Michael BatkoYou don't have an advice problem.
You have a doing problem.
2x founder (both acquired) · 8 years running Australia's most active accelerator · 300+ startups · $4.5B portfolio → My story
Now I work with a handful of founders - not from the sidelines, but in the weeds.
I help you work things out, then go as deep as you need - all the way to setting up your operations. Fundraise deck done and practiced. Budget lined up. CRM set up. Workflows flowing.
Everyone loves talking. I love doing. Whatever needs to happen right now - we do it together.
Currently coaching 4 founders. Taking on 1 more this quarter.
Who I work with
Founders
Scaling past product-market fit
Executives
Stepping into bigger roles
Senior Leaders
Building something that matters
VC Funds
Raising from LPs, sharpening thesis
PE Funds
Portfolio ops and value creation
I'm the second brain you bring in - part chief of staff, part ops fixer, part thinking partner.
Not someone who tells you what to do. Someone who does it with you.
How I work
Advice is easy.
Showing up is hard.
Most founders don't need another framework. They need someone in the room when the real decisions happen - the hire you're torn on, the pricing that doesn't work, the conversation you've been putting off for three weeks.
That's where I work. Three layers deep.
Strategy
Where are you actually going? We stress-test it against reality.
- Six-month goals. Twelve-month targets. Three-year ambition.
- Where scale will break. Which bottlenecks to kill first.
- Clear direction, prioritised roadmap, confidence to decide fast.
Operations
Get it out of your head and into a single source of truth.
- Processes mapped. Knowledge captured.
- Documentation your team can actually find and use.
- The company scales without you being the answer to every question.
Your Operating System
Chaos becomes a system. 47 open tabs become clarity.
- Email, tasks, files, priorities - redesigned.
- Less cognitive load. Faster execution.
- No more reactive firefighting.
Eight years running Startmate. Hundreds of founders navigating the gap between “we have an idea” and “we have a company.” I've seen what works. More usefully, I've seen every way it breaks.
Very few engagements. Deep, not wide.
If you want surface-level, there are a thousand people for that. If you want someone in the trenches - I'm here.
RIGHT NOW
Only a handful of engagements. That's it.
Every founder I work with gets the full weight of my attention. Here's what “deep, not wide” actually looks like.
First-time founder. No product yet. Full of conviction, short on runway.
- •Mapping the right funding pathway - angels, VCs, accelerators - and which doors to knock on first
- •Coaching on customer obsession as the unlock - talk to customers, not investors
- •Building the story that makes people lean in
Profitable founder building a new venture on the side. 20-person team. Zero systems.
- •Vision, mission, north star - then the metrics that actually matter
- •Full operations playbook: CRM, messaging flows, dashboards - built, not planned
- •A team of 20 that can run seamlessly - whether they're at a desk or out in the field
MedTech startup raising $10M. Great science, needed the fundraise narrative to match.
- •Pitch deck and pitch narrative rebuilt from scratch
- •Investor FAQ, objection handling, and the story that makes $10M feel obvious
- •Warm intros to the right VCs and target investors
First-time fund manager raising from LPs. Sharp thesis, no process.
- •LP pitch narrative and deck - the story that opens chequebooks
- •Pipeline flows to capture, nurture, and close investors
- •Intros to LPs and targets - plus the system to run a smooth fundraise
PROOF
Don't take my word for it
“To say Batko left Startmate in a better place than when he took the reins would be an embarrassing understatement.
Batko literally re-founded Startmate, and Australia thanks him for it.
The impact he's made will continue to snowball into the future.”
“Heaps Normal wouldn't exist as it does today without Batko and his Startmate team - our first first believer.”
AM“The impact you've had on the startup community is genuinely huge. You helped Startmate grow up into a proper, standalone beast. I still remember your first accelerator intake - it was so smooth it felt illegal.”
DM“You made everything feel possible. From the way you broke complex ideas down, to the way you backed us with so much belief - it completely changed how I saw myself as a founder.”
KK“He has been the lead man in building Startmate into a powerhouse commonly referred to as one of the top 5 accelerators in the world. Sounds like a bit of a legend right?”
BKSound like what you need?
I take on a handful of founders at a time. If any of the above resonated - hit me up!
NEWSLETTER
Batko OS
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