Casey Flint

This just keeps getting better and better 😍 ... As a recovering perfectionist, the scrappy early days of building something from 0 to 1 are highly uncomfortable for me. Add in the variable of about ~14 other people you need to work with to pull something off, and you've just taken that discomfort level from 10 to 100. But I'm learning to love it - this process of being OK with something evolving over time, learning and improving as you go and I'm growing a lot as a person as a result (if I can say so myself...!). I am SO proud and grateful for the amazing team of volunteer correspondents we've gathered to bring together Pulse Check (the new monthly newsletter from Overnight Success). They've been super patient and flexible as we've worked through the scrappy bits of pulling it together and now we're all seeing the rewards in the form of not only more subscribers (we'll crack 400 this month! 🤞 ), but also genuinely valuable, engaging content people are loving! 🎉 . If you haven't already, check out this month's edition and you'll find these gems... 💎 Kirstin Hunter & Preethi Mohan launching the first ever Investor Leaderboard for our 'Funding the Balance' initiative. Gav Parry offering a super insightful perspective on the role of tech innovation in the music industry. Lea Rausch's insights about Aussie startups going global, as gleaned from chats with Gecko.rent founder Ben Kennedy and Maxine Minter of Co Ventures. Berenice Chong putting a spotlight on the new Curtin University Venture Studio. Andrew Harding talking about Main Sequence's investment into the fascinating world of sustainable apparel dyeing via Xefco. Erin Howell answering the question - WTF is the Bitcoin halving...? Dickie Currer giving the 101 on how Australia's innovation ecosystem stacks up globally. Leila Oliveira with tips from Bae Juice founder Tim O'Sullivan on lessons from their recent fundraising round. Holly Clark explaining why agritech innovation is so challenging, feat insights from Olympia Yarger at the recent FutureAg Expo. AND Anna Mackenzie sharing her ever-insightful and perfectly articulated case for 'optimising for creativity' (and ideas on how to do it!). Phew..! It's a lot of amazing content all in one edition! 🤓 Check it out 👇 🚀

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Really well illustrated diagram on Growth Loops - an essential part of product led growth. Your key takeaways: -Reduce friction to getting to an Aha moment -Make it easy to share and add others to your product in a free/viewer mode -Make it easy to pay -Make sure your product gets more valuable the more people use it What are your thoughts? #product #design #plg #quantana

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In the often VC-fundraise obsessed environment that Tractor Ventures operates in, one obvious way to build our brand and increase the number of companies that we fund is via the financial storytelling - how to use $1 of debt funding such as ours to return multiple $$ without dilution etc etc. Been banging on about this for a few years now, and that will just continue on as the message continues to land. In Aus and NZ, debt as a funding instrument is very nascent compared to overseas ecosystems where it has been accessed for decades. But the other, also obvious one, is truly simple. Difficult to coordinate sure, but 'makes sense.' That is: Storytelling. Showcasing the different types of financial decision-makers that access debt funding for their various purposes and utilise it in their own way to generate ROI without dilution. Smart operators, clever way of business-ing, and who feel some affinity with our Tractor brand. If they're agreeing to the interview, I guess they are happy with their personal Tractor experience, and that fits with our little throwaway byline: 'Here for a long time, not a loan term.' When the addressable market for Tractor gets raised, profiling stories such as these can be more eye-opening and start to illustrate all the opportunities for our continued growth and expansion. What was once believed to be a funding vehicle for B2B SaaS companies has certainly changed over time. So too has some misguided beliefs that venture capital funds *those companies* and debt funds *these companies* In certain scenarios, the two can go hand in hand. And just the same way that VC won't fund a majority of companies, Tractor's debt is for a certain type of company that is revenue-generating AND running sustainably, and that's an important factor to continue to reinforce. Whilst we do say no plenty, we say a very quick no, and that is always appreciated. So, we will be rolling out a number of stories upcoming c/o Stephanie Palmer-Derrien interviewing and myself curating. Very much looking forward to showcasing what a 'tractor' is, which based on these first articles, would be: 🚜 E-Learning Creation Tool 🚜 Real Time Media Monitoring 🚜 Full Service Innovation Studio 🚜 Renewed Goods Social Enterprise 🚜 Remote Monitoring Agriculture Tech 🚜 Reimagined House Rental Experience 🚜 Luxurious Skincare and Aromatherapy 🚜 Underground And SubSea Inspections 🚜 Environmentally Friendly Period Products And seeing as this batch are based in Auckland and Brisbane and Byron Bay and Melbourne and Sydney and Wellington, I think that's a good indicator that the brand-building and awareness is doing the thing its meant to do. Nice 😎

