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| Newsletter October-November 2026 |
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What one founder learns,
the next founder inherits
A thriving startup ecosystem is built across generations. Founders build companies, learn things the hard way and pass on what experience has taught them. The next generation starts further along, bringing fresh ambition and insight before eventually giving back themselves.
That’s how an ecosystem compounds. At Innovation Bay, we’re working to make this exchange of knowledge an enduring part of building a company in Australia.
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It’s why we’re so grateful to Luke Anear (Mitti, formerly SafetyCulture), Alexey Mitko (Eucalyptus), Paul Stovell (Octopus Deploy) and Leanne Kemp (Everledger), who generously shared their experience with the 50 scale-up founders who joined us for our three-day Expedition26 retreat.
Their willingness to share hard-won lessons helps the next generation of founders build stronger businesses. And those founders will eventually have their own experience to pass on.
This month’s newsletter shares some of what came out of Expedition26, continuing those conversations beyond the room.
– Phaedon Stough, Founder & CEO, Innovation Bay
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| |  | TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER · ONLINE Audit Your Marketing Agency A no-pitch diagnostic on the nine questions to ask before you renew a retainer or bring on a new agency, led by Daniel Lohrmann, Founder of Ikaros Consulting, a Sydney growth consultancy supporting scale-ups, SMEs and corporates. |
|  | WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER · PRO PICKLE, WATERLOO, SYDNEY Founder Funder Cup Join Innovation Bay and Gilbert + Tobin for pickleball, a BBQ and drinks to wrap up the year. |
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INSIGHTS & STORIES
 | 1. Your moat is what a competitor can’t copy with AI.AI is wearing down traditional competitive advantages. What still holds is harder to copy: trust, regulation, physical assets and unique data. READ ON |
2. AI is becoming the front door to buying.The buying journey increasingly starts with AI tools rather than search engines, with recommendations shaped by reviews, forums and trusted sources. READ ON |  |
 | 3. Spending capital well matters more than raising it.In a tighter market, raising money is only half the challenge. Planning backwards from your next milestone helps ensure capital gets you somewhere. READ ON |
4. You can lead work you’ve never done.Founders often lead functions they’ve never worked in. The advice from Expedition26? “Taste the food” and judge what customers actually experience. READ ON |  |
 | 5. A founder’s state of mind is a business input.Stress, sleep and mindset affect how founders lead. Building resilience, confidence and calm is part of building a stronger company. READ ON |
What ties it all togetherFrom winning customers and using capital wisely to leading with confidence, Expedition26 reinforced that building a successful company takes more than a great idea. Explore all five takeaways and the lessons shared by some of Australia’s most experienced founders THE FULL EXPEDITION26 RECAP |
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| New Member UpdatesWe’re excited to welcome our newest founders and investors to the Innovation Bay community! Here’s who joined us in October: |
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| | |  | Angela
Kwan Catalyser |
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 | Clinton
Cardozo OneReg |
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 | Nishanth Krishnananthan Vantari VR |
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 | Rong Deng Hello Again Solar |
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 | Alex Carvajal Beyond EV |
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| | |  | Jeff Reid Bioshore Ventures |
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| | PARTNERS UPDATES |  | ASX Amit Verma brings extensive experience from ASX and a deep understanding of Australia’s growth and investment landscape. In conversation with Andrea Culligan, he reflects on how the country’s technology ecosystem has evolved over the past 25 years, the role of capital markets in supporting high-growth businesses, and what technology companies need to build credibility, scale sustainably and create lasting impact. > LISTEN to the Tech Fast 50: Podcast Series |
| |  | Merton Lawyers A US term sheet often comes with a condition: restructuring under a US parent company. A flip-up isn’t just paperwork. Get it wrong and you could be untangling tax, cap table and investor issues across two countries. Through Project Frontier, Merton Lawyers helps founders navigate the crucial aspects of a US flip-up, connecting them with Silicon Valley law firms experienced in US venture deals and the investor networks behind significant US raises. Strategise your flip-up with the right partners, not just the first ones you find. > BOOK a Project Frontier Meeting |
| | | CANACCORD GENUITY – EXPEDITION RECAP |  | Technology markets – thinking beyond the next funding round At Expedition26 in Kingscliff, Canaccord Genuity’s Sam Forman and Owen Humphrey hosted a session exploring the state of technology markets, the sector outlook and what lies ahead for founders seeking capital. |
|  | While market conditions remain challenging, Australian capital markets continue to offer opportunities for high-quality technology businesses. Drawing on insights from Expedition26 and Canaccord’s recent Tech Conference in Sydney, the discussion highlighted the importance of building investor relationships early, understanding emerging sector trends and developing a long-term capital and exit strategy. > VIEW presentation deck from the event | Canaccord Genuity – Research offer Through Innovation Bay’s partnership with Canaccord, founders and directors can gain access to its global research portal and insights from one of Australia’s leading small and mid-cap research teams. Covering more than 270 ASX-listed companies across enterprise software, digital infrastructure, biotechnology, defence and security, the platform helps private-company leaders follow public-market dynamics, valuation trends and emerging sector themes. Interested in complimentary access? > CONTACT our team to discuss eligibility |
| |  | Ashurst Perkins Coie As AI models get better at finding software flaws on their own, companies and business owners are facing a flood of vulnerability reports from people who present themselves as security researchers, and many of those reports are hard to assess, low in quality or duplicated. In this article, US-based Technology team members David Aaron and Ariel Fischoff look at what this rise of the “robo-bounty hunter” means for businesses, and explain why companies, whether or not they already run a bug bounty program, should set clear expectations and build a repeatable process for responding. > READ Rise of the robo-bounty hunters |
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| INNOVATION BAY JOB BOARD & TALENT NETWORK | On the Job Board this month | The Innovation Bay Job Board reached a new high in October, peaking at 9,773 live roles and closing the month at 9,446, up 9% on September. Members posted 5,079 new roles, with the everyday pace rising to around 180 new roles per working day. People & HR roles jumped 26%, the biggest increase of any function, followed by marketing (+15%), data science (+13%) and product (+12%). It’s a sign that companies are investing in the people and teams needed to scale. | 9,446 live roles across
the network | 5,079 new roles added
in past 4 weeks | ~180 new jobs per
working day |
| With 1,271 Canva employees facing role changes, there’s an opportunity to connect experienced talent with growing businesses across the community. | | | Hiring? Get your open roles in front of the community. Looking? Browse the board. | |
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| | FUNDING & INVESTMENT NEWS | | Money is a moat (until it isn’t) | | | | October delivered another month of extraordinary contrasts in venture capital. Square Peg raised more than $1 billion, while Australian startups secured major investments across AI, space technology and digital infrastructure. | | Meanwhile, US AI funding continued at an entirely different scale, highlighting the widening gap between local and global capital markets. | | | | Four Questions October Answered | | | | From increasingly concentrated venture capital to changing hiring patterns and the rise of AI-native products, October raised some big questions for Australian founders. | | We explore four challenges shaping the startup landscape: how to fund growth, build the right team, scale internationally and create products with a lasting competitive advantage. | |
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| ADVOCACY NEWS The Policy Whiplash From proposed changes to startup capital gains tax concessions and carried interest to the ongoing debate over R&D incentives, policy developments are creating new considerations for Australia’s startup and investment communities. We look at the latest developments and what they could mean for founders, investors and the broader innovation ecosystem. |
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