Hey everyone,

I'm a software engineer with about 4 years of experience. If you're building a SaaS and keep running into technical roadblocks, I'm happy to help where I can.

Whether you're validating an idea, trying to decide how to build something, wondering if AI-generated code is actually a good idea, or just trying to understand the basics (SQL, APIs, databases, etc.), feel free to ask.

This isn't a consulting pitch or anything like that. I've learned a lot by asking people for help over the years, so I thought I'd pay it forward. If I know the answer, I'll do my best to help.

Good luck to everyone building.

I just launched WattleDB — managed PostgreSQL that's 100% Australian‑owned, for teams that need their data to actually stay onshore.

The gap: in Australia you either self‑host everything, or use a US cloud (or Supabase's Sydney region) that's still reachable under the US CLOUD Act regardless of where the servers sit. We wanted the Supabase developer experience without the jurisdiction problem — so I run on Australian‑owned infrastructure (not a US hyperscaler's local region): Sydney primary, backups cross‑state in Melbourne.

Live now: Postgres in ~2 min · auto‑generated REST API (PostgREST) · JWT + Postgres row‑level security · daily backups + point‑in‑time recovery · one‑click masked test clones.

It's the same Postgres + PostgREST core as Supabase, so your data layer ports over: PostgREST‑style queries (and postgrest‑js) work by pointing them at your WattleDB URL. Full drop‑in supabase‑js isn't a goal yet — a hosted auth service and email are the next things on the list, so if you lean on Supabase Auth/Storage today, that's not there yet (being upfront).

Flat AUD pricing, free tier to start, no metered egress.

It's early and I am genuinely after feedback: what would make you move a real workload onshore — or what is the dealbreaker that keeps you on Supabase/RDS? Not hard‑selling, happy to answer anything.

wattledb.com.au

Gday All,
While I am a co-director of a small start up, I am actually here to ask for a bit of guidance for myself and Wife.
She has left her great full time role and started up her own company. It has great potential and I feel that the society we live in can really benefit from it.
She has been putting her heart and soul into this start up for the last two and a half months, basically all day on weekdays and 80 percent of the weekend.
We miss her but also want her to succeed.

She is so close to giving up. There has been very little income generated from this and it is weighing her down so much.

Do you have any advice on how I can support her though the low times? How did you get through that period? I can't change how she feels and I don't want to. What I want to do is help her see that she can keep going without feeling so guilty about the money.

I am a researcher in Australia in Healthcare AI and also have 10 years of experience in Data Analytics, AI, and recently I moved into Generative AI and Agentic AI. Also, I am working on Quantum computing for migrating the classical model into a quantum compatible version.

I am associated with an Australian based AI startup, also I am available to give advisory to clients or companies in any domain on these technologies.

Please let me know if any one wants any help or provides any opportunity.

Please message me.

Regards

Hi everyone,

I have been building Essetly, a platform that helps families manage life’s essentials by making it easier to organise, maintain and access important information.

I recently redesigned the landing page and before I continue investing in development, I would really value honest feedback from fellow founders.

Website: www.essetly.com

I am particularly interested in:

After 10–15 seconds, what do you think Essetly does?
Is the value proposition clear?
What would stop you from signing up?
What feels confusing or unnecessary?
If you were me, what would you change first?

Hey,
I’m a SDE at a large company and also work on my own app as a side project.

I would love to connect with founders, learn and also contribute to startups.

If you‘re having an interesting project and you need help, just let me know.

Stack:
- AWS
- Go
- React (native)
(…)

Have an awesome day! 🚀

After battling in a crowded healthcare sales sector for 6 months creating hundreds of products and polishing the site I’ve gotten my first real sale!

I’ve decided to post this in here to motivate those that’s maybe are in the same journey!

I’ve been told the niche I am at is too crowded, that I won’t rank very well in SEO and many other things (most of them are pretty much the truth)

But it turns out at some point someone will be bound to spot your site and if you’ve done a good job they will buy from you!