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🐨 Queensland founders: I’m offering limited free office hours on a first-come, first-served basis. 📅 Book a 30-minute, one-on-one session—I’m here to chat and assist with whatever matters most to you. Sign up using the link in the comments below. ⬇️ #founder #entrepreneur #startup #venturecapital #vc #ycombinator

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Credit PB on this data... It's an interesting read. The general feeling amongst Space Technology is that deal count slowed up. Well in 2023 it returned to record breaking numbers. Mainly due to the top 12 investments all securing $100M+. Here are the top 5. Relativity Space - $1Bn SpaceX - $750m Axiom Space - $460m Firefly Aerospace = $300m Isar Aerospace - $165m So, if this is the case are we back on track for exponential growth? Well, yes, if you consider it purely form an investment perspective. However the war for talent remains fierce. Défense primes, typically the pool that's approached for Space candidates has cottoned on. Insane counter offers and growth by acquisition (which incidentally does create talent movement) have resulted in a tighter candidate pool. The answer? Consider candidates with the right attitude. Flex on their background and bring in the candidates that love what you do. Passion drives culture and culture drives performance. We have an in depth white paper coming out.

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This episode of Moneywise left me more inspired than any of the +600 pod episodes I've recorded. My friend Mike Beckham owns Simple Modern, an ecom business. The biz does +$200m/year and is quite profitable. He bootstrapped it, which is a big deal. Mike dives deep on his personal finances. But, more importantly, he talks about how he gives away most of the money. And not just giving it away when he sells or hits big. But he's been giving it away since he started. We dive deep on - how he decides who to give to why - what % of his money he gives - how to do it tax wise And everything else on this topic that people are typically WAY too afraid to discuss. Mike is absolutely amazing. Watch or listen: https://lnkd.in/g_XHv98V

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How Dovetail grew to a $970M (Australian) valuation in 5 years—and created a new SaaS category: I chatted with 4 members of their team, and 4 UXR leaders, to learn the details. 1. Product-led growth, design-led company Dovetail's business model is decidedly product-led growth. The company relies on the product, and inherently viral features like research reports, to acquire, convert, monetize, and retain users. But design-led is its culture. CEO and co-founder Benjamin Humphrey has been in the details of the design since its beginning. And the product "feels" like it as a result. 2. Creating a hub for a neglected persona Rewind to 2016. While engineers had JIRA, Designers had Sketch, PMs had Google Docs, and analysts had Tableau, User Researchers had... nothing? Their workflow was a mess of hopping between different software. Ben had lived it as a product designer at Atlassian. There was a plethora of software focused on how to build, but there was almost nothing about what to build. So, after proving out the idea with an MVP, he recruited his Atlassian Engineer friend, Bradley Ayers, to join him. 3. Mastering the PLG motion Dovetail excels in all layers of PLG: → Acquisition: they don't use any outbound sales, focusing on product acquisition → Core problem communication: the home page emphasizes improving how you make product decisions → Reduced friction: its onboarding is focused on a standard walkthrough, but it is 10 steps → Activation: Dovetail has an intuitive product, examples, and templates to take you from setup to habit → Retention: as a system of record, the product gets stickier as more (qualitative) data is put in it → Monetization: the free plan has unlimited functionality, but only 1 project → Expansion: it has a natural growth of free users, who eventually become editors 4. Creating powerful, reinforcing growth loops Dovetail 2 two core loops: • More paid seats helps them build a better product, which helps UXRs succeed, which drives more UXRs and paid seats                                 • UXRs succeed, driving collaborators to join, which go from free to paid seats As well as 2 ancillary loops: • The more paid seats, the more it can invest in inbound sales • The more free seats, the more expansion products like Channels (to analyze customer support data) it can build 5. Building towards a category of one While there are competitors in the research insights space, Dovetail is building out its own category. It's not quite transcription. It's not quite a hub for research. It's that and more. This has helped it create its own, new category in SaaS. As Benjamin, still the CEO, told me: "We're building a system of record for all insights... It's a friggin' long, 20-year journey. You need to be a little nuts to have that level of ambition. "

