As part of the launch of Abhishek Maran's The Fundraising Blueprint, which explores the realities of startup fundraising, Abhishek (Abhi) sat down with veteran VC and our Co-Founder, Paul Naphtali, for a wide-ranging conversation on the past, present, and future of Australian venture capital.
With experience spanning Silicon Valley, Israel, and the local scene, Paul brings a rare perspective on how Aussie VC has evolved—from a niche, high-risk bet to a more mature industry still finding its feet.
The two unpack what’s changing and why now might be the golden decade for Australian tech.
In this candid and thoughtful exchange, you’ll hear:
How the Aussie founder mindset has shifted over the last 15 years
Why “value-add” has become both a promise and a myth
What seed investors should be doing as companies scale globally
How cultural confidence is shaping the next wave of startup ambition
Why the best investors are learning to back not just startups but themselves.
This isn’t just a peek behind the curtain — it’s a conversation about legacy, culture, and where we go from here. If you’re a founder wondering what’s going on in the minds of modern VCs, this one’s for you!
VIEW THE FULL INTERVIEW ☝️☝️☝️
READ THE TRANSCRIPT 👇👇👇
Q1: Over the past decade, how has your global VC experience influenced your views on building Rampersand and the Australian startup ecosystem?
Abhishek Maran:
Hi Paul, thanks for joining me today. I appreciate you giving up your valuable time to be here. We're in a really interesting time for the future of Aussie VC founders and how we think about startup business building in this country. And I'd love to go on a little bit of a journey back—and a bit of a navel-gazing journey forward, perhaps.
This is largely in the context of a book I recently wrote and launched called The Fundraising Blueprint. I wrote about the journey of startup fundraising from the perspective of seeing so many founders over the last four or so years and seeing how the shift has occurred from an investor point of view within this ecosystem.
When I entered the ecosystem in 2021, there was a lot of froth and excitement, and money flowed freely. However, in 2022–2023, the taps got shut off. There wasn't as much excitement, people were leaving the ecosystem, and there was a lot of pressure on investors from a portfolio perspective. Some companies were performing well, some poorly, and giving these companies the right guidance through these testing times was under scrutiny.
It made me realise that our jobs as investors aren't just to invest in a bunch of startups and hope that the power law kicks in and one becomes a success story.
It's a lot more personal and nuanced, and we need to evolve how we advise these companies with the times. You can't give people the same advice today that you were giving them five or ten years ago. The game has evolved since then.
One unique aspect of your background is that you spent time in the US and Israel, two of the leading startup ecosystems in the world. I'd love to understand how your lessons in those ecosystems have influenced your views on building Rampersand and a vibrant startup ecosystem in Australia.
Paul Naphtali:
It's been a great joy watching you develop that book and seeing the insights you've learned and how you apply them. One of the things we solve for is people who get it, who have a pay-it-forward mentality, and who have genuine empathy for the founder's journey.
There's no better example than the book you've just released—four years or more of your IP, and you've said, "Here it is." That’s the epitome of who you are. That generosity is fundamental to early-stage investing.
So yeah, if you haven't bought the book, everyone should. Read it. Buy the ebook. It's fantastic.
There's a lot—as one of my good friends says, a lot of chicken on the bone—in your question. I want to take us back a bit in the time machine. I’ve spoken publicly about this before, but when I tried to come back to Australia in 2009–2010, after selling Jar in Silicon Valley and wanting to raise our kids here, our conversation now would’ve sounded like gobbledygook.
“In 2010, if I talked about ecosystems, people thought I sounded like a wanker. VC meant losing all your money, and entrepreneur meant crook.”
That’s changed massively. From 2010 to 2016, I flew back and forth between Australia, the US, and Israel. I had family here, but I worked over there.
One of the biggest lessons I learned was the value of saying, "This is what I’m going to try to do." That’s not always natural in the Australian context. It’s okay for us to do that in sports but less okay in business. That cultural shift was powerful.
No one takes you seriously in Israel if you haven’t had a failed startup. In the US, no one's interested if you don’t have a big idea. That transformed how I saw Australia. We started Rampersand in 2013 because we thought this was the lucky country, so if it’s unlucky to be an entrepreneur here, what the hell are we doing?
