Thought waves on seed venture

MediScan AI, a West Coast US startup is replacing the slow, manual admin behind personal injury and insurance claims with AI-first tools built for physicians: transforming a niche but essential industry that's long been underserved by modern software.

We’re thrilled to have led MediScan AI’s Seed round, partnering with the team to transform how independent medical evaluators do their work. Today, these experts rely heavily on outsourced admin services to collate records, manage paperwork, and structure reports. Many give up 25-30% of their revenue just to get the job done. These services are expensive, outdated, and inefficient. MediScan AI is building the software that replaces them. The product helps evaluators handle more cases, in less time, with no loss of quality.

Markets with tailwinds

The US personal injury market is under pressure. The number of insurance claims is rising, driven by increasing litigation and new sources of medical data. At the same time, the experts who assess these cases, known as independent medical evaluators or IMEs, are at capacity.

There are around 100,000 IMEs in the US, working within a USD 16 billion market. They are critical to the success of high-stakes legal and insurance claims, yet their workflow remains slow and manual. Documents arrive in disorganised batches, often handwritten, and it can take days to prepare a single report. With insurance losses reaching USD 143 billion last year, and evaluators struggling to keep up, the market is wide open for change.

Generative AI has reached a point where it can handle entire workflows, not just automate isolated tasks. MediScan AI is stepping in at exactly the right time.

Products that change the game

MediScan has built a platform that turns messy medical records into clear, structured reports. It handles everything from scanning and cleaning documents to pulling out key facts and creating medical timelines. Evaluators can search across an entire case using plain language. They might ask questions like “When did symptoms first appear?” or “What treatment was prescribed?” and get instant, accurate answers.

The most powerful feature is how the system learns. Every time a physician edits or refines the output, the software improves. This feedback loop is built directly into the product, meaning the quality increases with every case reviewed. Most competitors rely on manual checking and outsourced review. MediScan AI does not. Their model improves through direct use by the experts themselves.

The result is speed without trade-offs. Evaluators using MediScan AI report a dramatic reduction in admin time and a big lift in case volume. That translates to more income for them and better, faster outcomes for the lawyers and insurers who rely on their insights.

The most powerful feature is how the system learns. Every time a physician edits or refines the output, the software improves. This feedback loop is built directly into the product, meaning the quality increases with every case reviewed. Most competitors rely on manual checking and outsourced review. MediScan AI does not. Their model improves through direct use by the experts themselves.

The result is speed without trade-offs. Evaluators using MediScan AI report a dramatic reduction in admin time and a big lift in case volume. That translates to more income for them and better, faster outcomes for the lawyers and insurers who rely on their insights.

Founders that hustle

MediScan AI is led by co-founders Kavian Mojabe and Sean Podvent, based on the US West Coast. Kavian, CEO and CTO, is a software engineer with personal context. His father worked as a medical evaluator, giving him firsthand insight into the problems these professionals face. He has built systems at Amazon and in startups through to acquisition, bringing both technical skill and sharp product thinking.

Sean, COO, is a multi-time healthtech founder with a successful exit. He knows the sales cycle, understands healthcare customers, and has built and scaled SaaS businesses from scratch. His most recent company, Hygiene IQ, was acquired in 2023.

Together, they have kept the business lean and focused. They have won early customers through founder-led sales, used customer feedback to shape the product, and stayed disciplined on spend.

A compelling business model

MediScan’s first customers are individual evaluators and small groups. These professionals make independent buying decisions and are motivated to increase their efficiency. This makes them ideal early adopters.

What makes the model even stronger is how naturally it expands. MediScan AI is not just a tool for one step of the process. They are building an end-to-end system that can support the full lifecycle of medical evaluations.

• Act I: Give individual evaluators better tools to process records and write reports.
• Act II: Support physician management groups with scheduling, billing, and admin.
• Act III: Connect evaluators directly with law firms and insurers through a centralised platform.

By owning the core workflow, MediScan AI captures valuable medical insights that competitors cannot easily access. That data, structured and validated by physicians, is what makes the product stronger over time.

