Miranda Stewart’s career is limited to working for the University of Melbourne and the Australian Taxation Office. She’s never run a startup, raised venture capital or had to risk her own money to pay a workforce. Miranda claims “founders won’t leave” despite evidence to the contrary: • California just recorded $1.5t of capital loss as wealthy founders anticipated the introduction of a wealth tax – forcing the government to cancel its plans for it • Norway lost $84b in private assets after the introduction of a wealth tax – the government expected it to raise over $200m per year, instead losing over $900m per year • The United Kingdom hiked its capital gains tax on shares by 4% - resulting in capital gains tax revenue plummeting from $33b in 2023 to $26b by 2025 When countries treat founders, investors and builders as tax cattle, many do leave – you’re talking about the most ambitious and action-oriented people in society. Not all, not always, and not just because of tax. But when social cohesion is fraying, the system feels unfair and government isn’t holding up its end of the bargain, punitive taxes are just another reason to consider your options. So as our country continues to get poorer because people like Albo and Chalmers sit in echo chambers filled with people like Miranda – remember who to blame. If you’re still here.

An Australian Senator just called @SpaceX a “Ponzi scheme” during a Senate inquiry into Capital Gains Tax changes. This one moment tells you everything about the regulatory disconnect facing Australian innovation. The inquiry into policy that will impact millions of Australians and reshape how wealth is created got just TWO DAYS. @GeoffWilsonWAM fought hard to present the market’s reality. The real signal? Policymakers are operating in a completely different universe from the people actually building things. If the people shaping Australian economic policy do not understand the basic mechanics of innovation and investment, this country will get left behind. Massive respect to @GeoffWilsonWAM for campaigning relentlessly. @wholesaleinvest submitted early, and we are sitting at #17 on the list. The huge volume of submissions shows the ecosystem is wide awake to the threat. youtube.com/watch?v=_OXMvAl-…

AI stock bubble? And is investing in space a good idea? x.com/i/broadcasts/1nJOLLdgj…

I've been running a task on Codex for the last 90 minutes, and it has to be one of the most impressive things I have ever seen.

I sat in three capital raising conversations yesterday. Completely different sectors. A property fund. An AI roll-up. A deep tech IP play. Every one of them came back to the same two things. Track record. And communication. Not the deck. Not the valuation. Not the TAM slide that the founders spend three weeks perfecting. Investors decide whether they trust your track record and whether they believe you will actually keep them in the loop after the cheque clears. Here is what I keep seeing. Founders pour everything into the first one and treat the second as an afterthought. They nail the story, then go quiet for two months. Our investor data backs it up. 75% of investors rank track record as the number one factor in their decision. But the relationships that lead to follow-on cheques and warm referrals are built on the boring stuff. The monthly update you did not feel like writing. You cannot fake a track record overnight. Communication is a choice you make every single week.

We surveyed 260 real investors and founders, the people who actually write the cheques and build the companies, about the proposed CGT changes and the Budget’s impact on Australia’s private capital ecosystem. Not opinions. Not modelling. Raw, current behaviour. Here’s what 110 investors 150 founders told us (this became our official Senate submission): - 92% of investors are extremely or highly concerned - 93% of founders are extremely or highly concerned - 91% of active investors have already reduced their willingness to back Australian companies (62% materially) From just 74 investors who could quantify it: $87M to $173M in capital already delayed, paused or redirected offshore. (Scale that nationally. Sobering.) Life sciences, medtech and deep tech are getting hit hardest. 72% of investors are pulling back. The exact sectors the government says it wants Australia to lead. 95% of investors and 90% of founders said the CGT changes worry them the most. Why? Because early-stage investing is a game of portfolios. A handful of winners pay for dozens of losses. The new rules tax the winners on real, inflation-adjusted gains but still provide no relief to losers. Several respondents calculated that effective tax rates on portfolio returns could exceed 100% in realistic scenarios. Even worse: the 30% minimum tax floor treats a once-in-a-cycle exit like salary. That’s not how risk capital works. The offshore signal is deafening 81% of investors say they are now more likely to deploy capital overseas 57% of founders are already actively considering relocating, expanding or establishing in Singapore, NZ, US or UK One founder put it bluntly: “This Budget makes Singapore a more rational home for Australian innovation.”We’ve operated in this ecosystem for 16 years. Never seen sentiment this unified. Capital is mobile. Companies can move. The flywheel that took 20 years to build (founders exiting and becoming angels, early employees taking equity and starting the next wave) can be broken in 18 months. The message from the people who actually fund and build Australian innovation is crystal clear: Target housing if that’s the goal. Don’t turn a housing reform into a broad tax on the exact capital formation the country needs to grow. Canberra, are you listening? @GeoffWilsonWAM @CampbellNewman @sbxr

It's not being talked about much on X, but Google and DeepMind are really succeeding at the moment in their Workspace product suite. Google Docs is phenomenal with the way it utilises AI and references information within Google Drive.

🚨 LIVE: Australian founders & investors - your voice is needed RIGHT NOW. We’re running two live surveys on how the Federal Budget’s proposed changes to the Capital Gains Tax and R&D Tax Incentive will affect the innovation ecosystem. The early results are already alarming:73.4% of founders & executives are extremely concerned about the impact on Australia’s startup and scale-up ecosystem. - 76.1% of investors are extremely concerned about the impact on private capital. - 46.8% of founders say uncertainty has already materially affected their decisions. - 59.7% of investors have materially reduced their willingness to invest in Australian private companies. - In life sciences, medtech & deep tech → 71.6% of investors are pulling back. This is happening in real time. We are making a submission to the Senate Inquiry, but we need way more responses. Takes 3–5 minutes. 100% anonymous. Founders & Executives → Complete the survey here: [survey.zohopublic.com.au/zs/…] Investors → Complete the survey here: survey.zohopublic.com.au/zs/… Please do it now, then share this post with your founder networks, investor groups, WhatsApp chats, Slack communities, and anyone active in private markets/innovation/startups in Australia. The more responses, the stronger the case we can make. RT tag founders and investors who need to see this.