# LLM.txt - Website Content Structure
# Generated: 2025-07-29T22:10:08.079Z
# Source: https://www.tidalvc.com/sitemap.xml
# Total Pages: 73
# Success Rate: 100.0%

## Site Metadata
Site URL: https://www.tidalvc.com
Extraction Date: 2025-07-29
Total Pages Processed: 73
Successful Pages: 73
Failed Pages: 0
Success Rate: 100.0%

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com
Title: Tidal Ventures | Venture Capital | Australia
Meta Description: We are a highly experienced Australian venture capital firm ready to back seed phase startups with brilliant ideas & global potential.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com

## Headings Structure:
H1: From seed to scale.Let's make waves.
H2: Your company makes technology that redefines the market.
H2: We invest in gutsy innovators who are ready to go global.
H2: Together we can go from seed to scale and beyond.
H2: Our mission is to help founders build momentum as bold and courageous product-led companies
H3: Our expertise is global. The way we work is personal.
H3: The seed stage has never mattered more
H3: Extended capabilities and seasoned expertise in your pocket
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
From seed to scale.Let's make waves.Your company makes technology that redefines the market.We invest in gutsy innovators who are ready to go global.Together we can go from seed to scale and beyond.Let's get startedOur mission is to help founders build momentum as bold and courageous product-led companiesIf you’re ready to scale up big and go global, we’re here to increase your odds of success.All our companies have a product-first mentality and effortlessly pull others into their vision and story. They make the waves that power the tide.Meet our wave makersShippit. Shippit real good.Shippit are an Australian startup success story built on an unbreakable founder relationship between Rob Hango-Zada and William On. Learn how Tidal helped guide their global success.Turning Search into Sales with Search.ioHamish Ogilvy and David Howden are the brilliant scientific minds behind AI search engine Search.io. Find out how they have leant on Tidal to articulate their vision, hire, and grow into multiple markets.Say hello to BonjoroFind out how Bonjoro, led by Matt Barnett and Grant Dewar, developed a successful customer video platform with investment, strategic advice and product support from the Tidal team. It's not about getting the money, it's about finding a partner in your journey. Tidal understood us - they are a founder-led VC firm who live their values.Somya Kapoor, TheLoopsTidal led our pre-seed and seed investment and has been critical to our success since. They helped us transition from a management consultancy to a segment-leading B2B software company. Tidal continues to provide the regular strategic advice and workshopping we needed as first-time founders, aimed at growing an EnergyTech unicorn.James Allston, Orkestra Tidal’s mentorship has been a constant force, helping us with everything from company strategy and capital raising to sales operations and governance.Rob Hango-Zada, ShippitSince the Seed stage, Tidal has brought solutions to any challenges we face. They jump in when needed, and understand our proposition as if it was their own.Campbell Brown, PredictHQTidal brought discipline early by helping us define and visualise the performance milestones that would get us from Seed to Series A.Simon Costello, FrankieOneTidal has been very hands-on in helping us grow. The team pushes and challenges us on positioning, product development, and go-to-market strategy.Seth Forman, SocialsuiteOur expertise is global. The way we work is personal.Founders like us for our broad operational experience and the money we offer, but they choose us because of our individual approach.Our team are operators and technologists at heart. We relish the challenges of company building and are there in any time zone to advise on strategy, product, resourcing, and more.There's no generic formula for success. And there's no one way of working with us.Meet the teamThe seed stage has never mattered moreThe Australian technology ecosystem is thriving, but at the critical earliest stages of the founder journey, real operational support is lacking.We’re here to change that. Our team is here to guide and advise during the critical formative stages of your business, with resources and playbooks developed from years of lived experience.How we workExtended capabilities and seasoned expertise in your pocketNo matter the topic, function, or geography, our founders can call upon #ten, Tidal’s Expert Network of tech founders and executives.They are like-minded people who have been there before at some of the world’s best businesses. They can help fill your experience gaps and increase your expertise.Meet #tenOur recent Thought WavesDetailed strategic, product and go-to-market guidance for founders. Including playbooks and other practical resources.Investment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.Seed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.

---

### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/how-we-work
Title: How We Work | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Tidal is a founder-focused, growth mindset-driven VC firm aimed at empowering outstanding founders to shape the future of industries.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/how-we-work

## Headings Structure:
H1: Ready to make waves?
H3: Australia has a healthy and growing startup ecosystem which is overflowing with opportunities and ideas.But there's a shortage of seed-focused investment and real operational support for companies at this critical stage.That's why we exist. To supply real advice and tangible support, along with the dollars.
H2: We believe to transform the industries of today we need to invest in the people creating the products of tomorrow
H2: We invest with intent and nurture every seed
H3: In your corner from the start
H3: A world of wisdom at your fingertips
H2: Our founders say we’re different
H3: Resources for founders
H3: We love the startup and tech community
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Ready to make waves?Australia has a healthy and growing startup ecosystem which is overflowing with opportunities and ideas.But there's a shortage of seed-focused investment and real operational support for companies at this critical stage.That's why we exist. To supply real advice and tangible support, along with the dollars.We believe to transform the industries of today we need to invest in the people creating the products of tomorrowWe invest with intent and nurture every seedIt’s not our style to spread the money around to see who gives us the quickest return. We go deep, not broad, making fewer than 10 new investments per year. This lets us put real support behind our investments and give more time to helping our founders succeed.We’re diligent and strong in our convictions. If we invest, it means we’ve got full confidence in your ability to grow and scale. That’s why we’re not afraid to lead investment rounds, publish investment notes and show off our founders to the world.We make selective, strategic investments that match our expertise in B2B software, product-led growth and go-to-market strategy. We put our money and energy where we can add the most value.In your corner from the startThe Tidal team offer a lot more than money.We bring operational and business expertise to help you with critical firsts - like hiring, product strategy, market readiness and more.We understand your growing pains and can help with your unique challenges. We'll stay up late with you to sweat the code, get up the next day to strategise expansion, and shepherd you back on track when needed.A world of wisdom at your fingertipsWe believe in the power of community, which is why we’ve created the Tidal Expert Network #ten to support our founders and build capability.#ten is our global network of expert technology leaders and executives who have founded and scaled some of the best tech businesses in the world, and been through it all before.Tidal founders can access #ten for the big steers and the small manoeuvres.Our founders say we’re differentIt’s easy for us to say that we dig deep to help our founders, but we’d rather let them tell you.Tidal has been very hands-on in helping us grow. The team pushes and challenges us on positioning, product development, and go-to-market strategy. Tidal led our pre-seed and seed investment and has been critical to our success since. They helped us transition from a management consultancy to a segment-leading B2B software company. Tidal continues to provide the regular strategic advice and workshopping we needed as first-time founders, aimed at growing an EnergyTech unicorn. It's not about getting the money, it's about finding a partner in your journey. Tidal understood us - they are a founder-led VC firm who live their values. Resources for foundersDetailed strategic, product and go-to-market guidance for founders. Including playbooks and other practical resources.Riding the waves of entrepreneurship with Guy Kawasaki and Grant McCarthyOG technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki joined Tidal Managing Partner and Co-Founder Grant McCarthy to discuss the characteristics of remarkable founders and how to navigate the long and exciting journey of being an entrepreneur.Investing in the next wave of technologyAre you thinking about Tidal as your lead investor? Well, scroll down as we answer founders’ most frequently asked questions and demystify how we think about investment.Storytelling through DemosDemos are a vital part of the feature development process in product-led businesses. They not only show what the team got done that sprint, they're an opportunity to experience a feature or product the way a customer would.We love the startup and tech communityWe couldn’t do what we do without a supportive startup ecosystem around us. VC culture is about leading from behind and shepherding other people’s success.This community gives a lot to us and we like to give back. That’s why we are:· Members and active contributors to the Tech Council of Australia· Signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/how-we-invest
Title: How We Invest | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Tidal is on the lookout for dynamic founders with game-changing ideas and the grit to see them through. We’re seed phase investors with a difference.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/how-we-invest

## Headings Structure:
H1: Brilliance is not typical, so we dig deep to uncover it
H2: We’re thematic investors on the lookout for market-shaking, ambitious products that can change the world.
H2: We look for companies who fit this profile
H2: Our investment approach
H3: We're different because of the way we work with our founders
H2: How to get funded
H3: If we vibe, we'll be in touch about next steps.
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Brilliance is not typical, so we dig deep to uncover itWe’re thematic investors on the lookout for market-shaking, ambitious products that can change the world.We look for companies who fit this profileMarkets with tailwindsYour chosen market is ripe for disruption. Technology adoption and changing behaviours have uncovered a clear problem and a compelling value-creation opportunity.Game-changing productsYour product is not incremental—it is truly disruptive. This usually means it is mission-critical and so sticky that customers love it and can't live without it.Founders that hustleYou’re a determined, insightful founder with the energy to scale and the grit to persevere. You know the value of having the right team with you and can attract top talent.Compelling business modelThe value proposition of your product is clear and demonstrable. You know how to draw new customers at a low cost and without much sales effort.Seed phase readyYou’re facing the challenges of the seed phase, and it’s time to go bigger. You’re ready for early investment and need someone who can prepare you for Series A.Global appealThe problem you are solving is universal, and your solution applies everywhere. You’re on the pathway towards a global launch.Our investment approachIt's never too early to contact us, even if you’re not sure you’re ready. We like to get to know founders before we invest.The Seed Phase is where we specialise. We invest with conviction early, often as your first institutional investor.We’d look to invest $250K to up to $5M over the course of your seed phase.Our investment process is transparent. We will get back to you quickly with honest feedback.We study future trends and develop themes to build conviction around your vision and potential.It’s our preference to lead funding rounds, but we are also willing to co-invest.Offering more than money, we invest time and resources to create a sustainable advantage.We are long-term partners with the capacity to double down in later investment rounds.We're different because of the way we work with our foundersWe go deep. As insiders, we don’t just provide money and advice, we support our founders directly and operationally.How to get fundedNo massive slide decks!We’re not after a huge slide deck or detailed business roadmap. Try to condense it to less than 15 slides and deliver a captivating story of your idea and where you see it going.Be clear and confidentWe’re interested in who you are as founders, the strength of your product story, your ambitions and vision, the gaps, the opportunities, and why you think you’ve got an idea that can make waves.Make sure you check us out tooAccepting investments is a big deal and a multi-year commitment. If you have questions, please ask. We can connect you with our founders to learn first-hand what it’s like having us in your corner.If we vibe, we'll be in touch about next steps.Get funded

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/team
Title: Team | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: On a mission to support exceptional founder-led companies, the Tidal team is a diverse group of highly experienced, operational tech entrepreneurs.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/team

## Headings Structure:
H1: Our team is in your corner
H2: We're a diverse group of ex-founders, operators, and investors united by a mission to help bold, early-stage companies grow their brilliant ideas
H3: We've got skills and knowledge to share
H2: Meet the Tidal team
H2: Our values guide every decision and define every relationship
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Our team is in your cornerWe're a diverse group of ex-founders, operators, and investors united by a mission to help bold, early-stage companies grow their brilliant ideasWe've got skills and knowledge to shareA huge part of our business is creating trusting relationships with our founders, and matching our resources and services to the needs of each company.Consider us your very own brains trust, ready to help with the ebbs and flows of being a seed-stage company and empowering founders to solve problems in their own way.Business strategistsGo to marketersSeasoned investorsTech foundersProduct gurusAll-weather specialistsMeet the Tidal teamGrant McCarthyManaging PartnerCo-founder, sounding board, visionary. Grant leverages a background in digital media and 20+ years of experience investing in seed companies in Asia & Australia and advising early-stage founders on their most critical challenges. He encourages big picture thinking, and guides companies to see strategic opportunities, build product-market fit, and prepare for institutional capital raising. Formerly Yahoo.Wendell KeunemanManaging PartnerProduct gun, founders' go-to-guy. Wendell is a product-led-growth expert and multi-time start-up founder, armed with 20+ years of software engineering and product management experience. Whether you need to go deep in code, sound out an idea, get a reality check, or just talk through frustrations, Wendell's unique thinking helps others to see the path forward. Formerly Atlassian, Broadsoft & Inference.Georgie TurnerPartnerGo-to-market guru, fundraising gun. Georgie has extensive experience in investment banking as well as enterprise sales, working closely alongside founders to develop successful go-to-market strategies. She brings wisdom and dedication to help founders optimise their business and prepare for the next round of fundraising. Formerly Bailador, Rackspace, Lazard.Murray BleachChairCo-founder, wise counsel, leader of leaders. Murray is a financial leader with over 30 years of investment, banking, and fund management experience, and a passionate, insightful backer of the newest ideas. Having served on high-profile boards, Murray's sound, practical experience supports every investment and underpins every Tidal value. Formerly IFM, Macquarie.Tony FaureCo-ChairClarity and conviction. Tony brings over 25 years of experience in the technology, data, and media industries, and has an extensive background of investing in early-stage companies and helping them scale. Tony brings vision and insight to Tidal's investment processes and governance. Chair of oOh!media and ReadyTech. Formerly Yahoo.Fee BarryPrincipalFundraising and governance guru. With years of experience across corporate law and M&A, Fee has been instrumental in assisting founders from inception to exit and beyond. She tackles complex challenges from her unique dual perspective, seamlessly blending a human-centred ethos with a strategic corporate approach. Formerly Atlassian, Marque LawyersKieran O'NeillPrincipalFormer founder, solution-oriented. With a broad range of experience in finance and sales, Kieran loves to work with founders to tackle unique problems. By leveraging his incisive mind and unyielding commitment, he helps entrepreneurs sharpen their operations and ready themselves for growth. Formerly Hometime, Macquarie, Goldman Sachs.Samadhi PelendaSenior AssociateIdeas, insights, independent vision. Samadhi’s special gift is helping founders clarify their vision, quantify their capabilities, and turn ideas into reality. She brings considerable experience working with startup size enterprises as well as big public sector companies, harnessing data to promote growth. Formerly Macquarie, PwC.Nick MuyVenture PartnerInnovation optimist, all-round partner. Nick uncovers and champions burgeoning innovative tech startups and works with founders on everything from product to finance to strategy. He’s active in the startup community and serves as an advisor, angel investor, and operator across numerous organisations, guiding them on their journey. Formerly Expedia Group, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.Liz RossINVESTOR RELATIONSBrand strategist, expert storyteller. Liz has specialised in end-to-end, audience-first brand marketing strategy for over 13 years. She harnesses her expertise to develop engaging integrated marketing programs that build brand preference and drive customer action. She’s the driving force behind how we position ourselves and connect with aligned founders and investors. Formerly Microsoft, Dovetail.Camille BiancoInvestor RelationsGlobal perspective, self-starter, active listener. With experience that spans three continents, Camille provides high-touch, first-class service for local and international investors. She is well-versed in portfolio construction, and brings holistic, advice-driven thinking into the realm of venture capital investing. Formally J.P. Morgan Private Bank (USA), Watco Australia, Wells Fargo Advisers (U

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/companies
Title: Companies | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Meet the amazing founders and companies in our investment portfolio and learn about how they grew their idea from seed to product to market success.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/companies

## Headings Structure:
H1: Our founders are changing the game
H2: The founders we work with are our real investment. They have the insight and drive to take a brilliant idea and turn it into an exceptional product ready for the world.
H2: 4You Innovation
H2: AIMon
H2: Airrobe
H2: Asseti
H2: Bonjoro
H2: Buildbetter
H2: Carted
H2: Checkbox
H2: Fair Supply
H2: Flagship
H2: FrankieOne
H2: Hone
H2: Lifelenz
H2: Loopit
H2: MediScan AI
H2: Minikai
H2: Operata
H2: Orkestra
H2: Predict HQ
H2: Renewtrak
H2: Search.io
H2: Secure Code Warrior
H2: Shippit
H2: Socialsuite
H2: Sonder
H2: Tendl
H2: TheLoops
H2: Upflowy
H3: Meet some of our wave makers
H2: Past investments made by Tidal's General Partners
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Our founders are changing the gameThe founders we work with are our real investment. They have the insight and drive to take a brilliant idea and turn it into an exceptional product ready for the world.4You Innovation4You Innovation brings together last-mile delivery provider Drive Yello, consumer and small business delivery platform My Personal Courier and order ahead platform Hey You, with the united goal of helping retailers meet the ever-increasing consumer demand for convenience.https://www.4youinnovation.com/Investment NotesSeedSeries A AIMonAIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-readyhttps://www.aimon.ai/Investment NotesEarly Seed AirrobeAirrobe is unlocking sustainability in the fashion industry. It plugs into merchant transactions at the point of sale, enabling brands to enter the 'circular economy' and consumers to seamlessly trade via a peer-to-peer secondary marketplace.https://www.airrobe.com/Investment NotesSeed AssetiAsseti is building the world’s leading intelligent asset management platform. It uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.https://www.asseti.co/Investment NotesSeed BonjoroBonjoro is a personalized video messaging platform, enabling automated marketing engagement at scale in order to attract, acquire, and retain customershttps://www.bonjoro.com/Investment NotesSeed BuildbetterBuildbetter helps product teams make better product decisions by automating product operations through artificial intelligencehttps://buildbetter.ai/Investment NotesEarly Seed CartedCarted is building a universal commerce API that can power commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywherehttps://www.carted.com/Investment NotesSeed CheckboxCheckbox is a no-code platform that enables non-technical users to build automation solutions for business processes and workflowshttps://www.checkbox.ai/Investment NotesSeed Fair SupplyFair Supply is an ESG data platform that gives global supply chain visibility into modern slavery, carbon emissions, and biodiversity risks to empower businesses to address previously hidden risks and comply with regulations.https://www.fairsupply.com/Investment NotesSeed FlagshipFlagship is a SaaS retail tech platform with a mission to revolutionise the retail industry through cutting-edge technology.https://www.flagship.ai/Investment NotesSeed FrankieOneFrankieOne helps banks and fintechs make better decisions using a single API and dashboard to manage KYC/AML and fraudhttps://frankieone.com/Investment NotesEarly SeedSeedSeries A HoneHone is a machine learning platform that provides instant, in-field chemical analysis for soil and crop testing in the Agriculture industryhttps://honeag.com/Investment NotesSeedSeries A LifelenzLifelenz automates employee rostering and engagement for the Quick Service Restaurant, Dining, and Retail sectorshttps://www.lifelenz.com/Investment NotesSeries A LoopitLoopit is a mobility platform that drives car subscription management and billing solutions for automakers, dealerships, fleet leasing, rental companies and startups.https://www.loopit.co/Investment NotesSeed MediScan AIInnovating how medical experts review case files for legal and insurance purposeshttp://www.mediscan.aiInvestment NotesSeed MinikaiMinikai is revolutionising aged care and disability services with AI agents.https://www.minikai.com/Investment NotesEarly Seed OperataOperata is a performance monitoring and assurance solution for organisations using contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) technology. It draws on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.https://operata.com/Investment NotesSeed OrkestraOrkestra provides feasibility and optimisation software that helps companies roll out renewable energy projectshttps://www.orkestra.energy/Investment NotesEarly Seed Predict HQPredict HQ is a data platform that intelligently aggregates global event information to help organizations understand how events impact their businesshttps://www.predicthq.com/Investment NotesSeedSeries ASeries B RenewtrakRenewtrak facilitates and automates renewals of technology contracts between vendor, channel partner, and end customer, helping vendors to quote and convert more renewal revenue opportunities.https://www.renewtrak.com/Investment NotesSeed Search.ioSearch.io (formerly Sajari) delivers smarter search experiences for sites, stores, and apps. Its proprietary engine can produce real-time results while incorporating user query intent and handling massive search volumeshttps://www.search.io/Investment NotesSeedAcquired Secure Code WarriorSecure Code Warrior empowers software developers to deliver secure code right from the start of the development lifecyclehttps://www.securecodewarrior.com/Investment NotesSeries C ShippitShi

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/experts
Title: Expert Network | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: When our founders have questions, we don’t always have the answers. 
But we definitely know someone who does. 

That’s why we created Tidal’s Expert Network #ten.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/experts

## Headings Structure:
H1: Amplified capability and deep expertise
H3: When our founders have questions, we don’t always have the answers.But we definitely know someone who does.That’s why we created Tidal’s Expert Network #ten.
H2: They’ve grown companies and succeeded at scale
H2: Meet some of our experts
H2: Our #ten experts hail from some of the best technology companies in the world
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Amplified capability and deep expertiseWhen our founders have questions, we don’t always have the answers.But we definitely know someone who does.That’s why we created Tidal’s Expert Network #ten.Think you might be a fit for #ten? Join our communityThey’ve grown companies and succeeded at scaleOur global network of technology founders and executives have been in the trenches and know the pitfalls of starting out and trying to scale. Their expertise extends beyond borders, industries, company stages, and business functions.When founders access #ten’s collective knowledge, it’s like having lifetimes of experience and centuries of wisdom in their back pocket. #ten is there as a cheer squad or a truth bomber, a technologist or a thought leader, an interim c-suite executive or a solid referral.Meet some of our expertsPaul SladeEngineering, SydneyAtlassian, RoevMark KalajzichProduct, PerthLENDIPaul JonesEngineering, BrisbaneFlywire, Vocalink, BoeingMartin LamStrategy, SydneyLENDITash KeunemanProduct, SydneySHIPPIT, INTUIT, ATLASSIANPhaedon StoughLeadership, HobartInnovation BayJess TassellMarketing, MelbourneSTUBHUBSascha ReuterEngineering, SydneyQUESTMATE, ATLASSIANEd HooperGrowth, MelbourneStartup Galaxy, Omny StudioDoug StuartGrowth, CanberraINSTACLUSTR, STRATSECSally TobinLeadership, SydneyClemenger, Mars United CommerceRomilly BlackburnProduct, MelbourneOPERATA, SMOOCH.IO, WHISPIRMaxim ShklyarEngineering, MelbourneInstantScriptsHugo SterinEngineering, SydneyAWS, REZDY, DELOITTERoger VenningEngineering, MelbourneINFERENCE SOLUTIONS, FIVE9, ZOOMCallan SchebellaProduct, MelbourneFIVE9, TELSTRA, INFERENCEAs part of #ten, you’re connected to a like-minded network of experts, who want to be part of the next generation of technology success stories. Through money, time or expertise, members can help early-stage founders find their strength, hone their skills, and scale their business.For #ten experts, it’s not all about the investment dollars or getting back in the trenches, it’s also about enriching your network and finding new opportunities to grow as a technology leader. There are many ways to get involved.Find out moreOur #ten experts hail from some of the best technology companies in the world

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise
H3: A shared vision realised
H3: Validating the AI-driven strategy
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Counting my lucky stars
H3: Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase
H3: Lessons on lessons on lessons
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: My green flags in founders
H2: Markets with tailwinds
H2: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: The role of luck and timing
H3: Remarkable founders know how to “turn and burn”
H3: Finding the balance in product development and sales efforts
H3: How Grant and Guy identify founders with promising potential
H3: Being the right “asshole” leader
H3: Navigating different mindsets and self-belief in leadership
H3: The three common founder mistakes to avoid in early-stage startups
H3: How to win the AI race
H3: The key to navigating different market cycles
H3: Tips for founders pitching their startups
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.30 June 2025•5 min readMediScan 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 tailwindsThe 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 gameMediScan 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.AI-powered medical legal record analysis for physiciansThe 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 hustleMediScan 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 modelMediScan’s first customers are individual evaluators and small groups. T

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/contact
Title: Contact | Tidal Ventures | Venture Capital | Australia
Meta Description: Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor or seed startup, let’s begin our relationship with a conversation to see if Tidal is the right fit for you.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/contact

## Headings Structure:
H1: Contact Us
H3: If you're looking for investment, read about how we invest and apply on the page.
H3: Offices
H3: SYDNEY
H3: BRISBANE
H3: Get in touch
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Contact UsIf you're looking for investment, read about how we invest and apply on the page.OfficesSYDNEYLevel 19, 88 Phillip StreetSydney, NSW 2000BRISBANEThe Precinct, 315 Brunswick StreetFortitude Valley, QLD 4006Get in touch

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/legal
Title: Legal | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: The fine-print.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/legal

## Headings Structure:
H1: Legal
H2: Website Terms
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
LegalWebsite Terms1. TermsTidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd owns and operates the website https://tidalvc.com/ (Website). By accessing, using, and submitting any information via the Website you are agreeing to the following terms, conditions and notices (Terms). If you are agreeing to these Terms on behalf of a business entity, you represent to us that you have legal authority to bind that entity. If you do not accept these Terms, you must refrain from using the Website. In these Terms, ‘Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd’, ‘us‘, ‘we‘ and ‘our‘ refers to Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd ABN 70 634 864 332. 2. Amendment to Terms Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd reserves the right to change these Terms at its discretion from time to time. Amendments will be effective immediately upon notification on the Website. Your continued use of the Website following such notification will represent an agreement by you to be bound by the Terms as amended. The latest version of these Terms will always be available at https://tidalvc.com/.3. Use of the WebsiteIn accessing the Website, you agree that you will not: (a) use any device, software, process or means to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website;(b) use the Website or any content from the Website in any manner which is, in our sole opinion, not reasonable and/or not for the purpose which it is made available;(c) do anything which is intended or reasonably likely to damage, impair, interrupt or interfere with the computer equipment on which the Website is hosted or where its databases and code are located; (d) modify, copy, distribute, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish or license any material from this Website, integrate the Website with or into any other software, or create a derivative work from the Website or its content by any means; or(e) violate the rights of any person, including copyright, trade secret, privacy right, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right.4. Your data and informationYou are responsible for the content, accuracy, and completeness of any data or information you enter on the Website via submitting an online form or which you otherwise provide to Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd. You acknowledge that such data or information that you enter into the Website or otherwise provide to Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd is accurate, up to date, not misleading or deceptive in any way, and does not contravene any applicable law or infringe any third party’s rights.You acknowledge that Tidal VC is not bound by any express or other obligations of confidentiality with respect to any information submitted to it on the Website. You acknowledge that we may copy, reproduce, use, store, communicate or adapt your data and information submitted to the Website but only for the purposes of providing the services as set out on the Website (and any related or ancillary services). 5. Intellectual Property Rights You agree and acknowledge that:(a) all intellectual property rights in the Website and anything that we create, modify, provide, supply or license to you in providing services to you are exclusively owned by us and licensed to you on these Terms; and(b) subject to the conditions prescribed under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and similar legislation which applies in your location, you must not in any form or by any means copy, adapt, reproduce (other than for the purpose of viewing the Website in your browser), store, modify, distribute, print, upload, display, publish or create derivative works from any part of the Website or commercialise any information obtained from any part of the Website without prior written consent from us or, in the case of any third party material, from the owner of the intellectual property rights in that material.(c) you must not do anything which jeopardises or interferes with our ownership of our intellectual property rights.(d) You hereby grant Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd a worldwide, royalty-free, irresolvable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, perform, display (publicly or otherwise), adapt, and otherwise exploit, details or information that is uploaded by you onto the Website.6. PrivacyTidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd shall comply with all applicable privacy legislation with respect to the use and handling of any information submitted to the Website, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any ancillary rules as amended from time to time.7. Linked SitesThe Website may contain links to other websites (Linked Sites), which are not operated by us. We have no control over the Linked Sites and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. Your use of the Linked Sites will be subject to the Terms and service contained within each such site.‍8. CookiesYou acknowledge and a

