# ANZ Territory Plan Jack Hummelstad ## Narrow Starting Hypothesis Start with one wedge only: **ANZ maritime, subsea, and defence autonomy companies running real-world trials and beginning to scale their own customer base.** Do not begin with "robotics companies" broadly. Do not begin with all field robotics. Do not begin with mining, agriculture, warehouse automation, drones, and defence at the same time. The first GTM bet is that Alloy's best early ANZ customers are not pure R&D teams. They are robotics companies with customers of their own: operators, defence programs, asset owners, growers, miners, ports, utilities, or inspection customers. As those customer relationships scale, they need a repeatable way to prioritise, search, explain, and report on mission data. Maritime/subsea autonomy teams are a strong starting wedge because they have the sharpest combination of: - High-value field missions. - Multi-modal sensor data: video, sonar, telemetry, navigation, diagnostics, logs. - Expensive post-mission review. - Defence/customer reporting requirements. - A growing need to prioritise customer issues, incidents, requests, and evidence packs. - Local Australian proximity for founder-led, face-to-face selling. - Enough sensitivity and complexity that generic observability tools feel insufficient. The goal of the first 30-45 days is not to sell the whole market. It is to validate whether this wedge produces repeatable conversations with the same pain language: "we are scaling customers and field deployments, but our data workflow still depends on manual review, tribal knowledge, and one-off scripts." ## Initial ICP ### Primary ICP: Maritime/Subsea Autonomy Builders Companies building, selling, testing, or operating autonomous underwater vehicles, uncrewed surface vessels, maritime autonomy software, or defence maritime systems where external customers or program stakeholders now depend on mission outcomes. Must-have signals: - Runs sea trials, harbour trials, customer demos, or defence evaluations. - Has paying customers, funded programs, pilots, design partners, or formal evaluation partners. - Collects mission data from sensors, autonomy stack, navigation, cameras/sonar, logs, and operator notes. - Needs to compare mission outcomes across vehicles, software versions, sites, and conditions. - Has engineering, support, or field teams spending time manually reviewing logs, replaying mission files, prioritising customer issues, or assembling reports. - Needs a way to decide which missions, failures, customers, or scenarios deserve attention first. - Has a buyer close to the technical pain: CTO, Head of Autonomy, Program Director, Mission Systems Lead, or Test & Evaluation Lead. Strong-fit named accounts to validate first: | Account | Location | Why It Fits | First Access Hypothesis | |---|---|---|---| | Anduril Australia | Sydney | Ghost Shark XL-AUV program creates high-value sea-trial data and reporting needs. | Founder/investor intro, defence autonomy network, Sydney in-person meeting. | | OCIUS Technology | Sydney | Bluebottle USVs create persistent mission, sensor, and comms data. | Local Sydney coffee, CTO/USV ops intro, post-mission reporting angle. | | Greenroom Robotics | Perth | Maritime autonomy and perception software for USVs, connected to WA defence/maritime ecosystem. | Perth visit, Defence West/Austal ecosystem intro, autonomy validation angle. | | Advanced Navigation | Sydney | Hydrus AUV captures underwater imagery, sonar, navigation, and environmental data. | Sydney technical product intro, AUV dive-reporting angle. | | SYOS Aerospace | Tauranga, NZ | Multi-domain uncrewed systems for defence experimentation. | NZ defence/robotics intro, multi-platform mission review angle. | ### Secondary ICP: Defence-Adjacent Field Autonomy Teams Keep these as watchlist accounts, not the first outbound batch: - Swoop Aero: BVLOS drone logistics and safety reporting. - Infravision: drone powerline construction and remote jobsite telemetry. - Emesent: GPS-denied mine inspection and autonomy data. - Fortescue/Thiess: autonomous mining trials and operating data. These may become strong later, but starting here would make the territory too broad. The early motion should prove the maritime/subsea pattern first. ## Disqualifiers Disqualify or deprioritise accounts when: - They only do research or simulation, with limited recurring field missions. - They have no external customers, program stakeholders, design partners, or field deployments creating prioritisation pressure. - They collect data but already have a mature internal data platform team and no visible workflow pain. - The first conversation is entirely procurement/security with