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Learnings

16 posts filed under Learnings.

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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.