Learnings & news
Blog
Our writings and observations from backing B2B founders and helping them scale globally.
Learnings · 29 March 2024
Information on our US & UK Trade Missions
An information session covering who should attend our US and UK trade missions, the schedule, logistics, typical outcomes, and the sponsored places available to founders in South Australia, the Gold Coast and Queensland.
Learnings · 31 January 2024
Why the UK is great for ANZ B2B tech ventures
Why more ANZ B2B founders should consider the UK before defaulting to North America — customer density, startup-literate corporates, shared common law, and a deep support ecosystem.
Learnings · 29 January 2024
Messaging that compels customers to engage, with a brand that doesn't turn them off
In early-stage B2B, messaging is about 90% and brand look and feel about 10%. Start with a niche, use the customer's words, and don't let the visual brand turn them off.
Learnings · 23 January 2024
The riches are in the niches
Struggling founders escape mediocrity by narrowing to one market, one customer, one problem, one product and one channel — then expanding from a position of strength.
Learnings · 30 August 2023
Making dysfunctional boards functional
A practical framework for turning a dysfunctional board around: diagnose the issues, map the chain of causality, fix the middle layer first, and build it into the operating rhythm.
Learnings · 24 August 2023
Founders and their expectations
Founders are outliers who assume everyone else is one too. Scaling means building the systems that get ordinary people achieving extraordinary results — putting good people on bicycles.
Learnings · 10 August 2023
Why the Tech Wreck Is Not an Investment Wreck
Layoffs and a valuation reset are not the same as a broken market. Why the next 24 months may be a once-in-a-decade entry point for Australian venture LPs.
Learnings · 4 August 2023
Why we prefer co-founding teams
Co-founding teams can split the four management ingredients a sole founder has to spin alone — but the thing that makes co-foundership work or fail is mutual trust and respect.
News · 20 March 2023
Startup Daily interview: B2B investing
A recording of Tribe's appearance on Startup Daily, talking about why we invest in B2B tech.
Learnings · 14 February 2023
Why we are Tribe GLOBAL Ventures, not Tribe Australia Ventures
Why the thesis names two markets and not "international": focus, friction, valuation arbitrage and scale. Australia is a necessary but not sufficient pillar.
Learnings · 18 January 2023
How to create a culture of accountability
Accountability needs three ingredients: clear responsibility, real decision-making authority, and reward systems that pull in the same direction. Missing any one of them and you can only hold yourself accountable.
Learnings · 13 January 2023
How investing legend Stanley Druckenmiller's approach aligns with VC
Druckenmiller's rules — know what actually moves the investment, stay future-focused, concentrate, and protect the downside — mapped onto how Tribe invests.
Learnings · 12 January 2023
Dating and Lead Gen Comparisons
What cold approaches in a woman's DMs teach you about lead gen: wrong audience, wrong channel, no trust, and a whiff of desperation.
Learnings · 11 January 2023
Letter to storm boy
What Don would tell his 18-year-old self, 22 years into business. Simplicity, trust and respect, harnessing conflict, and not tethering yourself to the company.
News · 11 January 2023
Who's swimming naked?
When the tide goes out, what gets exposed is not the business model but the culture. Running out of money is the end of the chain of causality, not the start.
Learnings · 8 November 2022
I've got 99 problems and it means I'm not dead: Part 1
Problems come from change, and change only stops when you're dead. What separates companies that last is how fast they identify and resolve problems as a team.
Learnings · 8 November 2022
You'll have 99 problems and you don't want the board to be one
Eight ways boards go wrong — too big too quick, wrong people in wrong roles, status seekers, no process, wrong lifecycle fit — and what to check before you appoint.
News · 7 November 2022
B2B is the 'dad bod' of venture capital (and that's why we like it)
Not the flashiest sector, but dependable: longer sales cycles mean stickier revenue, less fad risk, less price sensitivity, and a wider universe of acquirers.
Learnings · 27 September 2022
Pitch Perfect
How Tribe's pitch process works, and what to cover in the first five minutes. The purpose of a first pitch is not to get money — it is to get interest.
