Paloma Newton
Co-Founder & CEO at Elita
Paloma Newton is co-founder and chief executive of Elita, a Melbourne startup building what it calls the world's first longevity platform for dogs, combining stem cell banking with ongoing health tracking. She and co-founder Jackson Gritching started the company after their own dog was found at risk of hip dysplasia and no local vet could store his cells for future treatment. Elita has raised roughly $1.9 million, including backing from LaunchVic's Alice Anderson Fund for women-led startups. On In The Blink Of AI, Newton spoke about why she thinks people are worried about the wrong risks in artificial intelligence.
Career
- Now Co-Founder & CEO · Elita
- Earlier Venture capital (brief stint) · Blackbird Ventures
- Earlier · Startup Team member (self-driving lidar startup) · Baraja
- Earlier Account/Strategy ('suit') role · Clemenger BBDO
Sources: thestrangeattractor.buzzsprout.com
Key moments
Jump straight to the part of We're Afraid of the Wrong Thing in AI — with Paloma Newton you want.
- 0:00 Cold open
- 2:40 AI hack of the week: the self-updating Slack to-do list
- 4:01 What is Elita
- 4:51 Headline: South Australia's $3M AI Royal Commission
- 11:31 Headline: Does AI actually give us more free time
- 18:29 The Elita origin story: Edgar, stem cells, and building backwards
- 25:35 Pet longevity vs human longevity
- 32:18 Holding AI's promise and its doom and gloom at once
- 40:52 The AI-designed cancer vaccine that started with one dog
- 45:06 Why women opting out of AI should worry everyone
Connections
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correction Updated 25 September 2026
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