Ramplify: March 2024
Focusing on placing bets, scaling through the chaos and defy gravity to be the next Australian/NZ tech unicorn.
(Picture: The team are always learning đ)
Take bets.
It's hard to believe, but the first quarter of the year is almost over.
As I look back on the start of 2024, I felt a sense of optimism, and I'm sure many of you did too. However, one troubling recurring conversation I have had when talking with founders recently is the lack of desire to take risks in their startups. The challenging market environment seems to have pushed you to be more risk-averse, which is logical but inherently wrong for reasons I hope to outline.
The goal is to maximise learning, and taking bets is an inherent part of the process. You will want to play around with every facet of the business. From pricing, packaging, and positioning or test customer personas vs. GTM strategies. Each bet (investment) carries its own set of risks, rewards, impact and effort. The goal is to craft a set of experiments that will help you derisk the company by unlocking the levers you can use as you scale and not prematurely make clear.
I understand the pull to double down on your current strategiesâfocusing on proven tactics rather than venturing into untested hypotheses. It feels safer, your numbers will have less variance. However, the trade-off in the medium term is losing the opportunity to grow your business exponentially in unimaginable ways.
In the best case, the bet pays off, and you add revenue or increase efficiency. In the worst case, you take learnings that can be utilised for the next test and build the muscle of placing betsâthe ROI likely still stacks up. Iâd encourage you to do this thought experiment: If you carved off even $10k today, where would you experiment, what could the outcome be, and what could you learn? It reminds me of a quote I love by Andy Dunn the cofounder of Bonobos.
âTaking risks and being focused, sometimes, are at odds. Both are required to build a great companyâ
I encourage you to be bold. As always, if you are building a new company, please reach out; weâd love to chat. Taryn.
Tech News:
Reddit IPO: Redditâs long-anticipated debut on the NASDAQ occurred last Thursday. The stock popped 38% out of the gate, demonstrating strong demand for tech IPOs. To better understand whether the IPO market is genuinely open, all eyes are on how Reddit and other recent tech IPOs perform over the next three to six months.
Deputy is now a unicorn: Workforce management software company Deputy is Australiaâs latest unicorn, the first since early 2022. Deputy last raised capital in 2018 and has doubled its valuation since then. The company has been profitable for the last 18 months and opportunistically raised this round led by a strategic investor.
Employment Hero vs Hostplus: Employment Hero was embroiled in a public feud with industry super fund Hostplus over its practice of prioritising super funds that paid for placement on its employee onboarding platform. After Hostplus lobbied Employment Hero's investors to intervene, the startup updated its software to make existing super funds more prominent. Several major super funds, including Aware Super and Australian Retirement Trust, pay Employment Hero millions annually for placement. The changes come as the Australian government reviews compliance with "stapling" laws to prevent creating unintended multiple superannuation accounts when disengaged members change jobs and open a new account by default.
How to Startup:
Scaling Through Chaos: Index Ventures released its e-book Scaling Through Chaos, the Founderâs Guide to Building and Leading Teams from 0 to 1,000. The guide has incredibly valuable information on finding, hiring, retaining and leading the right people for your startup to turn your business into an outlier success. Itâs packed with case studies and frameworks you can implement immediately.
Series A⊠Ready for it?: Raising a Series A round isnât just predicated on hitting $1M ARR. Jaclyn Hester covers the three things that matter more than pure revenue: Repeatability in the business (incl. GTM, Ops, Churn, User behaviour), Quality of revenue and Customer love.
VC in Australia/New Zealand:
The NextGen Ventures team has released their first annual Student Startup Funding Report, covering student funding outcomes over 2023. It also looks back into the history of successful student startups that have received funding in Australia. It's well worth a read!
Portfolio News
JigSpace continues to receive positive press. Its founder, Zac Duff, is interviewed in the AR Show Podcast. Tune in here.
Since JigSpace has been made available on Apple Vision Pro, it has been downloaded ~40,000 times.
The episode includes:
How Apple has partnered with JigSpace to demonstrate Apple Vision Pro value,
The cultural shift in expectations around 3D and communications, and
How JigSpace fits into the future.
Jig Founders Zac and Numa look like Miami Vice in their recent photoshoot for Fast Company.
Defying Gravity: Unicorn-building with Helen Souness and Andrew Bassat. The latest episode of Defying Gravity with Rampersand Venture Partner Helen Souness, where she interviews Andrew Bassat (co-founder of Seek) on scaling one of Australia's most enduring and successful start-ups. Tune in here.
Helen quizzes Andrew on:
The importance of strategic leadership,
Dealing with fierce competition as a startup, and
Personal growth as Andrewâs role slowly evolved from founder to board member.
Portfolio Job Board
Enterprise Account Executive at Predict HQ
Location & Type: San Francisco (Hybrid) & full-time
What they do: PredictHQ is the pioneer in Predictive Demand Intelligence, strengthening AI-powered demand planning by eliminating business blind spots caused by demand volatility related to external events.
What youâll do: As a key member of PredictHQâs Sales team, your role will focus primarily on new customer acquisition across multiple verticals leveraging a land and expand-based sales strategy.
Suitable skills:
5+ years of B2B SaaS/Tech sales or business development.
Experience with AWS, Snowflake, and/or selling ML/DaaS solutions is an advantage.
Head of Cyber Security at mx51
Location & Type: Australia (Remote) & full-time
What they do: mx51 is a payments-as-a-service solution for banks, non-bank acquirers, and other merchant service providers.
What youâll do: Reporting to the CTO, you'll be responsible for the security outcomes of Mx51 and the products and services it provides to its customers.
To apply and see the suitable skills, click here
Operations Manager at Cake Equity
Location & Type: Gold Coast (Hybrid) & full-time (potential for four days/week)
What they do: Cake is an equity management platform that helps growing startups galvanise their teams around shared ownership.
What youâll do: Collaborate with the COO to optimise internal processes and scale business performance tracking systems.
Suitable skills:
5 years in ops/finance
Got a job youâd like us to promote? Add it on Hatch and share the link with us.
See jobs across the Rampersand Portfolio.
Rampersand Travel Diary:
Scott is in Sydney till 6 April, reach out for a coffee.
Taryn will meet founders in Brisbane from 4-5 April and Melbourne for Digital Health Festival from 7-10 May. If you are heading to the festival, get in touch.