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  1. 22h ago

    From a Secondhand Desk to a $120M Exit: Mark Samlal's Story

    Mark Samlal grew up as one of the only Indian families in a small Perth township, went on to co-found a payroll company from a secondhand desk in Singapore with his wife Samantha, and eventually listed it on the ASX as PayGroup. In 2022 Deel acquired the business in an all-cash deal worth $120M at a 143% premium to market. In this conversation Mark talks about the racism he faced growing up, the "4 or out the door" sales mentality that shaped his early career, what it actually feels like to run a public company, and why he's stayed on at Deel almost four years after the acquisition. He also opens up about the guilt of building a business while raising three daughters, and the pull he's feeling to reconnect with his roots in Fiji and India. Timestamps00:00 – Cold open: race, accountability, and the "4 or out the door" origin story 01:55 – Younger Mark: born in Fiji, his father's journey from teacher to social worker 09:23 – University, meeting Samantha, and the early grind in real estate 15:56 – Into telecom, then payroll software — learning on the job 21:43 – Meeting mentor Phil Cave and turning around Lendlease Employer Services 32:40 – Racism growing up and being "the only brown person in the room" 37:59 – The move to Singapore and building the Sharks Basketball community 43:13 – Running multiple businesses at once and bootstrapping PayAsia with Samantha 51:25 – Skipping VC/PE, and what it's really like leading a public company 1:05:36 – COVID, 3 acquisitions, and the road to the Deel deal 1:09:52 – The Deel acquisition: $120M all-cash, 143% premium 1:13:34 – Culture shock joining Deel, AI's impact on HR/payroll, and why he's stayed 1:27:03 – Raising 3 daughters, fatherhood, and business regrets 1:38:34 – The Pingyao story, undervaluing Asian entrepreneurs, and where he's headed next Sponsors:Perspective X is supported by our wonderful sponsors:Deel: 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 Perspective X 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 Perspective X episodes and upcoming shows. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Script 1 Deel x PX_Script 2

    From a Secondhand Desk to a $120M Exit: Mark Samlal's Story

  2. 22h ago

    John Fry: building Australia's first missile factory in the Hunter

    Australia is about to build guided missiles for the first time — and Kongsberg is doing it at Williamtown, in the Hunter. John Fry, Managing Director of Kongsberg Defence Australia, joins James MacDonald for the first episode of Engineering in the Hunter to explain what's being built, why a 210-year-old Norwegian company chose Newcastle over 40 other sites, and what it means for the region: roughly 100 factory jobs, a supply chain that reaches far wider, and a genuine pathway from the University of Newcastle and TAFE into work being done on a world stage. In this episode: What Kongsberg is building at Williamtown: the Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile — two 5th-generation cruise missiles — in the company's first missile factory outside Norway, ever.The $850m the Commonwealth committed in August 2024 to manufacture and maintain those missiles in Australia, and why sovereign weapons production suddenly mattered after COVID and Ukraine.Why the Hunter beat 40 other sites — proximity to Orchard Hills, a port and an airbase, livability, and a good university and TAFE next door.How you stand up a missile factory on the other side of the world through a pandemic — a P&L from day one, defence-security accreditation, and building a supply chain from scratch.What NSM and JSM actually do — a stealthy imaging-infrared seeker, deck- or truck-launched, and a missile small enough to fit inside an F-35's internal weapons bay.The jobs: not just engineers — planning, supply chain, quality, IT, security, technicians — "the whole gamut," about 100 at the factory, with ~85% of the build spend flowing to Hunter businesses.Growing local talent: a first Newcastle-uni intern converting to a grad role, sponsoring the university's rocketry team, and how TAFE fits as technician demand ramps.Partnerships as the way into the Hunter — HunterNet, Multiplex, and the Thales tie-up behind StrikeMaster.What's next: Army's Long Range Fires down-select, counter-UAS and air-and-missile defence. John Fry is Managing Director of Kongsberg Defence Australia. A former Australian Army air-defence officer with a chemistry background and a Master of Science in Guided Weapon Systems, he spent nine years at Raytheon — where he was capture lead on the NASAMS program — before joining Kongsberg in 2019 as its inaugural general manager in Australia. Register your interest via the Kongsberg careers page (kongsberg.com). Chapters 0:00 "A company since 1814" — the cold open 1:00 Welcome to Engineering in the Hunter — and why Kongsberg 1:58 From Army air-defence officer to missile-maker 6:05 Kongsberg since 1814 7:11 Why Australia — the NASAMS win 8:47 Standing up in-country through COVID 10:55 Running a P&L from day one 12:25 What we're building: the NSM and JSM 15:31 The $850m sovereign-manufacturing commitment 18:20 The JSM — a strike missile that fits inside the F-35 20:20 Why the Hunter: 40 sites, Orchard Hills, Williamtown 23:23 The factory: Norway's blueprint, self-contained 26:38 The jobs — "the whole gamut," about 100 roles 28:31 Finding talent locally 30:05 Pathways: the Newcastle-uni intern and TAFE 32:15 Partnerships — HunterNet, Multiplex, StrikeMaster 35:24 What's next: Long Range Fires, counter-UAS 37:43 How to get in — Kongsberg careers and the grad program 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.

