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 These services are expensive, outdated, and inefficient.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.

Today, we are thrilled to congratulate TheLoops co-founders Somya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu, and their entire team on a remarkable milestone: their acquisition by IFS, a global leader in enterprise software. This landmark achievement is not just a testament to the team's incredible vision and execution, but also a powerful validation of a shared belief in the transformative power of AI to revolutionise customer experience operations.

For us at Tidal Ventures, this is a moment of immense pride. We are honoured to have been a partner to TheLoops since their 2020 Seed round, and this outcome is a brilliant success for the founders, the team, and our investors.

Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise

When we first met Somya and Ravi, we saw an accomplished, product-led duo with deep domain expertise. Somya's experience leading product management at ServiceNow, combined with Ravi's background in AI at Splunk and as a multi-time founder, immediately stood out. They had identified a critical and growing pain point: customer support operations were overwhelmed, and existing tools weren't fit for purpose.

As we wrote in our original investment notes, our conviction was rooted in bringing the principles of observability to the front office. For too long, customer success and support had been a black box. We saw a powerful opportunity: what if you could make these operations observable, turning a traditional cost centre into a company's primary growth driver? TheLoops was the answer. Their platform was designed to bring the context, collaboration, and intelligence needed for true observability, empowering teams that had been left behind by modern data tools. We knew this approach would deliver a true step change in the customer experience, and that founders Somya and Ravi were the killer combination with the deep domain expertise to make it happen.

A shared vision realised

TheLoops has executed on this mission with passion and precision, evolving into a leader in AI Agents for the next era of Customer Success. Their platform doesn't just assist agents—it amplifies their expertise. By delivering intelligent routing , proactive insights, and knowledge that evolves with every interaction. Imagine knowing what happened in a customer product interaction when a ticket is opened without them having to explain it! TheLoops has empowered businesses to resolve complex cases faster and more consistently and in turn scale customer operations.

This journey culminates in today’s acquisition by IFS. The strategic fit is undeniable. As a customer of TheLoops, IFS experienced the power of their AI-driven platform firsthand. IFS shares TheLoops' vision for the future of Autonomous AI Agents and provides the global scale and resources to accelerate this mission.

Validating the AI-driven strategy

This successful exit demonstrates the power of Tidal’s investment strategy. Software and AI startups can create immense value and generate strong, early returns with differentiated, AI-driven products that attract significant buyer interest. TheLoops built a platform with compelling intellectual property that delivers tangible ROI, proving that a company with a distinct technology advantage can achieve a great outcome.

This is a formula we believe in, and it is just the beginning. We are proud to see our Seed II portfolio company's successes and are actively replicating this strategy in our Seed III fund, backing companies with cutting-edge AI, real technology advantages, and rapid global potential.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude to Somya, Ravi, and the whole team at TheLoops. Thank you for your relentless hard work and for including us on this incredible journey. We are delighted to have partnered with you and will be cheering you on in your next chapter with IFS.

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A new software era is here. It doesn’t just store your data, it does the work for you.

For decades, enterprise software was built around Systems of Record: authoritative databases where structured information lived. Think ERPs, CRMs, or EHRs. These systems were valuable because they democratised access to critical information. For startups, they were hard to displace. They became the default axis of influence in every organisation: inflexible, centralised, and (mostly) passive.

We believe AI is breaking that model.

We’re entering the age of the System of Work: software that doesn’t just manage data, it does the work. These AI-native systems generate the actual deliverables: the compliance document, the diagnosis summary, the customer reply, and the inspection report. They collapse the distance between insight and action.

This isn’t a UX upgrade. It’s a paradigm shift in how work happens.

What is a System of Work?

A System of Work will autonomously perform productive tasks. It’s not a place you go to see what needs doing, it’s the system that actually does it. That might look like:

• An AI agent that resolves a customer ticket end-to-end
• A generated legal contract tailored to a specific jurisdiction
• A clinical platform that drafts summaries and actions from messy encounter notes

Where legacy tools required human intervention to interpret and act, Systems of Work incorporate agentic behaviour: they act on their own, within guardrails. They represent a new kind of software stack: data, model, workflow and output, all in one loop.

