The Lead Investor

Glenn Butcher’s final episode covers off on a lot of interesting information. As investors and founders it is really hard to think strategically about who to achieve the vision of the company. Company culture plays an important in any organisation. Founders need to ensure they are aligned on the vision of the company and have working strategies and tactics to get there. Data and technology will not replace the human element of an organisation, however technology will heavily influence a culture within an organisation. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: How to think strategically about how to achieve the vision of the company. The barrier to entry terminology of moat. How does your company express its culture. Quotes from Glenn Butcher: As an investor and advisor, I enjoy working with people that have a big vision Culture is king

In this episode we discuss Amazon, hiring engineering teams and recruitment strategies. Glenn was engaged by Amazon to build and lead the engineering team, here in Sydney. In the early days Amazon ran at huge losses and burnt a huge amount of investor capital before generating any profit. An important way in which to manage cash flow is to ensure that a startup has a rigorous recruitment process. Once capital has been raised, cash flow needs to be managed very carefully so that if things go wrong or the next round of funding is delayed, the startup will survive. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: The methodology behind a rigorous recruitment strategy. How to recruit objectively and not using one's unconscious bias. The importance of managing cash flow once capital has been raised. Quotes from Glenn Butcher: You need to objectively score candidates on company fit, like you would on their programming or development skills. If I get asked a tough question in an interview, I know that there is a rigorous recruitment process in place.

Today we continue our conversation with Glenn Butcher. We will be jumping back into our conversation about Atlassian and his experiences there. We discuss how to identify founders and startup investment opportunities and the concept of product-market fit. The impact of companies like Atlassian on the startup and technology sector here in Australia can not be understated. They built a product that solved a range of problems experienced by their customers based all over the world. But they also had great product-market fit and in this episode we will explore this in more detail. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: What to look for when investing with Startups. Is it founders? Is it product market fit? Is it the right market timing? The importance of Product-Market fit. If customers are chasing you, then you know that you have Product Market Fit. The impact of a successful technology company from Australia on the Australian industry. The importance of stock options and establishing a employee proposition within a company.

Today we are joined by Glenn Butcher who’s had an incredible career through the technology industry at companies such as Atlassian and Amazon, and now is actively investing in and advising some amazing technology startups Glenn has been a Director of SaaS for Atlassian and was the 120 employee to join the team. He was the VP of Engineering at Brandscrean. He was a Senior Manager at Amazon and founded Amazon’s software engineering capabilities here in Sydney. He is also one of our investors and is a trusted advisor to our investment committee. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: Right person, wrong circumstances - what’s the take away from this failure. Right Person, right circumstances, look at what they have learnt! Atlassian in the early days and their development of into SaaS market. There is a perception of overnight success in the startup word. This is never the case. Often startups have been around for many years before they reach the limelight. Quotes from Glenn Butcher: In australia we tend to view people who have failed as failures in everything. But it’s really about right person, wrong circustanance, keep trying. Right person, right circumstance, Wow! Look at all the things they have learnt. The best investment decisions anyone can make, are when they apply both sides of their brain. The emotional and analytical assessment of the investment decision. The challenge of any product delivery is to do it, quickly, rapidly, weekly, fault free, at scale, cheaply and be able to scale it for our customers, all simultaneously.

The team at Oovvuu had no intention at their inception, of becoming a technology company and building artificial intelligence (AI). What they have built is a poster child for IBM as it is helping to teach IBM how to understand contextuality. Oovvuu’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology is able to match video to published text on a contextual basis. They are training / teaching their AI to learn which videos match the content of hundreds of thousands of articles published a day. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: How Oovvuu never set out to build artificial intelligence but how AI evolved. Oovvuu selecting the right investors who understood their technology is critical to the investment theses. Other large companies can find it hard to take down the incumbents because they are to big and not agile enough, to out maneuver. Australia is very well positioned to create new products that can acquire customers in emerging markets, where there is a blue ocean of opportunity

Ricky Sutton is passionate about ensuring that large technology corporations like Facebook, Twitter and Google are held accountable for inappropriate media content being advertised on their sites. Extremest content continues to appear on Facebook and Google. They have accepted funding from terrorist organisations for sophisticated marketing and advertising campaigns. Yet both organisations continue to hold their hands up in the air and claimed that they can not be held responsible or accountable. Have you ever considered what a technology led future without a social conscious might look like? Should recruitment for terrorist organisations be part of our daily new feed? Is “fake” news the way of the future? Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: Are technology giants responsible for their sites content? Should Cambridge Analytica and data breaches be an everyday occurance? Sophisticated advertising campaigns means that Google and Facebook are accepting funding from terrorist organisations from around the world. Technology giants inability to monitor website content has huge social implications and creates more problems.

