The Wire

Real-time updates from ANZ tech sales

4 months ago
News

Australia VC ecosystem grew 13.7x faster than any hub, report shows

## The Numbers Australia's venture ecosystem grew 13.7 times faster than any major hub over the past decade, according to the new Australia Venture & Startup Report 2026 from Side Stage Ventures and Dealroom. The market now creates more $10 billion companies per dollar invested than anywhere else globally. Venture funding in 2026 is tracking to be the strongest year since 2022. Total capital deployed in 2025 hit $5.48 billion across 390 deals, up 31% year on year and the third-largest funding year on record. AI led at $1.0 billion, followed by fintech at $868 million and biotech/medtech at $829 million. ## What It Means for Sales More venture capital means more venture-backed buyers with budgets. But the distribution matters. Early-stage investment has fallen every year since 2021, which means fewer seed and Series A companies with the cash to buy your product. The recovery has been selective, driven by a small number of large rounds. Median seed valuations now sit 50% below the US, though AI mega-rounds offshore are the primary reason that gap doubled in 12 months. Australian founders now raise 41% of their early-stage capital from overseas, double the share in Europe or the US. That is both a compliment and a warning sign: international investors see opportunity, but domestic capital is thin at the early stage. ## The Hiring Angle The report credits Canva, Atlassian, Afterpay, and Eucalyptus as ecosystem builders, alongside a growing community of exited operators reinvesting into the next generation. That usually means more sales hiring at the companies that do raise, but concentrated funding means concentrated hiring. If you are selling to or looking to join venture-backed startups, the market is more selective than the headline growth number suggests. Worth noting: the local market is still relatively concentrated and later-stage funding remains a constraint, which affects expansion hiring and enterprise buying power across the startup base. Australia's geographic isolation and smaller domestic market push startups to be globally oriented and capital-efficient earlier, which shapes how they buy and how they staff up compared with US or European counterparts. The federal government expanded the VCLP and ESVCLP venture programs, though the report notes ongoing debate about recent tax changes and their impact on the ecosystem.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

Taiwan AI trip shifts VC view: people over hype

# Taiwan AI trip shifts VC view: people over hype A venture capitalist returned from Taiwan with a changed perspective on AI investment. The week-long visit exposed an ecosystem focused on human-centred AI deployment rather than pure automation, a contrast to the replacement-focused narrative dominating Western markets. Taiwan's AI landscape includes active investors like Darwin Venture Management, CDIB Capital, and Taiwania Capital Management Corporation. AI Fund recently opened a Taiwan hub to build startups with local entrepreneurs. The maturity of the ecosystem, backed by government-supported funds, is attracting global investors looking beyond the usual hubs. The trip came during the Wisdom and Action conference, which centred on Trust in the Age of AI. Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first digital minister, led discussions on technology serving public participation rather than replacing it. Her framing: AI as a tool for better human collaboration, not workforce displacement. That positioning matters for go-to-market strategy. If AI tools sell better when positioned as enabling humans rather than replacing them, sales narratives need adjusting. The conference referenced Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Movement, where half a million people organised around small-group conversations to produce coherent policy demands. Tang called it a "campfire versus wildfire" model: small enough to gather around, not large enough to consume everyone. Taiwan's hardware-AI integration strength positions it as a critical node in the global AI supply chain. For ANZ sales teams evaluating AI vendors or building AI-enabled products, Taiwan's people-first approach offers validation for solutions that augment rather than automate away customer roles. The investor's shift reflects broader questions about AI adoption paths. Enterprise deals close faster when tools make existing teams more effective, not when they promise headcount reduction. Taiwan's model validates that thesis with government backing and venture capital flowing to human-centred AI applications. Worth noting: 91% of US VC transactions into Chinese AI companies between 2015 and 2021 occurred at early VC stages. Taiwan's ecosystem maturity and policy environment position it differently, attracting later-stage capital alongside seed funding.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

Flyweel raises $2.41M pre-seed, no ANZ sales hires announced

## Flyweel raises $2.41M pre-seed, no ANZ sales hires announced Queensland fintech Flyweel closed $2.41 million in pre-seed funding led by Ten13, with backing from Antler, QIC, and fintech operators including Mollie CEO Koen Köppen, Zip cofounder Larry Diamond, and Stake cofounder Matt Leibowitz. The company embeds lending into ad spend: businesses fund campaigns upfront, repay as revenue lands. Flyweel connects ad platforms, CRM, and accounting in real time. They have managed $110 million in ad spend across nearly 1,000 businesses since launching in 2025. Founded by Reuben Scheckter (CEO, former lead gen business owner who managed $40M in ad spend) and Matteo Calo (ex-Adyen, Mollie, Semrush payments lead), Flyweel is going direct to the US market first for its financial products: Performance Capital, spend cards, and bill pay. **What we do not know:** Team size, sales headcount, comp structure, or hiring plans. The funding announcement mentions US customer traction but no details on ANZ expansion or local sales roles. **Context for sales teams:** Fintech pre-seed rounds in ANZ typically fund 2 to 5 early hires, often including a founding AE or head of growth. US-first GTM usually means remote roles or NYC-based positions for enterprise fintech sales, with OTE ranging $140k to $180k for early AEs at this stage. Entry-level SDR roles at similar companies typically sit at $60k to $75k base, $90k to $110k OTE. Flyweel is solving cash flow timing for ad spend, positioning ads as capital investments rather than expense lines. That matters as AI accelerates in-house ad scaling and new platforms (ChatGPT is piloting ads in Australia) multiply spend channels. Worth noting: The company name is Flyweel, not Flywheel Digital (the Baltimore-based commerce company acquired by Omnicom for $835M in 2023). Different businesses, different markets. **For sales professionals:** No hiring announcements yet. If they scale, expect US-focused roles first, likely remote or NYC-based given the market focus.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