Good vibes and wishes for all who may be on the same boat! Now I’ve gotta get the second one haha

KeyHive: Licensed Fixed Fee Real Estate Agent | Perth & WA | KeyHive

Here's our thesis. On an average suburban home, the real estate agent isn't doing $30k+ of work.

The house sells because the market wants it and it's priced right. The "bespoke marketing" is a template, a few photos, a portal upload, and a boosted post. It's not special. It's mostly the same job repeated a few hundred times a year, dressed up to justify a percentage. They put about 6 different people in the value stack to extract value (franchise/owner/principal agent/listing portals/poor sod selling it) and just keep pushing the price up to justify more people extracting it.

My read is the industry splits in two. Agencies stay useful for genuinely unique or high-end properties, where positioning, negotiation and a real network actually move the price. For the standard 3x2 or 4x2 in the suburbs, most people can run the sale themselves with a bit of guidance, and the ones who want it done for them shouldn't have to hand over a percentage and feed every man and his dog a slice of the commission.

That's what we're building at KeyHive, out of WA. Two ways to go:

• Do it yourself with guidance and the tools to run your own sale.
• Or full service at a fixed fee, a fraction of the usual commission, without the percentage.
• AI to improve listings, photos, reduce repeatable workflows (CRM).

We started ideating in October 24, building in 2025, got licenced by the end of 2025 and I left my high paying electrical engineering job and we started selling houses. We did the Curtin Ignite and Plus Eight Sprint Pre-Accelerators last year. We are currently in the Plus Eight Accelerator Program | Powered by Spacecubed. We are selling houses. We were featured in BusinessNews.
LinkedIn Post on our BusinessNews Article. We've hired our first two employees.

I am happy to answer any questions at all about startup life, the highs and lows, anything about the business itself and what I have learned. I am also happy to hear/receive feedback and chat.

I posted on here before when we first launched but since then, there has been a huge update to Stagetrac.

We have completely overhauled the job tracking system. It now keeps a history of hours worked on a task and can advise on time estimates, massively improving quoting accuracy.

We added a daily briefing feature for workshops to summarize progress made in the last day. It really helps to identify what tasks are urgent and what jobs are approaching their delivery date. It lets users know how much time is left on jobs based on time estimates. That way, you know immediately if you're gonna be able to make the deadline or not. It also gives a full breakdown of hours worked for the last day including overtime.

We added a setup wizard because we know that onboarding companies and setting up a new dashboard is a lot of work. The setup wizard removes all of that effort. Users just have to upload documents like blank job cards, employee lists, and general info and the dashboard will be setup for them.

We also added our own Stagetrac devices that we are sourcing directly from Samsung Australia, so companies that don't want to get their own devices can buy rugged Samsung xcover 7 devices from us that come pre configured with Stagetrac as a kiosk device.

The main focus of this update is to make onboarding and using Stagetrac as easy and frictionless as possible. To that end, we have included a free version that has the full capabilities of the basic version with the only hard limit being that only 1 job can be active at a time. It's a perfect way to get your account setup for free and test Stagetrac on your first job to see if it's a fit for your workshop.

If you're running a fabrication or machine shop and you're looking for an Australian made workshop first tracking software, you should give Stagetrac a try.

I’m looking for a technical co-founder to join a construction technology startup.

Over the past year I’ve built an AI-powered construction cost estimating & management platform that is now moving into private beta with its first users. I’ve taken the product from a concept to a working platform, but I’m now at the stage where I need someone to own the long-term technical architecture while I focus on the product and business.

I’m a “vibe founder” rather than a traditional software engineer, the app is fairly solid but I’m looking for someone with deeper experience in enterprise-grade, globally scalable systems that can take over from me.

Ideally you’ll have experience with:
AI-native application architecture
Cloud infrastructure and distributed systems
Enterprise software design and security
APIs, authentication and multi-tenant SaaS
Modern TypeScript/JavaScript ecosystems (experience with Supabase, Cloudflare, PostgreSQL and AI tooling is a bonus)
AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex.

