Founder Focus Ep 18: James Leathem of VendorPanel and their exit to Accel-KKR

Founder Focus Ep 20: Matt James - AI Coding Hits Production: Move Now Or Get Left Behind.

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

Founder Focus Ep 19 with Stuart Clout: Post-it Notes at 3am to a $236M Exit. The Journey of Thedocyard To Ansarada.

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

Tribe Talkin' Ep 121: Will Your Platform Be Used By Agents? How AI Bubble Pops. No Where To Hide. Sunrise. Sharts.

Key links from this week's episode:  * Agents leave you nowhere to hide.  [?igsh=eTV5ajFqOHhwNXk4%20] * Hockey Stick Advisory partnership revenue gap tool.  [https://revenuegap.hockeystickai.com/] * Morphless.com . Save 30% on your AWS bill.  [https://www.morfless.com/] * Techvisa.com.au  [https://techvisa.com.au/] * VentureCrowd parent in administration.  [https://www.smartcompany.com.au/exclusive/venturecrowd-parent-company-administration-creditors-7-million/%20] hello@tribeglobal.vc [hello@tribeglobal.vc]

Tribe Talkin' Ep 119: Vibe Coding Risks. Anthropic Eating Your Lunch. Durability. Shocks Vs Regime Shifts.

* Michael Batko building in public.  [https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7449354462034575360?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A%28urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7449354462034575360%2CFEED_DETAIL%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse%29%20] * Adam Said from Octopus on durability. [https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7450111753482539008/?originTrackingId=2TD5BFOBomGBQ%2B4CCysHSw%3D%3D] * Adam Said from Octopus on GTM. [https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7448336333934301185/%20] * Shocks vs regime shifts. [https://www.rampart.news/what-if-this-isnt-a-shock/]

Founder Focus Ep 18: James Leathem of VendorPanel and their exit to Accel-KKR

Our guest today is James Leathem [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesleathem/] , Founder and former CEO of VendorPanel.  Tribe was a proud investor in Vendor Panel until its exit to Accel-KKR in late 2024 and merger with Unimarke [https://www.unimarket.com/anz/bestofbreed/]t. This episode is a "playbook" for founders and investors alike of starting, scaling and exiting a B2B technology business. We hope you enjoy!  hello@tribeglobal.vc [hello@tribeglobal.vc]