Jodie Imam
Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Tractor Ventures
Jodie Imam is co-founder and co-CEO of Tractor Ventures, a Melbourne firm offering revenue-based finance to Australian tech and tech-enabled businesses; it has written more than $60 million in loans to over 160 companies since launching. She previously co-founded Occasional Butler, a services marketplace sold to Airtasker in 2014, and co-founded depo8, one of Melbourne's early co-working spaces, which ran profitably for eight years before closing during COVID. Imam mentors founders through Startmate, SBE Australia and the Wade Institute. On Day One's Life After Launch, she discussed building steady, "tractor" style growth rather than chasing rocket-ship scale.
Career
- Now Co-Founder & Co-CEO · Tractor Ventures
- 2011–2014 · Startup Founder · Occasional Butler
- From 2012 · Startup Founder · depot8
- Earlier · Scale-up General Manager · Leona Edmiston
Sources: smartcompany.com.au
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of Jodie Imam – Sometimes You Don't Need a Rocket Ship. You Need a Tractor you want.
- 2:13 Meet Jodie Imam
- 3:11 Childhood influences that shaped her
- 5:13 Leaving Ericsson for fashion: the car-space trade
- 10:25 Starting Occasional Butler after her first baby
- 12:39 Building a business with her partner
- 17:04 Finding the flywheel for a new marketplace
- 19:59 Raising capital: board members first
- 24:43 depo8 and the member-revenue model
- 29:05 Connecting with Matt Allen
- 30:58 Tractor Ventures: a new funding model
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
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