    John Fry: building Australia's first missile factory in the Hunter

  3. 2d ago

    Nathan Hill: Managing a Team of Agents Now — What's That Worth?

    The business wants AI, and it wants it yesterday. But once the proof of concept works and the partner goes home, someone inside the company has to keep the thing running. Nathan Hill, Head of Telco at AWS and a 20-year veteran of the telco industry, joins James to talk about what actually happens when enterprises push AI into production — and why the scarcest asset in the room is still deep domain knowledge. In this episode: - Why "we need to do AI, the board's pushing for it" so often collides with the buy-versus-build question no one has answered internally. - Where AI rollouts go wrong: over-engineering a basic problem, or buying an off-the-shelf tool and expecting it to be bespoke. - The proof-of-concept trap — projects that "prove AI works" but were never built with a path to production. - Why "AI native" doesn't translate cleanly to banks and telcos carrying 20–30 years of legacy and technical debt, and why the outcome should drive the tech strategy, not the reverse. - The handover problem in one line: "If your chatbot starts spitting out Gordon Ramsay recipes instead of the answer, who in your organisation can fix it?" - Centralise-then-seed: standing up an AI centre of excellence without creating an isolated team of "cool kids" cut off from the business (with a NASA analogy on risk). - Why you can't take 20 years of experience, grab a dev and say "now you know telco" — and how the tooling finally lets domain experts build. - Human-in-the-loop for critical infrastructure, digital twins of telco networks, and ICs becoming managers of agents. - The question James keeps asking: if I'm managing a team of agents at 10x productivity, what should I actually be paid? - Deep versus broad careers, how go-to-market has changed, and whether it's easier to teach a salesperson the tech or an engineer to sell. Nathan Hill is Head of Telco at AWS, leading the company's engagement across Australian telcos. Before AWS he spent more than 20 years inside the telco industry — operations, engineering, pre-sales and sales — and ran sales and marketing for a challenger telco. He has a rare view across both the technical build and the go-to-market that sells it. Building the team that has to make AI stick in production? This one's for you. Connect with Nathan Hill on LinkedIn. Learn more about AWS in telco at aws.amazon.com. --- Episode Summary The business wants AI now — but who keeps it running once it's live? Nathan Hill, Head of Telco at AWS and a 20-year telco veteran, sits down with James MacDonald to unpack what really happens when enterprises move AI from proof of concept to production. They dig into the buy-versus-build decision most organisations skip, why so many AI projects stall with no path to production, and the operating-model questions — who maintains it, who fixes it when it breaks — that companies leave until it's too late. Nathan makes the case that deep domain expertise is the asset AI can't replace: you can't grab a dev and say "now you know telco," but you can finally give 20-year network engineers the tools to build. They also get into human-in-the-loop for critical infrastructure, ICs becoming managers of agents and what that's worth, deep-versus-broad careers, and how the go-to-market function is changing now that the salesperson has to understand the tech. Practical, grounded, no hype. Time Stamps 0:00 "I'm managing a team of agents now — what should I be paid?" 1:30 Meet Nathan Hill, Head of Telco at AWS 2:58 "The board wants AI": the buy-versus-build question 4:30 Where AI rollouts go wrong 6:35 Start with a use case — but build a path to production 8:09 Is "AI native" realistic for banks and telcos? 9:36 Speed versus security in regulated industries 11:56 The handover problem: who maintains it? 15:21 AI centres of excellence and the NASA analogy 18:26 "You can't grab a dev and say now you know telco" 21:30 Why agents won't replace engineers 23:41 Managing a team of agents — what's that worth? 25:03 Deep versus broad: staying in one vertical 27:08 How go-to-market has changed 29:59 Teach a salesperson the tech, or an engineer to sell? 32:58 Building a go-to-market function from scratch 38:03 Why the "SaaS apocalypse" is wrong 39:56 Upskilling into modern go-to-market 41:21 Career advice: back yourself 42:42 James's takeaway: domain experts who learn to build About the host James MacDonald is the founder and Managing Director of NTP Talent (Newy Tech People), an Australian tech and engineering recruitment firm headquartered in Newcastle with teams in Sydney and Melbourne. He hosts Building Tech Teams, helping companies up the East Coast of Australia find and recruit the best technology talent. Connect with James on LinkedIn (/JamesMacDonaldAU) or at ntp-talent.com.au. About Day One Network Day One is a podcast production company and trusted partner in the technology space, producing shows for founders, investors and operators across Australia and beyond. Building Tech Teams is part of the Day One Network, which cross-promotes episodes across a slate of technology and venture shows. Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