These systems are defined by a few key traits.

• Agentic behaviour: They initiate actions rather than waiting for human prompts.
• Embedded actions: They do not just suggest what to do. They complete the task directly within the system.
• Workflow ownership: They become the go-to place where work is created, reviewed, and shipped.
• Outcome-based value: They are priced and evaluated based on the results they deliver, not just on features or access.

Why the record → work shift matters

In a world of Systems of Work, the traditional axis of influence in software is beginning to lose relevance. The classic “source of truth” may still exist somewhere in the stack. However, the source of productivity, the system where outcomes are created, will shift.

Once a system starts producing core business outputs, it becomes exponentially more valuable and much harder to displace. This creates a new kind of competitive advantage. Systems of Work do not only benefit from access to data. They generate new, proprietary data through use. They encode human expertise, automate repeatable decisions, and improve over time. These effects compound, and become self-reinforcing advantages that deepen with every interaction.

This shift also changes the economics of software adoption.

• From insight to execution: No more offline handoffs. Work gets done where the data lives and the value is immediate and obvious.
• From user-as-operator to user-as-editor: Humans go from clicking buttons and entering data to reviewing AI-generated output.
• From seat-based pricing to outcome-based monetisation: Business models shift toward per-task or per-output models, unlocking new budget lines tied to productivity.
• From “jobs to be done” to “roles to be done”: AI systems take over full professional roles, not just isolated tasks enabling full workflow ownership.
• From software tools to workflow axis of influence: These systems become the gravitational centre of daily operations. Frontline teams feel the value directly, not just IT buyers.

How Vertical AI is powering this shift

This transition is most visible in Vertical AI: AI products built specifically for the needs of one industry. These aren’t generic LLM wrappers. They embed into frontline workflows and solve the hard, boring, expensive problems unique to sectors like healthcare, logistics, construction, and financial services.

The most advanced Vertical AI systems:

• Combine deep domain knowledge with powerful models
• Build proprietary data moats by capturing interaction-specific context
• Deliver real-world value through actionable outputs, not just dashboards

And crucially, they don’t just make software smarter, they replace entire layers of human effort.

Industries will not just adopt AI. Industries will be restructured by AI

Systems of Work will drive the biggest changes in industries where work is still manual, complex, or repetitive.

Winning without replacing

Smart AI startups are using over-the-top (OTT) strategies to enter these workflows. Rather than attempting to displace existing systems of record, they adopt a wedge strategy to layer in value → starting with simple value-additive propositions like:

• A co-pilot layered on top of an EHR system
• A transcription layer that starts automating follow-up actions
• A reporting tool that gradually becomes the system of work for compliance

Once embedded, these tools don’t just assist, they absorb the workflow. Once the workflow is absorbed, the product has direct access to the tacit knowledge that the human uses to complete a task end-to-end. Access to this ‘grey’ data area helps feed and improve an autonomous neural network, which becomes an expert on the specific task required.

Final thought

The System of Record defined the last era of enterprise software. The System of Work will define the next. We don’t know what that means for Systems of Record, maybe some of them will be able to participate in the System of Work revolution as well. We are focused on finding the founders who are willing to tackle the ‘work’ problem from scratch. The pathways to achieving a System of Work are complex and multi-layered. The optimal way to build toward a System of Work will vary by use case, user archetype, and industry.

Join us from the leading edge of Vertical AI startups, as we publish our live thinking on building Systems of Work.

Tendl, the startup transforming how businesses respond to government tenders, has secured pre-seed funding led by Tidal Ventures. The investment marks a significant milestone in modernising what has traditionally been an unsexy, time-consuming sector ripe for innovation.

We are excited to lead Tendl's recent funding round, partnering with the team to revolutionise the tendering process through AI-powered technology. Based in Queensland, Tendl is making tendering more accessible and efficient for companies selling to governments and large enterprises, helping them increase revenue through better opportunity discovery and response management.

