Occasional, practical notes for founders. No fluff, no filler.
I'll only email things worth reading. Unsubscribe anytime.
Brands & companies I've built with
Bio
I co-founded and sold two tech startups. The first, TrueLocal, started in Sydney and was sold to News Limited. The second, YourLocal, launched in Ireland during the global financial crisis, reached the number two market position within four months, and sold to Independent News & Media. Both exits taught me what actually works when building and scaling businesses.
I documented those lessons in seven business books that cover the startup lifecycle from idea validation to scaling past 100 people. The books distill what I learned the hard way into frameworks other founders can use without making the same expensive mistakes.
Between and after those ventures, I worked in executive and advisory roles at ASX-listed companies including REA Group, Deep Blue Company, and Vicinity Centres. I built and ran program offices, led product councils, and managed complex integrations including a $25M acquisition. This work showed me how to apply startup thinking to larger organizations without losing speed or breaking what works.
I combine formal business training with hands-on startup and corporate experience. This lets me move between both worlds and deliver results in either. I work with early-stage founders who need someone who's been through exits, and with established companies that want to move faster without adding chaos.
If you need someone who understands both the startup grind and corporate reality, and can bridge that gap without the usual friction, we should talk.
Books
The latest release
An Australian Founder's Startup Story From Dublin
Once you've built a business and sold it, sitting still is hard. In 2007, Murray took a proven model to Dublin in a joint venture with one of Ireland's biggest media groups — then the Global Financial Crisis tore the economy apart. Part story, part field guide, written for the founders coming up behind him.
Read moreHis first six books were about what it takes to build a startup. His seventh is what it's like to live inside one.
What I do
Two exits. Six books. Every stage of the founder journey, done in practice, not theory. Advisory comes in three formats: a single 90-minute session, a monthly retainer, or a defined project engagement.
Straight answers from someone who has been through it — validating the right problems, building products people buy, raising capital without giving the company away, and growing without watching the culture fall apart.
Most founders build the wrong thing first. I help you find a problem worth solving, validate it before you waste months, and build a product customers actually want to use.
Raising capital is not about the pitch deck. I help founders prepare their story, financials, and investor pipeline — I've been through this process myself and wrote the practical guide on how to do it.
Growing fast breaks things. Culture, processes, team structures, and quality all come under pressure between 10 and 50 people. I help founders scale without losing what made the business work.
Most founders think about exits too late. I sold two companies, including one to News Limited. I help founders 12 to 24 months out get the business, the story, and the numbers into the shape buyers expect.
The team is either your biggest asset or your biggest problem. I help founders hire the right people, build teams that perform under pressure, and create a culture that holds together as you grow.
Complex projects fail for predictable reasons: unclear scope, weak governance, poor stakeholder management. I've led large-scale delivery across startups, ASX-listed companies, and government programmes.
Contact me
If you feel we'd be a good fit working together, drop me a line.