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NEW MONEYWISE POD LIVE. Had Ryan Begelman on Moneywise. - Sold business for $51M to PE - Reveals how much he made in pod He has a post exit crisis. - Starts spending ~$70k/month - Most wealth sitting in cash, missing bull market - Starts feeling LESS secure with millions than he did when he was paying himself $5k/mo - Why’d he feel this way? No financial plan + fear of running out of money On the episode, we talk: - his net worth, portfolio now - he cut his spending to $30k and how/if that changed things - how he increased his income I LOVE this type of transparency. Ep here: https://lnkd.in/g_XHv98V

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These founders sold their company for $60M, and walked away with $0. Here’s how to avoid their mistakes👇 This occurred in a real case (Trados), highlighting the importance of liquidation preferences. Liquidation preferences dictate the payment order in a company sale. Investors, as preferred stockholders, are paid before the founders and employees. These preferences are often multiples of the initial investment. For example, if an investor puts in $20M with a 2x liquidation preference, they receive $40M before anyone else gets paid. High and multiple stacked liquidation preferences can trap founders, making it impossible for them to profit from their startup. For instance, if a founder raises $60M at a 3x liquidation preference, they must sell the company for more than $180M to earn anything. Tips for founders: - Avoid or limit participation in liquidation preferences. - Keep liquidation preferences to a reasonable multiple, like 1x, which is the industry standard. - Opt for pari passu liquidation preferences, where all parties are treated equally. #startupfounder #startuplawyer

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Do you work with Startups or Scaleups? When our Founders, Startup / Scaleup Leaders, or Startup Employees join Aussie Founders Club's free membership on Frontcover, they then unlock exclusive offers for products and services. On the list, we currently have offers from companies like: Rapha: 6 months FREE on their recruitment system Heatseeker: A 30% disount on their subscription which gives you access to tools for generating value propositions, conducting live competitor audits, and running in-market experiments Mayfly Ventures: A free 45 minute Product Strategy Session HubSpot: Discounted access to Hubspot for Startups which opens you up to MANY MANY offers for startups BetaTrends: A 25% discount on their analytics subscription Granton: A free 30 minute consult to discuss eligible grants for your startup ScoreApp: 50% off your first month (I love Scoreapp) Informly: 10% off your Idea Validation report (I've used this - their reports are incredible) Also offers from my own businesses: Kairos: Offering exclusive AFC rates for your first hire placed through Kairos Mployd: Discounts on services for startup employees looking for work I've got many more in the works but if this sounds like something you and your business wants to get across, getting you in front of your target market and supporting them with an exclusive offer - you can! Fill out our EOI form and we will be in touch - link here: https://lnkd.in/gWqN32cb

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This drove a 26% CR increase 🚀 A 30% ATC increase... 🚀 And 16% more orders... 🚀 Liz Fedorak @ Ethique came to Because🌈 with this problem: How do I quickly stand up personalization on my website without getting my developer involved? And once I know it works, do I really have to ask my developer to now hard code it long term? This is one of my favorite things about the platform we've developed at Because🌈. It's a CRO solution like you've never used before. We don't BS you when we say it's no code like most of the legacy personalization platforms out there - it REALLY is. You can actually use Because for not only messaging AB testing, but also long term personalization implementations on your site. Once an AB test performs well, you can choose to publish the campaign live to 100% of the audience... (like for example what Ethique did with a quiz personalization message to a Klaviyo segment of users with a specific quiz result). This would traditionally take weeks to scope and build with developers (or a painful process in legacy platforms), but with Because, the Ethique team was able to stand it up in less than an hour. Fully connected into their Shopify site 🤝 Fully integrated into their Klaviyo data 🤝 Anyone else recently struggled with this problem? I'm happy to chat personally and walk you through a demo of how Because works. Booking time for first week of December right now so shoot me a DM ✨