Global appeal

While MediScan AI is focused on the US today, the problem is global. Healthcare and insurance systems everywhere struggle with medical record reviews, especially in complex claims. The burden is high and the workflows are broken.

By proving their product in one of the most regulated and high-stakes markets in the world, MediScan AI is setting a strong foundation for international expansion. They are building with an AI-first approach and physician input at every stage, which positions them well to grow across jurisdictions.

The Seed phase and beyond

MediScan AI is early but executing with clarity. The funds from this round will go toward expanding the technical team, building out customer success, and adding features that improve collaboration and compliance.

This is a workflow that has long been overlooked. It has been buried in paperwork and powered by expensive overhead. MediScan AI is taking a software-first approach to reshaping it. They are not chasing trends. They are solving a deep, specific problem that sits at the heart of billion-dollar insurance and legal systems.

The opportunity in vertical AI is not simply about replacing manual work. It is about giving professionals more control, more leverage, and better tools to do what they do best. In MediScan AI’s case, that means helping physicians who move markets work faster, smarter, and on their own terms.

We are proud to partner with Kavian and Sean as they build the future of this category.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Minikai is a game-changing AI platform revolutionising the disability and aged care sectors by transforming tedious paperwork into automated magic. By taking care of the heavy administrative lifting, Minikai empowers care providers to do what they do best - provide exceptional care to those who need it most.

We're thrilled to have led Minikai's Seed round, partnering with the team to revolutionise how care providers operate in highly regulated sectors through AI-powered automation. As your AI ally in disability and aged care, their platform transforms the workflow of frontline care providers by automating administrative work and compliance reporting, enabling them to focus more time on patient care while building a powerful trust platform between regulators and providers.

Markets with tailwinds

The aged care and disability sectors present a massive opportunity, with $50bn in government funding in Australia alone. These sectors face mounting challenges that create perfect conditions for technological disruption:

• Critical administrative burden with compliance teams spending over 50% of their time on audits and paperwork
• Providers face fines exceeding $1.5 million for compliance breaches
• Tens of thousands of incidents go unreported every year due to complex reporting requirements
• Training staff costs $230,000 per 100 clients annually
• Growing regulatory pressures with new mandates requiring minimum care minutes per resident
• Widespread inefficiencies costing care providers and the government billions in tax dollars annually

The timing for Minikai's solution is particularly compelling as generative AI reaches maturity. Unlike traditional software which often requires structured data input, GenAI can process unstructured information like clinical notes and conversations, enabling true hands-off automation. This technological shift coincides with government initiatives funding AI pilots to improve efficiency and care standards.

Products that change the game

Minikai's AI-powered platform stands out through several innovative features that fundamentally transform how care providers work:

• Collective memory: A sophisticated implementation of long-term memory for LLMs that maintains continuity of care across multiple providers
• Context-aware personalisation: Dynamic UI components that adjust based on user roles and preferences
• Automated documentation: Converts conversations and interactions into structured reports and compliance documentation
• Mini agents: Each patient gets a dedicated AI agent that understands their specific needs and history

The platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:

1. Reporting: Makes incident reporting user-friendly for carers and 50% faster for compliance staff
2. Quality & safeguarding: AI agents instantly scan all documents and identify compliance gaps
3. Always-on audit: Instantly compile evidence from a live, self-serve dossier

Early results are compelling, with customers like SDA Services seeing dramatic improvements in efficiency, particularly in processing intricate SDA and SIL applications. The platform is already trusted by care providers supporting over 150,000 vulnerable Australians annually, demonstrating strong market validation.

What truly sets Minikai apart is their vision to become the trust platform between regulators and care providers. By starting with on-the-ground workflow automation, they're building the foundation to become the system of record for all compliance activities.

Founders that hustle

The founding team combines deep technical expertise with personal connection to their mission:

• Keoki Alexander-Chang (CEO): Left a promising career leading Deloitte'sForensic AI lab to launch Minikai, motivated by his mother's struggles navigating health and human services. His experience gives him unique insights into both the technical and human aspects of the problem.
• Kyel Shera-Jones (CTO): Brings a powerful personal connection through his nephew Chase, an NDIS participant. Combined with his experience modernising complex backend infrastructure for the Australian government and leading high-performance teams at Concentrix-Tigerspike, he bridges technical expertise with deep domain understanding.
• Freddie Hedegaard (CGO): Former CEO of Dungbeetle.io, bringing extensive sales expertise to drive Minikai's growth and market penetration.

