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We're for founders & operators. https://dayone.fm/shows

  1. 1d ago

    The End of Logging in? Live from Dreamforce: Agentic AI, Headless and Customer Zero

    Description Couldn't make it to Dreamforce? Salesforce is bringing the latest from the event to Sydney on 20 October and Melbourne on 27 October with Agentforce World Tour Essentials. Find out more: https://www.salesforce.com/au/events/ Recorded at Dreamforce 2026, Georgie sits down with Joe Inzerillo, President, Enterprise and AI Technology at Salesforce. Joe oversees Slack and leads Salesforce's Customer Zero program, where the company puts its own AI to work on itself before customers do. Before Salesforce he was CTO of Disney Streaming, where he led the launch of Disney+, and Chief Product and Technology Officer at SiriusXM. Joe breaks down Claudeforce, the Salesforce and Anthropic partnership, and why he thinks the SaaSpocalypse story never held up. He explains what headless means for a platform built around screens, and why he says the UI was necessary but not the point Then he gets into Customer Zero: small squads that pair a business owner with a couple of technologists to build with coding agents, sometimes shipping within the day. Joe shares the numbers Salesforce is seeing, including a legal team agent he says now routes tickets more accurately than the lawyers who used to do it by hand. Plus the story of when a Salesforce agent recommended a competitor! In the rapid fire, Georgie asks what Joe thinks is nonsense here on the ground, and what he predicts for Dreamforce 2027. Chapters 00:00 Cold open: Do you still need to log into Salesforce? 01:08 Georgie's AI assistant and the four hours a week it saves 02:08 OpenAI launches Dots 03:08 GPT 6.1 Astra pulled after safety testing 04:00 Georgie's McLaren take: no brakes, no release 05:32 Meet Joe Inzerillo 07:38 Dreamforce 2026: Super Bowl meets Coachella 09:26 Claudeforce and the SaaSpocalypse myth 12:14 What "headless" Salesforce actually means 14:02 Slackbot and putting agents and people in one place 15:45 Why Slackbot already knows how your company works 17:14 Slackbot as the impartial teammate in the room 19:19 Customer Zero: how enterprises actually adopt agents 23:47 Can a big enterprise move like a startup? 26:47 Winning hearts and minds with 67 small teams 28:12 The human side: what should agents do, and what stays human? 29:09 When agents go off the rails: the competitor story 31:17 Rapid fire: will Salesforce still have a login screen? 32:03 What's nonsense: "my company can't" 33:16 The flyer story: one prompt that changed her mind on AI 34:21 One prediction for Dreamforce 2027 35:33 Wrap up and Georgie's Substack Mentioned in this episode: Deel x BAI_Script 01 - Sep 2026 Deel x BAI_Script 02 - Sep 2026

    The End of Logging in? Live from Dreamforce: Agentic AI, Headless and Customer Zero