Markets with tailwinds

The tendering market represents a massive opportunity, with critical market dynamics creating perfect conditions for technological disruption:

• Global government procurement market worth $10 trillion in annual spending
• Government procurement reached $99B in Australia last year
• Up to 13% of OECD GDP flows through tender processes
• Suppliers spend up to 30% of revenue on tendering processes with no guarantee of success
• Traditional high barriers to entry requiring specialised teams and significant time investment
• Growing sovereign debt pushing increased reliance on competitive bidding
• Post-DOGE environment driving renewed focus on cost-effective procurement

The timing for Tendl's solution is particularly compelling as generative AI reaches maturity. Recent developments have shown what can be achieved with modest budgets and smaller, more efficient teams. While previous tools focused mainly on collaboration and information gathering, AI enables a fundamental reimagining of the entire workflow, coinciding with government initiatives seeking greater efficiency in procurement processes.

Products that change the game

Tendl's AI-powered platform stands out through several innovative features that fundamentally transform how companies approach tenders:

• Intelligent opportunity discovery through integrations with over 600 tender portals
• Automated analysis and matching of opportunities to company capabilities
• Smart pre-filling systems that pull relevant information from existing documents
• Deep CRM integrations for tracking progress and improving future bids
• Complete workflow automation powered by AI

The platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:

1. Discovery: Makes tender identification user-friendly and 50% faster
2. Analysis: AI agents instantly evaluate fit and requirements
3. Response: Transforms days-long processes into sub-hour workflows, saving tens of thousands annually

Founders that hustle

Founder Laurie Nicol brings a unique combination of engineering, economics, and entrepreneurial experience to Tendl. As a second-time founder who previously built and sold a company working with government data, Laurie deeply understands both the technical and commercial aspects of the problem space.

What impressed us most was Laurie's customer-centric approach and ability to execute with precision. The combination of technical acumen and commercial awareness positions him perfectly to tackle the complex challenges in the tendering space. His vision for leveraging AI technology to deliver powerful solutions without massive infrastructure investments demonstrates the kind of innovative thinking needed in this sector.

A compelling business model

Tendl employs a hybrid pricing model combining platform fees with usage-based pricing, tied to tender volume. This allows them to:

• Scale revenue naturally with customer usage
• Capture value proportional to delivered benefits
• Build strong customer stickiness through integration
• Create potential for success-based pricing as the platform matures
• Reduce at-risk costs for suppliers across the entire market

The platform's positioning as the primary source of tendering data opens opportunities to capture value from the trillion-dollar tendering market through success-based pricing models. By reducing the cost across the whole market and minimising at-risk costs for suppliers, Tendl is creating value at both individual and systemic levels.

Global appeal

Tendl's solution addresses a universal challenge in government and enterprise procurement. While starting with a strong foundation in Australia, the platform's capabilities are readily applicable to similar procurement environments globally. The administrative burden in tendering is a worldwide challenge, presenting significant opportunities for international expansion.

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

The Seed phase and beyond

Tendl has shown early validation and clear product-market fit signals. The allocated funds will primarily fuel the development of an exceptional team, enabling them to bring their visionary product to life. With a focus on building out robust technical capabilities and conducting strategic market research in the US, Tendl is well-positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for intelligent tendering solutions.

From day one, Laurie's unwavering focus has been on establishing Tendl as the backbone of tender operations not just in Australia but on a global scale, and we wholeheartedly support this mission. We look forward to continuing to support the Tendl team as they set out to transform how companies approach and win tenders.

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.

Thanks to Samadhi Pelenda for her help in drafting these notes.

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.

Thanks to Samadhi Pelenda for her help in drafting these notes.

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!

Leading the charge in powering the asset management industry forward with AI, Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.

We’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building an AI-powered asset condition monitoring platform. Asseti is a game-changer in intelligent asset management, covering an expansive market of real assets. Its software platform utilises high-quality imagery and advanced machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs. It monitors wear and tear, leaks, and potential hazards, thereby minimising downtime and maximising the lifespan of valuable assets. Asseti is quickly becoming the leader in condition management across the lifecycle of these assets.

