Growth & Scaling
Scaling the machine — metrics, operations and expansion.
Scaling is where the numbers start running the business. Growth, retention and unit economics stop being abstractions and become the constraints you live inside — and the metrics investors use to decide what you're worth.
These episodes get specific about the machine: the metrics that matter, why retention quietly caps growth, the Rule of 40, and what breaks (and has to be rebuilt) as you scale.
“You are in a sector where you can't afford to be cautious about growth.”
What founders want to know
Answers are drawn live from the network's conversations by Ask the Network.
Shows covering Growth & Scaling
Fintechfun with Chris Titley
6 episodes on Growth & Scaling
In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy
5 episodes on Growth & Scaling
First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter
5 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo
4 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Pick My Brain with Alan Jones
4 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui
3 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Oversubscribed with Brendan Hill
2 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Diaspora NZ with David Booth
2 episodes on Growth & Scaling
Operator AI with Zachary King
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
Can Crypto Deliver?
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
The History of the Australian Startup Ecosystem - Interview Series
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
Unfunded with Joan Westenberg
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
The Mix with Mick Liubinskas
1 episode on Growth & Scaling
37 episodes on Growth & Scaling
▶ Operator AI with Zachary King · 25 September 2026
The Mad Men Era of Knowledge Work: Inside Román Olivera's Agent Brain
▶ Pick My Brain with Alan Jones · 26 August 2026
The Buzzword That's Killing Your Pitch: Billy Chan on Alfred Travel
▶ Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald · 19 August 2026
Why "The Number Is Never the Problem": Matt McFarlane, Founder of FNDN
▶ Pick My Brain with Alan Jones · 19 August 2026
Why You Should Think Global From Day One: Ilana Elbaz on Deel
▶ Pick My Brain with Alan Jones · 12 August 2026
How Do You Grow a Marketplace When Both Sides Are Slow? Ishan Dan on RegenX
▶ In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy · 7 August 2026
Deel's COO on the AI Agent Writing Its Own Code
▶ First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 20 July 2026
What Makes a Founder Worth Backing at Pre-Seed? With Ilana Elbaz | GTM at Deel
▶ Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo · 2 July 2026
$350M Fintech Founder Steps Down as CEO to Rebuild With AI | Josh Foreman, InDebted
▶ First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 22 June 2026
How to Think About M&A as a Startup with Alex Feldman
▶ In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy · 5 June 2026
Building AI at Scale: Inside Australia's Largest Bank with Blair Hudson
Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo · 4 June 2026
$15M ARR Fintech Founder: I Found My First Customer on Facebook | Caroline Tran, Hello Clever
▶ Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo · 21 May 2026
The D1 Athlete Who Built a $100M Voice AI Company | Will Bodewes, Phonely (YC S24)
▶ Oversubscribed with Brendan Hill · 16 April 2026
The $10M Bet That Will Change Healthcare Forever
▶ Can Crypto Deliver? · 5 March 2026
How Australian Startup Swyftx Reached $1 Billion a Month in Trading
▶ Oversubscribed with Brendan Hill · 26 February 2026
Cracking AI Growth & Retention: How Instant & Relume scaled from $0 to $10m
▶ Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo · 12 February 2026
What Harvard Didn't Know: I Was Already Building an 8-Figure Startup | Stephen Turban, Lumiere Education
▶ In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy · 6 February 2026
What It Takes to Build a $100M AI Company at 17
▶ First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 5 February 2026
How to Pick Your First Market for International Expansion
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 9 September 2025
Trent Daniel – Azupay’s Big Move with NAB
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 31 July 2025
Mastering Money Management: Jason Leong on Bootstrapping PocketSmith and Empowering the Home CFO
▶ Pick My Brain with Alan Jones · 2 July 2025
Hiring in 27 Seconds: Luke Marshall on Growth, Gen Z & Video-First Recruitment with UseVerb
▶ Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui · 23 June 2025
What It Really Takes to Scale to $100M: Ricky Sevta on Burnout, Breakthroughs, and Building Again
▶ Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui · 9 June 2025
How Paul Stovell Built Octopus Deploy to $100M by Ignoring Silicon Valley’s Rules
▶ Perspective X with Pauline Fetaui · 12 May 2025
Eden Shirley on Disrupting Yourself, Surviving Crisis, and Building a Culture of Warriors
▶ Diaspora NZ with David Booth · 18 April 2025
S3 | E7 - Xavier Collins (CEO & Co-Founder at Wonder) on AI’s creative revolution, building thriving marketplaces, and reshaping the film industry
▶ Diaspora NZ with David Booth · 7 March 2025
S3 | E1 - Jamie Beaton (Crimson Education) on scaling a global education empire, the future of universities, and AI’s role in learning
▶ In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy · 28 February 2025
Lorikeet’s $100M Bet on AI: Steve Hind on Scaling Smart AI Support with Lorikeet
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 22 January 2025
How Beforepay is Disrupting Lending with Jamie Twiss, CEO of Before Pay Group
▶ In The Blink Of AI with Georgie Healy · 13 December 2024
Scaling AI Education for Founders: Inside BuildClub with Annie Liao
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 12 November 2024
From Coffee Shop to Global Fintech: The Airwallex Journey with Matthew Sek
▶ First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 4 November 2024
Navigating Early-Stage Investing and Scaling with Tim from Turo
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 15 October 2024
Andrew Butt Discusses Enable's Global Growth and Rebate Management
▶ Fintechfun with Chris Titley · 6 August 2024
Vakul Talwar Discusses Crypto.com's Growth and Innovations in Australia
▶ First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 22 July 2024
Exploring Growth Stage Investing with Ex-Investment Banker Turned VC
▶ Unfunded with Joan Westenberg · 4 July 2024
Bootstrapped founder overcomes challenges to grow successful retail SaaS company with Aaron Cowper
▶ The Mix with Mick Liubinskas · 2 July 2023
Growing Solutions: Empowering Farmers and Scaling Climate Tech with Anastasia, Founder of Regrow
▶ The History of the Australian Startup Ecosystem - Interview Series · 15 March 2022
Murray Hurps discusses the barriers to growth in the startup ecosystem
The Growth & Scaling glossary
ARR / MRR
Recurring subscription revenue, annualised (ARR) or monthly (MRR) — the core SaaS growth metric.
Burn rate
How much cash you lose each month. Net burn is spending minus revenue.
Gross margin
Revenue left after the direct cost of delivering your product, as a percentage.
LTV
The total gross profit you expect from a customer across their whole relationship with you.
LTV:CAC ratio
Lifetime value divided by acquisition cost — a quick read on whether your growth engine is profitable.
Payback period
How many months of a customer's gross profit it takes to earn back what you spent acquiring them.
Churn
The rate at which customers (logo churn) or revenue (revenue churn) leave over a period.
Net revenue retention
Revenue this year from last year's customers, including upsells and minus churn — expressed as a percentage.
Rule of 40
A SaaS health check: growth rate plus profit margin should clear 40%.
Cohort analysis
Grouping customers by when they joined and tracking each group's behaviour over time.
Bookings vs revenue
Bookings are contracts signed; revenue is what you've actually earned and can recognise over time.
Product-market fit
The point where you've built something a market genuinely wants and pulls out of you faster than you can supply it.
Flywheel
A self-reinforcing loop where each turn makes the next easier — more users create more value that attracts more users.
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