Technology should serve humans during the moments that matter most in our lives. 

I co-founded Vera to help families care for their ageing parents. After building products and teams at Google and Airtasker and advising and investing in numerous startups, I am applying my experience to solve this massive, often overlooked, problem. 

As well as my work at Vera, I co-host The Startup Podcast. TSP aims to provide actionable advice to founders looking to build a Silicon Valley-style startup, wherever they are in the world.

Meet Vera: https://vera.guide

Listen to The Startup Podcast: https://tsp.show


*My connection policy (tl;dr don't sell me stuff)*

I like to use LinkedIn as a way of building a community of interesting and interested people in technology and the technology industry. If you are:

-A software developer, product manager, designer, marketer anywhere in the world
-An organisational leader or manager in engineering or at a tech company
-Otherwise heavily involved in the tech industry

I'd be happy to connect! Even if we haven't met.

Even if you're not one of those things I'm probably happy to connect, as long as you don't immediately turn around and try to sell me something. If you do, I consider that a breach of trust and will block and report you.

Yaniv Bernstein

Sunday night. I'm on a plane, making multiple nontrivial changes to my product using Claude Code Web.

Don't listen to the haters, we live in an age of miracles.

Helping people care for ageing parents | The Startup Podcast

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I had a beer with one of Australia's best founders on Friday night, running a 9-figure company that will become a unicorn in the nearish future.

He was late, and sent me a text: "I have to wait for my agents to finish."

Ten minutes later, he showed up to the pub with an open laptop. "I figured I would just bring my agents with me". Every couple of minutes he would glance over at the screen to see what they were up to.

I wasn't mad. I understood. After all, I had kicked off two changes on Claude Code Web on my phone while I had been waiting.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. And here is a fact:

Every one of the best CEOs, CTOs, and business leaders I know is spending more time building than they have in years. They are AI-pilled, they are obsessed, and they are LOVING IT.

I've been in this game for 20 years now, and this does feel different. The way startups work is changing, and the change is coming from the top, driven by founders who have rediscovered the joy of building.

LinkedIn took away my 🤖 emoji, so I've updated my profile picture to include my little robot friend.

There's a club that more than 10% of Australians are members of...

...yet nobody talks about it.

...most of the members don't even know they've joined.

...and like the Hotel California, members can check out any time you like, but they can never leave.

It's Club Sandwich, the club for folks in the sandwich generation: juggling, work, kids, and ageing parents.

At Vera, Melissa and I are incredibly proud to have created the Club Sandwich podcast and community, hosted by the incomparable Sarah Macdonald.

Serious topics, discussed with warmth and humour by Sarah and our wonderful group of "Clubbers". 

Episode 1 dropped today, and is SO good. Get it in your ears now!

We're back baby!

After a couple of months off, The Startup Podcast is fresh in your feeds for 2026. With AI upending everything in startups, the discussions we are having with some of the best startup folks in the world are more important than ever.

Thanks to our marvellous sponsors .TECH Domains and Vanta for making this season possible.

Still reading? Why are you still here? Go get it in your ears now!

I know a number of you are jonesing for the 2026 season of The Startup Podcast to start.

Not long now! But in the meantime, here's a fun conversation I had with the marvellous Scotty Allen 🚌 on The Bootstrap- Startups from Scratch Podcast about what I've learned so far about building a startup in the AI era.

Tomorrow's episode of The Startup Podcast is with a founder who's started 10+ companies out of Silicon Valley, went through YC, was mentored by Paul Graham and Sam Altman, and regularly sits in rooms with Fortune 500 CEOs and unicorn founders.

She told me that this is the wildest time she has ever seen in Silicon Valley.

A few things we talked about:

The private anxiety among successful people in SF is the highest she's ever seen. 

She has a single interview question that she says now matters more than anything else on a candidate's resume.

She personally shows up at CEOs' offices and gives them three hours to build a working app. No delegating.

She told me why the era of loud, self-promoting founders raising big rounds is giving way to something much quieter.

Drops tomorrow. You do not want to miss it (trust me).

Mike Scott

After 20 years as a founder, building, scaling, and exiting two companies, including a high seven-figure exit I realised something most entrepreneurs don’t talk about:

👉 You can build a thriving business and still feel completely depleted in life.

That insight led me to co-found The Intentional Leaders Network (ILN), a curated network for established business owners who want to build ambitious businesses and live intentional lives.

