Very First Win

Success doesn't start with a headline. It starts with a first win.Very First Win takes you inside the exact moment top founders, investors, and operators realized they could actually make it. Each episode unpacks the deal, decision, or breakthrough that changed everything, and what that moment taught them.Hosted by Rob Hilmer of Goanna Capital, with guests spanning founders, investors, and industry leaders shaping what comes next.New episodes weekly.

Very First Win is a business podcast hosted by Goanna Capital, with 21 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Goanna Capital hosts Very First Win, a business show with 21 episodes published.

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  Very First Win

  Public Raised $220M With Almost No Revenue. Then Came the Reset | Leif Abraham

  Sep 17, 202615 min

  Leif Abraham is the co-founder and co-CEO of Public, the investing platform he launched at the end of 2019. In this episode of Very First Win, Leif tells Robert Hilmer about the stretch from 2022 to 2024 that reshaped the company. Public had raised $220M in early 2021 with very little revenue. The easy money pulled the company toward vanity metrics and the wrong hires. Leif explains how they cut the team, went all in on serious long term investors, and why product velocity went up about 5x while headcount barely moved. He also gets into the tenure data behind Public's tight core team, why he keeps process to a minimum, and how Cody, Public's in-house AI engineer, turns Jira tickets into finished fixes. Very First Win is hosted by Robert Hilmer, founder of Goanna Capital. Leif Abraham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leifabraham/ Robert Hilmer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthilmer/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-first-win/id1896315027 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoannaCapital The companies mentioned do not represent all portfolio companies purchased, sold, or recommended. Readers should not assume an investment in them was or will be profitable.

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  Very First Win

  Karl Stefanovic on the First Break That Started 26 Years on TV

  Jul 30, 202610 min

  Karl Stefanovic spent 26 years at Nine, 21 of them on free to air, and won a Gold Logie along the way. On this episode he sits down with Rob Hilmer to talk about the very first win that got him there. Robert Hilmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthilmer/ Listen to Very First Win: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0cTzEJW3juIZEBnyswNl9c?si=674c885122c64a70 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-first-win/id1896315027 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoannaCapital Very First Win is produced by Goanna Capital, a private equity firm backing frontier technology companies. https://goannacapital.com/

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  Very First Win

  He Counted Cards Until Casinos Banned Him. Then He Built SignalFire

  Jul 2, 202610 min

  Chris Farmer got banned from casinos for counting cards. That same obsession with statistics and risk turned into SignalFire, the data-driven venture firm he founded in 2013. In this episode of Very First Win, Chris tells Robert Hilmer how a lucky blackjack run in college sent him down the rabbit hole of modeling the game with a UC Berkeley professor, playing semi pro for years, and learning when to lean in on a bad beat versus when to walk away. Those lessons became his framework for startup investing: is the deck backloaded, or are you just chasing losses? They also get into: How to know when to double down on a struggling company vs cut your losses The team, product, technology, timing framework for hard decisionsWhy agility is at a premium when no one can see more than a few months ahead How AI is reshaping startup teams, entry level hiring, and what a defensible moat even looks like now Chris previously worked at Bessemer Venture Partners and General Catalyst before launching SignalFire. Follow Robert Hilmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthilmer/ Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-first-win/id1896315027 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@GoannaCapital

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  Very First Win

  He Did 30 Pitches a Day in London With No Money. Then Got Into YC.

  Jun 25, 202615 min

  Chaz Englander has built and sold two companies before most people figure out what they want to do. First was Fat Llama, a peer-to-peer rental marketplace that got into YC and sold for $45M. Then a last mile grocery delivery business he started three months before COVID that sold to GoPuff. Now he's building Model ML, a workflow automation platform for finance that raised $100M in its first year. In this episode, Chaz talks about doing 30 pitches a day in Canary Wharf for a £5K check, getting the YC acceptance call mid-Uber ride while sitting next to the driver, physically tracking down a stolen drone to save his first company, and what he means when he says perseverance has to be earned, not blind. What we cover: Why he started pitching strangers in Canary Wharf with no money and no tractionThe Uber ride where Aaron Harris called to say YC was inChasing a drone across London at 22 years old thinking the company was done"Getting into character" as a founder and what that actually means Why he and his brother started a third company after two successful exits Follow Chaz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chazenglander/ Follow Robert Hilmer: https://linkedin.com/in/roberthilmer/ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0cTzEJW3juIZEBnyswNl9c Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-first-win/id1896315027 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@GoannaCapital

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  Very First Win

  Andrew Parker (Papa Founder): He Almost Deleted His YC Interview Email

  Jun 18, 202621 min

  Andrew Parker is the founder and CEO of Papa, the companion care platform pairing older adults with vetted "pals" who help with rides, tech, paperwork, and the thing nobody puts on a care plan: loneliness. In this episode, Andrew tells Rob about the moment that changed everything. He almost deleted the YC interview email at 5am, fished it out of his trash, and walked into a room where he was convinced everyone was smarter than him. Papa went on to become one of the hottest companies in its YC batch. We get into the bet that built the company (cutting bathing and toileting to scale companion care nationally), getting Medicare to cover a service that didn't exist five years ago, and why Andrew thinks you have to be a little irrational to build anything real. What we cover: The deleted YC email and the drive home convinced he'd lost Why he leaned into the two things he's great at and ignored the other 98% Building the "Uber of caregiving" by rethinking the rules Getting Medicare Advantage to cover companion care Being comfortable in the abyss and "absorbing" when things go against you Very First Win is hosted by Rob Hilmer, founder of Goanna Capital, and explores the early, defining moments behind the people building the future. Listen everywhere: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0cTzEJW3juIZEBnyswNl9c Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/very-first-win/id1896315027 YouTube: @GoannaCapital Rob Hilmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberthilmer/ Andrew Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-parker-30904417/

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