"The benchmark pitch": why Side Stage moved fast on Hyro

Partners describe a founder-quality bet — and a custom-built pitch that set a new bar for how to win their cheque.

When the Hyro pitch deck landed in Side Stage Ventures' inbox, it stood out before anyone read the metrics. It wasn't a template. It was a fully custom-built, interactive site — and according to the firm, one of the first of its kind they'd seen from a founder.

"It's probably one of the first pitch decks that's come through as a custom build. That's the best I've seen — the benchmark I'm going for."

That impression set the tone for a fast-moving process. Side Stage, known for backing outlier founders out of Australia, had been watching Hyro's rise around Manly — and around the office, where a box of product had already made the rounds.

Substance behind the style

The numbers held up. Hyro has compounded growth every month since launch, reaching an ~$11M ARR run-rate with more than 11,600 active subscriptions and a subscription take rate above 80 per cent. Founder Steve Chapman had previously scaled energy-drink brand Shine to $60M across 7,000 stores.

For Side Stage — a fund that talks openly about "taste" and design as a founder signal — Hyro checked an unusual number of boxes at once: a repeat operator, a differentiated consumer product, and a presentation that demonstrated the exact craft the partners believe predicts breakout outcomes.

The firm led the growth round, taking the first institutional cheque ahead of the founders' relocation to the US.