Michael
Batko

Michael Batko is the CEO of Hourglass AI, where he's building AI automation for Australian businesses - helping companies move past the AI hype and actually put it to work across their operations.

He comes to it with a rare vantage point on Australian startups. Before Hourglass, Michael was CEO of Startmate, the country's most ambitious accelerator and its most active venture capital investor - backing 30 companies every year, with more than 220 investments to date and over 1,000 people helped annually to join or build a startup. He joined as Head of Operations and rose to lead the organisation, working at the coalface with the country's most ambitious founders.

Michael started his career in the corporate world — finance at American Express, consulting at PwC and KPMG — before moving into the startup ecosystem. He cut his operating teeth at two of Australia's largest marketplaces: MadPaws, a marketplace for pet sitters, and Expert360, a marketplace for independent consultants, where he helped take the business through a $14m Series B.

Now he's building at the frontier himself, bringing a decade inside Australia's startup engine to the question every business is now asking: what does AI actually change, and how do you make it real?