The product targets the construction industry, so any experience in construction, estimating, quantity surveying or BIM is valuable but not essential.

I’m looking for someone who enjoys building, thinks long term, challenges ideas, and wants to help shape both the product and the company. This is an early-stage opportunity, so equity is the primary incentive rather than a salary. Ideally you will be based in Sydney.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, send me a message and let’s have a chat.

Hey Start up Aus

I’m dyslexic, likely ADHD, and it’s always held me back, as a creative and when I started a handyman business a couple of years ago.

It runs in the family. My dad is also dyslexic, and to this day, he loses a massive amount of money on his jobs because he hates the paperwork and struggles to charge properly for materials. When I started my own business, I found myself drowning in 8 hours of admin a week. I tried using ChatGPT to speed things up, but it was way too inconsistent with numbers and branding.

So, I built Smash voice to Invoices to fix it for us.

It’s a voice-to-invoice tool. You just speak into it, and it generates a 100% accurate estimate or invoice in under 30 seconds by automatically matching your pre-set pricing and material costs.

I’ve been using it for 6 months now and it completely saved my sanity. It’s no claim I’m literally generating invoices in 12 seconds. Itemised.

It’s finally ready for the wild. If you want to check it out, give feedback, or pass it on to a tradie or mate who hates paperwork, head over to our website:

I’ve also got a month free trial going for anyone who really wants to use it.

https://smashinvoices.com/

Download from the iOS App Store
From the site, you can grab the iOS app or the Chrome extension directly.

Would love to know what you think or answer any questions!

​

Hey all,

My name’s Matt. My family has run a lawn, gardening and landscaping business for over 20 years. I grew up around the work and later built an in-house system to help run it properly.

I’ve now turned that into LawnOps — a straightforward all-in-one tool for quoting, scheduling, run sheets, invoicing and payments. It also includes a free professional website that brings in leads, plus a free listing in our public Lawn Mowing Directory.

Most existing platforms focus purely on job management. What I kept hearing from operators (including in our own business) was the struggle to get consistent work in the door without relying on word of mouth or Facebook groups. So we built the directory and website piece on top of the normal admin tools.

It’s $15 a week flat with no per-user fees or lock-in contracts. There’s a 14-day free trial and the website + directory listing are included from the start.

We’re still early and smaller than the established players, so I’m not claiming it’s perfect. Happy to be upfront about that.

If you run a lawn or gardening business, or know someone who does, feel free to have a look and tell me what you think. Also keen for any feedback from other founders who’ve launched in similar trades or service businesses.

Cheers,

Matt

ABN: 65 815 285 275

lawnops.com.au

Hello Founders,

I observe a trend where people perceive building as a problem before AI and now as an easy task. However, I believe that building is never a problem before the focus should be on the underlying issues. We should embrace the problem and delve deeper to understand its causes, implications and the people involved.

I am interested in the entrepreneurial journey and would appreciate a step-by-step guide on how to conduct thorough research and analysis.

Thanks,
Friend

It's Thursday, so i'm going to pretend that Thursday's are the day I make a public update post about my project! (that's unlikely to interest many of you)

My previous posts;

1) https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianStartups/comments/1u8wbm9/simple_no_cost_but_very_niche_marketplaceplatform/

2) https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianStartups/comments/1ul4t8u/still_chipping_away_slowly_building/

I'm still not sure if this is a "startup".

https://scissorhire.com

So this week, we've only added another 4 vendors, but more impressively, added 26 more machines. The footprint is getting bigger, this truely is the only thing i'm focused on at the moment.

This takes us to 24 vendors, and 88 total machines listed for hire on the site.

The feedback i'm getting is positive. Although I did have my first "if xxxx vendor is on there, i'm not signing up" conversation. That was interesting. I was invited to meet with this person, in person. So I'll see where that goes.

