Startup.Standup.Minimum Viable Comedy
The high-stakes collision of startups and stand-up comedy.
Event Partners
Raising Funds For
From Pitch to Punchline.
Get ready for a high-stakes collision of the startup ecosystem and live stand-up comedy. On Wednesday 14th October at the Sydney Comedy Club in Moore Park, Startup.Standup. pulls 8 brave founders and VCs out of the boardroom to trade their pitch decks for punchlines.
Merrick
Watts.
Hosted by Australian comedy icon, radio, and TV presenter, Merrick Watts - bringing three decades of stage instinct to keep the night moving, tight, and a little bit dangerous. Merrick is currently living the founder journey himself, navigating the highs and lows of launching Posca Hydrate into the Australian market.
Raising money for Forever Projects.
Forever Projects' mission is to end the Tanzanian orphan crisis by creating income for women. They fund a year-long support program built for women and run by locals, delivering nutrition for her baby, supplies to meet basic needs, weekly health and skills training, capital to set up a business, and a community of women around her. Income creation for women. Nutrition for their babies. Families together, forever.
Learn more
Strictly limited to 250 seats.
Book early for discounts, bring your friends along for a laugh, and remember... it's for charity!
The team.
Punchline Capital offers no venture capital, we trade in good times and stage sweat without the equity. We are five ecosystem operators who formed together with a single investment thesis: the world needs a laugh right now.
Michael Langford
Chief Entertainment Officer
Mike battles daily with the irony of supporting startups inside one of the world's largest enterprise companies. If he's not on a flight, you'll find him shilling Google Cloud credits on the mean streets of Surry Hills. He's on a mission to humanise tech through vulnerability, humor, and the occasional awkward silence. He knows the hustle firsthand as a two-time founder, notably running LOST Events in the early 2010s to bring boutique experiential music events to Sydney. He brings the strong spreadsheet skills required to pull this all together.
Steve Grace
Hype Man
Serial founder Steve Grace has his hands in just about every corner of the Australian business landscape—spanning media, tech, recruitment, and premium real estate. To fill his remaining 15 minutes of free time, Steve hosts a trio of podcasts and serves as Punchline Capital's official hype man. He's basically the person you call when you need your startup to sound 200% cooler than it actually is.
Caroline Kemp
Production Wizard
Caz brings over 15 years of festival administration and live production wizardry to the squad. Her agency, Produced By, regularly conjures up magical events for Google, proving she can handle high-stakes chaos with a smile. As the visionary behind Hot Jazz Picnic, she knows how to build world-class experiences while keeping corporate fluff and boring PowerPoint slides to an absolute minimum. As the lead event producer for Punchline Capital, she ensures every technical detail is choreographed to perfection so the founders can focus on their punchlines.
Julie Trell
Chief Play Officer
As the Founder of Playful Purpose, Julie brings a unique blend of high energy and low ego to the team. She serves as the cohort's consistent point person throughout the training arc, leading dedicated workshops to failure-proof founders against stage fright. By leveraging improv principles and the yes, and mindset, she focuses on building the stage presence, vocal control, and delivery that turns nervous tech builders founders into relaxed, show-ready performers.
Merrick Watts
Stage Commander
Merrick has spent three decades dominating Australian airwaves and stand-up stages, making him a black belt in live crowd control. In a brilliant stroke of life simplification, he decided to launch Posca Hydrate into the retail market because apparently, show business wasn't stressful enough. Merrick leads our Comedy 101 bootcamp, turning nervous founders into stage-ready legends while keeping the night moving as our premier MC.