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/privacy
Title: Privacy | Tidal Ventures | Seed Venture Capital | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Privacy policy.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/privacy

## Headings Structure:
H1: Privacy
H2: Privacy Policy
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
PrivacyPrivacy Policy1. We respect your privacy(a) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd respects your right to privacy and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our customers and website visitors. We adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This policy sets out how we collect and treat your personal information.(b) "Personal information" is information we hold which is identifiable as being about you.2. Collection of personal information(a) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd will, from time to time, receive and store personal information you enter onto our website, provided to us directly or given to us in other forms.(b) You may provide basic information such as your name, phone number, address and email address to enable us to send information, provide updates and process your product or service order. We may collect additional information at other times, including but not limited to, when you provide feedback, when you provide information about your personal or business affairs, change your content or email preference, respond to surveys and/or promotions, provide financial or credit card information, or communicate with our customer support.(c) Additionally, we may also collect any other information you provide while interacting with us.3. How we collect your personal information(a) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd collects personal information from you in a variety of ways, including when you interact with us electronically or in person, when you access our website and when we provide our services to you. We may receive personal information from third parties. If we do, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy.4. Use of your personal information(a) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd may use personal information collected from you to provide you with information, updates and our services. We may also make you aware of new and additional products, services and opportunities available to you. We may use your personal information to improve our products and services and better understand your needs.(b) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd may contact you by a variety of measures including, but not limited to telephone, email, sms or mail.5. Disclosure of your personal information(a) We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy. Personal information is only supplied to a third party when it is required for the delivery of our services.(b) We may from time to time need to disclose personal information to comply with a legal requirement, such as a law, regulation, court order, subpoena, warrant, in the course of a legal proceeding or in response to a law enforcement agency request.(c) We may also use your personal information to protect the copyright, trademarks, legal rights, property or safety of Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd, https://tidalvc.com/, its customers or third parties.(d) Information that we collect may from time to time be stored, processed in or transferred between parties located in countries outside of Australia. These may include, but are not limited to USA.(e) If there is a change of control in our business or a sale or transfer of business assets, we reserve the right to transfer to the extent permissible at law our user databases, together with any personal information and non-personal information contained in those databases. This information may be disclosed to a potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality. We would seek to only disclose information in good faith and where required by any of the above circumstances.(f) By providing us with personal information, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the types of disclosure covered by this Policy. Where we disclose your personal information to third parties, we will request that the third party follow this Policy regarding handling your personal information.‍6. Security of your personal information(a) Tidal Ventures Investment Management Pty Ltd is committed to ensuring that the information you provide to us is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.(b) The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. We cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, or receive from us. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personal information that we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.7. Access to your personal

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/founder-guides
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/founder-guides

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: The role of luck and timing
H3: Remarkable founders know how to “turn and burn”
H3: Finding the balance in product development and sales efforts
H3: How Grant and Guy identify founders with promising potential
H3: Being the right “asshole” leader
H3: Navigating different mindsets and self-belief in leadership
H3: The three common founder mistakes to avoid in early-stage startups
H3: How to win the AI race
H3: The key to navigating different market cycles
H3: Tips for founders pitching their startups
H3: What does an ideal Tidal Ventures investment look like?
H3: What phase does Tidal Ventures invest in?
H3: Is it too early or late to approach Tidal Ventures for investment?
H3: How many investments will Tidal Ventures make in their Seed III fund?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ macro outlook?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ investment thesis?
H3: How can Tidal Ventures help build my startup?
H3: What impact can Tidal have on my product strategy?
H3: What sort of advisory network does Tidal have access to?
H3: How will Tidal back me in future fundraising rounds?
H3: How do I get funded by Tidal?
H3: Focus Area: Getting to Product-Market Fit
H3: Focus Area: Finding a Scalable Path to Market
H3: Focus Area: Hiring a Gun Team
H3: Establishing 'proof points' and tracking performance
H3: Timing and runway
H3: Nailing the Seed phase
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersFounder GuidesRiding the waves of entrepreneurship with Guy Kawasaki and Grant McCarthyOG technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki joined Tidal Managing Partner and Co-Founder Grant McCarthy to discuss the characteristics of remarkable founders and how to navigate the long and exciting journey of being an entrepreneur.22 Apr 2024•5 min readIn 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 timingGrant 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

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/investment-notes
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/investment-notes

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H2: Markets with tailwinds
H2: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Orkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Flagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: ‍
H2: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Loopit’s mobility platform drives car subscription management and billing solutions for automakers, dealerships, fleet leasing, rental companies and startups.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase and beyond
H3: Blakthumb is a software company that provides an intuitive end-to-end operating system for cultivators and producers of cannabis and food. Their mission is to build resilient communities through the power of decentralised production.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that Change the Game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.30 Jun 2025•5 min readMediScan 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 tailwindsThe 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 gameMediScan 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.AI-powered medical legal record analysis for physiciansThe 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 hustleMediScan 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 modelMediScan’s first customers are individual evaluators and small groups. Th

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/product-clinic
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/product-clinic

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Demos help us experience the product in a way that's not lines of code or marketing bullet points or concepts.
H3: Demos simulate the customer experience
H3: Demos are an opportunity to tell a story
H3: Three key demo use cases
H3: Our experts share their demo stories
H3: Expert tips
H3: In conclusion
H3: The art of the demo is an essential craft that needs to be honed in start-ups as its used in so many high-impact moments. It could be a founder pitch, planning a new feature, creating a new product horizon or (re)defining your vision to stakeholders. But there is a big difference between going through the motions of demoing your product versus developing a demo muscle that forms the cultural identity of your company.
H3: Overview
H3: How to get started
H3: Define your hypothesis
H3: Expected Outcomes
H3: Validate your hypothesis
H3: Demo Formats
H3: Demoing API's
H3: Inspirational Examples
H3: Demo outcomes
H3: Roadmaps serve as a powerful communications tool for product leaders.
H2: Overview
H2: Goals pre-flight check
H2: Outcomes not features
H2: Make it epic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersProduct ClinicStorytelling through DemosDemos are a vital part of the feature development process in product-led businesses. They not only show what the team got done that sprint, they're an opportunity to experience a feature or product the way a customer would.30 Apr 2021•5 min readDemos help us experience the product in a way that's not lines of code or marketing bullet points or concepts.To help us unpack why demos are an essential craft that needs to be honed in start-ups, we talked to four product legends to get their insights, thoughts, and opinions.Sherif Mansour: Distinguished Product Manager at Atlassian.Mindy Eiermann: Director of Product Management at Intuit.Jens Schumacher: Chief Product Officer at Search.io.Somya Kapoor: CEO & Co-Founder at TheLoops.All were kind enough to share their take on The Art of the Demo.Demos simulate the customer experienceWhen we asked why they think demos are important, Jens and Somya both spoke of demos as breathing life into projects. Jens believes they make the abstract tangible and provide an opportunity to clearly demonstrate how specific problems are solved. Somya thinks of demos as "windows into the vision", where you distil the idea potential and capture the audience.Sherif and Mindy agreed. For Sherif, the demo audience simulates the customer, so the presenter has to be very aware of the customer experience during delivery, more than with other modes of presentation. He added that "it’s much more effective to have a meaningful discussion and make prioritisation decisions when you use your demo as a shared language, rather than using a bunch of text and bullet points". Demos simulate reality, whereas bullet points abstract it.Demos are an opportunity to tell a storyMindy puts it beautifully when she says that "giving a demo is so much more than showing someone your product. It's about telling a story and doing so in a way that marries customer insights, data, and a product experience to take your audience on the journey." We love this and we wholeheartedly agree.Demos are a story. A very important part of your product story. They allow you to empathise with customers, understand their challenges and see how to solve their problems. You can't get this effect with a slide deck. Empathy is built when you can put yourself in the shoes of the customer. As Mindy says, "the more effective you can be with creating that empathy and understanding, the more likely you will be to get the support you need to be successful".Three key demo use casesTransfer knowledge to internal teamsDemos show how a customer problem has been solved and explain the steps taken to arrive at the solution. This is valuable knowledge that can be used to impact other customer problems, and enable marketing and support teams to explain features more clearly to customers.Drive customer salesDemos are a visual and engaging way for the target audience to understand a feature, a whole product and the experience they will receive. The old adage of 'show don't tell' applies here, because it enables the customer to 'see themselves' using a product, achieving a task, solving a problem. Demos create a connection which (hopefully) leads to sales.Show investors your valueDemos are essential for telling the success story of your product, what it does now, what it can do soon, and where it fits in a customer's life and the market. Investors look for ideas that loudly communicate potential, have a clear purpose and reflect a better reality. Investors want to put their money in a product they can see, not a bullet list of nebulous benefits.‍Our experts share their demo storiesSherif's demo storySometimes demos reveal something that has not been noticed before. Sherif recalls when the team building software for mobile showed how they solved a particular customer problem. But only on mobile. The same problem existed for desktop users, but the solution approach had not been discussed with the desktop engineers. Sherif remembers that "the demo highlighted that we were letting our internal team structures influence the customer experience." The demo showed the need for better information sharing and highlighted a creeping silo problem between teams.Mindy's demo storyNever underestimate the hunger of a demo audience. Mindy tells us how she was preparing for a huge public product launch and the engineer who was running the demo did a rehearsal with her beforehand. She thought it might be too detailed and make people bored. "Boy, I was wrong" she reflects. "The accountants in the audience were sitting on the edge of their seats that night. They wanted all the detail so that they could understand exactly what impact the new experience would have for them and their firm."Jen's demo storyYou can talk it up all you want, but you've got to show people how things work. "In a world where AI has become a buzzword appearing on 

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/thought-waves
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/thought-waves

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: Counting my lucky stars
H3: Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase
H3: Lessons on lessons on lessons
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: My green flags in founders
H3: My journey to get here
H3: What I love about Seed
H3: Something I believe that others don’t
H3: Going from founder to investor
H3: Characteristics of a top founder
H3: How the world will change in 10 years
H3: What keeps me up at night
H3: What excites me about Australia’s tech scene
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: The advice I live by
H3: My first founder question
H3: Cutting my teeth in transactional law
H3: Seeing technology M&A through to success
H3: Becoming the G&A whisperer
H3: Pioneering the future of work
H3: Get ready for my first question
H3: The AI stack
H3: Tidal Ventures’ AI investment mindset
H3: LLMs
H3: Contextual and local models
H3: Built-for-purpose applications
H3: AI in Australia
H3: Get to know Tidal's Grant McCarthy
H3: Market sentiment has officially changed.
H3: Insights from the US market
H3: Takeaways for Seed Stage founders
H3: Tidal looks through the lens of a telescope
H2: Get to know Tidal's Max Kausman
H3: Get to know Tidal's Georgie Turner
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersThought WavesAI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.14 May 2025•5 min readA 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-endA generated legal contract tailored to a specific jurisdictionA clinical platform that drafts summaries and actions from messy encounter notesWhere 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 mattersIn 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 shiftThis 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 modelsBuild proprietary data moats by capturing interaction-specific contextDeliver real-world value through actionable outputs, not just dashboardsAnd 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 AISystems of Work will drive the biggest changes in industries where work is still manual, complex, or repetitive.Winning without replacingSmart AI startups are using over-the-top (OTT) strategies to enter t

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/wave-makers
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/topics/wave-makers

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise
H3: A shared vision realised
H3: Validating the AI-driven strategy
H3: In a nutshell: What value AI unlocks
H3: What role does AI play in each of your companies?
H3: What impact does AI have on your customers?
H3: What is the most controversial part of AI for your customers?
H3: Businesses face mounting challenges when attempting to reduce ESG risk exposure
H3: The leading product in this category will be grounded in deep supply chain data expertise
H3: Execution during the investment process mirrors execution in the first 12 months post-investment
H3: Starting with the problem
H3: From faster labs to field tech
H3: From tech builders to company builders
H3: The learning and commercial curve
H3: No limit to scale
H3: Solving a simple problem is a great start
H3: The solution is not always simple
H3: A long history and a more recent connection
H3: The calm voice in the storm
H3: Not just cash, but connections
H3: Growing with greater clarity
H3: A strong business starts with a strong product
H3: Connecting to the right knowledge and people
H3: You’re never alone, but it can get lonely
H3: Why people come first
H3: Finding investors can be a gruesome grind
H3: How Tidal got looped in
H3: Win the crowd to win investors
H3: The best relationships come with hard truths
H3: The DIY roots
H3: Tidal becomes Search.io's first VC investor
H3: Putting the pieces together to scale
H3: Hiring isn’t just bums on seats
H3: Sales isn’t just selling more
H3: Tidal meets Bonjoro
H3: Wearing the founder hat and the Tidal hat
H3: How the engagement goes deep
H3: Choosing between a safe plateau or rapid growth
H3: Never slack on advice
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAllFounder GuidesInvestment NotesProduct ClinicThought WavesWave MakersWave MakersSeed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.26 Jun 2025•5 min readToday, 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 expertiseWhen 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 realisedTheLoops 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 strategyThis 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.‍Wave MakersUnleashing the power of AI: Insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leadersLeaders from our portfolio companies Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz explore the role of AI, discuss innovative strategies, and consider its potential to enhance overall product value.23 Nov 2023•5 min readThe transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various industries is undeniable. Tidal Ventures Managing Partner Wendell Keuneman recently hosted a panel discussion featuring leaders from portfolio companies—Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz. This insightful conversation delved into the role of AI in each company, the innovative strategies they ar

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/ai-insights-tidal-ventures-portfolio
Title: Unleashing the power of AI: Insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leaders
Meta Description: Unlock the potential of AI with insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leaders. Tidal Managing Partner Wendell Keuneman chats to AI pioneers like Simon Molnar from Flagship, Peter Johnson from Hone, and Steve Kirby from Lifelenz. Discover how AI is reshaping industries, from agriculture to retail, and gain valuable insights into innovative strategies driving operational efficiencies and business success. Explore real-world examples, such as Hone’s transformative impact on agriculture practices and Lifelenz’s AI-powered forecasting for optimal workforce management. These leaders foresee a future where AI becomes an indispensable tool, fostering innovation and collaboration in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and business.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/ai-insights-tidal-ventures-portfolio

## Headings Structure:
H1: Unleashing the power of AI: Insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leaders
H3: In a nutshell: What value AI unlocks
H3: What role does AI play in each of your companies?
H3: What impact does AI have on your customers?
H3: What is the most controversial part of AI for your customers?
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersUnleashing the power of AI: Insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leadersLeaders from our portfolio companies Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz explore the role of AI, discuss innovative strategies, and consider its potential to enhance overall product value.Liz RossonNovember 23, 2023•5 min readThe transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various industries is undeniable. Tidal Ventures Managing Partner Wendell Keuneman recently hosted a panel discussion featuring leaders from portfolio companies—Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz. This insightful conversation delved into the role of AI in each company, the innovative strategies they are employing, and the potential for AI to enhance the overall value of their products.Tidal managing partner Wendell Keuneman was joined by:Peter Johnston (PJ), Managing Director of Hone from Tidal Seed Fund I. PJ gets to “work in a cool bit of science called spectroscopy where we build chemometric models. We measure stuff, and we’re good at measuring stuff. Rather than having to bring it to a laboratory, we enable measurement in the field. We overcome the problem of distance for many agricultural producers and other industries where they need real-time information to make good decisions”.Simon Molnar, the founder of Tidal Seed Fund III portfolio company Flagship—a digital visual merchandising platform, indicates that they “basically help retailers place products in their store and work out the optimum placement of those products”. “So if you have a lot of stores in your store network, you have a lot of products in those stores, then you have to make sure that you’ve got the right products in the right stores and the right products in the right place”.Steve Kirkby, founder of Lifelenz from Tidal Follow-On Opportunity fund I highlights their focus on workforce management and labour optimisation, ultimately “getting the right person at the right time for certain industries”. Steve outlined their current focus on quick service restaurants, “If you know someone working at McDonald’s or KFC or Hungry Jacks in Australia, they’ll be using our app’.Lifelenz founder, Steve KirbyIn a nutshell: What value AI unlocksHoneHone’s ML engine accelerates the development of chemometric models, transforming what used to take weeks into a matter of hours. Moreover, it consistently produces more complex and robust models. With Hone’s cloud-based Machine Learning and AI, farmers can now make real-time decisions on grain segregation, optimising quality and yielding an average increase of 2% in farm gate values (net value of product after it’s left the farm).LifelenzLifelenz’s proprietary AI-powered forecasting model has established a global benchmark in labour scheduling, leading to a notable reduction in labour costs and a simultaneous boost in sales. This translates to a significant profitability enhancement, contributing up to 2% of EBITDA within the restaurant industry alone.FlagshipFlagship’s AI-ready visual merchandising platform has significantly streamlined retail operations, cutting down manual efforts by two-thirds. This efficiency boost allows their workforce to redirect their efforts toward higher-impact tasks. Flagship anticipates substantial benefits for large retailers, estimating potential annual labour savings of 6,000 hours and an impressive 90% or more reduction in time to execution.What role does AI play in each of your companies?HoneWhen it comes to Hone, Machine learning (ML) is core to what they do. As PJ indicated, “We’ve got these handheld spectrometers that farmers use where the machines collect raw spectrum, and then we run it through an ML engine and create calibrations from that data”. As Wendell astutely pointed out, “It’s always about behaviour change”. Hone has fundamentally changed behaviour around the process of chemical testing. Previously, chemical testing required two weeks to turn around, which resulted in expensive and infrequent testing, but with Hone’s cutting-edge hardware and software, they’re able to take a reading in the field rather than sending it back to the lab. “What that means is that frequency of testing becomes more common, more frequent, and as a result, the testing results in what we call currency—the economic value”, said Wendell.The currency of Hone is the ability to understand yield right in the field. So they can start doing things like forecasting and uncovering the quality of that yield right then and there.To illustrate this solution, consider GrainCorp who participated in Hone’s Series A funding round. They’re one of the largest grain traders in Canada and the US Eastern seaboard and faced a challenge due to the rapid growth of farms and machinery in recent years. Quicker harvests caused farmers to grapple with the issue of their headers filling up rapidly and requiring more frequent transportation. Historically, the header served as temporary storage for the grain before being transported to the depot where the machine

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/closing-the-loops
Title: Closing TheLoops on customer service
Meta Description: Somya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu, the co-founders of TheLoops, are serial entrepreneurs. Find out why they came together and how they think about product-building and finding the right investors.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/closing-the-loops

## Headings Structure:
H1: Closing TheLoops on customer service
H3: Finding investors can be a gruesome grind
H3: How Tidal got looped in
H3: Win the crowd to win investors
H3: The best relationships come with hard truths
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersClosing TheLoops on customer serviceSomya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu, the co-founders of TheLoops, are serial entrepreneurs. Find out why they came together and how they think about product-building and finding the right investors.Wendell KeunemanonJuly 12, 2021•5 min readSomya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu are co-founders of Loops. Both veteran product people and serial entrepreneurs, they saw the challenges faced by customer service and support agents struggling to work through mountains of tickets with little context, and they decided to fix it.TheLoops is all about collecting data from software interactions, including logs, alerts and errors, to make customer support mechanisms smarter and faster. Insights can then be fed into product development cycles to enhance the customer experience. It’s not the first time Somya and Ravi have been founders, but it’s the first time they’ve done it together and they make an unstoppable team. We interviewed them about their journey, and if you're a startup greenthumb, they have some excellent advice.Finding investors can be a gruesome grindFinding and pitching to VC funders is a “gruesome process” and a “necessary grind” according to Somya. But there’s an upside. It helps you refine your story and more strongly formulate your vision, which is critical to finding the right VC fit. Because not all VCs are the same and many will not be right for you. Her advice is take as many interviews and meetings as you can to learn about what you need and weed out the VCs who are unsuitable. “It's not about getting the money, it's about finding a partner in your journey of where you want to get to.”Ravi says he’s seen startups with the wrong VC match and “it's not just the founders that get really messed up in the process, it’s employees too.” You need to have someone aligned to your long-term perspective, is how he puts it, the way Tidal is for TheLoops. “It's not about getting the money, it's about finding a partner in your journey of where you want to get to.”- Somya Kapoor, LoopsHow Tidal got looped inTidal came along as TheLoops were looking to raise their second round of funding, which coincided with the beginning of the global COVID outbreak in March 2020. Despite the circumstances, TheLoops had plenty of VC investors knocking on the door. But it was through conversations with investment expert Andrea Kowalski and product leader Wendell Keunemann at Tidal that prompted TheLoops to sign a deal. “They were super helpful in getting us to think from a founder's angle on why we need the money.” says Somya, “They wanted us to look at it from a place where it would help us grow the company and be beneficial for the customers.” Where other investors look primarily for the potential return, Tidal was looking to how (not just if) TheLoops could succeed. “When you’re building products that customers like, a lot of VCs want to get involved. But Wendell and Andrea were really different.” They offered an insider perspective.Ravi and Somya at their San Jose headquartersWin the crowd to win investors The best way to prove a point is to not have to make it yourself. But how do you do that? Somya says you should talk to your customers (lots and lots of them) and get them on side, and Ravi says get your team in a room and “whiteboard the #$&* out of it!” By which he means build a great product based on what customers say. When you do both, you end up with mountains of evidence for why VCs should throw money at you. “Nothing speaks louder [to a VC] than customers validating your product,” says Somya, even louder than “knowing your cap tables”. Ravi advises to look for synchronicity with VCs, to make sure they understand what you do, the market, the ecosystem. To succeed, “you’ll need their network, so be sure they have a good one and the right one for you.” Tidal fills this role, acting as “advisors and mentors, helping us think through the pros and cons of decisions.”It’s all about perspective with Tidal, says Ravi, and being “product futuristic”. They bring “the right approach and a really different product perspective. Not just about how to build features, but also how to go to market and put them in front of customers.”The best relationships come with hard truthsThe reason Somya and Ravi make an amazing team is their complementary perspectives. Not just complementary skills (Somya is more go to market and Ravi is more product builder), but the way they see things and make decisions from different experiences.When asked what Tidal brought to the table, they talked about compatibility at first, admiring the product-led growth mindset and understanding of the B2B tech market. What emerged as most important, though, was that Tidal “understood” them and felt trustworthy, showing an openness and friendliness beyond what Somya and Ravi expected. “We thought it was because they’re Australian,” Somya says with a laugh. Ravi welcomes Tidal’s product perspective and advice, because “they love products

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/fairsupply-tidal-ventures-investment-reflection
Title: Fair Supplying unmatched ESG visibility
Meta Description: Venture capital firm Tidal Ventures invests in Fair Supply, a mission-driven company revolutionising the ESG landscape. Explore Fair Supply’s vision to create an industry standard and witness their remarkable execution both during and after the investment process.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/fairsupply-tidal-ventures-investment-reflection

