It started with a conversation Jason Cai didn’t expect.
He was sitting at dinner with his mum’s partner, who had spent nearly four decades building an audio-visual business. The kind of business that quietly powers major projects, from Sydney Olympic Park to corporate fit-outs. He was in his 60s, still waking up early every day, still deeply committed to the work. But that night, something felt different. He said he might have to close the business.
Demand had slowed, costs were rising, and interest rates were starting to bite. He had already let people go, and even when work was available, it often came through larger companies who had secured government contracts and then subcontracted the delivery, taking a significant cut along the way. The problem wasn’t capability. It was access. Opportunities were scattered across countless portals, buried in complex requirements, and required hours of work just to submit something compliant. For a small team already stretched thin, it simply wasn’t practical to keep up.
So they stopped trying.
The insight: good businesses aren’t getting a fair shot
That conversation stayed with Jason, not as a one-off moment, but as something that pointed to a much broader pattern. It wasn’t just this business. It was a system that made it difficult for smaller operators to participate at all.
Government procurement represents one of the largest sources of demand in the country, yet most small and medium businesses are effectively locked out. Not because they lack the ability to deliver, but because the process itself demands time, familiarity, and resources that smaller teams don’t have. Over time, that shapes who participates. The businesses that win are often the ones best equipped to navigate the process, rather than the ones best equipped to do the work.
A small experiment that changed everything
Instead of leaving it there, Jason decided to test it.
He searched for a tender that matched the company’s capabilities and used AI to help pull together a submission. What would normally take days of effort was compressed into a couple of hours. The process wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to get something out the door.
They submitted it, and they won.
A $500,000 contract.
They went out for dinner to celebrate, but the moment quickly shifted. If this could happen once, it could happen again. And if it could happen here, it could work for thousands of other businesses facing the same barrier.
That was the beginning of Tendor.
Making the process something businesses can actually use
Tendor is built around a simple idea. The tendering process shouldn’t require a dedicated team just to participate.
It brings together opportunities from across different portals, translates dense requirements into something clearer, and helps businesses generate submissions that meet compliance standards without consuming weeks of time.
What used to happen late at night, spread across documents, deadlines, and uncertainty, becomes something far more contained. Businesses can focus on showing they can deliver, rather than trying to interpret how the process works.
Built by someone who understands leverage
Jason’s approach to the problem reflects how he has always built. He started early, working deeply in technical systems and learning how to use technology as leverage. That thinking carried into later ventures, where he moved into operating physical businesses and saw firsthand how systems, people, and execution come together in practice.
By the time he encountered the problem of tenders directly, he wasn’t looking at it as something fixed. He was looking for where it could be simplified, where effort could be reduced, and where access could be opened up.
What starts to change
As businesses begin using Tendor, the shift is immediate but also cumulative. Opportunities that were previously ignored become viable. Submissions that once required significant time and energy can be completed without pulling operators away from their core work. Over time, that changes how businesses think about growth.
Instead of relying only on existing relationships or inbound work, they can begin to compete for larger, more structured opportunities. And importantly, they can do it without needing to build an entirely new function inside their business.
A different way to think about procurement
Government procurement is often described as an open system, but in practice it hasn’t functioned that way. The complexity of the process has created a barrier that filters out many capable businesses before they even have a chance to compete.
Tendor is built on the belief that this can change. That access to these opportunities should depend on whether a business can do the work, not on how much time it can spend navigating paperwork.
Looking ahead
Right now, Tendor is focused on helping Australian businesses participate more effectively in government procurement, but the ambition extends further than that.
The goal is to become the layer that sits between businesses and opportunity, handling the complexity of the process so more companies can compete on equal footing. As that barrier lowers, the number of businesses able to participate starts to expand, and over time, that begins to reshape how the system works.
Because once access improves, the question shifts. It’s no longer about who can navigate the process, but who is best placed to deliver.
The ask
If you’re running a business and have looked at government tenders but decided it wasn’t worth the effort, the team at Tendor would love to hear from you.
You can learn more at tendor.ai
Watch them pitch at Demo Day
When: Thursday, 30 April @ 7:00 PM (pre-party starting at 5 PM)
Where: Carriageworks (at the close of Blackbird's Sunrise Festival)
What: Pitch night (19 companies)
Tickets: Grab your ticket here