  2. 4d ago

    Chad Stephens – You Can't Make Money From a Form

    Chad Stephens and three mates couldn't get a rental in Brighton. After filling out the same two-page paper application for property after property, Chad and his best mate Chris Koch went looking for an online version. There wasn't one, so they built it. That became 1Form, which ended up used across most of the Australian rental industry and was bought by REA Group in 2014. Everyone they pitched told them it was just a form. Chad walks through funding it with maxed-out credit cards, a bank loan for a car they never bought and the sale of the cars they already had, then moving back home. He explains how they won over one of Melbourne's most respected property managers by building everything she asked for, how lunch in an empty fine dining restaurant led to $250,000 from the people behind Carsales, and the $5 save button that finally made the business money. Then comes the sale. REA had once told them it would build the idea itself, and eight years later it bought the company, cutting the agreed price from $17 million to $15 million a week before signing. He also covers Fillr, which burned $300,000 a month, pivoted to mobile checkout for buy now, pay later apps, and sold to Rakuten after COVID derailed a Series B in March 2020, with his wife running the legals while he walked the pram. He finishes with his next venture, Formlytics, and three life lessons: why friends and family loving your idea is a warning sign, why a blocked road is just a stop sign, and why knowing your weaknesses tells you who to partner with. Find Chad Chad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadstephens1/ Fillr: https://www.fillr.com/ Join the Aussie Founders Club The Slack community, the newsletter and everything else live here: https://www.aussiefoundersclub.com Want to partner with Life After Launch? Explore sponsorship and partnership opportunities at https://lifeafterlaunchpod.com/partner-with-us Life After Launch is an Aussie Founders Club podcast. Aussie Founders Club is a community for Founders, operators and investors navigating the Australian startup ecosystem. What started as an events-first, in-person community has grown into a network of thousands, connecting people building startups with the people who've done it before. Join the conversation and the community at https://aussiefoundersclub.com/ Connect with Megan Luttrell on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganluttrell/ Connect with Geo George on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/contactgeo/ Kairos Recruitment is a recruitment company supporting startups and scale-ups across Australia, helping Founders find the right people to grow their teams. Led by Megan Luttrell. Learn more at https://www.kairosrecruitment.com.au/ Mayfly Ventures is an Australian AI venture studio building industry-focused AI and software ventures. We work with industry leaders to validate, build and scale AI ventures, starting with the strategy and commercial foundations most teams skip. Learn more about Mayfly's approach at https://www.mayflyventures.com/ Time Stamps 00:00 Cold open: "You can't make money from a form" 00:43 Welcome to Life After Launch, introducing Chad Stephens 02:24 Growing up in Bayside, tennis dreams and the milk bar plan 04:30 The black sheep of six kids, and running a cafe in Brighton 06:21 VenueHQ, the first idea that didn't work 07:06 Four blokes, one Brighton rental and the application that became 1Form 11:18 Maxed-out credit cards, a car loan with no car, and moving back home 14:19 Winning over property managers with no marketing budget 20:41 Lunch in an empty restaurant and pitching the people behind Carsales 26:12 The GFC, and the $5 button that finally made money 32:03 Hiring, growing and the squiggly signature 36:13 A team of five, 50% margins and testing the US 43:17 Selling 1Form to REA Group: $17 million, then $15 million 47:55 Fillr: burning $300,000 a month and pivoting to mobile checkout 51:57 COVID, the Series B and selling to Rakuten 55:05 Angel investing and building Formlytics 56:30 Life lesson 1: if friends and family love your idea, pivot 58:45 Life lesson 2: a blocked road is just a stop sign 1:00:44 Life lesson 3: know your strengths, and who to partner with 1:03:06 Closing thoughts + outro