Top rep quits despite $600k OTE: SaaStr breaks down why change drives attrition

## The Pattern Jason Lemkin from SaaStr has tracked this across portfolio companies: the number one or two rep quits despite top 1% to 5% earnings, respect, and a dialled-in motion. They often move to roles where they will earn less, start over, and face unclear upsides. The common thread is not pay or culture. It is change. ## Why Top Performers Leave Lemkin identifies three primary triggers: **New VP of Sales arrives.** The top rep loses their shelter. Even if treated well, the dynamic shifts. A mediocre VP accelerates the exit. A great VP knows how to manage this transition, but hire wrong and you lose your best producer. **VP of Sales departs.** Anxiety spikes. The top rep was often protected by that leader. When that shield disappears, so does their confidence in the environment. **Comp looks harder to achieve.** Lemkin cites a rep at a $20m ARR startup who made $800k, then quit for a public company role as one of hundreds. Reason: next year looked harder. This is the number one driver. Top performers can read the territory. When the path to quota gets steeper, they leave before the pain starts. ## What Actually Works Lemkin's advice for retaining top AEs during change: **Align the new VP and top rep from day one.** The VP may not know the product or motion as well as their new report. Manage that dynamic. **Involve top AEs in VP hiring.** Shows respect. Lets them vet who they will work for. **Give them space.** Spending more time with your top rep during transitions does not help. Let them work. **Do not ask them to do more than sell.** Top individual contributors often resist team lead roles, SDR mentoring, or strategy work. Forcing it breeds resentment. Let them be elite closers, nothing more. **Leave the door open.** Tell them they can return. Many realise 12 months later they left a perfect environment. Make sure they know the desk is waiting. **Hire a VP who retains top performers.** Mediocre VPs keep low performers. Great VPs make sure top AEs stay when they join. ## ANZ Context This pattern hits ANZ startups particularly hard. Brand strength is still building, leadership benches are thin, and comp plan volatility is higher during growth phases. When a Sydney or Melbourne scaleup hires a new CRO or adjusts territory, top reps read the signals fast. SaaStr's community includes executives from emerging ANZ SaaS firms. The Q&A format delivers real-time retention advice for sales leaders managing volatile environments with limited brand power. ## The Core Insight Change is constant in startups. Top reps know the current environment made them successful. Any shift, even neutral or positive, introduces risk to their $600k run rate. They leave not because the new situation is objectively worse, but because the old one was objectively perfect for them. Comp transparency matters here too. If your top rep is making $600k and you cannot articulate how they hit that again next year, they are already interviewing.

SaaStr
4 months ago
News

Everstage CEO: 90% of comp plans punish the behavior they reward

**Siva Rajamani, CEO of Everstage, sees 300+ enterprise sales comp plans every year. He says 90% make the same mistake: they reward one thing in the slide deck and punish it in the spreadsheet.** The pattern is consistent. Companies start with a simple plan. Then they patch in exceptions until the comp structure has ten parameters and optimizes for nothing. "If explaining your plan takes longer than 60 seconds, it's broken," Rajamani said. "If your comp plan needs an FAQ, it's not a plan, it's a tax code." ## The hidden math problem Here is the trap: a company adds an accelerator for multi-year deals. Sounds smart. But the discount reps must give to land those contracts outweighs the accelerator. So reps rationally avoid multi-year deals, the exact behavior the company wanted to encourage. "Your comp plan is the real instruction manual, not your 1-on-1s," Rajamani said. "If reps aren't doing what you want, don't question the rep. Audit the plan." ## What actually works Everstage, a sales performance management platform that has raised roughly $45M, runs its own comp plan on three levers: overall quota, a multi-year accelerator, and one-time revenue. That is it. The benchmarks Rajamani recommends: - **Base-to-variable split:** 50/50 for most roles - **Quota-to-OTE ratio:** 4x to 5x (for every dollar of OTE, rep should deliver $4-5 in quota) - **Visibility:** Reps need to see potential earnings before they act. "What do I make if I close this?" is what drives behavior. The company serves hypergrowth and enterprise clients, automating commissions, quota planning, and incentive execution. Rajamani previously scaled RevOps at Freshworks from 1 to 25 people before starting Everstage in 2020. ## AI is widening the gap The performance gap between top and average reps is accelerating, especially as top performers use AI to scale their leverage. Rajamani sees the $1M+ sales rep coming, and he argues it is better on margins: paying big commissions to a few A-players beats hiring a stack of mid-level reps, because you carry far fewer base salaries for the same revenue. "Optimize for your top reps' earning potential," he said. "Counterintuitively, it's cheaper." ## The simplicity test If your comp plan requires a 20-page deck and a RevOps analyst to interpret it, you have already lost. The best plans are simple enough that reps know exactly what they will earn for the deal they are about to close. Everything else is friction. Everstage competes in the sales performance management space alongside Xactly, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Performio. The company operates out of Delaware, with presence in New York and Chennai, and employs roughly 350 people with estimated annual revenue around $75M. **Worth noting:** If your reps are avoiding the deals you want them to close, the comp plan is the first place to look. Not the CRM. Not the sales deck. The comp plan.