no technical champion. - The data is so classified that a commercial discovery process cannot start with non-sensitive workflows. - The team wants live fleet operations/control only, not post-mission analysis, mission search, reporting, or scenario mining. ## Personas ### 1. Economic Buyer Likely titles: - CTO. - Head of Autonomy. - VP Engineering. - Program Director. - Head of Robotics. - General Manager, Defence Programs. What they care about: - Trial velocity. - Engineering productivity. - Program confidence. - Customer/defence reporting. - Prioritising which customer issues and field failures need engineering attention first. - Avoiding a permanent internal data-platform maintenance burden. - Turning every field mission into reusable engineering evidence. Messaging: "As customers and field deployments scale, the data problem changes. It is no longer just reviewing one trial. It is deciding which issues matter most, finding the evidence quickly, and turning repeated patterns into engineering action." How to reach them: - Warm intro from founders, investors, board members, university robotics networks, or defence industry contacts. - Ask for a short, in-person "territory pressure-test" meeting, not a product demo. - Bring a one-page view of their likely mission data workflow and ask them to correct it. ### 2. Technical Champion Likely titles: - Autonomy Engineer. - Robotics Engineer. - Perception Engineer. - ML Engineer. - Data Platform Engineer. - Test & Evaluation Lead. - Mission Systems Engineer. What they care about: - Finding the right mission files and time windows. - Comparing failures across software versions or vehicle configurations. - Understanding which customer-reported issues are isolated versus recurring. - Searching logs, video, telemetry, sonar/camera data, and operator notes together. - Not spending days writing one-off scripts. - Keeping existing tools like MCAP, ROS bags, Foxglove, notebooks, S3/GCS, and Python. Messaging: "Keep your existing mission files and replay tools. Alloy helps you find the relevant missions, summarise what happened, and jump to the exact evidence." How to reach them: - In-person technical coffee near their office/lab. - Meet at robotics/defence events, not just LinkedIn. - Ask for 30 minutes to map how a field issue becomes an engineering fix. - Offer to share a short "mission data maturity map" after the conversation. ### 3. Operational Influencer Likely titles: - Field Operations Lead. - Mission Operations Lead. - Fleet Operations Manager. - Customer Programs Lead. - Safety/Assurance Lead. - QA/Validation Lead. What they care about: - Mission debriefs. - Incident response. - Customer-ready reports. - Triage across multiple customers, deployments, or programs. - Repeatability of field testing. - Reducing manual evidence gathering after a mission. Best message: "When customers start asking what happened across multiple missions, the team should not have to manually stitch together logs, screenshots, videos, notes, and engineer memory to decide what matters first." How to reach them: - Ask for a field-ops workflow conversation, not an AI platform conversation. - Offer to compare notes on how other autonomy teams structure post-mission review. - Use language around mission debrief, evidence pack, and recurring failure patterns. ### 4. Security / IT / Program Gatekeeper Likely titles: - Security Lead. - IT Lead. - Data Governance Lead. - Defence Program Security Officer. - Procurement/Commercial Lead. What they care about: - Data residency. - Access controls. - Deployment model. - Sensitive mission data. - Auditability and source-linked outputs. Best message: "Alloy should be positioned as evidence-preserving and compatible with existing data boundaries, not as a black-box AI layer over sensitive mission data." How to reach them: - Do not lead here first. - Bring them in after a technical champion confirms pain. - Keep the first conversations on non-sensitive workflow and architecture. ## Face-to-Face Access Strategy ### Principle In ANZ, early selling should feel like founder-led customer development, not SDR outbound. The ask should be: "I am building a narrow ANZ territory point of view for Alloy. Could I buy you coffee and pressure-test how your team prioritises and reviews mission data as customer deployments start to scale?" ### First 30 Days: Relationship-Led Discovery Target 12-15 in-person or video discovery conversations across 5-7 maritime/subsea autonomy accounts. Weekly cadence: - 2 founder/investor-led intro asks. - 2 technical champion coffees. - 1 account-specific workflow mapping session. - 1 follow-up artifact sent to a prospect: "Here is how I understood your mission data workflow." Meeting format: 1. Start with their program and field-testing context. 