In this episode, Brendan sits down with Sam to reflect on Raiz's 10 year journey, the lessons learned along the way, and what financial education in Australia should really look like.
The conversation covers the highs, the hard calls (including pulling out of Southeast Asia), and the philosophy behind building a product designed to take customers from cradle to grave. It is essential listening for founders, fintech operators, and anyone who cares about how technology can shift behaviour at scale.
We dive into:
💡 The original mission behind Raiz and why breaking down barriers to investing mattered
💡 The pivot from Acorns Australia to Raiz Invest and the road to IPO
💡 Why Raiz expanded into Indonesia and Malaysia, and why they came home
💡 How the product evolved from 5 portfolios to 9, including crypto, property and Plus
💡 Why "the decision not to make a decision is a decision" hits harder than it sounds
💡 The 3 month retention rule that shapes how customers experience the market
💡 Brendan's view on wealth as a right, not a privilege, and what Australia could learn from the US Trump accounts model
💡 Practical lessons on teaching kids the value of money, chores, jars and all
A sharp, honest conversation about building something that actually changes people's lives.
Check out Raiz Invest here: https://raizinvest.com.au/
#ScaleUp #SoundBytes #ScaleUpRecruitment #Fintech #Raiz #FinancialEducation #AustralianTech #Investing
14 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
EP21: Ben Chinwah "The $60 Billion Problem No-One Owns Until It's Too Late"
Host Ben Chinwah, Founder and CEO of Laminar Pro, discusses the $60 billion workplace safety problem businesses ignore until it's too late, revealing the high stakes of compliance and personal liability.
4 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
EP20: Sam Carigliano - "The Sky's the Limit"
In Episode 20 of ScaleUp Sound Bytes, Sam sits down with Sam Carigliano, Co-Founder and CEO of SkyCiv, to unpack how a simple beam calculator built at UNSW turned into a global structural engineering platform used in 160+ countries.
No funding. No hype. Just solving a real problem and sticking with it.
🚀 From a University Lab to 15 Million Projects Solved 🚀
What happens when two civil engineering students can’t find the right tool online… they build it themselves?
Here’s what Sam shares:
🔥 Why the best startups begin with a problem you’ve actually experienced
🔥 The power of “sell before you build” and testing demand with a fake buy button
🔥 How trust becomes your biggest barrier in a risk-averse industry
🔥 Why quality and QA had to overtake speed as the company matured
🔥 The shift from generalists to specialists as you scale
🔥 What it takes to win over engineers who have used the same software for 20 years
They also dive into:
🔥 Bootstrapping in a slow-moving, highly regulated industry🔥 Building a global team organically across time zones
🔥 Why comfort and habit are harder to disrupt than competition
🔥 The 1% rule and how compounding improvements shape long-term growth
🔥 Hiring for curiosity, proactivity, and culture fit
One of the biggest takeaways?
Start. Don’t overthink it. Don’t build something “cool.” Solve a real problem. The rest compounds from there.
If you’re building a product, leading a technical team, or navigating the shift from startup hustle to sustainable growth, this episode is packed with practical lessons.
#StartupJourney #Bootstrapped #EngineeringLeadership #ProductMarketFit #ScaleUp #TechFounders #SoftwareEngineering #SaaS #ScaleUpSoundBytes #ScaleUpRecruitment
Inside a recent episode
EP22: Brendan Malone - "Raiz Your Game"
Published 7 May 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] But when we first, I think the biggest change since we launched was we always had vision. We always had a North Star that we wanted to take the product through. Yeah. I see raise as a cradle to grave exercise. I want people to be in the, you know, raise kids and I want, and there's no reason why they can't have one of our product offerings. Yeah. It's a full lifestyle journey. And the way I've mapped it out is in an Excel spreadsheet. I've got the ages across the top and I've got what financial products does an individual need down the, down the left-hand side of the rows. And you can sort of get a chart, gray it out and go, yeah, okay, cool. […]
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