“These are the industries of the future. These are the jobs of the future.” When I returned to raise my kids here, many people were thinking about this problem. You’ll know names like Niki Scevak, Paul Bassat, and Daniel Petre - people genuinely focused on building great investing platforms.
But money was only part of it. It was also how we supported founders and built an ecosystem. Everyone had those pillars, which gave us the best possible starting point.
Q2: How do you think venture capital will evolve as an asset class in Australia over the next 10 years?
Abhishek Maran:
How will venture capital evolve in Australia over the next 10 years?
Paul Naphtali:
Let’s call the last decade the silver one. We thought it was a golden period—and it’s been amazing. Think about what this ecosystem has produced. More unicorns are invested per dollar than any other ecosystem in the world.
Brand Australia used to mean a nice place to have a barbecue—but not where you’d start a business. When you go to Silicon Valley and say you’re from Australia, they think: gritty, frugal, and excellent product.
“Australia went from irrelevant—or even negative—to a badge of honour.”
And the reasons are cultural: hard to replicate, but super relevant for the next period.
From a founder's perspective, that means grit, making a dollar go a long way, and building a beautiful product. AI is bringing in more dollars, but it’s still a rational investor market—not everything gets funded. You need metrics.
When we introduce Aussie founders to US VCS and say, "They've raised $2M and have $ 2 M+ revenue," jaws drop. The quality is off the charts.
The fact that VC is still relatively new here is an advantage. We don’t have decades of "raise as much as possible" culture. It’s not about abundant capital - it’s about an abundant mindset.
We're seeing people go again—founders and employees. Look at Restoke, Sam Kroonenburg, Adam Jacobs, Chaz Heitner, Rod Hamilton. This is not their first rodeo, and they can move fast.
That creates a multiplier effect—more talent, more experience. And now that Australia is exporting technology, it’s a strength. High-quality founders in an ecosystem with tailwinds, exporting into open markets - a great setup.
Abhishek Maran:
Totally. VCs worldwide are coming here looking for quality startups, and that shift has been eye-opening.
Paul Naphtali:
Yeah—and they’re collaborating, not just raiding. We’re often co-investing. They say, "You do the seed; we want to look at the As."
We're far enough away and unfamiliar enough that they want Aussie partners. That’s how we built our fund—embracing collaboration, not protecting turf. This is a spoke ecosystem, not a hub. We have to recognise that and behave accordingly.
Abhishek Maran:
Recognise that and bring in people who can meaningfully change the company’s trajectory. Healthy ecosystems work like that - different players specialise at each stage.
Paul Naphtali:
Exactly. And that’s why we’re obsessed with being early-stage specialists.
Every tech startup has five core problems: tech/product, go-to-market, finance, people, and, in our case, internationalisation. Most startups aren't just for Australia.
So, how do we support founders on that journey, knowing that's the path?
Supporting across those six buckets takes time. If you’re making 80–100 bets and hoping one shoots the lights out, that’s hard to support appropriately. Even incredible founders still need encouragement, mentorship, or a door to be opened.
What makes us different? “Keeping your promises. It’s amazing how rare that is.”
Venture is a two-sided market. We promise things to founders and investors, so we keep our portfolio small enough, 25–30 companies, to actually support them.
We’ve built a reputation for being there. Reputations are built more when things go wrong than when they go right. That’s hard to do with a huge portfolio.
Abhishek Maran:
Totally. We stay close even as our companies go international or bring in new board members. We are still trusted and helpful when it gets tough.
Q3: What happens when companies graduate beyond seed? What are the core responsibilities of a seed investor going forward?
Abhishek Maran:
I'm curious about your view on what changes when a company graduates beyond seed. How should seed investors—like us at Rampersand—think about our role at that point?
Paul Naphtali:
It's the trillion-dollar question.
Great founders know how to bring value-additive people along the journey, and they recognise everything has its season. We're not trying to be their number-one trusted advisor from here to eternity. That’s not what we’re built for.
We’re specialists in the early stage. From pre-seed to Series A, we're necessary. That’s the phase where international expansion usually happens, and global capital comes in. All going well, you're now focused on a new market.
You might keep your engineering team in Australia, but your go-to-market team is overseas. There are people better positioned to support that next leg.
