About us

Accelerating your company's transition into the AI era.

We help Australian companies find, build, and run the AI that makes their whole company AI-native, so every team spends its hours on the work that actually matters.

Why “Hourglass”
Hourglass
Time is ticking
00:00
💚 do the work you love

Too much time is ticking away - wasted on repetitive, boring, non-creative work in millions of people's jobs around the world.

That's why we built Hourglass.

We make companies AI-native - so the whole team gets their time back, and spends it doing the parts they love. 💚

The humans

Change is scary. Pick people you trust.

AI transformation isn’t a software purchase - it’s a partnership. These are the people who’ll be in your corner.

Michael Batko
Michael Batko
Co-founder · CEO
  • Led Startmate for 8 years - raised $50M, backed 230 startups now worth $3.5B
  • Worked at two startups before that - one listed on the ASX
Finlay Ekins
Finlay Ekins
Co-founder · COO
  • Engineered every foundation we ship - the brain architecture, the skills stack, and Glassy
  • Lives on the bleeding edge daily - fails at things so your team doesn't have to
Anna Sekulic
Anna Sekulic
AI Specialist
  • Runs audits and team workshops - teams leave buzzing, not bracing
  • AI-native builder - shipped her own iOS app with AI tools alone
  • The bridge between your team and the build
Jeremy Sharpe
Jeremy Sharpe
AI Builder
  • Founded Speak Savvy - AI voice agents answering calls for small businesses
  • Built online e-commerce at Vario - coding since age 10
  • Builds the brains - company memory and agent infrastructure
Jeff Deutsch
Jeff Deutsch
SEO / GEO Lead
  • Took Superpower from 3k to 202k organic visits a month - in 12 months
  • Grew ContactOut to $15M+ ARR as Head of Growth over five years
  • 16 years in SEO - Startmate growth mentor since 2021
The Monthly Update

Want a monthly update straight from us?

We don't have investors. What we have instead is something more useful - an obligation to the people who follow our work. Every month, we open up fully on where Hourglass actually stands. No spin. No PR polish. Just the real picture.

💰

Revenue - Real numbers, month on month - what drove growth, what didn't

🚀

Products - What shipped, what stalled, what we killed and why

💬

Customer Stories - Wins, transformations, and the ones that didn't land

❤️

Customer Love & Ugly - The praise and the brutal feedback - both

🎯

Next Milestones - What we committed to, and whether we hit last month's

📋

The one rule

Like one of our LinkedIn posts every two months - or you're off the list. We trim regularly. We'd rather have 100 people genuinely following along than 10,000 passive subscribers collecting newsletters they never open.

Get the Monthly Update

Monthly only · No spam · Unsubscribe anytime

Next step: follow us on LinkedIn to stay on the list.