Sales Hacker
4 months ago
News

Everlab raises $65m Series A, Airtree leads Melbourne healthtech expansion

## Everlab raises $65m Series A, Airtree leads Melbourne healthtech expansion Melbourne healthtech startup Everlab has closed a $65 million Series A led by Airtree Ventures, with participation from Plural, Left Lane Capital, b2venture, and Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins. The round comes less than a year after the company raised $15 million in seed funding. Founded in 2023, Everlab runs an AI-driven preventative care platform that consolidates diagnostics, specialist referrals, prescriptions, and wearable data into a single system. The company is positioning itself as consumer-facing longevity infrastructure rather than a traditional clinic operator. Multiple sources report the company has tens of thousands of users on its waitlist. ### What this means for sales teams Rapid funding velocity usually means accelerated headcount growth. Everlab's Series A will fund international expansion, clinic network development, and team scaling. That typically translates to roles across clinical operations, tech, and go-to-market: account executives for B2B partnerships (pathology labs, corporate wellness), SDRs for enterprise outreach, and account managers for provider relationships. Healthtech sales in ANZ has seen consistent hiring over the past 18 months, particularly in platforms that sit between clinical and consumer. Companies in this category (preventative diagnostics, care navigation, longevity) tend to hire AEs with healthcare or SaaS experience, often at OTEs between $140k and $180k depending on segment and deal size. The broader context: healthcare sales roles at funded startups in ANZ have shifted toward platforms that aggregate fragmented systems (exactly what Everlab is building). If you are an AE or AM with experience selling into pathology, diagnostics, or corporate health, this is the category to watch. Series A companies in this space typically hire 4 to 8 go-to-market roles within six months of a close. Worth noting: Everlab has not publicly disclosed revenue, sales leadership, or specific headcount. That information typically surfaces within 60 to 90 days of a funding announcement as hiring ramps.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

Everlab closes $65M Series A, no sales team disclosed

**Everlab closed a $65 million Series A** led by Airtree Ventures, with Plural, b2venture, and Left Lane Capital participating. Australian test captain Pat Cummins joined as an angel investor. The Melbourne startup sells AI-powered preventive health assessments direct to consumers and through corporate programs. Individual tests range from $299 for basic health checks to $3,499 for MRI body scans. Packaged assessments run $900 to $2,700. **Corporate customers include BCG, BHP, and Bain & Company.** The company has processed 20,000 clients across Australia and New Zealand since launching publicly in January 2024. More than 25% of clients had previously undetected health issues identified during testing. Founded in 2023 by Marc Hermann, Dr. Steven Lu, Sam Kothari, and Anshul Jain, Everlab previously raised $3 million pre-seed and $15 million seed. Total funding now sits at $83 million across three rounds in under two years. **The Series A will fund UK expansion and clinical infrastructure.** The company integrates with 1,850+ health provider locations and 180+ clinicians, processing 200,000+ health reports monthly. Worth noting: public sources do not disclose sales team size, sales leadership, or revenue figures. The go-to-market appears to be direct-to-consumer subscriptions plus enterprise health programs, competing in the preventive care segment alongside Superpower and Compound. CEO Marc Hermann previously co-founded Foodspring, acquired by Mars in 2019. The company describes a subscription model with annual memberships plus individual tests, with a waitlist previously reported in the tens of thousands. **What this means for sales:** If Everlab is hiring for its UK expansion, expect enterprise account roles selling into corporate health programs, plus potential inside sales for direct-to-consumer. The $65M raise suggests significant headcount growth ahead, but no hiring announcements yet.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