Ricky Sutton is CEO of Oovvuu. He is a journalist turned video entrepreneur. He began his career as a reporter, working his way up through management ranks of national publications in the UK and Australia, such as The News of the World, News International Ltd, News Corp, Channel Nine and Fairfax. Around four years ago he left fairfax to launch Oovvuu, a global solution used by 100 broadcasters and publishers worldwide. Oovvuu's mission is to embed a contextually relevant video in every article in the world, using new technology and AI. The company is supported by Amazon and IBM Watson and private equity. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: Traditional media is looking $20 billion to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google. As media organisations struggle to maintain advertising revenues, news and editorial teams are shrinking and the quality of journalism is being challenged. Video creation is soaring, with viewing at an all-time high. Traditional media needs to create new revenue sources. Oovvuu’s technology intends to put a contextually relevant video in every newspaper article around the world. Quotes from Ricky Sutton: The people in charge of building the future are the People asking you to use the old school model. Start with the vision! Then get to the how... Technology driven companies like Facebook and Google are failing the truth test. For any business to be sustainable you have to take the people with you, people drive economies not technology. Technology enables it but people drive it.

Ricky Sutton is CEO of Oovvuu. He is a journalist turned video entrepreneur. He began his career as a reporter, working his way up through management ranks of national publications in the UK and Australia, such as The News of the World, News International Ltd, News Corp, Channel Nine and Fairfax. Around four years ago he left fairfax to launch Oovvuu, a global solution used by 100 broadcasters and publishers worldwide. Oovvuu's mission is to embed a contextually relevant video in every article in the world, using new technology and AI. The company is supported by Amazon and IBM Watson and private equity. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus: The challenges faced by a founder in leaving a C-Suite role and going out on your own with no steady pay cheque. Having a founding team in their 40’s has it advantages of experience, bruises, scars and thick skin than being in your 20’s. The frustrations of working for big business and their inability to innovate and change with speed. Quotes from Ricky Sutton: When you have “C” in your title like CEO or CFO to CTO, most people believe you have reached the pinnacle of your career. But if you take a job with a “C” in it, your average tenure will be 3 years. There are serious problems in an organisation when the “C-suite” roles are leaving for the Startup founder role. If you want to made hungry, being told that you can’t do, what you know your industry needs because you work in a dogmatic company, drives greater hunger than anything else. I have never been more motivated than I am now. I have never been poorer! But I have never been more satisfied and I have never done more good work. The answer should never be no. An answer, in a world where you don’t know what the future looks like, should never be no. Being in a founding team of 40 year olds means we are old enough to know how to win, what failure looks like, we would never charge in blindly and we know where the gold is!

Chris Sang is a Startup CEO, CTO, Advisory Board Member, Angel Investor and Angel Syndicate Lead. Chris began his career within IT and equities trading, working for major financial institution and insurance corporations here in Australia. Since 2014, he has become a leading Angel investor in Australia and internationally. He has invested in over 70 Startups across B2C, B2B, AI, IOT, cryptocurrency, esports and enterprise software. He has the rare combination of technology development, product management, financial markets and startup investment across Australia and USA. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: Have you ever considered what might happen if you invest in a company and then the founders realise they need to pivot the business into something different? How would you handle that? Even if there is a level of product-market fit, it is highly likely that within a portfolio of 10+ startup investments, at least a few of them will need to pivot or die. Ultimately, to be a great startup investor, whether as an angel or a VC fund manager, it’s all about gaining access to the best founders and startups. Quotes from Chris: I’m all for pivots! It's just the nature of the beast. When you do angel investments, you should expect that Startups will adjust and adapt accordingly. One of the most famous pivots was Slack. I have an issue with Seed rounds that have no cap. It's just a discount to the next equity raise. As an investor, I want to know the valuation I am paying. I want to see a fixed price.

