Episode Summary

Aonghus Stevens, founder of Asseti, built his first drone business as a teenager and now leads one of Australia’s most fascinating AI infrastructure startups. In this episode, he shares why the real money in AI isn’t in the apps, but in the unsexy, invisible backend of enterprise and asset management.

Georgie and Aonghus unpack the surprising power of drones and defect detection, why asset degradation is a billion-dollar problem, and how Asseti is using AI to transform the way buildings, warehouses, and industrial sites are monitored and managed. They also dive into what makes a great VC partner, how to talk AI without sounding like a buzzword machine, and why drone delivery startups might be more hype than hope.

Plus, Aonghus names the one boring AI workflow that’s actually revolutionising how massive global clients manage their assets, and why most legacy systems are still stuck in 1995.

Time Stamps

02:19 – Aonghus’ Origin Story: From Teen Drone Dealer to Founder

05:03 – Drones 101: Fixed Wing, Multirotor, and Enterprise Use Cases

08:13 – AI Hack of the Week: SQL Without Writing a Line of Code

11:29 – Why Drones Are Just the Beginning at Asseti

14:16 – Turning PDF Reports Into Live Asset Intelligence

16:20 – How AI, Imagery & Photogrammetry Power Asseti

18:41 – Startup Trade-Offs: When to Spend vs. Let It Burn

22:56 – The Broken Workflows in Asset Management

25:31 – Ideal Clients for Asseti & The Scale Problem in Inspections

30:14 – Lame or Lucrative: Drone Coffees, Google Wing, Flying Cars

36:17 – What Makes a Great VC (and Why Timing Is Everything)

40:15 – Form vs. Function, Flying Cars & Startups with Grit

42:45 – Where to Find Asseti and Why It’s a Quiet Game-Changer

Resources

🙋🏻‍♂️ Aonghus Stevens Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbstevens/

👶 Aonghus Stevens on Forbes 30 Under 30 https://www.forbes.com/profile/aonghus-stevens/?ctpv=searchpage

🛩️ Asseti https://www.asseti.co/

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