Belinda Ralston

💚I’ve said it before (about 2 hours ago to be exact) and I’ll say it again - Pulse Check by 🚀 Overnight Success is brat. 🕶Now, what is Pulse Check? Don’t worry, I’ve got you. 💗 Pulse Check is an initiative of 🚀Overnight Success (OS - brought to you by the undeniably talented 🚀Gemma Clancy & Will Richards), powered by an amazing team of volunteer writers (“correspondents”) who have each contributed their own insights to bring you an insightful overview of what’s happening across the many corners of the 🐨 Aussie startup ecosystem. 📰Link to the August Edition (& make sure to subscribe): https://lnkd.in/gprXrgP9 Be sure to get around the stunning coverage by: 🥁Gav Parry: Covering industry highlights from Entertainment & FanTech. ⚖Preethi Mohan and 🍇 Kirstin Hunter Hunter: Powerhouses and passionate advocates on gender funding equity.  🚜Holly Clark: Covering AgriTech and pitching a new kind of angel investor. 💚Georgie Healy: Who’s AI coverage inspired my (possibly) amusing hook. 👏Berenice Chong: 🚀Accelerator Watch correspondent showcased Ochre Pre-Accelerator and Ochre Ventures. 🔥Andrew Harding: Covered Climate Tech through the lens of the Cut Through Venture's Report Q2 2024. 🌏& as for me, I shared golden advice from (now) 2x talented founder Sam Kroonenburg, inspired by his new venture, Cuttable’s recent raise! 📩If you’re an Aussie founder scaling globally or know someone I should cover, reach out!

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I am pumped to announce our collab with ⚡️ Michael Batko and Puddle Pod, launching our first course, B2B Sales 🔥 In the last 12 months, Roy Head and I have spoken with 100's of B2b SaaS Founders, Sellers and tons of Investors around Australia. Every question. Every client engagement. Every success story from our coaching, workshops and fractional leadership led us to design a compactly curated and jam-packed 5-week program. Roy Head and I know anyone can sell and learn sales because sales is about... 1. Remaining human 2. Asking great questions 3. Establishing extreme value Who is it for?⬇ 1. Founders beginning their sales journey. 2. The Curious how sales really works. 3. Investors who want to upskill for DD conversations and portfolio support. Outcomes ⬇ 1. 5 core skills you need to be successful in sales. 2. Know how to lead an end-to-end deal from the first conversation to paying customer. 3. Know how to control a meeting. Program breakdown ⬇ Week 1 - Discovery Principles Unpack the customer - pain, critical events, buying drivers - and decide if an opportunity is real and worth pursuing. Week 2 - Create Selling Momentum Inertia is your biggest competitor. Learn to core skills to overcome your customers' decision paralysis and drive momentum. Week 3 - Effective Outbound Demand Generation Multi-channel isn’t a buzzword. Bring together LinkedIn prospecting with cold calling and emailing steps proven in the market every week. Week 4 - Demo for impact Boring, irrelevant demos kill deals. Let’s design and discuss effective client sales demos. Week 5 - Close it How value establishment leads you to the negotiating and closing process. If you have the itch, if you have the interest, if you want to learn from 25+ years of sales experience across traditional industry, day one startups and scaling SaaS companies... you know what to do 😎 Join the waitlist! If you have a question Ill be in the comments! ⬇

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🌟 Calling Sydney SaaS Leaders: Exclusive Breakfast Roundtable🌟 As we know, the SaaS world is moving fast—economic pressures are rising, and customers want more. Might be time to revisit your Product-Market Fit and tweak that GTM strategy! Join us for a laid-back breakfast and a sharp discussion with your peers: We'll chat about: 1️⃣ Knowing when your PMF needs a refresh 2️⃣ Adapting your message to changing market conditions 3️⃣ Redefining your Ideal Customer Profile 4️⃣ Fine-tuning your GTM strategy and measuring results 📅 7th of November, 8:30am-10:30am 📍 Sydney CBD Who’s invited: Founders & GTM leaders at high-growth SaaS companies (up to 100 employees) Seats are limited—so, if you fancy breakfast, good chat, and swapping stories with fellow SaaS folks, drop me a message or comment below 🔥 #SaaS #sales #GTM #strategy 🐦 James Bergl

