The Raise

Full interviews

Check out the back catalogue and learn from our incredible guests

#13 Executing a Business Model Pivot with Appetise cofounder Toby Hilliam

Toby is refreshingly forthcoming in the lessons they’ve learnt in such a short space of time. We cover a lot of ground, from the strategy of pivoting to a B2B+B2C hybrid business model, their sales process to blue chip customers, watching his team thrive as they’ve grown, and a big reveal about their Aussie launch 👉

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#12 Making it in the US with Scott Dommett from Rampersand VC

Welcome to The Raise. This issue, we have the pleasure of speaking with Scott Dommett, Investor at Rampersand VC. Rampersand seeks out founders with abnormal potential, with a hardcore focus on big visions, big ambitions, and big beliefs. Their portfolio includes companies like Hatch (a.k.a Seek for GenZ), JigSpace (a.k.a the Canva for 3D), and mx51 merchant technology (investing alongside Mastercard and Artesian Capital). Last month, Scott travelled to the United States, gathering up a heap of wisdom to bring back to the ANZ startup community. So in the spirit of “mateship” - Scott shares what he learnt 👉

the raise thumbnail with photo of mark clare

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#11 When & How to Exit with Investment Banker Mark Clare

This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mark Clare, Founding Partner of Clare Capital. Clare Capital provides corporate finance advice around mergers, acquisitions and divestments, corporate finance advisory, and capital raising. He has a wealth of experience in tech and capital markets - some of his notable B2B SaaS clients include Xero, Hatch, APLYiD, Raygun, and Cin7.

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#10 Thriving in Turbulent Times - advice from B2B SaaS Investor Mark Velik

Mark reflects on invaluable lessons from the COVID era

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#009 What a VC Wants - A Conversation with Blackbird's Phoebe Harrop

VCs have particular expectations of startups, so you should know what they are. Thankfully, this week on The Raise, Phoebe Harrop from Blackbird has given us a thorough rundown on what you need to know.

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#008 Field Notes from USA SaaS Expert Carter Perez

Calling in from the United States this week, we spoke with Carter Perez, co-founder of Revenue Chemists, a SaaS marketing agency in Palo Alto. In the last four years, they have worked with over 40 companies. Carter is also a fractional GTM leader, working with companies like Aiden Technologies and Ookla. Starting out at Xerox, he has spent most of his career in tech. Carter has a passion for the “phenomenal problem” of scaling companies, having achieved multiple exits during his career. In this week’s issue of The Raise, we’ve put together “field notes” from Carter, laying out his insights from the coalface of global tech growth.

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#007 Leadership lessons for time poor founders, with author Tim Duggan

This week, we welcome our first Australian guest, Tim Duggan. Tim’s new book, Work Backwards, explores how anyone can take advantage of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how and why we work. As an entrepreneur himself, and having interviewed dozens of fellow founders while researching his books, it was a privilege to hear firsthand Tim’s lessons on entrepreneurship, creativity, and work. We’ve bundled these lessons together, so you can use them now, or bank them for later.

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#006 Serge van Dam: Playbook for Global SaaS Growth

Many of you reading this are founders and marketing leads. The Raise is all about raising the ambition and raising the bar for Kiwi and Aussie SaaS companies. So this week I’ve put together a playbook of wisdom shared during my conversation with Serge. Watch, read, grow. Then take your SaaS business global - bigger, better, faster.

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#005 JD Trask: Unpacking the AI Hype Cycle

We started this issue of The Raise by asking ourselves, ‘what can we add to the conversation around artificial intelligence?’ There are well-founded debates on issues with bias, privacy, security, transparency and job losses. We’ve taken the optimistic ‘founders view’ in this week’s interview with JD Trask, CEO & Founder of B2B SaaS company, Raygun.

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#004 Sonya Williams: Startup Mythbusting

This week we caught up with Sonya Williams, one of the bright minds behind fintech app Sharesies. Along with five co-founders, she began Sharesies with a bold mission of creating financial empowerment for everyone. She’s now co-CEO and a Director, and has led the company through some incredible growth, including their Australian expansion.

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#003 Seb Cox: the Lowdown on Venture Studios

This week we caught up with Sebastian Cox, VP of Ventures at Paloma. Seb launched his career in the United Kingdom, holding various growth marketing and product roles in the venture studio scene. Seb went on to work as an advisor to some pre-launch & seed startups, plus enterprise scale digital transformation projects. At Paloma, Seb nurtures some of the most exciting startups in New Zealand and Australia, so he’s well attuned to turning the raw ingredients for a successful venture into an entity fit for growth.

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#002 Jo Blundell: Building Brand Loyalty

One of the first product marketers at Xero during its hyper growth phase in 2015, Jo Blundell then became the Head of Product and Marketing at Timely off the back of its $7m capital raise from Movac in 2017. Under her leadership, Timely eventually exited at $100m+. Jo is a director of climate-tech venture CarbonCrop. She recently launched ArcStudio, an agency developing brand and go-to-market strategies for scale-up-stage companies.

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#001 Chris Heaslip: Global from Day One

We’re joined by ‘Billion dollar exit’ Chris Heaslip, who founded Pushpay, and more recently Leadr. Based out of Dallas, TX, Chris hails from New Zealand and we explore his ‘global from day one’ mentality while he also offers other nuggets of advice on sales, growth and planning for success.

Time poor? Watch the shorts

Highlights from our guests

Full interviews

#13 Executing a Business Model Pivot with Appetise cofounder Toby Hilliam

#12 Making it in the US with Scott Dommett from Rampersand VC

#11 When & How to Exit with Investment Banker Mark Clare

#10 Thriving in Turbulent Times - advice from B2B SaaS Investor Mark Velik

#009 What a VC Wants - A Conversation with Blackbird's Phoebe Harrop

#008 Field Notes from USA SaaS Expert Carter Perez

#007 Leadership lessons for time poor founders, with author Tim Duggan

#006 Serge van Dam: Playbook for Global SaaS Growth

#005 JD Trask: Unpacking the AI Hype Cycle

#004 Sonya Williams: Startup Mythbusting

#003 Seb Cox: the Lowdown on Venture Studios

#002 Jo Blundell: Building Brand Loyalty

#001 Chris Heaslip: Global from Day One

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