2. Whiteboard the path from mission capture to post-mission review. 3. Ask how customer issues, support requests, and field failures are prioritised today. 4. Ask where data gets lost, duplicated, manually reviewed, or ignored. 5. Ask who needs the output: autonomy, field ops, safety, customer, leadership. 6. Confirm whether the pain is urgent enough for a design-partner conversation. ### First 45 Days: Small Room Strategy Once 6-8 conversations confirm similar pain, host a small, closed-door session: **Working title:** Mission Data Debrief: How ANZ Autonomy Teams Learn From Field Trials Format: - 6-8 people maximum. - Sydney first, Perth second if maritime/defence response is strong. - No public webinar. - No broad product pitch. - One short point of view from Alloy. - Roundtable discussion on customer issue triage, mission review, data search, evidence packs, and internal tooling. The goal is social proof and language-market fit, not attendance volume. ## How To Initially Get A Hold Of Them ### Warm Intro Routes Use these before cold outbound: - Alloy founders and existing investor networks. - Blackbird, Airtree, Main Sequence, university robotics, and defence innovation networks. - Australian Centre for Field Robotics / University of Sydney ecosystem. - UTS and RSS 2026 Sydney robotics network. - Defence West and WA maritime/defence ecosystem. - AIDN, Defence NSW, and local defence industry groups. - Existing customer/vendor adjacency: Austal, maritime autonomy partners, robotics researchers, field ops contractors. ## VC And Startup Ecosystem Signal Motion ### Strategy Narrow approach: Do not monitor every startup that calls itself AI, robotics, hardware, or deep tech. Monitor only companies where a trigger suggests they are moving from prototype to repeated field deployment. The target trigger is: **A newly funded, newly accelerated, newly granted, newly contracted, or newly spun-out autonomy team whose customer/program activity is about to create more mission-data triage than its internal tooling can handle.** This is especially useful for finding up-and-coming companies before they appear in obvious account lists. In ANZ, many robotics and autonomy companies will be university-linked, grant-supported, VC-backed, or defence-ecosystem backed before they have mature sales, marketing, or procurement surfaces. ### Trigger Events To Monitor | Trigger | Why It Matters | Where To Look | AE Action | |---|---|---|---| | Pre-seed, seed, or Series A raise in autonomy, drones, robotics, defence tech, ag robotics, sensors, or field AI | Funding usually precedes hiring, trials, customer pilots, and data-platform pain. | [Cut Through Venture](https://www.cutthrough.com/), [Techboard](https://techboard.com.au/), [Crunchbase](https://about.crunchbase.com/real-time-alerts/), [Dealroom](https://dealroom.co/countries/australia/), PitchBook, fund blogs, LinkedIn, SmartCompany, Startup Daily, Capital Brief, InnovationAus | Ask the lead investor for a warm intro framed as "mission-data workflow help for a portfolio company entering field trials." | | First 3-10 customers, pilots, or design partners | The company now has external promises to keep, but usually still reviews field data manually. | Company announcements, customer case studies, founder LinkedIn posts, grant reports, event talks, investor updates | Ask how the team prioritises customer-reported issues and turns mission evidence into product decisions. | | Customer support, customer success, field ops, or solutions hiring | A strong sign the company is moving from R&D to repeatable customer delivery. | LinkedIn Jobs, company careers pages, Seek, VC portfolio job boards | Reach out to the founder/CTO with a scaling workflow angle: "your customer-facing data loop is becoming a system." | | Accelerator cohort or demo day | Earliest moment to meet founders before tools and process harden. | [Startmate](https://www.startmate.com/accelerator/program), [UNSW Founders 10x](https://unswfounders.com/10x-accelerator), [Cicada x Tech23](https://www.cicadainnovations.com/), [Sprout](https://www.sproutagritech.com/), [Callaghan Deep Tech Incubators](https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/products/products/deep-tech-incubators/?startups=) | Attend in person when possible. Do not pitch at the booth. Ask founders how field data moves from trial to engineering action. | | Defence challenge, grant, pitch day, or test event | Defence autonomy teams get pulled into demonstrations and real-world test environments quickly. | [ASCA Innovation Incubation](https://www.asca.gov.au/activities/innovation-incubation), [DSTG