Victoria mandates two days WFH for casuals, part-timers from September 2026

Victoria is legislating a two-day-per-week work-from-home entitlement for regular casuals and part-time employees, effective September 1, 2026. The bill hits state parliament this week. ## Who it covers Regular casuals qualify if they have worked systematically for 12 months with reasonable expectation of ongoing work. Part-time staff with similar tenure also qualify. Pro-rata guidance drops before September. This expands on existing flexible work rights, which required specific eligibility criteria like pregnancy, disability, or caregiving. The new law removes those barriers and makes WFH a baseline entitlement, not a request. ## How it works Employers can only refuse after consulting the employee, attempting agreement, and demonstrating reasonable business grounds. They must also consult on work-from-home safety issues: hazard identification, risk controls, the full WHS checklist. Small businesses get until mid-2027 to update HR policies and compliance processes. No exemptions for company size after that deadline. ## What it means for sales teams If you run an SDR floor or manage field AEs in Victoria, this changes workforce planning. Territory coverage, team collaboration, onboarding logistics: all need rethinking if half your team can work remotely two days a week. For recruiting: candidates now have a legal baseline. "Flexible work available" is no longer a perk you offer. It is a right they can enforce. Comp discussions should account for this shift in expectations. Retention angle: staff with caregiving responsibilities or long commutes now have statutory backing. That could reduce churn, but only if you build remote work into your culture rather than treating it as compliance theatre. ## Implementation reality Victoria embedded this in the Equal Opportunity Act to avoid constitutional challenges with federal workplace law. Whether that holds up in court remains to be seen. The government acknowledges legal questions but believes this is the lowest-risk path. No other ANZ jurisdiction has gone this hard on legislated remote work. Victoria is testing whether mandating flexibility works better than leaving it to employer discretion. Bottom line: update your remote work policies, prep your WHS documentation, and factor this into 2026 headcount planning. The law lands in 15 months.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

Anthropic scaled to $965B with one marketing hire, product-led sales

## The Strategy Anthropic, the AI safety company behind Claude, scaled to a $965 billion valuation with almost no traditional marketing function. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, the San Francisco company raised $30 billion Series G in 2025, then $65 billion Series H in 2026, while operating like a research lab instead of a SaaS vendor. The approach: founder-led enterprise sales backed by product credibility. No demand gen team. No LinkedIn campaigns. No sales development reps cold-calling procurement. CEO Dario Amodei positioned himself as the anti-CEO, focusing on AI safety messaging while the product sold itself to enterprise buyers evaluating Claude against OpenAI and Google. That restraint became the brand. ## What This Means for Sales Teams For B2B teams watching marketing budgets get slashed, Anthropic proves a point: enterprise deals close on product trust and founder credibility, not marketing qualified leads. The execution matters. Anthropic competes in a saturated AI market where every competitor runs aggressive feature launches and paid campaigns. They went the opposite direction: sparse messaging, safety-first positioning, and letting enterprise customers discover Claude through technical credibility. That works when your product solves a real enterprise problem and your founder can sell. It does not work if you are selling mid-market SaaS without differentiation. ## The ANZ Angle No confirmed Australia or New Zealand headcount in public sources, though Claude is being evaluated by ANZ enterprise buyers. If Anthropic does expand locally, expect direct sales through senior AEs, not SDR-led outbound. For ANZ sales leaders comparing notes: this is not a playbook for most companies. Anthropic had $95 billion in funding, frontier AI tech, and a founder who could sell safety narratives to Fortune 500 CIOs. Your Series A SaaS company probably needs SDRs. But the core lesson holds: if your product is strong enough and your founder can sell, you can scale enterprise revenue without traditional marketing. Just do not confuse minimal marketing with no go-to-market strategy. Anthropic still sold. They just did it differently.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

Dashdot collapse: $16.5M owed, Meta ad costs blamed for liquidation

## The Numbers Property buyers agency Dashdot collapsed in late May owing $16.5 million. The creditor list includes 695 customers owed $10.6 million, the ATO ($916,000), startup lender Mighty Partners ($1.5 million), and Meta ($134,000). Liquidators estimate at least 700 clients are caught up in the collapse. Many paid large up-front fees for services never delivered. ## What Happened Co-founder Goose McGrath blamed sharp rises in customer acquisition costs after changes to Meta's advertising platform. The business also faced weaker consumer confidence, tighter lending, and federal tax-policy changes affecting property investors. That $134,000 owed to Meta tells the story: Dashdot was built on paid social acquisition. When the unit economics broke, the business broke. ## Why It Matters for Sales Teams This is what happens when your growth model depends entirely on paid channels and those channels reprice against you. Dashdot had scale: enough clients to generate a $16.5 million creditor pool. Not enough resilience to absorb CAC inflation. Property-related businesses in Australia are under pressure. ASIC data shows 426 insolvencies in rental and property categories this year. The pattern: investor tax reform, lending constraints, low confidence. For lead-gen-heavy service firms in property and adjacent verticals, the lesson is simple: diversify acquisition or build enough margin to absorb platform changes. Dashdot apparently did neither. ## The Broader Context Dashdot competed in a crowded buyers agency segment: property investment advisers, buyers agents, real-estate service firms. All fighting for the same investor clients in a market where demand is softening and acquisition costs are rising. No confirmed funding history or revenue figures are available. What is clear: the business had scale but not sustainability. That gap is expensive. Worth noting: the preliminary liquidator report identified only one entity under voluntary liquidation (Dashdot Pty Ltd). The structure and any related entities remain unclear from public reporting.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

