The Thing

Co-Founder

building the "media arm" for a growing industry
increasing AI and opensource literacy, for all. 
 Sponsored by👋 Jan

Host - unsupervised learning podcast 

Growth Contributor 

Wrivu Consulting

Growth Consultant 

Optible AI

criteria-matching AI for grant assessment use-case 🤖
supported founder-led sales/HR initiatives/event marketing

Head of Operations

Genvis

Growth Operations Coordinator 

Stealth Startup

Product Marketing Manager

Locafy

special projects monkey 🐒 for COO and CTO

Continuous Improvement Manager

Digital Operations Specialist

Business Analyst

on page SEO/CRO
clients included:
Ray White
Glam Corner
Hello Social
Web Profits

Marketing Strategy Consultant

Wordpress CRO Consultant

Hi, I'm Renee, co-founder of "The Thing". 
Vibe curator, nerd-to-normie api, fostering CBCs (community building communities) & post-internet building at The Thing (open project for community building infra & experimental media/events).

You might've come here because of a silly comment I've made, but I'm glad you stayed!

I'm always eager to speak with folks in the open-source space.

Renée Shaw

your mom @ tl;dv (meeting ai for orgs) 💙

i quit



I quit tl;dv as CEO. frankly, the team is too intelligent and it's making me look bad by comparison. 

the product keeps adding features people want like "a mobile app" and "multi meeting insights" as well as really transparent, GDPR compliant privacy settings. 

it sickens me. i'm used to operating under shaky-at-best (fraudulent at worst) principles and these people are making it difficult to be true to myself. 

before I left my role, I gave myself a healthy amount of equity. this reflects my sentiment on the direction they're taking. 

 while I am bearish on my ability to lead effectively at the company's helm, I am bullish on the direction of the company and will be returning to a humble position within the social media team (you may still refer to me as CEO).

CEO @ tl;dv (again) (meeting intelligence for orgs) 💙

interviewer: "what's your greatest strength?"
me:

LinkedIn is NOT a dating app!

please know that if you DM me trying to hit on me, take me out, send nudes etc...


I WILL pitch tl;dv to you and you WILL regret it.

"you got your job through Bumble?!"



i'm sick of people asking this, it's rude.
the truth is, I got my job through Hinge.

i wasn't going to share this


but i believe in being vulnerable and sharing my failings. 

they sent me this the day after my birthday too 🥲

think you know about OpenAIs CEO Sam Altman?
 
think again.

Sam is a famously private person with immense lore.

-at 19, he creates "Loopt"- a location sharing app

-in 2005 he got accepted to YC

-in 2012 Loopt was acquired for $43 mil

- in 2013 Sam was devastated by the MCR breakup and vowed never to paint his nails black again or wear eyeliner

-due to Sam denying his emo self, Paul Graham decided to declare himself Altman's "Daddy" and made him YC president.

- years later, the implosion at OpenAI with Sam's stepping down as CEO was due to him revisiting his alt boi era. (the board made him promise to not do it again)

billionaires are people too and we've got one who needs some compassion.
 
it's hard for him

next step is to ask for a loan from the government

"why do people pay attention to you when all you do is shitpost about that tl;dv place?" 


heres a checklist for consistent engagement 

- daily posts

- engaging with others 

-content strategy 

- have a boyfriend who works in machine learning at LinkedIn on the recommender systems (algorithm) and bully him into pushing my posts in the feed. 

just follow the steps and you'll take off.

if "meet the team" photos could talk.. 

ft Heather Barnett Adam Faulkner Sean Kennedy

in case you didn't know..



birds can speak and use words in context.
we should be more alarmed about this.
they could be leading teams and optimising their workflows using tl;dv but they don't.

they just eat worms and avoid taxes. 

i'm incredibly jealous.

i'm leaving!



i'm being replaced by Rebecca. she’s been at tl;dv for a year but hasn't been allowed to post. she’ll be running this account until Jan 2026.


as a challenge, she's doing 30 days of actual honest posts instead of satire.

coming up
• how I choose what to post
• what startup CEOs actually want
• turning jealousy into creative fuel
• breaking down a flop
• what I wish people posted
• mistakes I made this year
• self-inflicted startup obstacles
• what’s wrong with remote work

personally, I’m excited to see what Rebecca does

Sell Anything

Sell Anything works with SaaS and tech-enabled companies at pivotal points in their business
growth to support leadership, enable new revenue outcomes, and drive scalable and repeatable
sales processes.

