How
we invest
We typically invest up to $1.5M in pre-seed or seed rounds.
We are super collaborative and enjoy investing alongside other great investors both in Australia and around the world.
We are sector agnostic but looking for the best surfers riding the biggest waves — outlier founders, building in big markets.
We are early stage specialists — we focus on solving the challenges of 0–1.
It’s never too early. We’re comfortable backing companies very early, often pre-revenue.
Why
FOUNDERS WORK WITH US
We are founders and we behave like founders — with passion, enthusiasm and belief.
We are flexible on valuation and ownership. We think what’s best for the founder is best for us.
We offer active and collaborative support focussed on the earliest stages of building a business — such as hiring, fundraising and getting to product market fit.
We have a high Helpfulness to Cheque Size ratio (H:CS)
We’re building a unique community of founders who want to contribute.
We are an global team with a global network.
We feel fortunate to be here and absolutely LOVE what we do.
What
WE LOOK FOR
Outlier Founders
First and foremost, we back people. We look for outlier founders who have proven hustle, a compelling, global vision, the hunger and drive to build a billion dollar business and the capability to sell their vision to employees, partners and future investors.
Differentiated Product
We look for products that are solving real and meaningful problems, with passionate first customers and that have the potential to be orders of magnitude better than their nearest competitor. This could be demonstrated through sticky initial customers, accessing an underserved market or through a compelling and non-consensus product insight.
Big Markets
Our focus is sector agnostic but with a bias towards big markets that have either billions of potential customers or billions of dollars in accessible revenue capacity.
portfolio
.gif)
"Elli, Ben, and Markus have truly gone above and beyond in making introductions to customers and partners in the US, as well as connecting us with other founders in their network. This has been incredibly impactful in helping us establish a footprint and gain momentum in the US market. We're thrilled to have Side Stage as a partner and deeply value the support they've provided MagicBrief to date."
"Elli, Ben, Markus, Harrison, and the SSV team have been more than investors — they’ve been an extension of our team. Their founder experience, hands-on support, and deep network made a real impact: from simplifying investor processes to critical intros across customers and capital. They backed us before we were even fully formed — and helped shape who we’ve become."
"The Australian market is key for us, and Side Stage Ventures has been an exceptional partner. Elli, Ben and Markus helped us meet high-value local investors, connect with top-tier media via a PR firm, and tap into strategic mining finance networks. Their support has been instrumental — they’re among our most valuable investors."
“Ben & the Side Stage team were one of the most helpful and supportive investors on our cap table. They backed us early on and then hustled as if they were part of our founding team. I can't recommend them highly enough”
“Markus was there from the beginning and was incredibly supportive at each step of the journey. They saw our vision early, and backed us even before we’d really started building”
“The whole team at Side Stage is world class. As most of them are founders themselves they have a founder first mentality, which is refreshing. Fundraising with people who have walked the path led to a great outcome.”
%20-%20cropped.png)
“Markus backed us on day one and has been a key supporter and backer of Go1 throughout our journey. We value the relationship we have built with him greatly.”
“Side Stage have been great partners, bringing a wealth of experience and connections. They backed us early and have continued to support our company.”
“They’re wonderful investors and we’re really really lucky to have them on our cap table”
team
I’m a builder at heart — raised in the warehouse of a multi-generation family business in Alberta, Canada; where from a young age my first reaction to seeing a problem was to build a better way (often overnight).
I trained as an industrial designer, built my career as Global Director of Design Strategy at Ogilvy in New York, and later became a founder myself — an experience that gave me a front-row seat to the messiness, ambition, and creative problem-solving it takes to build something from sketch.
My path into venture has been non-linear — across design, strategy, brand, industrial systems, and consumer hardware — and over time, I realised that the work I find most meaningful is using those experiences to help other founders build.
I think the strongest investors have lived many lives, giving them a broad enough context window to be genuinely useful to founders.
