Step into this. Read it as if it is yours.
Life has a rhythm to it. Work, conversations, ideas in motion. You have been following Preview Co from a comfortable distance for a couple of years now, and it has been one of the more interesting threads running through your professional life.
Preview Co is a rostering and scheduling software company founded in 2023. Since that time you have played the role of an occasional sounding board to the CEO, Lachlan Webb. You have coffee on an irregular basis with Lachlan, when he thinks your input might be useful on a problem he is working on. It is an arrangement that brings interesting conversations in an easy going way.
You follow along with the business for two reasons. One is commercial. A growing software business in a sector with real structural demand, run by a founder who is capable and works hard. The other is a belief you hold.
Why you believe in this
You believe that the way Australia thinks about ageing and disability is not right. We have built systems around managing decline rather than enabling life. We have made care a private burden rather than a shared one. We have hidden the reality of growing older or living with a disability instead of embracing the richness it brings.
You believe better is possible. That ageing and disability can be a valued part of a life well lived. That people living with disability deserve genuine choice in how their days are shaped. That the generations, young and old, are stronger in connection than in separation. That wisdom has a place alongside energy. That care, given well, makes the whole of society more resilient.
Preview Co is not going to change Australian culture on its own. You believe that software that gets the right care worker to the right person at the right time is the building block for solutions that give a person a genuine voice in how their care is delivered. That is why you spend time with Lachlan. You think this team, building this product, in this sector, has a genuine chance to change something.
You have been content to watch it unfold from a respectful distance.
Then your phone rings on a Tuesday morning. Everything shifts.
The board of Preview Co contacted you because Lachlan was admitted to hospital over the weekend. His family are not sharing details of his condition and the board is respecting that completely. What they could tell you is that Lachlan would not be back in the near term. Nobody knew much more.
The board needed someone to step into the role. Someone who knew the business well enough to hold it together. Someone the team could work with while they found their footing without Lachlan in the room.
“You know this business better than most. You have been close enough to Lachlan to understand what he was trying to build. The team needs someone steady.”
You did not need to think about it. You said yes.
It is only later, when you sit down and open the accounts, that the full weight of what you agreed to begins to become clear.
Here is what you know about Preview Co going into your first day. It is a rostering and compliance platform for community services organisations. Disability support providers and aged care operators are the primary market. Child care centres also use the software. Organisations where getting the right person to the right place at the right time is not an operational matter. It is a care matter.
Lachlan built this because he watched that system fail his aunt. He spent four months interviewing thirty-four coordinators before he wrote a line of code. He did not take a salary for eighteen months to get the business out of the ground.
The business has twelve people in Brisbane and five developers in Colombo working with Dan Fernando, the co-founder and CTO. Annual recurring revenue is sitting around $2.1 million. The business turned profitable for the first time last financial year. It is growing. On paper it looks fine.
What you are stepping into — July 2025
| Annual recurring revenue | ~$2.1m |
| Team onshore — Brisbane | 12 people |
| Development team — Colombo | 5 developers |
| Organisations on the platform | 240 |
| Invoiced last month | $178,000 |
| Outstanding invoices | $199,000 owed — not yet in the bank |
| Bank balance — your first morning | $38,611 |
That last number is the one that will stay with you.
The business invoiced $178,000 last month. It is profitable. It is growing. There is $38,611 in the bank on the morning you step into the role. There is $199,000 sitting in outstanding invoices owed to the business but not in the bank. Not yours to spend today.
Payroll goes out in five days. Twelve people. The next run is $49,000.
Before you can make a single decision, you need to understand something that the profit figure will not tell you. You need to understand how cash actually moves through this business.
How cash moves through this business
Preview Co invoices its clients monthly for subscription fees. Those invoices take around thirty-five days to collect. Which means revenue earned today does not arrive in the bank for over a month.
Payroll runs fortnightly. Every two weeks, wages go out regardless of what has or has not been collected. There is no pause button.
Every quarter, GST and superannuation obligations fall due together. October, January, April, July. At Preview Co that combined obligation lands between $64,000 and $70,000 each time. The June quarter settled three days before you arrived. That is why the bank looks the way it does.
The Colombo development team invoice arrives mid-month in USD. The exchange rate moves each time.
None of this is a crisis. The business is profitable and growing. Cash and profit are telling different stories right now, and you need to be able to read both before you make your first call.
The board and the investors backed this business believing the numbers were tracking well. The profit figures they have seen are real. What they have not yet seen is the full picture of how cash moves through the business and what that means for the weeks ahead. That conversation is coming. You need to understand the reality clearly yourself before you can bring them a coherent story and a plan.
One thing at a time.
Dan Fernando is excellent. He built the technology that makes Preview Co work. He keeps the Colombo team moving and the product in good hands. Dan wants to remain focused on the innovative side of the business and is clear he wants to leave the commercial side to you.
The team you are stepping in to lead is twelve people who have built their working lives around Lachlan for nearly two years. You have met most of them in the way an occasional advisor meets a founding team. Sophie Chen is Head of Product. Tom Nguyen leads engineering. James Okafor runs customer success. Rachel Torres heads sales. You have had one proper conversation with Tom. You sent James a message once that he did not reply to.
You do not know how they operate without Lachlan. You do not know who the clients call when something goes wrong. You do not know if this team pulls together under pressure or pulls apart. You do not know who holds the room.
You will need to understand the team dynamics and how they work together. That comes next. It is not the most urgent problem.
There is $38,611 in the bank and $49,000 in payroll due in five days. Get through this month. Understand the cash. Make the decisions that have to be made in the next thirty days without breaking something permanently.
Then you can turn your mind to the team, the clients, and the shape of the business Lachlan spent two years building.
Cash first.
There are 240 organisations on this platform. Aged care and disability support providers running rosters for people who depend on someone showing up. The software has to keep working. The people building it have to keep being paid. The clients have to feel that nothing has changed.
The mission that brought you into Lachlan’s orbit is still real. The vision is worth fighting for. The people it was built to serve are still there and depending on it.
The bank says $38,611. Payroll is in five days.
Walk through the door. It is time to step into the role.
This is the first in a series. July is where it starts.
Next — The Month
July 2025. Five decisions. Thirty days.
Walk through the door. Open the bank account. Make the calls that have to be made. See what happens when profit and cash stop telling the same story and the decisions are yours to make.
Play The Month →
Takes about 10 minutes. No sign-up required.
