Ep213 – Rob Phillpot (Co-founder – Aconex) on scaling Aconex to a $1.6B exit and launching a $50M founders fund

Jun 27, 2025

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My guest for Ep213 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rob Phillpot.

Rob and his co-founder Leigh Jasper have played a huge part in shaping Australia’s tech landscape, building Aconex into one of the country’s most iconic companies, taking it public in 2014 and ultimately selling it to Oracle in 2017 for $1.6 billion.

Since then, Rob has dedicated his time to advising startups, supporting philanthropy, and investing through his family office, Gravel Road Ventures. Most recently, Rob, Leigh Jasper, and A Cloud Guru founder Sam Kroonenberg teamed up to launch Glitch Capital, a $50 million founders fund backing the next generation of global tech companies.

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, including:

Aconex’s journey to a $1.6B exit and overcoming multiple near-death experiences
What it was like to sell a company when he didn’t want to
Why advising founders is 20% strategy and 80% psychology
The secrets behind building a high-performance culture
Balancing big ambitions with family life
What Glitch Capital looks for when backing startups
And so much more.

Timestamps:

00:01:50 Rob’s background
00:06:27 Meeting Leigh Jasper: did school-friends always know they’d start a company together?
00:09:15 Switching tracks: advice for people stuck in a career they don’t love
00:11:07 Startup ecosystem in 2000 and the early days of Aconex
00:13:46 Staying positive: how did Rob and Leigh keep morale when things looked bleak?
00:18:22 Strength in vulnerability
00:21:58 Cultivating Aconex’s culture and common founder mistakes
00:37:58 The real story of the Aconex sale
00:43:13 Life after the exit: what did stepping away from Aconex feel like?
00:49:48 What Rob looks for as an investor
00:58:13 80% psychology: common founder struggles Rob sees as an advisor
01:00:48 Family, fitness and cooking dinner: balancing startup life with home life
01:07:05 Philanthropy focus: why Rob created the Gravel Road Foundation and how he thinks about giving

Our partners:

A big thank you to Ben Leach, Andrew Barron and Bill Phillpot for their help with this interview!

Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show:

Scendar

Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com

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Links mentioned:

The Komo Club – Details here

Rob’s Links:

People mentioned:

Companies mentioned:

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here

The post Ep213 – Rob Phillpot (Co-founder – Aconex) on scaling Aconex to a $1.6B exit and launching a $50M founders fund appeared first on Startup Playbook.