Founder

Tractor Ventures

We are grateful to be the preferred Sales Growth Partner at Tractor Ventures. 

To date, we have worked with three portfolio companies -> Cynch Security, Standard Ledger and Code Like a Girl, all in Fractional Sales Leadership capacities. 

Our partnership with Tractor means we provide workshops to the portfolio on Sales and provide services to Founders and businesses who require assistance in their sales motion.

Growth Partner 

Build Club

I have been working with Build Club since late 2023 as a Sales Mentor for Founders in Build Club and was awarded Top Mentor of Season 0. I am also the official Sales Partner and Mentor for the Build Club accelerator, supporting early-stage founders on the journey from $0-$1m. 

I am grateful for the opportunities to work with Annie and Build Club members learning a tonne and being challenged with new ways of thinking about technology, User experiences and ways of working. Build Club is truly the fastest moving community in Australia.

Sales Partner and Mentor (Season 0)

Startmate

Founder in SM20 Sydney cohort with Mint.
Investment received from Startmate and Blackbird.

Accelerator Sales Mentor & Alumni Accelerator Founder S20

ThincLab

Thinclab is an early stage accelerator supported by The University of Adelaide. Thinclab exists to provide a safe space for Founders to launch, break, pull apart and accelerate their businesses growth with backing and guidance from industry experts and seasoned Entrepreneurs.

I am an Alumni of Thinclab taking part in their feeder program echallenge in 2016 and then operating my tech company mint from the offices between 2017-2019. I was hired by the team in 2022 to provide coaching and workshops on sales to support founders growing their business from $0 - $1m+ in revenue.

Sales Mentor 

The Community Collective

The Community Collective is a community for

community builders. The Community Cohort is an 8-week online

program where community builders, operators & founders level up

to build impactful communities together around the world.

thecommunitycollective.co

Community Cohort #4

Lightning Products ⚡️

Lightning Products create beautiful products faster than traditional development at a fraction of the cost without a single line of code.

My role in the business is to advise, coach and work with the go-to-market team on sales.

Sales and Growth Advisor 

My role is to help great founders build great products that have an impact on the world. 
If you want to learn more about lightning product, no code or how to build your first product, let me know!

Growth Manager

VIIZR

I worked with VIIZR across Growth in a fractional capacity. My core focus was supercharging sales and proving out and rebuilding go-to-market strategy with the sales, digital growth and customer team. 

VIIZR backed by Ford Motor Company is for hardworking professionals in the skilled trades, Ford Pro™ means dependability. VIIZR™ is a high-quality jobsite and back office app that's easy to use.

Growth Manager 

Weploy

In this role my responsibilities are 
-Lead go to market team
-Represent customer interests with product/development team
-Assist in validation of features and product roadmap
-Co-lead Acquisition team 
-Coach CSM’s & Account Executives 
-Develop sales strategies for new product lines

I was promoted to Customer Experience Manager  of neat by weploy to rebuild our Customer Experience journey and onboarding. In this role my key achievements were 
-Designing and building onboarding infrastructure for scale
-Recruit, train and lead GTM team (3 x remote head count)
-Develop ICP segmentation, Market Mapping & Analysis
-Increase retention rate from 15% to 60% trial to closed deal 
-Onboard first 25+ trial customers

Customer Experience Manager

2nd hire in SaaS Start-up division 'neat' by Weploy. I was hired to validate their new product lines and build the first go to market team. 
I delivered: 
-100+ outbound calls a week on Average 
-4+ new demos a week on AVG
-The first 12 paying clients for new product line neat 
-Daily remote software demonstrations 
-Product feedback from prospects and clients

Account Executive 

Mint - Moments in time

Mint helps aged care providers communicate service quality and experience to their customers and families. Mint was put into zombie mode after aged care spending was paused in 2020 during covid. 
Currently Mint still generates $4k MRR. 

As the founder my key achievements were:
-Onboarding 4000+ users 
-Generating $250k+ rev in a single year 
-Identify and build sales funnel from scratch 
-Lead idea to MVP, market validation, design workshops, UX workshops, pre sale validation
-Built national team of 5 people 
-Raised 2 rounds of capital from Angel investors and Australia's leading early stage investment funds Blackbird Capital and Startmate

Founder 

I am Co-Founder of Sell Anything and have spent the last 8 years in b2b SaaS taking new products to market.

