From burnout to balance - Wayne Gerard’s founder journey

In this episode, Gav sits down with Wayne Gerard to unpack his ongoing founder journey - from army officer to building RedEye, one of Australia’s early enterprise SaaS companies, through to becoming an active investor and launching new ventures like My Planner and Cetana. This is not a story about what was - Wayne is still very much in the journey, continuing to build, evolve and back other founders while navigating the realities of business and life.Expect a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to launch a B2B SaaS company from scratch, the pressure it entails and how it can impact your health if you're not careful. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5-star rating and a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps us reach more people!In this episode, we cover: Why Wayne is still in the journey - evolving from founder to investor while continuing to build  Wayne’s early career in the army and transition into tech  The moment he decided to take the leap into entrepreneurship  Early business failures and lessons on timing and co-founder alignment  The origin story of RedEye and identifying a real market gap  What it was like building enterprise SaaS before cloud was widely adopted  The reality of founder pressure, burnout and panic attacks  Raising capital and the hidden toll it takes  Why founders must stop being the product to scale  Building a repeatable sales engine in enterprise SaaS  The difference between a demand problem and a sales problem  How to think about risk and make better decisions as a founder  The importance of deep customer relationships  Lessons on leadership, delegation and letting people grow  Why most startups are just apps - not real businesses  The transition from founder to investor and what changes  What makes a great founder in today’s environment  How AI is reshaping SaaS and enterprise sales  The importance of balancing health, wealth and longevity  What keeps Wayne motivated across multiple ventures Wayne Gerard: PRTNR (investment company): https://prtnr.au My Planner: https://myplanner.au Cetana: https://cetana.au Email: [email protected]