Chris Sang is a Startup CEO, CTO, Advisory Board Member, Angel Investor and Angel Syndicate Lead. Chris began his career within IT and equities trading, working for major financial institution and insurance corporations here in Australia. Since 2014, he has become a leading Angel investor in Australia and internationally. He has invested in over 70 Startups across B2C, B2B, AI, IOT, cryptocurrency, esports and enterprise software. He has the rare combination of technology development, product management, financial markets and startup investment across Australia and USA. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: Have you ever wondered how to pick a unicorn? What do you look for? There aren’t many angel investors in Australia that have successfully invested in one or more unicorns and there are very few that have primary reference data from over 70 startup investments What investment returns multiples should angel investors or VCs be looking for? What’s a home run in US terms? Quotes from Chris: Picking a unicorn startup is luck! But doing due diligence on the Startup will reduce the level of failed Startups within your portfolio. What makes a good Startup? Solid leadership within the startup A strong belief in what they are creating A mission they believe in, Willingness to put in the hard yards, Have a strong product with traction and resonates with their customers a large addressable market

Chris Sang is a Startup CEO, CTO, Advisory Board Member, Angel Investor and Angel Syndicate Lead. Chris began his career within IT and equities trading, working for major financial institution and insurance corporations here in Australia. Since 2014, he has become a leading Angel investor in Australia and internationally. He has invested in over 70 Startups across B2C, B2B, AI, IOT, cryptocurrancy, esports and enterprise software. He has the rare combination of technology development, product management, financial markets and startup investment across Australia and USA. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: Have you consider investing in early stage technology? What are the benefits? Should Investors be placing their money with a professional technology investor like a VC or going into angel investment syndicates? Investing in startups is very different to other asset classes and doing it successfully is a game of access, time and professionalism. Quotes from Chris: Investing directly in the Startup, means that I have to do my own due diligence. I do a deep dive into the business and the answers come directly from the Startup CEO. Most of the companies I invest in are at Seed Round. They have from $10k to $50k revenue per month. I rarely invest in Startups post Series A round due to valuation Currently, half my deals have been done through syndicates and half my deals are done going directly to the start. But I started out investing in Syndicates.

Chris Sang is a Startup CEO, CTO, Advisory Board Member, Angel Investor and Angel Syndicate Lead. Chris began his career within IT and equities trading, working for major financial institution and insurance corporations here in Australia. Since 2014, he has become a leading Angel investor in Australia and internationally. He has invested in over 70 Startups across B2C, B2B, AI, IOT, cryptocurrancy, esports and enterprise software. He has the rare combination of technology development, product management, financial markets and startup investment across Australia and USA. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: A number of Australian startups have been successfully entering US based accelerator programs like Y-Combinator and 500 Startups Some of the best companies from all over the world apply - Y-combinator, for instance, can get over 10,000 applications for each cohort and are now selecting just over 100 companies Typically, US investors will want the founders to be based in the USA and the company will need to be set up there Even in the seed round in the USA, after going through such a program, there is an expectation that they are generating $10 - $15k /month revenue

Deepak Natarajan has a long technology investor history, having experienced first hand, the technology revolutions and financial cycles of the past 35 years. With a career that expands from the USA to Asia, including Australia, Deepak has been described as a Investor, Advisor, Board Member, Startup Executive and Global Marketing and Business Development Executive. In this fourth and final episode with Deepak on the Lead Investor podcast, Deepak discusses, what it takes for a company to launch into international markets successfully, what the future looks like for technology and the third industrial revolution. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: What role should Southeast Asia play for investors and entrepreneurs in Australia. When your startup gets to $10 million in sales in your own backyard, you are about ready to launch into one or two other territories. Once you become a leader in three markets, you become an attractive acquisition target for other businesses. It is not unusual for a Startup to think about moving internationally after they have raised $15 million, but not before. The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy

Deepak Natarajan has a long technology investor history, having experienced, first hand the technology revolutions and financial cycles of the past 35 years. With a career that expands from the USA to Asia, including Australia, Deepak has been described as a Investor, Advisor, Board Member, Startup Executive and Global Marketing and Business Development Executive. In this episode of the Lead Investor we will hear Deepak Natarajan on how VC’s can add value to Startups or Portfolio companies in which they have invested. Startups and founders receive more benefits from VC’s than just the funds. VC’s are able to open doors, provide connections, networks, human resources, partnerships, customers and experience that the Startup may not be able to access on their own. With the right VC backing a Startup, they may have better chance of success, due to the resources and expertise a VC can provide. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: The difference between a Corporate VC and a Private VC. The 3 key advantages a Startup will receive with VC backing

Deepak Natarajan is a long term technology investor who has experienced, first hand the technology revolutions and financial cycles of the past 35 years. With a career that expands from the USA to Asia, including Australia, Deepak has been described as a Investor, Advisor, Board Member, Startup Executive and Global Marketing and Business Development Executive. In this episode of the Lead Investor we will hear Deepak Natarajan thoughts on, what a Startup needs to do, if they wish to be a unicorn. And raising capital is right up there in terms of growing the business. Listen to the full episode to hear all this, plus things like: Silicon Valley top 150 List publish every year Things to consider, if you want to run a unicorn business The importance of Venture Capital to startups, but also to global economies.