💫 Ramplify: February Follow On
Fundraising Blueprint, AI Service Playbooks, Founder Dinner Series, High Flyers Pod
👋 The Hidden Nuances of Raising Capital by Abhishek Maran
The startup ecosystem is genuinely buzzing with boundless optimism and energy, with a flood of new funding announcements and an increasing flow of early-stage founders coming through our doors.
For first-time founders, navigating the fundraising landscape can feel like trying to decode a new language - from deal terms and cap tables to valuation methods and investor dynamics. We've been there, so we're passionate about working with early-stage founders to demystify the process and uncover the hidden nuances.
First-time founders often stand out in their ability to communicate the value of their product and their lived experience of the problem. They typically need help with the 'venture lens' - understanding how to position their startup for venture capital investment. We frequently see founders grappling with fundamental questions:
When is the right time to raise?
Who should they be talking to?
How much capital makes sense for their stage?
To help address this uncertainty and prevent founders from spending precious time on misaligned conversations, I've been sharing insights through weekly LinkedIn posts about navigating the fundraising process. I'm excited to announce we have something bigger in the works to make this knowledge even more accessible (more on that in a few weeks! 👀).
If you're finding any part of the fundraising process confusing - please get in touch! We want to help you raise your round more efficiently to return to what you do best: building your company.
🗞️ Tech News:
The AI-Enabled Services Playbook. Emergence Capital outlines strategies for service companies to harness AI, emphasising the integration of AI to enhance operational efficiency and customer value. The playbook provides a roadmap for traditional service firms to transition into AI-driven enterprises, highlighting the importance of data utilisation and AI tool adoption.
"Service companies that successfully integrate AI into their operations can expect not only improved efficiency but also the creation of new revenue streams."
It's Time to Build: Healthtech Infrastructure. Andreessen Horowitz discusses the critical need for modern health tech infrastructure, focusing on systems that underpin operational and financial transactions in healthcare. The article highlights opportunities for innovation in areas like appointment scheduling, claims processing, and data interoperability to enhance efficiency and patient care.
"The healthcare industry has faced significant outage events in recent years, shedding light on the scale, complexity, and fragility of some core infrastructure systems."
The Grand Problems & Opportunities | Retail & eCommerce Edition. SandHill.io compiles insights from investors and industry experts on pressing challenges and opportunities in retail and eCommerce. Key issues include excess inventory, with billions of unsold items annually, and the escalating problem of product returns, which reached an estimated $890 billion in 2024.
"On inventory planning, one CEO of a very large retailer said they're still doing it with 25-year-olds, an Excel spreadsheet, and intuition. We have enough data now that we should be able to do better than that."
🛠️ How to Startup:
0-$5M: How to Nail Founder-Led Sales. First Round Review presents strategies for founders to effectively lead initial sales efforts, emphasising the importance of direct customer engagement to achieve the first $5 million in revenue. The article offers six specific tactics, including embracing sales responsibilities and understanding the market deeply.
"Too often, technical founders furiously build before coming up for air, telling themselves, 'We'll figure out the commercial stuff later.'"
The Founder's Playbook for Scaling to $1 Million ARR. Bessemer Venture Partners guides startups aiming to reach $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). The playbook covers essential steps such as defining target customer profiles, developing effective sales strategies, and determining the right time to hire sales personnel.
"Driving your first dollar of revenue begins with what we call 'founder-led sales.' Translation? You are your company’s first salesperson."
The Best Automated GTM Plays You’re Not Running. Growth Unhinged explores innovative go-to-market (GTM) strategies that leverage automation and AI. The article presents 25 automated GTM plays, ranging from warm outbound campaigns targeting recent website visitors to personalised account-specific landing pages, aiming to enhance efficiency without compromising personalisation.
"Automation doesn't have to mean spray-and-pray. It can mean highly relevant, precise targeting combined with efficiency gains from AI."
Garry Tan on the Real Moat for AI Startups. In this tweet, Garry Tan, President & CEO of Y Combinator, underscores the importance of “evals” (evaluations) as a genuine competitive edge for AI ventures.
“Evals are emerging as the real moat for AI startups
Hard won insights about customers and their business logic discovered by founders acting almost as ethnographers spelunking in the underserved slices of the GDP pie chart.”