Sell Anything works with SaaS and tech-enabled companies at pivotal points in their business
growth to support leadership, enable new revenue outcomes, and drive scalable and repeatable
sales processes. 

Need help email me sean@sellanything.io

Before Sell Anything, I was a Growth Manager and account exec for new SaaS companies and built my own company Mymint in Aged Care, helping 4000+ families across Australia stay connected with a loved one in care.

If you want to see my key achievements to date, check out my highlights in my experience section below. 

Past Acheivments /Awards not listed 
-Startmate Accelerator alumni, participating in Australias leading technology accelerator (Jan - April 2020)
-South Australian Young Achiever of the year 2019 (May 2019)
-Slingshot x HCF accelerator program (Feb 2019)
-Speaker at LASA Congress on Aged Care startups (Oct 2018)
-Semi-Finalist winner of the South Australian Channel 9 young Achievers award of 2018
-Student Entrepreneur delegate to Tel Aviv, Israel (January 2018)
-Best pitch Hacker Exchange, Tel Aviv, Israel (January 2018)
 
My success is the result of all the help others have provided me and I hope to pay it forward.

Sean Grealy

We've kept this one quiet but we’re stoked to officially welcome Zachary King to the Sell Anything team.


Zac was the first person I met in 2022 doing stuff that sounded like what I wanted to do.

Connecting via linkedin comments, gif banter and client woes we quickly had regular whatsapp yarns and a few walking calls.

Trust is the most important thing when working with startups and scale ups, especially in their most crucial growth stages, there’s a rare few who have been there and done it, but Zac is one of them. 

His experience as a founder and sales leader is what lets him: 

- Build revenue systems
- AI and automation workflows
- Grow GTM teams
- Launch products and services across regions, including Australia, the US, SEA, Hong Kong, India, and South Korea.

No stranger to the ecosystem and a community builder at heart with the fractional exec community we are pumped to have ‘the king’ in the team.

If you don’t know Zac, connect and ‘woo’ him on in the comments. 

p.s. what's that thing they say about never having a clear photo with your mates? the blurr will have to do!

Roy Head

Sean Grealy 💰🪓

I help B2B founders scale sales from 🚀 $0 to $5M revenue. We’ve helped 1000+ Founders and Builders across Australia. Join Australia’s first B2B Startup Sales Accelerator for founders growing $0-$1m 👇

No alternative text description for this image

We’re building the no.1 place for startups to grow $0-$1m and founders want in! 


•Applications flowing 
•Strategy calls booked
•Payments being made 

If you are taking B2B sales seriously in 2026 we’ve got you covered. 

So amped this AM starting my day sharing these updates with the team. 

Ping me for more info 🙏

Sperm, Awards, and AI. 


I often get asked what a week in the life of working with Startups and Scale-ups looks like, so here's a recap of what's been happening across clients and the community. 

Firstly, congrats to all the ThincLab ThincSeed founders who just wrapped up their program with a phenomenal pitch night at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide. The calibre of the pitches was high high, well done Alex Cross Zrinka Tokic, Charlton Ortega and Sanja Hendrick.

It was epic to see Founders and friends like Stephen Blakeney, Katya Komarova and Evan Safiri ⚡️ flex their tech, mission and traction. 

Seeing Stephen pitch was really special. We realised the other day we've known each other for nearly a decade around the traps of health/med tech, and now he's revolutionising fertility with the team at Affinyx. 

^ Investors, keep your eye peeled on these founders.  


Congrats also to Varshaa Jalagam and Daxesh Vadgama, the founders of Packaroo, who won the award for "Most Investible Startup" at RMIT's Pitch Night. Packaroo continues to go from strength to strength and we love to see it. 


Whilst on the topic of Community wins and Health Tech, GP's are now getting closer to a single system thanks to the partnership of MediBetter and Astra Health AI. 

What this means for practices, thanks to, Kate Taudevin (Medibetter) and Gunjan Wadhwa (Astra Health AI) is: 
✨ Simple, easy-to-understand MBS interpretation
⏱ Faster, more confident billing at point-of-care
🔄 A seamless workflow from consult → documentation → billing

^ Bloody brilliant 


At VALAI the trophy and award cabinet is ready to break Allys Todd and David McDonough secured a spot in the prestigious 2025 AFR Fast Starters list, a testament to their dedication to electrifying and decarbonising Australian homes and businesses. 