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ok that all got a bit silly i've been messing with earlystage.au for the last few weeks along with some actually smart people the point of it is that each of us has a bunch of high-quality tech people we know who love early-stage companies, and who aren't looking right now... but also aren't _not_ looking, if you know what i mean! so we got them onto the platform then sent it to a couple of founders we were talking to apparently those founders sent it to some others - things moved a bit faster than expected there seems to be appetite for this, there are always high-quality early-stage founders looking for high-quality tech co-founders or ctos or tech people to make things happen, especially in the current market where it's the best conditions to start something since about 2012 and it's not easy for recruiters to fill that gap, because the roles are often weighted towards equity so what do they even charge so it feels like a huge service to the whole ecosystem in aus+nz if we can fix that matching problem a bit completely non-commercial, just a thing that's easy enough for us to do and if some founders benefit then we're happy so: - if you're a founder looking for a great tech person feel free to put your details in - stage (up to series a) doesn't matter, but we do vet to see if we think there's a chance of success here, we're not recruiters so we can be opinionated - if you're a tech person who gets excited by early-stage, also feel free to put your details in - again though, we vet people, so no guarantees that you'll go on the list, but we'll try to give you feedback and of course let me know if you have any feedback https://earlystage.au/ edit: so this is really aimed currently at developers/engineers/techies, but we're seeing a bunch of less technical people come through - that's cool, but the survey will be not completely useful for you right now - feel free to put your details in but it might be a slow burn, sorry

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RANT Looking at Anaconda Group Pty Ltd Delivery page it completely talked me out of purchasing a medium priced ($1000) bike. The caveats, cover-my-a$$ unfriendly tone is so offputting. Lack of clarity on delivery - "2-5 business days unless we are busy" - was the gist. Oh and if we try to deliver and you don't answer the door (or we can't be bothered getting out of the truck to see if you are home so we'll put a "not at home note" in the letter box) you can collect it from a depot. Which is the one I am ordering it from. Because I can't collect it in person. So it will just sit there? Whats the point? They are basically saying "ring us" to see if we will take care of you after we take care of ourselves. But you can't ring them - no number. And I can't use the form under "Contact Us" as I do not yet have a purchase order or club number. I think I'd rather buy from someone that doesn't do delivery and pay the hundred bucks to have it delivered in a suitable manner. But not #Anaconda. What do you think? Business as normal or poor customer service? UPDATE: I called Anaconda (number not on website but google maps had it) and they blamed Australia Post the bane of all small online businesses. Nightmare!

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Can New Zealand's tech sector go from "hidden gem" to global player? 🌍 A recent report* reveals what the world really thinks of Kiwi tech—and the steps we can take to shift international perceptions. Curious about what’s holding us back, and what could propel us forward? 🔹 Our Strengths: New Zealand’s tech sector is widely trusted, and recognized for its commitment to environmental values. 🔹 The Challenges: While well-regarded, New Zealand still flies under the radar. Many see the country as too remote or lack awareness of our unique points.  For example, many get surprised when I share that our time zone difference with PST is 3h for most of the year (plus 1 day). We are well positioned to serve the US market. People just don’t realize it. 🔹 The Path Forward: To bridge these gaps, the report suggests marketing the trustworthy attributes of your business (results, transparency, testimonials) and the environmental strengths that NZ is known for - especially when targeting US, UK, Singapore and Australia markets. I agree that there’s incredible potential for New Zealand’s tech sector to thrive on the global stage. 🌐 To my Kiwi community and those who have done business with New Zealanders - What are some strengths we have that you’d like to see our international markets know about? *Source:“Perceptions and Awareness of Aotearoa's Tech Sector” report by the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, New Zealand's economic development and trade promotion agency. It gathered insights from over 1,800 decision-makers in the U.S., U.K., Singapore, and Australia.