Markets with tailwinds

You only need to look out your window to know that asset management is an expansive market. Imagine all the offices, stores, warehouses, quarries, properties and buildings around the globe—Asseti can be used with all of them, no matter where they are. Managing these real assets has traditionally been cumbersome and risky. Infrastructure demands regular upkeep to minimise downtime and ensure a safe operational environment. Another market factor driving Asseti forward is the opportunity presented by digitisation.

Historically, asset-heavy industries have lagged in digital transformation due to deep-rooted processes and legacy operations. However, recent drivers like COVID-19 and the push for sustainable practices have accelerated this shift. Predictive maintenance, which leverages data analytics and predictive modelling, has gained popularity for its ability to prevent unplanned downtime and costly repairs. Furthermore, the growing demands for sustainability have underscored the importance of reducing carbon emissions. Asseti meets these needs by enabling remote access to assets, thereby reducing travel and enhancing worker safety.

Products that change the game

Asseti’s platform uses high-quality imagery to create detailed 3D digital models. Machine learning and AI analyse these models to comprehensively list components, quantities, conditions, and issues. This empowers managers to create detailed work plans for their asset portfolios, assessing them in risk and cost.

Traditionally, engineers or staff would climb structures, take inadequate photos with digital cameras, write reports, and circulate them as PDFs. Asseti captures this condition data over time, giving asset managers and senior management a complete overview of their portfolios’ condition across different time periods.

By moving costing and forecasting from Excel to a dynamic, data-driven platform, Asseti provides primary data and insights across the asset lifecycle: acquisition, operation, and disposal.

Their newest innovation, Asseti Foresight, revolutionises capital expenditure (CapEx) planning in asset management. Powered by AI, it forecasts total replacement lifecycles and maintenance costs across entire asset networks, optimising intervention timing based on degradation and financial modelling. This tool streamlines long-term financial planning, offering strategic insights for future expenditures.

The next stage for Asseti is instant asset assessment through satellite imagery, offering more frequent evaluations.

Founders that hustle

Founder Aonghus Stevens, with 15 years of experience in the drone imagery industry, leads a stellar team with members from notable companies like NearMap, Commbank, and Deloitte.

Being a solo founder demands resilience, focus, drive, a clear vision, and problem-solving skills—Aonghus exemplifies all of these qualities and more. By being data-obsessed and focused on providing solutions that offer asset owners and managers insights over the entire asset lifecycle, not just at a single point in time. He believes the future of asset management lies in data-led decision-making, envisioning data use decades into the future.

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A compelling business model

Every building and structure is a potential asset that Asseti can assess and help manage. Asseti’s model not only reduces time and risk but also provides asset owners with a detailed view of their asset’s condition over time. This understanding of condition data over time then allows Asseti to offer detailed insights into CapEx planning and affords them the right to influence both the acquisition and disposal stages in the asset lifecycle. Asseti also owns the primary condition data of the building, which can be transferred to a new owner of the building, almost like a system of record for an asset.

On top of its existing traction, Asseti’s latest functionality to drive CapEx planning and spending involves more teams and stakeholders across its customer base, including finance and executives. This enables the platform to be an indispensable part of their customers’ businesses. This transition will lift these teams out of spreadsheets and into Asseti, similar to what Orkestra has achieved in the solar and battery space.

The Seed phase and beyond

Asseti is in its Seed Phase, having demonstrated strong product-market fit. It is already trusted by industry leaders such as Mirvac, CBRE, Caltex, Colliers, and Toyota. Asseti has achieved remarkable growth of 200%+ year over year and is poised for continued growth in its expansive addressable market.

The Asseti team is looking to enhance its product and engineering capabilities, specifically focusing on scaling its software offering. Driven by their initial success in the market, they are also keen on expanding in the US and are excited to introduce new AI-driven features for instant asset condition insights—a true game-changer in the industry!