Today, my work centres around helping leaders grow without losing themselves:

🐘 ILN — The Intentional Leaders Network
Curated circles of business builders who hold each other accountable, push each other forward, and grow together through world-class facilitation and proven tools.
🔗 theintentionalleaders.com

🎯 Growth Coaching & Facilitation
I work 1:1 with founders and leadership teams (typically $1M–$50M revenue) to sharpen strategy, align teams, and execute with confidence. I’m the first Certified Bloom Growth™ Coach in Australia.
🔗 smbmastery.com.au | bloomgrowth.com

💻 Warp Development
Investor & APAC Director at Warp, a 120-person software & AI consultancy. We help companies build scalable technology that drives growth. We do this by builidng software and software teams for partners. 
🔗 warpdevelopment.com

Why this matters

Growing a business with ambition is hard.
Living with intention is harder.
Doing both alone? Nearly impossible.

That’s why ILN exists — and why I do what I do.

🎙 Host of How to Be Moderately Successful
🚀 Built & exited two companies (including a high seven-figure exit)
🐘 Co-Founder of ILN — focused on whole-life wealth, not just business results
📈 Investor & Director at Warp — leading growth in a 120+ person tech business

If you’re a founder who wants to scale without losing yourself along the way,
DM me or apply at theintentionalleaders.com

Founder and Principal

Expert business improvement coaching for SMB founders and leadership teams.

People.
It’s all about them. 
Kim Whitaker (eMBA) is a great people and her work, vibe and energy is awesome.
She has a cool dog too. 

Not much more to this post. Just felt like celebrating a good human.

Mike Scott 🇦🇺🇿🇦🐘

Business + Life Performance Expert | Director @ Warp Development | Co-Founder of the ILN | 2X Exited Founder

I did a fireside chat a few weeks ago for EO Accelerator Cape Town EO Cape Town and we spoke quite a bunch about values and behaviours. 

I must have mentioned our Nona values because of few people from the event reached out asking for me to share them again. 

So, as a little throwback and for some inspiration here are the values that a small(ish) group of people came together around to  build what I experienced to be the best culture that I have ever been a part of.

Values should create choices and trade offs and should drive behaviour...if yours are not doing that, you've got work to do.

#leadership #culture #growth #values

Another excellent two days spent with The Incentive Company in #capetown. 
And, in my old hood no less (#noordhoek). 

We spent the first day getting deep into looking back over 2025 and setting the growth goals and priorities for 2026 and H1. 

We spent the second day, doing the harder work (because there is no end point) working on a pre-mortem and then shaping the identity statements, behaviours and habits that each of the leadership team see the need to evolve into to be better leaders. 

This work is hard, but very necessary and this team is right at the top of my list of clients I love working with because they have that very rare combination of very high capability and execution and low ego. 

A treat as always guys and girls, see you in July. 

Until then...go smash it!!

#leadership #growth #intention #business

To all the coaches in my network 🙌🏼

Most coaches struggle to build a sustainable income level to allow them to singularly focus on coaching as an income source. 

I got to $25k per month in my first quarter and have grown that substantially since then and am oversubscribed. 
My latest NPS results are sitting at 88. 

I’m considering working with a handful of coaches as a group that are serious about the craft to help them to build a practice that is sustainable and profitable. The group structure is for two reasons:
1. To make it financially viable for a few coaches. 
2. To accelerate growth and learning through shared experience and knowledge. 

I’ll probably drop some future messages about this but if this is something that you are interested in and serious about and want to be on the wait list, drop me a DM or tell me in the comments. 

#coaches #learning #growth #business #performance

Spent the day with Leigh Parsons doing final interviews for a key hire for the next stage of growth for the business. 
I don’t often get to spend time at my clients offices (most of what I do is better suited to offsites) which is something I want to change.

There is something about being in the day to day that gives you a better feel for how things operate. 

4 x 2 hour intense final interviews and and an offer has already been accepted. 

LFG 🚀

#leadership #growth #people #structure

50 day streak of meditating and setting an intention each day. 
This really moves the needle for me. 

It’s just one of those fundamental things that build the foundation for seemingly unrelated success. 

Prioritise sleep for 6 months. 
Walk 20000 steps every day for 6 months. 
Meditate everyday for 15minites for 6 months. 
Don’t drink alcohol for 6 months. 

Do this and watch your life change. 

PS - Not only are these things free but they will generally save you money. 

Happy Sunday - make it count.

Growth is not pretty.
Tired.
Alone.
Cold.
Dark (ok the sun has just come up).

This is the part that seldom spoke about, but this is the part that matter.

Whether it’s your body that you’re working on, your mind, your family or your business, most of the time the work is boring, hard and unglamorous. 

But, if you can fall in love with this part, the results take care of themselves. 

Doing this work is hard. 
Doing it alone, is very very hard. 
We built the The Intentional Leaders Network so that you don’t need to be alone in your business and life journey.  

Life is short, spend it with people who will give you the best chance of levelling up.

taplio

The Battle

Yaniv Bernstein

Mike Scott

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The Battle

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Mike Scott

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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);}Yaniv Bernstein's LinkedIn Performance

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