    Chad Stephens – You Can't Make Money From a Form

  3. 5d ago

    Why Australia Has More AI PhDs Than Anywhere | First Cheque

    Episode SummaryBlackbird partner Tom has spent the last decade obsessing over one thing: why Australia talks about innovation from a place of doubt, while the US talks about it from a place of opportunity. From buying BHP as a kid through his parents, to operating at Canopy before it was acquired, to spending most of the 2010s investing out of Colorado and now back in Australia at Blackbird, Tom has seen both sides of the talent arbitrage. In this episode of First Cheque, Tom joins Maxine and Cheryl to share why 8 percent of all AI experts in Asia-Pac are based in Australia, why we have more AI PhDs than any other country in the world and why no one is celebrating it, and what it really means that 88 percent of our PhD students are immigrated talent. They also dive deep into why commercialization is still broken, how Foundry and Baker Street are trying to fix the bridge from lab to seed, and why product-led growth is not dead — it just changed. Tom also reflects on the boomerang effect, the R and D tax credit as Australia's secret weapon, and why the next decade of Australian companies will be built with a base in Australia and a base on the West Coast. Time Stamps00:00:00 - Intro: Doubt versus opportunity 00:01:12 - Hey, I'm Cheryl. I'm Maxine. This is First Cheque 00:03:45 - What was the first thing you ever invested in? BHP and the Canva vs BHP math 00:05:51 - Invest early and hold: learning compounding from his parents 00:06:52 - Invest America: what happens when every kid gets $1,000 to compound until 18 00:08:14 - Robinhood, retail, and the new CEO playbook 00:11:02 - Why aren't we more excited about Australia? The AFR talent piece 00:12:29 - 8 percent of Asia-Pac AI experts are in Australia and we have 6 of the top 100 AI universities 00:13:59 - The output story: 6 foundational models trained in Australia, Leonardo at number 5 globally 00:16:52 - Why Australia builds global-first: Heidi and Leonardo are 90 percent offshore revenue 00:18:20 - The cost of not celebrating: US pre-seed up 70 percent, Australia going backwards 00:20:33 - Capital constrained but the most capital efficient market in the world 00:21:31 - Sourcing from universities: the good and the bad 00:23:20 - Why we are last on the OECD for commercialization: Google Maps, Wi-Fi, and Bluey 00:25:10 - What is working: UNSW 10x, Melbourne NextGen, and defence tech accelerators 00:27:28 - Baker Street and the rise of alumni syndicates 00:28:40 - Foundry: building the bridge from lab to seed round 00:30:18 - What this means for your average angel investor 00:30:42 - Grading Australian talent: from C minus to B minus 00:31:16 - Two types of AI talent: engineering versus research PhDs 00:32:54 - The boomerang effect: Jesse Clark and why top researchers will come back 00:33:41 - The Australia plus US operating model and the 14-hour flight 00:35:13 - Talent arbitrage and the 43 cent R and D secret weapon 00:36:45 - Do you take a talent haircut outside the Bay Area? No. 00:39:18 - Is product-led growth out of vogue? 2019 to 2021 and why Australia got so good at it 00:41:14 - What PLG actually is: methodology, not freemium 00:44:15 - AI agents in the sales funnel and why go-to-market feels stale 00:46:15 - Back to the Stone Ages: brand, community, podcasts, and in-person events 00:49:47 - Building in public, hype cycles, and Manus AI 00:51:20 - Why enterprise is coming earlier: 2023 consumer AI, 2024 prosumer AI, 2025 enterprise AI 00:53:18 - Single-player versus multiplayer mode: why AI changes the buyer 00:57:48 - Palantir, CrowdStrike, and when enterprise motion makes sense 00:59:20 - What does a capital-starved ecosystem mean for enterprise go-to-market 01:00:38 - Biggest big cojones moment: 3 boys under 6 with a founder CEO wife ResourcesSponsors:First Cheque is supported by our wonderful sponsors:Deel: Global hiring and payroll can be a headache. Deel brings HR, IT and payroll together in one platform, helping companies including Shopify, Revolut and ElevenLabs scale internationally. Ready to expand your business? Build your global team with Deel at deel.com/dayone. ___ Pear Tree: Pear Tree helps Australian and New Zealand founders build high-performing offshore teams without the agency middleman. As local hiring becomes more expensive and harder to fill, many operators are turning to offshore talent across engineering, development, marketing, accounting and operations at a fraction of local salary costs. The offshore horror stories you hear usually aren’t a talent problem. They’re the result of outsourcing agencies that overcharge clients while underpaying staff. Pear Tree takes a different approach through a direct, transparent model where your team is paid fairly, fully compliant, and focused entirely on your business. As part of the Day One community, you’ll receive a free team audit to identify where offshore talent could move the needle in your business, plus 20% off your first hire. Learn more at http://dayone.fm/peartree First Cheque is part of Day One.Day One helps founders and startup operators make better business decisions more often. To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new First Cheque episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Pear Tree If you're a founder or operator trying to scale, here's the reality — Australian hiring is getting harder, salaries are at record highs, and the talent you need is increasingly out of reach. The best operators are quietly building offshore teams of engineers, marketers, accountants and analysts at a fraction of the cost. Pear Tree does it differently. We headhunt highly skilled talent from the Philippines and South Africa with full transparency on where every dollar goes, so your team is paid fairly and fully focused on your business. As a Day One listener, you’ll receive a free team audit to identify where offshore talent could move the needle in your business, plus 20% off your first hire. Deel x FC_Script 01 - Sep 2026 Deel x FC_Script 02 - Sep 2026 This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

    Why Australia Has More AI PhDs Than Anywhere | First Cheque

  4. Sep 24

    Inside Atlassian and the The $100m House Next Door

    Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar built Atlassian into one of Australia's most successful tech companies, and one of the rare local startups to become a global software giant. Then the partnership behind it came apart. Journalists John Stensholt and Perry Williams join Georgie to unpack their new book on the two co-founders: how they scaled a hundred-billion-dollar company side by side, and what happens to a business when the people at the top stop seeing eye to eye. They cover how co-CEO leadership worked inside Atlassian, how the founders' split affected the company's culture, and what it took to keep the business moving through it. Then the big question: where does Atlassian stand now? They get into the share price, the pressure on software companies to prove themselves in the AI era, and whether Atlassian can make the leap. Plus, John and Perry step into Mike and Scott's shoes to argue who was the better entrepreneur. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:47 This week's AI headline: an OpenAI agent inside Medicare 02:55 Meet John Stensholt and Perry Williams, authors of Tech Bros 05:05 The farewell dinner Mike Cannon-Brookes skipped 09:51 Why Mike and Scott wouldn't talk to the authors 11:28 Point Piper: the $71M house next to the $100M house 16:17 Private school vs public school: did class play a part? 19:33 How two journalists split and wrote one book 22:02 Atlassian's share price rollercoaster 23:57 Can Atlassian navigate AI and become a 2.0? 27:42 Australia's next billionaires: data centres 30:01 Debate: Scott vs Mike, who's the better entrepreneur? 32:50 Charismatic Mike, "robotic" Scott, and the famous punch 34:11 Signed book + predictions giveaway 34:34 "The most toxic place I've worked": Atlassian's culture 37:18 The Silicon Valley mediator who couldn't fix it 40:38 Will they reunite? SunCable, Anthropic and Skip Capital 42:29 Have Mike and Scott read the book? 44:35 Who should read Tech Bros 47:14 Outro Mentioned in this episode: Deel x BAI_Script 01 - Sep 2026 Deel x BAI_Script 02 - Sep 2026

