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Gill Findlay is the former COO of SafetyCulture and Immutable — two of most influential tech companies globally to originate from Australia. She scaled SafetyCulture from <$1M to $30M ARR, helped professionalise Immutable during the crypto boom, and built a reputation as the go-to operator for high-growth startups.
In this rare public interview, Gill shares the lessons, turning points, and leadership frameworks behind one of tech’s most quietly impactful careers.
Show notes
Published 14th May, 2025.
Gill Findlay is the former COO of SafetyCulture and Immutable — two of most iconic tech companies globally that originated from Australia. From scaling SafetyCulture from <$1M to $30M ARR, to bringing structure and maturity to Immutable during the peak of the crypto boom, Gill has quietly built one of the most impressive operating careers in tech.
This is a rare public interview with Gill.
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In this rare, long-form conversation — her first deep public interview, Gill reflects on:
- Growing up in Glasgow, watching her sister battle leukaemia, and why her strongest identity isn’t “COO” or “mum”
- Leaving behind a corporate lifestyle, Qantas Platinum status and a six-figure salary to earn $60,000 at Car Next Door and what that year taught her about ego, control and starting again
- Scaling SafetyCulture from <$1M to $30M ARR as COO, building global teams from Townsville to Sydney and why she eventually left
- Taking on her first CEO role at Vamp, turning a loss-making business into one generating cash during COVID, and learning the less glamorous side of fundraising
- Joining Immutable during the crypto bull run — and why despite the hype, she focused on bringing real structure, rigour and top-tier executives to the company
- Her approach to hiring: from topgrading interviews, choosing her own references, and backchanneling every candidate to how she tells if someone’s a winner or a risk
- The truth about Chief of Staff roles: what they are, what they’re not, why they shouldn’t be writing policies and how she’s built pipelines of ex-bankers and consultants to thrive in the role
- How to make founder–COO partnerships work, what to do when someone isn’t performing, and what she’s still figuring out for the next chapter of her life
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Timestamps
About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most relatable role models in business, tech, finance, government and sport in the US, Australia, Singapore, India and New Zealand.
Launched over 6.5+ years ago - our 275+ guests come from various industries around the world including:
Investing and Finance (VC, PE, Pension Funds, Family Offices)
Our guests across venture capital, growth investing, institutional capital, banking, pension funds and family offices include: Keith Rabois (MD, Khosla Ventures), Jason Collins (CEO, BlackRock Asia Pacific), Ryan Beiermeister (Partner, Founders Fund), David Haber (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz), Kevin Hartz (Managing Partner, A*), Mike Vernal (Partner, Conviction; Ex-Sequoia), David Schneider (Growth Fund Co-Lead Partner, Coatue), Venky Ganesan (Managing Partner, Menlo Ventures), Mark Suster (Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures), Kelland Reilly (Partner, Airtree; Ex General Atlantic, D1), Niki Scevak (Managing Partner, Blackbird), Paul Bassat (Managing Partner, Square Peg), David Neal (CEO, IFM Investors), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Michael Kim (Partner, Cendana Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Partner, Sapphire), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), David Shein (Managing Partner, OIF), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Rowan Simpson (Founder, Hoku) and more.
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Our technology, AI and software guests include Jodie Auster (Uber’s Global Head of Travel), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Mel Silva (MD, Google), Jean-Michel Lemieux (former CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Google Chrome, Photos and Drive), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Dylan Babbs (Co-Founder & CTO, Profound), John Willett (Co-Founder & COO, Rogo), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Andrew Fraser (President, Halter), Bowen Pan (creator of Facebook Marketplace) and more.
CEOs, Boards and Major Company Senior Executives
Our guests leading some of the world's largest and most recognisable organisations include Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths Group), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Paul Grosmann (CEO, R.M.Williams), Andrew Penn (CEO, Telstra), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis USA), Brendan Hargreaves (CFO, Officeworks), Andrew Fraser (Board Chair, Bank of Queensland), Jaddan Cummerford (CEO, Unified Music), Ed McManus (CEO, Deliveroo) and more.
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Our government, diplomatic and public-policy guests include Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Amit Singh (Managing Partner, Mandala), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Australia's Foreign Service), Philip Green (Australia’s High Commissioner to India), Brendan Dowling (Deputy Secretary, Australia's Department of Home Affairs), Mukund Narayanamurti (General Manager for South Asia, Austrade) and Ryan Neelam (CEO, Centre for Australia-India Relations, Australian Government).
Professional Athletes
Steve Solomon (400m Olympic Sprinter), Ed Cowan (Former Test Cricketer), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Lisa Stahelakar (World Cup Winning Captain, Australian Womens Cricket Team).
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