What impressed us most was the team's combination of technical sophistication and genuine mission-driven approach. They've transformed personal experiences with the care system into a solution that addresses critical industry pain points.

A compelling business model

Minikai has demonstrated strong early traction, having already secured major care providers who collectively support over 150,000 vulnerable Australians annually. Their platform offers clear value proposition by:

• Reducing administrative time by 30-50%
• Accelerating application processing and approval times
• Improving compliance accuracy and documentation quality
• Enabling more time for direct patient care
• Transforming hours of work into seconds through AI automation

Their revenue model scales with the number of patients being managed, providing natural expansion opportunities as customers grow. The platform's ability to handle complex regulatory requirements while improving efficiency creates strong customer stickiness.

Global appeal

Minikai's solution addresses a universal challenge in healthcare and social services. While starting with a strong foundation in Australia's NDIS and aged care sectors, the platform's capabilities are readily applicable to similar regulatory environments globally. The administrative burden in healthcare and social services is a worldwide challenge, presenting significant opportunities for international expansion.

Their AI-first approach to automation and compliance positions them well for scaling across different regulatory frameworks and jurisdictions. By building a solid foundation in Australia's complex regulatory environment, they're developing capabilities that will translate effectively to other markets.

The Seed phase and beyond

The funding round will primarily support:

• Expanding the technical team to enhance the platform's AI capabilities
• Building out sales and customer success functions to support rapid growth
• Accelerating development of their regulatory trust platform features
• Supporting international expansion plans

The founders have a clear vision for growth beyond their initial market, with plans to expand their platform's capabilities and geographical reach. With their deep technical expertise in AI, strong early traction, and clear product differentiation, we believe they're well-positioned to build a category-defining company in the care sector.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve co-led AIMonʼs Pre-Seed round alongside Bessemer Venture Partners. AIMon is addressing one of AI’s most pressing challenges: ensuring Large Language Models (LLMs) are safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready. Their platform empowers organisations to deploy AI confidently, mitigating risks like hallucinations, harmful content, and data leakage.

Markets with tailwinds

Generative AI is transforming industries at a breakneck pace, but deploying LLMs isn’t easy—one mistake in accuracy or safety can destroy trust and credibility. AIMon addresses this gap, providing the essential reliability layer enterprises need to adopt and build with AI confidently.

The generative AI market is expected to grow to $143B by 2027, with spending climbing at a staggering 73% annual growth rate. Regulatory frameworks like the EU AI Act are pushing organisations to prioritise transparency and safety, adding urgency to the need for reliable AI solutions. Yet, despite the massive opportunity, no major player owns the LLM reliability space—until now.

AIMon’s platform has the potential to be as indispensable to AI as Datadog has become to DevOps. It’s critical infrastructure for an AI-driven world.

Products that change the game

AIMon’s Hallucination Detection and Monitoring platform is the enterprise solution the AI world has been waiting for. It’s cutting-edge yet simple, designed to make AI deployment safe, scalable, and trustworthy. The platform delivers real-time insights, detecting hallucinations, toxicity, and sensitive data with low latency. It scales seamlessly on standard hardware, eliminating the need for costly infrastructure, and it’s customisable to meet the unique demands of enterprise applications.

By enabling organisations to deploy AI with confidence, AIMon transforms LLMs from experimental tools into dependable engines for innovation. This isn’t just a product; it’s the backbone of AI reliability.

Founders that hustle

AIMon’s co-founders, Puneet Anand and Preetam Joshi, are a powerhouse duo with a track record of delivering transformative technology. Puneet scaled multiple monitoring products at AppDynamics to $150M+ ARR, earning his reputation as a builder of must-have enterprise tools. Preetam, meanwhile, was instrumental at Netflix, where he co-created Metaflow, an open-source ML framework that’s still shaping the AI landscape for companies like Netflix, Intel, Porsche, and Goldman Sachs.