    Inside Atlassian and the The $100m House Next Door

  5. Sep 24

    The Mad Men Era of Knowledge Work: Inside Román Olivera's Agent Brain

    Román Olivera runs his company on files and folders. No database, no CRM platform — a fractal system he calls Flatfish, built from plain text and a set of rules an agent reads before it does anything else. On this episode of Operator AI, he opens it up and shows exactly how it works. Román Olivera, from Orban Labs, walks Zachary King through the system live. Every folder that matters is a "node," and every node carries the same four things: rules for how to behave there, a current-state file for what's true now, an append-only log for what happened, and a registry so an agent can find its way around without being briefed from scratch. Román built it after losing track of one too many half-finished projects scattered across folders he couldn't remember the naming convention for. The demo is the receipt. By voice, from his phone, Román creates a CRM entry for a contact met at the local pub, in Codex running on a remote machine. Codex then builds an HTML presentation in Román's own design system. Then Claude Code, a different tool running a different model, picks up the same context in a fresh harness. It uploads the deck to AWS S3, shortens the link, and drafts two follow-up emails: one to Zac in English, one to the new contact in Spanish. Nobody told it to switch languages. It read the contact's file, which noted where he was from, and made the call itself. That portability is deliberate. Román turns platform memory off on his agents, on purpose, because an agent with its own memory tends to skip reading the rules and shortcut toward an answer. He'd rather own the context outright than rent it from whichever platform is trending: he uses APIs over MCPs so he can control the process, and keeps his skills in a plain folder rather than a config file, so nothing locks him into one tool. The conversation lands on an analogy Román coins mid-episode, on the record, timestamped live by Zac: AI is bringing back the Mad Men era of knowledge work, where the job is to direct rather than to do. The advertising executive never touched the filing cabinet — he told someone where a letter should go and trusted it would be there when he asked for it. Román argues that's the discipline AI now demands: be specific about what you want and where things belong, and the system holds up the rest. Román also draws a line most operators haven't hit yet. Files and folders work brilliantly for a business of one, or close to it. Once client work moves into enterprise environments, the same logic has to move into databases — a challenge he's already started tackling with clients on platforms like Azure. Before Orban Labs, Román spent more than a decade in the energy sector across field engineering, project delivery, and operational leadership — work that shaped his insistence that speed only matters once a system is reliable enough to trust with real work. Resources Román Olivera — https://linkedin.com/in/romanolivera Orban Labs — https://orbanlabs.com Codex — https://chatgpt.com/codex Claude Code — https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code Cursor — https://cursor.com VS Code — https://code.visualstudio.com AWS S3 — https://aws.amazon.com/s3/ Cloudflare — https://www.cloudflare.com OpenRouter — https://openrouter.ai Kimi — https://www.kimi.com GPT-5.6 — https://openai.com/index/previewing-gpt-5-6-sol/ How I AI with Claire Vo — https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai Works — https://workshq.com.au/ Book time with Zachary King — https://savvycal.com/Zachary-King/zac-at-works-30 Day One Network — https://dayone.fm/ About the host: Zachary King is the founder of Works, where he installs AI into how Australian companies operate. He has worked at the commercial pointy end of AI for almost twenty years and runs his own company largely from the command line. About the show: Operator AI is the show where real operators open their screens and show exactly how they run the real parts of their business with AI. The real stack, not the hype. If you want AI installed into how your business actually operates, learn more at https://workshq.com.au/ or book a time with Zachary King at https://savvycal.com/Zachary-King/zac-at-works-30. Operator AI is part of Day One Network, the podcast and media network from W2D1 Media: https://dayone.fm/.

