Transparent Venture Capital by Tribe Global Ventures

Matt James was employee number 22 at Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW), joining as an early engineer when revenue was just beginning to land and rising to CTO. He scaled with the business through to roughly 1000 staff worldwide and over a $1Billion in annual revenue by the time he left, with VGW going on to post A$6.1B in revenue in FY24.  Today he is Co-founder and CTO at SupplyWise, a Perth-based B2B e-commerce platform for SME suppliers and retailers, and one of Australia's more vocal voices on production-grade agentic AI coding. This is a great episode, with key discussion points including:  What an inflection-point AI coding workflow actually looks like in production (not just MVPs). How a non-technical founder should evaluate engineering hires now. Practical strategy for upgrading legacy codebases and databases when an investor or director is pushing for pace. Where the moats are when code itself is becoming a commodity The SaaS investability question: small and medium SaaS may have a golden age, but venture-backable outliers get harder [email protected] 

Stuart Clout founded Thedocyard at 3am on the floor of a Sydney law firm boardroom, listed it on the ASX the week before COVID locked down Australia, merged with Ansarada, and rode the combined business through to a $236m acquisition by Datasite. He joins Don and Aaron to unpack twelve years of B2B SaaS lessons, the deal mechanics, and what he wishes he had known sooner. Intro and origin story The 3am post-it note moment and the birth of Closing Rooms Top three lessons: founder problem fit, demos vs sales, the Mom Test The Gail Goodman talk that kept Stuart in the game $500 of coffees: the lead-gen tactic that beat everything else Anti-sales is the new sales Apathy, durability and becoming a verb The 2020 ASX listing one week before COVID The Ansarada merger: how the deal got done The Datasite acquisition: $236m, $2.50 per share, nine months of process The ACCC and policy frustrations Where Australian B2B SaaS should focus Founder mindset, fitness, family and "you can have everything, just not at the same time" Find Stuart [email protected]   

Key links from this week's episode:  Agents leave you nowhere to hide.  Hockey Stick Advisory partnership revenue gap tool.  Morphless.com . Save 30% on your AWS bill.  Techvisa.com.au  VentureCrowd parent in administration.  [email protected]   

  Michael Batko building in public.  Adam Said from Octopus on durability. Adam Said from Octopus on GTM. Shocks vs regime shifts.  

Our guest today is James Leathem , Founder and former CEO of VendorPanel.  Tribe was a proud investor in Vendor Panel until its exit to Accel-KKR in late 2024 and merger with Unimarket. This episode is a "playbook" for founders and investors alike of starting, scaling and exiting a B2B technology business. We hope you enjoy!  [email protected]  

Albert and Chris break down the key take aways from another excellent report. A must listen and read for all founders and investors. You can read the full report here. 

In this week's episode:  We're back! Why patients and technology may do what the health system can’t by Vu Tran. Don’s latest addiction: Replit. Speed gets you a demo but not a quality product. Jense Admits he works 7 days a week, including holidays, in a constant state of anxiety, out of fear of going bankrupt. Sharts:   

In this week's ep: Where You Raise Matters. Culture Amp & SafetyCulture Writedown. EVP's $100M Fund. Sharts. [email protected] 

In this week's episode: Episode 100: reflections from 100 episodes.  Blackbird funds change hands at steep discounts, rattling investors. How Australia's top VCs are rethinking startup moats. Sharts.   [email protected] 

In this week's episode: OneMRI announces capital raise. Blackbird 2015 fund returns hurt. SEO continuing to be challenged by Chat. James Deck from Clevvi . Sharts

In this episode, Aaron and Don are joined by Chris Gillings of Cut Through Venture to understand the key insights from the Q2 2025 Australian Venture Capital Funding Report. We discuss: Funding outcomes. Whilst the quarter was disappointing, there is evidence to suggest there is a lot of activity occurring behind the scenes.  Valuations.  How Chris is seeing AI play out in early stage ventures. Lots more! [email protected]

In this week's episode:  Gilmore Space launch.  Employment Hero sues Seek, an investor and rival, over platform access. Seek hits back in Employment Hero fight, implies misuse of data. UQ's vaccine victory. Square Peg backs its youngest ever founder in $2.1m Source raise. Sharts: ​​​​​​​[email protected] 

In this week's episode: Facebook Meta hiring spree.  AI tools are not yet there.  AI usage a baseline expectation at Shopify.   “Coward founders”.  Don’t know why ChatGPT is working.  Chief of Staff role is trying to solve the wrong problem.  To drive a tech boom, deal with property. Sharts:  ​​​​​​​[email protected] 

In this week's episode: Tropical Innovation Fest was awesome.  4th time lucky? After shutting down in New York, Blackbird-backed Kiki is moving to London. Big tax bill looms for ‘Canvanauts’ after company shuffle. Australian VCs are eyeing continuation vehicles as the local market matures.  Back those chasing the 20, not the 2.  AI start-ups sealing more deals than other tech companies.  A great market forgives alot.  Google kills 1000 startups with try on clothes feature.  Sharts: ​​​​​​​[email protected] 

Today's guest is Chris Milligan, and Entrepreneur and Investor based in London. We are proud to also have Chris as a shareholder, investor, and venture partner at Tribe Global Ventures. Fresh out of university at QUT, Chris founded Adepto, a B2B SaaS HR platform. In 2015, Chris participated in an early version of Tribe’s UK mission and relocated to London five months later, raising a Seed round from UK investors and establishing Adepto in Europe. With teams in both Brisbane and London, Chris continued to scale Adepto, raising further capital and working with global customers, including PwC, Cisco, AECOM, and BAE Systems. In 2019, Adepto was acquired by the US learning platform Degreed, where Chris joined the leadership team and supported a $150 million Series D. Since leaving Degreed in 2022 and still based in London, Chris founded Konfir, an instant employment and income verification solution built on banking, payroll, and tax data. Having raised £3.6m in Pre-seed and Seed funding from UK angels and VCs, Konfir is on track to become the go-to solution for UK verifications. Chris is a passionate supporter of Venture Capital and has invested in and advised over 15 early-stage tech companies in both Australia and overseas. He frequently visits Australia, blending his expertise and experience to support emerging entrepreneurs. [email protected]