$320 billion flows through Australia's commercial construction industry every year — and far too much of it still moves on spreadsheets and re-keyed purchase orders. Mitchell Baker spent 12 years inside that machine as a contract administrator — on John Holland's $250M shopping-centre rebuild, and on Facebook's £150M London HQ with Kier — watching well-paid people burn their days copying data that already existed. So he built Claimstack, a workflow platform that follows the money from tender to final account across the whole contractor chain. In this special Melbourne edition of Pick My Brain, recorded at Cremorne Digital Hub, Alan Jones digs into the genuinely hard part: selling new software into an industry famous for resisting it, and coaching a solo, self-taught founder on when — and how — to stop wearing every hat. You'll also hear the vibe-coding origin story (DataButton, then Cursor, then Claude Code in VS Code), how Mitch is funding the dream by selling off possessions while his partner foots the bills, the milestone-based "startup leave" deal that kept the relationship healthy, and the 15% ESOP he carved out of his friends-and-family round to lure senior talent. Time Stamps 00:00 – Intro: $320B a year, still moving on spreadsheets 02:07 – What Claimstack does: one platform for the whole contractor chain 02:36 – The $320 billion inefficiency it targets 03:35 – 12 years in the trenches: John Holland and Facebook's London HQ 05:32 – Live in market: onboarding the first pilot customers 05:55 – Vibe-coding it solo: DataButton, Cursor, then Claude Code 06:45 – Why he didn't wait for a co-founder 07:43 – Funding the dream, and the deal with his partner 11:08 – Selling into an industry that resists new software 14:26 – Building a sales team without losing credibility 15:37 – Marketing yourself with a LinkedIn feature series 17:48 – A solo founder's leadership gaps, and the 15% ESOP 19:26 – Wrap-up Resources 🔗 Claimstack – https://claimstack.com.au 🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain 🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, and get visas handled fast, so you stay focused on scaling. Deel takes care of onboarding, HR, IT, EOR, benefits, and compliance, so your team can grow without borders. It's why more than 40,000 fast-growing companies trust Deel to move fast. Visit https://www.deel.com/dayone Episode Summary $320 billion a year flows through Australian commercial construction, and much of it still moves on spreadsheets and re-keyed data. Mitchell Baker spent 12 years as a contract administrator — including on Facebook's London HQ — before building Claimstack to follow the money from tender to final account across the whole contractor chain. In this Melbourne edition of Pick My Brain, Alan Jones coaches Mitch on selling software into an industry that resists change, and on when a solo, self-taught founder should start building a team. Time Stamps 00:00 – Intro: $320B a year, still moving on spreadsheets 02:07 – What Claimstack does: one platform for the whole contractor chain 02:36 – The $320 billion inefficiency it targets 03:35 – 12 years in the trenches: John Holland and Facebook's London HQ 05:32 – Live in market: onboarding the first pilot customers 05:55 – Vibe-coding it solo: DataButton, Cursor, then Claude Code 06:45 – Why he didn't wait for a co-founder 07:43 – Funding the dream, and the deal with his partner 11:08 – Selling into an industry that resists new software 14:26 – Building a sales team without losing credibility 15:37 – Marketing yourself with a LinkedIn feature series 17:48 – A solo founder's leadership gaps, and the 15% ESOP 19:26 – Wrap-up Resources 🔗 Claimstack – https://claimstack.com.au 🎙 Ask Alan a Question – https://speakpipe.com/pickmybrain 🎧 More from Alan Jones – https://www.startupfoundercoach.com Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Deel x PX_Script 2 Deel x PX_Script 1