US blocks Australians from Anthropic's frontier AI models

## US export controls cut Australian access to Anthropic models Australian organisations lost access to Anthropic's most advanced AI models over the weekend after the US government ordered the company to suspend foreign access. The decision affects Fable 5 and Mythos 5, Anthropic's frontier models positioned to compete with OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini. Mythos 5 had only been available to select Australian enterprises since early June through the company's Project Glasswing program. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers Dario and Daniela Amodei, is backed by multibillion-dollar investments from Amazon and Google. The company focuses on enterprise sales rather than consumer distribution, making the Australian suspension particularly notable for organisations that had integrated the models into workflows. ### What the models do Fable 5 is Anthropic's flagship general-purpose model, designed for software engineering, research, and business analysis. Mythos 5 is the more advanced system, aimed at complex reasoning tasks with minimal human guidance. Both models are now classified as strategic technologies under US export controls, similar to restrictions applied to advanced semiconductor technology. ### What this means for ANZ enterprises The suspension affects any Australian organisation using Anthropic's advanced models for product development, research, or operations. Companies with early access through Project Glasswing will need to migrate to alternative providers or downgrade to less capable models. The broader signal: frontier AI models are now subject to the same geopolitical constraints as other dual-use technologies. Access can be revoked without notice based on foreign policy considerations, not just commercial terms. For sales and go-to-market teams evaluating AI tooling, the risk is clear. Vendor lock-in on frontier models now includes regulatory risk, not just technical or commercial dependencies. Anthropic has not stated when or if Australian access will be restored. The company's enterprise focus means this affects large organisations and government agencies more than SMB or consumer applications. Worth noting: this is not about billing or commercial disputes. It is about export controls treating advanced AI the same way the US treats weapons technology or advanced chips.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

A Cloud Guru founder says CGT changes push Australian founders offshore

Sam Kroonenburg built A Cloud Guru from a Melbourne bedroom to a US$2 billion Pluralsight acquisition in six years. Now he is warning that federal CGT changes will push the next generation of founders offshore. In a submission to the Senate Economics Committee, Kroonenburg says the proposed tax changes undermine the case for staying in Australia. The committee holds public hearings in Canberra today and Sydney tomorrow, with findings due Friday, June 19. "I love this country. I did not leave when I could have. I stayed, I built here, and when our company was acquired I reinvested here," Kroonenburg wrote. He backed that with action: he cofounded Glitch Capital, joined SecondQuarter Ventures as a partner, and launched Cuttable, an automated ad agency that raised $5.7 million earlier this year. The timing matters. A Cloud Guru was one of Australia's most prominent startup exits, backed by Airtree and Summit. Kroonenburg is not speculating about founder incentives from the outside. He has lived the full cycle: build locally, exit at scale, reinvest in the ecosystem. His argument is economic, not sentimental. Higher CGT rates mean less capital flowing back into early-stage companies. For sales teams at Australian startups, that matters. Fewer well-funded local companies means fewer enterprise AE roles, smaller patches, and more founders building overseas from the start. Kroonenburg is now focused on "convincing Australia's brightest" to build here. The submission suggests that job just got harder. Worth noting: Cuttable already opened in New York alongside its Australian base. The pattern is visible. For context: capital gains tax applies when founders sell equity. The proposed changes would increase the rate, reducing net proceeds available for reinvestment. Kroonenburg's point is that this shifts the calculus for where founders choose to build, and where capital gets deployed next.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

AI SDR deployment takes 2 weeks minimum, says SaaStr founder

## The Setup Tax No One Mentions Jason Lemkin is running AI SDRs at SaaStr. His take: budget 2 weeks minimum for deployment, regardless of what the demo promised. The delay is not vendor slowness. Email warming takes 2 to 3 weeks if you are using dedicated IPs or domains. That is infrastructure reality, not implementation friction. Then comes the actual work: copy testing, subject line optimisation, time-of-day experiments, and segment-specific messaging. That is another 2 weeks before the agent is even live. Lemkin's team checks their agents daily. Not all day, but every day. Think of it like a 15-minute one-on-one with a rep, compressed. The "set and forget" pitch does not match deployment reality. ## Integration Overhead Once the agent is running, the questions compound. Does it flow back into Salesforce? Does it live in a silo? Do you add an inbound agent next? What about customer success? Even Monaco, which Lemkin describes as genuinely good at keeping pipeline current, took a week and a half to set up. That was their fastest deployment. The pattern holds across the market. Industry guides now cite 2 to 4 weeks for simpler setups, 4 to 6 weeks when you factor in knowledge-base prep, QA, and pilot testing. Warming alone consistently eats 2 to 3 weeks. ## Channel Preference: Chat Still Wins SaaStr runs multimodal agents: chat, voice, and video. After nearly a year of data from Amelia AI and Digital Jason on Delphi (2.75 million conversations), the result is clear. Most people still choose chat. Not voice. Not video. Chat. Lemkin saw it on a live call. The person on the other end pulled up SaaStr.ai mid-conversation, saw Amelia AI, and asked if that was him. It was the AI version. They chose to interact via chat, even though video was available. Some users prefer video because they do not want to type. A handful of attendees at SaaStr's London event said they had talked to Amelia AI before showing up. That is the value: 24/7 availability that no human can match. ## What This Means for Sales Teams Two takeaways if you are deploying AI SDRs: **The ramp is real.** Vendors who claim instant deployment will leave you troubleshooting in week three. Budget the time. Plan for it. **Build optionality.** Do not force users into one channel because that is what you built first. Let them pick: chat, voice, or video. Most will still choose chat. The AI SDR category is crowded. Tools like Autobound, Nooks, Landbase, and Monday's AI SDR offerings all compete in this space, alongside broader sales platforms adding AI prospecting. Lemkin's advice: pick a leading tool, budget the time, train it properly, and assign a strong human to manage it. That is where success comes from, not the demo. The market has moved past "launch in minutes" claims. The real work is deliverability, data hygiene, and human oversight. That work takes 2 weeks minimum, and pretending otherwise costs you 3 weeks of troubleshooting instead.

