Founder Connect Night: A Grand Success at Galaxy Growth Hub

NSW Small Business Month Collaboration Partners

10 September 2026 | Galaxy Event Center, Artarmon, Sydney

The Founder Connect at Galaxy Growth Hub @ Galaxy Event Center, Artarmon marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Sydney's entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem.

Held on 10 September 2026, the evening brought together founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, innovators and professionals for an engaging exchange of ideas around entrepreneurship, funding, technology, design, scalability and business growth. The event showcased the breadth of support available to founders at every stage of their journey—from spark-stage ideas through to scaling and investment readiness.

Founder Connect has been created as a platform where founders can move beyond simply having an idea and begin building the capability, networks and readiness required to validate, build, launch, grow, attract investment and scale.

Three Inspiring Keynote Sessions

The evening opened with three distinguished speakers who brought diverse expertise and perspectives to Sydney's founder community:

1. Rahul Darbari – Unlocking Grants & R&D Incentives

CEO & COO of DataReadyAI, Rahul delivered a critical briefing on non-dilutive funding pathways for early-stage and scaling founders. His session titled "Unlocking Grants & R&D Incentives" broke down the landscape of government grants, R&D tax incentives, and matched funding programs available to Australian startups. Rahul emphasized that non-dilutive capital extends a founder's runway and funds critical R&D without touching the cap table—providing both financial relief and a credibility signal that validates technical merit and commercial readiness. He walked the audience through key programs including the R&D Tax Incentive, Export Market Development Grants (EMDG), and Commercialisation Grants, offering actionable frameworks founders can apply immediately to build audit-ready documentation and strengthen their investor positioning.

2. Ravi Mandalika – Enterprise Scalability & Market Expansion

Keynote speaker Ravi Mandalika, President of the NSW Chapter of the Australia India Business Council (AIBC) and Growth Leader in clean energy and technology, presented strategic insights on enterprise scalability and market expansion for technology-driven ventures across the Asia-Pacific region. Drawing on experience as a board member of AIBC National, advisor to Yirigaa Green, and mentor at EnergyLab, Ravi shared the critical pillars of scaling a venture beyond idea and prototype stages—from building repeatable business models and go-to-market strategies to accessing new markets and attracting strategic capital. His session resonated strongly with founders navigating growth challenges and seeking to position their ventures for regional and international expansion.

3. Balu Moothedath – Design & Innovation Leadership

Balu Moothedath, Design & Innovation Leader Founder Connect Series at Galaxy Growth Hub, brought a human-centered design perspective to the conversation. His contribution explored the intersection of human-centered design principles and disruptive technological architectures in building next-generation products. Balu's insights highlighted how thoughtful design thinking—applied from problem discovery through to scaling—differentiates ventures in crowded markets and creates lasting competitive advantage.

Three Founder Pitches

Following the keynote sessions, three emerging founders took the stage to pitch their ventures to the community. Each pitch represented a different stage of the Founder Connect journey—reflecting the program's commitment to supporting founders from spark-stage ideas through to scaling and investment readiness.

The pitches showcased fresh ideas, bold entrepreneurial vision, and the real-world challenges and opportunities that drive innovation in Sydney. The audience—comprising investors, mentors, corporate partners, and fellow founders—provided invaluable feedback and connections.

This format embodied the Founder Connect philosophy: Connect. Build. Scale. Together.—demonstrating how ideas evolve into solutions, how founders build capability and networks, and how communities create real-world impact.

The Founder Connect Vision

Founder Connect is built on the belief that Sydney's entrepreneurs have everything needed to transform ideas into impact—when they have access to the right people, knowledge, networks, and capital.

The platform operates across three pathways:

A Community Built for Founders

What sets Founder Connect apart is its ecosystem-first approach. The inaugural night demonstrated that the strongest ventures are built when:

• Founders connect with each other – peer learning, accountability, and camaraderie

• Ideas meet expertise – mentors, advisors, and specialists share hard-won knowledge

• Access meets capital – grants, equity, and strategic partnerships are within reach

• Local meets global – Sydney founders tap into AIBC's Asia-Pacific network and Australia India collaboration opportunities

Galaxy Growth Hub's location at Artarmon, combined with its flexible "Day Office Mode" workspace, created the perfect environment for this inaugural gathering. The venue itself—designed for collaboration and focus—embodied the program's philosophy: "A comfortable workspace for the day. A foundation for your growth."