Latest / What the Flux / Atlassian cuts 10% of its workforce | AustralianSuper wants to borrow billions | The Inspired Unemployed are cashing in

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Atlassian cuts 10% of its workforce | AustralianSuper wants to borrow billions | The Inspired Unemployed are cashing in · What the Flux

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  Speaker 1: This is what the Flux. I'm Brett and I'm Justin
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  Speaker 1: and it's Friday, thirteenth of This is what the Flux.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and it's Friday, the thirteenth
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  Speaker 1: of March. Dozzy boy, It's been a big week for
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  Speaker 1: Katie Perry. No, no, no, not the Fireworks singer, a
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  Speaker 1: Sydney fashion designer trading under the name Katie Perry. That's
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  Speaker 1: Katie Perry, has just won in her High Court case
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  Speaker 1: against the singer. The High Court claimed the luxury loungewear
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  Speaker 1: brand was unlikely to be confused with Missus teenage dream herself.
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  Speaker 1: Win for David over Goliath.
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  Speaker 2: Nice, here a little win for an Aussie brand, The Man.
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  Speaker 2: This month, I found a subscription to a media publication
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  Speaker 2: that I won't mention that I was paying for that
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  Speaker 2: I didn't even realize i'd signed up to. YEP, I
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  Speaker 2: I canceled it straight away and say twenty five dollars
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  Speaker 1: Three phenomenal stories today, Dozzy boy, let's do it for
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  Speaker 1: our first. At Lassion is cutting ten percent of its
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  Speaker 1: entire workforce, AI reshapes its company, and it tries to
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  Speaker 1: fight back against its plummeting share price.
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  Speaker 2: To collaboration, Giant is suddenly doing a lot less collaborating.
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  Speaker 2: Be man, so tell me more so.
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  Speaker 1: Lassin is the Australian founded software giant that listed on
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  Speaker 1: the Nasdaq in December twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: It's the software company behind workplace tools. Your jear is
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  Speaker 2: your trellos, your confluences.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the apposite exists purely so teams can comment
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  Speaker 1: and assign tasks and politely ignore each other in new
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  Speaker 1: ways and man.
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  Speaker 2: Lassian's been on a bit of an acquisition spree over
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  Speaker 2: the past five years.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking acquisitions of Trello, Loom, the browser company, But the.
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  Speaker 2: Last couple of years haven't exactly been smooth sprint planning
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  Speaker 2: for it. Last year, it's share price is plummeted.
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  Speaker 1: It's co founder, Scott Farqua step down, and.
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  Speaker 2: Last month at Lassian put a pause on hiring engineers
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  Speaker 2: and filling other related roles.
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  Speaker 1: Now at Lassian has announced it will cut about ten
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  Speaker 1: percent of its workforce, or around sixteen hundred employees, and
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  Speaker 1: the reason be man Well. They say that artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 1: advances means it needs fewer people in certain roles and jusuboy.
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  Speaker 1: This is all part of a Lassian's effort to rest
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  Speaker 1: the share price plumber it has suffered as part of
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  Speaker 1: the so called saaspocalypse.
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  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 1: Saaspocalypse is the fear that AI could wipe out parts
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  Speaker 1: of the SaaS software as a service industry.
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  Speaker 2: For the past fifteen years, SaaS companies like last Year
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  Speaker 2: and Salesforce and Dropbox and HubSpot have built hugely valuable businesses.
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  Speaker 1: They sold specialized software tools to companies on a subscription basis, and.
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  Speaker 2: The model was simple, create a product that solves a
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  Speaker 2: business problem.
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  Speaker 1: Then charge a monthly subscription fee and grew.
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  Speaker 2: A subscriber base and your recurring revenue year after year
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  Speaker 2: after year.
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  Speaker 1: But AI tools are beginning to change that equation.
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  Speaker 2: Instead of buying a separate piece of software for each task,
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  Speaker 2: companies could soon rely on AI platforms that can perform
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  Speaker 2: multiple functions at once.
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  Speaker 1: Well, alternatively, it can be built via AI very quickly, and.
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  Speaker 2: As a result, we've seen SaaS companies lose significant market
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  Speaker 2: value and last See has lost more than sixty six
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  Speaker 2: percent of its market value just over the last year,
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  Speaker 2: Monday dot COM's lost more than sixty percent of its
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  Speaker 2: market value over the past twelve months, and CRM HubSpot
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  Speaker 2: has lost more than fifty five percent of its market
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  Speaker 2: value over the last twelve months. And be man for now.
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  Speaker 2: This is all speculation that AI could replace SaaS, but.
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  Speaker 1: If it happens, some traditional SaaS tools could become less essential.
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  Speaker 1: For our second story, Australia's biggest superfund wants to borrow
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  Speaker 1: billions of dollars, which could be the biggest shakeup in
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  Speaker 1: the superindustry in over thirty years. Who would have thought
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  Speaker 1: the world's biggest retirement funds might want a credit card?
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  Speaker 2: Tell me more, okay man, So Australian Super is Australia's
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  Speaker 2: largest superannuation fund.