👕 VC in Australia/New Zealand:
LaunchVic's Latest 30x30 Unicorn Program Blesses 11 Scaleups with $1 Billion Potential. LaunchVic has selected 11 scaleups for its 30x30 program, aiming to mentor and develop these companies toward achieving unicorn status by 2030. The fully subsidised four-month program connects scaleup teams with mentors from thriving tech companies like Atlassian and Canva to address common scaling challenges.
Antler in Australia Residency 13 Kicks Off with More Than 90 Founders Across 3 Capitals. Antler Australia has commenced its 13th residency program, bringing together over 90 founders from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Over the coming months, these entrepreneurs will collaborate to test, build, and launch new ventures, contributing to the growth of the Australian tech startup ecosystem.
🥒 🥎 The Mayfly Ventures X Rampersand Pickleball series has been going off in Melbourne! Make sure you subscribe to find out when the next match is on!
🤩 Portfolio News
High Flyers Podcast #193: Paul Naphtali on Building Australia’s Startup Ecosystem
This episode takes you inside Paul’s journey from Melbourne to London, Silicon Valley, and back, as he co-founded Rampersand and helped shape the local tech scene. Discover why he met 300 founders before writing a single check and how he harnesses storytelling to back—and build—category-defining companies.
“You don’t build a startup ecosystem by waiting—you build it by showing up, investing early, and believing before others do.”
Sapia.ai’s Next-Gen AI Interviewing in 173 Languages. Sapia.ai unveils its biggest innovation yet—an AI-powered interview platform supporting 173 languages. This next-gen tool allows recruiters to seamlessly shift from job descriptions to skills-first interviews, offering deep candidate insights while giving applicants and hiring managers greater agency and efficiency.
“Because no one’s time is served by screening résumés. And god knows, AI shouldn’t be screening them either.”
10 Fearless Founders – Dinner Recap. Our Partner, Taryn Pieterse, who hosts an event series, brought together ten of Australia’s best founders at different stages in their journeys to exchange fundraising strategies and support one another. Anna Podolsky, founder of Lyka, offered invaluable lessons on raising over $50 million from Australian and US investors. Sign up to join future dinners like this.
“The authenticity, passion, vulnerability, and drive from all those around the table was incredible.”
💼 Portfolio Job Board
Business Analytics Lead at Earthbanc
Location & type: Brisbane, Full-Time
What they do: Earthbanc leverages machine learning to revolutionise carbon footprint measurement and sequestration project verification.
What you’ll do: As a Business Analytics Lead at Earthbanc, you will oversee data collection, analysis, and reporting for agroforestry projects in India and Kenya, ensuring data integrity and actionable insights. You will lead and support global analytics teams, develop data governance frameworks, create visual reports, and collaborate with stakeholders to drive informed decision-making.
Data Success Engineer at Dexibit
Location & type: Auckland or remote, Full-time
What they do: Dexibit is a data intelligence platform that helps visitor attractions, and entertainment venues optimise operations through data aggregation, predictive analytics, and reporting tools.
What you’ll do: In this role at Dexibit, you'll develop data pipelines, integrate third-party APIs, and analyse customer datasets using Python and SQL.
Do you have a job you’d like us to promote? Add it to Hatch and share the link with us.
See all jobs across the Rampersand Portfolio.
🌏 Rampersand Travel Diary:
Sydney: Paul will be in Sydney from 3rd-4th of March, and Scott will be there from 27-28th Feb.
Adelaide: Andrew and Chanie will be at SouthStart 4-5 March, reach out if you’ll be at the festival.
🎉 Upcoming Events:
Adelaide: Southstart 4-6th March:
DAY 1 - Our Chief Ramplifier Chanie Hyde will be MCing a head scratching conversation on "Building A Powerful Community with Paz Pisarski (The Community Collective), Gav Parry (CAST - Centre for Arts, Sports and Technology) & Mark Dombkins (Forever Projects).
DAY 2 - Chat all things investment with Partner Andrew Poesaste at the Investor Office Hours Feature
See you there!
Thanks for being part of the Rampersand Community! You can stay updated with even more news and info on our LinkedIn and X/Twitter pages.