00:00 Introduction and what Vouch does

Gary Zurnamer joins Steve Grace to introduce Vouch, a video collection platform that lets you send a link with multiple questions and receive beautifully edited video responses for testimonials, employer brand, recruiting, and team communications. Gary explains the asynchronous model and how Vouch enables businesses to unlock video at scale without the complexity of traditional production.

03:00 Why video has exploded since COVID

Steve and Gary discuss how COVID removed the inertia around recording yourself on camera. Everyone became a content creator. The quality of mobile devices dropped the cost barrier and the pandemic normalised video-first communication in ways that have outlasted lockdowns. Vouch launched its beta in March 2021 right into that tailwind.

06:00 Gary’s career: NRL, The Iconic, London, Stackla, Canva

Gary joined the NRL at 19 and built out their content function by instinctively moving toward short-form video. He then moved to The Iconic in the early warehouse days, spent five years in London on brand and agency work for large companies, joined Stackla to work on user-generated content, and eventually landed at Canva to scale their enterprise go-to-market.

10:00 The Canva problem that became Vouch

At Canva, Gary’s team needed to collect video testimonials from international enterprise customers. The options were all expensive or messy: remote production agencies, selfie recordings, Zoom captures. If Canva was struggling with this, Gary reasoned, the rest of the market had the same problem. He found co-founder Dave, who brought 25 years of technical experience and a vision for where the product could go well beyond testimonials.

13:00 First year: angel funding, beta launch, and CultureAmp

Vouch raised early angel funding from strategic people at Canva, Microsoft, and the former CPO of Calendly, whom Gary cold emailed four times before finally getting a reply. They launched a closed beta that included CultureAmp, who needed a way to collect speaker content for global events during the pandemic. That customer relationship has continued and CultureAmp has become a paying customer.

16:00 The $8 million seed round

Vouch raised $8 million Australian in a seed round co-led by Our Innovation Fund and Stage 2 Capital in the US. Gary explains the decision to raise at this stage and why being product-led made the business more fundable. The round is designed to accelerate the go-to-market, build out the team, and continue investing in the product.

25:00 Hardest things about being a first-time founder

Gary talks honestly about imposter syndrome, the grind of being a generalist when you need a specialist, and how personal it feels when something breaks for a customer. Steve confirms the imposter syndrome never goes away. Gary’s response is to treat it as background noise and just execute the next task.

28:00 Culture, return to office, and hiring for Vouch

Vouch has an office in Darlinghurst and a flexible policy. Gary is personally in favour of getting people together early in a company’s life because trust builds faster in person. He talks about the kind of employee Vouch looks for, the culture of authentic feedback they have built, and why junior staff challenging leadership decisions is something David and Gary actively celebrate.