Episode Summary
Liam Millward is one of Australia’s most watched young founders, but this conversation goes way beyond the headline of raising a record pre-seed at 17. Liam breaks down how Instant is building an AI powered marketing manager for e-commerce brands, why retention marketing is the real lever for growth, and how personalisation at scale changes the economics of marketing teams.
Georgie and Liam unpack what it actually takes to win in B2B SaaS right now, why “nice-to-have dashboards” are getting crushed, and what young founders should do instead of spending their time posing with VCs. Liam also shares the downside of raising big too early, his bet on Google winning the model race, and the one tool he has mandated across Instant’s engineering team.
Plus: why New York (not SF) is the next chapter for Instant, how Australian buying habits can create painful customers, and Liam’s spicy prediction that AI agents will become the majority of internet traffic shockingly soon.
Chapters:
01:35 – Meet Liam Millward and the record-breaking pre-seed story
03:40 – Using AI to hire better and have deeper interviews
07:55 – What Instant actually does and why retention beats acquisition
12:00 – How AI personalization changes loyalty, margins, and growth
16:30 – Is B2B SaaS dead or just getting ruthless?
20:45 – Raising big too early, age bias, and proving people wrong
28:30 – Teenage founders, VC hype, and why starting small still wins
34:15 – New York expansion, Google vs OpenAI, and Claude Code
43:50 – AI agents, Australia’s talent drain, and what comes next
44:38 – Saying no to customers: Australia’s “buy from friends” trap
45:32 – Structure at Instant: obsession, speed, and a tiny leadership team
46:42 – Australia’s talent drain and what could change it