SaaStr
4 months ago
News

Lerer Hippeau VC: we fund crazy founders, not good companies

Ben Lerer runs Lerer Hippeau, a New York early-stage VC with nine funds and $1.5B AUM. His filter for founders: crazy beats good. "We don't fund good companies," Lerer told GTMnow. "Every dollar put into a sensible, durable business is a dollar taken away from a company chasing the power law." The logic: early-stage VC returns come from outliers, not incremental wins. A founder building a solid $50M ARR SaaS business does not move the needle on a venture fund. Lerer Hippeau wants founders whose best case is a multi-fund returner, which means filtering for risk appetite, not operational excellence. Lerer also argues he should be the worst investor at his own firm. "If I'm still the rainmaking investor at 55, the firm failed at building a team that outlasts me." The goal is to hire better investors, then build the structure for them to win deals. On investment committee process, conviction beats consensus. Deals get done when someone pounds the table, even if the rest of the team tries to talk them out of it. No groupthread votes. No comfortable middle ground. Lerer started in media, building Thrillist before it merged into Group Nine. That operator background gave him founder empathy and a network that translated into venture, with early bets on Warby Parker and Casper. He says the biggest process failure was passing on Peloton, which revealed gaps in how the firm evaluated hardware-enabled consumer plays. Current debate at the firm: AI-native 19-year-olds versus second-time founders with domain expertise. Lerer says the answer is rarely a silver bullet. Both profiles can work, depending on the market and the moat. No ANZ portfolio presence or regional expansion noted. Lerer Hippeau remains New York-focused, though the firm's thesis on founder selection and power law returns applies across geographies. Worth noting: this is a VC talking about picking founders, not a playbook for sales teams. The comp transparency and hiring specifics we usually track do not apply here. Still, the conviction-over-consensus model and the bias toward outlier outcomes mirror how top sales orgs think about territory allocation and quota design. Safe pipeline does not build a category.

Sales Hacker
4 months ago
News

OpenAI files for IPO: your AI stack now depends on a public company

OpenAI filed confidentially for an IPO on June 8, 2026. The company said timing is undecided and "it may be a while," but the move puts public market discipline on a company that reportedly burns through $10 billion annually on infrastructure while operating in the red. For sales teams: if you are using ChatGPT, integrated OpenAI models, or tools built on their API, your tech stack now has a landlord answering to Wall Street. That changes the risk profile. ## The numbers OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in October 2024 at $157 billion valuation, $40 billion in April 2025 at $300 billion, and $122 billion in early 2026 at $852 billion. The IPO is not about raising capital. It is about creating liquidity, optionability, and public currency for M&A. Microsoft owns 27%, the OpenAI Foundation owns 26%, employees and other investors hold the rest. That cap table complexity matters when quarterly earnings start. ## What this means for your AI strategy Vendor lock-in risk just became public company risk. Questions worth asking: - What happens to API pricing when OpenAI needs to show margin expansion? - If your SDR workflows depend on ChatGPT integrations, what is your fallback? - How much of your sales ops stack now routes through a single vendor under earnings pressure? OpenAI competing directly with Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Nvidia. Anthropic also started its IPO process last week. The AI model layer is consolidating fast, and the companies providing it are all racing toward profitability under public scrutiny. ## The sales angle ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. Public sources do not show a named CRO or ANZ headcount, but the company is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the listing. For ANZ sales teams building on OpenAI: you are building on infrastructure controlled by a company that has not yet proven it can turn revenue into profit at scale. That is fine if you have a Plan B. If you do not, this IPO filing is your reminder to build one. Uncapped commission on your AI strategy assumes 100% vendor uptime and stable pricing. Historical data on public company pivots says otherwise.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

