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The team

Who's running this.

Four operators who have built, sold, invested and run programs at scale. No consultants. No talking heads. The story of how YBF came back, and why now.

The story so far

The original startup hub, brought back.

YBF was the meeting place. Enterprise customers, founders, capital and advice, all in one room. Matt found his first paying customers, partners and investors there while building Donesafe. Steve ran 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 while it was quiet.

Now we're back. Four operators with one job: rebuild the bridge between Australian startups and corporate Australia, and run the support model the country's been missing for a decade.

The operators

Four founders. No consultants.

Matt Browne

Matt Browne

Black Nova VC

VC and operator. Founder of Donesafe and Whispli. Managing Partner of top-decile Black Nova VC. Knows what it takes to build a venture-backed business in Australia.

Steve Grace

Steve Grace

The Nudge Group · Stride Equity

Built a hiring company that recruits for the country's best startups. Investor through Stride Equity. Knows talent and knows founders.

David Kenney

David Kenney

Epic Execution

Operator and connector. Builds the corporate pipeline and the room. Thirty years of deals, a thousand corporate relationships.

Jeremy Cabral

Jeremy Cabral

Jeremy Cabral Advisory

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

Hear them argue it out.

Four episodes already recorded. The clearest way to know if we're for you is to listen.

Listen to the podcast Read the manifesto