$10M ARR With 15 People | Jason Serda on How AI Is Rewriting Australia's Startup

Episode overview

Australia's startup market just hit an inflection point. $503 million raised across 25 rounds in the first two months of 2026.

Twenty five per cent up on the year before.

US venture funds are looking south. Singapore now has more family offices per capita than anywhere else in the world, and they are writing cheques into Australian tech.

Something has shifted, and the rules of who gets funded have shifted with it.

About the guest
Jason Serda founded Blue Fire and sold it to Dimension Data. He ran global CTO at NTT. He now leads Utiliti Group, a Sydney and US-based venture firm with $150 million invested, 50-plus companies backed, and 13 exits on the board. His focus is helping Australian founders crack the US market.

What this episode covers:

• Why a $10m ARR business now runs on 15 to 20 people instead of 50 to 70.

• Why 'growth at any cost' is finished and 'profit in months, not years' is the new venture standard.

• How Utiliti uses AI to assess 80 to 90 pitch decks every month before a human reads one.

• The single ratio Jason uses to read a founder's execution capability in under a minute. The ZOUD, the named meeting Jason ran at NTT that he thinks every exec team should bring back.

• What separates the founders who get funded from the ones who get politely declined.

Why now:

• AI is reshaping how Australian companies raise capital, build product, and run operations.

• The investors with the lowest cost of selection win.

• The founders with the highest revenue per employee compound.

• The teams that can hold a difficult conversation in private avoid the public correction.

Who this episode is for:

• Founders thinking about their first or next raise.

• Tech and commercial leaders being asked by their boards what AI changes for headcount and capital allocation.

• Investors who want to see how a working AI venture pipeline operates in practice. Anyone with an idea sitting on the back burner who needs a reason to pick it up.