Investment Thesis with Kali Norman

Jelix Ventures Partner and Innovation Bay Co-Founder Ian Gardiner has spent more than two decades living every side of the startup table. From private school in Scotland to Engineering at Oxford, from founding Viocorp during the dot-com boom to running Startups ANZ at AWS, to writing his first $10K angel check from his super fund in 2008 — Ian has built his career on one obsession: founders.

In this episode of Investment Thesis, Ian joins Kali Norman to share why his thesis is 80% person and 20% product and market, how he stress tests founders who’ve never built before, and why second-time founders — even failed ones — get a green light. They dive into why he avoids hardcore medtech but backed Gelomics, how generative AI killed the old B2B software playbook and compressed the 10-year startup journey to 6-8 years, and where the moat is when Claude can copy your product in 6 months.

Ian also reflects on building Innovation Bay since 2002, why dealflow beats picking, why he only writes $20K checks personally, and the one weird test he stole from Jason Calacanis: are you world-class at anything — even Wii Tennis?

Climate Salad founder Mick Liubinskas has spent more than 25 years obsessing over one thing: backing incredible people. From building one of Australia's first online business databases in 1998, to getting wiped out in the dot-com crash, to co-founding Pollinizer, Mick has built his career on a radical philosophy: be the cheerleader, not the lone wolf.

In this episode of Investment Thesis, Mick joins Kali to share why he no longer invests his own money directly, how a small check from a friend became the investment that shaped his entire career, and what it really takes to build a portfolio in climate tech when the playbook from SaaS no longer applies. They also dive deep into why climate tech has more singles and doubles than home runs and strikeouts, how blended finance breaks the traditional Angel to Seed to Series A to B to C model, and why his biggest edge is giving his money to better investors.

Mick also reflects on the tension between optimism and pragmatism, the humility required for deep-tech founders to step aside as CEO, and why no one should be building an investment thesis alone.

Episode Chapters
00:00 - Intro: A thesis in 30 seconds
00:38 - Welcome to Investment Thesis with Mick Liubinskas
02:11 - How two accountants over a beer created his first startup
02:59 - The full-circle story: his first investor became his CFO at Climate Salad
04:24 - From receiving checks to writing them: Pollinizer and Startmate
05:13 - The first personal angel check: Flightfox and the convertible note
06:40 - Small checks, help the founder
07:19 - The 80/10/10 rule and being sector agnostic
07:55 - The cheerleader trap: why he balances optimism with pragmatism
10:04 - Why he stopped investing his own money
11:13 - Ten years ago: moving to the US, Silicon Valley, and the Paris Agreement
12:51 - The double bump thesis: climate is a must-have plus Aussie companies going global
14:27 - How Climate Salad invests today via Ventari and Electrify Ventures
16:32 - Running his own IC to avoid conflicts
17:14 - What cuts through: impact needs a business model
18:47 - Why climate tech portfolio construction is different
19:45 - Blended finance: grants, debt, project finance and why pro-rata doesn't apply
22:27 - Why raising climate funds is hard: no pattern of success yet
23:01 - Green flags in founders: belief in the problem plus humility
25:30 - The deal that broke the thesis: backing Raj and Kapture
27:34 - Staying sharp when you're a generalist in a deeply technical space
29:01 - Engineering with Rosie and doing a Masters at Macquarie
30:33 - Advice for new investors: join a syndicate, find friends, learn in public
32:46 - Would he have invested in pre-seed Uber? And the Canva one that got away
35:54 - Outro

Resources
Climate Salad: https://climatesalad.com/
Ventari (formerly Aussie Angels): https://www.ventari.co/

