{"id":638588,"date":"2026-04-29T14:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638588\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:21:11","slug":"former-startmate-boss-michael-batko-is-back-in-founder-mode-building-with-hourglass-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638588\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Startmate boss Michael Batko is back in founder mode building with Hourglass AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After eight years running the startup accelerator Startmate \u2013 which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startupdaily.net\/topic\/funding\/here-are-19-startups-sharing-in-2-28-million-as-part-of-the-summer-26-startmate-accelerator\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.startupdaily.net\/topic\/funding\/here-are-19-startups-sharing-in-2-28-million-as-part-of-the-summer-26-startmate-accelerator\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">launches its latest cohort<\/a> before a sold out crowd in Sydney on Thursday night \u2013 Michael Batko decided so solve a problem hundreds of founders asked him about: AI. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every founder asked him the same question about artificial intelligence: \u201cHow do we actually use AI \u2013 in our business, right now?\u201d Batko said.\u00a0Nobody had an answer. So he decided to create it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI looked around at who was answering that question properly and couldn\u2019t find anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cConsulting firms gave them strategy decks. Agencies gave them discovery phases. Nobody just built the thing. So I left to go and provide what was missing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Batko teamed up with Finlay Ekins, 22, to cofound <a href=\"http:\/\/thehourglass.ai\" type=\"link\" id=\"thehourglass.ai\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hourglass AI<\/a> \u2013 an AI implementation firm that builds working systems inside Australian businesses on a fixed-fee basis.<\/p>\n<p>\tGet the best of Startup Daily straight to your inbox<\/p>\n<p>\n                            Want to know the latest in startup news? Subscribe to our daily news and analysis coverage on what\u2019s happening to ANZ startups, investors and the broader ecosystem. And best of all, it&#8217;s FREE!                        <\/p>\n<p>By continuing, you agree to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.startupdaily.net\/terms-conditions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Terms &amp; Conditions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.startupdaily.net\/privacy-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It kicked off in stealth mode in February and two months on, launched this week.<\/p>\n<p>The execution gap<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem they\u2019re solving is the execution gap in implementing AI. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Batko points to analysis Anthropic\u2019s own research team published last month pointing to yawning gap between what AI systems can do and what businesses have actually built.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\u2019d already spotted it and says it was the reason he walked away from one of most influential jobs in Australia\u2019s startup ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEveryone feels behind on AI, and they are,\u201d said Batko. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut it\u2019s not because they don\u2019t understand it. It\u2019s because they\u2019re too busy to actually build it. The operators who\u2019ll win the next decade aren\u2019t the ones reading about AI. They\u2019re the ones with working systems in production right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The startup veteran said Hourglass AI\u2019s offer is the opposite of the industry default: fixed scope, fixed fee, live system in weeks. No strategy documents. No discovery phases. No slides.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery Australian executive reading this has sat through the same conversation. A board meeting about AI strategy. A LinkedIn post warning them they\u2019re behind. A newsletter from a consultant promising a roadmap,\u201d Batko observes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAlmost none of them have shipped a working AI system inside their business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Already running<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hourglass AI\u2019s early client roster spans retail, property, ecommerce and wellness, as part of a deliberately broad cross-section, selected to stress-test the mode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They include Schweigen, a multi-billion-dollar appliance retailer, which now runs an AI customer support system built by Hourglass, live on the company\u2019s own site; Cadence Property Group, which is being transformed end-to-end, with 12 of 35 staff audited, an AI knowledge brain under construction, the whole company being brought onto Claude, with custom agents.\u00a0The others are The Skincare Company, which is integrating AI across internal operations to streamline the business while keeping its customer-facing experience organic and personal; and Sense of Self, a Melbourne wellness destination, which is having core operations streamlined with Hourglass-built AI systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Batko explains that Hourglass has a deliberate three-phase plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phase one is what he calls \u201cgetting paid to learn\u201d: embedding inside client businesses, shipping real systems, and understanding what actually works at the coalface rather than a lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phase two takes that hard-won knowledge to scale it across thousands of businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phase three is the long game: building the best AI-native company in Australia from the ground up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAustralians are world-class at execution when you give them the room,\u201d said Batko. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRight now we\u2019re in phase one \u2013 learning the craft properly inside real businesses, with real problems, shipping real systems. Everything we build from here gets built on that foundation. We\u2019re not here to be a boutique agency forever. We\u2019re here to do something significant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Watch and learn<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The starrtup is also launching two public initiatives designed to close the execution gap at scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first is an upskilling programme for operators who want to build AI systems themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second is a weekly live-build stream \u2013 Ekins and Batko publicly shipping AI systems in real time, so anyone watching can see exactly how the work is done, start to finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost people don\u2019t learn AI from a course. They learn it by watching someone build one real thing from nothing,\u201d  Batko said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to be the builders who show their working.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His young cofounder, Finlay Ekins said AI is so new that anyone willing to put in the effort can become an expert, regardless of age. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> \u201cSo I skipped the grad job and rewrote the playbook from scratch, including the one that said how to run a company,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe businesses willing to do the same are going to end up light-years ahead of the ones sticking their heads in the sand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AI builder jobs<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next step for the <a href=\"http:\/\/thehourglass.ai\" type=\"link\" id=\"thehourglass.ai\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hourglass AI<\/a> duo is hiring for two AI builder roles. They want to find young Australians who want to spend their careers actually shipping AI systems inside real businesses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hiring process mirrors the firm\u2019s operating model: applicants receive five real meeting transcripts and have seven days to build the best AI-powered experience for follow-ups, summaries and next steps..\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you\u2019re young and you want to build AI systems \u2013 not read about them, not advise on them, build them \u2013 this is the job,\u201d Batko said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAustralia produces world-class builders. We want to find them and give them the best possible place to do the best work of their careers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To find out more, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/thehourglass.ai\" type=\"link\" id=\"thehourglass.ai\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thehourglass.ai.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After eight years running the startup accelerator Startmate \u2013 which launches its latest cohort before a sold out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,309244,309245,44,105],"class_list":["post-638588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hourglass-ai","tag-michael-batko","tag-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}