Team
/
Three partners
/
No associates
Three partners.
You pitch
the intern person
who writes the cheque.
Galileo is a firm, not a fund. Three partners across Sydney and
Melbourne — with Julia splitting time into San Francisco. No associates screening deals. When you pitch us, you pitch the
person who can say yes — and the people who'll be in your corner for a decade.
Julia French
Sydney / San Francisco
01 / Partners
Who we actually are.
All three of us have operated. All three of us source deals. All three of us
stay on our portfolio companies for a decade. That's the firm.
01
James Alexander
Co-Founder · General Partner
Before co-founding Galileo, James co-founded INCUBATE — one of Australia's first university-based student startup accelerators — running across five campuses with 200+ startups through the program. He has worked across early-stage tech companies in operating and investing roles.
In 2020 he co-founded Galileo Ventures with the thesis that Australia needed a properly institutional pre-seed firm — one that backs emerging founders before larger funds are comfortable.
“
Australia's capital stack grew up and forgot the bottom rung. Fixing that is a generational project.
02
Julia French
Partner
Julia is a passionate believer in building strong communities and ecosystems — whether for LPs or for founders. As Galileo's third partner, she leads deals across Australia and the US, splitting her time between Sydney and San Francisco.
Operator background from being early at brand-name Australian and US tech companies through multiple IPOs and exits — working across developer relations, marketing, and more. Known for high-conviction first cheques, fast yeses, fast nos.
“
A good first cheque is a promise. You show up when it's messy. You don't hide in a quarterly check-in.
03
Hugh Stephens
Co-Founder · General Partner
Hugh is Galileo's clanker in chief — he believes AI belongs in every founder's workflow and most of his week goes into the tooling that proves it.
He co-founded Galileo in 2020 after bootstrapping Sked Social to A$6m+ ARR (BBC, Red Bull, Disney) with no venture money. Forbes 30 Under 30. Lives for the early, messy stage — product and technical decisions where the right call still moves the company.
“
The early, messy stage is the most fun part. You love it, you hate it, you love it — it's how you know you're truly a founder.
02 / How we operate
The principles.
Four things we commit to — with founders, with LPs, and with each other.
01
Founder-first, always
The founder is the customer. Our day is shaped by their week — wages, customers, the next round, the co-founder split.
02
Argue, then commit
We'll push back hard on the thesis before we write. Once the cheque is in, we're fully behind it — messy middle included.
03
Empathy over theatre
We say no kindly, with a reason. We say yes with conviction, in a paragraph. Neither is performance.
04
Firm over fund
Galileo is a firm, not three lone wolves with a logo. Founders get all of us. Our cheque signals quality — to every Series A partner in Menlo Park.
Next
Pitch a partner.
You pitch one of the three. We reply to everyone. No warm intro required.