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Can New Zealand's tech sector go from "hidden gem" to global player? 🌍 A recent report* reveals what the world really thinks of Kiwi tech—and the steps we can take to shift international perceptions. Curious about what’s holding us back, and what could propel us forward? 🔹 Our Strengths: New Zealand’s tech sector is widely trusted, and recognized for its commitment to environmental values. 🔹 The Challenges: While well-regarded, New Zealand still flies under the radar. Many see the country as too remote or lack awareness of our unique points.  For example, many get surprised when I share that our time zone difference with PST is 3h for most of the year (plus 1 day). We are well positioned to serve the US market. People just don’t realize it. 🔹 The Path Forward: To bridge these gaps, the report suggests marketing the trustworthy attributes of your business (results, transparency, testimonials) and the environmental strengths that NZ is known for - especially when targeting US, UK, Singapore and Australia markets. I agree that there’s incredible potential for New Zealand’s tech sector to thrive on the global stage. 🌐 To my Kiwi community and those who have done business with New Zealanders - What are some strengths we have that you’d like to see our international markets know about? *Source:“Perceptions and Awareness of Aotearoa's Tech Sector” report by the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, New Zealand's economic development and trade promotion agency. It gathered insights from over 1,800 decision-makers in the U.S., U.K., Singapore, and Australia. 

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Back in Brisbane and ready to hit the ground running! With just a week of WorkflowMax by Xero left, and things getting serious, we're going to be flat out busy. If you haven't migrated yet, there's still time, but you have to move fast. Get your data out! Get your documents set up up! Get your team trained (OK, it's going to be a crash course!) If you need a hand, join one of our drop in sessions, link in the comments.

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Unhappy with your digital agency or development team? Learn why they're not delivering results 👇 Over 60% of Australian businesses are dissatisfied with their web design and development agencies. The root of the problem is usually lies in misaligned goals and poor execution. This leads to stagnant digital platforms, frustration, and missed opportunities. Want to know more about why this happens and how to fix it? Click the link: https://lnkd.in/gsGfMwMD

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What the hell is going on with #ProductMarketers in Australia? Over the past few months I started getting more and more questions from people who've hired product marketers (experience marketing leaders hiring experienced talent, not juniors) and saying they're having behavioural and performance problems with them: ❌ Defensive ❌ Not collaborative (specifically, not taking on suggestions) ❌ Pointing fingers at who owns what work and saying "not my job" ❌ Saying that PMM is just planning, and execution is for other teams to do ❌ Generally just being a poor team player How did we get here? #ProductMarketing (like all marketing IMO) is an enablement function. You're enabling other teams to better do their jobs. A #ProductMarketer's job is to: ✅ Collaborate with product, sales, marketing, and customer success to assess the common needs amongst these teams (where it relates to the product) ✅ Design a plan of action to address those needs, which could be anything from internal documentation and training, to product-led content, to sales enablement assets, to project managing design work ✅ Managing the relationships with alllllllll of those stakeholders, taking on allllllll of their feedback, and using your own judgement (not insecurities) to assess and prioritise those stakeholders and their feedback ✅ Be a bridge between all of those teams! #ProductMarketing is a fun function, why be a downer about it all? We bring people together, not drive them further apart So how did we get here and how can we fix it? ❌ Companies hiring a #ProductMarketer because "we need one" and not because they know what they do ✅ Do an internal assessment of what actually needs to be done across these teams and how that translates into a #ProductMarketing role > and give that new hire explicit projects to work on as soon as they get in, with wriggle room for them to assess and set their own projects and priorities ❌ Product marketers are in high demand, giving us big egos ✅ A little slice of humble pie is always good for the soul. Yes, we're in demand. Yes, salaries are kind of crazy compared to other marketing roles (but low in comparison to product management roles), but let me repeat: PRODUCT MARKETING IS AN ENABLEMENT FUNCTION, not the star of the show ❌ Hiring managers don't know how to assess for #ProductMarketing performance ✅ Admittedly this one's pretty hard, but there is a lot of freelance product marketing talent out there, and having a quick 1 hour call with any of these talent will steer you in the right direction. There's heaps of us posting on LinkedIn, just reach out (we're really friendly). Use your network! It's hard out there, but it really doesn't need to be!