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  Speaker 1: We'd be talking management of roughly four hundred and ten
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars in retirement savings for more than three million members.
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  Speaker 2: Now Here where things get interesting, be Man, because Australian
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  Speaker 2: Super is pushing for a major rule change to how
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  Speaker 2: superannuation funds operate.
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  Speaker 1: That's correct. They want the laws to change to allow
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  Speaker 1: super funds to borrow money or issue debt, which might
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  Speaker 1: sound normal in most industries, but in super that has
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  Speaker 1: been a big no no for thirty years. And why
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  Speaker 1: do they want this Well, Australian super says borrowing could
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  Speaker 1: help funds manage liquidity during market stress, rather than being
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  Speaker 1: forced to sell investments at bad prices.
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  Speaker 2: But not everyone agrees, so for now the proposal is
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  Speaker 2: just that a proposal, but if regulators a lean in,
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  Speaker 2: it could be the biggest shakeup to super fund rules
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  Speaker 2: in more than thirty years. Interesting. So what is the
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  Speaker 2: key learning here?
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  Speaker 1: Super funds sit on enormous piles of long term investments,
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  Speaker 1: but they still face a short term problem cash aka liquidity. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: when markets get volatile, members might switch funds and ay
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  Speaker 1: withdraw money or start drawing down on their pensions. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, asset prices might be falling.
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  Speaker 2: So it creates a tricky situation for super.
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  Speaker 1: Fun If a fund holds too little cash, it might
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  Speaker 1: be forced to sell assets quickly to meet withdrawal.
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  Speaker 2: And selling in a downturn can lock in those losses.
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  Speaker 1: But if a fund holds too much cash. It drags
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  Speaker 1: down returns because cash often earns less than assets like
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure or shares or property.
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  Speaker 2: So be man. Australian supers proposition is pretty simple. Instead
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  Speaker 2: of selling assets, why not temporarily borrow money to bridge
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  Speaker 2: the gap?
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  Speaker 1: But it does the way. That also means introducing a
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  Speaker 1: new risk into a system designed to be stable.
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  Speaker 2: Australia's superannuation is a beast. We're talking nearly double the
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  Speaker 2: size of Australia's annual GDP. So if we know one thing,
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  Speaker 2: is that risk and Super are arch enemies. For our
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  Speaker 2: third and final story, Better Beer, the low carb brewer
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  Speaker 2: backed by The Inspired Unemployed, is raising up to fifteen
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  Speaker 2: million bucks to double down on low strength beer.
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  Speaker 1: Looks like investors might be cracking open a nice col
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  Speaker 1: run juzzy boy, so tell me more so.
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  Speaker 2: Better Beeer is the Australian beer brand launching twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: one by an indie beer brand owner called Nick Kogga and.
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  Speaker 1: Social media comedians Jack Steele and Matt Ford from The
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  Speaker 1: Inspired Unemployed Man.
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  Speaker 2: As you know, their skits on Instagram and TikTok involve
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  Speaker 2: a lot of hip thrusting quite a few wigs. And
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  Speaker 2: lots of poking fun at oussie culture.
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  Speaker 1: When they first launched Better Beer, the idea was to
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  Speaker 1: have a full strength beer that is actually low carb
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  Speaker 1: and low calorie and juzzy boyd. Despite only launching about
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  Speaker 1: five years ago, Better Beer is already in more than
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  Speaker 1: seven five hundred outlets around the nation.
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  Speaker 2: And its revenue will hit nearly sixty million bucks in
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  Speaker 2: this financial year.
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  Speaker 1: And now Better Beer is looking to raise between ten
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  Speaker 1: and fifteen million bakarunis from new investors to fund its
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  Speaker 1: next stage of growth. And what is this next stage
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  Speaker 1: of growth you speak of, Well, a new product which
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  Speaker 1: will be a light beer called halfy and you can
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  Speaker 1: bet your bottom dollar that these influencers that will be
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  Speaker 1: pushing their product hard through their own social channels. So
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  Speaker 1: what's okay learning here?
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  Speaker 2: Influencers aren't just products anymore. They're building the brands themselves.
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  Speaker 1: From makeup and skincare products to protein powders and pretty
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  Speaker 1: much anything else under the sun.
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  Speaker 2: And as a result, the influencer marketing market is set
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  Speaker 2: to become a forty billion US dollar industry by the
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  Speaker 2: end of this year.
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  Speaker 1: Growing at about thirty percent year on year. According to
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  Speaker 1: more Door Research.
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  Speaker 2: So with their reach and their influence, influencers or content
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  Speaker 2: creators as they like to be called, often look to
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  Speaker 2: new ways of monetizing their newfound fame. So, rather than
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  Speaker 2: using their reach to promote someone else's product, they prefer
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  Speaker 2: to leverage their influence for their own product. Sam, if
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  Speaker 2: you feel like there are direct debits coming out of
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday. This
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  Speaker 1: is what the Flux. I'm Brett and I'm Justin and
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  Speaker 1: it's Friday, the third