19th August 2019, Sydney: Fishburners, Australia’s largest startup community and co-working space, has recently appointed industry leaders Annie Slattery, co-founder and CEO of ConX and Rod Bishop, co-founder and Managing Director of Jayride to their board.
ConX, Australia’s biggest platform for construction contractors to find and win work, is one of Fishburner’s most successful and fast-growing startups. Annie and her co-founder met at Fishburners in 2014, along with a plethora of talented community-members who took ConX from growth hackers, to designers, to industry leaders. Annie has since taken part in Blackbox, an accelerator in San Francisco backed by Google for Entrepreneurs, pitched at Google Demo Day in Silicon Valley and recently received the top award in Australia for women in tech start-ups, the Australian Women in Tech award backed by Austrade.
Joining Annie, is fellow Fishburners alumni Rod Bishop, the co-founder and Managing Director of Jayride.com the world-leading global airport transfer booking engine. Since its inception in 2012, Rod has been turning Jayride.com into the globally dominant platform of today with airport transfers in over 85% of world aviation markets, with 3,300 transport companies at over 1,500 airports in over 80 countries. Jayride.com began with two founders and is today a publicly listed company (ASX:JAY). Rod continues to be a thought-leader and active voice in Sydney’s technology startup ecosystem.
Fishburners CEO Nicole O’Brien welcomes both Annie and Rod to the board. “I am so pleased to welcome Annie and Rod on as non-executive directors with Fishburners. Both phenomenal founders bring with them a wealth of experience in their industries, as well as startup acceleration and development. It’s a privilege to work alongside these two innovators and I am excited to see what support systems and growth opportunities for current Fishburners startups we can create together,” said Nicole.
Annie commented, “Startups are driving innovation across the country from building businesses of the future, to training the next generation to think differently. Innovation is key to sustained economic growth and prosperity in Australia and Fishburners is right at the centre at that. I’m looking forward to strengthening the presence of the community voice within the board and supporting the next wave of Australian entrepreneurs.”
Rod commented, “At the time of our inception, as with any startup, there were so many things that we just didn’t know. Being part of the Fishburners community was invaluable because there was always someone there who did know, was willing to help, and did so. So much of our early success was as a result of being in that room. Now we look for the opportunity to pay that forward. Being based at Fishburners was the smartest decision that we made when we were starting out.”
Both Annie and Rod join Fishburners during an exciting time with Nicole O’Brien joining the team as CEO earlier this year, along with Fishburner’s virtual membership expanding nationally and new Fishburners spaces set to open before the end of the 2019.
Existing members of the Fishburners board include Dr Katherine Woodthorpe, Bilyana Smith, and Sally-Ann Williams, Dany Milham and Andrew Thornton.