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Is your data ready to ensure the success of the implementation of your new system? As high as 70-80% of system implementations fail, and of this, it has been cited that as high as 30% of the data in the system once launched is incorrect. In the countless system implementations I have been part of, I always start with “how confident are you on the quality of the data going into the new system, and what is your data preparation plan?”. We are currently working with a client who is moving from outsourcing to insourcing various assets, and is looking for a system to manage the assets once insourced. The challenge they have is the data going into the system is manually constructed in Excel, and lacks governance to ensure it is correct, accurate and timely. If not addressed, this lack of data quality issues will hinder the system implementation, provide inaccurate reports and may also put the insourcing strategy at risk. Prior to any new system implementation, it is critical you ensure your data is secure and fit-for-purpose, and to ensure your processes are documented and optimised. Only then, will you be able to truly realise the envisioned ROI. In addition to data quality, it is also critical businesses understand what data is being captured, where the data is being held and how it is stored to ensure they are meeting regulatory requirements. Want help on your data transformation journey? Contact us at [email protected] or visit us at evolvere.au. #businesstransformation #datastrategy #systemimplementation

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SXSW Sydney 2024 - please vote for our panel - 🦁 🐒 🦉 - in comments We'll be unpacking 💡The Founder Mindset 🧠 (10 principles or defining features of great founders) and then rigorously testing/debating 🤼 which apply to broader industry 🏭 and how they might apply. 😇 😩 Show me one corporate that doesn't want to be more entrepreneurial or start-up like? But is it possible? Founders embrace risk and many corporate leaders run away from risk. So is the way that founders approach risk a methodology that industry can leverage? Another principle is being truly deeply (iteratively) user-centric - some companies do this well too. How do they do that? Mindset, software, weekly experiments or something else? 👩‍💻 This is just a flavour of the insights we plan to share in the panel. 👫 The start-up world will know two of our panelists. 🍇 Kirstin Hunter, MD at Techstars 💳 💹 From lawyer to consultant at Bain & Company, Kirstin was co-founder & former CEO at Future Super, an executive at Brighte and a long time mentor with both Blackbird and Startmate Alan Jones, Partner, M8 Ventures 🎙 From journalist to Yahoo product lead to co-founder and now mentor & investor. Radio host for a startup advisory show and partner at M8 Ventures & Chair of Catalysr - Accelerator for Migrants & Refugees I bring 25 years of industry experience from Unilever to Global; Shazam to BlackBerry; Castrol to Philips. Plus 5 years in the Australian start-up ecosystem. 👩‍⚕️ 🚗 💾 On Wednesday, we'll announce an industry executive with experience from the BBC and world-leading design consultancies SXSW Sydney The B’Old INtern #startups #entrepreneur #intrapreneur #innovation

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📢 Excited to share an update on my newsletter This Week in Australian Startups, the tl;dr below 🗞️ I'm going to be rolling up (not sure if you can call it a self-acquisition?) This Week in Australian Startups as part of a larger publication I'll be calling Haris's Newsletter 🕵🏽 I'll be splitting out the analysis and deep dives into separate articles, you can expect at minimum one article per month on a wider range of topics not just limited to Australian tech or startups 📥 No other changes to This Week in Australian Startups, you'll still receive a weekly wrap up of what I've been reading and all publicly announced funding rounds in Australia If you're not already subscribed, link is below to the new/refreshed newsletter (some things will WIP) 👇🏽 And I'd love to hear from you what are the top trends, news stories and themes you'd like me to cover from this year and heading into next year? (PS. not sure why the subtitles only work part way through the video)