## Headings Structure:
H1: Fair Supplying unmatched ESG visibility
H3: Businesses face mounting challenges when attempting to reduce ESG risk exposure
H3: The leading product in this category will be grounded in deep supply chain data expertise
H3: Execution during the investment process mirrors execution in the first 12 months post-investment
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersFair Supplying unmatched ESG visibilityDiscover the incredible journey of our investment in Fair Supply, a mission-driven company revolutionising the ESG landscape. Find out why we were captivated by their unique technology and exceptional founders.Georgie TurneronJuly 28, 2023•5 min readSix months after our investment into Fair Supply, I’m reflecting on why we invested in this incredibly mission-driven company and how the business has continued to exceed our expectations. In early November 2022, I picked up a call from friend and fellow investor Jackie Vullinghs:I’ve got one for you. It’s complicated to explain, but our diligence confirms that there isn’t anything like it globally.After an introductory call with the founders, I dropped everything to get this investment through diligence and in front of our investment committee. Why? The potential of the core technology is enormous, and the founders, Kim and Arne, were nothing short of exceptional. I often tell people that while Tidal’s due diligence process is thorough (and can take a while), I always know in my bones when I’m talking to a Tidal company—and this was one of those situations. The synergy was also apparent for Fair Supply, who were excited about our unique early-stage product and operational expertise.Businesses face mounting challenges when attempting to reduce ESG risk exposureMore so than ever, it’s clear that market tailwinds are the make or break of a great investment. It’s a combination of the right place, the right time, and of course, the right product. You can spot companies continuing to outperform their targets, despite the current macro environment—and Fair Supply is one of these companies.You might ask, what’s driving that growth?For starters, Global legislation is being passed requiring private entities to identify and report on ESG risk beyond Tier 1 of the supply chain. This has now become an urgent priority for the world’s largest organisations. From Global Asset Managers to Fortune 500 companies, the “Chief Sustainability Officer” is morphing from a luxury to a must-have.The need for better data and tooling in ESG is abundantly clear with existing methods largely falling short:For modern slavery, many companies rely heavily on the global slavery index, which only measures modern slavery risk by the prevalence of modern slavery in each country.To measure Scope 3 carbon emissions, companies have relied on a methodology of “Emissions Factors”, which is fraught with issues—even going as far as to suggest it may be a gross generalisation that doesn’t reduce emissions at all.More recently, incumbents and startups alike have been creating makeshift solutions. They’ve been using a combination of existing datasets and enriching them with primary data to develop automated benchmark reporting tools in an attempt to align with emerging global reporting standards. We believe this system is flawed; most of these players are ‘marking their own homework’ where they’re creating a benchmark and then marking themselves against it.The leading product in this category will be grounded in deep supply chain data expertiseI remember the overwhelming ‘aha’ moment when we truly understood the product’s uniqueness and potential. ESG risk is hidden deep within supply chains, and visibility into them has been overwhelmingly unavailable to date. Fair Supply co-founder, Arne, spent the last 15 years understanding and solving the data challenges of building global economic supply chain databases. He leveraged this expertise to create Fair Supply, a product that:Extends an academic methodology into a commercial proposition for company-specific supply chain analysis, andExtends into a System of Action by aligning with reporting guidelines.Fair Supply is a SaaS platform that provides objective data and insights to help companies understand and manage their exposure to ESG risks across their supply chain. The platform combines proprietary algorithms with data from public sources to help companies map out their exposure to risks (including Modern Slavery, Carbon Emissions, and Biodiversity) and can provide visibility 10+ layers deep into the supply chain. And that’s just the first act—our thesis indicates that Fair Supply has the best competitive advantage to create an industry standard and market-leading product globally. It’s set to become the indispensable SaaS tool that ESG procurement and investment professionals use as an integral part of their everyday business practices. Their mission is to abolish modern slavery, and they have a product that could actually make it happen.Execution during the investment process mirrors execution in the first 12 months post-investmentTime and time again, we’ve seen the skills and expertise displayed during the investment process mirror that seen in the first 12 months post-investment. The signs we look for include:When you meet a founder that can push a clean fundraising process from end to end and build the i

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/fee-lal-venture-capital-investor
Title: Meet the Tidal Team: Fee Barry
Meta Description: Join Fee Barry, the newest member of the Tidal Investment team, as she sheds light on her journey. Fee leverages her background in corporate law and M&A to supercharge founders and navigate complex challenges. She skilfully blends a human-centred approach with a strategic corporate mindset.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/fee-lal-venture-capital-investor

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Fee Barry
H3: Cutting my teeth in transactional law
H3: Seeing technology M&A through to success
H3: Becoming the G&A whisperer
H3: Pioneering the future of work
H3: Get ready for my first question
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Fee BarryI’m Fee Barry. With a foundation in corporate law and M&A, my focus has always been on supporting founders from their earliest stages through to exit and beyond. I thrive on tackling complex challenges, balancing my human-centred ethos with my corporate strategic approach.Fee BarryonFebruary 22, 2024•5 min readCutting my teeth in transactional lawThe first eight years of my career were in corporate law, where I found my niche in M&A and investments. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I thrived in the fast-paced and high-risk nature of transactional work. What energised me most was the diverse range of activities in a single day. In the morning, I’d help a client with their ESOP, then find myself drafting a SAFE for another client before jumping into an acquisition negotiation in the afternoon.Amidst all that excitement, what truly made me tick was the opportunity to form deep relationships with founders during pivotal moments in their lives. However, the transient nature of transactional law was a challenge; after closing a deal, you’d swiftly move on to the next one. This constant shift had me wishing for a more lasting connection, a desire to continue the journey with the folks who I had become so close to. That was my primary motivator to jump out of law into the world of tech (that said, I can still get pretty nerdy about deal structuring and will always appreciate a well-drafted Russian roulette provision 😉).Seeing technology M&A through to successFollowing law, I found myself in the M&A team at Atlassian. M&A gets a pretty bad wrap; reports indicate that 70% and 90% of all deals are deemed “failures,” marked by management dropouts, insufficient value realisation, or even complete divestitures a few years later. I’ve long believed that the lion’s share of these failures can be attributed to a lack of emphasis on the people part of these transactions.My role at Atlassian was focused on addressing the people experience within transactions. At the outset of each deal, we delved into understanding founder motivations and aspirations, aiming to decipher how they could thrive within the Atlassian environment post-deal. On the backend, we’d act as a founder’s “chief of staff”, helping them integrate into Atlassian’s culture and ways of working and ensuring their teams were set up for success in their new home.Becoming the G&A whispererThough the structure of tech companies varies, I generally categorise them into three distinct organisational units: Governance and Administration (G&A), Research and Development (R&D), and Go-To-Market (GTM).G&A typically encompasses what some might call the “unsexy” or boring work like people, legal, and financial. But it’s exactly where I like to play (hear me out). In my view, robust G&A is the linchpin that distinguishes a good company from a truly great one. The foundational work of implementing effective governance structures, enhancing productivity, spearheading people programs, and aligning company goals and OKRs serves as the bedrock for scaling companies. These elements empower R&D and GTM teams to do their best work.At Tidal, where we focus on Seed Phase investments, we seek founders who are already displaying early signs of product-market fit and witnessing the beginnings of a repeatable GTM motion. What they need are the right foundations to supercharge those motions and achieve MMF (model market fit). And that’s precisely where my expertise comes into play!I get to engage with incredible founders every day, from seed to exit and beyond, while also leveraging my legal, people, and project management skills to provide invaluable support. Whether it’s offering governance insights at the board level, negotiating deal terms, or contributing to workforce planning and people systems, I am deeply passionate about making a meaningful impact.Pioneering the future of workDriven by my passion for people programs, productivity, and governance, it should come as no surprise that I have a keen interest in investing in the future of work. I’m convinced that the trajectory of AI will be a game-changer in reshaping the way we work, allowing us to focus on the parts of our roles that actually require deep thinking and genuine human involvement. Rather than machines assisting humans, I expect we’ll see a paradigm shift towards humans assisting machines. Against the backdrop of the slowest productivity growth in 60 years and the unprecedented rate of AI adoption, it looks like a thrilling window of opportunity is emerging for new players to join the race.With my unique cross-section of legal, governance, and people programs expertise, I’m well-positioned to identify and advocate for companies at the forefront of this transformative wave.Get ready for my first questionTell me about you and the journey that got you to this moment.When I come across a prospective investment, my first question is simple: “Tell me about you and the journey tha

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/full-speed-ahead
Title: Full speed ahead at Drive Yello
Meta Description: Drive Yello, founded by Steve Fanale, keeps supply chains flowing by connecting retailers, delivery drivers, and customers. Find out how he thinks about problem solving, growth, and finding both capital and connections.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/full-speed-ahead

## Headings Structure:
H1: Full speed ahead at Drive Yello
H3: Solving a simple problem is a great start
H3: The solution is not always simple
H3: A long history and a more recent connection
H3: The calm voice in the storm
H3: Not just cash, but connections
H3: Growing with greater clarity
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersFull speed ahead at Drive YelloDrive Yello, founded by Steve Fanale, keeps supply chains flowing by connecting retailers, delivery drivers, and customers. Find out how he thinks about problem solving, growth, and finding both capital and connections.Grant McCarthyonNovember 25, 2021•5 min readWhen I talked with Drive Yello co-founder and CEO Steve Fanale for this interview, he was in a car, driving towards Canberra. I mean, he was the passenger, but it still somehow seemed appropriate to be talking about his company while he was on the move.Drive Yello is a bit different to other startups. They are a platform connecting retailers to a gig driver network. Their network of drivers delivers to consumers on behalf of their customer base of major retailers, connected through Drive Yello's intelligent product layer. The Australian economy was protected somewhat during the pandemic because of a strong supply chain, so Drive Yello did well, delivering grocery and convenience items to locked down retail consumers.More than just a convenience service business, however, Steve describes changing customer behaviour in the last few years. “Retailers like Amazon are innovating in this area, and Australia is still a bit behind. But we’re catching up, now that consumer behaviour has changed and retailers are finally getting systems in place to meet the demand.”Solving a simple problem is a great startThe business value proposition is simple: help retailers get products to their customers. Starting with restaurant delivery through Menulog and then later cracking the retail sector with major players Woolworths and BWS, Drive Yello has always had its sights on national market presence. But the road was sometimes rocky.Like many startups, building on a central idea or technology is one thing, but building a business requires scale and market reach, which is a whole other thing. With Steve Fanale at the helm, Drive Yello was always going to get the best shot possible.“I'm a problem-solver and a product guy,” says Steve. “I’ve got a business background and I studied commerce and marketing at Uni, and I have worn many hats.” Versatility has been a key driver of business growth and for weathering the many challenges of being a gig economy-reliant business.The solution is not always simpleGig-economy businesses have challenges that are unique. Steve notes that one of the biggest ones is a lack of “real clarity around a gig economy worker from a legal perspective.” It’s hard, he says, to “come up with a model that is valid”, but adds that “the gig economy is not going anywhere and it’s a matter of making it work in terms of the legislation and policies around work models. To get the network effect, you also need scale and critical mass.”The challenges don’t stop there, with the capital intensive nature of gig-economy businesses and historical scarcity of funding in Australia. “You can grow organically with most businesses to a point of profitability, whereas in a gig economy business, it's all about scale and you can't achieve that scale without funding.” At times just scraping by, Steve says Tidal’s support has been invaluable to gaining the momentum to to turn the corner and scale.When an investment injection came at around the same time as securing some major new retail clients and the arrival of the pandemic, Drive Yello was poised to boom.A long history and a more recent connectionSteve has known Tidal’s Grant McCarthy for over 20 years, through Steve’s previous businesses and around the once relatively small Australian startup sector. But back in 2016, Grant reached out to Steve and suggested an investment partnership. He saw the potential in Drive Yello and Steve’s vision, and wanted to invest.“We're pretty good at separating our friendship and commercial relationship. We’re quite open with each other, and pretty direct, which means we are transparent on both levels.” He goes on to say that “Grant's been a sounding board and a personal support, as well as a funding support.” Through some tough times in late 2019, Steve explains how Grant was there through some of the hardest business decisions.“He's probably the main person I go to when making a decision on strategy and direction. Whether we're considering mergers or being acquired or acquiring, or thinking about new product opportunities.” Grant is there, even as Steve is looking ahead to the next move.Drive Yello Co-Founder and CEO Steve FanaleThe calm voice in the stormAmong a number of anecdotes about working with Tidal, Steve mentioned the “calm voice” and solid support of Wendell Keuneman when it comes to product strategy, senior hiring and technology decisions.Wendell has been “a great sounding board from a product strategy perspective, offering advice and helping to hire a VP of engineering.” Accustomed to wearing multiple hats and juggling strategic, tactical and technical problems, Steve welcomed the expertise on product direction and building technical te

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/get-ready-to-make-waves
Title: Get ready to make waves
Meta Description: We see an enormous opportunity to support founders through their Seed Phase. Here's why we started Tidal Ventures, and what we're looking for.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/get-ready-to-make-waves

## Headings Structure:
H1: Get ready to make waves
H3: Why we started Tidal
H3: We dive deep
H3: What does a Tidal Seed investment look like
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesGet ready to make wavesWe see an enormous opportunity to support founders through their Seed Phase. Here's why we started Tidal Ventures, and what we're looking for.Georgie TurneronJuly 10, 2020•5 min readWhy we started TidalThe Australian startup ecosystem has developed in leaps and bounds over the past ten years. As it matured, a gap in funding at Seed has widened, with many of the Tier 1 funds focused predominantly on later stage investment. There are limited options for Aussie and Kiwi founders to work with professional venture investors in the early years of their startup, resulting in a lack of access to the product testing, GTM frameworks, white-boarding sessions, talent & customer introductions, investor networks and other non-capital resources so readily available to their US counterparts.We think the Seed Phase is critical to positioning a startup for success – it requires founders to prioritize capital, separate the "must dos" from the "nice to dos" and get to market as quickly and efficiently as possible to learn, iterate, rinse and repeat. Seed is where we play and where we see the most opportunity for Australian technology over the next ten years.Australian founders need access to venture fund that focuses purely on the Seed phase. We exist to back the best Founders with early capital and a platform of resources that accelerates a path to hyper-growth.We dive deepThe investment team at Tidal brings together diverse perspectives and professional experience that can help Founders navigate the many challenges of building an early stage company. We have broad coverage of the functions within a start-up due to our varied backgrounds and aren't afraid to dive in deep where we can help. Our investing team has:Founded and exited their own technology startups;Led the product function for both small and large corporations;Launched and established companies in new markets;Invested strategic capital on behalf of large technology companies;Managed tech "tuck-ins" within these platforms; andWorked alongside Founders through the good times and the bad for many years as investors, directors and friends.You can check out our profiles here.What ultimately unites us is our entrepreneurial spirit – we have either founded companies from the ground up or have launched existing companies into new markets, each of us facing the exciting parallels and challenges of building something new.Our founders are trying to nail down product-market fit, hack together a scalable path to market and attract an A-grade team. These are areas where we specialise, and we've built playbooks and muscle memory to help Founders avoid the pitfalls of those that came before them, positioning their companies for the highest level of success at every turn.What does a Tidal Seed investment look likeProducts that change the game. For a product to be truly disruptive, it needs to change the game. Maybe this means it has the ability to really increase revenue for the customer, or provide a signfiicant competitive advantage. It could mean the product is mission-critical, and so sticky that the customer can't live without it. It almost always means that the produce user is in love with the product and they can really tie their use of that product back to meaningful value creation for them personally, for for their business. At Tidal we want to back the products that aren't just incremental, they are changing the game entirely.Markets with tailwinds. Not all markets are created equal. Some are more ripe for disruption than others, depending on where the market is up to with its adoption of technology and what the tailwinds are that are changing the flows of value creation in that industry. We look for a really clear problem space that needs to be solved for, or a market expansion opportunity that no one has though of yet. We are industry-agnostic and some of the verticals we have invested behind that demonstrate strong tailwinds include logistics, e-commerce, agriculture, workflow productivity and finance. Current areas of specific interest include: cybersecurity, food technology and education.Founders that hustle. Our founders have a unique insight or experience with the problem space they are trying to solve. They show outstanding technical competence across product and technology. We like to see a scrappy, data-driven approach to user acquisition and an ingrained culture of test, iterate and learn to get to the answer. Our founders understand that 'it takes a village' to build a business and they have the humility to draw on the strengths of those around them. They can inspire investors, customers and employees to unite around their vision and they show grit when they need to ride the hard times. They are decisive, when they need to make pragmatic decision and have a 'do what it takes' attitude to getting things done.Compelling business model. We look for B2B or B2B2C models, and business types include Software-as-a-Service, Marketpl

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/grant-mccarthy-generative-ai-venture-capital
Title: Tidal Ventures’ Grant McCarthy on navigating the Generative AI revolution
Meta Description: Explore the transformative power of Generative AI with Grant McCarthy from Tidal Ventures. Gain insights into the dynamic AI landscape as he navigates the venture capital investment landscape, dissecting the three crucial layers of the AI stack. Discover Tidal Ventures’ strategic focus on innovative AI companies, revolutionising various sectors. Dive into the world of contextual and local models and understand the intriguing investment potential they hold. Uncover the hotbed of activity in the AI application layer, emphasising the emergence of built-for-purpose solutions. Delve into the unique opportunities AI presents in Australia’s tech ecosystem, with a spotlight on generative AI’s role in reshaping the nation’s technology landscape and economy. Whether you’re a technology founder or an investor, learn how AI can substantially enhance products and services. Tidal Ventures, with its impressive track record in AI venture capital, stands ready to champion innovative ventures at the forefront of the AI revolution, offering unparalleled expertise and support to navigate this dynamic and promising landscape.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/grant-mccarthy-generative-ai-venture-capital

## Headings Structure:
H1: Tidal Ventures’ Grant McCarthy on navigating the Generative AI revolution
H3: The AI stack
H3: Tidal Ventures’ AI investment mindset
H3: LLMs
H3: Contextual and local models
H3: Built-for-purpose applications
H3: AI in Australia
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesTidal Ventures’ Grant McCarthy on navigating the Generative AI revolutionAt Tidal, we use an ‘AI stack’ framework to structure our conversations. I’ll explain how we use it to frame our discussions around AI’s far-reaching investment implications, breaking down the layers that define this exciting technology field,Grant McCarthyonNovember 23, 2023•5 min readBeing in the technology space for over 20+ years, I rarely get excited about the latest ‘tech’ cycle—I’ve found that they’re often more ‘novel-hype’ than substance. But the current wave of AI innovation is different.I can’t overstate how quickly generative AI is materially changing the world around us and the way we interact with hardware and software. For those of us who witnessed the rise of the internet in the late ’90s or the ubiquity of mobile devices in the 2010s, you’ll likely agree that generative AI has accelerated with a much more meteoric ascent.At Tidal Ventures, we use an ‘AI stack’ framework to structure our thinking and conversations. I’ll explain how we use it to frame our discussions around AI’s far-reaching investment implications, breaking down the layers that define this technology field and exploring their investment opportunities.The AI stackTo effectively navigate the AI venture capital landscape, it’s crucial to understand the AI stack— which consists of three key layers: AI infrastructure, AI models, and AI applications.AI infrastructure layerAt the base of the stack, you’ll find the infrastructure layer. This layer encompasses the essential hardware and cloud platforms that serve as the foundational building blocks upon which AI capabilities are constructed. It includes:Hardware infrastructure: Specialised accelerator chips optimised for model training and inference workloads.Cloud infrastructure: Comprising various cloud platforms that facilitate the large-scale computing required for AI-related operations.AI models layerThe model layer plays a pivotal role in the AI landscape—these programs analyse datasets to find patterns and make predictions. The model layer encompasses:Foundational models are large, pre-trained models that serve as the base. Technologies like Google’s Bard and Meta’s Llama are crucial in bridging the gap between raw computing power and practical AI applications.Contextual models are trained on narrowed, industry-specific datasets. They are tailored to fulfil particular needs and act as the driving force behind various AI applications. Looks like BloombergGPT plans to do this for the finance world.Local models are trained on localised, often proprietary datasets, further refining AI’s capabilities for specific applications. LifeLenz and PredictHQ are key proprietary data sets within our portfolio.AI applications layerThe application layer is at the top of the AI stack, where companies develop AI products and services for end-users (think Chat-GPT). These applications utilise local, contextual, and/or foundational models to provide a wide range of AI-powered solutions.Tidal Ventures’ AI investment mindsetTidal believes that the expanding and ubiquitous nature of cloud computing has quietly propelled multiple waves of technological innovation. As cloud technology continues to gain widespread adoption and the cost of computing resources continues to decrease, a transformative shift will not only continue but is set to accelerate. This shift will fuel the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence across diverse industries and applications, impacting the products and systems we use today in our everyday lives, both at work and at home.Our focus, like always, is to find the very best product, engineering and commercial operators who have identified globally significant problems to solve. We look to zero in on these opportunities, which we’ve seen within Australia’s vibrant, innovative environment and beyond.At Tidal Ventures, we’ve been investing in predictive AI for the past eight years. Our current portfolio includes companies that are revolutionising various sectors through AI, including:BuildBetter: Automating and improving efficiency within workflows, providing insightful summaries, and enhancing product and customer operations.FrankieOne: Enabling contextual payment processing and real-time fraud monitoring crucial for regulatory compliance.Hone: Using their cloud-based Machine Learning and AI to enable farmers to make real-time decisions on grain segregation, optimising quality, and yield values.LifeLenz: Using their proprietary AI-powered forecasting model to establish a global benchmark in labour scheduling.PredictHQ: Leveraging proprietary data for improving economic value and enhancing services like Uber’s surge pricing.Search.io: Enhancing customer conversion through personalisation and transforming the e-commerce landscape.TheLoops: Providing SupportOps to improve customer experience and boost revenue, leading to customer delight.LLMsToday’s tech conversations seem to centre around larg

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/grant-mccarthy-technology-investor-guy-kawasaki-remarkable-founders
Title: Insights from Guy Kawasaki and Grant McCarthy on disruptive innovation
Meta Description: Discover the essence of success in technology startups as Tidal Managing Partner Grant McCarthy and technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki unveil insights into the visionary founders' characteristics.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/grant-mccarthy-technology-investor-guy-kawasaki-remarkable-founders

## Headings Structure:
H1: Riding the waves of entrepreneurship with Guy Kawasaki and Grant McCarthy
H3: The role of luck and timing
H3: Remarkable founders know how to “turn and burn”
H3: Finding the balance in product development and sales efforts
H3: How Grant and Guy identify founders with promising potential
H3: Being the right “asshole” leader
H3: Navigating different mindsets and self-belief in leadership
H3: The three common founder mistakes to avoid in early-stage startups
H3: How to win the AI race
H3: The key to navigating different market cycles
H3: Tips for founders pitching their startups
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Founder GuidesRiding the waves of entrepreneurship with Guy Kawasaki and Grant McCarthyOG technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki joined Tidal Managing Partner and Co-Founder Grant McCarthy to discuss the characteristics of remarkable founders and how to navigate the long and exciting journey of being an entrepreneur.Grant McCarthyonApril 22, 2024•5 min readIn 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 timingGrant 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 a

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/hello-to-bonjoro
Title: Say hello to Bonjoro
Meta Description: Find out how Bonjoro, led by Matt Barnett and Grant Dewar, developed a successful customer video platform with investment, strategic advice and product support from the Tidal team.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/hello-to-bonjoro

## Headings Structure:
H1: Say hello to Bonjoro
H3: Tidal meets Bonjoro
H3: Wearing the founder hat and the Tidal hat
H3: How the engagement goes deep
H3: Choosing between a safe plateau or rapid growth
H3: Never slack on advice
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersSay hello to BonjoroFind out how Bonjoro, led by Matt Barnett and Grant Dewar, developed a successful customer video platform with investment, strategic advice and product support from the Tidal team.Wendell KeunemanSamadhi PelendaonApril 19, 2021•5 min readWhen 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 videoThen 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 BonjoroTidal’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 hatMatt 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, BonjoroHow the engagement goes deepLike 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.The Bonjoro team. Matt is in Brown, and Grant is in GreenChoosing 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 matte

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/honing-in-on-the-right-market
Title: Honing in on the right market
Meta Description: Antony Martin is a co-founder of Hone. Find out how he and his team have made the transition from technologists to company builders, and have leaned on Tidal to narrow the business' focus and set it up for success.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/honing-in-on-the-right-market

## Headings Structure:
H1: Honing in on the right market
H3: Starting with the problem
H3: From faster labs to field tech
H3: From tech builders to company builders
H3: The learning and commercial curve
H3: No limit to scale
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersHoning in on the right marketAntony Martin is a co-founder of Hone. Find out how he and his team have made the transition from technologists to company builders, and have leaned on Tidal to narrow the business' focus and set it up for success.Grant McCarthyonMarch 31, 2022•5 min readWhen you’re sitting on some really smart technology with loads of potential applications, what do you do? You choose one market vertical first, and focus on it. For Hone, it’s Agtech.According to government and industry sources, Australia’s Agtech sector is predicted to be worth $100 billion by 2030, and companies like Hone are at the bleeding edge of this rapid growth.We recently spoke to one of Hone’s founders, Antony Martin, and he revealed the team’s journey from necessity, through invention, to market identification. Here’s their story and how Tidal got involved.Starting with the problemHone co-founders and scientists Antony Martin, Will Palmer and Jamie Flynn have known each other for years, and worked together at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). It was while working together on a research project about biofuels, they found themselves out in a blistering hot field of sorghum, wishing there was an easier way to get the data they needed.With months of sample processing and analysis ahead of them, including hundreds of lab hours, they came up with a part of the answer: let’s analyze the samples faster using spectroscopy.A simple definition of spectroscopy is that it measures the interaction of light with the chemical make-up of samples. In practical terms, a spectrometer can quickly tell the difference in quality between different sorghum varieties. So the team hacked together a solution using off-the-shelf components, mathematics, and a unique methodology, and began processing their samples in record time.It occurred to them that if it could do that for sorghum, it could do that for other crops as well. And so Hone started.Hone co-founders Dr Antony Martin, centre, with Dr Jamie Flynn, (left), and Dr William Palmer (right)From faster labs to field techOne of their early customers was a rice breeding institute in the Philippines. In two weeks, the team had processed 60,000 test results and provided data that would have taken years for the institute to get processed manually. Not satisfied with just fast processing, the team set about making a device to collect data on the spot, from the crop, soil and grain, cutting out the lab altogether.That’s where things really changed for Hone. From scientists using technology, they became technology builders themselves and sought backing for their ideas.Tidal entered the picture after a few smaller and one larger angel investor had already taken the lead. It was through one of the angel contacts at the HMRI, that Grant McCarthy was introduced to Hone and the relationship began.From tech builders to company buildersWhile not an inexperienced team by the time Tidal came on board as investors, Hone was ready to go from a science tech business to a growth company. “They came in and worked with us on the foundations of the business, particularly on the commercial side and the go to market strategy”. Both Grant and Wendell Keuneman were involved in the early days, “getting their hands dirty and helping out with pricing, identifying customers and really working out who we were trying to serve.”Hone’s technology can be adapted for use in multiple industries, and they started out with a wide testing field. “I think that there was definitely a sort of aha moment there where it was like, this is not scalable to try and develop every application under the sun.”Knowing they had to focus, Tidal helped them narrow in on the AgTech vertical before scaling into others. “Wendell, especially, helped us set up our processes around software teams and how we deliver products.”They called him the “whiteboard warrior” and many sessions were held to discuss “how we were structuring things, how we were thinking about the business, and how to scale the team up.”Hone's in-field testing deviceThe learning and commercial curve“People tell you stories about VCs”, Antony says. “They say be careful who you bring on. But we have always found Tidal very supportive. They really understand what we're going through. They've seen it all before and have the best intentions to help us get to the next level.”Hone is currently emerging from what Antony describes as an engineering and R&D phase, to a new commercial phase. And Grant is a “wealth of knowledge when it comes to that.” Apart from sitting on the board, he has been “pulled into offsite planning sessions, advising on the business roadmap, the org structure, capabilities, and culture.”“Learning and doing well at the same time is hard”, Antony remarks. “We’ve got to learn fast while building up the commercial side of the business.” Since coming on board, Grant and Wendell have “always been there to advise on the strategic direction of the business.”