With their combined expertise in building scalable ML systems and solving hard technical problems, Puneet and Preetam are more than capable—they’re primed to lead AIMon to success. They don’t just build; they execute, iterate, and adapt with incredible speed.

A compelling business model

AIMon’s initial go-to-market strategy focuses on B2B sales, targeting enterprises that urgently need reliable AI tools. Over time, the team plans to target users bottoms-up, fostering a community-driven adoption model that scales.

Starting with monitoring, AIMon creates an indispensable wedge in the AI stack. As the platform evolves into a comprehensive evaluation and improvement layer, it becomes a key driver of enterprise AI performance. This dual approach positions AIMon to build a defensible, scalable business in a rapidly growing market.

The Seed phase and beyond

With its funding, AIMon is laser-focused on getting market traction for its product, converting warm leads into enterprise customers and growing its engineering team. Their goal is to prove product-market fit and achieve significant ARR within 18 months, paving the way for further growth.

AIMon isn’t just building a product—they’re creating the foundation for trustworthy AI at scale. As generative AI adoption accelerates, AIMon is perfectly positioned to lead the charge, making safe and reliable AI a reality for enterprises worldwide.

If you’re a visionary founder ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.

Counting my lucky stars

Growing up, I had always envisioned myself being a diplomat and working overseas, so studying Law and International Studies made sense.

However, I chose to start my career in investment banking because I wanted to build a solid foundation in business. I joined Macquarie Capital’s Financial Institutions Group, where I worked on M&A deals across industries like superannuation, life insurance, and funds management. It was a great opportunity—I learned a ton about company valuations and building strategic relationships while working with really smart people.

But I found myself wanting to get closer to the companies we were working with. My time at a startup and venture capital fund had already sparked that desire. I loved the hands-on, scrappy work at the startup, and venture capital showed me the excitement of evaluating founder pitches and making quick decisions. That experience made me realize I wanted something more interactive, and my time at Macquarie confirmed it. So, I decided to make the switch to venture capital, where I could be more involved in helping build businesses from the ground up.

Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase

I’m drawn to seed investing because it taps into my curiosity. The seed phase is all about exploring the unknown, which keeps things exciting. As AI shifts rapidly from general applications to industry-specific solutions, staying curious and up-to-date feels more essential than ever for investors.

I find a lot of joy in working closely with founders to unpack these unknown areas—particularly the product being built, the market addressed and even their execution. For some, this uncertainty can be challenging, but this gives me energy. Combine that with my go-to matcha latte, and you’ll understand why I’m usually on a high throughout the week.

As to why I find excitement in this process, it boils down to two main factors:

1. My core belief that the magic is in the details. I dive deep into any topic that interests me, and this has been best captured through my work with B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups. While many look at the iceberg of these businesses (ie. product-market-fit or revenue), my curiosity for the details has found me needing to understand businesses at their core. I would typically work closely with founders to learn how an industry operates, what macro trends will impact the business, and how buyers are driven to purchase software—which often includes the entire process of getting a budget and involving internal stakeholder buy-in.
2. The opportunity to exercise my strengths. From deal evaluation to assessing industry trends, my M&A experience has been anchored by being able to quickly develop a good grasp of movements in technology and economic models—and this has been seamlessly transferred to early-stage venture capital. Given how the early success of seed-stage businesses is contingent on being agile to respond quickly to technology shifts, I’ve been able to offer founders my ability to quickly see where value accrues in any market.

When you combine these two factors—going deep into the details while picking up new information quickly—this is where I add the most value for our founders.

Going from getting early customers towards building a scalable business you need a good handle on whether what you're doing today is sustainable.
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The best way to figure that out is by understanding the numbers—going deep on unit economics, building budgets and forecasts, and operating models. All of which I have been able to hone in on during my time in mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Lessons on lessons on lessons

While the excitement of deal evaluation is a big part of early-stage venture capital, the real value goes well beyond that. The post-investment stage is where the deeper learning happens. Working closely with founders to help grow their businesses provides invaluable insights that shape how we approach future investments. It’s in this hands-on involvement where we truly gather the lessons that make us better investors.