Although no selfie of an IRL meet with Liv Whitty (next time), Oho has been building the A team adding GTM firepower and rolling out product updates continuing to keep our most vulnerable safe. 

Finally, the joy of seeing Dylan Chau and Zoya Khan perform at an elite level and come into their own over the last month, whilst Roy Head and I work with Foremind as fractional Sales Leaders, has been special. 

Beyond the fact Foremind is making a real impact in well-being, performance and reducing stigma of Mental health when teams need support, Joel Anderson, Katie Ling and Louise Thompson are leading the company strength to strength. 

Roy Head and I often reflect on a week and can't believe we get to see people do their lifes work and make impacts that literally brings life, saves lives and revolutionise industries.

Late to Lovable, early to weird ideas.

So I give you… the Matrix x Xbox, inspired Sales Accelerator website nobody asked for.


A few weeks ago i was peak burnout and all I wanted to do was build stuff. 

And build with the intention of it never seeing daylight, so I took loveable for a whirl. 

Built this matrix inspired site and as a I circulated the concept to a few mates, fate stepped in.

Camille from ThincLab walked past wearing a leather trench coat.

I borrowed it, hit record, and here’s the result.

If you want to enter the system… let me know because once you see how to grow Sales $0-$1m, there’s no going back.


p.s did you laugh, cringe, wonder why this is on your feed? 


p.p.s the funnest part of this was dialling in the green hues, floating 0 & 1’s as well as the green orby effect

For 3 years, we’ve have committed to travelling Australia and 'showing up' for customers, partners and people that inspire us. 


This year you'll find me repping Sell Anything at: 

Adelaide for University of Adelaide Australian eChallenge Awards Gala dinner (3 December)

Melbourne for Aussie Founders Club Xmas Party (4 December),

Sydney for Techstars Tech Central Sydney Accelerator Demo Day (8 December),

Perth for West Tech Fest (9-12 December)


Although I am not making it to the Gold Coast, sorry Jason Atkins and Kane Templeton, I gotta spread the love, the energy will be huge across all four events. 

Cheering on the next gen of founders at eChallenge, like myself a product of Uni ADL's world class entrep programs, thanks to Zrinka Tokic Manjula Dissanayake and Sabina Zeynalova's  hard work. 

Supporting Megan Luttrell 🤝 and AFC, a community we have got so much from and are stoked to be supporting live and direct in Melbourne. 

Getting my 'wooo' boy on at Techstars demo day. It's phenomenal to see what Christie Jenkins, Grace Kessels, Gwen Masonsong 🪴 have delivered in this cohort. 

This is one not to miss, especially as 🐶 Mitch Sigley, Nathan Croxton and Amy Stevens take to the stage 🔥 

And then yes, the 'Gaz and Grealz' (me and 🙌 Garry Williams) are back in WA for West Tech Fest and ready to embrace the wind, high tech yarns and most importantly the hospitality of the West alongside other regulars like Josh Garratt, JD Sheard and Josephine Tay who make the annual trip. 

If you've never been to West Tech Fest you have to make the trip happen. Kali Norman, Sarah Kahle and Danelle Cross curate something truly special from city to surf and everything in between. 

Gaz has also organised 'AFTER DARK' a storytelling event about 'HARD THINGS' bringing together tech founders and builders in spaces not often discussed - such as the taboo, sub-cultures, wild frontiers etc - and even just hard things about building businesses ft Renée Shaw


p.s. if you can't make WestTech but are in the goldy checkout Startmas, annual lawn bowls on December 10th run by TORUS  Wade Foxx 👱 


p.p.s 
that was a lot of words, where will I be seeing everyone?

Celebrating nearly 12 months partnered with Tara and the team at Firmable.


In a world of bloated tech stacks, having the right tools is paramount, and if you’ve worked with us, you already know Firmable is always in our playbook. 

Our founders use it to build clean lead lists, map their ICP, and actually talk to the right customers.

If you haven't had to work top of funnel in sales, let me clue you in on why firmable is so crucial. 

In 2021, taking a niche product to market in Australia, I was forced to use the world's worst lists, I called: 
- An akubra store
- Private defence line (oopsie) 
- Funeral homes 

But never our ideal customer, because for years, global tools have treated Australia like an afterthought. 

Firmable built something genuinely APAC-first - accurate, high-quality data that actually helps founders find their people.