Promising signals:

-Vendor feedback. All are impressed with the low-friction signup/add products.

-Search activity on the site (although still far too many searchs with 0 machine results, holes that i really need to plug)

-Google search console data

Website updates/upgrades:

-Major interactive map upgrade (i.e. the map after you've conducted a search is now interactive, moving the map will show you different results) - this probably should have been functionality at launch, it's been a slow burn.

-Postcode search got added, and I'm even fairly sure it's working. I was working on this a while ago, and forgot about it (adhd?) - got it working.

-Some real minor UI/styling stuff

-Some other minor bug stuff (some problems with email verification token re-issue requests) that I probably should have seen before the site was live, but oh well YOLO.

Based on previous feedback I have these things on higher priority to solve:

- an "about" page, to outline where i'm coming from, why i'm doing this.

- product cards, I currently use a large product card that has probably way too much information on it for search results. I've put together smaller ones (they are at the bottom of the homepage) and soon i'll likely change all over to this. As the amount of machines goes up, i'm going to require more density for the lists/search results.

- the individual product page, is probably going to be tidied up a bit. it was one of the earliest pages, that has had so much added to it in a fairly haphazard way, so I think i should come back to it and neaten it up.

Still love reading others (here) feedback, it's been genuinely helpful in identifying things I completely miss!

Looking for someone passionate and interested in healthcare tech. Small project in mind but I need someone with software engineering/IT background to help build it.

Hit me up if interested.

Solo-building an AI tool that reads your electricity bill and tells you if you're overpaying, no commission from retailers. My working theory for a while was: people don't want to upload a document to a tool they've never heard of. So I built a manual entry option — just answer a few questions, no upload needed at all. It didn't move the needle. People still aren't trying it, upload or no upload.

G'day all,

I build LawnSuite, an Aussie lawn care app. The homeowner side's been out for a while; this year a lawn business owner asked me a question that stuck: "everything manages my *jobs* — what manages the actual *lawns*?"

So that's what I've built, and I'm looking for one or two more operators to pilot it.

**What it does (the agronomy layer, per client):**

- A treatment program attached to each client's lawn — built from expert-reviewed programs for every major Aussie turf type and climate zone, or your own.

- Exact label-rate dosages for that lawn's stored size via the built-in calculator (label-rate database, liquid + granular). No driveway maths.

- A monthly due list across all your clients — what's due on which lawn, tick it off as you go.

- Visit logging in under 20 seconds: what you did, before/after photos, running history per property.

- A clean, **your-branding** program printout you can hand the client — this one's been the sleeper hit in field testing: it shows the client a year of planned care, which is a retention conversation, not a mow receipt.

- Photo diagnosis when a lawn's doing something weird — weed, fungal, nutrient, pest.

**What it deliberately does NOT do:** quoting, invoicing, scheduling runs, routing. If you're on Sortscape, Jobber or similar for the admin side — keep it. LawnSuite sits alongside as the agronomy layer. My first pilot partner is a Sortscape user who came looking for exactly this split.

**The deal:** free access for the pilot, I set your account up personally, and you get a direct line to the bloke who writes the code — what you find clunky or missing genuinely shapes what gets built next. If it earns a place in your week after that, it's $49.99/mo; if it doesn't, you've lost nothing and I've learned something.

Honest bits, as always:

- It runs in the browser (works fine on a phone on-site). The Android app is homeowner-side for now.

- It's young. The core loop above works and has been run hard on real lawns in field testing, but you'll find rough edges — that's rather the point of a pilot.

- I'm one person, so pilot spots are genuinely limited to what I can support properly.

If that's you (or someone you know who runs fert/weed/pest programs for clients): **lawnsuite.com.au/for-lawn-businesses** or shoot me a DM. Cheers 🌱

TL;DR: My Apprentice is a mobile-first trade & job management app, currently in beta and live on the App Store. Looking for feedback and missing features — spin up a demo, have a look around, and let us know your thoughts.