    The Mad Men Era of Knowledge Work: Inside Román Olivera's Agent Brain

  6. Sep 21

    Patrick Buchan: Australia's first new steel mill in 30 years

    Australia hasn't built a new steel mill in more than 30 years. Greensteel Australia is about to — a $500 million all-electric plant on the old BHP site at Mayfield, producing 600,000 tonnes of rebar a year from the first quarter of 2028. Patrick Buchan, Greensteel's Head of Government Relations, joins James MacDonald on the Danieli technology being built in Italy right now, the policy shift that made onshore steel viable again, why Newcastle beat the rest of the country for the site, and what 200 jobs means for the Hunter. In this episode: The $500 million investment and what it buys — an all-electric mill on Industrial Drive at Mayfield North, the site BHP ran until 1999.Why the technology is the story: an electric arc furnace running at around 1,000 degrees, supplied by Danieli of Italy. "No gas, no flame, no chimneys."600,000 tonnes of rebar a year — the critical input to Australian construction and housing — with a growth path into other steel products.The policy shift: faster approvals, Future Made in Australia incentives, and why both the federal and NSW governments moved.Sovereignty as the argument — oil, steel and microprocessors as the three inputs a country of 28 million can't afford to import.How Greensteel started: owners Meena and Romana Ibrahim couldn't get rebar for their own construction businesses through COVID, so they built a steel company.Why Mayfield — buildings long enough for a 400-metre rolling line, rail, power and roads, and an intergenerational steel skill base.The jobs: 200 direct roles, recruitment opening early 2027, Danieli training included, and no formal-qualification barrier.What's next — a stage two in advanced discussions for another New South Wales site, and a ground-breaking with "a very notable political figure." Patrick Buchan is Head of Government Relations at Greensteel Australia, the company building a $500 million all-electric steel mill at Mayfield in Newcastle — Australia's first new steel plant in more than three decades. Before Greensteel he spent four years on the policy staff of the US Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, across the Obama and first Trump administrations. Greensteel opens recruitment for the Newcastle mill in early 2027. Patrick Buchan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/patrick-buchan-56830b124 Chapters 0:00 Cold open 1:03 Welcome to Engineering in the Hunter 1:56 Patrick's path from Canberra to Greensteel 3:24 Four years inside the Pentagon 6:01 How Australian policy made this possible 9:21 The 600,000-tonne rebar plan 10:27 Inside the new steelmaking technology 14:01 The politics behind the comeback 18:43 How Greensteel Australia got started 20:29 Greensteel signs the deal 21:05 Why Mayfield, Newcastle won the site 21:56 Balancing tradition and renewables 23:34 The road to 2028 24:06 200 jobs and an open call for workers 26:38 The $500 million investment, by the numbers 27:19 How Newcastle is already talking about it 28:22 Sovereign manufacturing and sustainability 29:48 Australia's first steel plant in 30 years 31:39 The trend back to trades 32:40 What's next: stage two 35:35 On founders and entrepreneurship 36:57 On risk, reward, and having a crack 38:16 A story about his dad and the cricket 39:45 Wrapping up Engineering in the Hunter is hosted by Melinda Sietsma with NTP Talent founder James MacDonald. James hosts this episode. Learn more at ntptalent.com.au. Engineering in the Hunter is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the team that helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

    Patrick Buchan: Australia's first new steel mill in 30 years

  7. Sep 17

    Inside Alexa Plus: Amazon's Blake Nussey on Voice AI, Far Field Tech and Building for Australia

