MULTIPLE HATS: Career Reinvention for entrepreneurial STEMM Professionals and aspiring change makers

❓What if the real barrier to your next career move isn't your capabilities but your plan B?

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

For every STEMM professional feeling stuck delivering someone else vision 9-5,

This episode help you reframe your frustration into opportunities with one simple question.

You will learn from yet another PhD who turned around their academic career to live up to their own vision and :

• the catch 22, that t...

🎙️ Creating Your Own Path as a STEMM Professional with Dr. Anushi Rajapaksa

"If not me then who" - why you may actually be the one who should take the first step and how to get started.

What if your unique combination of STEMM degrees could solve a global health problem?

Are you a STEMM professional ready to pivot your career or start something new?

 In this episode, Dr. Anushi Rajapaksa—biomedical, mechanica...

🎙️From Uni to CEO: How Mechatronic Engineer Sophia Kurianski Took on Decades-Old Industry Norms with Jinolo

Challenging outdated 3D design processes straight out of university, Sophia Kurianski turned frustration into a startup—and built Jinolo from the ground up

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How questioning outdated systems can spark breakthrough ideas
• How to validate a product idea before writing a line of code
• ...

The Femtech revolution with Ida Tin, founder of Clue

Did Apple "forgot" to add a period tracker to the Apple Heath tracker at a time when Femtech was not a thing?

Imagine you’re pioneering a product in a completely new sector, carving out an entirely new market category.

That’s the journey of Ida Tin, the co-founder of Clue, one of the largest Femtech health apps serving 10+ million active users across 190+ countries.

Ida coi...

🎙️ 2024 Wrap-Up: Dream, Surround Yourself Right, Embrace Your Patchwork, and Take the Leap

Real-life examples and mindset shifts to help STEMM professionals take bold, imperfect action

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How to identify and act on the projects that resonate with your passion
• The importance of surrounding yourself with supportive individuals
• Strategies to embrace your unique combination of exper...

🎙️ From Fresh Grads to Founders: How Two Google Software Engineers Turned Chronic Illness into a Health Startup

Annabel Zhou and Vivian Shen launched Toastie—an app to track and manage chronic illness—just after graduating with computer science degrees, all while working full-time at Google

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How to spot real opportunities: Why a messy spreadsheet turned into a startup idea—...

🎙️ Series Trailer: Startup Sparks – Stories from the UNSW Founders Program

Real stories from founders and program leaders inside one of Australia's most active startup communities

Welcome to a special series of Multiple Hats, created in collaboration with the UNSW Founders Program—one of Australia's leading startup accelerators for students, researchers, and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Whether you’ve alr...

🎙️ Forging Founders Early: How UNSW’s New Wave Program Helps Women in STEMM ( and others) Start Something New

Victoria Rose Tucker on why it’s never too early to explore entrepreneurship—and how women can take the first step with support, structure, and community

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Why the startup world needs more women founders—and how programs like New Wave open doors
• How to test your entre...

🎙️ Episode Title:

How a Biotech Student Project Brewing Beer Led to a Bioplastics Startup: Alinta Furnell on Spotting Unexpected Opportunities

💬 Subtitle:

Armed with a biotech degree and a partner-in-crime, Alinta Furnell turned a student side project into Synbiote—a startup tackling sustainability with science

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Spark inspiration early: How a biotech degree and a chance lab visit...

🎙️ From Ophthalmologist to Social Impact Innovator: Dr. Sarah Crowe’s Career Reinvention with OOXii Global

With her kids grown and gone, Dr. Sarah Crowe stepped into entrepreneurship with a mission to make eye care accessible and affordable for underserved communities around the world

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Find your purpose and the unique piece you can deliver: How to use your existing expertise to ...

🎙️ From Biomedical Engineer to Startup Ecosystem Builder: How Dina Titkova Scales Health Innovation at UNSW Founders

With a global career spanning Russia, Sweden, and Australia, Dina Titkova now leads UNSW Founders' accelerator programs—empowering STEMM entrepreneurs to transform ideas into impactful startups through initiatives like Health 10x and the Peter Farrell Cup.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• The structure ...

You want to make an impact but you're not up to shooting rocket to Mars?

No worries. You can use your skills to make a difference without being born a billionaire, without having gone through a life traumatising event or having a genius idea.

Tom Jacobs is an engineer from Australia and he did just that with Bokan Tseo, his corporate buddy, and local to Lesotho - better the lives of thousands of people by applying is engineering skil...

🎙️ From Academic Research to Medtech Founder: Dr. Maryam Parviz’s Career Reinvention with SDIP Innovations

From lab bench to global accelerators—Dr. Maryam Parviz shares what it’s really like to launch a medtech startup while raising a young child

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Take your IP with you to drive science commercialisation and real world impact: How a research breakthrough became the foundation fo...

🎙️ From Aerospace Engineer to Women-in-STEM Coach: Why Cassie Leonard Left Her Prestigious Role at Boeing

After a high-paying corporate role at Boeing, Cassie Leonard walked away to build ELMM Coaching—helping women and working parents lead with clarity, courage, and boundaries

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• When quitting can be your path to sucess: Why it’s okay to leave a prestigious, high-paying job i...

🎙️ Crystallographer Turned Neurodivergent Educator: How Dr. Lorien Parker Built SciencePlay Kids from Scratch

After leaving academia and navigating life as an autistic ADHDer, Dr. Lorien Parker created SciencePlay Kids—an inclusive science education business making classrooms more accessible and joyful for all brains

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How academia can be your launchpad and leaving it is not quiting or f...

That's a wrap up for Multiple Hats and 2023!

What a great ride we had with our amazing founders sharing their journey and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, call it success and sometimes, call it quit!

🎙️ From Science and Finance to Healthtech Entrepreneur: How Alison Gartner Combined Degrees to Co-Found Evidentli and Rethink Impact Without a PhD

Alison Gartner didn’t follow the traditional PhD path—instead, she blended molecular biology, economics, and investment experience to co-found Evidentli, a healthtech company helping clinicians unlock real-world data

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Why a PhD isn’t the onl...

🎙️ From Chemistry to Commercialisation: How Natalie Chapman Leveraged 10 Years of STEMM Experience to Build a Profitable Business from Day One

After a decade working in science, marketing, and tech transfer, Natalie Chapman launched Gemaker—an award-winning commercialization agency helping researchers and innovators turn ideas into impact without chasing VC funding

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• Why 10 years in STE...

🎙️ **From Lab Scientist to MedTech Founder at 22**

**Starting a PhD While Launching a Startup and Turning Discovery Into Real-World Diagnostics**

How does a 22-year-old STEMM graduate go from the lab to co-founding a Medtech startup?

Dharmica shares how she co-founded BCAL Diagnostics while starting her PhD, using her thesis to validate a product rather than pursue pure academia. it’s a roadmap for turning your...