Ep213 – Rob Phillpot (Co-founder – Aconex) on scaling Aconex to a $1.6B exit and launching a $50M founders fund

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep213 – Rob Phillpot (Co-founder – Aconex) on scaling Aconex to a $1.6B exit and launching a $50M founders fund June 27, 2025 rohitbhargava Uncategorized My guest for Ep213 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rob Phillpot. Rob and his co-founder Leigh Jasper have played a huge part in shaping Australia’s tech landscape, building Aconex into one of the country’s most iconic companies, taking it public in 2014 and ultimately selling it to Oracle in 2017 for $1.6 billion. Since then, Rob has dedicated his time to advising startups, supporting philanthropy, and investing through his family office, Gravel Road Ventures. Most recently, Rob, Leigh Jasper, and A Cloud Guru founder Sam Kroonenberg teamed up to launch Glitch Capital, a $50 million founders fund backing the next generation of global tech companies. In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, including: Aconex’s journey to a $1.6B exit and overcoming multiple near-death experiences What it was like to sell a company when he didn’t want to Why advising founders is 20% strategy and 80% psychology The secrets behind building a high-performance culture Balancing big ambitions with family life What Glitch Capital looks for when backing startups And so much more. Timestamps: 00:01:50 Rob’s background 00:06:27 Meeting Leigh Jasper: did school-friends always know they’d start a company together?   00:09:15 Switching tracks: advice for people stuck in a career they don’t love 00:11:07 Startup ecosystem in 2000 and the early days of Aconex 00:13:46 Staying positive: how did Rob and Leigh keep morale when things looked bleak?   00:18:22 Strength in vulnerability 00:21:58 Cultivating Aconex’s culture and common founder mistakes 00:37:58 The real story of the Aconex sale 00:43:13 Life after the exit: what did stepping away from Aconex feel like?   00:49:48 What Rob looks for as an investor 00:58:13 80% psychology: common founder struggles Rob sees as an advisor   01:00:48 Family, fitness and cooking dinner: balancing startup life with home life   01:07:05 Philanthropy focus: why Rob created the Gravel Road Foundation and how he thinks about giving Our partners: A big thank you to Ben Leach, Andrew Barron and Bill Phillpot for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club – Details here Rob’s Links: Rob on LinkedIn Glitch Capital Aconex Gravel Road Foundation Gravel Road Ventures People mentioned: Leigh Jasper Sam Kroonenburg  Ben Leach   Andrew Barron Simon Sinek   Geoff Tarrant  Companies mentioned: Oracle Multiplex McKinsey & Company Amazon Web Services Deloitte A Cloud Guru HammerTech Firmable Payapps Mr Yum Leonardo.AI Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected] @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep213_-_Rob_Phillpot.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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