That doesn’t mean we’re not still there—supporting, checking in, being available.
“Sometimes the best thing we can do is remind founders: remember when it was tough and you made it through? You’ll do it again.”
As the business grows, gravity kicks in. Support becomes more functional, and the founder drives who’s around them. We can help them get the right people, but the time we spend changes. It typically reduces.
They never graduate out of our hearts, but they do graduate out of our day-to-day.
There’s a difference between being a seed-stage specialist and being a full-stack, multi-round VC. A full-stack fund will think about support very differently.
Often, it's about building a community around the founder. One of the gifts we can give is positive, functional optionality, so they have a bank of supporters for the right season, right time.
That’s the benefit of being an early-stage specialist with a long-term, international view.
Q4: What tactical strategies, approaches and mental models can founders use at the early stage?
Abhishek Maran:
Let’s go a bit deeper—what are some 201-level tactical strategies or mental models founders can use early on? I want to move past the standard advice founders hear all the time.
Paul Naphtali:
Isn’t the only generalisable advice that there’s no generalisable advice?
Founders are unique. They’re rule-breakers. That’s why we like them. They're inventing their journey while trying to learn lessons from the past.
But let me offer something that comes up a lot here in Australia: because it’s a small market, founders bounce between different types of investors—family offices, full-stack VCs, seed specialists—and they get wildly inconsistent feedback.
One says, “Get your head out of the clouds.” Another says, “Where’s your big vision?” So they cobble together a Frankenstein pitch—bits of everything. It doesn’t hold together.
They’re told, “You need a pathway to $100M in revenue to be investable,” so they combine various markets, features, and products.
But in a big market, you can say, “I'm going to do this one thing, obsess over it, and it will unlock the next thing.” That’s still ambitious. The end goal is the same. But the sequencing is very different.
“An early-stage founder's job is to do the least they have to do to make the most units of progress.”
It’s hard because startup founders are so capable—they can do more than most people. But that’s the trap. You can do too much. And then your focus is diluted.
Abhishek Maran:
Yeah, totally. You go through that “do everything” phase and eventually realise that this one thing matters.
Paul Naphtali:
Exactly. And that experimentation phase is essential—especially at pre-seed. But then you have to sequence. What am I killing? What do I try next? If I do this well, then I get to try that.
It’s ridiculous to ask for a 5—, 10—, or even 2-year plan, but having a logical sequence of experiments is healthy.
That gives you higher fidelity. You're not just betting the business blindly but progressing with intent.
Q5: How can founders stay ambitious, and how can the ecosystem support that?
Abhishek Maran:
It's the last one to close us out. How should founders stay ambitious? And how can the ecosystem support that?
It's so easy to shrink—to do the day-to-day things and keep the wheels turning. That’s part of our culture here in Australia: do your bit, don’t rock the boat. But we need more ambition to survive and thrive.
Paul Naphtali:
Just never lose sight of the why.
Why does this matter? That’s the burning feeling that drives it all.
McKinsey might call it Horizon Three: what does the world look like if you succeed? That’s what gets founders out of bed on the worst days.
I’ve met founders who found it offensive that the world doesn’t already look like their vision. That’s the fire. That’s the ambition.
It’s a sprint in a marathon. You have to fish and cut bait at the same time. Hold two realities.
We often talk about the American POW story: they survived by never losing faith that they’d get out, but they were brutally honest about the situation they were in.
Abhishek Maran:
Paranoid optimism?
Paul Naphtali:
Exactly.
“Never lose faith that you’ll succeed. But never lie to yourself about how deep in it you are right now.”
Have artifacts that remind you of the why. That helps you rally the team, attract people, and stay the course.
One of the original TED Talks—Simon Sinek’s Start with Why—speaks to this. Communicating that why to others de-risks your success. It creates an unfair advantage.
“We all have bad days. If you wake up and say, ‘Yeah, this week was crap—but this is why I do it,’ then you’re unbreakable.”
Abhishek Maran:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Paul. I appreciate your time. After that, I feel much more inspired— hopefully, our listeners do, too.
Paul Naphtali:
Thank you.
Want more content like this delivered to your inbox?
Share this post