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-aimon
Title: Investment Notes: AIMon
Meta Description: Tidal co-led AIMon’s 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.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-aimon

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: AIMon
H3: AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: AIMonWe’re thrilled to announce that we’ve co-led AIMon’s 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.Nick MuySamadhi PelendaonDecember 11, 2024•5 min readAIMon 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 tailwindsGenerative 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 gameAIMon’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.AIMon is a full-cycle LLM accuracy platformBy 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 hustleAIMon’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.AIMon Team: Preetam Joshi, Bibek Paudel, Puneet Anand, Alex LyzhovA compelling business modelAIMon’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 beyondWith 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.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inboxOur recent Thought WavesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflow

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-asseti
Title: Investment Notes: Asseti
Meta Description: Tidal Ventures spearheaded Asseti’s Seed funding round. Together, they are dedicated to realising their mission of building an AI-powered asset condition monitoring platform.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-asseti

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Asseti
H2: Markets with tailwinds
H2: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: AssetiWe’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building the world’s leading intelligent asset management platform. Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.Kieran O'NeillonMay 16, 2024•5 min readLeading 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 tailwindsYou 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 gameAsseti’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.Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needsThe next stage for Asseti is instant asset assessment through satellite imagery, offering more frequent evaluations. Founders that hustleFounder 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.‍Team: Katrina Bignasca, Alex Doyle, Aonghus Stevens, and Nima IdelA compelling business modelEvery 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

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-blakthumb
Title: Investment Notes: Blakthumb
Meta Description: We have been following this founding team for some time! Read below why we think Mel and Carey are the founders to build beautiful software for the indoor agriculture market.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-blakthumb

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Blakthumb
H3: Blakthumb is a software company that provides an intuitive end-to-end operating system for cultivators and producers of cannabis and food. Their mission is to build resilient communities through the power of decentralised production.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that Change the Game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: BlakthumbWe have been following this founding team for some time - and have now led Blakthumb's pre-seed round! Read below why we think Mel and Carey are the founders to build beautiful software for the indoor agriculture market.Georgie TurneronFebruary 25, 2022•5 min readBlakthumb is a software company that provides an intuitive end-to-end operating system for cultivators and producers of cannabis and food. Their mission is to build resilient communities through the power of decentralised production.The Tidal team recently led Blakthumb's pre-seed round, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models, and products. There are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see how we invest here.Markets with TailwindsAn underserved market.For the past decade, technology built for the Indoor Agriculture market has focused on (1) environmental control and (2) compliance. As a result, almost all the technology advancements have been made in hardware systems (including vertical racking, nutrient mixes and LED lights), compliance software, and sensor technologies, with highly fragmented distribution.The operational side of growing plants (management of people & processes) has been almost entirely ignored. However, with hardware costs coming down and market tailwinds pushing consumer demand, the Indoor Ag market is starting to mature.We believe cultivators will need a competitive advantage in operational efficiency, quality management and high performing teams in order to thrive and scale.The timing is now.In 2021, the cannabis and indoor food production market generated $201.9 billion in revenue and it's growing rapidly at a CAGR of 17.6%. The North American cannabis market is exploding as the world begins to recognise the medicinal benefits of the plant. The indoor food industry is benefiting from the cannabis flow-on effects, as capex decreases and consumer preferences, food security issues and supply chain pressure pushes the world toward more sustainable food production methods.The market tailwinds are in place and the infrastructure requirements are now increasingly cost effective and easily accessible. With Blakthumb's operating system, cultivators will have the final piece of the puzzle to enable them to start, optimise and scale their growing operations. Blakthumb will become the market enabler and unlock this growth.Products that Change the GameThere is a burning need for beautiful software in this market.Planning for production is typically done on a spreadsheet, and task management is on a whiteboard or in a Team Leader's head. None of these methods are sustainable or scalable operationally, and the approach is prone to human error, which runs the risk of something catastrophic happening. Team Leaders worry about this constantly, and can lead to burnout or resignation.Cannabis cultivation is a nascent industry that lacks experience. The result is an industry with a high turnover rate - between 40-60% of people leave within the first two months - and the two major reasons why people leave are lack of recognition and lack of job structure. This is costing the US cannabis industry at least $1 billion each year.A vertical SaaS product with a System for Action.Software tends to be built for business owners who want data rather than teams who need to take action. Teams end up dealing with multiple legacy systems that don't actually help them do their jobs and show their work. Production teams don't need another system of record, they need a system for action. The data they create provides the insights and predictions they need to take smarter actions.Blakthumb brings order to the chaos by providing Team Leaders with an automated, digital tool to replace their static tools. At its core, the product provides visibility over the cultivators end-to-end production environment. Blakthumb manages the complexity of production issues and delays, both quickly and with assurance. Blakthumb captures data across all areas of production to deliver precise strain performance insights and make it easy to plan and delegate tasks effectively.Founders that HustleThe winning product will be built by experts who care deeply about the customer.Software can't be built for cannabis and food production without deep domain expertise. The industry is complex with specific terminology, processes, and exceptions to the rules - and to win here, you need credibility. Mel and Carey are the team to build the best product for this market. They have been producers themselves, they have researched the market extensively and they have done deep dive user research to hit on the right value proposition.Blakthumb Founders Mel Fyfe (LHS) and Carey TaylorThis founding team are some of the most determined we have seen in years. They have been seeking the right business model

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-carted
Title: Investment Notes: Carted
Meta Description: We are thrilled to be investing in Carted's Seed round. Carted is building a universal commerce API that can power commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-carted

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Carted
H3: Carted is building an API that can power universal commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Universal Commerce
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the future of commerce thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: CartedWe are thrilled to be investing in Carted's Seed round. Carted is building a universal commerce API that can power commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.Wendell KeunemanonMay 4, 2021•5 min readCarted is building an API that can power universal commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.The Tidal team recently made an investment into Carted, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models and products, there are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see our investment criteria here.Markets with tailwindsE-commerce is an enormous market - USD$10 trillion - and is forecast to grow at ~15% p.a. to 2027 (Grandview Research). Covid-19 further accelerated what was already a clear trend towards online commerce, driving years' worth of e-commerce adoption in months. Tidal have had conviction around the e-commerce thematic for some time, and have made investments in a number of pioneering companies in the space, including Shippit, Search.io, and Drive Yello.Universal CommerceToday, the online retail world resembles the physical one, in that we purchase products from a "store", offering a collection of products for sale. Regardless of where customers discover a brand or product - be it search, content, social, or friends - they are taken to the online store to transact.Universal commerce presents a way to attach a transactional capability to a product, instantly creating a commerce experience. Why does this matter? By enabling a buyer to seamlessly purchase a product or service, where it is discovered, it permits contextual commerce. There are a range of new contextual commerce experiences that could be created - including collaborative, social, conversational video, and voice commerce.Products that change the gameEnter Carted - who closely embodies our thesis around the next generation of e-commerce, by embedding commerce within the online experiences that users value the most. Carted's vision is to build the API that powers commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.The Carted API connects the fragmented players across the e-commerce ecosystem. This enables platforms, creators, influencers, and developers, who previously would need to integrate with brands and retailers one by one, to sell products directly on their own platform, retain customers and traffic, monetise their audience, and build new e-commerce experiences.Our thesis: if Carted is able to deliver this important infrastructure, it will shift the relationships between buyer, intermediary, and seller across the value chain; and will enable developers to build contextual commerce experiences in entirely new and interesting ways.In the spirit of The Art of the Demo, the Carted team have this skill in spades. Carted's demo examples are here and here.Founders that hustleHolly Cardew and Mike Angell are the team to solve this problem. They are multi-time company builders and accomplished operators with deep domain expertise in the e-commerce space, complementary skill sets, and relentless hustle. Holly has built four Shopify apps and founded Pixc, helping merchants organise their product catalogs, whilst Mike has experience at Culture Kings, Shopify, and Fast, and is a self-taught developer who founded his first e-commerce business all the way back in 2004. Their unique insight and clarity of vision for Carted is borne from their shared frustration of the experience uncovered when they set out to build Vop, where they created a shoppable Tik Tok feed, and realised no single checkout experience could integrate products from multiple vendors.Mike Angell & Holly Cardew at their new Surry Hills headquartersA compelling business modelCarted's business model is compelling as it simultaneously drives value for stakeholders across the e-commerce value chain:Platforms can earn revenue for their content, own their customers, and build new e-commerce experiences.Customers benefit from superior commerce experiences created through contextual commerce, including ease of use and a shorter path to conversionMerchants/brands benefit through increased revenue opportunities, gaining new customers and increasing product visibility across a range of platforms.By providing the infrastructure, Carted has the potential to clip the ticket on e-commerce sales and take a slice of a very large pie, with significant volumes. Revenue opportunities for the API include interchange fees, affiliate commissions, promotional codes and product markups, FX conversion, and API calls.The seed phaseCarted sits firmly within its Seed phase - and will be turning its focus to building out its product, hiring a ste

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-checkbox
Title: Investment Notes: Checkbox
Meta Description: A great way to start 2022 — we co-led Checkbox’s pre-Series A round alongside Sequoia India’s Surge. We’re publishing notes detailing our investment thesis and why we think Checkbox is positioned to ride the no code expert automation wave.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-checkbox

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Checkbox
H3: Checkbox is a no code platform that enables non-technical business experts to build automated solutions that replace the manual tasks that bog down their day.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: A note on the No Code revolution
H3: From RPA to EPA
H3: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: CheckboxA great way to start 2022 — we co-led Checkbox’s pre-Series A round alongside Sequoia India’s Surge. We’re publishing notes detailing our investment thesis and why we think Checkbox is positioned to ride the no code expert automation wave.Georgie TurneronJanuary 28, 2022•5 min readCheckbox is a no code platform that enables non-technical business experts to build automated solutions that replace the manual tasks that bog down their day.Checkbox combines forms automation, decisioning support, document automation, and workflow automation in a single platform to enable complete end-to-end Expert Process Automation (”EPA”) with a seamless end-user experience. EPA enables an organization to capitalize on the knowledge of its experts and build that into technology created by none other than those experts themselves. The automation of expert workflows is crucial to driving productivity gains within enterprises as no matter how repetitive and mundane the task, an expert’s knowledge is always required, drawing them away from the highest value-adding activities.The team at Tidal tracked the business for nearly six months before the founders, Evan Wong and James Han, made the decision to raise a pre-Series A round with Tidal and Sequoia India's Surge. We spent that period white-boarding with Evan and James during monthly workshops that covered GTM, customer segmentation, and Series A tactics. We've been very impressed with the founders' responsiveness to advice, speed of execution, and ability to set and meet their forecasts.Markets with TailwindsA crucial part of any investment process at Tidal is the ‘thesis development stage’. In fact, this often precedes an individual investment opportunity. As with most VCs, we want to invest behind markets with tailwinds. In other words, it’s important to get the timing right and to be able to answer the question “Why Now”.A note on the No Code revolutionIn the same way PCs democratized software usage, APIs democratized software connectivity and the cloud democratized the purchase and deployment of software. No Code will usher in the next wave of enterprise innovation by democratizing technical skillsets...this profound generational shift has the power to touch every software market and every user across the enterprise.~ TechcrunchWe are in the midst of a No Code / Low Code movement, democratizing the ability to create software applications without the requirement to code. This removes internal bottlenecks caused by barriers to accessing IT and enables the business to address customer needs (through internal Dev & IT teams) without de-prioritizing internal productivity needs. The best part is that the creator of these internal automation tools is also the commercial expert, which has the benefit of producing the most relevant output as well as capturing a greater proportion of organizational IP within the tools themselves, therefore reducing the IP leakage that often comes with knowledge workers departing a company.From RPA to EPAWhilst often labelled as late adopters, enterprises have been turning to technology to drive efficiency gains for decades. In fact, it was estimated that enterprises spent USD 550 billion on custom software in 2021. The big shift we have seen in the past five years is towards automation. The first wave of enterprise automation is referred to as Robotic Process Automation (”RPA”), which automates individual tasks, removing them completely from the hands of humans. RPA saw a huge tailwind push during the pandemic, as companies sought to automate what was previously simplified by having people in the same office together. A leader in this space is UIPath, who were early to market in 2005 and IPO’d in 2021 as one of the largest US software IPOs in history (at that time, anyhow). Though it was the 12 months pre-pandemic when Gartner reported annual growth in RPA of sixty-three percent.Next up was Business Process Automation, or BPA. This took RPA one step further by automating workflows and not just individual tasks. Human engagement was solicited through the process as and when required, but the workflow itself was overseen by the software. Technology is leveraged to perform a sequence of repetitive tasks where manual efforts are otherwise substituted. This market is estimated to reach $19.4 billion by 2026, up from $9.8 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 12.2%.And that brings us to Expert Process Automation, or EPA, what we believe is the next wave of the ‘no-code revolution’. EPA tackles problems that are higher up the value chain.Unlike RPA, which is about replicating the exact actions a human user would take, EPA is about replicating the exact decisions and actions an expert would take.Products that change the gameEnterprise teams need to automate manual work in order to drive much-needed productivity to remain competitive, but traditional software development software is typically not accessible or feasible 

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-flagship
Title: Investment Notes: Flagship
Meta Description: We’re delighted to have led retail tech platform Flagship’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of revolutionising the retail industry through cutting-edge technology.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-flagship

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Flagship
H3: Flagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: ‍
H2: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: FlagshipWe’re delighted to have led retail tech platform Flagship’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of revolutionising the retail industry through cutting-edge technology.Georgie TurnerKieran O'NeillonSeptember 12, 2023•5 min readFlagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.The Tidal team led Flagship’s Seed round, and we’re excited to share our investment notes with you below. Our investment strategy encompasses diverse markets, models, and products, guided by a set of core principles fundamental to our decision-making process. If you’d like to explore the key pillars that define an exceptional Tidal Seed investment, you can learn more about how we invest here.Markets with tailwindsSimply put, retail is a massive market—with a staggering global expenditure of US$28 trillion in 2022. For those who can see beyond the challenges of a discouraging macroeconomic landscape, the post-COVID retail trends offer intriguing opportunities to identify emerging tailwinds. Trends like:Shoppers remain strongly inclined towards traditional brick-and-mortar stores, with a whopping 85% of global retail sales happening physically in-store.Interestingly, pure-play e-commerce brands are venturing into the world of physical retail. They recognise that in-person shopping experiences offer a unique dimension that their online counterparts can’t replicate.The concept of omnichannel retail has shifted from a nice-to-have luxury to an absolute necessity for any brand aspiring to thrive in today’s market.As elucidated by Shopify:‍Retailers are using stores to deepen the consumer connection with the brand. In a crowded social and e-commerce space, stores can drive engagement and loyalty.Tidal has been steadfast in our conviction regarding the e-commerce theme for quite some time now. We have demonstrated our commitment through investments in innovative companies like Shippit, Search.io, Carted, and Drive Yello. We haven’t yet seen a proposition around critical technology infrastructure that truly enables omnichannel retailers to reach the same level of sophistication in-store as they have online.Products that change the gameOver the past six months, our close collaboration with the Flagship team has given us a profound insight into the incredible potential to transform retail operations management. It’s evident that retailers are eager to unify their segmented business units, bridging the gap between online and offline realms to create a cohesive operating system. Flagship envisions a future where they solve this—with the workflows and metrics of diverse departments, such as Buyers, Planners, E-commerce, In-store Visual Merchandising, and Marketing, seamlessly integrated.Operational efficiencies often start and end with better data, and retail isn’t any different. Flagship’s leading product is a visual merchandising tool for retailers that provides unique primary data insights around granular store-based revenue performance. It enables retailers to centrally and digitally manage the roll-out, track the compliance, and get performance insights into their visual merchandising guides.We firmly believe that better data and improved workflows can enable retailers to harness their experience and knowledge, convert it into embedded expertise, and subsequently codify their intellectual property for iterative improvements.Founders that hustleFlagship Founder Simon MolnarFlagship’s founder, Simon Molnar, brings a wealth of retail experience to the table. He served as CEO at Ice Jewellery and held various roles at Afterpay, giving him a dual perspective as both retailer and retail technologist. Simon is deeply customer-focused, collaborating closely with retailers to ensure that the product genuinely addresses their challenges and delivers tangible value. His unique background fuels his passion for helping retailers expertly position their products, optimise sales, minimise waste, and drive business growth.Simon has meticulously assembled an exceptional team of individuals who have achieved remarkable success at renowned Australian tech giants such as Atlassian, Canva, and Afterpay and possess a profound understanding of the retail industry. This collaborative strength has enabled Flagship to successfully onboard some of Australia’s most prominent retail brands, including Venroy, LSKD, Aje Athletica, and SIR.A compelling business modelFlagship’s mission is to become an integral component of retail operations, driving data-driven insights and facilitating transformations across diverse business units. They aim to supercharge mid-sized retail groups that are currently burdened by manual proc

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-frankieone-series-a
Title: FrankieOne: Seed to Series A
Meta Description: Why we led FrankieOne's Early Seed round back in 2019, and why we continued to invest through the rest of the Seed Phase and now into the Series A.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-frankieone-series-a

## Headings Structure:
H1: FrankieOne: Seed to Series A
H3: FrankieOne provides customers with a single API to better manage KYC/AML and Fraud. Its integrated platform delivers a unified view of end customers and unlocks data-led decision-making and workflow automation for compliance, operations, audit, and risk.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: Seed: landing a compelling business model and strong product-market-fit
H3: Series A: a scalable GTM model and a defensible moat
H3: To overseas markets and beyond
H3: A note on the Fintech infrastructure thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesFrankieOne: Seed to Series AWhy we led FrankieOne's Early Seed round back in 2019, and why we continued to invest through the rest of the Seed Phase and now into the Series A.Grant McCarthyonOctober 12, 2021•5 min readFrankieOne provides customers with a single API to better manage KYC/AML and Fraud. Its integrated platform delivers a unified view of end customers and unlocks data-led decision-making and workflow automation for compliance, operations, audit, and risk.FrankieOne (or just "Frankie") recently announced a A$20 million Series A round co-led by US VC fund Greycroft and Sydney-based Airtree Ventures, with participation from Harry Stebbing's 20VC in the UK, Reinventure, Mantis Ventures in the US, high profile executives from global Fintechs such as Robinhood and Public, and follow-on investment from Tidal and other existing investors. This brings the company's total funding to just under $23 million.Frankie's announcement comes one week after one of its competitors, Alloy, announced a US$100 million Series C round at a whopping US$1.35 billion valuation, suggesting this is a hot sector to be backing right now. But what did we know at the time we invested in the Early Seed round two-and-a half years ago? Let's take a look at how our investment thesis from May 2019 has stood up against the world we know today.Markets with tailwindsFrankieOne capitalizes on a data integration & orchestration opportunity within the financial services sector. Existing point solutions are often decentralized, requiring multiple integrations (and in some cases, they completely fail to integrate with legacy systems), and provide poor visibility of the customer to financial service providers....and a broken user experience to boot.And yet, KYC ("Know Your Customer"), AML ("Anti-Money Laundering") and Fraud prevention solutions are mission critical when onboarding new customers and monitoring BAU transactions. The cost of not having adequate tooling and protection can be hugely material to a financial services provider in terms of cyber fraud, as well as revenue left on the table.We have seen this act play out in a material way in the consumer services sector when Twilio (and similar service providers) saw adoption at scale to provide non-core capabilities to customer tech stacks.Our thesis: With the build out of open banking and digitally native financial services companies, there is a huge opportunity for the emergence of an automated aggregator for critical services that feed into these banking stacks. The first wave of this is KYC, AML, Identity Verification and Transaction Monitoring. Products that change the gameFrankie connects compliance and risk data sources to a single API that unifies how its customer base (which includes the likes of Westpac, AfterPay, crypto exchanges, utility companies, wealth management platforms, lending institutions etc.) onboard and monitor their customers, meeting global regulatory requirements.Frankie's product currency (how it is directly attributable to a measurable outcome for its customer) is two-fold:(1) A higher "pass-through rate" (the % of new customers that are verified & approved for onboarding) that it delivers by leveraging hundreds of data sources and utilizing its intelligent decision engine to solve for missing information across multiple sources → this increases revenue for the customer and saves the cost and complexity that accompanies manual intervention.(2) A unified view of consumers at the end customer level (not by product, for example), delivering a better onboarding experience to consumers and a more secure means of ongoing monitoring → this improves consumer satisfaction & retention, and eliminates the multi-step process currently undertaken to stitch together a holistic view of an end customer (e.g. the customers of a bank).Unified customer view of onboardingFounders that hustleTwo key attributes we look for in founders are (1) whether they have a unique insight or experience with the problem space they’re trying to solve, and (2) whether they employ a data-driven approach to building a business (how they assess the market opportunity, acquire customers and establish a test & iteration culture).On the first point, co-founders Simon Costello and Aaron Chipper were FrankieOne’s first customers. Let me explain this circular reference — Simon’s journey with Frankie began with him building the foundations of a neobank (branded “Frankie”) for the Australian market in 2018.A sneak peek at the consumer app back in 2018It was during this process that Simon & Aaron experienced a lack of plug & play solution to conduct KYC and AML for new customers. Even when building a financial services company from the ground up — one that would not be encumbered by legacy systems (in comparison to a large Australian bank, for example) — they could not find a solution that delivered what they wanted. There were individual data sources to connect to, but doing so left reve

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-loopit
Title: Investment Notes: Loopit
Meta Description: We are delighted to have led Loopit’s Seed round. Loopit is a software provider that enables mobility companies to introduce vehicle subscription offerings to their own customers.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-loopit

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Loopit
H3: Loopit’s mobility platform drives car subscription management and billing solutions for automakers, dealerships, fleet leasing, rental companies and startups.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: LoopitWe are delighted to have led Loopit’s Seed round. Loopit is a software provider that enables mobility companies to introduce vehicle subscription offerings to their own customers.Wendell KeunemanonJune 27, 2022•5 min readLoopit’s mobility platform drives car subscription management and billing solutions for automakers, dealerships, fleet leasing, rental companies and startups.The Tidal team recently made an investment into Loopit, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models and products. There are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see how we invest here.Markets with TailwindsWith the transformation to cloud, consumers and businesses alike are consuming software online using subscription as the standard arrangement. This transformation is occurring across many other industries, and the automative industry is undergoing its own digital transformation that is set to change the way:consumers or businesses interact with car brands (e.g. Care by Volvo)consumers obtain the vehicle (e.g. subscribe to an EV through your energy provider)consumers experience the entire lifecycle of acquiring, running, managing, and selling a vehicle (e.g. subscribe to a car, maintained by the vendor, only fill fuel, return it when done or swap they vehicle if the plan allows it)We believe that there is a compelling case emerging for the growth of car subscriptions as a viable alternative to long term rental, leasing, and ownership in many cases.This transition is aligned with changing consumer behaviour that seeks greater flexibility and convenience around mobility. There is waning interest in owning physical products, particularly among younger generations; hybrid and remote work is changing the way cars are used, and climate consciousness and improving infrastructure are driving a shift to electric vehicles. In addition to being highly flexible, vehicle subscription programs are also perceived as being more cost-effective than traditional car leases, rentals, or outright purchases. The experience of buying and selling a car can be tedious, and, factoring in on-road costs, registration, taxes, servicing, and depreciation, the total cost of ownership is often under-estimated by more than 50%.In parallel, the auto industry is undergoing its own transformation. Tesla has led the way, disrupting the industry through both its car and its go-to-market approach. Newer micro-mobility categories (e.g. e-bikes, scooters) were born online and have been early adopters of a subscription model, and now the traditional car industry more broadly is transitioning to online retail, which will emphases personalisation and better customer communication.We expect the subscription market to continue to grow at pace through improvements in price competitiveness, the customer experience, and consumer awareness. According to market research, the current vehicle subscription market is US$4.1B and will grow at 22.8% CAGR to 2030 to a market size of +$31.7B. Over the next eight years, BCG estimates that up to 15% of new car sales will be via a subscription.Products that change the gameLoopit provides a turnkey subscription management solution that helps automakers, car dealerships, fleet rental companies and startups to introduce car subscription offerings to their own customers.Loopit’s SaaS platform facilitates the end-to-end subscription process, providing mobility companies with the ability to control, configure, and provide a subscription offering quickly and easily. The platform handles the customer-facing touchpoints such as onboarding, billing, and ongoing customer management, as well as back-office management features such as management of inventory, pricing, and utilisation.This is game changing for both new entrants who wish to get to market quickly, and existing automotive players who largely run their businesses on legacy platforms that are tailored to other customer models.Loopit not only powers the shift to subscriptions, they improve the overall customer experience, back office management and economics through software.Loopit consolidates up to 12 different standalone software platforms into one cohesive, purpose-built mobility solution.Founders that HustleCo-founders (and brothers) Michael and Paul Higgins have lived their customers’ problems and built the industry-leading solution to solve it. They initially built Loopit’s software to support their car subscription marketplace HelloCars, before realising the opportunity to provide it more broadly across the mobility industry.Michael, Paul, and the broader management team combine both strong functional capabilities in building a software business with extensive domain knowledge in the automotive industry. They have demonstrated strong execution, building a healthy and scalable business that has wo

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-mediscan-ai
Title: Investment Notes: MediScan AI
Meta Description: Tidal backs MediScan AI to reinvent medlegal evaluations with workflow-first AI. Doubling case output, reclaiming margin, and taking on a $16B legacy market.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-mediscan-ai

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: MediScan AI
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.Nick MuySamadhi PelendaonJune 30, 2025•5 min readMediScan 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 tailwindsThe 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 gameMediScan 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.AI-powered medical legal record analysis for physiciansThe 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 hustleMediScan 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 modelMediScan’s first customers are individual evaluators and small groups. These professionals make independent buying decisions and are motivated to 