D.Start](https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/partner-with-us/opportunities/dstart), [GrantConnect](https://architecture.digital.gov.au/design/grantconnect), Defence releases, Defence Connect, Australian Defence Magazine | Track winners, participants, and primes. Ask for coffee around "how trial evidence gets packaged after the demo." | | Government contract, tender, planned procurement, or award | Contract awards create reporting, assurance, and delivery pressure. | [AusTender](https://www.tenders.gov.au/), GrantConnect awards, state defence portals, Defence West, Defence NSW, AIDN updates | Build a buyer map around the contractor and likely technical subcontractors. Ask for an intro via the defence ecosystem rather than cold procurement outreach. | | Field trial, demo, or exercise mention | A trial is the clearest sign of mission-data creation. | Defence media releases, AUKUS Pillar II updates, company news, LinkedIn posts, conference programs | Reach out within 48 hours with a very specific note about post-trial debrief, mission replay, and incident evidence. | | Hiring for autonomy, perception, ROS, data platform, field ops, test and evaluation, safety, or simulation | Hiring reveals operating pain before public announcements do. | LinkedIn Jobs, company careers pages, Blackbird/Airtree/Main Sequence job boards, Wellfound, Seek, university job boards | Find the hiring manager or adjacent technical leader. Ask how they currently avoid re-learning the same field failures across missions. | | Robotics directory or company-database addition | Some early robotics companies are visible in niche directories before press or VC databases catch them. | [DroidAge](https://droidage.com/), Robotics Australia Group member updates, university startup directories, accelerator alumni pages | Cross-check against funding, hiring, field trials, and local intro paths before outreach. | | University spinout, lab showcase, or research commercialisation program | Robotics companies in ANZ often come from field robotics labs, not classic SaaS founder networks. | [University of Sydney Australian Centre for Robotics](https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/our-research/research-centres-and-institutes/australian-centre-for-robotics.html), [QUT Centre for Robotics](https://www.qut.edu.au/research/centre-for-robotics), [Monash Robotics](https://www.monash.edu/engineering/defence-research/intelligent-robotics-autonomous-systems), [University of Waikato WaiRAS](https://www.waikato.ac.nz/research/institutes-centres-entities/entities/waikato-robotics-automation-and-sensing-group-wairas/), [University of Auckland robotics](https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/engineering/our-research/engineering-research/research-areas-and-facilities/robotics.html) | Ask the lab lead or commercialisation office which teams are moving from research to field trials. Offer a practical mission-data maturity conversation. | | Event speaker, exhibitor, or sponsor announcement | Event programs expose active companies, primes, researchers, and government stakeholders. | Robotics Australia Group, RSS 2026 Sydney, IODS, Land Forces, Avalon, RotorTech, Indo Pacific, Tech23 | Use the event as a reason to meet face to face. Book coffees before the event, not after. | ### Funds, Programs, And Ecosystem Nodes To Watch Primary watchlist for the first 90 days: - [Blackbird](https://www.blackbird.vc/get-investment): Alloy's lead investor and an ANZ deep-tech network with stated interest across autonomous robotics, AI infrastructure, and quantum. Blackbird's Alloy investment note is also useful because it already frames the market around physical AI teams struggling with data, labelling, debugging, model evaluation, training, deployment, and edge-device complexity. - [Main Sequence](https://www.mseq.vc/about): CSIRO-origin deep-tech investor, seed to Series B, strong fit for spinouts, hard science, autonomy, sensors, and robotics-adjacent companies. - [Airtree](https://www.airtree.vc/): broad ANZ fund with a large founder network, community programs, and a current signal in autonomy via Advanced Navigation's 2026 Series C. - [QIC Ventures](https://www.qic.com/News-and-Insights/QIC-Ventures-leads-A%2425M-Series-A-for-Arkeus): useful Queensland and defence-tech signal. Arkeus is a good example of a sensing/autonomy company whose funding round creates a likely field-data and manufacturing-scale trigger. - [Radar Ventures](https://www.radarventures.com/): ANZ deep-tech fund explicitly interested in robotics, defence technologies, sensors, advanced manufacturing, and platform technologies. - [Tenacious Ventures](https://tenacious.ventures/): agri-food