    Nathan Hill: Managing a Team of Agents Now — What's That Worth?

  4. 6d ago

    Mira Murati, the Quiet Superpower in the AI Race

    Welcome to the first ever episode of AI Icons, a new thing I'm launching on the show. Here's the idea: the people reshaping tech have stories more entertaining than anything Hollywood is putting out, so in under 30 minutes I'm going to tell you the whole story, the good, the bad, and the ugly, but only the facts. No spin. And at the end, I'll give you my two cents on what actually made them an icon, and whether it's something you and I could ever replicate. First up is Mira Murati, and I'll admit it, I'm a fan. I take you all the way back to her childhood in isolated post-communist Albania, where maths was the one subject the party couldn't rewrite, through a scholarship in Canada, degrees in maths and mechanical engineering, and a Goldman Sachs floor in Tokyo at 21. Then it's Tesla and those ridiculous Falcon Wing doors, a risky bet on a startup called Leap Motion, and the move that made her famous: OpenAI, where she rose to CTO and helped bring DALL-E and ChatGPT into your life. And then there's the part that genuinely reads like a thriller. The 72 hours in November 2023 when Sam Altman was fired, Mira was named CEO, and a 52-page memo and a string of 2:30am texts sat right at the center of it. I walk you through what we know, what we still don't, and what came out under oath. I finish on her next act, Thinking Machines Lab, the record-breaking raise, the talent exodus, and why, out of my four Gs, I think one of them explains her better than the rest. Come find out which one. In the Blink of AI is made possible by our wonderful partnersDeelFounders 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 ✨ Connect with Georgie HealyWeekly Substack: https://georgiehealy.substack.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georginahealy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georginahealytech/ The Day One NetworkIn The Blink of AI is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors. Sign up to get your weekly insights into the up-and-coming AI startups: https://dayone.fm/newsletter

    Mira Murati, the Quiet Superpower in the AI Race

  5. Jul 7

    What's Your Moat When AI Can Copy Your Product in 48 Hours? | Dilip Jacob from Pitchberry