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-minikai
Title: Investment Notes: Minikai
Meta Description: 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.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-minikai

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Minikai
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: MinikaiWe'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.Georgie TurnerSamadhi PelendaonFebruary 11, 2025•5 min readMinikai 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 tailwindsThe 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 paperworkProviders face fines exceeding $1.5 million for compliance breachesTens of thousands of incidents go unreported every year due to complex reporting requirementsTraining staff costs $230,000 per 100 clients annuallyGrowing regulatory pressures with new mandates requiring minimum care minutes per residentWidespread inefficiencies costing care providers and the government billions in tax dollars annuallyThe 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 gameMinikai'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 providersContext-aware personalisation: Dynamic UI components that adjust based on user roles and preferencesAutomated documentation: Converts conversations and interactions into structured reports and compliance documentationMini agents: Each patient gets a dedicated AI agent that understands their specific needs and historyThe platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:Reporting: Makes incident reporting user-friendly for carers and 50% faster for compliance staffQuality & safeguarding: AI agents instantly scan all documents and identify compliance gapsAlways-on audit: Instantly compile evidence from a live, self-serve dossierMeet your team of AI agents, trained to take care of admin and put compliance on auto-pilotEarly 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 hustleThe 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 

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-operata
Title: Investment Notes: Operata
Meta Description: We are delighted to have led Operata's seed round. Operata monitors performance and analyses quality data from calls from cloud-based call centres, drawing on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-operata

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Operata
H3: Operata is a performance monitoring and assurance solution for organisations using contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) technology. It draws on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the observability thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: OperataWe are delighted to have led Operata's seed round. Operata monitors performance and analyses quality data from calls from cloud-based call centres, drawing on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.Georgie TurneronAugust 5, 2021•5 min readOperata is a performance monitoring and assurance solution for organisations using contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) technology. It draws on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.The Tidal team recently made an investment into Operata, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models and products. There are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see how we invest here.Markets with tailwindsThe economic efficiencies around shared services are a no-brainer, so the as-a-service movement has extended to contact centres. Even though only 10% of organisations have migrated from legacy on-premise solutions to the contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) model, the market size is already US$24BN. The market is well-established, but still forecast to grow at a 26% CAGR, with the remote-work movement accelerating this trend.The organisations that made this move prior to the COVID-19 outbreak were well positioned for their agents to work from home. Those that didn't have been rushing to stand up a remote contact centre for the past twelve months. With the likes of NICE InContact, AWS Connect and Genesys taking the bulk of market share, a distribution platform for supporting products is emerging.Voice technology is rapidly improving, but the quality of speech and voice is more critical than ever. Voice quality directly impacts customer satisfaction, handling times (and therefore costs) for the organisation and even agent mental health. Voice is also no longer just a human to human channel. Bots, assistants, NLP and biometrics are all reliant on voice quality for performance, further complicating the voice infrastructure stack.A complex infrastructure stack creates a product opportunityWhilst the CCaaS offerings in the market are designed as simple tools, the implementation of a CCaaS system is both complex and mission-critical. To stand up a contact centre requires proven performance - scalability, quality, and accuracy all need to be tested and evidenced to make a transition. Data resides in silos throughout the org and it's hard to surface issues in the CCaaS setup without observability - performance issues can be attributed not only to the CCaaS provider, but to the supporting third-party services and often to the agents themselves.Today, businesses have few options but to manually test the technical and functional requirements of their various contact centre systems, requiring testers to call their business phone systems and engage in web chat or other outreach channels to identify defects, disruptions, or disconnections in their experiences. The tools used to monitor performance today in modern cloud communications are ineffective at measuring customer experience quality and providing the level of detail needed to focus improvement and optimise performance.Products that change the gameOperata provides performance monitoring and experience management for CCaaS. The product observes and reports on the factors impacting call quality, from a network outage to an agent headset issue. This enables two things:get CCaaS environments stood up quickly with minimal risk andensure optimal ongoing voice quality for agents and customers.The product demonstrates an obvious and real-time ROI to the organisation, because fewer issues and better call quality means service agents can spend their time resolving customer issues.The 'hook' for the customer is the ability for service delivery and IT Operations managers to uncover correlated quality insights on contact centre performance (ie. actually identifying the source of the performance issue rather than the mere existence of one). These users live in the tool day by day and rely on it to help uncover performance issues in real time.Our thesis: If Operata can bring observability and test/iterate capabilities into the CCaaS ecosystem, it will become a critical part of the reference architecture required for efficient and low-risk CCaaS adoption. Over time, this product could become famous for providing 'speech-services-as-code' for multi-vendor communications services.Founders that hustleCo-founders Andy (COO) and John (CTO) have been in the voice service delivery and performance management space for 40+ years between them. They understand the complexity of this customer problem in all of its excruciating detail. Teamed up with experienced founder-operator Romilly Blackburn (Whispir & Smooch.io), this group of co-founders have what it takes t

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-orkestra
Title: Investment Notes: Orkestra
Meta Description: Tidal Ventures spearheaded Orkestra’s Seed funding round. Together, they are dedicated to empowering teams in the clean energy sector, enabling them to efficiently and precisely streamline the feasibility and deployment of new energy projects.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-orkestra

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Orkestra
H3: Orkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: OrkestraWe’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to lead both Orkestra’s Pre-Seed and Seed rounds. Orkestra is a software provider that empowers teams within the clean energy sector to streamline the feasibility and deployment of new projects with enhanced ease and precision.Wendell KeunemanKieran O'NeillonOctober 24, 2023•5 min readOrkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.The Tidal team is excited to share our investment notes from our second investment in Orkestra to give you a glimpse into our decision-making process. At Tidal, our investments across various markets, models, and products are guided by our core foundational principles that help us define a great Tidal Seed Investment.Markets with tailwindsThe global transition towards cleaner, more efficient energy sources is no longer a mere aspiration; it’s an imperative driven by environmental factors, regulatory pressures, and evolving consumer preferences. By 2030, this burgeoning sector is poised to become a colossal +$2 trillion global market. As we stand at the cusp of a transformative shift away from fossil fuels, we look to navigate the intricate landscape of clean energy and uncover promising opportunities within renewable technologies, energy storage, and the broader sustainable ecosystem. At Tidal, we look for markets ripe for disruption, and it’s clear that the market Orkestra exists within fits that mould. A few of the factors we’ve taken into account when assessing this opportunity include:Bloomberg declared that the energy sector must collectively deploy five times more wind power, three times more solar energy, and a staggering twenty-six times more batteries annually until 2030 to meet basic clean energy targets.There is a critical need for enhanced controls in generating and distributing clean power to the grid.The future of the power grid is set to be substantially more decentralised in contrast to the conventional centralised fossil fuel-based grid.Batteries will emerge as an indispensable component, seamlessly integrated into every renewable energy deployment.Virtual or Distributed Power Plants (VPP or DPP) aggregate and scale distributed power generation to normalise supply based on demand to the grid. There is a significant opportunity for a data player to emerge in orchestrating VPP’s power distribution to the grid by improving yield and, in turn, potential margins.The magnitude of this opportunity is immense, and the race to meet these ambitious climate targets will largely depend on innovation from industry disruptors like Orkestra that empower the industry with much-needed tools that help drive quick and accurate decisions about renewable energy projects at scale.Products that change the gameOrkestra’s B2B feasibility platform is helping drive the transition to clean energy by providing modern energy companies with the tools they need to analyse, sell, and manage their energy solutions and projects.Historically, Excel was the go-to tool for analysing the feasibility of clean energy projects, demanding extensive hours from skilled analysts. However, as the urgency of achieving the net-zero targets intensifies, there’s a need to arm sales teams with easy-to-use and accurate tools to quicken the time to a decision. Orkestra’s software is pivotal in the renewable energy transition, enabling teams to set up and evaluate 250 solutions in just ten minutes, compared to the days it would have taken with Excel and expert analysts.Orkestra aims to be the intelligence layer that underpins clean energy projects worldwide.The platform seamlessly integrates its user-friendly interface with sophisticated algorithms and analytics to significantly reduce the time and expense associated with assessing project viability while also enhancing project outcomes from both economic and sustainability standpoints. Orkestra Co-Founder, Chris Cooper, summarised their strategic vision:We aim to be the intelligence layer that underpins clean energy projects worldwide. Teams that previously used Excel spreadsheets or outdated software instantly see the value in Orkestra’s offering.Founders that hustleCo-founders Chris, James, and Michael have deep domain experience, having met at a new energy consultancy, where they worked together on innovative solutions for leading energy and property companies. The team has used their industry expertise and mathematics and data science background to develop sophisticated modelling capabilities for the Orkestra platform. They are deeply data-driven, and their passion to help drive the world towards its climate targets is second to none.They have built a powerful and capable team that has proved that they can build world-class technology that is loved by its customers and is delivering real-world impact by unlocking clean energy solutions for businesses all ar

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-renewtrak
Title: Investment Notes: Renewtrak
Meta Description: We are thrilled to have led Renewtrak's Seed round. Renewtrack facilitates and automates renewals of technology contracts between vendor, channel partner, and end customers, using intelligent automation to help vendors quote and convert more renewal revenue opportunities.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-renewtrak

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Renewtrak
H3: Renewtrak is a platform for lifting the conversion rate of renewals for technology providers. It digitally automates the end-to-end logistics of renewals from quote to payment, including sales, pricing, billing, and commission constructs.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Recurring renewal revenues
H3: Products that change the game
H3: A team that hustles
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase
H3: A note on the workflow automation thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: RenewtrakWe are thrilled to have led Renewtrak's Seed round. Renewtrack facilitates and automates renewals of technology contracts between vendor, channel partner, and end customers, using intelligent automation to help vendors quote and convert more renewal revenue opportunities.Grant McCarthyonOctober 29, 2021•5 min readRenewtrak is a platform for lifting the conversion rate of renewals for technology providers. It digitally automates the end-to-end logistics of renewals from quote to payment, including sales, pricing, billing, and commission constructs.The Tidal team recently made an investment into Renewtrak, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models, and products. There are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see how we invest here.Markets with tailwindsThe market for technology is enormous - there is US$5.2T (yes, trillion) in global indirect technology spend per year. It is also growing rapidly. As technology investors, we have deep conviction that technology will continue to 'eat the world' and take a larger share of organisational spend globally.Renewals are a significant component of this revenue pool, estimated at US$260B per year, across ~3,500 software and hardware vendors and ~140,000 channel partners and resellers globally. This revenue pool is expected to rapidly accelerate, as technology businesses continue to transition away from one-time sales, towards annualised recurring 'as-a-service' business models, which are highly valued for their predictability and customer loyalty.Recurring renewal revenuesWhile renewals from existing customers are critical to margins, profitability, and customer retention, they are poorly served.Hardware and software vendors can expect to lose between 15-50% of their renewal opportunities because the end customer is not even aware their product or service is due for renewalRenewals often do not receive the same degree of organisational focus, talent, and resources as new sales, and renewal processes are plagued by manual processes, legacy technology, disparate and low-quality data, complex pricing structures, and poor transactional experiences. The intermediated relationships between technology vendors (OEM's), resellers (channel partners), and end customers make this challenge even more acute, creating a lack of ownership and responsibility for the renewal experience.Products that change the gameEnter Renewtrak - a workflow automation solution for renewal transactions, with a vision to help the global technology industry to move towards a subscription revenue model. Renewtrak's platform does the heavy lifting of ingesting and consolidating data across the vendor, channel partner, and customer, and managing the renewal process from end to end. The product digitally automates the logistics of renewals from quote to payment, including sales, pricing, billing, and commission constructs.For technology vendors and distributors, this is game-changing - driving additional recurring revenues by quoting and converting more renewal opportunities, reducing the time and expense involved in renewals, adding organisational control and oversight of transactions, and deepening customer relationships through improved data and payments experiences.A team that hustlesThe Renewtrak team has a strong pedigree in financial services, with payments and workflow simplification embedded in their DNA. The team is led by CEO Mathew Cagney, supported by CTO Andrew Duckworth, CPO Alex Wood, and CCO Paul Dunn, and with active involvement from Chairman Michael Twaits. We have engaged closely with the leadership team closely over the past 12 months as they have driven Renewtrak towards the strong position it is in today, and we are confident that they are fully equipped to scale.Renewtrak CEO Mathew CagneyA compelling business modelRenewtrak is focused on accessing a vendor's 'renewals under management' (RUM) to quote and automate. Renewtrak earns subscription revenues for consolidating the customer data and managing the renewals workflows, and consumption revenues through fees applied for success in improving customers' renewal conversion rates.The model provides for a strong 'land and expand' story. For a given vendor, the RUM accessible to Renewtrak depends on the geography, product type, renewal channel, and value of the renewal. If Renewtrak can demonstrate value by improving renewals revenues, vendors may then choose to apply Renewtrak to additional pools of RUM by expanding product use across more geographies, product types, and renewal thresholds. By connecting both vendors and distributors to customers, there is also the potential for vendors to roll out Renewtrak across additional distributor relationships, and for distributors to recommend Renewtrak to their broader stable of vendors.Our thes

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-shippit-series-b
Title: Shippit: Seed to Series B
Meta Description: Why we led Shippit's Seed round in 2017, and why we've continued to invest through to Series B in 2020.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-shippit-series-b

## Headings Structure:
H1: Shippit: Seed to Series B
H3: Shippit is a logistics orchestration platform enabling the selection and management of carriers for delivery of goods by retailers of all sizes.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: Series A: a defensible moat
H3: Building trust with customers
H3: Route intelligence
H3: Series B: Product-led growth
H3: Positioning and customer segmentation
H3: High volume funnel
H3: To a billion parcels and beyond 🚀
H3: A note on the e-commerce thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesShippit: Seed to Series BWhy we led Shippit's Seed round back in 2017, and why we've continued to invest through to Series B.Grant McCarthyonDecember 18, 2020•5 min readShippit is a logistics orchestration platform enabling the selection and management of carriers for delivery of goods by retailers of all sizes.Earlier this month, Shippit announced a A$30 million Series B led by New York-headquartered venture capital fund, Tiger Global. This brings the company's total funding to A$41 million since 2017, commencing with the Seed round led by Tidal Ventures (branded as AddVenture Fund at the time).Let's travel back in time for a minute and look at the opportunity from the perspective of our 2017 investment notes. Markets with tailwindsWe shared a belief with many investors that e-commerce would be the long-term retail transaction method of choice for consumers. The purchase convenience of any time, anywhere, along with the unlimited choice and price comparison consumers have online was always going to outshine a physical store.It was our view that both the logistics infrastructure and the overall experience for the Retailer and the Consumer were broken. The average NPS for delivery experience in Australia hovered around -35, so we clearly weren't the only ones with this view. The broken state of this market looked like a classic technology opportunity to us.Our thesis: changing customer expectations & innovation that disrupts legacy systems and improves supply chain inefficiencies will power the growth in e-commerce globallyFounders that hustleWilliam On and Rob Hango-ZadaCliché, but this continues to be a question we ask ourselves for each new opportunity: can the founders do what it takes to persevere. What we recognised in Rob and Will as founders from our very first meeting was their uniquely complementary skills, their unhinged enthusiasm for the challenge, and most of all, their ability and willingness to listen and learn from others.The Seed round was all about investing in Rob and Will as founders to see if they could execute a basic and repeatable promise and experience to retailers. They nailed it.Shippit continues to demonstrate one of the best can-do cultures we have seen.Series A: a defensible moatFast forward to Series A. We examine how the company created a moat surrounding its product and opportunity set, the key to it cementing a credible position within the market.Building trust with customersAs a 'SaaS as a Network' business, the size of the marketplace (or network) was critical to underpinning demand for the software. To achieve material growth in the network in the early days it was critical to build demand volume that would provide for a critical mass of suppliers (carriers). Winning large volume Retailers to underwrite the ability for the business to attract carriers on the platform was key. The business focused on winning key logos early, whilst simultaneously creating brand association & awareness through content-led programs like the Rocketeers of Retail.This volume also enabled the company to prove out its carrier selection algorithm, an automated assessment of the "right carrier x right delivery type x right price" (think of this as the logistic industry’s version of Google’s quality score!). Shippit began to provide Retailers with an aggregated view of their deliveries and started directing volumes to carriers a Retailer may never have used before. The improved performance off the back of these initiatives formed the foundation for a trusting relationship between Shippit and the Retailer. Shippit offered Retailers transparency. The delivery of that promise (no pun intended...) built a small flywheel in its volume momentum that has underpinned the business’ growth to date.Route intelligenceBuilding a sustainable competitive advantage through the delivery insights provides benefits beyond their customers, but also the parcel recipient.Shippit is able to intelligently route parcels for e-commerce retailers and in turn provide superior quality, performance and rates.Series B: Product-led growthWe talk a lot about product-led-growth ("PLG") within the virtual four walls of Tidal. We see this as a critical capability for a startup to achieve superior unit economics and significant operational leverage.Shippit’s ability to unlock the value of PLG in the last 12 months played a critical role in the success of its Series B.Things at Shippit were growing exceptionally well from the end of 2019 into early 2020, but we still had to ask ourselves all the normal questions when COVID hit: 'How will we be impacted? Do we need to cut costs? How will we keep staff safe? How will we change the way we sell when we can’t meet anyone?'.Rob, Will, the entire leadership team and staff stepped up and made some tough calls – they reduced the workforce by 20% and cut expenditure on non-core projects. Most importantly, Rob and Will sat back and asked the question:What does this give us the op

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-tendl
Title: Investment Notes: Tendl
Meta Description: Tendl is revolutionising government sales with AI that cuts tender response time from days to hours on a mission to democratise the $10T tender market.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-tendl

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Tendl
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: TendlTendl is a game-changing AI platform revolutionising how companies approach tendering by transforming complex bid processes into streamlined, intelligent workflows. What traditionally takes days can now be completed in under an hour, saving companies tens of thousands of dollars annually. Fee BarryonFebruary 25, 2025•5 min readTendl, 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 tailwindsThe 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 spendingGovernment procurement reached $99B in Australia last yearUp to 13% of OECD GDP flows through tender processesSuppliers spend up to 30% of revenue on tendering processes with no guarantee of successTraditional high barriers to entry requiring specialised teams and significant time investmentGrowing sovereign debt pushing increased reliance on competitive biddingPost-DOGE environment driving renewed focus on cost-effective procurementThe 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 gameTendl'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 portalsAutomated analysis and matching of opportunities to company capabilitiesSmart pre-filling systems that pull relevant information from existing documentsDeep CRM integrations for tracking progress and improving future bidsComplete workflow automation powered by AITendl is revolutionising the tender management process through AI-powered automation and workflow toolsThe platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:Discovery: Makes tender identification user-friendly and 50% fasterAnalysis: AI agents instantly evaluate fit and requirementsResponse: Transforms days-long processes into sub-hour workflows, saving tens of thousands annuallyFounders that hustleFounder 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.Tendl Founder Laurie Nicol with Tidal Principal Fee Barry both based in QueenslandA compelling business modelTendl 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 usageCapture value proportional to delivered benefitsBuild strong customer stickiness through integrationCreate potential for success-based pricing as the platform maturesReduce at-risk costs for suppliers across the entire marketThe 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 appealTendl'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.Thei

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-theloops
Title: Investment Notes: TheLoops
Meta Description: We are thrilled to be investing in TheLoops' Seed round. TheLoops is an intelligent support operations platform that provides rich context and team collaboration to resolve tickets faster, providing a superior customer experience.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-theloops

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: TheLoops
H3: The Loops platform stitches data from diverse tools to help reps identify customer issues with contextual insights and recommend resolutions or actions.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: The Future of CX
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the observability thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: TheLoopsWe are thrilled to be investing in TheLoops' Seed round. TheLoops is an intelligent support operations platform that provides rich context and team collaboration to resolve tickets faster, providing a superior customer experience.Wendell KeunemanonJune 24, 2021•5 min readThe Loops platform stitches data from diverse tools to help reps identify customer issues with contextual insights and recommend resolutions or actions.The Tidal team recently made an investment into TheLoops, and we're publishing our investment notes below. We invest across a range of markets, models and products. There are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see how we invest here.Markets with tailwindsFor many companies the load on customer support has increased significantly due to a number of factors including a wider push to self-serve, reduction of bricks & mortar presence, number of contact channels (phone, email, chat, social etc), and more recently due to pandemic induced work from home conditions.This acceleration of digital transformation strategies has led to increased volumes that overwhelm customer support operations. The current resolution methods lack the tools to give adequate signals to agents to understand the customer issue thus burning precious time to get to a resolution.The Future of CXTraditionally, support representatives have not been empowered to own the resolution process. But having an intelligent customer support strategy that bring context, collaboration and workflows by harnessing data across a range of systems reaps huge benefits such as increased sales conversions, decreased service costs, and improved customer satisfaction.Companies recognise that leveraging automation and analytics is the best approach to reducing handle time thus securing the life-time value of their customers.Products that change the gameTheLoops brings observability capabilities to front office teams and can truly provide a step change in the customer support experience by accelerating a collaborative path to ticket resolution. The product aspires to be:A data and analytics learning engine with point-and-click integrations providing insights and collaborative process flows to improve the support team’s efficacy.Support operations span multiple levels and often sit across support and product teams. However information silos exist where front office teams have not had the same instrumentation as product or engineering teams. This often results in increased handle-time, unnecessary escalations and decrease in agent efficiency.Our thesis: by empowering front office teams with similar observability capabilities as back office teams, TheLoops will unlock material improvements in CX by transitioning companies from thinking about customer touch points as a cost centres to growth drivers.It's very clear that the co-founders of TheLoops understood the importance of storytelling through demos as they provided a complete end to end portrayal of how they will positively impact the customer experience with their intelligent support platform.Founders that hustleSomya Kapoor and Ravi Bulusu are accomplished operators spanning product and engineering. They truly embody a product-led dynamic founder duo. Their experience spans decades of senior leadership experience in high growth companies giving them deep domain expertise in the customer service and support space. Somya was a VP of Product at ServiceNow and SAP and makes a capable CEO with product chops. Ravi met Somya at a previous startup, forging a strong working collaboration which led to genesis of TheLoops. Ravi was also Chief Architect at Splunk and had multiple startup roles building state-of-the art ML platforms. Their shared learnings through all of these past roles led them to the realisation that bringing product context to support teams will have significant benefits. Together they make a killer combination and they are the right team to solve the problem.Ravi Bulusu & Somya Kapoor at their new San Jose headquarters (they're hiring).A compelling business modelTheLoops straightforward subscription business model aligns well with the participants that benefit from the improved interactions their platform offers:Team plans help agents or reps have contextual insights right inside the support tools they current use today rather than having to switch. This includes Zendesk for Service, Salesforce Service Cloud, Atlassian Jira or Intercom.No-code or low-code connectors to key tools in the product stack such as Splunk, Amplitude, Pager Duty, Pendo, Kibana, CloudWatch and much more, pulls in all the data to stitch and synthesise the insights.Workflows help make escalations simple by seamlessly bridging systems and providing the same context to all parties so everyone is on the same page. This applies to helpdesks like ZenDesk, issue trackers like

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-upflowy
Title: Investment Notes: Upflowy
Meta Description: We are thrilled to invest in Upflowy, a low-code signup engine that empowers marketing teams to optimise their lead sign-up flows.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/investment-notes-upflowy

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investment Notes: Upflowy
H3: Upflowy is a low-code signup engine that empowers growth leads to build and test lead signup flows without needing to utilise the scarce resources in their engineering teams.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the low code / no code thematic
H3: ‍
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Investment NotesInvestment Notes: UpflowyWe are thrilled to invest in Upflowy, a low-code signup engine that empowers marketing teams to optimise their lead sign-up flows.Georgie TurneronOctober 18, 2020•5 min readUpflowy is a low-code signup engine that empowers growth leads to build and test lead signup flows without needing to utilise the scarce resources in their engineering teams.This month the Tidal team made an investment in Upflowy and we're publishing our investment notes below. Although we invest across a range of markets, models and products, there are core principles that we live and die by in our investment decisions. For more information on the pillars that make a great Tidal Seed Investment, see our investment criteria here.Markets with tailwindsWe are in the midst of a customer experience movement and trend toward self-service online. Businesses need to respond with slick and more efficient / high converting digital products. To achieve this, testing and iterating on new products has become the norm and businesses that look to acquire customers online understand that the user experience and journey through the funnel needs to be continuously optimised.But there is a problem and it is two-fold.Growth teams that are looking to optimise the customer journey through the online acquisition funnel are constrained by the product roadmap and tech availability of the business. We have experienced this issue directly in our own portfolio companies. One of the Upflowy founders was previously solving this problem at his last business using a complex array of 90 online forms. We know early stage product-led growth companies with teams of 10+ people trying to solve this problem by stitching together basic tools.It is exceptionally difficult for most teams to set up and track an end-to-end customer journey funnel, with all the relevant metrics. Tools like Hubspot are doing a good job of owning the Top of Funnel metrics piece, but there are limited options to track the user journey from discovery through onboarding and offboarding and data & insights into this critical part of the acquisition funnel is limited.Products that change the gameUpflowy provides a SaaS product for growth teams to build user flows and test and iterate against those in an easy to use, low code environment. This significantly alleviates the burden on the IT side, and democratises the ability for low-tech users to move forward with continuous user flow updates. The product also opens up access to end-to-end funnel analytics, which gives instant insights into the performance of the funnel and arms the team with the data they need to make changes to the user experience.The 'hook' for the customer is the ability for marketing/product teams to build sign-up flows without needing to divert resources from the engineering team. The 'currency' of the product is the data and insights around customer journey through the funnel, which is directly correlated to converted revenue.Our thesis: if Upflowy is able to demonstrate clear improvements to sign-up flows right at the point of the customer's customer transaction, it will be sticky and defensible within its customers day-to-day test and optimise workflows.Founders that hustleThe Upflowy founding team is the one to solve this problem. All three co-founders have successfully built and exited multiple startups. Guillaume Ang is a serial entrepreneur and B2B SaaS growth expert. Matt Browne is also a serial entrepreneur with exit success from Whispli and DoneSafe. Alex Girard is leading product and engineering, having built 20+ SaaS products and held technical co-founder roles. The team has come together with a mutual frustration for the problem at hand and the necessary skills across ops, growth and product to build a globally scalable solution for the market.Covid-style team photo.A compelling business modelThe great thing about low-code products is that they are easy to use by design and are usually built with a specific target user archetype in mind. This lends itself well to a product-led growth model, which we know creates compelling business value over time. This is a great starting point, but the real amplifier of value creation comes from layering on top immense value creation for the customer itself. By 10X-ing the customer's online conversion rate through better sign up flows, Upflowy earns the trust of its customers right at the point that matters to them the most: revenue generation. This gives them the right to further monetise that customer relationship with better product, data and insights over time - that is the beauty of the next evolution of SaaS businesses that unlock valuable primary data that didn't exist before.The seed phaseWe loved the speed with which the Upflowy founding team were able to get an initial test product in market, validate it with early customers and build a business case and growth plan around it for their Seed Phase. Whilst the core focus early on has been