SaaStr AI: Six Verticals Agreed the AI Is Now Commodity, Data Is Moat

## The Takeaway Six closing sessions at SaaStr AI 2026 (12,500+ attendees, San Mateo) covered commerce, revenue ops, payroll compliance, and fintech. None sold the same product. All reached the same conclusion: the AI became commodity, data and guardrails are the moat. ## What That Means for Sales If you are selling vertical SaaS with AI features, your prospects already assume you have the AI. They are buying the proprietary data layer, the compliance framework, and the workflow that does not break when a rep enters bad data. That changes the discovery questions and the demo structure. Shoplazza (commerce platform, 650,000 merchants) rebuilt their entire stack AI-first rather than bolt features onto the old product. Their CRO Adam Modsley said everyone has the same tools now: Lovable, Claude, Vercel. Having the tools does not make you successful, the data does. They warned that usage-based billing is not optional anymore. One founder's AI token deal ran out in month four, got the real bill, and realized they were losing money on every customer. Nue (Salesforce-native CPQ-to-billing) demoed three quote variations in seconds, a task that normally costs a rep two hours. The AI is deterministic: same inputs, same output every time. Guardrails live in the pricing engine, not the prompt. Ask for a 76% discount and it caps at 55%. Quote-to-cash has to be end to end, down to showing the customer their exact first invoice at quote time. Papaya Global (payroll compliance, 160 countries) built Papaya 1 so clients stop asking ChatGPT a German termination question at 2am and acting on a confident wrong answer that can cost $250,000. They gave the same Brazilian employment contract to Claude and ChatGPT. Both were confident, both gave different answers, neither got it fully right. They built 22 compliance rules one at a time, added a second AI to check the first, and shipped a kill switch: if accuracy drops below threshold in any country, they turn that country off. The agent worked in four weeks, earning enough trust to put the company's name on it took four months. Reevo (revenue ops) automated the 70 to 80 percent of a seller's day that goes to admin: research, prep, notes, follow-ups, CRM. The deal-progression agent reads the CRM, emails, and call transcripts, cites the evidence (an unanswered "I need to run this by finance" comment), and drafts the follow-up. Automate the admin, not the relationship. ## The Pattern Across all six sessions: lead with the outcome, not the model. Build guardrails before features. Turn every failure into a rule. Meet users where they already work. The data is the moat. For sales teams, that means the pitch is shifting from "we have AI" to "our AI is trained on your vertical's data and will not recommend a discount structure that violates your comp plan." Generic AI gets you generic results. Vertical data and deterministic workflows are what close the deal now.

SaaStr
4 months ago
News

Startmate lands $8M to back women founders, typical deal $120k at $1.5M valuation

Startmate has secured an $8 million commitment from the Minderoo Foundation to expand capital access for women founders in the ANZ startup ecosystem. The Australia-based accelerator typically invests $120,000 into early-stage companies at a $1.5 million post-money valuation for first-time fundraisers. Its portfolio now spans more than $1 billion across all continents, positioning it as one of the better-known seed platforms in the region. The new capital will support Startmate's existing momentum: 52% of founders raise $1 million to $4 million directly after completing the accelerator program. The platform's Forever Fund has already written 19 follow-on checks ranging from $25,000 to $375,000, indicating increasing ability to support alumni through subsequent rounds. ## The market reality Female-founded startups receive just 2% of venture capital funding in Australia, despite research showing companies established by women achieve higher returns on investment. Worth noting: the data and the money remain misaligned. Remy Tucker's experience tracks with this. Her company On The House, which installs free feminine hygiene product dispensers funded by advertising, completed Startmate's program and subsequently raised a $1.7 million seed round. The company now operates 55 machines across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast with a team of five. Tucker started the business after working as a student midwife and noticing recurring period inequity. "Women were leaving the hospital asking if they could take products with them," she said. The solution: billboard advertising in bathrooms funding free hygiene products. ## What this means Startmate operates as a community-driven seed fund and accelerator focused on network access, mentorship and early capital rather than a traditional sales motion. The platform does not list a sales organisation, CRO, or VP Sales in public sources, which is consistent with it being a venture platform rather than a software company. The $8 million commitment will likely deepen Startmate's visibility in diversity-focused venture investing and expand its ability to write follow-on checks for women-led companies. The accelerator model remains the same: early capital, strong network access, and a track record of helping founders close their next round.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

