TechTalk: Preseed Primer: Backing Founders before Traction Exists (w/ Maxine Minter, GP @ CoVentures)

​This is an invite‑only event for investors interested in frontier opportunities in DeepTech. Register your interest today. Approval Required.

​Co-hosts: UNSW Barker Street Ventures, The Pillars

​Event Details

​Pre-seed investing is one of the hardest and most consequential bets in venture. There are no metrics to rely on, no market proof to point to, just a founder, an idea, and a decision to believe before the traction exists. 

​In this TechTalk, Maxine Minter, Founder and General Partner of Co Ventures, Australia's first dedicated pre-seed fund and the country's first venture fund led by a solo female General Partner, will share what it really takes to back founders at the earliest stage and why the pre-seed moment is where the most important decisions in a company's life are made. 

​Drawing on her experience investing in Australian founders building with global intent from day one, Maxine will unpack: 

• ​What she looks for when there is no proof and traction yet 

• ​How pre-seed investors add value beyond capital 

• ​The infrastructure, networks, and belief that turn early ambition into real outcomes 

• ​The state of pre-seed investing in Australia and where the gaps are 

• ​What founders get wrong when raising their first round 

​This conversation offers a rare, candid look at the earliest stage of the venture ecosystem from one of Australia's most active pre-seed investors. 

​Agenda:  

​5:00PM Doors open  
5:20PM Fireside Chat with Maxine Minter moderated by Maria Halasz 
Networking to follow

​About

​Maxine Minter

​Maxine Minter is General Partner at Co Ventures, a pre-seed fund backing Australian founders building with global intent from day one. Co Ventures invests at the moment of belief, before proof, and works closely with founders to provide the capital, networks, and infrastructure that turn raw ambition into undeniable outcomes. 

Maria Halasz

​Maria Halasz is the CEO of Genetic Signatures, a global molecular diagnostics company specialising in infectious disease detection, where she leads the company’s international expansion and commercial strategy. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Barker Street Ventures.

​Barker Street Ventures (Website)
Barker Street Ventures is an investment platform giving sophisticated investors to access DeepTech spinouts and UNSW research. Most people never get the chance to invest early in Australia's best research. We're here to change that.

​​If you have any further questions, please reach out to [email protected]