Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Sydney startup Chime Labs closed $900k pre-seed from 500 Global to build AI phone handling for Australian trade businesses. The product answers calls, qualifies leads, and books jobs directly into calendars. Founders are targeting administrative overhead that costs tradies up to $12k monthly in missed calls.
Jason Lemkin's SaaStr scaled from 20+ employees to 3 humans and 20 AI agents while maintaining revenue. First AI SDR sent 15,000 outbound messages in 100 days at 5 to 7% response rates. One agent closed a $70k sponsorship deal on its own. The math: $500k AI investment returned $1.5m in two months.
Redpoint surveyed 141 CIOs in March 2026. One in four has seriously considered replacing their customer service vendor in the last year. Sales automation sits at 19%, with some enterprises choosing to build their own CRM instead. The money is coming from existing software budgets, not new line items.
OpenAI acquired TBPN, a daily live tech show run by former founders. The deal highlights a trend: profitable tech companies turning balance sheet cash into owned media channels. No financial terms disclosed, but TBPN projected $5M in 2025 ad revenue before the acquisition.
Jason Lemkin's free pitch deck analyzer has graded 4,000+ decks. The data shows most score 55-70 on deck quality, growth drives 55 of 100 traction points, and you need A- or better (85+) for top-tier VC conversations. The weighting is deliberate: traction matters three times more than how well you tell the story.
Jason Lemkin published market data showing AI spend up 44% year over year while non-AI SaaS companies trade at 4x ARR versus 61x for AI-native players. The message for sales teams: if your company is not capturing AI budget in your category, you are fighting for scraps in a shrinking market.
Three revenue leaders from Salesforce, Momentum, and Mangomint shared what is actually working with AI in sales. The takeaway: your CRM data is worse than you think, nobody is following up with 40% of leads, and raising quota now would be a mistake.
Ed Sim's Boldstart Ventures closed a $250M fund targeting day-zero AI companies. The firm backs technical founders before they have product, team, or revenue. This is inception investing: napkin sketch to Series A, focused on enterprise AI infrastructure and agents.
Anthropic inked an MOU with the Australian government that includes sharing Economic Index data tracking how Claude is used across sectors. Unlike previous OpenAI and Microsoft deals, this one commits to showing actual adoption patterns by industry and occupation. Worth noting: Anthropic has no local presence, suggesting remote API access rather than boots on the ground.
Jason Lemkin's SaaStr scaled from zero to 25+ AI agents in production, cutting headcount from 20+ to 3 humans while closing $2.4M and building $4.8M pipeline. The reason is not just cost: agents are operationally easier than hiring, onboarding, and managing human teams.
Redpoint surveyed 141 CIOs managing $765B in capex. The numbers are not friendly to incumbents. 54% are actively consolidating vendors, 45% say AI budgets are cannibalising existing software line items, and 83% are open to replacing their CRM with an AI-native vendor. Public SaaS multiples sit at 4.1x NTM revenue, the lowest since 2008.
Byron Bay furniture startup Koala closed a $20 million raise ahead of its ASX listing this week, valuing the business at $305 million. The DTC brand hit $175 million revenue within six years, scaling from mattress-in-a-box to whole-of-home furniture. Co-founder Dany Milham is back as CEO on $630k base after his grocery delivery detour with Milkrun.