Four ANZ startups raised $87M: quantum, fintech, AI hiring implications

## The Numbers Four Australian startups closed $87.3M this week: - **Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC):** $40M from the National Reconstruction Fund - **Dentroid, Earlytrade, ReSmart:** $47.3M combined (individual amounts not disclosed) SQC's raise brings federal government investment to $60M in three months, with $40M equity giving them roughly one-third ownership. ## What It Means for Sales Teams Deep tech and quantum computing typically hire engineers and scientists first, sales roles later. SQC is building quantum chip manufacturing capability, not a SaaS go-to-market motion. Expect technical pre-sales and partnerships roles before field AEs. For context: Australian startups raised $5.1B across 390 deals in 2025, the third-largest year on record. AI, fintech, biotech and climate tech drove most capital. That suggests buyers are still writing cheques, but sales cycles remain long for infrastructure plays. ## Broader ANZ Funding Context Australian startups raised $4B across 414 deals in 2024. Half the capital came from eight deals above $100M. The market still concentrates capital in scale-up winners (SafetyCulture, Deputy, InDebted) while supporting high volumes of smaller rounds. For sales professionals: large funding rounds at mature companies usually mean quota expansion and territory splits. Early rounds at deep tech startups mean long sales cycles and technical selling. Know the difference before you take the call from the recruiter. ## The Sales Hiring Reality Quantum computing, dental AI, trade finance and recycling tech are not hiring SDR pods. These are 12-month enterprise sales cycles with technical buying committees. If you are an AE looking for fast ramp and monthly quota, these are not your plays. Watch for follow-on rounds at B2B SaaS companies in the cohort. That is where the AE, SDR and CSM hiring happens. These four? Probably adding one enterprise AE each, maybe a partnerships lead. Not a sales floor build-out. ## Bottom Line Healthy funding week for ANZ, but most of it went to categories that hire technical talent before sales talent. If you are tracking which raises lead to go-to-market hiring, focus on B2B SaaS and fintech follow-ons, not quantum computing seed rounds.

SmartCompany
4 months ago
News

Minderoo Foundation backs Startmate with $8m over four years

## Minderoo Foundation backs Startmate with $8m over four years Andrew and Nicola Forrest's Minderoo Foundation is backing Australian accelerator Startmate with $8 million over four years, structured as $2 million annually. The funding targets women founders. Minderoo, with an endowment around $7.6 billion after the Forrests donated $5 billion in Fortescue shares, is operating as a strategic investor rather than traditional VC. This fits their pattern of funding ecosystem-building initiatives in ANZ. ### The Startmate model Startmate runs two accelerator cohorts per year. Standard investment: $120,000 for 8% equity. Their backing of companies with at least one female co-founder sits at 43%, nearly double the industry average of 24%. Last year, 51% of Startmate's accelerator capital went to women-led startups (defined as at least one female co-founder with meaningful equity). Another 33% went to all-women founding teams. Applications from women-led startups have grown from 100 (20% of total) in 2019 to nearly 600 (43% of total) in 2025. ### Why this matters Minderoo CEO John Hartman: "Research shows female founders are consistently underfunded and operating with fewer resources globally. That hasn't changed, despite strong performance from women-led teams and clear evidence they deliver results, often outperforming their male peers." For sales professionals watching ANZ startup ecosystem funding: this is institutional capital backing pipeline infrastructure, not individual deal flow. Startmate portfolio companies become future hiring opportunities, particularly for early-stage sales hires. Startmate CEO Phoebe Pincus says the partnership will build on existing momentum. Worth noting: the accelerator model here is founder-focused, not a large enterprise sales motion. The downstream implication is more startups scaling, which means more AE and SDR roles opening up across the portfolio over the next 12-24 months. No specific hiring plans announced yet, but accelerators at this funding level typically expand operations teams, including outreach and portfolio support roles.

Startup Daily
4 months ago
News

Shopify hits $13B revenue at age 20, growing 34%

## The Numbers Shopify turned 20 and shipped its strongest quarter since the pandemic surge. Q1 revenue hit $3.17B, up 34% year over year. GMV crossed $100B in a single quarter for the first time, up 35%. Free cash flow margin held at 15%. Most software companies decelerate at this scale. Shopify accelerated. Growth rate improved from 27% a year ago to 34% now, at a $13B+ run rate. That does not happen by accident. ## The Revenue Mix Shifted Subscriptions (the monthly merchant plans) grew 21% to $750M. That is 24% of total revenue. Merchant solutions, mostly payments and lending, grew 39% and now makes up 76% of revenue. Shopify makes roughly 3x more when merchants succeed than it does selling them software. The subscription is the wedge. The business is taking a cut of $100B+ in commerce flowing through the platform. Shopify Payments alone processed $67B in GMV, up 41%, handling 67% of all platform volume. Look only at MRR and you would think this was a 16% grower. MRR hit $212M, up 16%. Total revenue grew 34%, more than double the MRR growth rate. The gap is success-based revenue: payments, Shop Pay, Capital, the revenue that scales with merchant volume rather than merchant count. ## Why This Matters for B2B Sales Shopify figured out a decade ago what many SaaS companies are learning now: the highest-growth revenue is usage-based and success-based, not seat-based. The model where you grow when your customer grows is the one compounding fastest. For go-to-market teams, this is the playbook. Land with subscription, expand with usage. Nearly 90% of Q1 revenue came from merchants who have been on the platform more than a year. That is expansion revenue, not new logo hunting. Shopify's commercial motion is platform-led, not classic enterprise field sales. Merchant success, partner ecosystem, and payment take-rates drive growth. That structure scales differently than a traditional SaaS sales org, but the numbers show it works at $13B. The company was founded in 2004 by Tobi Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after building an online snowboard shop. Twenty years later, it is still accelerating. Durable does not have to mean slow.

SaaStr
Load More