Calling Operator with Laura Nicol

Calling Operator with Laura Nicol

Join Laura Nicol (your host) as she dials into the stories of startup operators in the trenches of building and scaling companies. Together, we master the art of ‘building the plane while flying it', drawing on insights from leaders and rising stars at companies like Tracksuit, Canva, Culture Amp, Atlassian, me&u, Airwallex, Eucalyptus, and more.

Episodes

December 8, 2025 55 mins
After 19 conversations with some of the sharpest operators around, I’m closing the year** with someone who rewired how I think about building process: Laura Warden ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurawardenfolklore/ ). Your job as an operator is to make...
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Every great founder has a small Avengers team turning vision into operational reality. This episode shines a light on someone running marketing, customer and revenue operations while acting as the CEO’s trusted right-hand. Inside: 15+ years' CRM, ops, ...
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Laura Nicol dials into Anna Prell, VP Operations at Ivo. Anna reminds us why being an operator is a) so damn exciting and b) the ultimate leadership testing ground: "In a startup, you can be your own version of a founder. You’re the founder of whatever...
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Laura Nicol dials into Mahesh Muralidhar. From day one, Mahesh has been obsessed with making a difference. He was early in Sydney’s startup scene in the 2010s post-MBA—first chasing his own idea, then finding impact (and peace) in helping others build....
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Laura Nicol dials into Savannah Black. For Savannah, being a startup operator is about making the company work in the real world. All the forward planning, mission, and vision stuff is important. That’s the on-paper part. But being an operator is about...
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Laura Nicol dials into Alexey Mitko. Alexey’s career has been all about operational leadership. Finance, HR, legal — he’s held the keys to the gritty, foundational work that lets startups scale without falling apart. He puts it simply: “When the startu...
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Laura Nicol dials into Phoebe Pincus, COO at Startmate and Co-Founder at Cheeky Run Club. We cover a lot. Learning to lead when you've never had female leadership role models. Being the opposite of a perfectionist. Her career journey from psychology st...
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Laura Nicol dials into Emer McCann, Head of People & Chief of Staff at Simply Wall St. Emer scaled Deputy’s people and culture through hypergrowth (70 to 350 employees) before joining Simply Wall St as employee #15 to build from zero. She’s the quiet f...
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Laura Nicol connects with Liani Strauss, Chief of Staff at Tracksuit. Liani’s background in industrial engineering gave her structure. Startups gave her speed. Today, she works at the intersection of strategy, systems, and people—helping shape how Trac...
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Laura Nicol connects with Paul Redfern, Chief Operating Officer at Big Picture Medical. He’s someone who’s spent most of his career toggling between product and operations, and getting pretty good at living in the grey. And becoming “reasonably okay-is...
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Laura Nicol connects with today's co-host: the wonderful Gaby Howard, Head of Growth and Operations at Carted. Gaby’s no stranger to the podcast—she first appeared on Ep 23. Gaby Howard on Navigating the Shift from Founder to Operator in Tech: Insights...
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Today, I’m turning the mic inward for my first-ever solo episode of Calling Operator. I’m Laura Nicol, your host and Chief of Staff at Co Ventures—and in this conversation, we’re talking burnout. The kind that creeps up. The kind that hits hard. The ki...
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Laura Nicol connects with Anitta Krishan, Chief Culture Officer at Hoogly AI. We begin with a breath—a literal nervous system–balancing pause—followed by people-first perspectives from a former Trivago, Grab, and TikTok executive now shaping the future...
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Today, I'm connecting with Karan Anand, Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director, Australia at Hnry. We trace his journey from 13 years in consulting to becoming Hnry’s first hire in Australia, exploring what it really means to lead without ego, thin...
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**Join us at our first-ever podcast meetup in Sydney. Info below ** Today, I'm connecting with Sophie Mckay, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific and Japan at Notion. Sophie’s career has been all about scaling tech brands across the Asia-Pacific region (APA...
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**Join us at our first-ever podcast meetup in Sydney. Info below ** Today, I'm connecting with Olivia (Liv) Panzic, Head of Marketing Communications at TikTok ANZ. A core part of Liv’s belief system? Look after people. And it shows. Her colleagues and ...
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Today, I'm connecting with Rach Matters, Senior Program Manager at Linktree. Rach’s sweet spot is joining fast-growing organizations with a blank job description, and she’s had the privilege of learning company building through EA-exec partnerships wit...
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Today, I'm connecting with Shipra Mahindra, Principal Product Manager at Octopus Deploy. Let’s just say—Shipra’s peers can’t stop raving about her. She made her mark as the first product manager at Canva, working closely with co-founder Mel Perkins and...
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Today, I'm connecting with Harry Uffindell, Chief People Officer at Partly. Harry’s worn just about every startup hat—founder, growth, bizops, revops, people, culture—you name it. But he ultimately found his calling in the people space. Now, he’s scali...
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Connecting with Alice Hehman, a "SWAT team" startup leader who’s built recruiting and operations playbooks for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. An under-the-radar operator, you need to know. Alice knows what it takes to scale operations across b...
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