Cuttable Started Here

Just three years after selling his startup A Cloud Guru for $2 billion, Sam Kroonenburg has returned to life as an early-stage founder.

His inspiration for growing another business from the ground up? The magic of artificial intelligence and a collision of “megatrends” he believes will transform the advertising industry.

“I just love building things. Everything that was happening with AI was so exciting to me. This is everything I dreamed of as a kid,” Sam said.

“It’s like technology presenting as magic.”

He spent a year diving deep into the practical applications of artificial intelligence before joining co-founders Jack White and Ed Ring to build automated content agency Cuttable.

Cuttable helps creative teams build digital campaigns fast by automating the process of creating, editing and refining ads for use across different channels. The technology saves marketers and ad agencies from a mountain of manual “grunt work” like resizing videos.

In July the startup sealed a $5.5 million seed funding round led by Square Peg Capital. It already boasts clients including Wesfarmers-owned retailer Catch, Nando’s and Powershop.

Sam believes it’s the perfect time to grow the business because of two major industry trends.

“You’ve got this megatrend where advertising has gone digital in a very short space of time and created this huge work problem,” he said.

“On the other side, we’ve got this megatrend of AI right now and it can do creative parts of a job that only humans could do before. When those two megatrends collide, that’s where I see the opportunity.”

It’s not the first time that Sam has built a product that has helped users harness big technology trends.

A Cloud Guru, which he founded with his brother Ryan in 2015, helped IT professionals with the evolution of cloud computing through a range of online learning programs.

When the duo sold the business in 2021 in a $2 billion deal with US firm Pluralsight, they secured one of the biggest startup exits in Australian history.

Cuttable and A Cloud Guru are both businesses that have been forged in Melbourne. Sam says it’s clear that you can build a global enterprise while based in Victoria, provided you think ahead.

“It’s very doable to build a global business from here. I don’t think that founders have to move overseas,” he said.

“But you’ve got to think globally from very early on in your business.”

Founder friendships in the ‘friendly’ state

Victoria’s startup ecosystem looks very different from the time when A Cloud Guru began.

When Sam moved to Melbourne in 2010 after years spent working in tech overseas, there were only a handful of software product companies, led by jobs platform SEEK and real estate platform REA.

“How much that has changed now is just incredible,” Sam said.

A startup boom has seen the creation of 18 unicorn companies in the state, including A Cloud Guru, while countless others are chasing billion-dollar status.

These days, a good chunk of Sam’s week is taken up having coffees with other entrepreneurs and helping founders on their journeys.

These catch-ups highlight the importance of founder friendships and connections for gaining new perspectives and problem solving, he says.

“Every business is different, and you only see things the way you have done it. The more people you talk to, you can say, ‘Okay, other people have faced the same problem and they’re solving it in a different way.’”

The openness of local founders is also a big asset.

“I think it’s very friendly and people are very open. I think Victorians are very supportive and they want to see other Victorian founders succeed.”

Finding great people and trusting your gut

As Sam works on scaling his second business, he reflects that building a successful startup comes down to the strength of your team.

“My biggest learning from A Cloud Guru is that great companies are built by great people. So, your number one goal as a founder should be to build an incredible group and to have the right people in the company,” he said.

This can be hugely daunting for founders, because it relies on trusting your gut when choosing personnel. Once you do find highly skilled people, you might also be hit with a dose of imposter syndrome, Sam says.

“But you have to realise that the value you hold is in building a vision for the team and rallying everyone around it.”

Anyone who ends up joining Cuttable along the way will be working on an ambitious vision to put the power of AI into the hands of everyday businesses.

“I feel like we will succeed when small to medium sized businesses can come to Cuttable and build high quality, beautifully crafted and effective ad campaigns that you would normally have to pay the best agencies in the world for,” Sam said

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