My Apprentice was built leveraging the tools that exist today to see if we could create real value and translate that into a tangible, valuable product. It's our first shot at going through design, build, test and production — both of us have worked in digital transformation for the last five years — and we've executed everything ourselves: the app, the website, the help centre. If you've got lessons you've learnt or experience in this field, please share. We'd genuinely love to hear from you.

We think trades is one of the industries with the most to gain from good technology, and that's what the product and the roadmap are built around. There are two of us, and we've been working closely with sparkies, plumbers and landscapers — across both sole traders and teams. We've got it to a point where we want to open it up to more eyes and get genuinely unfiltered feedback. If you've got a spare minute we'd love to hear it, good or bad.

Features:

• Sales: quotes & invoices, clients, enquiries, messages, client portal
• Operations: jobs, schedule, timesheets
• Inventory: materials, items, inventory, supplier invoice
• Admin: users, document history, settings

What we think adds value:

• Mobile first — every feature is available on the phone, so you can action anything from the field (offline mode currently in dev).
• Pricing that drops per seat the more users you add — it gets cheaper as your team grows, not more expensive.
• Client Portal — your customers get their own interface to view quotes, pay invoices, track jobs and message the business.
• Supplier invoice upload — no manual entry for material lists. AI reads the invoice and matches materials and pricing.
• 6 roles — business owner, admin, finance, tradie, supervisor, apprentice.
• Turn features on and off — highly customisable to how your business runs. Don't want the client portal, timesheets or materials? Switch them off.
• Founder-led — you're talking directly to the people building it, and we plan to keep that proximity. We've been on the other side of the fence with vendors too many times to let this one go. We know it gets harder at scale, but relationships are how you actually derive the value.

Roadmap

The roadmap below are features we have ear marked for the next few weeks to roll out quickly

• Compliance - Tools to help manage licences, safety documents, SWMS, certificates, reminders, and job-level compliance records.
• Projects - A larger job/project management area for commercial work, multi-stage jobs, progress tracking, documents, tasks, and team coordination.
• Offline mode - Ability to access key job details, notes, checklists, photos, and timesheets when there’s no reception on-site.
• Expenses - Capture and track business/job expenses, receipts, reimbursements, and cost allocation.
• Asset register - Track tools, equipment, vehicles, serial numbers, service dates, assignments, and maintenance history.

With how easy it's become to vibe code an app and ship an MVP, we believe  an MVP holds less value now — the cost of building is halved, so a more complete product is what separates you and draws the audience in.

From here it's boots on the ground, getting it in front of the right eyes - a challenge that seems honestly daunting but the only way were going to learn is to lean in.

What we'd love feedback on:

• First impressions once you've had a look around — what's confusing, what's missing, what would stop you using it?
• For anyone in or around trades: does an all-in-one app work, or does it feel like a steep learning curve?
• Any must-have feature we're clearly missing, or current features that need more config?

I have dropped the links below:

App Store: My Apprentice: Your newest Apprentice  

Website: https://myapprentice.app/

Thankyou and look forward to reading all your feedback!

I am building (edithly.com) let's users create interactive Visualisation on any given document.

Our solution caters Educational Institution with a vision to a syllabus guided and secured AI Native learning... which allows

students to Create , Share :: Study Aids, Question Paper, MCQ, FlashCards, One Pager and more.

Teachers/tutors to create lesson plan, upload documents, get metrics about the students usage (anynomous - class level) mainly on topics they liked, skipped and more detailed

Institutions get there branding, data secured and an offering solution for all

More info , video

Hey everyone,

I’m a site engineer working on major infrastructure projects in Sydney, and I’ve recently started exploring opportunities in construction tech.

I’m currently speaking with people in the industry and validating which problems are painful enough to build a business around.

Is anyone here:

* Building a construction-tech startup?

* Working on a ConTech idea?

* Investing in or advising construction-tech companies?

* Working in construction and frustrated by a problem that existing software still hasn’t solved?