I might only be five feet tall, but I have a complete overview of every moving part of the business—including sales ops, product pivots, go-to-market (GTM) pivots, and a million other changes. Being so close to the ins and outs has really allowed me to lean in on the learnings, which is a process I value as I firmly believe that spending time learning is never a waste of time, regardless of the outcome. Some recent lessons I’ve been able to gather from working closely with our founders from Blakthumb and Bonjoro include:

• The importance of narrowing down your ideal customer profile and how doing so will lead to more sustainable unit economics for each customer that is brought on.
• The concept of price elasticity in the context of pricing and packing SaaS products, and how it can vary across different customer segments.

However, these learnings don’t just come from the companies we invest in. While we often don’t invest in the vast majority of the companies we see, I’ve always found it worthwhile to learn about any given industry or new technology being developed, even if it doesn’t result in an investment. This has definitely taught me the power of learning how to learn.

My investment wish list if I had a time machine

I've long answered Wiz. Wiz is one of the fastest-growing software companies of all time… it's hard to believe that they’ve only been in the market since 2020. Within just four years, they’ve been able to reach $350M ARR. This solidifies the demand for comprehensive cloud and SaaS security solutions and expertise is growing, with 83% of organisations planning to increase their cloud security budget in the next 12 months alone.

Despite top-down pressure to improve cloud security, cybersecurity startups will often be met with apprehension from security teams who are reluctant to provide access to their code base or internal data. Yet, the way Wiz was able to quickly demonstrate their product’s core value to increase their customer base is particularly commendable; and I think it has set the benchmark for the wider cybersecurity industry.

My green flags in founders

By now, you might have noticed I have a thing for anything green (pandan and matcha at the top of that list.)

Aside from founders who hustle by rolling up their sleeves, I typically look for two green flags.

Having customer obsession and the ability to sell.

Both are essential in driving the business forward very early on - whether you’re selling to customers, employees, or investors. Regardless of the stakeholder, they all require someone who has complete conviction on the problem they’re solving and can convince others of the same vision.

At the early stage, being an idealist is important in setting visionary goals, principles, and long-term objectives. However, the caveat is that the best founders can balance this with the pragmatism to change course when something isn’t working. Too often, I find founders being too laser-focused on their visions, preventing them from seeing the bigger picture and making the necessary product and customer pivots.

If you’re a founder ready to make waves, I’d love to hear your vision. Let's talk about your game-changing product and how it's shaping your industry. I can't wait to explore the potential together!

If you’re a visionary founder ready to chat about what problem you’re solving, then we should chat!

When they say that necessity is the mother of invention, it also means that when you want something invented, you have to invent it yourself. That’s how Bonjoro came about, according to Matt Barnett and Grant Dewar. 

Noticing the diminishing effectiveness of email campaigns to engage new customers and secure sales, they decided to hack something together from duct tape and blu-tac, and record personalised videos instead. 

“Hey [potential customer’s name], as you can see we’re here in sunny Sydney at the moment [shows Opera House backdrop], but we’re heading to London soon for [insert reason]. We’d love to meet up and chat about [the thing we can help with] as we have also done [that thing] for [other high profile customers] too. Give us a call. Byeeee. [Waves into camera from Manly ferry.]

- Dramatic reenactment of an early Bonjoro customer video

Then someone saw the idea and wanted to make videos for their customers too. Then another person wanted to integrate it with their CMS and their campaign software. Google became customers and so did Firefox. That’s how the product was born and since then there's been no looking back for Bonjoro.

Tidal meets Bonjoro

Tidal’s Grant McCarthy met Matt and was interested in Bonjoro early, when they were initially seeking Angel investors. By the time Bonjoro was ready for seed funding, the conversations between Grant and Matt had developed into a relationship, and Tidal came on board as an investor.

Matt says he “likes investors with a lot of energy and who can contribute to what we’re doing.” That’s why Tidal was a natural fit, because they had the right mindset, and it was “a relationship as well.” 

