant

Travel Consultant

Experienced Senior Sales Leader, Growth Strategist, Mentor, and Advisor

Extensive background in tech startups/Scaleups, B2B SaaS, travel, ecomm, and retail, spanning UK, APAC, and US markets.

I help some of the world's most innovative tech companies scale, both locally, and globally.

With a extensive career in sales, business development, and consulting, I have a proven track record of delivering remarkable go-to-market success and capital raising outcomes for startups and scaleups across various domains and regions. I leverage my deep expertise in global markets, sales, partnerships, and people-focused strategies to empower and inspire my clients and teams to achieve their full potential.

Paul Mitchinson

Birchal

As an Investment Manager at Birchal, I am dedicated to driving success for startups and investors alike.
My role centers around finding great investment opportunities, facilitating onboarding, and orchestrating capital raise on Birchal. 
I am passionate about discovering and analyzing promising businesses, and I thrive on guiding founders through every step of their capital raise journey, from our initial meeting to successful execution.

If you are based in Australia and wanna talk about capital raise, book a time here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/leila40/ask-me-anything

Investment Manager

Birchal is Australia's leading CSF platform, with 70% of the market share. We simplify fundraising for forward-thinking businesses, guiding you every step of the way - from checking your eligibility, legal & compliance, to building a marketing strategy, until you bank the funds. 

Send me a message if you'd like to know more about it

Campaign Manager

Wholesale Investor

Senior Account Executive

Connecting the best investment opportunities I find in the market with an ecosystem of over 33K high-net-worth investors, fund managers, family offices, PE and VC firms. Wholesale Investor is Australasia’s leading investment platform

Account Executive

KapVista

Business Development Manager

KapVista platform helps early-stage companies to scale their business building traction for their offer and connecting them with the right investors.

Investor Relations Manager

KapVista Ventures

We invest between $10,000 and $100,000 into companies that come across KapVista platform, the scope is to invest a small cheque into 20-40 deals a year, coinvesting along side people in our networks

Investment Analyst

Mercado Livre

Mercado Livre (NASDAQ:MELI) is the biggest marketplace of Latin America. 
The company is the market leader in three main markets Brazil, where they have 27% market share, Argentina (68%) and Mexico (13.6%). The region's largest e-commerce market is Brazil, which makes up approximately one third (32.5%) of all e-commerce volume in Latin America. 

Key achievement:
- During Black Friday 2017, I managed to achieve 185% on my target goal. This was the second-highest score across all the executives in Brazil.

National Account Executive

PayU

Fintech. PayU enables local and cross-border payments and innovative financial services across 50+ emerging markets.

Sales Account Executive

Virtual Kar

- Management of e-commerce and Marketplaces (Mercado Livre, B2W, Cnova)
- Representing the company in meetings with partners, business negotiations, calls and attendance at events;
- Planning of marketing actions to increase sales;
- Coordinate the sales team and marketing, ensuring that they are aligned with company rules and values
- Monitoring of results and analysis of sales performance;
- Responsible for negotiating and implementing new partnerships with marketplaces;
- Analysis and monitoring of sales indicators;

Ecommerce Manager

Linx S.A.

Linx S.A. is a Brazilian management software company and the largest software house in retail management systems in Latin America.

Estagio em Controladoria Comercial

Launching my newsletter soon, stay tuned! 

With over four years of experience in the capital raising industry, I am an Investment Manager at Birchal, Australia's leading CSF platform. I am passionate about discovering and analyzing promising businesses, and I thrive on guiding founders through every step of their capital raise journey, from our initial meeting to successful execution.

My role centers around finding great investment opportunities, facilitating onboarding, and orchestrating capital raise on Birchal. I leverage my skills in new business development, marketing communications, and customer relationship management to connect startups with investors and build a tribe of ambassadors, acquiring new customers and improving customer loyalty. I also provide mentoring and advice to startups on how to optimize their pitch decks, marketing strategies, and customer acquisition.

Always happy to have a chat - send me a DM :)

Leila Oliveira

The easiest way to upgrade your life is to upgrade the table you sit at. 

Women are unstoppable when the conversation moves beyond small talk into business, investments, culture, life and career. 

When I joined a photoshoot for Ovum AI earlier this year, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Instead of just a photoshoot, I walked straight into a circle of brilliant women who have completely elevated the way I think. 

I leave every dinner buzzing with ideas and carrying a mini reading list. Careless People was the latest one and that's what I'll be reading this weekend. 

This group is my reminder that the right friendships make you ambitious, not exhausted.

Who is the person who inspires you the most? What is something they have encouraged you to pursue lately?

Your first investor at idea stage | VC @ Antler | Investing in the best pre-seed founders in Australia

A quick snapshot from last night. 
More than 180 (!!!) founders interested in the event, the waitlist growing until the last minute. 

We all came together to a rooftop in East Melbourne to learn from three builders who are doing the work right now. 
Carley Scott, OAM. Haobo Zhang. Orrin Benford. Three very different paths, but all building something that matters. 

The strongest part of Antler is the community, people who show up, ask smart questions, share openly and push each other to go further. 

If you want to be part of the next cohort, the link is in the comments.

Three reasons why VCs quietly pass on a founder.

- Reason one. The product cannot scale.
If your growth depends on adding more people instead of better systems, you are building a great small business, not a venture-backed one.

- Reason two. No founder edge.
This is the one nobody likes hearing. Your background needs to give you an unfair advantage in the problem you are solving. If it does not, then your traction needs to prove you can win anyway. No edge and no traction usually means no deal.

- Reason three. The ceiling is too low.
 If we cannot see a path to something big, fast, and defensible, it is very hard to justify the investment.

And here is the plot twist:
Venture is built on outliers. Someone with none of the usual signals can still create a company that redefines the category.

That is why this job is equal parts pattern recognition and being brave enough to bet on the exception.


What else would you add?

If you're a Melbourne founder, this is how you get in front of a VC before 2026

Starting today, I am opening my personal calendar to a small number of Melbourne-based founders who are planning to raise their first VC cheque in Q1 2026.

I want to speak directly with founders who:
- Have strong technical or commercial depth.
- Are early in their journey or still at the idea stage.
- Are serious about building a venture-scale company.
- Are based in Melbourne and want to build from here.

- If you have a business: The company needs to be in its first year of operation! 

If this is you, comment below or send me a DM with:
- What you are building or what you want to build.
- Your background in one sentence.

I will personally review every message and move fast. If there is a fit, I will skip you straight to a direct conversation with me before the end of the year.

Partners and operators, I would love your help sharing this with any Melbourne builders who should not miss this window.

If you are a founder, you know 2025 was challenging. (Then again… which year is not.)

AI moved fast, investor expectations shifted overnight, distribution matters more than ever and pace of execution became the whole game.

I collected real stories from founders inside the Antler portfolio and turned them into something that kept showing up across every conversation.

If you want to see what founders actually learned this year, the full article is here
Let me know if any of these truths hit home for you.

This year I asked a group of founders what building actually felt like. Not the pitch. Not the version you tell investors. The truth. Once I read thro

Open article: Three truths pre-seed founders learned in 2025 by Leila Oliveira • 4 min read

Three truths pre-seed founders learned in 2025

What I have learned from watching dozens of founders raise capital this year, unpacked over breakfast at StartSpace

I will be sharing the real lessons from our latest cohorts and answering your questions live.
It is my last event of the year and I would love to see a few of you there

Thank you Amir Aridi for the invite, I'm looking forward to this one!

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