    Blake Nussey leads at Amazon on Alexa, and he joins Georgie for a deep dive into Alexa Plus, now live in Australia. They cover the shift from rigid voice commands to a true personal assistant powered by over 70 models, and why Amazon built a model agnostic architecture to trade off speed against reasoning depth. The conversation gets personal fast: a customer who broke her leg and called for help through Alexa, Blake's Alexa run wind down routine, and why "don't lead the witness" has become his and Georgie's go to line for settling arguments with a neutral AI referee. They dig into what it actually took to make Alexa understand Australian English (avo, servo and all), the far field listening tech that lets Alexa hear you across a noisy room, and how privacy and trust are engineered in, down to a hardware mute button. They also talk accessibility (Alexa's role for vision impaired and elderly users), kids and voice AI, and Blake's prediction for when voice hits 50% of how we interact with tech. Plus a rapid fire round covering Tesla FSD, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, flat whites, and Jimmethy the raccoon. *** Georgies Alexa+ Prompts to Try “Alexa, remember that Imogen can't have dairy” Alexa+ will remember preferences and factor it into recommendations like dinner ideas “Alexa, remember my frequent flyer number is [number].” “Alexa, it’s too hot in here.” Nelly disagrees, but use this with a connected air conditioner to adjust the room temperature “Alexa, every morning at 7, check the weather, recommend what to wear and play the news.” Create a Routine like the corporate athlete you are “Alexa, what happened while I was out?” Alexa+ reviews footage from connected doorbells and cameras like a deliveries *** CHAPTERS 00:00 – Cold open: FSD and "don't lead the witness" 01:18 – Intro: Georgie's honest take on Alexa Plus 04:04 – Sponsor: Deel 04:22 – Welcome + Blake's favorite AI hack (voice routines + Tesla FSD) 06:27 – Most non-AI thing: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 08:30 – Evolution of Alexa to Alexa Plus 09:59 – Behind the scenes: how Alexa picks the right model 12:51 – Smart home routines and the "corporate athlete" habit 15:29 – Alexa recommends a book (the Kindle story) 16:25 – Sponsor: Deel 17:12 – Building Australian Alexa: colloquialisms and local speech 20:58 – What made the Aussie rollout hard 22:36 – 2 billion interactions and Australian usage patterns 24:32 – Kids and Alexa: safety, kids mode, and development 26:44 – Presence, phones, and family dinner table use 27:44 – Privacy, trust, and the hardware mute button 30:52 – Accessibility: vision impairment, aging, and emergency use 34:21 – Near field vs far field: how Alexa actually hears you 39:19 – Voice AI hype, predictions, and wearable mic concepts 46:17 – Privacy culture, recording etiquette, and Meta glasses 48:44 – Rapid fire round 55:16 – Outro Mentioned in this episode: Deel x BAI_Script 01 - Sep 2026 Deel x BAI_Script 02 - Sep 2026

    Inside Alexa Plus: Amazon's Blake Nussey on Voice AI, Far Field Tech and Building for Australia

  8. Sep 15

    Why Everybody Unpacks the Dishwasher: Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab

    DESCRIPTION Most people teams wait until someone with an HR background is in the room before they build a culture function. Ella Brennecke didn't have one, and Everlab's culture is stronger for it. In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab, the preventative health company that has grown past 130 people across Sydney and Melbourne. They get into how Ella broke into people and culture from a hospitality and founder-support background, why she deliberately targeted startups with nobody yet in HR, and how she uses AI as a research partner without letting it write the memo a human is meant to read. It's a hands-on look at building culture at speed: onboarding designed to start before day one, an "everybody unpacks the dishwasher" ownership principle that runs through hiring and customer care alike, and why Everlab puts every new hire through its own health protocol before they touch the product. They also cover the real tension in AI-assisted hiring, why a genuine cover letter still beats a strong resume, and what years in hospitality taught her about designing experiences long before she had a people title. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:43 Intro: why culture is the glue past 100 people 02:57 Designing experiences where people excel 04:03 Magic is designed, not accidental 05:20 Holding culture across Sydney and Melbourne 07:31 Supporting technical people leaders 09:28 Leaning on your VC as a resource 10:56 Breaking into people and culture with no HR background 14:45 Creating your own luck 16:11 Just ask for the title 16:41 Why she stays close to the founder 18:51 What breaks as you scale: onboarding first 21:43 The interview is a two way sell 25:01 Inside the hiring process 26:26 What a culture interview actually looks like 28:27 New York restaurants and fast feedback loops 31:36 Get the ops right, then add the magic 33:12 Automating the busy work 35:38 AI can level you up or level you down 37:52 Teaching the next generation to still think 39:44 AI slop: produce better, not more 41:29 Using AI to synthesise, not to judge 42:37 Why she still reads every cover letter 45:30 The win: annual review cycles 48:07 Design for the people you're actually serving 49:05 Everybody unpacks the dishwasher 51:41 Every employee sits with a customer each quarter 54:34 Final advice: leave threads for people to pull 56:37 Wrap ABOUT THE GUEST Ella Brennecke is People Operations Manager at Everlab in Sydney, where she has built the people and culture function largely from scratch since joining roughly nine months ago. She came to Everlab via the Founder Success team at Blackbird Ventures and the guest experience team at cabin retreat company Unyoked, and works closely with Everlab's founder on hiring, onboarding and culture across the company's Sydney and Melbourne offices. LINKS Ella Brennecke, Everlab · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariella-werner-seidler/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau · Site: ntptalent.com.au Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the team that helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

    Why Everybody Unpacks the Dishwasher: Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab
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