investor with SwarmFarm Robotics and Agovor in portfolio. Useful for the second wedge if ag robotics becomes active after maritime/subsea. - [Folklore Ventures](https://www.folklore.vc/): ANZ first-cheque to long-term fund. Watch for early founder announcements and portfolio jobs in physical-world categories. - [Skip Capital](https://www.skipcapital.com/venture): useful for founder and deep-tech adjacency around the broader Alloy network. - [Icehouse Ventures](https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/) and [Outset Ventures](https://outset.ventures/): useful New Zealand startup and deep-tech ecosystem access. - [Beaten Zone Venture Partners](https://www.beatenzone.vc/): defence and space-focused Australian fund. Good for sovereign defence autonomy and dual-use startups. - [Salus Ventures](https://paspalis.com.au/salus-ventures/): dual-use aerospace, defence, AI, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing seed fund with government and industry networks. - [Artesian agtech funds](https://www.artesianinvest.com/sproutx): useful for ag robotics, automation, smart irrigation, sensing, and task-automation startups. - [UNSW Founders 10x](https://unswfounders.com/10x-accelerator): watch for defence, hardware, robotics, and deep-tech cohorts. It offers 10-week support, $100,000 seed investment, hardware R&D access, and demo-day timing. - [Startmate](https://www.startmate.com/accelerator/program): broad ANZ accelerator with in-person weeks and demo day. Use it for warm founder discovery, not as a primary filter. - [Cicada Innovations and Tech23](https://www.cicadainnovations.com/): deep-tech showcase and incubator network. Tech23 champions 23 deep-tech startups and connects them with investors, industry leaders, and decision-makers. - [Sprout](https://www.sproutagritech.com/): NZ agrifood accelerator and investor. Watch for autonomous horticulture, robotics, sensing, and field-data startups. - [Callaghan Deep Tech Incubators](https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/products/products/deep-tech-incubators/?startups=): NZ deep-tech incubator pathway with public and private funding, useful for very early spinouts. ### Trigger Examples That Validate The Motion Recent signals worth using as pattern examples: - [Advanced Navigation raised US$110 million Series C](https://www.advancednavigation.com/news/advanced-navigation-secures-us110m-series-c-to-catalyze-the-next-era-of-autonomous-systems/) in March 2026 to scale resilient positioning, navigation, and autonomous systems. This is a late-stage signal, but it shows how ANZ autonomy companies can attract serious capital when tied to defence, marine, robotics, and GPS-denied operations. - [Arkeus raised A$25 million Series A](https://www.qic.com/News-and-Insights/QIC-Ventures-leads-A%2425M-Series-A-for-Arkeus) in May 2026 for AI-powered sensing systems used on autonomous platforms. This is a strong example of an Australian defence-tech company where data, edge perception, field tests, and customer reporting will matter. - [Breaker raised a seed round](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/breaker-raises-6m-in-seed-round-to-solve-defenses-autonomous-orchestration-problem-302689096.html) in February 2026 to develop AI agent software for coordinating autonomous systems across air, land, and sea. The company has Australian ecosystem links via Main Sequence. - [Agovor raised AU$3 million pre-seed](https://agrotech.space/2026/02/12/agovor-au3m-pre-seed-horti-robotics/) in February 2026 to scale autonomous horticulture robotics across New Zealand and Australia. This is a strong second-wedge example if Alloy expands into ag robotics. ### Weekly Founding AE Workflow Run this every week: 1. Scan funding and ecosystem sources for new ANZ robotics, autonomy, defence tech, drone, agtech, mining, sensing, or field robotics signals. 2. Add each company to a trigger sheet with: company, trigger date, trigger type, source link, segment, likely field-mission type, likely data type, lead investor/program, local office, and possible warm intro. 3. Score the company 1-5 on five filters: real-world field trials, multi-modal mission data, customer/program scaling pressure, urgency from new funding/grant/contract, and face-to-face access path. 4. Only action companies scoring 17+ out of 25. Keep the rest on watchlist. 5. For actioned companies, identify one investor/program intro path and one technical champion path. 6. Ask the investor, accelerator lead, university commercialisation manager, or event organiser for a warm intro. 7. Offer a coffee or office visit, not a demo. The first meeting is to map the mission-data workflow. 