Find partners
Calling Operator with Laura Nicol

Calling Operator with Laura Nicol

Hosted by Laura Nicol

Episodes

58

Latest episode

Dec 2025

Language

EN

About the show

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. Laura's day job is Chief of Staff to Maxine Minter﹢Co Ventures—all views shared on this podcast are her own.

Listen to episodes

58 recent
December 8, 202555 min

Ep 57. Leading Across Different Stages & Contexts—Laura Warden

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. Your job as an operator is to make things work. So you do. You patch. You duct-tape. Y...

November 24, 202556 min

Ep 56. The Multi-Domain Operator with Kai Crow

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, ...

October 6, 202551 min

Ep 55. Anna Prell on Building Forage, Being Acquired and Building Again

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...

September 22, 20251 hr 11 min

Ep 54. Betting On People with Mahesh Muralidhar

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....

September 8, 20251 hr 2 min

Ep 53. Savannah Black on Range, Hypergrowth & ADHD

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...

August 26, 202558 min

Ep 52. Operational Leadership with Alexey Mitko

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...

August 11, 202554 min

Ep 51. Falling in Love with Startups and Running—Phoebe Pincus

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...

July 28, 202555 min

Ep 50. Emer McCann on Building People Functions & Scaling Orgs

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...

July 14, 20251 hr 2 min

Ep 49. Liani Strauss on Keeping Tracksuit on Track

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...

June 30, 202553 min

Ep 48. Paul Redfern on Growth, Scale and Staying Human

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...

Is this your show?

Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.

Claim this listing

More Business podcasts