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The IPO markets are back? Service Titan set to go public at over $7bln valuation Not quite…. I met the awesome team at ServiceTitan 6 years ago and was so impressed at the trust they had built in their brand. They are the operating system for houses and offices. One stop shop for all your needs. * $685mln revs growing 24%. * 110% net dollar retention & losing 183mln (but wait my VC is telling me you need to be profitable!) * 70% of revenue is subscription Two points. Firstly that means they are will coming at at 10x revenue (which is on the upper end of what a company like this would trade at in public markets). That is just where software is these days Second, the reason they are going public now is that they have a “compounding ratchet” which put a deadline of May 24 after which they the series H investors compound at 11% IRR quarterly and effectively own more of the company. These ratchets are rare but they do happen and push a company to go public even if they don’t want to or market conditions aren’t favourable. Every VC investor will be praying that Klarna Service Titan kick open the doors to the >1k unicorns that are in the stables ready to roll out.

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Meet Cheryl Kellond 💎, a 3X founder, having previously built Bia sport, the #1 rated fitness wearable on Amazon, and Apostrophe, which she scaled to $10M in ARR. Now she's building Play Money!, an investment platform enabling everyday angels to build a diversified startup portfolio without making angel investing a full-time job. Cheryl and I share a passion for unlocking angel dollars to get more capital to underrepresented founders, so I couldn't be more excited to highlight her and what she's building! In this episode we chat about: 💫 How and why she started investing with just $1.5-$2.5K checks 💫 The most common mistakes angel investors make 💫 Raising $20M during her career from investors like M13 💫 + so much more Check out our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gpNbjzSm #invest #venturecapital #startups #vc

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Private companies often talk about valuation when announcing a fundraise. You've seen the headline: "Company ABC raises $100 million at a $1 billion valuation." Companies don't have to disclose these metrics, but reporters are more keen to write about them when numbers are involved. If you have ever worked for a private company, you have probably also heard the term fair market value (abbreviated to "FMV"). Companies use FMV to set the strike price of their stock options. FMV is also never the same as the headline values you read about. Here's why. Investors tend to invest in preferred shares. "Preferred" means they get their money back first if things don't work out, but it doesn't mean their investment is risk-free. In the above example, if the company is ultimately worth $0, the investor loses their money. If the company is worth between $100 million and $1 billion, the investor gets their $100 million back. Anything above $1 billion and they make money on their investment. On the other hand, employee stock options have to be granted at "fair market value" (there's that term again) in order for them not to be taxable to the employee. If a company gives you an option to buy a share, with a strike price of $20 when shares have a value of $50, you have a built-in gain of $30. In certain jurisdictions like the US, you need to pay tax on that gain, even if you haven't had the chance to exercise the option, sell the share, and get the cash. In order to avoid this situation, private companies get external advisory firms to provide an FMV calculation. The FMV calculation is in-depth, detailed, and complex. But importantly it is almost always discounted to the investor valuation for two reasons: The first is that stock options give employees the right to acquire a common share. Because a common share doesn't have the same "preferred" position as a preferred share, there is the "common" discount. The second reason is the employee shares are illiquid, meaning employees aren't free to sell them, like they would be in a public company, hence the "illiquidity" discount. Taken together, it means a company with a headline valuation from investors of $1 billion may have an FMV of $500 million (it could be higher or lower, this is just meant to be illustrative). This can be a great thing for employees at private companies. Because while investors need the company to be worth more than $1 billion to start making money, employee options will be "in the money" starting at only $500 million.

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So Avi Eyal is one of the greatest venture investors you may not have heard of. His track record is insane: 💰 Turned a $15M investment in Monday into $1.5BN in cash! 🚀 📈 Hit 37x DPI on a $45M fund  🤯 $2.3bn in gains to Entreé investors in just over a decade My 6 key takeaways 👇 1. How We Turned $15M into $1.5BN We invested around $15M into Monday across rounds. Ultimately the distribution from Monday was around $1.5BN 🤯 Our next 10 successful investments did not equate to the gain on Monday. 2. Why Not Everything Needs to be a Homerun We have angel and core deals. Angel deals are small checks with optionality to increase it. Bunch of these could bring you a 1x return, while the ballpark ones give you extra multiples. 3. The Three Step Strategy to Selling Positions that has Made Millions We had a principle at Entrée: - When the price per share of the current round is 6-8x, sell a third. - When we get to pre IPO or IPO, sell a third. - When the IPO lockup expires, sell everything. We’re private investors, our competence is getting the business to a place where there’s liquidity. 4. What Do We Need to See to Double Down in a Company? Many times we won’t have perfect conviction in a company. We would do an angel check into the company. If the company proves the data points, we’ll try to lead the next round. 5. The #1 Element Founders Should Look for in a Series A Investment The fund doing your A should be able to lead your B. You don’t know where the world will be 2-3 years from now. You want investors that can continue even when the chips are down. 6. Signaling is Real and the Institutionalisation of Venture  Funds like a16z & Sequoia have become massive funds. They have different multiple & IRR targets. It’s very easy for them to write that early check. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding