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

In the ever-evolving world of technology and investment, where timing can dictate destiny, a spur-of-the-moment encounter between Tidal Managing Partner Grant McCarthy and renowned tech evangelist Guy Kawasaki led to a fruitful dialogue. As Grant recalls, what began as an ambitious plan to host an event during Guy’s visit to Sydney soon faced logistical hurdles reminiscent of the challenges startups often encounter. Luckily, fate intervened, leading to a meeting in San Francisco where, sharing surfboards and experiences, a connection formed. Beyond their love for surfing, Guy and Grant share a keen eye for tech investment opportunities shaped by their respective journeys.

For Guy, it has been marked by his pivotal roles during the early Apple days and advising Canva during their early product development. Grant’s journey to becoming the technologist he is today is equally storied. Amidst the frenetic energy of the dot-com bubble, Grant dove headfirst into the tech scene, joining Yahoo as its 14th Australian employee. He played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s trajectory, working across some of its earliest investments, including industry leaders like Seek and Carsales. At Tidal, he’s backed ventures like Shippit, now valued at $300m and FrankieOne from their earliest stages.

These shared early tech experiences make for a good yarn filled with valuable insights into how to build and grow a tech company, offering a firsthand perspective on what it truly takes to succeed.

The role of luck and timing

Grant emphasises the importance of recognising the “corporate lotto cycle” in startups, where success often depends on fortuitous timing and circumstances. Reflecting on his journey, Guy candidly acknowledges, “Yeah, I worked for Apple. I worked for Canva. I was on the Wikipedia board of directors and a Mercedes Benz brand ambassador. I’m trying to paint this picture, but I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing all the time.” Guy believes that luck isn’t merely a matter of chance but a culmination of factors aligning at the right moment. “It’s not just because you have growth and grit,” he asserts. “It takes luck, and it takes, you know, some teacher in your past, some coach in your past, some mentor in your past. A lot of things have to line up to be remarkable.”

Guy’s journey with Canva mirrors the unpredictable nature of startup fortunes. Drawing parallels to his early days at Apple, he recalls the pivotal moment when Canva’s potential became apparent. His social media manager’s recommendation and personal experience led him to adopt the “Peter Lynch theory” of investing in products he uses. This mix of personal conviction and timing underscores the relationship between luck and strategic insight. Just as luck and timing played a role in Guy and Grant’s meeting in San Francisco, so too do they shape the trajectories of startups—highlighting the importance of seizing opportunities and cultivating meaningful connections.

Remarkable founders know how to “turn and burn”

Luck and timing aren’t the only things that matter; remarkable founders also know how to make good decisions and be flexible when things don’t go according to plan. Guy, the surfer he is, likens this process to the “turn and burn” manoeuvre, which requires founders to seize opportunities, adapt to evolving conditions, and navigate uncertainty with confidence and precision.

As Guy puts it, “As soon as you make your decision, you switch from, is this the right decision to making the decision right?” In the same vein, he elaborates on the intricacies of surfing, highlighting how “you’re trying to sit in the right place, you’re trying to turn at the right time, you’re trying to paddle in the right direction, you’re trying to pop up at the right time. There’s a lot of variables.” Guy emphasises, “That’s what makes surfing so hard... at some level, once you turn and burn and start paddling, it’s all about making the decision. You got to compensate. You got to change. You got to do whatever you got to do. It’s about making the decision right when push comes to shove.”

Grant highlights that unique early-stage challenges, like figuring out product-market fit and scalable go-to-market strategies, can often involve guesswork. “A lot of the time, particularly in the early stage, at the seed stage, you’re guessing a lot of the time,” Grant explains. Grant’s insight adds another dimension to the “turn and burn” approach, underscoring the delicate balance founders must have between intuition and strategy.

You’re trying to align yourself with people you think are quality, people you can work with who will make hard and fast decisions and have a cadence of speed in doing things.

Finding the balance in product development and sales efforts

Every successful startup’s heart lies in a dual focus: building a remarkable product and effectively selling it to the market. As Guy succinctly says, “100% of your focus should be on making and selling it.” Take, for example, the iconic partnership between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, where their synergy in product innovation and sales acumen laid the foundation for Apple’s unprecedented success.