Tidal “understood our space” is how Matt puts it. “They understood our customer success space, the SaaS space, and the US market.” An alignment, he said, that was critical to their next stage of growth. Where other Australian VCs focus on the local market, Bonjoro was confident that Tidal had the experience and reach to support their US market growth from day one.

Wearing the founder hat and the Tidal hat

Matt points out how unusual this is among investors, saying “funds tend to approach things as a fund, but Wendell is able to approach things from different angles” due to his background and experience. He adds that “Tidal is willing to get their hands dirty and directly contribute to the success of each of their companies, more so than most funds I’ve seen.”

This has been Grant’s experience too, noting that Tidal has “got us through some strategy and ideation points where their product experience and expertise has been really invaluable, which is something I wasn't quite expecting.”

“Tidal is willing to get their hands dirty and directly contribute to the success of each of their companies, more so than most funds I’ve seen.”
- Matt Barnett, Bonjoro

How the engagement goes deep

Like many startups, Bonjoro faced the common founder challenge of juggling product growth with capital raising and business scaling. Matt describes this as “like climbing a hill and then you get to the top, but it's not the actual top, it's just the first peak. And you've got to put your pack on and start climbing again.” When asked how Tidal has helped climb some of those hills, both Matt and Grant had a ton of examples.

There’s support from tidal on multiple levels, according to Matt. On the business and management side, Tidal has helped with C-Suite, R&D recruitment and mentoring, developed and defined skill sets for senior positions, and supported the founders to prepare for and get the most from interactions with the board. 

On the product side, Wendell has dived into Bonjoro product activities, by chairing workshops with global teams, running product challenges and positioning pieces, and helping with strategy and roadmaps. 

Bonjoro says it’s unusual to receive such in-depth, tangible support from VC investors. But the benefits seem immeasurable.

Choosing between a safe plateau or rapid growth 

When it comes to choosing VC investors, Matt says “it's about being pushed as well.” This became vitally important as Bonjoro looked to their next big growth stage. They had just reached break even (congrats!) and it seemed like a good time to assess.

That’s when Tidal challenged them with a few big questions that would shift their thinking into a higher gear: How much do you need to raise next? How many hires do you need to make? In other words, how do you want to grow?

Through lengthy conversations, in-depth workshops and meetings, Tidal and the Bonjoro founders discussed whether Bonjoro should grow fast or steady, to hire across the year or all at once, spend a lot now or spread it out. It was a matter of staying on the break-even plateau or taking a risk and going for it! Matt observed that being able to have “this level of transparency builds great trust and understanding.” Ultimately, Bonjoro decided on the riskier move, but noted that “looking back we should have gone even faster!” 

Having decided on the speedy path, Tidal was right there to help shape Bonjoro’s challenging transition from product to platform, which would be a pivotal part of maturing their offering. “Workshops with the management team and Tidal helped crystallise the strategy into an actionable plan. The best attack plan.” Part of this included commercially aligning the planned value-adds going into the product, by revising the pricing and packaging model. This is always a risky area and can result in customer churn. By providing “feedback and education on the importance of packaging alongside actual pricing,” Tidal helped Bonjoro better target by segment and make revenue-improving changes. 

Never slack on advice

Bonjoro has noticed “a lot of other investors tend to be more hands-off.” They respond when you call on them, but they’re not part of the team. Tidal is different. They are “proactive and that’s what we look for, someone who can actively bring value.”

This is supposed to be a blog about the company Shippit, one of the first investments by Tidal (or the company that was to become Tidal) back in 2017. The two companies sort of grew up together.

I could have written at length about how they are revolutionizing the way shipping works in Australia and overseas and raising capital left and right, but when I interviewed the Shippit founders, I decided to focus on their magic partnership and the relationships that have helped them succeed. 

It’s hard not to reach for words like ‘bromance’ and ‘misterhood’ to describe the easy rapport and sentence-finishing communication that long-time friends and business partners Rob Hango-Zada and William On enjoy. And it doesn’t take a startup genius to realise that their relationship is a key ingredient of their success.