Katharine Giles started her career as a doctor, but quickly realised that life on the medical frontline wasn’t the path she wanted to stay on. An MBA opened the door to venture capital, where she discovered a way to combine her love of science with her desire to help bring breakthrough ideas into the real world.In this episode of Investment Thesis, Katharine joins Kali to unpack her journey from medicine to investing, and eventually to becoming a founder herself. As a Venture Partner at Brandon Capital and CEO of OncoRes Medical, she shares how her perspective has changed from sitting on the investor side of the table to raising capital and building a company over nearly a decade.They dive into what Brandon looks for when backing life sciences companies, why great science alone isn’t enough, and why Katharine puts actionable clinical benefit at the centre of every investment decision. They also explore the realities of investing in healthcare: long development cycles, regulatory pathways, clinical evidence, global markets, and the patience required to build companies that can genuinely change patients’ lives.Katharine also shares what she looks for in founders, why she prefers to invest where she can add value beyond money, and how becoming a CEO has changed her view of what it really means to be a founder-friendly investor.And finally, she reflects on one deal she said no to — Melanie Perkins and Fusion Books.Guest: Katharine Giles of Brandon CapitalHost: Kali NormanInvestment Thesis Podcast is part of the DayOne Network

In this episode, Kali Norman sits down with Don McKenzie, Co-Founder of Tribe Ventures, to unpack how his investment thesis has evolved over more than two decades of angel investing and company building. From building internet-based businesses before cloud computing existed to helping Australian and New Zealand B2B startups expand into the UK and US, Don shares the lessons that only come from backing companies through both wins and failures.

The conversation explores why the best investors develop systems rather than relying on instinct, how confirmation bias quietly influences investment decisions, and why founder execution matters just as much as product quality.

Whether you're an angel investor, VC, founder, or simply interested in how experienced investors think, this episode offers a practical look inside the decision-making process behind successful investing.

In this episode:

• Don's unconventional path from entrepreneur to investor
• How an investment thesis develops through experience-not theory
• Why Tribe Ventures focuses on B2B companies expanding internationally
• Building competitive advantage using Hamilton Helmer's Seven Powers
• The importance of defensibility, switching costs, and avoiding commodity products
• What "product-market fit" really means before scaling
• Why founder execution often matters more than the original idea
• Hidden due diligence: getting to know founders beyond the pitch deck
• Avoiding confirmation bias and the pressure to deploy capital
• Lessons from investments that didn't go to plan
• How angel groups can accelerate learning for new investors
• Why market quality can matter just as much as founder quality

Guest: Don McKenzie, co-founder of Tribe Global Ventures

Host: Kali Norman

Investment Thesis is a Day One Network production. Listen at https://dayone.fm/show/investment-thesis

Kali Norman sits down with Alex Khor, co-founder of AfterWork Ventures, to keep building her investment thesis from the ground up.Alex traces his path from research mathematician to McKinsey to angel investing — and the early realisation that selling time only takes you so far, and that real wealth comes through ownership. With his long-time business partner Adrian Peterson he started writing "archetypal broke angel" cheques into early-stage Australian and New Zealand startups around 2017, before co-founding AfterWork.In this episode:• Expected-value thinking, and why investing is about pricing risk rather than being right or wrong• Discipline as the biggest lever on long-term returns — "profit is exit price minus entry price"• The game theory of a smaller fund counter-positioning against bigger, better-capitalised VCs• Why the founders are the one thing a business can't pivot• The Lyka bet, and letting go of the "tech or manufacturing?" question• "Pessimists sound smart, but optimists make money"Guest: Alex Khor — co-founder, AfterWork VenturesHost: Kali NormanInvestment Thesis is a Day One Network production. Listen: https://dayone.fm/show/investment-thesis

Veteran angel investor and M8 Ventures co-founder Alan Jones joins host Kali Norman to unpack his 20-year investing journey—from writing A$30K–A$50K early cheques to building a syndicate model that opens up early-stage tech investing with A$5K minimums. Alan shares how his framework evolved from sourcing deals through top accelerators like Startmate to backing deeply mission-aligned founders across renewables, deep tech, and mental health.