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/kieran-oneill-venture-capital-investor
Title: Meet the Tidal Team: Kieran O’Neill
Meta Description: I’m Kieran O’Neill, Principal at Tidal. I’m known for combining my finance background and time in the trenches, founding my own startup, to help founders see around corners and get to their next stage of growth. Keen to get to know a little more about me? Well, read on.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/kieran-oneill-venture-capital-investor

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Kieran O’Neill
H3: My journey to get here
H3: What I love about Seed
H3: Something I believe that others don’t
H3: Going from founder to investor
H3: Characteristics of a top founder
H3: How the world will change in 10 years
H3: What keeps me up at night
H3: What excites me about Australia’s tech scene
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: The advice I live by
H3: My first founder question
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Kieran O’NeillI’m Kieran O’Neill, Principal at Tidal. I’m known for combining my finance background and time in the trenches, founding my own startup, to help founders see around corners and get to their next stage of growth. Keen to get to know a little more about me? Well, read on.Kieran O'NeillonMarch 25, 2024•5 min readMy journey to get hereMuch like Taylor Swift, I’ll categorise my life in eras. Here’s my professional journey in a nutshell:Student era: After completing a Commerce degree in Finance and Accounting at the University of Queensland, I began my career at KPMG in Audit and Transaction Services while getting my Chartered Accountant qualification.London era: I relocated to London and worked at Goldman Sachs in Product Control and Finance and at Lloyds Bank in PMO. I started the CFA program and passed Level 1, but I quickly realised it wasn’t for me.Sydney era: I got engaged in the Swiss Alps before settling in Sydney and transitioning to Macquarie Bank in project management. Wanting to escape the machine that is a large corporate, I moved over to a small private cloud and managed service provider called VMTech.Founder era: I co-founded Hometime, where I assumed various roles, including leading go-to-market teams, serving as CFO, managing acquisitions, and navigating team scaling.Investor era: In late 2022, I wanted to find that happy spot where I could put my financial expertise and startup background to good use, partnering with other founders to grow and thrive—that’s when I joined Tidal, and here we are!As you can see, I’m a generalist with a foundation in finance. My finance background equips me with solid analytical skills to navigate complex problems. What you can’t surmise from my CV is my love of people. I’m all about understanding, relating to people, and building strong, authentic relationships. This also extends to connecting others—with just the slightest hint of common ground; I can connect with the right people at the right time if I see a mutual benefit. This blend of financial acumen, emotional intelligence, and a genuine love for connecting people makes me, me.What I love about SeedMy passion for Seed phase technology investing springs from a profound appreciation for this particular phase of company building. There’s an undeniable allure to being part of a company’s early growth, where progress is swift, and the potential for impact is vast.What truly captivates me is the opportunity to engage with diverse ideas, innovations, and technologies. As an investor, I leverage my expertise to collaborate with different visionaries, having a larger circle of impact and contributing to meaningful change.Beyond the excitement of innovation and growth lies the human connection inherent in early-stage investing. Witnessing a founder’s triumphs and supporting them through challenges enriches the journey. Sharing in the highs and lows with passionate founders adds a profoundly gratifying dimension to the investment process, transforming it from a mere business endeavour into a deeply personal one.Something I believe that others don’tI believe in the profound importance of intuition in decision-making, a belief not everyone shares. In a world dominated by data and rational analysis, the intuitive, ‘gut feel’ is often dismissed. Combining intuition with rational thought leads to more holistic and satisfying outcomes, acknowledging the complexity of human emotions and experiences that data alone can’t capture.If I really ponder this one, I see intuition as our own internal database—it’s all about recognising patterns. ‘Gut feel’ is our brains picking up on subtle clues and nudging us in the right direction based on things we’ve seen or experienced before.Going from founder to investorWell, for one, I deeply empathise with founders because I’ve lived that challenging and rewarding journey myself. I know how hard building a business can be and know the lingering feeling of having a million things to do. At the same time, I understand how profoundly fulfilling it can be and how it offers unparalleled rewards that are sometimes impossible to see at the time.I’ve lived the reality of sobering scenarios. I’ve lived losing 80% of revenue in a single month because of COVID-19, necessitating hard and fast strategic decisions that fundamentally changed the business model and our organisation at every level (including minimising headcount by 80 in a matter of weeks)—knowing that without these changes the business would have died in a matter of months.I’ve lived the need for optimism. As a founder, you are always optimistic; you need to be; otherwise, you would never have taken on the challenge, but maintaining the same level of optimism throughout the journey can be challenging. I’ve lived the balancing of setbacks with a healthy dose of perspective and pragmatism.I’ve lived culture starting with the founders. I know it can take years to build and moments to destroy. A g

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/living-an-optimised-life
Title: Living an optimised life at PredictHQ
Meta Description: Events impact demand. Armed with this realisation, Campbell Brown founded PredictHQ to help businesses improve their forecasting. Find out how he thinks about leadership, product, and surrounding himself with the right people.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/living-an-optimised-life

## Headings Structure:
H1: Living an optimised life at PredictHQ
H3: A strong business starts with a strong product
H3: Connecting to the right knowledge and people
H3: You’re never alone, but it can get lonely
H3: Why people come first
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersLiving an optimised life at PredictHQEvents impact demand. Armed with this realisation, Campbell Brown founded PredictHQ to help businesses improve their forecasting. Find out how he thinks about leadership, product, and surrounding himself with the right people.Grant McCarthyonSeptember 29, 2021•5 min readData is a valuable business asset. It can be used to analyse performance, monitor customer satisfaction, make design decisions and more. When strong patterns emerge, it tells a story, so why not use those stories to predict the future? That’s what Campbell Brown, co-founder of PredictHQ asked back in 2016, not long before he met Tidal’s Grant McCarthy.Both Grant and Campbell were at similar stages as company founders when they met, and the way Campbell tells it, it was a match made more from design than fate. Grant immediately saw PredictHQs enormous potential and set about cultivating a relationship, while Campbell related strongly with Grant’s product and market know-how, and was on the hunt for an Australian investor. “Grant's a product guy, I'm a product guy. We're always talking about it.” PredictHQ was also aiming at a US market, from an Auckland base. Campbell explains how they were attracted to Tidal because they were Australian, but with global experience. “They had already taken a business from Australia to the US. That's why I went with them.” Tidal had the specific expertise needed. A strong business starts with a strong productEvents impact demand. Founded with this insight in mind, PredictHQ makes businesses smarter by helping them anticipate how external conditions will influence sales, profits, product demand, etc. Their customers access comprehensive datasets related to conditions like major sports events, severe weather, scheduled holidays, etc., so they can capitalise on their understanding of demand, plan labour and resourcing, adjust pricing, and adapt for better efficiency. It is a winning idea and rapidly gaining traction in the US and Europe markets that are digital-first and ready to optimise. Uber was one of their first big enterprise customers.But even with the solid product, Campbell realised early that they “needed to start going from just building a product to building a business.” That meant having a strong and clear sales pipeline and tangible financial goals. So the PredictHQ team, Grant, and another independent investor, got in front of the whiteboard and spent time working out a plan.Campbell remembers discussing questions like “what do we expect to get from our customers? What if we only get 10% of these customers? Working backwards from a $1million target, what do we need and how are we going to do it?” He goes on to say “that meeting in particular was a very critical leap. Because a million dollars seems really achievable, but actually when you step back from it, without salespeople, your pipeline is actually pretty small. And if conversion is low, you have to increase the pipeline.” So in the end, Campbell said, they “sat there for a couple of days and worked through a plan and it came true. I look back on those times fondly because Tidal gave up their time and energy to help us get to our first goal. Which ultimately led to us to raise a Series A and then Series B and here we are.”Connecting to the right knowledge and peopleEven though they are in the business of insights, Campbell says they sometimes need a bit of help themselves in that area and Tidal’s analyst Max Kausman provided it. Max has a successful track record in corporate advisory roles and shared his experience and knowledge with Campbell to help with customer acquisition strategy. The information enabled Campbell to formulate an enterprise pitch that integrated familiar corporate language. “It helped the customer have a lightbulb moment about us. They could relate.” This same strategy was effective in moving a number of big deals forward.At the other end of the sales pipeline is product creation, which is equally important to PredictHQ business success. Luckily, finding a great fit for senior product roles is something Tidal’s Wendell Keuneman is great at, and he did not disappoint when PredictHQ started looking for a VP of engineering. “It was a critical hire,” Campbell noted and Wendell, Tidal’s product-led growth expert, “met with the candidate before we hired him and then helped us to understand how we wanted to structure the team.” Anticipating rapid expansion of the business, they needed more than just a new senior hire, they needed to to get the team mix right in order to handle scaling. “We ended up splitting development and data teams. Which will ultimately let us scale faster.”Founders Campbell Brown (left, CEO) and Robert Kern (CTO)You’re never alone, but it can get lonelyI’ve spoken to a number of founders for Wavemakers pieces and they usually travel in pairs. Speaking to Campbell alone (co-founder Robert Kern was not available) provided a different insight, which came out towar

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/market-conditions-june-2022
Title: Use your microscope and your telescope simultaneously in times of market uncertainty!
Meta Description: Use your microscope and your telescope simultaneously in times of market uncertainty! In this blog, I share insights from both Australian and US markets, and how founders can prepare for the upcoming period.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/market-conditions-june-2022

## Headings Structure:
H1: Market Conditions: June 2022
H3: Market sentiment has officially changed.
H3: Insights from the US market
H3: Takeaways for Seed Stage founders
H3: Tidal looks through the lens of a telescope
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMarket Conditions: June 2022Use your microscope and your telescope simultaneously in times of market uncertainty! In this blog, I share insights from both Australian and US markets, and how founders can best prepare for the upcoming period.Grant McCarthyonJune 6, 2022•5 min readMarket sentiment has officially changed.Use your microscope and your telescope simultaneously in times of market uncertainty!This will be the fourth 'tech cycle' for the Partner team at Tidal. We have invested during the Dotcom era, the Global Financial Crisis, and the short downturn in 2012. This cycle will no doubt be different for a variety of reasons including Covid, the great talent reshuffle, global supply chain issues, and a US inflation rate at a forty-year high.The underlying message from the various investor notes issued to founders in the past few weeks is clear: for a time, capital has been abundant and cheap. Now it will become expensive, and harder to get.It is important to note that for Australian start-ups looking to raise a Seed to Series A round in the current market, there is still an abundance of capital that has been committed from LPs to Venture Capital funds in the past twelve months. However, we expect that these funds will be deployed more slowly and carefully than the past three years.This is a good thing, for founders and for investors. Founders that take the time to get to know their investors will benefit in the long term. It will also focus the funds across Australia into pragmatic and visionary founders that build products for true customer problems, in sectors ripe for disruption.Insights from the US marketI have just returned from a two week US trip, where I visited both the East and West Coast, meeting with founders and investors. Here are my expectations and insights from the trip:The current revaluing of multi billion dollar technology assets will flow down from public markets and later stage startups to the Seed-Stage investment space. This will impact valuations and capital allocation across the venture capital sector at some point during this next cycleEntry valuations for Seed investments will likely be revised downwards. Founders may need to adjust the amount of capital they raise in order to retain acceptable levels of dilution for their Seed roundCompanies may need to raise their Seed capital over a series of investment rounds in order to prove product market fit, reach solid levels of revenue traction and demonstrate unit economic profitability before raising a Series A.Leadership and culture is always important, but in times of market uncertainty it gets put under the microscope.Takeaways for Seed Stage foundersLive your values. Leadership and culture is always important, but in times of market uncertainty it gets put under the microscope. Your team is the lifeblood of your business. Lead with authenticity and empathy, hear the voice of your organisation and communicate effectively with your team. The mission and ethos of your product-building organisation lives on regardless of the ‘noise’ in the market.Get scrappy to fund growth. You can fund your business growth with capital or you can fund it with revenue. The cost of capital is going up, so act accordingly. In times like these, over-index on the growth drivers that generate cash in your business (pricing, packaging, growth hacks, product features).Unit Economics are key. One day, the value that your company creates for shareholders and your ability to fund further innovation will depend on your profit margin. The choices that you make today in the way you build your team, your product and your customer acquisition methods, will shape this future. Profitability is not a can to be kicked down the road, it is a key driver for startup success and now is the time to nail it. Hint: this is not about pinching costs, it’s about stealing market share from your competitors by building the best product and then cracking a low cost path to customer acquisition.Build the best product. Talk to your customers. They will tell you what they will or won’t spend money on. Make sure your product is a must-have for their business to thrive in a downturn. Make it easy for them to try your product, to integrate it into their daily usage, to share it with their colleagues. Create the feature that they can’t live without and entice them to upgrade. Stay true to your core and build with empathy for the user.Know your investors. Whether you are a venture backed startup already or are seeking your first round of funding - the quality of the relationship you have with your investors during this current market, and the collaboration you can share both ways - is critical. Don’t assume the next round of funding is just around the corner, be master of your own destiny.Tidal looks through the lens of a telescopeTidal is a Seed-Stage venture fund with long investment horizons. We remain excited about the opportunity to back founders that are in the earlies

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-georgie-turner
Title: Get to know Georgie Turner, Principal at Tidal Ventures
Meta Description: Get to know Georgie Turner, Principal at Tidal Ventures
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-georgie-turner

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Georgie Turner
H3: Get to know Tidal's Georgie Turner
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Georgie TurnerWhat makes Tidal's Principal tick? Our Q&A uncovers Georgie Turner's love for the Seed phase and operator background.Georgie TurneronSeptember 24, 2021•5 min readGet to know Tidal's Georgie TurnerWhat gets you excited about Seed phase?It's the most challenging part and therefore the most rewarding. When a founder has experienced a problem and describes a clear vision of how technology can solve that problem, that optimistic feeling is infectious. Being involved at Seed means I get to experience the beginning of a serendipitous journey.But the Seed phase is also the most difficult part to crack. Founders need to reach product market fit, find a scalable path to market and convince early team members and investors to take a chance on their vision. It can be tough and tiring, but it's never boring.You also bring an operator lens to the team, how has that experience shaped you as an investor today?In 2012 I was part of the early team at Rackspace Australia, selling the early version of cloud computing infrastructure into Australian corporates and startups. This was around the time that AWS launched in Australia, so I had direct experience selling in a fast growing market with some tight competition on every deal.During that time I was deep in the weeds of our local go-to-market strategy, including digital and brand marketing, product localisation, partner and channel selling, direct enterprise and SMB selling and what we called 'fanatical customer support'. Through that time I gained a great appreciation for the challenges around unlocking rapid growth and how to accelerate in a new market. Rackspace had a strong sales and support culture and took its values extremely seriously, a quality that I actively look for in a founder when I invest.What's something you wish you could go back to tell your less experienced self?Figure out what makes you happy and then just optimise for that. Don't compare yourself to other people. When you tell the stories of your accomplishments, the things that you will remember the most will be (1) the way you felt and (2) the people you were with. Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you.Get in touch with Georgie via Twitter or LinkedinIs there a type of technology that you don't use?I have never really been a user of social media, it's not a tool that appeals to me at all. Despite being a technology investor I actually don't use a lot of technology outside of the standard tech for work. I still use my iPhone for making traditional phone calls more so than anything else.What is your niche, your passion outside of work?I am an avid reader and I devour fictional stories like other people binge-watch netflix. Pre-covid I would go to the library and take out 5 books every 4 weeks. Post-covid I use a Kindle but I still miss the real thing. The last book I read was Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is centred around an "artificial friend" to a lonely child and is narrated by the machine - Klara. I have always been more interested in fiction as a commentary on human nature than autobiographies or business books.How do you think the world would change in 10 years?When my baby was born last year on Christmas Eve, it occurred to me that 'Gen Alpha' may be one of the last to be conceived and born with no optional genetic editing offered to the parents as standard medical practice. The field of genetics has great implications for innovation in the preventative health market, which I believe will come to dominate the healthcare space in the next 10 years.If you're a visionary founder who is ready to make waves, please reach out via our website.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inboxOur recent Thought WavesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.Seed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-grant-mccarthy
Title: Get to know Grant McCarthy, Managing Partner at Tidal Ventures
Meta Description: Get to know Grant McCarthy, Managing Partner at Tidal Ventures
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-grant-mccarthy

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Grant McCarthy
H3: Get to know Tidal's Grant McCarthy
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Grant McCarthyHow does Grant unearth startups with game-changing technology? Our Q&A shares the founder conversations that lead to Tidal investment and a surprise area of interest!Grant McCarthyonOctober 25, 2022•5 min readGet to know Tidal's Grant McCarthyWhich experiences have shaped you as a venture capital investor today?I think working in the technology and product-led operating teams at Yahoo really opened my eyes to how digital businesses could be built, scaled and developed into profitable businesses. There was such big target audience we needed to attract, engage and retain, and that was a key challenge. The technology sector might have changed since the early 2000s, but the principles for growing core customer segments remains the same. I think having a broad set of experiences and accumulating knowledge in different technology market conditions has shaped my approach to venture capital investment significantly. It not just about identifying opportunities and allocating capital, it’s about building audiences into products, and that’s how we think when we invest in companies at Tidal.What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started as an investor?I now have over 20 years of experience investing in and advising early-stage companies, and one of my earliest learnings was to take extra time in making decisions around thematic investments. We know that the venture capital market is about velocity and 'fast decisions', but to get real conviction at an early stage it takes research, patience, and time. There’s not always much information available to you as an early stage investor, so during interactions with a founder you have to form assumptions.And even if what you learn is very appealing, you need to keep acquiring more information. Waiting for a clearer picture to emerge about a sector, founders, products and customers means our investment decisions and formed from strong convictions rather than just enthusiastic assumptions.A great example is one of our Tidal portfolio companies Upflowy. Their ability to find product-market-fit is what was initially appealing, but by also seeing how they built their low-code product and gained early validation with customers, gave us both enormous confidence in their team and more certainty in our investment decision. Read Upflowy Investment Notes - here.As a ‘seed stage' investor you have to be willing to wait for signals that prospective companies are finding market-fit and growing product proof points. In saying this, sometimes it is also purely about the founder and the vision in the right segment, but that’s the exception to the rule.What was your most memorable first meeting with a founder?In my first meeting with PredictHQ's Campbell Brown, he was pitching his new company to me while simultaneously sending a fax to sell his current business. Great founders never wait to solve a problem they truly care about and Campbell was a perfect example of this in action. His passion and drive was right on his sleeve, and this kind of energy and hustle is something we really look for in our Tidal Wavemakers. It was also quite memorable to see him using an actual fax machine to do business - surely one of the most important innovations in human communication (at the time)!Advice to live byWhile there’s much wisdom in the world, my top piece of advice is don’t use the past as a point of reference for the future.What are you interested in that might surprise other people?I’m an avid reader of European history, from the late 1800s to 20th century events like WWI and WWII. The geopolitical dynamics that led to these turning points in history are fascinating to learn about. For example, the end of the Czar dynasty in Russia might have been precipitated by successive defeats to Germany during WWI, but underneath it was also a nation desperate for change. The build-up of war with Japan, constitutional reforms that were not delivered on, and systemic poverty, ended up pushing Russia over the edge in 1917.What new technology do you wish you could experience again for the first time?Oh that’s easy: Bose noise cancelling headphones. They’re essential for getting through long flights and noisy commutes. There are a variety of noise cancelling options on the market nowadays but I have found the Bose to be the most effective for my sanity.What advice do you live by?While there’s much wisdom in the world, my top piece of advice is don’t use the past as a point of reference for the future. If Steve Jobs had just replicated the functions of a traditional phone, we would not have the iPhone. At the time, a handheld device with internet, apps, photos and video capability was revolutionary. The first car was not invented by thinking about how to make “faster horses”. Innovation is always forward-looking.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inboxOur recent Thought WavesInvestment Notes: MediScan 

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-max-kausman
Title: Meet the Tidal Team: Max Kausman
Meta Description: Meet the Tidal Team: Max Kausman
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/meet-max-kausman

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Max Kausman
H2: Get to know Tidal's Max Kausman
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Max KausmanWhat makes Max tick? Our Q&A uncovers Max Kausman's perspectives on Seed investing, meeting founders, and thinking about the futureTidal VenturesonFebruary 10, 2022•5 min readGet to know Tidal's Max KausmanWhat drew you to Seed investing and in particular, the Tidal Team?I have always been interested in startups and technology. I love great products and I’m fascinated by the way tech businesses and business models re-shape markets. I thought deeply about why I wanted to be in venture, not only about why I would find it interesting and purposeful, but also about whether the role would match my attributes, capabilities, and personality. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but I get energy from the role - it’s hugely people-centric, there’s a lot of autonomy, and a lot of intellectual breadth. There are new learnings - business models, technologies, sectors - every day. It requires curiosity, comfort in ambiguity, and a long-term perspective.The Seed Phase in particular is an extension of that. It’s people-centric, but still with real analysis and deep thinking involved in understanding markets, products, and business models. It’s such a formative stage that the impact we can have is enormous, and I relish the opportunity to work very directly with founders in this stage as they build out their teams and find product-market fit.When I joined, I felt (and continue to feel) like I could learn an enormous amount from the Tidal team. I was drawn to the diverse backgrounds and unique skills and capabilities of the team, and I spoke to a number of founders who raved about Tidal as investors. I liked our portfolio, our investment mandate and philosophy, and how we have the conviction to lead Seed rounds and are genuinely active operational partners to our founders.What’s a day like in the role?It’s enormously varied. Broadly, my time is split across deal-flow, supporting our portfolio companies, and helping to build Tidal itself as a funds business. Within each of those, there are lots of different jobs that need to be done. It’s fast-paced, and there’s lots of context switching.What's the first question you ask when you come across a prospective investment?I generally start with the origin story of the business. I love unpacking how a founder realised there was a problem, and why they then decided that they cared enough to dedicate their time and energy, over what could be decades, to solving it.What is something you believe that others don't?I believe that ‘weird’ is a compliment. There’s a lot of social and societal pull to conform and be normal - but I have a lot of time for people who are authentic enough to let their weirdness emerge. Those who make the greatest entrepreneurial strides are often eccentric, unconventional, and willing to be wrong.Get in touch with Max via Twitter or LinkedinWhat is one thing that inspires you every day at Tidal?I think all venture investors have a healthy scepticism. We say no a lot, and there is always a reason why a business idea won’t work. What gets underplayed is the underlying optimism that goes into figuring out why a business idea could work, and how exciting and inspiring it can be to then do the deep thinking and get to the point we ultimately say yes. When that happens, we get to partner with some incredible founders and work closely with them to realise their vision for the future of the world.At a macro level I’m also excited by the amazing compounding momentum we’re now seeing in the start up ecosystem in Australia, and its potential to create jobs and reshape our economy.What do you think is the most important qualities or characteristics a business founder should aspire to have and never lose?A great founder should have binary qualities. What I mean by this is that founders should deeply understand the problem they are solving, but also be able to zoom out and see the bigger picture. Founders should have humility and be open-minded, but ultimately be decisive, relentlessly believe in themselves, and be willing to create buzz and draw others to their mission. When those binaries interweave, and there is a clear sense of hustle, I feel we have found a great founder.What are you passionate about outside of work?I have a broad range of interests and I love trying new things. I’m an avid traveller. I love sport, especially Basketball, AFL, and Cricket, and I’m a good skier and a wannabe surfer. I enjoy music and live gigs, good food, getting outdoors, and being social. I’m a voracious reader, particularly on tech, psychology, geopolitics, and macroeconomics. I’m both self-aware and shameless enough to use the word ‘voracious’ unironically.What advice do you live by?Advice is easy to give and much harder to receive.How do you think the world would change in 10 years?The rate of change - in technology, and in society, is enormous, and I believe it will only continue to accelerate. There’s a convergence of amazing forces goin

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/sami-pelenda-venture-capital-investor
Title: Meet the Tidal Team: Sami Pelenda
Meta Description: I’m Sami Pelenda, Investment Associate at Tidal. Interested in learning how M&A background helps me assess the financial viability and growth potential of startups? Read on below!
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/sami-pelenda-venture-capital-investor

## Headings Structure:
H1: Meet the Tidal Team: Sami Pelenda
H3: Counting my lucky stars
H3: Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase
H3: Lessons on lessons on lessons
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: My green flags in founders
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Sami PelendaI’m Sami Pelenda, Investment Associate at Tidal. Interested in learning how M&A background helps me assess the financial viability and growth potential of startups? Read on below!Samadhi PelendaonOctober 31, 2024•5 min readCounting my lucky starsGrowing 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 phaseI’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: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.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.‍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 lessonsWhile 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

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/seed-stage-venture-capital-tidal-investing-technology
Title: Venture capital firm Tidal Ventures is actively investing in the next wave of technology
Meta Description: Venture capital firm Tidal Ventures is committed to partnering with seed-phase founders and bringing their world-changing ideas to life with seed round VC funding.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/seed-stage-venture-capital-tidal-investing-technology

