Rule of 40

Utiliti Group
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Rule of 40 is the podcast for founders and investors who are serious about scaling technology companies onto the global stage. Hosted by Jason Serda and Josh Ayscough, it focuses on what actually drives outcomes at scale. Execution, not ideas, is where companies win or lose.

Episodes

  1. Sep 10

    Two Deals Took 70% of the Capital. What Founders Do Now. | Ep. 7

    Two deals took close to 70 per cent of the venture capital raised in Australia last quarter. The third largest round was $70 million.    Why now  The headline number says Australian venture is healthy. The composition says something different. Two large, capital intensive rounds carried the quarter, deal counts fell, and the formation layer that produces the next cohort of Series A companies has thinned out sharply. Founders reading the recovery headlines are making decisions against an average that does not describe their situation. This episode separates the two.    About this episode  Josh Ayscough and Jason Serda sit down to work through where Australian venture actually is right now, using the last quarter's data, what Josh heard from more than 150 VCs at Innovation Bay's Venture Down Under, and what the two of them argue about every week as they raise a new fund and back their portfolio. Between them they have spent more than seventeen years investing in Australian tech, alongside their own histories as founders and operators.  What this episode covers  What Josh took away from Venture Down Under, including a return to first principles among the larger funds and a clear tightening of mandates across the market  Where the capital actually went last quarter: AI-first companies took 51 per cent of the capital on 32 per cent of the deals, and vertical software took 94 per cent of all software capital  The concentration problem: Firmus at $725 million and Airwallex at $460 million against a third largest deal of $70 million, and what the remaining $515 million across 62 rounds tells you about who is getting funded  Liquidity as something you engineer rather than wait for, including secondaries, tokenisation of fund structures, and building a profitable business as a legitimate exit path  The five areas Utiliti Group spends most of its time on with founders: liquidity, specialty over generalist, founder future fit, commercialisation, and willingness to take help  Why deep subject matter expertise has replaced commercialisation as the moat, and why a portal sitting on top of someone else's data no longer counts as defensibility  Who this episode is for  Founders raising between $500,000 and $5 million, where the market has tightened most  Scale-up founders and operators thinking about their exit path and what needs to be true to get there  Angel investors, syndicate leads and fund managers assessing where capital is concentrating  Anyone in a corporate role weighing up whether to start something in this market Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. Follow Jason Serda on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jserda/ Follow Josh Ayscough on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-ayscough/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44IVscPmz3sgMSmxEvk312 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rule-of-40/id1887992198 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/utiliti-group/  #RuleOf40 #AustraliaTech #FounderLedSales #B2BSales #TechScaleup

  2. Jun 25

    Australia's CGT changes. What Founders and Investors Do Now. | Ep. 6

    The day after this conversation was recorded, the government blinked: on 18 June it announced targeted CGT carve-outs for innovative startups, following more than 1,000 submissions to a Senate inquiry, one of the largest responses to a budget measure on record. About the guests Sam Maher is the founder and CEO of GovTech and the driving force behind the Coalition for Australia's Innovation & Investment Future (CAIIF), the cross-industry group that formed within two days of the budget and now represents more than 180 entities. Cheryl Mack is the CEO and co-founder of Aussie Angels, the platform behind more than 45 angel syndicates and over 3,000 wholesale investors, with close to $70 million deployed into early-stage companies. Both have been meeting Treasury and ministers' offices directly to respond to the changes. What this episode covers • Why the May 2026 budget changes to CGT, scrapping the 50 per cent discount in favour of indexation and a 30 per cent minimum tax, hit early-stage investment hardest • The zero or low cost base problem and why inflation-based indexation does little for founders and angels who start from almost nothing • Why the Early Stage Innovation Company (ESIC) rules, set in 2016, now exclude most pre-seed and seed rounds, and why that matters for the new carve-out • What CAIIF asked the Senate for: separating property from productive capital, more time for consultation, a sunset clause, and harmonisation across innovation policy • Cheryl Mack's practical advice to angels: hold fast, keep writing committed cheques, and wait for guidance rather than freezing • What founders facing a liquidity event in the next twelve months should watch, including ESVCLP structures and debt instruments • How Australia's proposed CGT settings compare with the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand and Israel Why now The 18 June carve-out announcement does not end the uncertainty, it reshapes it. Treasury submissions close on 10 July, the second tranche of legislation may not be settled until close to the 1 July 2027 start date, and the carve-out's reliance on the ESIC definition leaves real questions about who actually qualifies. Founders and investors are making capital and hiring decisions now, against rules that are still moving. Who this episode is for • Founders raising capital or planning a liquidity event in the next twelve months • Angel investors and syndicate leads weighing early-stage cheques • VCs and fund managers assessing how ESVCLP structures change the picture • Operators and employees holding or being offered equity through an ESS Links and resources Coalition for Australia's Innovation & Investment Future (CAIIF): https://www.linkedin.com/company/caiif/ Read the submissions to the Senate Economics Committee tax reform inquiry: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/TLABITRTaxReform/Submissions The Periodic Table of Australian Innovation: https://www.innovationperiodictable.au/