Alan traces his path from tech journalism at the dawn of the web to serving as product director for Yahoo Asia Pacific during the dot-com boom and bust, followed by a ten-year stretch as a startup founder. He covers why product and people are equal, non-negotiable pillars, his strict stance on offshore technical teams vs world-class engineering equity, and why diversity is a critical operational indicator. He also reveals why true coachability means acting on advice between meetings, how to spot fatal flaws in a startup’s distribution channel strategy, and whether he would have backed Uber or Airbnb pre-seed.

• M8 Ventures — https://m8.ventures

• Alan Jones on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanjones

• Startmate — https://www.startmate.com

• Bug Herd — https://bugherd.com

• Investment Thesis on dayone.fm — https://dayone.fm/show/investment-thesis

• 00:14 - Alan’s path into tech: media journalism to Yahoo Asia Pacific

• 01:11 - Transitioning from corporate leader to a decade of startup founding

• 02:00 - Moving into angel investing to spread bets across a portfolio

• 04:19 - Sourcing via early accelerators and the first framework (Bug Herd)

• 07:23 - Cultivating "M8 Ventures" — backing founders you want to be mates with

• 08:27 - Thesis expansion into renewables, mental health therapeutics, and deep tech

• 10:30 - The structural freedom of an angel portfolio vs strict VC fund mandates

• 14:19 - Splitting minimum check sizes down to A$5K through an angel syndicate

• 16:41 - The 50/50 rule: product and team as non-negotiable checkboxes

• 18:31 - The myth of the outsourced tech stack and demanding engineering equity

• 21:40 - Why structural lack of diversity eventually catches up to high-growth teams

• 23:03 - Solo founders vs co-founding teams: bridging non-technical blind spots

• 26:54 - Spotting true coachability: founders who execute between coffees

• 30:19 - Staying sharp via local startup media and macro tech ecosystems

• 33:56 - The overlooked pillar: distribution barriers, gatekeepers, and market strategy

• 36:46 - The final question: would he have backed Uber or Airbnb pre-seed?

Kali Norman is the host of Investment Thesis, building her own investment thesis in public by sitting down with experienced angels and venture capitalists to unpack the frameworks, lived experiences, and turning points behind how they invest.

Alan Jones is the co-founder of M8 Ventures, an angel investor syndicate, and one of Australia's most prominent ecosystem advocates. Formerly a product director at Yahoo Asia Pacific, he went on to build his own startups, coach hundreds of founders across accelerators like Startmate, Remarkable, and BlueChilli, and spend more than two decades backing early-stage innovation.

Investment Thesis is part of the Day One Network — a network of podcasts for founders, operators, and investors building the next generation of companies. New episodes drop fortnightly. Subscribe wherever you listen. Learn more at https://dayone.fm

LinksTime StampsAbout the hostAbout the guestAbout Day One Network

Skalata Ventures co-founder and CEO Rohan Workman joins host Kali Norman to unpack a thesis built on backing overlooked founders — capital-lean companies with a defensible edge, founders who can read a balance sheet and ship an MVP, and cheques up to A$500K at valuations to ~A$10M. Rohan explains why Skalata paused new investments to rebuild its frameworks for the AI era, and why — at pre-seed — you're really backing founders and a portfolio, not predicting

Links

Skalata Ventures — https://skalata.co

Rohan Workman on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanworkman

University of Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP) — https://themelbourneaccelerator.com

Xero — https://www.xero.com

Investment Thesis on dayone.fm — https://dayone.fm/show/investment-thesis

Day One Network — https://dayone.fm

Investment Thesis — building a thesis from the ground up, one investor at a time.

Time Stamps

00:00 - Cold open

01:38 - Welcome to Investment Thesis

01:56 - Accountant in the GFC, to founder, to VC

04:46 - Skalata's first formulaic thesis (and why they unwound it)

06:04 - The thesis today: innovative, capital-lean, market-ready

07:42 - Sector-agnostic — and AI-native operating leverage

10:00 - Cheque sizes: up to $500K at valuations to ~$10M

12:08 - What he looks for in a founder

14:25 - First-time vs repeat founders; backing the overlooked

15:22 - Breaking the rules: Brossa and an ASX-listed medtech

18:43 - Selling Xero too early — why great companies take 10–15 years

19:21 - Staying sharp while AI rewrites the frameworks

22:16 - Eye-watering AI valuations

23:49 - The final question: would he have backed Uber pre-seed?