Relationshippit first

Great relationships seem to be at the centre of all Shippit’s growth success, from building rapport with customers, finding the right investors and employees, and realistically assessing the gaps and making the right call on how to scale up. 

Will says their approach to most things is “we don't know all the answers and our focus is to get the right people around us.” When applied to investors, Rob explains that “any investor coming in is a long term relationship; and we want to partner with people who are really invested in our company.” 

If the three most important things in an investor are “getting along on a personal level, having a solid understanding of the domain and people, being able to push us in terms of our thinking,” then Tidal is an ideal fit.

Grant McCarthy and Murray Bleach were Shippit’s first Tidal contacts. “Grant and Murray took a more US VC style of approach that added value beyond the checkbook.” This was important, according to Will, because having input about product, finance and deal flow meant that Tidal became part of the team. 

Co-investing in Series A with Aura Ventures, Grant was keen to participate. He has “a lot of knowledge around the last mile logistic space, understanding of where the market was going. He also really understood the macro themes of an open network two-sided marketplace with logistics and e-commerce.” which Rob says made them a great match.

“90% of the battle is having the right people around you.”

- William On

All work and no playbook

Getting to Series A from angel and seed stage takes a lot of work and a lot of grit, getting to Series B, even more. Fortunately, the Tidal team were able to help in the form of a go-to-market expert called Georgie Turner.

According to Rob, Georgie literally “implanted herself at Shippit for about six months” to help set up an operational manual that became their Series B Playbook. This was rich enough guidance on how to set Shippit up for success to a [future Series B raise]. Being there in person made a huge difference to the founders.

The playbook for Shippit contained all the “key metrics that needed to be landed” in order to drive the business forward. Will and Rob nod at each other, “we ran our whole business off that.” It prepared Shippit for the next capital raising round, laying the groundwork for success they enjoy now. 

When reflecting on what Tidal is like compared to other investors, Rob observes that “we've got more investment [dollars] from other partners who don't give us anywhere near as much counsel and guidance, or encouragement.” In business speak, he jokes “they definitely over-index on their investment versus their involvement.” What a compliment!

Think big and then think bigger 

A pivotal moment for Rob and Will was during a conversation with Grant, who said “you don't realise this yet, but this is a billion dollar company. You need to be thinking in terms of a billion dollar business, how you are going to change the world and what you're going to do.” It’s this kind of Tidal truth bomb that has helped Shippit to realise they are “no longer building a product, but building a company.”

Will explains that “the conversations that we're having now are around organisational design, having the right people on the bus, checking they are sitting in the right seat.” This is where Tidal has steered them, in part, toward being that billion dollar business and thinking like one too. 

When I asked if this meant they no longer felt so green, they concluded there’s always something to be green about. And despite onboarding many investors since the start, Tidal is often the go-to for advice and guidance. This can mean hands-on help or a late night phone call with Wendell or Grant to “have a glass of wine and talk about the business.”

Regardless of what you're going through, they're there for the good and the bad, thick, and thin to get you through what you need to get through.”

- Rob Hango-Zada

Foundational friends and future relationships

Rob and Will have been friends for 17 years, and in some ways it’s hard to believe they are first time founders. They are wise and self-aware. Perhaps this comes from knowing each other really well or maybe they’ve just learned to be confident and believe in their team. 

Will reveals his secret to staying calm through everything, “whatever happens you and I will figure it out and that's my secret.” Rob says their biggest strength is being able to “take outside information and apply the concepts that we've got to come up with the best answer.” Either way, they work as an inseparable team. 

When it comes to Tidal’s place in things, the founders say they “take more of a partnership based approach, which is empathy, understanding and pushing us, or encouraging us to think bigger about the problem, which is why they have been so important to us over the last couple of years.”

“Having Wendell on the board from a product perspective, Georgie on board from a finance perspective, then capital raising and how we think about our future state from Grant. All of these different people from Tidal make up a really good front for us. They’re fully part of our team.”

As Rob concludes, “regardless of what you're going through, they're there for the good and the bad, thick, and thin to get you through what you need to get through.”