  3. Jun 17

    Australia Just Made the First Move on Tokenisation | Ep. 5

    Australia has passed a regulated framework for tokenised assets before the United States has, and the Reserve Bank's Project Acacia has already tested it on live use cases with the major banks. About the guest Alan Burt is Executive Chairman of Redbelly Network, the public blockchain infrastructure named in the Reserve Bank of Australia's Project Acacia, and Co-Founder and General Partner of Beachhead Venture Capital. He came up as a technologist and IT services founder, exited his cloud services business in 2013, and has spent the years since investing across B2B SaaS and, more recently, blockchain and tokenisation. He invests alongside Utiliti in a number of companies. What this episode covers • What tokenisation actually is, and why it is not the same thing as crypto speculation. • The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act, which received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026, and the two new regulated categories it creates. • Redbelly Network's role in Project Acacia, including settling a central bank obligation on a public blockchain for the first time anywhere. • The liquidity unlock: research cited in the episode points to roughly $24 billion a year in savings, around 1 per cent of GDP. • What it would take for an Australian fund manager to offer investors genuine liquidity options on assets that have never had them. • Collateral mobility, the looping trade, and why borrowing against an asset can matter more than selling it. • Founder liquidity, the secondary market problem, and the early-stage funding gap in Australian venture. Why now Australia has gone from policy ambiguity to a defined regime, while the equivalent United States legislation is still pending. The Act carries a transition runway before it commences, so the next 12 months are when fund managers, issuers and custodians decide how to use it. Capital markets have tightened, exit windows have narrowed, and a credible new route to liquidity changes the calculation for anyone holding illiquid assets. Who this episode is for • Fund managers and GPs weighing whether to tokenise an LP interest or offer secondary liquidity. • Founders thinking about exit options beyond an IPO or trade sale. • Investors and LPs who want optionality on long-dated commitments. • Operators in financial technology building on the new regulatory clarity.   Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/utiliti-group/

  4. Jun 1

    Profit in Months, Not Years with Ryan Barnes | Ep.4

    Growth can feel like momentum. But momentum without financial control is not steering — it is a crash waiting to happen. Ryan Barnes, Managing Partner of TWIYO Capital & Advisory, has worked at CFO level with more than 100 businesses across sectors. He knows what the warning signs look like before most founders do.  Ryan Barnes is Managing Partner of TWIYO Capital & Advisory, a Sydney-based CFO and capital advisory firm he co-founded in 2020. Before TWIYO, he was a CFO at 26, building his career across large chartered firms, multinationals, and high-growth businesses. Since founding TWIYO, he has worked at CFO level with over 100 businesses across sectors, guiding them through rapid growth, capital raises, and strategic transactions. TWIYO is an AFR Fast Starters firm and a certified B Corporation.  The era of cheap and abundant capital is behind us. Australian founders who built their models around serial raises are now being asked to prove they can sustain the business on its own terms — and that any raise serves a specific, strategic purpose. Ryan speaks from inside 100+ engagements through this transition, across a broad range of industries and business types, which makes this one of the most grounded conversations on sustainable, profitable growth you will hear.    Subscribe for new episodes every fortnight.   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44IVscPmz3sgMSmxEvk312 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rule-of-40/id1887992198} Youtube: https://youtu.be/VRT9jWn5pjc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/utiliti-group/