25:30 - A portfolio approach to backing founders

About the host

Kali Norman is the host of Investment Thesis, building her own investment thesis in public by sitting down with experienced angels and venture capitalists to unpack the frameworks, lived experiences and turning points behind how they invest.

About the guest

Rohan Workman is co-founder and CEO of Skalata Ventures, an Australian pre-seed and seed investor. Before Skalata he co-founded the HR software company Rostercloud and built and ran the University of Melbourne Accelerator Program, after beginning his career in corporate recovery and advisory at McGrathNicol.

About Day One Network

Investment Thesis is part of the Day One Network — a network of podcasts for founders, operators and investors building the next generation of companies. New episodes drop fortnightly. Subscribe wherever you listen. Learn more at https://dayone.fm

Rampersand partner Taryn Pieterse joins host Kali Norman to unpack how she backs early-stage founders — from A$250K–A$2M first cheques to the founder traits she screens for (grit, execution, balanced optimism). Taryn explains why second-time founders and shipped MVPs de-risk a deal, and how AI is shifting her thesis from domain expertise toward defensibility.

Taryn traces her path from Goldman Sachs' investment banking division — where she worked alongside the Campaign Monitor founders through their US$250M raise in 2014 — to a consumer-focused family office, and finally to Rampersand in 2020. She covers cheque sizes and leading rounds, what "good" looks like stage by stage, solo founders vs co-founding teams, why Rampersand is sector-agnostic (but won't touch FDA-gated medtech), and how she stays sharp via a 35-plus company portfolio and venture partners. She closes on whether she'd have backed Uber pre-seed, and why she'd have given WeWork's founder money a second time.

Links:

- Rampersand — https://rampersand.vc

- Taryn Pieterse on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarynpieterse

- Investment Thesis — https://dayone.fm/show/investment-thesis

- Day One Network — https://dayone.fm

About the host

Kali Norman is the host of Investment Thesis, building her own investment thesis in public by sitting down with experienced angels and venture capitalists to unpack the frameworks, lived experiences and turning points behind how they invest.

About Day One Network

Investment Thesis is part of the Day One Network — a network of podcasts for founders, operators and investors building the next generation of companies. New episodes drop fortnightly. Subscribe wherever you listen. Learn more at https://dayone.fm

Podcast host Kali invites listeners to join her as she builds her own investment thesis from the ground up—learning directly from experienced investors who have already defined (and redefined) theirs.

In this session, we sit down with investor Dan Coughlan.

Dan Coughlan is a Principal at Airtree, one of Australia's leading venture capital firms. With a background in commerce, he began his career at Credit Suisse as an equity research analyst covering publicly listed software companies before transitioning into venture capital; he joined Airtree as an Investment Manager and has since risen to Principal. At Airtree, Dan invests across both the firm's early-stage fund—backing founders from pre-seed through Series A—and its $400+ million growth fund, which supports high-growth companies from Series B to pre-IPO. He has developed a particular depth in data infrastructure and AI tooling, and holds the view that the best investors don't predict the future—they see the present very clearly.

Podcast host Kali invites listeners to join her as she builds her own investment thesis from the ground up - learning directly from experienced investors and founders who have already defined (and redefined) theirs.

In this session, we sit down with investor and founder Maxine Minter.

Maxine is the Founder and General Partner at Co Ventures, and started her investment journey as an angel investor, writing $2,500 pre-seed cheques. She ran angel syndicates in Australia and San Francisco while managing her high-growth coaching and advisory business Co Lab, before becoming the first solo female GP in Australia with the launch of her fund Co Ventures, leveraging her deep knowledge of Australian & US markets.