    Dilip Jacob is the solo founder and CEO of Pitchberry, an AI platform that helps people in high-stakes professions practice the conversations their careers depend on. The idea came from a very personal place: diagnosed with high anxiety, Dilip froze during an investment pitch and went looking for a way to get better. What began as a tool for founders found an unexpected first market in dentistry, where internationally trained dentists must pass a communication-heavy exam to work in Australia. Pitchberry now has 300+ users. This episode is a masterclass in the decisions every early-stage founder faces. Dilip and Alan work through how to find a co-founder without rushing into the wrong partnership, why the language you use changes how convincing you sound, and whether to raise capital or bootstrap when you already have paying customers in sight. Alan also breaks down the four things every founder needs before they're investible, including the one most solo founders never fix. Stick around for the last section, where Alan tackles the question keeping most AI founders up at night: what counts as a defensible moat when anyone can rebuild your product in 48 hours? His answer, user context and brand relationship, might change how you think about your entire product strategy. Timestamps 02:30 – How Pitchberry was born from Dilip's own struggle with pitch anxiety 04:00 – The professions that rely on credibility: doctors, dentists, lawyers, police and founders 05:30 – Why dentistry became Pitchberry's unexpected first market 06:15 – The go-to-market model: free practices, paid subscriptions and token costs 07:30 – Pivoting from individual users to selling into institutions and academies 09:00 – The challenges of being a solo founder and reaching out for a co-founder 10:00 – How small language changes make you sound more convincing to any audience 11:30 – Why a co-founder relationship is harder than a marriage, and how to date first 13:30 – Where to find co-founders: YC's co-founder matching and networking events 15:00 – Should you raise funding or bootstrap? The case for staying in control 18:00 – Why bootstrapped Aussie success stories like Atlassian and Campaign Monitor matter 20:00 – The four things every founder needs to be investible 22:00 – What counts as a defensible moat now that AI can replicate any product 25:00 – Why user context and brand relationship are the real moats in the age of AI Sponsors:Pick My Brain is supported by our wonderful sponsors:Deel: 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 ___ Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assess The Day One NetworkPick My Brain is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders. Mentioned in this episode: 5 I’s of Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at galahcyber.com.au/assess. Deel x PX_Script 2 Deel x PX_Script 1

    What's Your Moat When AI Can Copy Your Product in 48 Hours? | Dilip Jacob from Pitchberry

  6. Jul 6

    Guardrails Are Just Suggestions: Securing AI Agents with Okta's Kevin Akermanis

    The business wants AI now. The people who have to secure it are being told to move faster while their budgets shrink. Kevin Akermanis, Solutions Architect at Okta and a 15-year Salesforce veteran, sits down with James MacDonald to unpack what really happens when enterprises rush AI into production: security funding flatlining, breaches becoming the cost of doing business, and a collapsed architecture that pushes security down to the data layer. They dig into why AI agents are a new class of non-human identity that can roam anywhere, why guardrails are only suggestions for something non-deterministic, and the scoped, time-limited, valet-key approach that actually contains the risk. They also tackle the harder people problem: if juniors get automated out, who backfills the seniors, and why knowing what good looks like still beats anything you can vibe-code. Practical, sceptical, no hype. Time Stamps 0:00 The business says "we need to AI now" 2:53 The real tension: speed vs protecting company IP 7:22 Security budgets shrink while AI gets the money 11:28 When breaches become the cost of doing business 13:42 New attack surfaces and the hiring-bot breach 18:14 Experience still matters: who backfills the seniors? 46:39 Agents as non-human identities: scope and guardrails 55:03 Where to start with AI safely 57:37 Why the Australian market cares about MCP About the host James MacDonald is the founder and Managing Director of NTP Talent (Newy Tech People), an Australian tech and engineering recruitment firm headquartered in Newcastle with teams in Sydney and Melbourne. He hosts Building Tech Teams, helping companies up the East Coast of Australia find and recruit the best technology talent. Connect with James on LinkedIn (/JamesMacDonaldAU) or at ntp-talent.com.au. About Day One Network Day One is a podcast production company and trusted partner in the technology space, producing shows for founders, investors and operators across Australia and beyond. Building Tech Teams is part of the Day One Network, which cross-promotes episodes across a slate of technology and venture shows. Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

    Guardrails Are Just Suggestions: Securing AI Agents with Okta's Kevin Akermanis

  7. Jul 4

    Why Australia Builds More Unicorns per Dollar Than Anyone (Replay) | Ben Grabiner, Side Stage Ventures

