Latest updates for ANZ sales professionals
Hot AI B2B companies are running two opposite sales playbooks. Some are setting $4M+ quotas per AE and servicing massive inbound with tiny teams. Others are hiring 200+ reps with traditional $700K quotas to capture every lead. ElevenLabs split the difference: $2M quotas, 80% attainment, and a forced 50/50 inbound/outbound split.
Anthropic lost Pentagon contracts after refusing to remove safeguards on mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. As Australia pushes dual-use tech funding, local AI startups will face the same choice: accept military revenue or hold ethical boundaries. This is not theoretical anymore.
Sheila Vashee, Figma's CMO and former second marketing hire at Dropbox, breaks down how Figma captured 95% of the Fortune 500 by investing in enterprise sales far earlier than most PLG companies. The lesson: build the team before you need them, because enterprise buyers need to see you are serious before they commit. Plus, why AI is reshaping marketing strategy without replacing the human craft.
SaaStr has 30 AI agents in production across their GTM stack. The problem: agents do not talk to each other, onboarding one kills productivity on the rest, and all the knowledge lives in one person's head. Here is what actually breaks when you scale AI sales tools.
Bill Binch (Operating Partner, Battery Ventures) spent 29 years carrying a bag, including Marketo employee #16 through IPO and Pendo CRO scaling to $100M ARR. His framework: start every forecast with quota, track deployed quota against plan monthly, and measure pipeline momentum through six daily inputs. Most companies miss the gap between planned quota and actual quota deployed, which explains why they are short on pipeline.
Construction logistics startup Veyor closed $10.5M at a $50-75M valuation. US now accounts for 30% of revenue, growing 150% year on year. The round funds expansion: expect sales hiring across ANZ and North America as they target becoming the system of record for site logistics globally.
Sydney construction logistics startup Veyor closed a US$7.5M ($10.6M AUD) Series A led by Marbruck Investments. The funding bankrolls US expansion, including senior go-to-market hires. CEO relocating to the US as North America now drives 30% of revenue, targeting 50% within two years.
Eucalyptus sold for $1.6B to US-listed Hims & Hers, but the fine print shows investors and employees won't see cash for years. Payouts hinge on hitting tough targets while the acquirer's stock tanks 64% in 12 months. Worth noting: the gap between headline price and actual returns.
Three major companies cut 6,300 jobs in one week, all citing AI as the reason. WiseTech CEO says manual coding is over. Block CEO says smaller teams with AI tools do more. Stock prices rose. This is not a blip, it is a signal.
Canva pushed back on reports that its Leonardo AI integration would trigger job losses. The company says it is not exploring redundancies as it folds the 150-person Sydney team into its AI roadmap. Worth noting: this comes as tech layoffs continue across ANZ, with AI integration often cited as the reason.
AI sales data startup Firmable closed $14 million Series A led by Airtree. The round funds US market entry and hiring across sales and product. The Melbourne-based company now has 1,000 customers across ANZ and APAC, competing in the crowded sales intelligence space against Apollo, ZoomInfo, and other prospecting platforms.
Richard White-backed Vinyl Group acquired Val Morgan Digital from Hoyts for $10.5 million ($7m cash, $3.5m shares). The deal adds $10.7m in revenue and brands like BuzzFeed and PopSugar to Vinyl's portfolio. For sales teams: watch for integration of two digital ad platforms and potential territory reshuffles.