Charlie Caruso’s background is less of a story about finding a passion and working on it and more of a constellation, where each passion shines on its own and leans into the others into a complex yet fascinating network.

These passions include writing, podcasting, consulting for start-ups, blockchain, NGOs, all of which are tied to her love of problem solving and disruptive technological solutions that puts her in ever new and exciting projects.

Charlie’s trajectory was marked by her constant reliving of a moment that is somewhat rare for most entrepreneurs: The moment when you fall in love with a new idea. Which is what makes her such an amazing guest for today’s Changing the Game episode.

The Greatest Pleasure in Life

From a very early age, Charlie was the type of kid who would read lots of books and probe adults for logic gaps with question after question, that’s right, a nerd, but not like most of the nerds you saw at high school or maybe in the mirror.

She was the type of nerd that had a very clear talent, one that teachers didn’t seem to recognise at first.

“ A Writer?” they would say, “With those grades why settle for being a writer?”, and yet, it felt right for Charlie, so much so that she saw writing as the way to convince her sister to let her borrow her clothes through a five page contract.

This was when her mother told her she should be a lawyer, and now, a self-published author and a master of international law, Charlie is living proof that the greatest pleasure in life is to do what others say you cannot do.

A Founder In The Frontiers of Podcasting

Like most things in her life, Charlie’s entrepreneurial and podcasting journey began as the solution to a problem, namely being stuck in traffic with nothing good to listen on the radio.

The usual music radio was playing Rihanna’s “S&M”, not exactly what the children in the backseat ought to be listening, switching radios only proved equally disheartening as the alternative, TalkBack Radio was about a Cricketers wife losing pregnancy weight.

Something had to be done. And Charlie was going to take matters into her own hands.

So, after a quick search, she embarked on a journey that would eventually lead her to having her own online radio and podcast long before those were a thing.

This was not an easy journey by any means. From a technological standpoint, Charlie was too early, and circumstances soon began to poke holes at her business model, meaning she had to make too many compromises, ultimately leading to its end.

And yet, there is something of value to be taken from this “failure”, as she did at the time, which is having the fortitude to roll with the punches of having a business sink and going for something new.

The Wealth of Error

In many ways, having a business that didn’t work out was paradoxically essential for Charlie’s success, as her problem-solving mind was able to soon detect the patterns of those mistakes in other businesses, making her an excellent consultant.

Granted, the corporate world was not her natural habitat, but it did have something she needed at the time: money. And it was not long before she found something to be passionate about as a consultant.

She soon found out that helping founders tell their stories and raise funding was something she could really get behind, so much so that she began to undercharge for the sake of sticking with the founders she believed in.

Quokka Capital

Charlie’s newest project, Quokka Capital is an early-stage venture capital limited partnership created to provide start-ups in Perth with tax incentives in order to help them start off on the right foot and develop.

Quokka operates off a government incentive that gives investors an exemption of tax for investments up to 250 million dollars per investment, a golden opportunity for a state like WA that they want to take advantage of.

This advantage is put to the benefits of founders who are front and centre in reaching their true potential and to expand from WA to the rest of the world.

As of the time of this writing, Quokka has just gotten into its first year, but know Charlie it will not be long before it becomes another of WA’s many success stories.

Conclusion

The one key term that we can get from Charlie Caruso’s story is “problem solving”, which ties directly to entrepreneurship and innovation to the point they can be compared to the sunlight that nurtures a flower.

Every invention, every business, every idea that changes the game is born out of a creative individual’s disposition to meet a need that up until that point had not been recognized, much less addressed.

So with Charlie’s enthusiasm for problem solving, let us get into our thought exercise for the day: What is a persistent problem in your life for which no one seems to have a decent answer? What would you do to solve it?

And if you enjoyed Charlie’s talk and are excited to see more game changers from WA, feel free to check out the changing the game podcast, either on YouTube or on your preferred platform.