    Side Stage Ventures and Dealroom have just released the 2026 edition of their landmark report on Australian venture. Grab your copy of the Australia Venture & Startup Report 2026 here: https://www.sidestage.vc/outliers-report-2026 Australia has created more unicorns per dollar of VC invested than anywhere else in the world — and Ben Grabiner has the data to prove it. In this replay, Cheryl and Maxine sit down with the Side Stage Ventures co-founder to unpack why the ecosystem punches so far above its weight, and why the next decade could belong to Aussie tech. Deel: 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 Ben Grabiner is the co-founder and General Partner of Side Stage Ventures and the author of a landmark report, produced with Dealroom and AWS, on Australia's venture ecosystem. Cheryl and Maxine sit down with Ben to unpack the data behind Australia's rise as one of the most efficient and exciting venture ecosystems in the world. They dig into why Australia produces more unicorns per dollar of VC invested than anywhere on earth, how the country quietly matches Israel and India on decacorn creation, and why roughly 40% of local seed capital now comes from overseas, a sign global funds see the opportunity more clearly than we do. Ben explains why capital constraints have bred a culture of doing more with less, why fewer than 30 Australian seed funds made more than five investments last year, and what has to change to close the early-stage funding gap. You'll also hear why the next wave of second- and third-time founders could be the ecosystem's secret weapon, what global LPs still need to understand about Australian venture, and Ben's own Big Cojones moment: throwing it all in mid-COVID to move from London to Australia. Time Stamps 00:00 - Cold open: more unicorns per dollar than anywhere 00:52 - Intro 04:48 - Ben's first investment: 250 pounds in Tottenham Hotspur 07:01 - The headline stat and what drives Australia's capital efficiency 09:24 - Why constraints breed efficiency, and why it's good for VCs 12:31 - Decacorn creation: Australia on par with Israel and India 14:35 - 40% of seed capital comes from overseas 16:24 - What needs to happen to close the capital gap 20:41 - Can startups scale globally from Australia? 26:14 - What global LPs need to understand about Australian venture 28:28 - The rise of second- and third-time founders 30:37 - Why pre-seed funds and angel investors matter more than ever 34:41 - Ben's Big Cojones moment: moving to Australia mid-COVID Resources Ben Grabiner on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengrabiner/ Side Stage Ventures - https://www.sidestage.vc/ Australia Venture & Startup Report 2026 - https://www.sidestage.vc/outliers-report-2026 Aussie Angels - https://www.aussieangels.com/ 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 Builds More Unicorns per Dollar Than Anyone (Replay) | Ben Grabiner, Side Stage Ventures

  8. Jul 2

    How AI Models Are Really Judged, with Peter Gostev (Arena / LMArena)

    Peter Gostev is head of AI capabilities at Arena (LMArena), the community-based platform where millions of real people vote in blind tests to rank AI models, born out of research at UC Berkeley. Before Arena, Peter was Head of AI at Moonpig and built a large following sharing hands-on explorations of what the latest models can actually do. He joins Georgie Healy from London for a genuinely nerdy, insider look at how models are judged and where the frontier is heading. In this episode, Peter explains the difference between static benchmarks and human judgment, and why a model can pass every test you write and still produce something that looks completely awful. He breaks down the current state of the leaderboards, why Anthropic's models are dominating and how that tracks with real world adoption, and gives a sharp comparison of the top Western models, including why Anthropic's non-reasoning models are exceptional while OpenAI's strength lies in deep reasoning. Georgie and Peter get into why people aren't using Chinese models more despite their quality, the economics behind AI pricing and how enterprise usage is priced very differently from consumer subscriptions, why release cadence matters as much as capability, and what the wave of data centre investment means for the models arriving next. Along the way there's a fond detour on Opus 3 as the model you could talk to for hours, and why better models can sometimes feel worse. Tune in for a clear-eyed, hype-free guide to how AI models are really evaluated, straight from someone who watches the charts move in real time. Mentioned in this episode: Deel x PX_Post Intro

    How AI Models Are Really Judged, with Peter Gostev (Arena / LMArena)
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  • Channel
    Day One
  • Creator
    Day One
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    494
  • Rating
    Explicit
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    © Day One® is a registered trademark of W2D1 Media
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