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This is by far the best approach to raising money I have ever seen online... Brett Adcock has raised over $1B in capital and his fundraising formula hits home from my own experience of raising VC funding and helping founders raise over $20M+ through The ORCA Network. Each part of this formula is crucial to the success of closing a funding round. Qualified Investors: There are over 13 Million accredited investors in the United States that could believe in your idea. Its a matter of identifying the most relevant investors to your startup's stage and sector. All it takes is a small small group to believe in you and your vision. Outreach: The most effective way is through networks. Spend a majority of your time finding paths through people you know to get in front of qualified investors. For investors you don't know, research them heavily and send a tailored outbound email or LI message to increase odds of an investment. Idea/Branding: A clear, concise vision on the future of the world and how your product aims to capture the evolving market is a necessity. Build as much momentum as possible to show why you are an attractive investment to the investors. This is part of the branding. Executing, growth, revenue, and product development increases odds of fundraising successfully. Each part of this formula is crucial to the success of closing the round but takes a ton of effort and time. See how Arda Bulut and I are saving founders hundreds of hours to raise their round more efficiently so they can focus on what really matters: the product/customers. _____ Also shoutout to Matthew Schkolnick for sharing me this masterclass of an article with me! #fundraising #startups #investing

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When we announced our $1.3 million funding round I realised why everyone sucks at outbound My inbox and DMs were flooded With people trying to sell me a product or service Fair enough, its the game we all play The problem? All the messages were the same "Hey, amazing new on your funding... pitch pitch pitch" No pain, no solution If you are going to use triggers as a reason to reach out Ask yourself two questions -> Are we solving a problem for this company? -> How can I approach this in a way others may not? Answer these two question and the rest will follow🤞

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How Dovetail created a new SaaS category while growing to a $970M (Australian) valuation in 5 years: (I learned the details by having a chat with 4 members of their team, and 4 UXR leaders.) 1. Product-led growth, design-led company While Dovetail's culture is design-led, its business model is decidedly product-led growth. The company relies on the product, & inherently viral features like research reports, to: • Acquire • Convert • Monetize • And retain users 2. Creating a hub for a neglected persona Let's go back to 2016. While: • Engineers had JIRA • Designers had Sketch • PMs had Confluence • Analysts had Tableau • User Researchers had... nothing? Their workflow was a chaos of switching between different software and tools. Ben had lived it as a product designer at Atlassian. While there were many softwares focused on how to build, there was almost nothing about what to build. So, after validating the idea with an MVP, he recruited his Atlassian Engineer friend, Bradley Ayers, to join him. 3. Mastering the PLG motion Dovetail excels in all layers of PLG: → Acquisition: they don't use any outbound sales → Core problem: the home page emphasizes on improving your product decision-making → Reduced friction: its onboarding is focused on a standard walkthrough → Activation: an intuitive product, examples & templates → Retention: as a system of record, the product gets stickier as more data is put in → Monetization: free plan has unlimited functionality, but 1 project → Expansion: natural growth of free users, who become editors 4. Creating powerful, reinforcing growth loops Dovetail has 2 primary flywheels: • More paid seats help them build a better product, which helps UXRs succeed, which drives more UXRs & paid seats • UXRs succeed, driving collaborators to join, which go from free to paid seats As well as 2 secondary flywheels: • The more paid seats, the more it can invest in inbound sales • The more free seats, the more expansion products like Channels (to analyze customer support data) it can build 5. Building towards a category of one Dovetail is building out its own category even though there are competitors in the research insights space It's not quite transcription or a hub for research. It's that and more. This has helped it create a new category in SaaS. To learn about the complete story and breakdown, check out the deep dive here: https://buff.ly/4dBAdHs

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