Yes, there’s just four. No, they’re not easy to achieve but here they are. — I spend most of my consulting days with founders and teams ranging from idea stage to minimum viable product (MVP) to early commercialisation, so I get asked one question a lot, “What will angel or venture capital investors want to see from us before we’re good candidates for investment?” The long answer is: every investor is different

A common question from Aussie tech startup founders is whether they should raise their investment with a convertible note, priced equity, or a SAFE note. The short answer is that you can raise investment with a SAFE note or convertible note in Australia, but you may find it harder to raise your round. Here’s the longer answer (nothing that this advice pertains to Australian tech start- ups in 2020, that the future may be different…

A quick call-out for Australian startup founders and founding employees with questions and problems we can cover. — My awesome friend Megan Flamer and I will be recording the first episodes of a new podcast series later this week in Melbourne. And we’d love to help you on the show. You have until Thursday morning! We can’t tell you what the podcast is called yet, but the format…

A story about startup storytelling, and where my story began — Almost as soon as I could talk, I wanted to learn how to be a great storyteller. I would waddle in a cloth nappy around my family’s humble fibro house telling lengthy and grandiose stories about my three great loves — my teddy bear, my trucks, and spaceships — until…

Can we pause for a moment on developing more AI learning models that can write blog post, SEO and social post copy and focus on LMs that can help a user with a technical support question? — In the past few days I’ve used a few SAAS platforms that have thrown up a cryptic error message and left me blocked from moving forward with my task. There is never a layperson’s explanation of what the error message means, why it has happened, or what to do next.

Back in 2010 Tony Burrett and I started a digital agency and startup studio called The New Agency. I’d only just moved to Newport, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, a few weeks before, so I had no intention of commuting 90mins to the city every day. …

I’ve seen so many ‘monday morning quarterbacks’ chiming in, to say they always knew Milkrun would fail. But here’s the thing: when you say you knew it’d never work, nobody in venture capital cares. Venture capital doesn’t get to invest without significant risk. …

I’ve just registered for the Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker event this August — a mere 100km of non-stop, fast-as-you-can bushwalking/jogging through wild bush on rugged trails from the outskirts of Sydney to the shores of Sydney Harbour. This is the eighth time for me (plus a DNF in 2017) and you’d…

Want to create a perception that you’re a leader in the customer community your startup serves, or in the professional startup field you work in? It’s not rocket surgery: become the person who creates a regular meetup and community about it. — Say you’re a [professional] in [startup category], like [product manager] in [aged care SAAS]. There are general meetups for PMs you attend but nothing addressing aged care, or there are aged care meetups but not for PMs.