Grant echoes this sentiment, emphasising the need for startups to prioritise product excellence early on. He affirms that startups armed with a remarkable product, addressing a pressing problem across geographies, often find themselves ahead in the sales game. “With a great product that solves a really hard problem,” Grant advises, “you don’t have sales problems.” However, he highlights that the real challenge for startups with a great product lies in acquiring the right sales talent and capabilities to leverage this product advantage effectively. Grant’s insight sheds light on the pivotal role that sales capability plays in translating product potential into tangible business growth.

How Grant and Guy identify founders with promising potential

Having spoken to countless founders over the years, both seasoned investors pay close attention to the founder’s character—specifically their potential to grow and endure the challenges of the startup journey. Grant points out how important it is to understand the founder’s mindset early on, stating, “One of the things that we’ve always tried to do at Tidal is spend as much time with these founders early in their problem-solving product mindset of what and how they’re going to build something.” For Tidal, it’s not solely about assessing a founder’s technical skills or industry knowledge but also about predicting the founder’s evolution as they go on their journey.

Grant explains:

It’s not only how good they are at product or what knowledge they have about the problem, but also what kind of person they will be as they go through that process.

This is at the core of Tidal’s investment principles, primarily driven by our distinctive operator-led approach. Unlike conventional venture capital firms led by investors, being operator-led means your investors are individuals with firsthand experience as founders and builders of tech companies. Tidal is committed to working closely with founders, offering them insights and advice from practical experience rather than mere theoretical knowledge.

Being the right “asshole” leader

Drawing from four decades of frontline experience, Guy asserts his authority on a subject, saying, “I have become an expert in assholes.” He swiftly clarifies, not in the proctology sense, eliciting a chuckle from Grant. Guy distinguishes between two breeds of such leaders: the egocentric and the mission-driven. The former, he elaborates, is consumed by self-glorification, exemplified by an entourage and a penchant for ego gratification.

In contrast, the mission-driven “asshole” is driven by a singular purpose, unyielding in the pursuit of their vision. He cites Steve Jobs as a prime example of the latter, lauding his focus on creativity and productivity over self-aggrandisement. Grant concurs, emphasising the importance of tyrannical focus in realising one’s mission, a trait reminiscent of Jobs’ legendary dedication. Guy reflects on his time working with Jobs, acknowledging the fear he instilled while underscoring his genuine desire to revolutionise the computer business.

Navigating different mindsets and self-belief in leadership

The distinction between growth and fixed mindsets has profound implications for leadership. Guy believes that having a fixed mindset constrains personal advancement and leads to biases hindering company growth. He articulates, “The fixed mindset is the mindset that you believe that you cannot gain new skills, that, if you open yourself up to the vulnerability of learning new things, it may be at one level embarrassing or even worse, it’ll mark you as a failure.”

This mindset often permeates hiring practices, leading founders to favour candidates who mirror their own attributes, potentially limiting diversity and innovation within the team. Fostering a growth mindset empowers founders to embrace continual learning and adaptability. As Guy highlights, “The growth mindset, by contrast, says that you can grow, you can expand, you can learn, you can do things.”

The three common founder mistakes to avoid in early-stage startups

Mistake 1: Hiring biases and lack of diversity

Guy highlights the detrimental impact of hiring biases, particularly when founders gravitate towards hiring individuals who mirror their personas or demographics. He argues that such bias reflects a need for a growth mindset, stifling innovation and progress within the startup ecosystem. Companies that embrace diversity show they’re fostering a mission-driven culture where the focus is on potential hires being part of a solution to a problem.

Mistake 2: Neglecting sales efforts

Another critical mistake is the tendency for early-stage founders to neglect sales efforts, leading to running out of funds. As Guy emphasises, “sales fixes everything.” He cautions against diverting excessive resources towards superficial “strategic” initiatives at the expense of core revenue-generating activities, stating, “When you start throwing around a strategic... you’re full of it. Because you know what? We don’t want strategic shit. We want money. We want sales.” Guy’s insight underscores the necessity of prioritising tangible sales outcomes over abstract strategic pursuits, highlighting the importance of generating revenue for sustaining business growth and viability.