  5. May 6

    Beyond Founder-Led Sales: Why Your First Sales Hire Keeps Failing

    Australian enterprise deals over $1 million in total contract value now involve upwards of 10 buyers and a sales cycle approaching 300 days. If your sales motion still depends on the founder being in every room, you are building a ceiling, not a company. About the guest Jonathan 'Jono' Staff is Chief Revenue Officer at ASE Tech and Executive Director at WinDC. He has spent more than 20 years building high-performance sales teams across Australian IT, including time at AC3, Dimension Data, and Macquarie Cloud Services. He also hosts Things. Reasons., the independent show for Australian IT leaders. What this episode covers • The 2026 Australian buying landscape: more stakeholders, longer cycles, and why the cost of poor qualification has never been higher • Why 92% of B2B buyers begin their journey with vendors already in mind, and what that means for how you get in front of them • The science and art of sales: why high performers are not following the playbook, and why that matters for founders building a team • Why 'I'm a relationships guy' is the wrong answer in a sales interview, and what credibility actually means to a modern enterprise buyer • How to know when founder-led sales has become a ceiling, and what to do before you make your first sales hire • The right hire sequence: stabilise the customer base first, separate landing from retention, and never hire a Swiss Army knife • Why performance managing through incentive plans is a trap, and how to set a new hire up so you can have an honest conversation if things go wrong • Quick Fire Three: one GTM decision to revisit in the next 30 days, one piece of sales advice that has aged badly, and the first sign the sales motion is working Why now The spray-and-pray era is over in Australian B2B tech. Buyers are more educated, more committee-driven, and more discerning than they were two years ago. The cost of a failed sales hire has never been higher, and most founders are still trying to scale before they have extracted their own process. This conversation gives founders a practical framework for getting it right before they burn capital on the wrong hire. Who this episode is for • Scale-up founders with $1M to $10M ARR who are trying to move beyond founder-led sales • Revenue leaders stepping into an early-stage or growth-stage B2B tech business • Investors and board members evaluating the quality of a portfolio company's go-to-market • Operators building or inheriting a sales function in Australian tech   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44IVscPmz3sgMSmxEvk312 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rule-of-40/id1887992198} Youtube: https://youtu.be/VRT9jWn5pjc Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/utiliti-group/   #RuleOf40 #AustraliaTech #FounderLedSales #B2BSales #TechScaleup

  6. Apr 27

    Stop Building "Great Little Businesses" | Episode 1

    In this first episode of Rule of 40, Jason Serda and Josh Ayscough introduce the podcast and unpack the "misunderstood middle", the critical stage where startups must evolve into real, scalable businesses. They explore how today's tougher funding environment demands discipline, resilience, and a focus on building sustainable companies, not just raising capital. This episode also introduces the Rule of 40 as a key metric for balancing growth and profitability. A candid look at what it really takes to scale and why most companies get stuck along the way

  7. Apr 16

    The Metrics That Actually Matter | Episode 2

    In this episode of Rule of 40, Jason Serda and Josh Ayscough get practical on one of the most important questions for scale-up founders: how do you know if your business is actually heading in the right direction?  They make the case that undisciplined growth is dead. The era of raising capital to paper over execution problems is over, and founders now have one crack at getting it right. Key topics include:  Burn multiple, net revenue retention, and payback period — the three metrics that matter most and why tracking the direction of travel matters as much as the number itself.  Why most founders report these metrics without tracking whether they are improving or deteriorating quarter on quarter.  The rubric: Jason's defined operating framework that keeps founders executing to a plan rather than managing by instinct.    The episode also goes into bridge funding and what separates a bridge that leads somewhere from one that doesn't. Specifically:  What investors are looking for when founders come back to market for a bridge round.  How to tell the difference between a double shuffle with a clear destination and a delay that amplifies existing problems.  Why more capital into a business with deteriorating metrics makes things worse, not better.    A practical guide to scaling with discipline and building the kind of business that stands up when investors look closely.    Follow Jason Serda on LinkedIn: Jason Serda | LinkedIn  Follow Josh Ayscough on LinkedIn: Josh Ayscough | LinkedIn  Listen on Spotify: Rule of 40 on Spotify  Watch on YouTube: [Insert Link]  For all enquiries: Contact - Utiliti Group

  • 7 Episodes

About

Rule of 40 is the podcast for founders and investors who are serious about scaling technology companies onto the global stage. Hosted by Jason Serda and Josh Ayscough, it focuses on what actually drives outcomes at scale. Execution, not ideas, is where companies win or lose.

Information

  • Creator
    Utiliti Group
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Rule of 40

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