At Side Stage, I’m drawn to founders with sharp instincts, strong conviction, and the confidence to make a call — then shift when new data changes the picture. I believe the great businesses of the next decade will be built by founders with taste. To me, taste is judgement shaped by lived experience: the intuition to know what will work and what won’t, the discernment to cut what doesn’t matter, and the confidence to make choices others may not yet understand.
I love working at the earliest stage, when companies are still being shaped in real time and the right thought partner can genuinely change the trajectory.
Best advice you’ve been given…
Play the long game. Whether it’s relationships, investing, or building companies, compounding only works if you stick around long enough.
I've always been drawn to businesses that are building something that truly matters. After working with several early-stage startups at Crowdcube I became hooked on discovering what it takes to run a start-up. This led me to combine my love of fashion with everything I’d learned about building a business from the ground up - that is how I opened up a shop front in London.
What brought me back to the venture world is the infectious nature of working with founders who have genuine energy, passion and resilience to build and scale something from nothing. I've always been drawn to the earliest stages, before things are polished, when the real work of finding product-market fit is still underway. Being part of that journey, from rough edges to real growth, is what I find most rewarding about this work.
I thrive on tackling new challenges, and there's no environment that demands that more than early-stage investing.
Outside of work, I'm probably attempting to kitesurf (emphasis on attempting) or plotting my next trip somewhere new. I'm always on the lookout for a hidden gem - whether that's a destination or a startup.
Something I wish I knew when I was starting out…
Stop worrying about what other people think. I wasted too much time fretting that asking questions would make me look incompetent. I’ve learnt to shift my mindset to recognise that a chance to learn from someone smarter is the greatest opportunity to grow. Curiosity is a superpower, not a weakness.
I grew up in London, and when I wasn't watching my beloved Tottenham Hotspur, I spent my teenage years hacking together websites and message boards, and using PayPal to sell tickets to parties. Old enough to remember dial-up, AOL and a smartphone-free childhood; young enough that Facebook and Twitter were omnipresent by university.
I studied Government & Economics at the London School of Economics, and whilst most of my peers headed into banking and finance, i had an overwhelming urge to build things. After surviving 18 months at Accenture I started my first business - a native ad platform connecting brands & publishers. I learnt a lot the hard way, then had the great fortune to meet one of the UK's best venture investors, Saul Klein and joined LocalGlobe - now one of Europe's best seed fun - as their first employee.
I spent two years at LocalGlobe before the itch to build something of my own came back, and launched Platoon — the "YC for creative talent.” A wild few years followed: releasing Billie Eilish's first track, Ocean Eyes, creating #Laugh the first art sculpture into space, and finding a generation of artists who'd go on to define the next decade. In late 2018, Platoon was acquired by Apple and i spent the best part of four years with a front-row seat inside the most successful company on the planet.
In 2021, with our second child on the way and Covid in full swing, we took the leap and moved the family to Sydney. I was blown away by the calibre of founders and builders in Australia, and ultimately inspired to launch Side Stage Ventures. It began as an informal group of founders backing other founders with our own capital. Today we're building the seed fund we wish we had when were starting out.
Best advice I’ve been given…
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel"
I studied biotechnology thinking I'd follow my scientist parents into the lab, but the part I kept gravitating toward wasn't the research — it was the building: working on the systems and processes that turn an idea into something that actually works in the world.
What I love about the earliest stage is that everything is still soft — the product, the team, the thesis, the brand. It's the maximum-leverage moment, and being genuinely useful at that stage requires you to actually get into the weeds with them.
These days I spend most of my time with founders, but the builder instinct never goes away. A good chunk of my non-meeting time goes into building internal tools and automations for how we run Side Stage — sourcing, diligence, portfolio support. We're an early-stage startup ourselves, a small team using software we build to maximise our surface area with the founders we meet and back.
Favourite part of being an investor…
The energy you get from founders who are so obsessed with solving a problem it's genuinely infectious.
I’m probably the only farmer–VC in Australia.
I grew up on farms across the US and Argentina, and I still spend a lot of my time in agriculture today. That background wires you a certain way—you think in decades, not quarters, and you get comfortable with things being outside your control. Weather doesn’t care about your pitch deck.
