The Founder-Investor Marriage

The Founder-Investor Marriage | BOLD

The cheque is the start of the relationship, not the end of it. Four of Victoria’s most active VCs walk through what hands-on actually looks like at pre-seed and seed, when to take a board seat, why investor updates work better as a two-way exchange than a reporting task, and how to build relationships with future investors without sounding networky.

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Key Takeaways

•Investors aren’t experts in your market. Their value is the friction they remove from running a company at scale.
•Most early-stage funds take board seats sparingly. Equity funds usually do; portfolio funds often don’t.
•“Help us help you.” Investor updates work as a feedback loop — high-fives for wins, calls for the tough stuff — not a reporting obligation.
•Investor updates are marketing emails. Name the meetings. Create FOMO without bragging.
•Time is an investor’s scarcest resource. Don’t ask for half an hour — ask for the monthly update list.
•Series A+ founders need to be careful with what they share. Looking permanently in market kills momentum.
•Feet on the ground, eyes on the sky: realistic step functions paired with big ambition.

I don’t think many founders actually clock that those emails are actually marketing emails.

— Rohan Workman, Co-Founder & CEO, Skalata Ventures

Featured Investors

Rachael Neumann – Founding Partner at Flying Fox Ventures. Flying Fox is one of Australia’s most active early-stage venture capital firms. Former Amazon executive with deep operator experience. Rachael backs founders at eye-wateringly early stages, invests off-balance sheet to build conviction, and champions Victoria’s tight-knit startup ecosystem. Portfolio includes 70+ companies.

Justine Carzino – Investment Principal at OneVentures. Justine focuses on Series A to Series B investments and helps companies build go-to-market strategies for international expansion. She brings a sharp lens on founder-investor alignment and long-term partnership over the 10-year fund lifecycle. OneVentures is one of Australia’s leading venture capital and growth equity firms.

Timothy Hui – Partner at Mandalay Venture Partners. Mandalay is a thematically focused fund investing in agri-food technology across Australia and Southeast Asia. Engineering background with a first-principles approach to startup evaluation. Timothy takes board seats selectively and brings deep commercial networks and governance expertise to early-stage portfolio companies.

Rohan Workman – Co-Founder + CEO at Skalata Ventures. Skalata invests at the pre-seed and seed stage across a portfolio of 80+ companies. Former accelerator leader with a practical, founder-first approach to early-stage support. Rohan is known for direct advice, strong co-investor relationships, and building the infrastructure that helps founders move from chaos to structure.

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