Mistake 3: Underestimating time and effort in feature implementation

The final mistake is when founders don’t understand the complexity and effort required to build their technology. This tendency often leads to overpromising delivery timelines and revenue potential, resulting in disappointment among stakeholders. Guy stresses the necessity of realistic planning and diligent execution to avoid the pitfalls of overcommitment and subsequent under-delivery. Guy jokes, “Whenever a CEO tells me when something will ship and how much revenue will be generated, I add one year to the shipping date and divide it by 100.” Grant adds to this, suggesting, “I would say add a year, double the cost and half the revenue.”

How to win the AI race

To Guy, AI is a transformative force poised to revolutionise the world—a sentiment aligned with Tidal’s thesis. His belief in the transformative power of AI is unwavering, as he asserts, “I think that AI is a bigger deal than mobile phones, Internet, social media, personal computing.” This conviction stems from his extensive experience in the tech industry, where he has witnessed firsthand the profound impact of technological innovations. Amidst the growing impact of AI, Guy emphasises the importance of authenticity and substance, cautioning against the superficial use of AI as a buzzword. “Show me a company that isn’t using AI,” Guy challenges.

“If you’re saying you’re using AI, you better really be using AI in some significant way. You’re not just blowing smoke to increase the valuation of your company. I think when all the dust settles, you know, you cannot bullshit your way out of this.”

Grant, aligning with Guy’s perspective, recognises the increasing ubiquity of AI in everyday business operations. He acknowledges, “The really interesting thing is people are just generally starting to use it in their everyday business for everyday things.” This observation underscores the growing adoption of AI across various sectors, reflecting its expanding role in driving efficiency and innovation. However, Grant emphasises the importance of substance over rhetoric, echoing Guy’s sentiment that mere lip service to AI is insufficient. “You got to look at that and figure out that just saying the words AI is not going to buy you much longer,” Grant asserts. “Show what you’re actually doing with it as a product.”

Both Guy and Grant advocate for a pragmatic approach to AI adoption—one rooted in genuine innovation and tangible impact. Their insights highlight the need for founders and businesses to move beyond buzzwords and focus on delivering real value through AI-powered solutions. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, their guidance serves as a beacon for navigating the complexities of this transformative technology.

The key to navigating different market cycles

In navigating the ever-shifting market tides, seasoned tech veterans offer invaluable insights honed through weathering multiple market cycles, including the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis (GFC), and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Grant talks about the enduring nature of successful journeys amidst fluctuating market cycles. Reflecting on the prolonged timelines inherent in building successful startups, Grant emphasises the futility of fixating on market cycles:

When you start businesses, you are often on potentially multi-decade journeys. So, worrying about where a market cycle is up is out of your control. What you do have control over is your product and your sales.

Guy agrees that market fluctuations are insignificant compared to the laser focus founders must maintain on their companies’ goals. “I don’t care if venture capital is up or down or startups are up or down. All an entrepreneur needs to care about is your company.” His perspective underscores the importance of prioritising your own company over external market forces, regardless of prevailing conditions.

Tips for founders pitching their startups

Guy’s mantra, the 10-20-30 rule, serves as a guiding light for startup pitches. It advocates for ten slides, twenty minutes, and a minimum font size of thirty points. Yet, beyond slide counts and font sizes, Guy addresses a common pitfall among founders: the tendency to ramble instead of delivering a concise pitch.

At the heart of Guy’s advice lies a sense of urgency. Founders, he insists, are not flying lumbering Airbus 380s with endless runways at their disposal; they’re strapped into F-16s hurtling off aircraft carriers, where every second counts. In this high-stakes environment, the opening moments of a pitch are make-or-break. “So that means in the first 15 seconds, explain what the hell you do,” Guy advises. “Because until you explain what the hell you do, nobody gives a shit about your world-class technology or world-class background”.

We’re passionate about backing founders who disrupt markets and build transformative products that shape the future. If you’re working on an ambitious product that has the potential to revolutionise industries, get in touch.