What It Takes to Build a $100M AI Company at 17

Win $2,000 in credits with the Day One Network — take our 2-minute audience survey before 30 June: dayone.fm/surveyEpisode SummaryLiam Millward is one of Australia’s most watched young founders, but this conversation goes way beyond the headline of raising a record pre-seed at 17. Liam breaks down how Instant is building an AI powered marketing manager for e-commerce brands, why retention marketing is the real lever for growth, and how personalisation at scale changes the economics of marketing teams.Georgie and Liam unpack what it actually takes to win in B2B SaaS right now, why “nice-to-have dashboards” are getting crushed, and what young founders should do instead of spending their time posing with VCs. Liam also shares the downside of raising big too early, his bet on Google winning the model race, and the one tool he has mandated across Instant’s engineering team.Plus: why New York (not SF) is the next chapter for Instant, how Australian buying habits can create painful customers, and Liam’s spicy prediction that AI agents will become the majority of internet traffic shockingly soon.Time Stamps01:35 – Meet Liam Millward and the record-breaking pre-seed story03:40 – Using AI to hire better and have deeper interviews07:55 – What Instant actually does and why retention beats acquisition12:00 – How AI personalization changes loyalty, margins, and growth16:30 – Is B2B SaaS dead or just getting ruthless?20:45 – Raising big too early, age bias, and proving people wrong28:30 – Teenage founders, VC hype, and why starting small still wins34:15 – New York expansion, Google vs OpenAI, and Claude Code43:50 – AI agents, Australia’s talent drain, and what comes next44:38 – Saying no to customers: Australia’s “buy from friends” trap45:32 – Structure at Instant: obsession, speed, and a tiny leadership team46:42 – Australia’s talent drain and what could change itIn the Blink of AI is made possible by our wonderful partnersDeelGlobal hiring and payroll can be a headache. Deel brings HR, IT and payroll together in one platform, helping companies including Shopify, Revolut and ElevenLabs scale internationally.Ready to expand your business?Build your global team with Deel at deel.com/dayone.✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletterMentioned in this episode:Deel x PX_Post Intro