## Headings Structure:
H1: Investing in the next wave of technology
H3: What does an ideal Tidal Ventures investment look like?
H3: What phase does Tidal Ventures invest in?
H3: Is it too early or late to approach Tidal Ventures for investment?
H3: How many investments will Tidal Ventures make in their Seed III fund?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ macro outlook?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ investment thesis?
H3: How can Tidal Ventures help build my startup?
H3: What impact can Tidal have on my product strategy?
H3: What sort of advisory network does Tidal have access to?
H3: How will Tidal back me in future fundraising rounds?
H3: How do I get funded by Tidal?
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Founder GuidesInvesting in the next wave of technologyAre you thinking about Tidal as your lead investor? Well, scroll down as we answer founders’ most frequently asked questions and demystify how we think about investment.Georgie TurneronApril 20, 2023•5 min readSince 2016, we’ve demonstrated an unwavering commitment to partnering with seed-phase founders and bringing their world-changing ideas to life. This dedication has led us to activate our third Seed Fund with the same passion for investing in determined, insightful founders with the tenacity to scale and grit to persevere. We look for game-changers developing innovative and disruptive products, addressing universal problems with global appeal in markets with strong tailwinds, and are backed by clear and demonstrable business models.For those considering Tidal as their lead investor, we thought we’d proactively answer some questions you may have about how we think about investment.What does an ideal Tidal Ventures investment look like?A Tidal Company has the following traits:A founding team made up of domain experts that exhibit solid product-building fundamentals.A global addressable market that’s ripe for disruption.Founders that have cracked a novel way to address customers’ needs and win the market.Whilst we obsess over differentiated products, we are in the business of building companies, not tools. At the point where we invest, the business model validation is still early, but it shows signs of lucrative economics over time. We are ready to lead your $1-3 million seed funding round and work with you and your team to create a sustainable advantage and pave the path to success.What phase does Tidal Ventures invest in?We specialise in seed-phase investing, often serving as a company’s first institutional investor. Typically when we invest, the founder has an early version of their product in the market, and they are exploring early customer acquisition tactics to secure paying customers. We work alongside founders to build their companies and use our lived experiences to avoid common pitfalls and solve problems. Our track record shows success in taking companies from seed to scale and beyond, and we hold reserves to double down on a vision in future rounds.Is it too early or late to approach Tidal Ventures for investment?We encourage founders to reach out to us regardless of where their company is on the journey—but the ideal time to start the conversation is when you decide to start your company. We’re product builders by nature and thrive on early product conversations.How many investments will Tidal Ventures make in their Seed III fund?Rather than spreading our investments thin, we choose to focus on a select number of new investments each year. Over the next three years, we’ll focus on 20-25 investments, making each investment significant for Tidal and the founder. This approach allows us to dedicate our resources and attention to nurturing each investment and providing comprehensive support to help our founders succeed.What is Tidal Ventures’ macro outlook?As we see it in our daily lives at work and home, technology continues to accelerate and evolve. It’s broad, complex, and investable across the early, growth, late, and public market stages. We’re not alone in our prediction that technology will be the leading global focus for growth at scale and will create the type of jobs that will advance people and their economies. We’re currently living in yet another technology cycle that is having an outsized impact on our world. 75% of all computing is still on-premise. Still, with the onset of AI, we’re already seeing global forward capital expenditure investment in data centre processing capacity starting to accelerate, with cloud spending predicted to be $592 billion by the end of 2023.What is Tidal Ventures’ investment thesis?Our investments will relate in some way to the following three broad areas that reflect our investment thesis:Focal Points: We’re looking for technologies and people that can drive scalable optimisations, resulting in platforms that can dominate a sector.Cognitive Cloud: Over the next decade, every app will be a data-centric app (DaaS), with leaps being made in AI/ML that will fundamentally shift how work gets done. We are excited to invest in this transformative space.Inflection Aware: We go beyond themes by identifying emerging inflections that drive significant shifts in value chains within sectors. Our investments cluster around the inflections we believe will have an outsized chance of displacing existing practices, including the future of consumption (commerce, sustainability, agtech), the future of enterprise (cybersecurity, observability and insights, productivity automation), and the future of service delivery (smart logistics, API infra and dev tools, fintech, regtech).How can Tidal Ventures help build my startup?We might be product-obsessed, but we are here to build long-term sustainable companies that create va

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/shippit-real-good
Title: Shippit. Shippit real good.
Meta Description: Shippit are an Australian startup success story built on an unbreakable founder relationship between Rob Hango-Zada and William On. Learn how Tidal helped guide their global success.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/shippit-real-good

## Headings Structure:
H1: Shippit. Shippit real good.
H3: Relationshippit first
H3: All work and no playbook
H3: Think big and then think bigger
H3: Foundational friends and future relationships
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersShippit. Shippit real good.Shippit are an Australian startup success story built on an unbreakable founder relationship between Rob Hango-Zada and William On. Learn how Tidal helped guide their global success.Wendell KeunemanSamadhi PelendaonMarch 19, 2021•5 min readThis 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 firstGreat 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 OnAll work and no playbookGetting 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!Founders Rob Hango-Zada (left) and William On (right)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

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/storytelling-through-demos
Title: Storytelling through Demos
Meta Description: Demos are a vital part of the feature development process in product-led businesses. They not only show what the team got done that sprint, they're an opportunity to experience a feature or product the way a customer would.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/storytelling-through-demos

## Headings Structure:
H1: Storytelling through Demos
H3: Demos help us experience the product in a way that's not lines of code or marketing bullet points or concepts.
H3: Demos simulate the customer experience
H3: Demos are an opportunity to tell a story
H3: Three key demo use cases
H3: Our experts share their demo stories
H3: Expert tips
H3: In conclusion
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Product ClinicStorytelling through DemosDemos are a vital part of the feature development process in product-led businesses. They not only show what the team got done that sprint, they're an opportunity to experience a feature or product the way a customer would.Wendell KeunemanonApril 30, 2021•5 min readDemos help us experience the product in a way that's not lines of code or marketing bullet points or concepts.To help us unpack why demos are an essential craft that needs to be honed in start-ups, we talked to four product legends to get their insights, thoughts, and opinions.Sherif Mansour: Distinguished Product Manager at Atlassian.Mindy Eiermann: Director of Product Management at Intuit.Jens Schumacher: Chief Product Officer at Search.io.Somya Kapoor: CEO & Co-Founder at TheLoops.All were kind enough to share their take on The Art of the Demo.Demos simulate the customer experienceWhen we asked why they think demos are important, Jens and Somya both spoke of demos as breathing life into projects. Jens believes they make the abstract tangible and provide an opportunity to clearly demonstrate how specific problems are solved. Somya thinks of demos as "windows into the vision", where you distil the idea potential and capture the audience.Sherif and Mindy agreed. For Sherif, the demo audience simulates the customer, so the presenter has to be very aware of the customer experience during delivery, more than with other modes of presentation. He added that "it’s much more effective to have a meaningful discussion and make prioritisation decisions when you use your demo as a shared language, rather than using a bunch of text and bullet points". Demos simulate reality, whereas bullet points abstract it.Demos are an opportunity to tell a storyMindy puts it beautifully when she says that "giving a demo is so much more than showing someone your product. It's about telling a story and doing so in a way that marries customer insights, data, and a product experience to take your audience on the journey." We love this and we wholeheartedly agree.Demos are a story. A very important part of your product story. They allow you to empathise with customers, understand their challenges and see how to solve their problems. You can't get this effect with a slide deck. Empathy is built when you can put yourself in the shoes of the customer. As Mindy says, "the more effective you can be with creating that empathy and understanding, the more likely you will be to get the support you need to be successful".Three key demo use casesTransfer knowledge to internal teamsDemos show how a customer problem has been solved and explain the steps taken to arrive at the solution. This is valuable knowledge that can be used to impact other customer problems, and enable marketing and support teams to explain features more clearly to customers.Drive customer salesDemos are a visual and engaging way for the target audience to understand a feature, a whole product and the experience they will receive. The old adage of 'show don't tell' applies here, because it enables the customer to 'see themselves' using a product, achieving a task, solving a problem. Demos create a connection which (hopefully) leads to sales.Show investors your valueDemos are essential for telling the success story of your product, what it does now, what it can do soon, and where it fits in a customer's life and the market. Investors look for ideas that loudly communicate potential, have a clear purpose and reflect a better reality. Investors want to put their money in a product they can see, not a bullet list of nebulous benefits.‍Our experts share their demo storiesSherif's demo storySometimes demos reveal something that has not been noticed before. Sherif recalls when the team building software for mobile showed how they solved a particular customer problem. But only on mobile. The same problem existed for desktop users, but the solution approach had not been discussed with the desktop engineers. Sherif remembers that "the demo highlighted that we were letting our internal team structures influence the customer experience." The demo showed the need for better information sharing and highlighted a creeping silo problem between teams.Mindy's demo storyNever underestimate the hunger of a demo audience. Mindy tells us how she was preparing for a huge public product launch and the engineer who was running the demo did a rehearsal with her beforehand. She thought it might be too detailed and make people bored. "Boy, I was wrong" she reflects. "The accountants in the audience were sitting on the edge of their seats that night. They wanted all the detail so that they could understand exactly what impact the new experience would have for them and their firm."Jen's demo storyYou can talk it up all you want, but you've got to show people how things work. "In a world where AI has become a buzzword appearing on every marketing website, it was important for Search.io to demonstrate how easy

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/system-of-work
Title: AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of Work
Meta Description: Discover the System of Work: AI software that actively does the work, generating deliverables and transforming industries.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/system-of-work

## Headings Structure:
H1: AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of Work
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought WavesAI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.Georgie TurnerWendell KeunemanGrant McCarthyonMay 14, 2025•5 min readA 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-endA generated legal contract tailored to a specific jurisdictionA clinical platform that drafts summaries and actions from messy encounter notesWhere 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 mattersIn 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 shiftThis 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 modelsBuild proprietary data moats by capturing interaction-specific contextDeliver real-world value through actionable outputs, not just dashboardsAnd 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 AISystems of Work will drive the biggest changes in industries where work is still manual, complex, or repetitive.Winning without replacingSmart AI startups are using over-the-top (OTT) strategies to enter these workflows. Rather than attempting to displace ex

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-art-of-the-demo
Title: The Art of the Demo
Meta Description: Demos should be considered an essential craft that founders and leaders hone as it has the power to influence many high impact moments. Rather than go through the motions, build a demo muscle that is part of the cultural identity of your company.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-art-of-the-demo

## Headings Structure:
H1: The Art of the Demo
H3: The art of the demo is an essential craft that needs to be honed in start-ups as its used in so many high-impact moments. It could be a founder pitch, planning a new feature, creating a new product horizon or (re)defining your vision to stakeholders. But there is a big difference between going through the motions of demoing your product versus developing a demo muscle that forms the cultural identity of your company.
H3: Overview
H3: How to get started
H3: Define your hypothesis
H3: Expected Outcomes
H3: Validate your hypothesis
H3: Demo Formats
H3: Demoing API's
H3: Inspirational Examples
H3: Demo outcomes
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Product ClinicThe Art of the DemoDemos should be considered an essential craft that founders and leaders hone as it has the power to influence many high impact moments. Rather than go through the motions, build a demo muscle that is part of the cultural identity of your company.Wendell KeunemanonFebruary 8, 2021•5 min readThe art of the demo is an essential craft that needs to be honed in start-ups as its used in so many high-impact moments. It could be a founder pitch, planning a new feature, creating a new product horizon or (re)defining your vision to stakeholders. But there is a big difference between going through the motions of demoing your product versus developing a demo muscle that forms the cultural identity of your company.Demos are the higher-order bit of story-telling for startups. It is a compass for authenticity and its value cannot be underestimated. A great demo is priceless.During my time at Atlassian we productised many of our operations or rituals. The result was the Atlassian Playbook. My contribution was co-creating the Project Poster and Demo Trust. We developed these plays (and many more) as scaffolding to scale during a period of hyper growth for the company.The plays gave us a common language when working on feature proposals, new initiatives and offered a dedicated forum to refine and improve the product experience via demos. They served as guardrails for our freshly minted teams.However these plays were not optimised for startups that are running fast and could benefit from a more streamlined approach. So I wanted to provide a guide that's a short and sweeter remix optimised for seed stage companies. It contains the essentials that will illuminate a path to a solid demo.A great demo is pricelessThe best part is there are opportunities to demo around every corner. Each moment is a chance to build this muscle and make it a part of your company culture.OverviewOne of my formative experiences as a founder was early on in my first startup. I showed a rough demo of a shortcut feature at a conference and I unexpectedly heard ooh's and ahh's from the crowd. Boy did it give me conviction about our direction. It was validation of how powerful a demo is for storytelling and we were acquired less than 3 years later. But what was it about that demo that cut through to make a difference?In his book The Macintosh Way, Guy Kawasaki wrote a chapter called “How to Give Good Demo,” where Kawasaki suggests that good demos should be short, simple, sweet, swift, and substantial, and that starting with a script that satisfies these requirements is the foundation for success.This advice is still valuable today, but I'm going to argue that above all it needs to be authentic. Why? Because often you are continually tuning different aspects of your demo and so it's okay to compromise on some of these points early on. But when you give an authentic demo you really:Focus on what matters to your audience and in turn your company. We talked about drift in the Connected Roadmap. An authentic demo is validated by your users, stakeholders and teams and is a practical tool in finding and retaining product-market fit.Expedite how you communicate value through a shared understanding. How many times have your users or stakeholders had a different thought bubble about how they interpreted your explanation or email? A demo is a tangible way to share an idea, reduce ambiguity and get alignment.Fast-track team velocity as you cut to the essence of intent. If you are doing the first two things well, in my experience it also unblocks the typical hurdles in reaching stakeholder alignment and decision-making. While this may not be as big a deal as a seed stage company, it sure as hell gets more difficult as you scale up. It empowers the team to make difficult trade off decisions whilst holding true to the core idea.Eliminate natural misunderstandings that may stem from verbal & written descriptions aloneHow to get startedI recently finished reading Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda about his takeaways as a software engineer and designer at Apple in the early years. One of the core concepts in the book is they often used demos, dog-fooding and continual refinement as tangible expressions of ideas from creators and stakeholders and let natural selection decide which would thrive or go extinct. While this book focuses on an insiders' experience at Apple, this culture was certainly not exclusive to Apple. I had similar experiences as a leader in prior companies.Similarly you have opportunity to integrate the practice of demos neatly into your existing learn, build, measure cycles. The steps below are a guide in developing that muscle 💪Demos should fit neatly into your development lifecycleDemos should fit neatly into your development lifecycleDefine your hypothesisConduct preliminary research: Clearly articulate why you are doing this.What problem are we solving?Impact of the problem?What data to we have to support our thesis?E

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-connected-roadmap
Title: The Connected Roadmap
Meta Description: Most roadmaps fail because they are trying to do too much for too many people. Chances are your roadmap is either too in the weeds to communicate with management, or too macro that your scrum team can't fully engage to deliver tangible value to the user.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-connected-roadmap

## Headings Structure:
H1: The Connected Roadmap
H3: Roadmaps serve as a powerful communications tool for product leaders.
H2: Overview
H2: Goals pre-flight check
H2: Outcomes not features
H2: Make it epic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Product ClinicThe Connected RoadmapMost roadmaps fail because they are trying to do too much for too many people. Chances are your roadmap is either too in the weeds to communicate with management, or too macro that your scrum team can't fully engage to deliver tangible value to the user.Wendell KeunemanonMay 12, 2020•5 min readRoadmaps serve as a powerful communications tool for product leaders.They aim to:Build a shared understanding between stakeholdersShow areas of investmentBridge strategy to tacticsWhen you think about it, that’s a lot of stuff to put into a single visual. Making a stellar roadmap to solve all these problems creates a concentration of pressure. As a result, we see many teams fumble while trying to tick all these boxes.In a world where there is growing specialization in skills, techniques, and in turn software, why are we still trying to squeeze all this information into one tool?Recently, I had the pleasure of (virtually) meeting Marty Cagan from the Silicon Valley Product Group and author of the seminal product management book, Inspired. One of his key messages during a Q&A session was that product teams waste so much time developing and estimating feature roadmaps, when they should be focused on build, measure, learn cycles. That is, focus on product outcomes, their priority, and buy time until you have data-informed tactics.This does a couple of things:You learn what really matters to users fasterYou avoid unwanted feature bloatYou can read more about Marty’s thoughts on this here and here.Bottom line: the intent of a feature in a roadmap can be interpreted subjectively, and as a result we have seen teams drift from their original goal during execution. Whereas an outcome on a roadmap is unambiguous, offering a constant reminder of your desired goal throughout your delivery cycle.Examples of drift range from:Anecdotal thesis: starting a project without success metricsProduct bloat : having clear measures for success, but deviating due to over investment and sheer momentumGoal posts: feature scope shifts yet the measures unchangedNever ending story: delivery time extends with no recognition of the original desired result and in turn checks and balances for incremental deliveryWe spend a lot of time reviewing product roadmaps with our portfolio companies at Tidal and many more in review sessions over my lifetime a product leader. We tend to run into this issue consistently. So we created a practical guide on developing a connected roadmap that leans on complementary artefacts to address the goals above.OverviewHere is a visual map of how we will progressively leverage a set of common artefacts to achieve a connected roadmap:Visual map of how we will achieve a connected roadmap. Part of reducing the pressure on a roadmap is to focus it on doing one thing well. If we extend this philosophy to all company goals (via OKRs) and agile delivery (via Scrum/Kanban), we make each fit for purpose. We'll use each artefact to separate concerns.Goals pre-flight checkBefore getting started on a roadmap, we need some guidance from leadership. Your company goals form this guidance. We will use the OKR (Objectives & Key Results) format to frame them with a business lens.This is what it might look like:Example of simplified company goals in OKR format framed from a business lens. Planning cycles may be between 6-18 months. The smaller the business the shorter the cycle, with the happy medium at 12 months. Taper your expectations to this timespan.Use this checklist to inform your roadmap:Focus Areas: Does the OKR call out your team(s) as a dependency to achieve the goal? We recommend defining Focus Areas per OKR to set expectations for accountability and provides an opportunity to have a conversation about resourcing.Focused Key Result: Does each Objective have one primary Key Result? A secondary Key Result should only be used to help qualify the effort. This helps reduce unambiguity and will align behavior. An example of a primary key result would be improving sales efficiency from $x to $y, with a complementary qualifying objective that maintains your conversion rate at a floor of z%.Ordered Objectives: Are the OKRs an ordered list? This forces leadership to prioritize the bets the company is taking; just like you need to prioritize your roadmap. Guaranteed these priorities will be tested throughout the time span and it’s best to understand those trade-offs early.Finally, are the company OKRs you are accountable for grounded in rational optimism? You want to be ambitious, but it needs to be coupled with a reality check that considers cadence, dependencies, and the timespan for achieving the result. While this is not specific input into building a roadmap, it's worth asking if you are set up for success?Posing the checklist and your own situational questions helps develop a shared understanding with stakeholders and is half of the solution for aligning on value.Now that you have tightened up the busine

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-seed-phase
Title: The Seed Phase
Meta Description: Why we believe Seed is a 'phase', and how to set strong foundations for achieving milestones through the Seed phase and beyond.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/the-seed-phase

## Headings Structure:
H1: The Seed Phase
H3: Focus Area: Getting to Product-Market Fit
H3: Focus Area: Finding a Scalable Path to Market
H3: Focus Area: Hiring a Gun Team
H3: Establishing 'proof points' and tracking performance
H3: Timing and runway
H3: Nailing the Seed phase
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Founder GuidesThe Seed PhaseWhy we believe Seed is a 'phase', and how to set strong foundations for achieving milestones through the Seed phase and beyond.Georgie TurneronJune 3, 2020•5 min readYou have probably heard the jargon investors use to define the 'stage' of their investments: pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B and beyond. What these titles lack in creativity, they make up for in practicality as the startup ecosystem seeks a common language to categorise early stage companies.Tidal Ventures is a Seed fund. We subscribe to the notion that Seed is a phase (capturing Early Seed + Seed + Late Seed / Seed Extension). We believe it is far more useful to focus on the proof points that founding teams need to hit during this phase rather than the size of your team, revenue booked or dollars raised.Seed: the period of time a venture-backed startup has to demonstrate the proof points required to raise a Series A from an institutional investor.Let's focus on what actually needs to happen during the Seed Phase, from the perspective of three different "success milestones": (1) product-market fit, (2) finding a scalable path to market and (3) hiring a gun team.Focus Area: Getting to Product-Market FitFirst and foremost, the Seed Phase is all about building an exceptional product that your customers simply love to use. The Goal: (1) A beautiful product that customers love to use and (2) a roadmap that will make you famous.Focus Area: Finding a Scalable Path to MarketDuring the Seed Phase, we formulate a hypothesis on the best way to access the customer and then test and iterate until we find the optimal channel.The Goal: Figuring out a cost effective way to draw paying customers to your product.Focus Area: Hiring a Gun TeamThe hiring decisions you make during your Seed Phase are critical and will impact culture well into the life of your business.The Goal: Creating a strong team foundation to address your Seed phase goals and setup for your next set of growth challenges.Establishing 'proof points' and tracking performanceIt's helpful to attach tangible proof points to each of these areas to help focus your team around a clear success milestone. For example:See Wendell's post on the connected roadmap for more on linking product goals with business goals.Timing and runwaySeed is a phase with an undefined time period and the biggest constraint for the founder is usually capital availability. Seed businesses fail when they can't hit their proof points before their cash runway ends. This is sometimes due to uncontrollable risk factors such as market timing or founder break-ups.We focus on the controllable elements: planning and team execution. By setting clear proof points upfront, founders can be clear with themselves and their team about what success looks like. By demonstrating the capability to execute against a plan, they give themselves the best likelihood of a successful Seed outcome, whether that is a Series A fundraise or otherwise.Nailing the Seed phaseTo close, here are a few things we see successful founders focus on in their Seed phase:Building a product that is truly mission-critical to the customer. Great product leaders will ask themselves early: "Is my product (1) core to operations (2) revenue-enhancing (3) cost-saving or (4) nice-to-have?" Don't be 4!Use clever design to short-circuit the "time to value" for the customer: Is there a way you can get your customers to quantify the actual value that your product is bringing them early in their user journey?Focus on efficient deployment of capital: If you're raising funds, ensure you've budgeted enough time to hit your proof points before raising again.Focus on monetisation earlier rather than later: customer revenue trumps investor capital any day of the week.Figure out your sustainable unit economics: Find a low-cost acquisition path and don't wait too long to figure out what you can charge your customers, use that Seed phase to test pricing and packaging before you scale.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inboxOur recent Thought WavesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.Seed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/theloops-acquisition-ifs
Title: Seed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFS
Meta Description: Tidal Ventures celebrates the successful acquisition of its portfolio company, TheLoops, by IFS. Learn about the AI-driven journey from Seed to strategic exit.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/theloops-acquisition-ifs

## Headings Structure:
H1: Seed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFS
H3: Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise
H3: A shared vision realised
H3: Validating the AI-driven strategy
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersSeed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.Wendell KeunemanonJune 26, 2025•5 min readToday, 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 expertiseWhen 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 realisedTheLoops 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 strategyThis 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.‍Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inboxOur recent Thought WavesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.AI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving bey

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/turning-search-into-sales-with-sajari
Title: Turning Search into Sales with Search.io
Meta Description: Hamish Ogilvy and David Howden are the brilliant scientific minds behind AI search engine Search.io. Find out how they have leant on Tidal to articulate their vision, hire, and grow into multiple markets.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/blog/turning-search-into-sales-with-sajari

## Headings Structure:
H1: Turning Search into Sales with Search.io
H3: The DIY roots
H3: Tidal becomes Search.io's first VC investor
H3: Putting the pieces together to scale
H3: Hiring isn’t just bums on seats
H3: Sales isn’t just selling more
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Our recent Thought Waves
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Wave MakersTurning Search into Sales with Search.ioHamish Ogilvy and David Howden are the brilliant scientific minds behind AI search engine Search.io. Find out how they have leant on Tidal to articulate their vision, hire, and grow into multiple markets.Wendell KeunemanonMay 20, 2021•5 min readIf amazing and life changing ideas are the heart of every startup, then technical know-how and persistence must be the brains. This is particularly true for Hamish Ogilvy and David Howden, the two brilliant science and mathematical minds behind AI search engine Search.io (formerly Sajari).Frustrated by poor search capability on websites and hearing that frustration echoed among colleagues, Hamish and David decided to fix it by building a more intelligent search engine, and they have succeeded. Not only that, they have found a powerful niche in e-commerce that enables the conversion of search queries into transactions.The DIY rootsAs a startup, their story is not unusual. They did most things themselves as they gained some momentum: built a website, developed beta prototypes, learned to code, looked for customers, paid the payroll, insurance and themselves (sometimes). Their early learning curves were steep: What do we charge? How do we make that recurring? How do we scale? What are the best use cases for our idea? Who do we target?And the biggest question of all: How do we get to the next step? Tidal becomes Search.io's first VC investorHaving had angel investors to help with some early hires, Search.io started looking to the next horizon. “Tidal was really the first decent size investment that actually allowed us to think about scale.” according to Hamish. “Angel funding doesn’t quite provide enough for the next proof point, but Tidal has been really good at working with us on this.” He goes on to say how this was “more of a factor for us than money and valuation”, as they were seeking “alignment in terms of where we saw the business going and the product-led attitude of Tidal was the right fit.”Location was not an issue with Hamish in San Francisco and David in Australia, matching with Tidal’s product expert Wendell in Sydney and investment leader Andrea in New York. “Having someone who understands Australia and the world is handy because Australian and US markets work differently.”Hamish adds, “when you find people that you click with and you have common opinions on what's important, then decisions become easier.”Putting the pieces together to scaleDeeply technical products like Search.io take time and are complex to build, then once you get there technically, there’s still the business part to think about. “Scale is very much about process,” says Hamish. Starting a business is “like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces on the floor and you’re trying to find bits that fit so you can start moving in the right direction. But scaling a business is more about putting structures of repeatability in place.” This is where Tidal offered expertise, they helped with the scaling strategy, providing advice on structure and “understanding some of the gaps that we needed to fill.”Having reliable sales models was one of those gaps. Scaling isn’t just about spending money to get more inbound sales, Hamish points out, “you have to work out where you can spend it to get repeatable impact to the business. And that brings in a different way of thinking that's not necessarily where we had been. We needed help to build out the structures to make that actually work.”Scaling a business is not something that you’re born knowing, says Hamish “the more advice and assistance that you get from people who know parallel businesses, the better. I can ping or talk to the Tidal team anytime and that has been really helpful.” The Search.io team. David is 3rd and Hamish is 4th from the left.Hiring isn’t just bums on seatsWorking with Tidal, they had to determine the best way to recruit and then “hand off efficiently while keeping the vision and the quality in terms of what you want to do.” It requires thought and planning to get “people in a position to get up to speed and execute on things.” Through meetings and conversations, Search.io and Tidal developed a hiring plan that included the identification of key positions, numbers and mixes of roles, that would set them on a path to “transition from being resource-efficient to growth efficient.” The plan eventually went to the board with Tidal support.There’s a power of numbers in hiring, as Hamish explains, “you don't hire one person in sales. You hire two. Even if you only need one, you hire two.” This avoids a single point of failure where if one person does not work out, you've lost a hundred percent capacity. Building teams in cross-functional sales pods was exactly the kind of shift in thinking that Tidal steered Search.io through. “Future hiring is a key part of the ongoing planning and thought process.” Producing more and selling more can only be supported with carefully managed recruitment, not just m