8. Send a short follow-up artifact: "Here is how I understood your post-trial data flow. What did I get wrong?" 9. Convert only confirmed pain into a design-partner discussion. ### Guardrails - Do not ask VCs for intros before doing account-level homework. Mention the exact trigger and why the company fits the mission-data pain. - Do not over-index on funding size. A $3 million pre-seed robotics company entering field trials can be a better Alloy design partner than a $100 million late-stage platform with entrenched internal tooling. - Do not lead with AI. Lead with post-mission review, evidence, recurring failures, trial velocity, and reporting. - Do not pitch investors as the buyer. Investors are access nodes and signal sources. The buyer is still the autonomy, engineering, program, or field-ops leader. - Do not broaden the ICP just because the ecosystem map is broad. The first wedge remains maritime/subsea defence autonomy unless the trigger is unusually strong. ### In-Person Event Anchors Use events as a reason to meet, but do not rely on booth traffic. - RSS 2026 is in Sydney in July 2026, useful for robotics researchers, founders, autonomy engineers, and technical talent density. - Hunter Defence Conference is scheduled for 26-27 August 2026 and is relevant for defence/industry relationships. - WA Mining Conference & Exhibition is scheduled for 16-17 September 2026 in Perth. Treat it as a secondary wedge for mining autonomy, not the first campaign. - Land Forces 2026 is scheduled for 6-8 October 2026 in Perth and can be used to meet defence primes, autonomy suppliers, and program stakeholders. - IMARC 2026 is scheduled for 27-29 October 2026 in Sydney. Use it later if mining autonomy becomes the second wedge. - IODS 2026 ran 26-28 May 2026 in Perth. Since it has just passed, use post-event follow-up: "I saw your team was part of the IODS ecosystem and wanted to compare notes on mission-data workflows." ## Discovery Questions Use these in the first meeting: - What data is captured during a typical field trial? - How many customers, design partners, or program stakeholders now depend on field-mission outcomes? - How do customer-reported issues get prioritised today? - Is it MCAP, ROS bag, custom logs, video, sonar, telemetry, CSV, cloud logs, or a mix? - Where does the data land after the trial? - How long does it take to find the relevant evidence when something fails? - Who can search historical missions today? - How do you compare similar issues across vehicle versions, software builds, or operating conditions? - How do field notes become engineering action? - What reports does the customer, program lead, or defence stakeholder need? - What has the team already built internally? - Which part is most painful: upload, storage, replay, search, summaries, scenario mining, reports, or permissions? ## Qualification Scorecard Score each account 1-5: | Signal | What To Look For | |---|---| | Mission data volume | Frequent real-world trials, long missions, multi-sensor payloads. | | Review pain | Engineers manually hunting through files or stitching reports. | | Customer scaling pressure | Multiple customers, design partners, funded programs, or field deployments creating issue triage. | | Buyer proximity | CTO/Head of Autonomy/Test Lead close to the workflow. | | Data complexity | Video, sonar/camera, telemetry, logs, navigation, autonomy state. | | Urgency | Scaling trials, customer reporting, defence evaluation, incidents, reliability pressure. | | Internal-build burden | S3/GCS, scripts, notebooks, Foxglove/Rerun, custom dashboards. | | Face-to-face access | Warm intro, local office/lab, event overlap, founder network. | Initial design-partner threshold: - 4+ on mission data volume. - 4+ on review pain. - 4+ on customer scaling pressure. - 3+ on buyer proximity. - Clear in-person or warm-intro path. ## First 10 Account Actions 1. Build a contact map for Anduril Australia, OCIUS, Greenroom Robotics, Advanced Navigation, and SYOS. 2. Identify 3 people per account: economic buyer, technical champion, operational influencer. 3. Ask Alloy founders/investors for warm paths into the first 5 accounts. 4. Book 5 in-person coffees in Sydney first. 5. Book a Perth trip only if Greenroom/Defence West/Austal-adjacent conversations create a real cluster. 6. Create a one-page "mission data maturity map" to bring to meetings. 7. After every meeting, send back a written workflow map and ask, "What did I get wrong?" 8. Convert confirmed pain into a technical design-partner session. 9. Run one small Sydney roundtable after 6-8 validated conversations. 10. Decide whether to double down on maritime/subsea or open the second wedge: mining autonomy/inspection.