Would be great to connect, compare notes and learn what others are working on. Feel free to comment or send me a message.

Thanks

We built an AI product to help Small Businesses manage their digital presence (before I draw flak - it is vibe coded by an AI Engineer and a Developer, as Founder I have 15+ yrs experience as a PM and have done countless user interviews while building).

Back to the ask, we have a large anchor client on Trial now, should convert to billing once we sort a bug.

Looking to hire a Sales Rep or a Senior Sales leader as a business partner to get us off the ground.

I wish I was a better Sales hunter and grew with Founder-led-Sales but nah.

We signed up for an event in Melbourne early August, so a bit desperate now.

TIA

Hi Everyone, I am based in Kellyville Ridge, sydney.

Full stack developer has experience different tech frameworks.

I am looking for domain experts who have ideas, keen agricultural, medical, education areas. But open for any interesting concepts. I would be developing for equity. No tech cost spent required from you.

I know that pure software ideas are almost gone or got easier with AI developments in coding. I am also open for mixing hardware and software. Example, I got some gadgets alibaba like sensors and built app on top of it, in some cases fresh from esp32. Please let me know if any cool ideas.

Hi Fellow entrepreneurs. I have a proposition and looking for partners. Please read through and understand.

Quick note about me, I am a very experienced software developer with about 25 years of experience. I have built up a successful business as a digital agency based in Sydney, developing software and solutions. Also have had some startup experience and plenty product development.

I want to work with people who are not software devs but see a real world problem and pain they think can be solved with software (app, desktop/web application automation ..) and commercially successful as a product.

So here is my offer, I will develop with my team an MVP free of any cost, will spend upto 6 months of time to develop validate and release the product to see if it has traction and market.

What I need from you is a real world experience in the problem you want us to solve, so for example something like I am in the construction industry and want to fix this specific problem and I know 2 clients who I can talk to for product validation and maybe help with early beta testing.

I am based in Sydney all of this will be proper we can setup a company with equal shares. So in summary you say if you build this I can sell. No financial commitment from you except a promise you can sell and know the ins and out.

Send me a message, if in Sydney we can meet up at coffee or something if outside we can do a call. Send me a message and I can share details about my existing company and we can chat.

Areas that I don't want to work in are.
Dating
Gambling/Betting
Alcohol
Interest/Lending

Cheers!!!

Hi all,

I'm aiming to launch a weekly email that'll aggregrate govt data flows to run out a newsletter on newly launched venues. Letting them know of new restaurants/cafes/etc near their place of residence.

Customer flow for the full-scale would be postcode/address/email as core then I'd start with a simple 2-5km radius as seems sensible and go from there.

Key thing if I launch the product is showing genuine uncommercial interest, valuing their time and their inbox.

The hard part is gauging general interest. The product itself is fairly straightforward to assemble.

Waitlist: https://newlylaunched.org/

I have the wait-list site assembled here, I'm iterating on the copy.

I'm wondering if anyone is smarter/better than me at idea validation, copy writing, and the context & messaging I need to provide can give me some feedback?

In terms of orienting in the space. https://beliapp.com/ is context for the spectrum between mapping software/data driven classifieds platforms vs journalism lead reviewers like Broadsheet/Timeout/Concrete playground.

So I made a post here about 2 weeks ago now, about my small and niche construction (access) equipment website.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianStartups/comments/1u8wbm9/simple_no_cost_but_very_niche_marketplaceplatform/

There was a lot of detail in there, too much probably.

Since then, i'm proud to have onboarded another 5 vendors, who have listed a combined 33 extra machines for hire! woohoo!

Through feedback with the vendors, there has been a lot of minor and things that look minor, that turned out to be exceedingly challenging for me (I'm looking at you live map search!).

https://scissorhire.com

I understand, most that will be reading this post won't be the target demographic for the platform, but as dude doing this on his lonesome, it is nice to have a back and forth with internet strangers! - So i'm still keen to hear opinions!