Now relaunching · Melbourne / Sydney

The Australian home for AI-first founders.

Four operators rebuilding what Australia lost during COVID: a place where founders, customers, capital and advice sit in the same room. The podcast launches this week. Roundtables are already running. The community opens alongside.

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What YBF is

We run three things.

YBF was the original Australian startup hub. Matt met his first paying customers there while building Donesafe. Steve taught the hiring courses there that became The Nudge Group. Then COVID hit, Matt and Steve rescued the brand from a boat after the first lockdown, and the Pillars carried the torch. Now we're rebuilding it.

01 / Podcast

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter

Monthly recording, weekly drop. Four founders working through what's actually working in Australian startups right now. No sponsor reads pretending to be insight.

Listen and read the episode notes →

02 / Roundtables

Closed-door dinners at The Pillars

Three to five vetted founders in a room with eight to ten senior buyers from ASX 300 companies. Thematic by function: HR, procurement, cyber, finance, AI adoption. Not pitch nights with a wine glass.

03 / Community

A room that doesn't end at twelve weeks

Founder circles of six to eight, run YPO-style. Content and frameworks built by people who have done the work. The accelerator follows when the first three layers are humming.

Join the waitlist →

The manifesto

Seven things we believe, and we'll hold ourselves to them.

Operators teach. Consultants pitch.

The reason most Australian programs do not produce founders worth backing is that they are run by people who have never built anything.

Customers are proof. Funding is just promise.

A first paying ASX 300 customer is worth more than a Series A announcement.

Twelve weeks is not a business.

Founders don't need a graduation ceremony. They need a room to stay in. We're building the room, not the cliff.

Stop apologising for being Australian.

Per dollar invested, Australia produces more unicorns than almost anywhere on earth. We have the talent, the tax structure and the entry prices.

Read the full manifesto

The team

Who's running this.

Four operators who have built, sold, invested and run programs at scale. No consultants. No talking heads.

Matt Browne

Black Nova VC

VC and operator. Founder of Donesafe and Whispli. Managing Partner of top-decile Black Nova VC.

Steve Grace

The Nudge Group · Stride Equity

Built the hiring company that recruits for the country's best startups. Investor through Stride Equity.

David Kenney

Epic Execution

Operator and connector. Builds the corporate pipeline and the room. Thirty years of deals.

Jeremy Cabral

Jeremy Cabral Advisory

Advisor and builder. Co-founder of Finder. Scales teams across Australia and the Philippines.

Read the full story

Listen, come to a dinner, or join the room.

The podcast is live this week. The community waitlist is open. Roundtables are running now.

Listen to the podcast Join the community