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👁️‍🗨️ AI Headlines: Today in ANZ BUSINESS Leonardo.Ai launches a new feature called Flow State. Start with one prompt and keep iterating until you get the image you’re looking for. More here: https://lnkd.in/guKmfHsB STARTUP Melbourne startup Booked AI launches virtual travel agent by founder Mennan Yelkenci. Booked AI has achieved an international certification usually reserved for human travel agents, as they launch a beta version of their mobile app which can field questions about destinations, activities, and book hotels and flights for users. WOMEN LEADERS Founder Nicole Gibson’s world-first AI technology could help us better understand our emotions with inTruth Technologies. She’s raised $9.5million in preparation for the launch. “I saw a massive correlation between someone’s ability to express themselves emotionally, level up their self-awareness, and their ability to overcome mental health challenges [as well as] initiate any meaningful change in their life”. More here: https://lnkd.in/gUidCWj6 ETHICS & REGULATION The Government has created a Voluntary AI Safety Standard which outlines 10 guardrails to consider when implement AI into your business. It’s believed these guardrails will serve as a guide for mandatory future guardrails for AI use in high-risk settings like financial services licensees for example. Some of the guardrails include things like: ✅  Establish, implement and publish an accountability process including governance, internal capability and a strategy for regulatory compliance. ✅ Establish and implement a risk management process to identify and mitigate risks. ✅  Protect AI systems, and implement data governance measures to manage data quality and provenance. More here: https://lnkd.in/gHfY-iqM HEALTH aKin builds assistive robots for mobility disability to support daily living activities. Akin's frontier technology has been built at the intersection of neuroscience, chaos theory, cognitive sciences and AI. “As a technologist who cares deeply about the future of humanity and our planet, I have always believed that AI needs to be built for the benefit of humanity.” Lee Yearsley, Founder & CEO More here: https://www.akin.com/ ONE GLOBAL UPDATE  Cornel Amariei, the CEO and founder of dotLumen the Romanian startup which is bringing a new assistive technology option to the blind and visually impaired with AI-powered glasses. Referred to as ‘pedestrian autonomous driving’ by the company, the aim of the glasses is to enhance safety and provide more independence when it comes to navigation. More here: https://lnkd.in/g3M7d6_J ONE AI DEFINITION Large Language Models: is an advanced AI system trained on vast text data to understand, generate, and process human language across various tasks with context awareness.

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Experience is experience and it's all relevant regardless of how "long" you've been doing something. This morning I had a call with a founder in NZ who has a great software platform helping businesses get timesheet data into Xero and we got talking about the value of mentorship and communities. In this scenario, the founder reached out to me some time ago through TinySeed to get some advice and we've had 2 calls now. In both calls, I hope I was able to provide some valuable insights but I actually learned plenty as well! Mentorship is a two-way street - give value where you can but also just sit there and listen and be a sounding board. There's many paths to a successful business, it would be ignorant to think you've find the "only" one. Founders, your team members, family members, friends, co-founders, mentors and mentees all have experience from different perspectives, with different nuances and there's a very good chance they know something you don't. For the most part, business is not like poker where you are trying to hold your cards close to your chest and win the pot - get yourself into an environment where the pot is big enough for everyone to win, share what you know, ask how to be better and give value where you can.

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A local shop here in Adelaide had a customer walk in and request to match prices with a shop up the street. "What shop?" asked the owner a bit bewildered. The owner was a confused as the item is a unique product only sold by her. The customer then showed the website of the "other"store - it was a carbon copy of the owners website. The only difference was the logo and the address listed on the website - all images (even images of the owner) were completely copied. The owner called us in a panic saying she had been hacked and requested our immediate help. Hacked is incorrect but this type of attack feels all but the same. The mimicking website cleverly made "Add to Cart" buttons re-direct to their own separate Paypal checkout - this is a major issue. They receive the money, never deliver the item and don't care about the negative reputation. After quick research, I discovered the mimicking website had been listed on Google for 6 MONTHS! Through some silver-lining, we successfully got this website taken offline after taking action on behalf of the owner. This blog post is a quick guide for initial "What can I do?" steps in case this happens to you or someone you know. Every day the online world grows in size but also grows in danger - be careful out there. View Blog Post Here:

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Explore how automation software like VRSefy outperforms traditional NDIS digital marketing agencies, offering cost-effective solutions for better conversions and enhanced client interactions. Learn about the advantages of automated follow-ups, bookings, SEO, and ad management. Start optimising your digital marketing strategy now. https://lnkd.in/gvdWAasq

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