{"id":37686,"date":"2023-10-20T14:51:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/aussie-startup-gets-high-marks-from-michelle-obama-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:43","slug":"aussie-startup-gets-high-marks-from-michelle-obama-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/aussie-startup-gets-high-marks-from-michelle-obama-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie startup gets high marks from Michelle Obama &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"444\" height=\"303\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/l_stacklaobama.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_stacklaobama\"\/><\/div>\n<p>An Aussie startup has made it all the way to the White House.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stackla, a social media aggregator headed by CEO Damien Mahoney, was part of a team assembled by US First Lady Michelle Obama to power education campaign Better Make Room.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The campaign was an effort by Obama\u2019s Reach Higher organisation to spur young Americans on to further study.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stackla collected content from participants and presented it on the initiative\u2019s homepage, as well as enabling the campaign\u2019s digital billboards in <i>Times Square<\/i>, which broadcasted the hopes and dreams of US children to passers-by.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Obama told a gathering of project partners at the White House about the role education had played in her career, Mahoney says<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving support from her parents encouraged her to pursue education and meant she had the right networks to be successful,\u201d he tells <i>StartupSmart<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mahoney says young people in Australia are \u201cspoilt\u201d in comparison to their American peers, who find higher education more difficult to attain.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t have the means, it\u2019s almost impossible unless you get a scholarship,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stackla closed a $3 million funding round earlier this year which it is using to further push its overseas expansion.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The startup began operations in Sydney consulting sports teams on their digital profile but has turned its hand to several social welfare campaigns since launching in the US last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Working with not-for-profits is not so different from commercial corporations, says Mahoney, with both types of organisations turning to Stackla to highlight the voice of their clients.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mahoney\u2019s team has won over a number of large corporate customers since opening its San Francisco offices, including CBS, Lenovo and Ford, proof the shift overseas has been successful.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Mahoney says it wasn\u2019t an easy transition, describing the last year as \u201cup and down\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was almost too easy for us in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we\u2019ve done it here through sheer hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><i>Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startupsmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, and <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Aussie startup has made it all the way to the White House. \u00a0 Stackla, a social media aggregator headed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}