Right now, they’ve got a double credits promo running via Tara’s post. 
Go jump on it.


And yes, if you’re joining our Feb Sales Accelerator cohort, you’ll be using Firmable as a key tool to map your top 200 next customers. 

It’s a game-changer.

p.s. we love an iconic blurry sxsw photo

In 2019 I was staring at our bank account with 4 weeks runway left, devastated. 


What to do? 

Shot gun spray the market? 
Pray for contract signing? 
Start raising? 
Fire people? 
Get a job? 

All I could think about was what I could have done differently 9-12 months earlier. 

How I would’ve moved faster. 

Dropped my ego and asked for help. 

Written out the unknowns and found the expert to help me solve them. 

The mistake I made like founders I speak to weekly is thinking I had time to workout it alone. 

Like I could be an expert in something thanks to Google search, free events and a few audio books while getting my reps in.

I was wrong. 

As a founder you either acquire the knowledge from an expert or bring an expert in to execute. 


Don’t think you’ve got time.  

Don’t wait until you have 1-3 months runway left. 

Give yourself space to get it right with the  correct knowledge. 

If you are a founder trying to find PMF and grow  $0-$1m with real B2B traction we’ve got your back. 

Our Feb Sales Accelerator is for you and built from our teams 30+ years B2B Sales experience.

We’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to and our founders have gone on post program to: 
- raise $2m 
- Close $100k in new revenue 
- Make their first sales hire 

Beyond this photo being hilarious I chose it because it is the best example of a founders reality -> smiling for PR and photos whilst kicking as hard as you can to keep momentum under water. 

You don’t need to do it alone 🙏 


p.s we survived another 2 years because I got help, closed enterprise deals and that traction got us into Startmate

It's 33 degrees, rufus du sol sunset session plays in your head phones, a new application hits slack, Lovable notifies you've had 100 visitors to your new site and a stripe payment comes through... 

euphoria! 

and then, a brilliant marketing idea comes to life. 

record a scroll through of the new website founderledsales . io in front of the garden shed...

the result? 

a beautifully awkward reminder that not all ideas are good ones. 

Anyway, check out our new site I built in Loveable over the last few Friday nights to scratch that creative itch.  Hit 'visit website'.

“You flew over just for this?!!!” 


Me: “Bloody oath I did!”

24 hrs in MEL for Aussie Founders Club x mas party. 

A heap of fun seeing so many good humans and meeting new people, as well as virtual friends Thea Ngo Albert C. IRL!  

It’s been a weird year for many: 

Founder break ups
Funding wins 
Moats lost to fast moving scale ups 
Extremes of burnout and big health shifts 

The best part of the night was enjoying the shared growth of other leaders at the 3-5 year stage of their biz. 

Diving into the challenges at this stage and the path to take it to the next level. 

You can learn a lot from people 1-3 steps ahead and help others 1-3 steps earlier on the journey. 

More of this in 2026 and a huge congratulations to Megan Luttrell 🤝 who makes this all happen. Grateful for her energy and drive - both building some real 🙏

p.s too many people to tag but you are all special 

P.p.s I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing the Sell Anything logo on a banner  

P. P.p.s officially in the commons health club funnel thanks to ⚡️⚡️Dave McManus⚡️⚡️ , what have you done to me mate 😂 $18 smoothies

When we say 'more than sales', we mean it.

A national community of founders from bootstrapped to pre-seed and seed stage. 

Weekly 3-hour AMA to discuss anything from CRM's to demo flows or live deal negotiations. 

Weekly workshops where you build your V1 Sales Playbook based on proven frameworks embedded in Aussie Scale-ups from Seed to Series A. 

An active community with people building a pipeline and sharing learnings. 

'Sales' is the word everyone associates with money in the bank. 

But really, 'sales' are an outcome of nailing early-stage commercialisation. 

You don't have to work it out alone, apply for our Feb cohort now: 
-Building with the right community
-Learn from 30+ years of B2B Sales experience
-Support from people who have scaled $0-$12m and exited

p.s. Don't take my word for it; see what some of the best founders and sellers I've worked with had to say Stef Cola Chris Rickard Zoya Khan 

p.p.s. Yes, these testimonials are printed out in the office for a daily dopamine boost

taplio

The Battle

Renée Shaw

Sean Grealy

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRenée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSean Grealy's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Renée Shaw

Sean Grealy

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Renée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSean Grealy's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRenée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance