He advised HBO’s Silicon Valley for five seasons, was part of a database team built and acquired by Apple, and helped run an “eBay for seized, stolen, and abandoned goods”—now tech veteran Andrew J. Nash is revealing his startup secrets.

In this episode of TechMates, we sit down with Andrew J. Nash, a tech veteran who has been coding for 50 years. After spending 28 years in the US at the epicenter of the Silicon Valley tech boom, he recently returned to Melbourne, Australia. He is now launching Austral Impact, a venture designed to bring the heavyweight experience of Aussie tech expats back home to supercharge the local startup ecosystem.

Andrew shares what it was like working directly with Mike Judge as the technical advisor for HBO’s Silicon Valley, ensuring the show’s tech was as accurate as the chemistry in Breaking Bad. He discusses the six-year journey of the FoundationDB team and the grueling two-year process leading up to their acquisition by Apple. He also explains his “singles and doubles” strategy, advising founders to banish the idea of building a billion-dollar company on Day 1. From investing in iPhone-hacking tech for law enforcement to building the “picks and shovels” of the AI revolution, Andrew’s 40-year career is a masterclass in tech execution.

🎬 HBO’s Silicon Valley: Working with Mike Judge to ensure the show’s tech was 100% accurate.

💻 The Apple Acquisition: The 6-year journey of the FoundationDB team and the 2-year enterprise sales gauntlet to get acquired by Apple.

🚨 “eBay for Seized Goods”: Helping run PropertyRoom.com, a reverse liquidity marketplace for the law enforcement community for seized, stolen, and abandoned goods.

📉 The “Singles & Doubles” Strategy: Why aiming for a $1B valuation out of the gate is a trap, and why you should engineer your startup for a trade sale instead.

🤖 AI’s 2nd & 3rd Order Problems: Why Andrew is building AI orchestration tools and focusing on the “picks and shovels” of the new agentic AI era.🇦🇺 Austral Impact: Returning to Melbourne to build a virtual ecosystem of veteran operators for the Australian market.

Connect with the Guest:

Andrew’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewjnash/

Austral Impact: https://www.linkedin.com/company/australimpact/

Learn more about NZVC:

Website: https://www.nzvc.co.nz

Mark Pavlyukovskyy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/

Hendrik Remigereau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/

Timestamps:

01:16 – Introduction & Advising HBO’s Silicon Valley

04:35 – Moving to the US & experiencing the 90s Tech Boom

12:11 – The early days of ERP, Oracle, and enterprise software

18:49 – Commercial successes: Visual Sciences, Adobe, & PropertyRoom

22:07 – Building the FoundationDB team & the 2-year acquisition by Apple

31:03 – Digital Identity, Trust, and AI Personas

34:44 – Startup failures & the “Singles and Doubles” exit strategy

39:31 – Leaving the US to launch Austral Impact in Melbourne

44:05 – The future of AI: Solving 2nd and 3rd-order problems

48:43 – Quick Fire: Selling a Bell Helicopter & advice to his 23-year-old self

If you enjoyed these 40 years of hard-earned startup wisdom, please hit the Like button, Comment with your favorite piece of advice from Andrew, and Subscribe for more high-impact conversations with tech leaders!

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