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/andrea
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/andrea

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureAndrea KowalskiVenture PartnerGrowth specialist, global outlook. Andrea has successfully launched two funds in overseas markets all while building trusting personal relationships with founders as an adviser and confidant. With 15+ years of VC and tech investment experience, Andrea is our growth investment lead and US presence, preparing companies for global expansion and ongoing fundraising. Formerly Bailador, Boost & Co, UBS.ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/camille
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/camille

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureCamille BiancoInvestor RelationsGlobal perspective, self-starter, active listener. With experience that spans three continents, Camille provides high-touch, first-class service for local and international investors. She is well-versed in portfolio construction, and brings holistic, advice-driven thinking into the realm of venture capital investing. Formally J.P. Morgan Private Bank (USA), Watco Australia, Wells Fargo Advisers (USA).ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/craig
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/craig

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureCraig HoldenChief Financial OfficerSage of finance. The buck stops with Craig and his 25 plus years in senior finance roles. His rigour and flair is the foundation of our operations and the bedrock of our best decisions. Continuously improving how we manage and govern the fund, he drives us to achieve business growth through best-in-class financial systems, processes, and thinking. Formerly Allen & Buckeridge.ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/fee
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/fee

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Cutting my teeth in transactional law
H3: Seeing technology M&A through to success
H3: Becoming the G&A whisperer
H3: Pioneering the future of work
H3: Get ready for my first question
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureFee BarryPrincipalFundraising and governance guru. With years of experience across corporate law and M&A, Fee has been instrumental in assisting founders from inception to exit and beyond. She tackles complex challenges from her unique dual perspective, seamlessly blending a human-centred ethos with a strategic corporate approach. Formerly Atlassian, Marque LawyersArticlesInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: TendlTendl is a game-changing AI platform revolutionising how companies approach tendering by transforming complex bid processes into streamlined, intelligent workflows. What traditionally takes days can now be completed in under an hour, saving companies tens of thousands of dollars annually. 25 Feb 2025•5 min readTendl, 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 tailwindsThe 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 spendingGovernment procurement reached $99B in Australia last yearUp to 13% of OECD GDP flows through tender processesSuppliers spend up to 30% of revenue on tendering processes with no guarantee of successTraditional high barriers to entry requiring specialised teams and significant time investmentGrowing sovereign debt pushing increased reliance on competitive biddingPost-DOGE environment driving renewed focus on cost-effective procurementThe 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 gameTendl'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 portalsAutomated analysis and matching of opportunities to company capabilitiesSmart pre-filling systems that pull relevant information from existing documentsDeep CRM integrations for tracking progress and improving future bidsComplete workflow automation powered by AITendl is revolutionising the tender management process through AI-powered automation and workflow toolsThe platform delivers concrete benefits across three key areas:Discovery: Makes tender identification user-friendly and 50% fasterAnalysis: AI agents instantly evaluate fit and requirementsResponse: Transforms days-long processes into sub-hour workflows, saving tens of thousands annuallyFounders that hustleFounder 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.Tendl Founder Laurie Nicol with Tidal Principal Fee Barry both based in QueenslandA compelling business modelTendl 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 usageCapture value proportional to delivered benefitsBuild strong customer stickiness through integrationCreate potential for success-based pricing as the platform maturesReduce at-risk costs for suppliers across the entire marketThe 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.Gl

---

### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/georgie
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/georgie

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Flagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: ‍
H2: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Businesses face mounting challenges when attempting to reduce ESG risk exposure
H3: The leading product in this category will be grounded in deep supply chain data expertise
H3: Execution during the investment process mirrors execution in the first 12 months post-investment
H3: What does an ideal Tidal Ventures investment look like?
H3: What phase does Tidal Ventures invest in?
H3: Is it too early or late to approach Tidal Ventures for investment?
H3: How many investments will Tidal Ventures make in their Seed III fund?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ macro outlook?
H3: What is Tidal Ventures’ investment thesis?
H3: How can Tidal Ventures help build my startup?
H3: What impact can Tidal have on my product strategy?
H3: What sort of advisory network does Tidal have access to?
H3: How will Tidal back me in future fundraising rounds?
H3: How do I get funded by Tidal?
H3: Blakthumb is a software company that provides an intuitive end-to-end operating system for cultivators and producers of cannabis and food. Their mission is to build resilient communities through the power of decentralised production.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that Change the Game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: Checkbox is a no code platform that enables non-technical business experts to build automated solutions that replace the manual tasks that bog down their day.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: A note on the No Code revolution
H3: From RPA to EPA
H3: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase and beyond
H3: Get to know Tidal's Georgie Turner
H3: Operata is a performance monitoring and assurance solution for organisations using contact-centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) technology. It draws on a range of data sources to pinpoint call quality issues and speed up the path to problem resolution.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the observability thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureGeorgie TurnerPartnerGo-to-market guru, fundraising gun. Georgie has extensive experience in investment banking as well as enterprise sales, working closely alongside founders to develop successful go-to-market strategies. She brings wisdom and dedication to help founders optimise their business and prepare for the next round of fundraising. Formerly Bailador, Rackspace, Lazard.ArticlesThought WavesAI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.14 May 2025•5 min readA 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-endA generated legal contract tailored to a specific jurisdictionA clinical platform that drafts summaries and actions from messy encounter notesWhere 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 mattersIn 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 shiftThis 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 modelsBuild proprietary data moats by capturing interaction-specific contextDeliver real-world value through actionable outputs, not just dashboardsAnd crucially, they don’t just make software smarter, th

---

### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/grant
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/grant

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: The role of luck and timing
H3: Remarkable founders know how to “turn and burn”
H3: Finding the balance in product development and sales efforts
H3: How Grant and Guy identify founders with promising potential
H3: Being the right “asshole” leader
H3: Navigating different mindsets and self-belief in leadership
H3: The three common founder mistakes to avoid in early-stage startups
H3: How to win the AI race
H3: The key to navigating different market cycles
H3: Tips for founders pitching their startups
H3: The AI stack
H3: Tidal Ventures’ AI investment mindset
H3: LLMs
H3: Contextual and local models
H3: Built-for-purpose applications
H3: AI in Australia
H3: Get to know Tidal's Grant McCarthy
H3: Market sentiment has officially changed.
H3: Insights from the US market
H3: Takeaways for Seed Stage founders
H3: Tidal looks through the lens of a telescope
H3: Starting with the problem
H3: From faster labs to field tech
H3: From tech builders to company builders
H3: The learning and commercial curve
H3: No limit to scale
H3: Solving a simple problem is a great start
H3: The solution is not always simple
H3: A long history and a more recent connection
H3: The calm voice in the storm
H3: Not just cash, but connections
H3: Growing with greater clarity
H3: Renewtrak is a platform for lifting the conversion rate of renewals for technology providers. It digitally automates the end-to-end logistics of renewals from quote to payment, including sales, pricing, billing, and commission constructs.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Recurring renewal revenues
H3: Products that change the game
H3: A team that hustles
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase
H3: A note on the workflow automation thematic
H3: FrankieOne provides customers with a single API to better manage KYC/AML and Fraud. Its integrated platform delivers a unified view of end customers and unlocks data-led decision-making and workflow automation for compliance, operations, audit, and risk.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: Seed: landing a compelling business model and strong product-market-fit
H3: Series A: a scalable GTM model and a defensible moat
H3: To overseas markets and beyond
H3: A note on the Fintech infrastructure thematic
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureGrant McCarthyManaging PartnerCo-founder, sounding board, visionary. Grant leverages a background in digital media and 20+ years of experience investing in seed companies in Asia & Australia and advising early-stage founders on their most critical challenges. He encourages big picture thinking, and guides companies to see strategic opportunities, build product-market fit, and prepare for institutional capital raising. Formerly Yahoo.ArticlesThought WavesAI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to generate deliverables, automate complex tasks, and transform how industries operate by directly creating outcomes.14 May 2025•5 min readA 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-endA generated legal contract tailored to a specific jurisdictionA clinical platform that drafts summaries and actions from messy encounter notesWhere 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 mattersIn 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 shiftThis 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 modelsBuild proprietary data moats by capturing interaction-specific contextDeliver real-world value through actionable outputs, not just dashboards

---

### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/kieran
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/kieran

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H2: Markets with tailwinds
H2: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: My journey to get here
H3: What I love about Seed
H3: Something I believe that others don’t
H3: Going from founder to investor
H3: Characteristics of a top founder
H3: How the world will change in 10 years
H3: What keeps me up at night
H3: What excites me about Australia’s tech scene
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: The advice I live by
H3: My first founder question
H3: Orkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Flagship’s retail tech platform is poised to become integral to retail operations, driving data-driven insights and ushering in transformative changes across all retail establishments. This evolution has the potential to reshape the way retailers conduct business, empowering them to encapsulate their expertise within an embedded knowledge system.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: ‍
H2: Products that change the game
H2: Founders that hustle
H2: A compelling business model
H2: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureKieran O'NeillPrincipalFormer founder, solution-oriented. With a broad range of experience in finance and sales, Kieran loves to work with founders to tackle unique problems. By leveraging his incisive mind and unyielding commitment, he helps entrepreneurs sharpen their operations and ready themselves for growth. Formerly Hometime, Macquarie, Goldman Sachs.ArticlesInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: AssetiWe’re delighted to have led Asseti’s Seed round, working with the team to realise their mission of building the world’s leading intelligent asset management platform. Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needs, minimising downtime and maximising lifespan.16 May 2024•5 min readLeading 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 tailwindsYou 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 gameAsseti’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.Asseti uses high-quality imagery and machine learning to predict and prioritise asset needsThe next stage for Asseti is instant asset assessment through satellite imagery, offering more frequent evaluations. Founders that hustleFounder 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.‍Team: Katrina Bignasca, Alex Doyle, Aonghus Stevens, and Nima IdelA compelling business modelEvery building and structure is a potent

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/liz
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/liz

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: In a nutshell: What value AI unlocks
H3: What role does AI play in each of your companies?
H3: What impact does AI have on your customers?
H3: What is the most controversial part of AI for your customers?
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureLiz RossINVESTOR RELATIONSBrand strategist, expert storyteller. Liz has specialised in end-to-end, audience-first brand marketing strategy for over 13 years. She harnesses her expertise to develop engaging integrated marketing programs that build brand preference and drive customer action. She’s the driving force behind how we position ourselves and connect with aligned founders and investors. Formerly Microsoft, Dovetail.ArticlesWave MakersUnleashing the power of AI: Insights from Tidal Ventures’ portfolio leadersLeaders from our portfolio companies Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz explore the role of AI, discuss innovative strategies, and consider its potential to enhance overall product value.23 Nov 2023•5 min readThe transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various industries is undeniable. Tidal Ventures Managing Partner Wendell Keuneman recently hosted a panel discussion featuring leaders from portfolio companies—Flagship, Hone, and Lifelenz. This insightful conversation delved into the role of AI in each company, the innovative strategies they are employing, and the potential for AI to enhance the overall value of their products.Tidal managing partner Wendell Keuneman was joined by:Peter Johnston (PJ), Managing Director of Hone from Tidal Seed Fund I. PJ gets to “work in a cool bit of science called spectroscopy where we build chemometric models. We measure stuff, and we’re good at measuring stuff. Rather than having to bring it to a laboratory, we enable measurement in the field. We overcome the problem of distance for many agricultural producers and other industries where they need real-time information to make good decisions”.Simon Molnar, the founder of Tidal Seed Fund III portfolio company Flagship—a digital visual merchandising platform, indicates that they “basically help retailers place products in their store and work out the optimum placement of those products”. “So if you have a lot of stores in your store network, you have a lot of products in those stores, then you have to make sure that you’ve got the right products in the right stores and the right products in the right place”.Steve Kirkby, founder of Lifelenz from Tidal Follow-On Opportunity fund I highlights their focus on workforce management and labour optimisation, ultimately “getting the right person at the right time for certain industries”. Steve outlined their current focus on quick service restaurants, “If you know someone working at McDonald’s or KFC or Hungry Jacks in Australia, they’ll be using our app’.Lifelenz founder, Steve KirbyIn a nutshell: What value AI unlocksHoneHone’s ML engine accelerates the development of chemometric models, transforming what used to take weeks into a matter of hours. Moreover, it consistently produces more complex and robust models. With Hone’s cloud-based Machine Learning and AI, farmers can now make real-time decisions on grain segregation, optimising quality and yielding an average increase of 2% in farm gate values (net value of product after it’s left the farm).LifelenzLifelenz’s proprietary AI-powered forecasting model has established a global benchmark in labour scheduling, leading to a notable reduction in labour costs and a simultaneous boost in sales. This translates to a significant profitability enhancement, contributing up to 2% of EBITDA within the restaurant industry alone.FlagshipFlagship’s AI-ready visual merchandising platform has significantly streamlined retail operations, cutting down manual efforts by two-thirds. This efficiency boost allows their workforce to redirect their efforts toward higher-impact tasks. Flagship anticipates substantial benefits for large retailers, estimating potential annual labour savings of 6,000 hours and an impressive 90% or more reduction in time to execution.What role does AI play in each of your companies?HoneWhen it comes to Hone, Machine learning (ML) is core to what they do. As PJ indicated, “We’ve got these handheld spectrometers that farmers use where the machines collect raw spectrum, and then we run it through an ML engine and create calibrations from that data”. As Wendell astutely pointed out, “It’s always about behaviour change”. Hone has fundamentally changed behaviour around the process of chemical testing. Previously, chemical testing required two weeks to turn around, which resulted in expensive and infrequent testing, but with Hone’s cutting-edge hardware and software, they’re able to take a reading in the field rather than sending it back to the lab. “What that means is that frequency of testing becomes more common, more frequent, and as a result, the testing results in what we call currency—the economic value”, said Wendell.The currency of Hone is the ability to understand yield right in the field. So they can start doing things like forecasting and uncovering the quality of that yield right then and there.To illustrate this solution, consider GrainCorp who participated in Hone’s Se

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/murray-bleach
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/murray-bleach

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureMurray BleachChairCo-founder, wise counsel, leader of leaders. Murray is a financial leader with over 30 years of investment, banking, and fund management experience, and a passionate, insightful backer of the newest ideas. Having served on high-profile boards, Murray's sound, practical experience supports every investment and underpins every Tidal value. Formerly IFM, Macquarie.ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

---

### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/nick
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/nick

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureNick MuyVenture PartnerInnovation optimist, all-round partner. Nick uncovers and champions burgeoning innovative tech startups and works with founders on everything from product to finance to strategy. He’s active in the startup community and serves as an advisor, angel investor, and operator across numerous organisations, guiding them on their journey. Formerly Expedia Group, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.ArticlesInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.30 Jun 2025•5 min readMediScan 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 tailwindsThe 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 gameMediScan 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.AI-powered medical legal record analysis for physiciansThe 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 hustleMediScan 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 scr

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/samadhi
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/samadhi

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: 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.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: AIMon is tackling one of the biggest challenges in AI today: making Large Language Models (LLMs) safe, reliable, and enterprise-ready.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Counting my lucky stars
H3: Seeking pearls, not just ripples: why I love the seed phase
H3: Lessons on lessons on lessons
H3: My investment wish list if I had a time machine
H3: My green flags in founders
H3: Tidal meets Bonjoro
H3: Wearing the founder hat and the Tidal hat
H3: How the engagement goes deep
H3: Choosing between a safe plateau or rapid growth
H3: Never slack on advice
H3: Relationshippit first
H3: All work and no playbook
H3: Think big and then think bigger
H3: Foundational friends and future relationships
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureSamadhi PelendaSenior AssociateIdeas, insights, independent vision. Samadhi’s special gift is helping founders clarify their vision, quantify their capabilities, and turn ideas into reality. She brings considerable experience working with startup size enterprises as well as big public sector companies, harnessing data to promote growth. Formerly Macquarie, PwC.ArticlesInvestment NotesInvestment Notes: MediScan AIMediScan AI is a vertical AI platform transforming the way independent medical evaluators handle complex case reviews. By automating medical record analysis and report generation, MediScan replaces slow, manual BPO workflows with software that doubles throughput and improves accuracy: helping physicians earn more while improving outcomes in the $16B personal injury and medico-legal market.30 Jun 2025•5 min readMediScan 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 tailwindsThe 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 gameMediScan 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.AI-powered medical legal record analysis for physiciansThe 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 hustleMediScan 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 acquire

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/tidal
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/tidal

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H2: Get to know Tidal's Max Kausman
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureTidal VenturesArticlesThought WavesMeet the Tidal Team: Max KausmanWhat makes Max tick? Our Q&A uncovers Max Kausman's perspectives on Seed investing, meeting founders, and thinking about the future10 Feb 2022•5 min readGet to know Tidal's Max KausmanWhat drew you to Seed investing and in particular, the Tidal Team?I have always been interested in startups and technology. I love great products and I’m fascinated by the way tech businesses and business models re-shape markets. I thought deeply about why I wanted to be in venture, not only about why I would find it interesting and purposeful, but also about whether the role would match my attributes, capabilities, and personality. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but I get energy from the role - it’s hugely people-centric, there’s a lot of autonomy, and a lot of intellectual breadth. There are new learnings - business models, technologies, sectors - every day. It requires curiosity, comfort in ambiguity, and a long-term perspective.The Seed Phase in particular is an extension of that. It’s people-centric, but still with real analysis and deep thinking involved in understanding markets, products, and business models. It’s such a formative stage that the impact we can have is enormous, and I relish the opportunity to work very directly with founders in this stage as they build out their teams and find product-market fit.When I joined, I felt (and continue to feel) like I could learn an enormous amount from the Tidal team. I was drawn to the diverse backgrounds and unique skills and capabilities of the team, and I spoke to a number of founders who raved about Tidal as investors. I liked our portfolio, our investment mandate and philosophy, and how we have the conviction to lead Seed rounds and are genuinely active operational partners to our founders.What’s a day like in the role?It’s enormously varied. Broadly, my time is split across deal-flow, supporting our portfolio companies, and helping to build Tidal itself as a funds business. Within each of those, there are lots of different jobs that need to be done. It’s fast-paced, and there’s lots of context switching.What's the first question you ask when you come across a prospective investment?I generally start with the origin story of the business. I love unpacking how a founder realised there was a problem, and why they then decided that they cared enough to dedicate their time and energy, over what could be decades, to solving it.What is something you believe that others don't?I believe that ‘weird’ is a compliment. There’s a lot of social and societal pull to conform and be normal - but I have a lot of time for people who are authentic enough to let their weirdness emerge. Those who make the greatest entrepreneurial strides are often eccentric, unconventional, and willing to be wrong.Get in touch with Max via Twitter or LinkedinWhat is one thing that inspires you every day at Tidal?I think all venture investors have a healthy scepticism. We say no a lot, and there is always a reason why a business idea won’t work. What gets underplayed is the underlying optimism that goes into figuring out why a business idea could work, and how exciting and inspiring it can be to then do the deep thinking and get to the point we ultimately say yes. When that happens, we get to partner with some incredible founders and work closely with them to realise their vision for the future of the world.At a macro level I’m also excited by the amazing compounding momentum we’re now seeing in the start up ecosystem in Australia, and its potential to create jobs and reshape our economy.What do you think is the most important qualities or characteristics a business founder should aspire to have and never lose?A great founder should have binary qualities. What I mean by this is that founders should deeply understand the problem they are solving, but also be able to zoom out and see the bigger picture. Founders should have humility and be open-minded, but ultimately be decisive, relentlessly believe in themselves, and be willing to create buzz and draw others to their mission. When those binaries interweave, and there is a clear sense of hustle, I feel we have found a great founder.What are you passionate about outside of work?I have a broad range of interests and I love trying new things. I’m an avid traveller. I love sport, especially Basketball, AFL, and Cricket, and I’m a good skier and a wannabe surfer. I enjoy music and live gigs, good food, getting outdoors, and being social. I’m a voracious reader, particularly on tech, psychology, geopolitics, and macroeconomics. I’m both self-aware and shameless enough to use the word ‘voracious’ unironically.What advice do you live by?Advice is easy to give and much harder to receive.How do you think the world would change in 10 years?The rate of change - in technology, and in society, is enormous, and I believe it will only continue to accelerate. There’s a conve

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/tony
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/tony

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureTony FaureCo-ChairClarity and conviction. Tony brings over 25 years of experience in the technology, data, and media industries, and has an extensive background of investing in early-stage companies and helping them scale. Tony brings vision and insight to Tidal's investment processes and governance. Chair of oOh!media and ReadyTech. Formerly Yahoo.ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/vicy
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/vicy

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureVicky ClareCommunity SuccessCommunity, customers, talent. Vicky is a startup storyteller, able to highlight the metrics that matter and spot gaps in new markets. Her work with the US startup ecosystem has given her special insights into what it takes to go global. She’s here to help our founders connect to commercial opportunities, source talent, and succeed in the global market. Formerly Aussie Founders Network (USA), Investment NSW.ArticlesNo items found.Subscribe to Tidal VenturesGet our latest newsletters delivered right to your inbox

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### Page: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/wendell
Title: Blog | Seed Venture Capital | Tidal Ventures | Australia | New York
Meta Description: Thought waves is our blog on seed venture. We share knowledge, experiences and playbooks that we use to support our founders & teams in their companies making waves.
Language: en
Canonical URL: https://www.tidalvc.com/author/wendell

## Headings Structure:
H1: Thought waves on seed venture
H3: Articles
H3: Investment principle: Backing founders with domain expertise
H3: A shared vision realised
H3: Validating the AI-driven strategy
H3: What is a System of Work?
H3: Why the record → work shift matters
H3: How Vertical AI is powering this shift
H3: Winning without replacing
H3: Final thought
H3: Orkestra is revolutionising the energy industry with its game-changing platform that enables critical decision-making throughout the lifecycle of renewable energy projects.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: Global appeal
H3: The Seed phase and beyond
H3: Loopit’s mobility platform drives car subscription management and billing solutions for automakers, dealerships, fleet leasing, rental companies and startups.
H3: Markets with Tailwinds
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that Hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The Seed Phase and beyond
H3: Finding investors can be a gruesome grind
H3: How Tidal got looped in
H3: Win the crowd to win investors
H3: The best relationships come with hard truths
H3: The Loops platform stitches data from diverse tools to help reps identify customer issues with contextual insights and recommend resolutions or actions.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: The Future of CX
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the observability thematic
H3: The DIY roots
H3: Tidal becomes Search.io's first VC investor
H3: Putting the pieces together to scale
H3: Hiring isn’t just bums on seats
H3: Sales isn’t just selling more
H3: Carted is building an API that can power universal commerce experiences anywhere on the internet, allowing developers and creators to build a checkout anywhere.
H3: Markets with tailwinds
H3: Universal Commerce
H3: Products that change the game
H3: Founders that hustle
H3: A compelling business model
H3: The seed phase
H3: A note on the future of commerce thematic
H3: Demos help us experience the product in a way that's not lines of code or marketing bullet points or concepts.
H3: Demos simulate the customer experience
H3: Demos are an opportunity to tell a story
H3: Three key demo use cases
H3: Our experts share their demo stories
H3: Expert tips
H3: In conclusion
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures
H3: Subscribe to Tidal Ventures

## Main Content:
Thought waves on seed ventureWendell KeunemanManaging PartnerProduct gun, founders' go-to-guy. Wendell is a product-led-growth expert and multi-time start-up founder, armed with 20+ years of software engineering and product management experience. Whether you need to go deep in code, sound out an idea, get a reality check, or just talk through frustrations, Wendell's unique thinking helps others to see the path forward. Formerly Atlassian, Broadsoft & Inference.ArticlesWave MakersSeed to Strategic Exit: Celebrating TheLoops’ Acquisition by IFSCelebrating a landmark exit from our portfolio, the acquisition of TheLoops by IFS validates our strategy of backing visionary founders. Their revolutionary AI platform transforms customer support from a cost centre into an intelligent growth driver, delivering a brilliant outcome and proving the power of a differentiated, AI-driven product.26 Jun 2025•5 min readToday, 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 expertiseWhen 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 realisedTheLoops 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 strategyThis 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.‍Thought WavesAI at work: Evolution from System of Record to System of WorkThe System of Work is here: AI-powered software that actively does the work for you. Discover how these intelligent systems are moving beyond simple data storage (the era of Systems of Record) to gene

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