I didn’t come up through banking or consulting. I started by building and operating—working in agriculture and real assets, launching businesses, and learning the hard way what it actually takes to make something work. Some things did, some very much didn’t (BrickX being a very public lesson in timing, regulation, and execution).
Along the way, I found myself increasingly drawn to early-stage founders—the messy, chaotic, zero-to-one phase where nothing is certain and everything matters. That led to angel investing, early backing of companies like Amaysim and Airtasker, then co-founding Tenshi Ventures, and eventually building Side Stage Ventures alongside BridgeLane.
Side Stage is built around a simple idea: back exceptional people earlier than anyone else is willing to, and be genuinely useful when it counts. No theatre, no over-engineering—just high-conviction bets and a lot of time spent in the trenches with founders.
I’m particularly interested in businesses that reshape traditional industries or create entirely new ones—but more than anything, I care about founders who are all-in. The kind who would build their company whether funding existed or not.
Something I wish I knew when I was a founder…
Execution is everything. Great ideas are common—what’s rare is the ability to adapt quickly, stay focused, and keep moving when things don’t go to plan. Failure is part of the process, not a detour.
Ethos
Founders First
We always remember that we back founders. It is their business and we are part of the support team. We behave like founders — with passion, enthusiasm and belief — and we know that what is best for founders is best for us.
The Right Thing
We do the right thing even when no-one is looking. We build conviction and then have 100% trust in our team and our founders and we expect the same in return. We are a team, not just a collection of individuals. We take responsibility & share the wins and the mistakes together.
Safe Spaces
We create safe spaces for our founders, teammates and LP’s. We thrive on debate, we challenge our team and our founders directly and with honesty, but always caring deeply. No question is a stupid question and vigorous debate and disagreement is encouraged.
Force for Good
We believe that entrepreneurship is a force for good in the world. We back entrepreneurs who are changing the world — for the better. This might be through the core problem they are solving (such as Climate change or Health) but could equally be in the way they build and hire a diverse team or create opportunities for others.
Long-term games
Venture is a long game. We play long term games with long term people. We plan to be here for decades and we want to work with and invest in people who will be here too. We recognise the trust that our founders & LP’s place in us as long term partners and we don’t take this responsibility lightly.
Bias to Action
Done is better than perfect. Speed matters. We leave everything on the field. We are proactive, move fast and take the initiative. We like to GSD.
Crazy ideas change the world
Many of the world’s most impactful ideas sounded crazy at first. It’s so easy to attack new ideas and be right. The hard thing is to challenge, support, nurture and stake our reputations on new ideas.
team
ethos
We always remember that we back founders. It is their business and we are part of the support team. We behave like founders — with passion, enthusiasm and belief — and we know that what is best for founders is best for us.
We do the right thing even when no-one is looking. We build conviction and then have 100% trust in our team and our founders and we expect the same in return. We are a team, not just a collection of individuals. We take responsibility & share the wins and the mistakes together.
We create safe spaces for our founders, teammates and LP’s. We thrive on debate, we challenge our team and our founders directly and with honesty, but always caring deeply. No question is a stupid question and vigorous debate and disagreement is encouraged.
We believe that entrepreneurship is a force for good in the world. We back entrepreneurs who are changing the world — for the better. This might be through the core problem they are solving (such as Climate change or Health) but could equally be in the way they build and hire a diverse team or create opportunities for others.
Venture is a long game. We play long term games with long term people. We plan to be here for decades and we want to work with and invest in people who will be here too. We recognise the trust that our founders & LP’s place in us as long term partners and we don’t take this responsibility lightly.
Done is better than perfect. Speed matters. We leave everything on the field. We are proactive, move fast and take the initiative. We like to GSD.
Many of the world’s most impactful ideas sounded crazy at first. It’s so easy to attack new ideas and be right. The hard thing is to challenge, support, nurture and stake our reputations on new ideas.