My guest for Episode 172 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures, Ben Grabiner.

There are few people in the Australian startup ecosystem with the background on both sides of the table as Ben!

He was an investor at Local Globe, one of the leading VC funds in the UK and Europe before jumping into starting Platoon, A platform to discover and develop the very best emerging creative talent, including the likes of Billie Eilish who they helped to discover and release her first song.

In 2018, Platoon was acquired by Apple.

After spending some time integrating and growing Platoon inside Apple, Ben is now back in the investment chair, as the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures.

In this interview we covered a range of topics including:

• Ben’s experience as a Co-founder of Platoon from discovering talent like Billie Eilish to ultimately selling to Apple
• Lifting the lid on what Ben looks for and their process when investing through Side Stage
• Why Ben thinks of VC as a product, and the specific inputs they measure to ensure they’re on track despite the long feedback loops
• How the Australian Venture Capital landscape has evolved over time, and why now is one of the best times to build a huge global business in Australia
• and much more!

Time stamps:

• 4:00 – Early career, working at LocalGlobe, founding Platoon
• 5:45 – Leaving Polonize to join LocalGlobe
• 6:50 – Launching an early stage seed fund in the UK
• 9:20 – Evolution of the Australian Venture Capital landscape
• 11:30 – Idea and model behind Platoon
• 18:00 – The two things Side Stage focuses on
• 19:15 – What Side Stage looks for when investing
• 21:30 – Investment decision process for Side Stage
• 23:45 – The decision to sell Platoon to Apple
• 27:45 – The experience Ben had post acquisition
• 30:30 – How Side Stage thinks about investing and building a fund from a product perspective
• 32:40 – Metrics and signals that Side Stage look for internally to make sure they’re on the right track
• 34:50 – The vision behind Side Stage

Our partners

A big thank you to Emily Casey for her help with research for this interview as well as to our partners for this 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

Vanta

Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.
Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.
Get started with a Sydney-based Vanta team member today, or watch a 3-minute demo to learn more, at vanta.com/playbook.

Links mentioned

Ben’s links

• Twitter/X
• LinkedIn
• Side Stage Ventures
• Side Stage Email

People mentioned

• Saul Klein
• Billie Eilish
• Eazy-E
• Denzyl Feigelson
• Alex Zaccaria
• Anthony Zaccaria
• Emily Casey

Companies mentioned

• LocalGlobe
• Platoon
• Apple
• LoveFilm
• Seedcamp
• Blackbird
• Soundcloud
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Linktree

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here

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