I’m always on the lookout for SaaS products that don’t just digitise old processes but fundamentally reimagine them. Recently on The Raise, I had the chance to speak with James Fuller, co-founder and CEO of Hnry, a company that’s transforming the lives of freelancers and contractors across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.

What started as a side project born from personal pain has become a venture-backed, fast-growing business that’s helping their customers manage self-employment tax as they would a salaried job.

James didn’t set out to build a global fintech—he just wanted to help people facing the same headaches as he was. With competition now hot on their heels, the Hnry team knows the only way to win is to keep delighting their customers. Watch, read or listen to find out what that means in reality 👉

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Check out the video interview on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

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Skim the highlights from my chat with James:

Delight your customers & innovate faster than competitors

“You're always going to have competitors, right? You're never going to have a market to yourself. But the only thing that you can rely on is two things, which is serving your customers better than anyone else and innovating faster than your competitors. [Our competitors] are all struggling with the regulatory side of things of how do they build legitimacy or how can they actually work with regulators to make sure that they're aligned with that. We're at the other end going, all right, how do we, at scale, deploy features to our customers that will really surprise and delight them and not charge them any more money for it?”

Trust can’t be copied - build an enduring business instead

“I do look at the copy cats that are coming out and I think they're going to have a rude awakening. First financial year end where they're actually on the hook for filing people's taxes and they're actually going to get people coming back to them going, you did this wrong. It does not add up. Someone else has fact checked you and it turns out you are incorrect or I've suddenly found out that you've pushed all of my financial information into chat GPT and so now all of my personal finances have become a training for a learning model, I don't like that.”

“When you're building an enduring business, as we've done that gradually over years, we're not trying to shortcut that process by copying and just going, we'll just follow the same playbook. Because the bit that you can see of the playbook is the public facing bit. And the bit that's hidden is all the hard work and effort that has come to this stage to actually build a system that is correct and that works and that actually customers really, really like. And you can't copy that. You can't copy the trust that customers give you from having used the service for years.  And you can't copy you know, and instantly scale a business, you know, in the same way as you can, like, build a sustainable business over time.”

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Trends we’re noticing: How Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Rewrites the Rules of Search | Andreessen Horowitz

A16z published a think piece last month, drawing attention to the rise of search recommendations from LLMs. We see it as an evolution that complements existing SEO tactics. However, there’s a knack to optimising for language models, not just page rank or keywords. Dual optimisation is required - 1) for the end user, and 2) for the LLM model itself. Each model has its idiosyncrasies but all of them are capable of encoding a “perception” of your brand from virtually all datasources - social sentiment, press, owned content, third party reviews.

The way people search is changing. Queries are becoming longer (averaging 23 words, up from 4), sessions are deeper (averaging 6 minutes), and responses are personalised, multi-source syntheses that vary by context and source. Unlike traditional search, LLMs can remember, reason, and respond. For marketers, this means traditional SEO's emphasis on precision and repetition is less effective. Generative engines prioritise content that is well-organised, easy to parse, and rich in meaning, rather than just keywords. Formatting tips like using "in summary" phrases or bullet points can help LLMs extract and reproduce your content effectively.

It's no longer just about getting clicks; it's about "reference rates" – how often your brand or content is cited or used as a source in model-generated answers. GEO requires optimising for what the model chooses to reference, fundamentally changing how brand visibility and performance are defined and measured. ChatGPT is already driving referral traffic to tens of thousands of domains, indicating the value of outbound clicks from LLM interfaces.

Tech Spotlight: Halter officially hits unicorn status 🦄

Today Halter announced it’s $100m Series D round, valuing the company at $100B. Founded in 2016, Halter now has thousands of customers across New Zealand, Australia and the US, with new cattle ranches and dairy farms going live daily. Halter employs over 200 people, is headquartered in Auckland (New Zealand), plus a US office in Boulder, Colorado.

The round was led by BOND, a global technology investment firm, with new investment from NewView and continued support from early investors Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures and Promus Ventures.

The capital will boost their expansion into the US “rancher” market, helping the tackle challenges around labour shortages and scrutiny on sustainability.

Future of Organic Search Workshop: Get Found Globally with the Help of GenAI 🗓️ July 15th 📍Christchurch

• What - An exclusive insight from Atlas Digital's team into the rapidly evolving world of generative search optimisation. Plus a quick fire workshop where we run a live "mini audit" on generative AI discoverability of a local company.

• Why - Because search is changing rapidly and tech brands have a chance to get in front of a plethora of high-intent customers seeking answers from LLMs

• For who - Tech CMOs, marketing managers, or CEOs who are keen to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to finding new customers online.

• Hosted by - Alla Lvovich, Senior SEO Specialist & Hanna Dorsch, Head of Organic at Atlas Digital

• When - Tuesday 15th July 4:30 - 6pm (45 min workshop + networking drinks & snacks)

• Where - EPIC Innovation, Manchester Street, Christchurch

Run sheet:

4:30 - 5:15pm Interactive workshop held by Atlas Digital

5:15 - 6pm Networking over drinks & snacks