Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Sydney hotel-tech vendor SiteMinder (ASX:SDR) is pushing AI-enabled distribution channels after getting caught in the 2026 software selloff. The company serves 41,000+ hotels across 150 countries with channel management and booking software. Share price jumped recently, but the path to profitability remains unclear despite consistent revenue growth.
SaaStr updated its classic VP of Sales hiring guide for 2026. The new questions screen for AI agent deployment, hybrid team management, and whether candidates can run modern GTM motions. The shift: title inflation is worse, capital is tighter, and VPs who can't speak fluently about Clay, Artisan, or Qualified are now filtered out at interview stage.
Meta fixed a security flaw that let attackers manipulate its AI support bot to take over Instagram accounts, including high-profile business profiles. The exploit worked by social-engineering the chatbot into sending password-reset codes to attacker-controlled emails. Meta did not disclose how many accounts were affected.
Giant Leap's Will Richardson says AI-generated pitch emails are killing credibility. When every founder uses ChatGPT to write cold outreach, none of them stand out. The irony: AI-focused VCs are now drowning in generic, homogenous pitches that fail to convert.
ASX-listed Scalare Partners acquired Fishburners brand and IP after the Sydney startup hub collapsed under $2 million in rent arrears to NSW government. Cash-only deal adds third coworking asset to Scalare's accelerator portfolio. No employees transferred, no liabilities assumed.
ASX-listed logistics software firm WiseTech Global is making 30% of its workforce redundant as part of an AI transformation. The company wants departing employees to sign non-compete clauses preventing them from joining four smaller competitors for at least a year. Union pushes back.
Property investment advisory Dashdot collapsed into voluntary liquidation last week, cutting more than 40 jobs. CEO cites federal budget tax reforms and Meta ad changes as contributing factors. Clients who paid thousands in upfront fees are waiting for answers.
Jason Lemkin's SaaStr is running four specialized AI SDR platforms instead of one all-in-one tool. Three Artisan instances for outbound (40,000+ messages sent), Qualified for inbound ($1M+ closed), Agentforce for reactivation (200,000 messages, 72% open rates), and Monaco for net new logos. The take: specialized tools beat generalist platforms once you hit scale, but most companies should start with one.
Utah proptech Entrata filed for NYSE listing with $575M run-rate revenue growing 23%, profitable, carrying $270M debt from pre-IPO dividend. First of a PE-backed SaaS wave trying to exit into a market that now wants acceleration, not just efficiency. Most names behind it are not accelerating.
Anthropic's Head of Industries walked through their GTM stack at SaaStr AI. No custom platform. They use Clay, LeanData, Salesforce, Gong, Ironclad, and Slack. The difference: Claude does the data entry, qualification routing, and call prep. 54% of enterprise logos came through AI-qualified self-serve in 2026.
Australia is back in the top 10 global startup ecosystems for the first time in three years, ranking 9th with a US$195B valuation. Sydney pulled 65% of national funding in 2024 and sits 30th globally for startup cities. Melbourne grew faster (37.8% vs Sydney's 11.7%) but remains smaller at US$18B ecosystem value.
SaaStr's Qualified-powered agent handled 2.2M sessions and booked 614 qualified meetings at its 10,000-person conference. Founder Jason Lemkin says B leads, not A leads, are where AI ROI actually shows up. Here is what the conversion data looks like and why B2B teams should care.