Where business took me

Not a gallery. Not travel. Evidence of where my judgement was valued — and what it taught me.

For more than twenty years I have repeatedly put myself in places where difficult decisions were being made — early drone technology, a growing mining company, manufacturing in Indonesia, building businesses in Papua New Guinea. The industries changed. The pattern did not.

Every image answers one question: did something important happen here? Scale, difficulty, trust, innovation, relationships, leadership, or execution.

2009–2011 Australia

Scale

Standing beside a haul truck on a coal mine taught me that businesses look completely different when you are on site instead of in a boardroom.

I was CTO of Aston Resources and led all innovation work — from Maules Creek and a A$400 million IPO in August 2010, through ITOCHU and debt financing, to a merger with Whitehaven Coal announced in December 2011.

Reuters reported the deal at approximately US$3 billion — creating what was then Australia's largest independent coal miner. Aston ranked third among the top 25 ASX companies for total shareholder return in the year to October 2011.

These photographs and documents are about size — capital, equipment, and consequences measured in billions, not slides.

Decision: Stay close to operational reality — on site, not only in the boardroom — when capital and momentum were accelerating.
Lesson: Scale amplifies every weakness.

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Nathan Aherne on a coal mine site in Clermont, Queensland — On site at a Queensland coal operation — where operational reality matters more than the deck.

Scale

Aston Resources 2011 annual general meeting presentation View document

Aston Resources AGM, October 2011 — IPO, Maules Creek timeline, A$350m debt financing, and 67.2% shareholder return over twelve months.

Scale

Reuters report on Whitehaven Coal acquiring Aston Resources View document

Reuters, December 2011 — Whitehaven agreed to acquire Aston and Boardwalk in a deal reported at US$3 billion.

Nathan Aherne at an investors conference in Sydney — Investors conference — capital, founders, and live decisions in the same room.

Nathan Aherne at the Pacific Infrastructure Roadshow in Brisbane — Pacific Infrastructure Roadshow — infrastructure and capital at national scale.

2018 onward Papua New Guinea

Building where there is no playbook

Building a tourism platform in Papua New Guinea taught me that relationships travel further than technology.

Laikim PNG — tourism and commercial access in one of the hardest operating environments I have worked in. I created the business and strategy, raised capital, and provided ICT — with Erue Taunao and her PNG expertise.

Logistics, culture, government, security. No template. The work was earning the right to operate before anything scaled.

Decision: Build trust and local partnership before scaling the platform — Erue’s relationships were non-negotiable.
Lesson: Trust travels further than technology.

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Planning the launch of Laikim PNG in Enga Province — Enga Province — planning Laikim where there was no manual for any of it.

Nathan Aherne in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea, for Laikim PNG — On the ground in Enga — the work that does not appear in a strategy document.

Nathan Aherne at rugby league networking in Port Moresby for Laikim PNG — Port Moresby — commercial relationships that had to exist before the platform did.

Nathan Aherne in Papua New Guinea for Laikim PNG — Ongoing relationship work — trust maintained over years, not one trip.

Nathan Aherne with the US Ambassador at the Marine Corps Ball in Port Moresby — Trusted in diplomatic settings while building Laikim — access earned, not assumed.

2020 onward Indonesia

Going to the source

Riding twelve hours across Indonesia to meet a foundry reminded me that supply chains begin with trust.

Bronze Betty started from manufacturing relationships in Java — foundries, bronze and brass production, export into Europe, America, and Asia. Five hundred products, not a Shopify store.

You cannot advise on manufacturing from a laptop. You go to the source.

Decision: Own foundry relationships in central Java instead of building commerce from a laptop.
Lesson: Supply chains begin with relationships, not listings.

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Nathan Aherne in Java, Indonesia, after visiting bronze and brass foundries — Twelve hours to find foundries — supply chains start with showing up.

Nathan Aherne in Indonesia for manufacturing meetings — Supplier meetings — relationships that hold when orders and quality are on the line.

Nathan Aherne in Bali, Indonesia, for advisory and supplier work — Advisory and supplier work across Indonesia — commerce built on foundry trust.

Large servo motor build on a workbench — Hardware before commerce — building things that worked or failed in plain sight.

2002–2015 Brisbane · global

Seeing change before others

Working on drone autopilots in 2002 taught me to stay with hard problems long before the market agrees they matter.

In 2002 I was working on drone delivery ideas before civilian UAVs existed. Paparazzi flew on thermopiles when ITAR restricted gyros. In 2008 I bought a TWOG autopilot — I still have it.

OpenPilot's CopterControl was among the first consumer autopilots to put an STM32 32-bit processor, gyroscopes, and accelerometers on one board — sensors smartphones had just made available. I tested hardware, wrote documentation, and supported new users on the forum.

The same pattern repeated later: managed IT before the category had a name, real-time ERP before anyone called it that.

Decision: Stay with hard problems long before the market agrees they matter — drones, managed IT, real-time ERP.
Lesson: Categories are invented after someone commits early.

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Email to the Paparazzi project on broader access to autopilot technology — The argument that led to OpenPilot — pushing access before the market existed.

Paparazzi TWOG v1.0 autopilot hardware — Paparazzi TWOG v1.0 (2008) — the autopilot I still own. Thermopile horizon sensing when MEMS gyros were restricted or unavailable.

OpenPilot CopterControl autopilot board — OpenPilot CopterControl — STM32 32-bit processor with gyroscopes and accelerometers on one board. Among the earliest consumer autopilots built that way.

Nathan Aherne testing FPV drone hardware — Testing FPV hardware in the field — years before civilian drones were mainstream.

Nathan Aherne at Web Summit in Dublin for VUID — Web Summit 2015 — pitching a platform with no category name.

VUID showcase at Web Summit — Forty-eight integrated apps when real-time ERP was not yet a category.

Innovation

Reddog Technology — flat-fee managed IT in 2004, before the industry had language for it.

Seventy iPhones purchased by Reddog Technology when they were difficult to obtain — Seventy iPhones — when they were still hard to get. Reddog moved early on Apple before most corporates would touch it.

2004 onward Brisbane · global

Long-term relationships

Jason and I built Reddog together. Twenty-five years later, he asked me to help build his next company.

2004 — Jason Rudolph and I founded Reddog Technology in Brisbane. Flat monthly fee for unlimited IT support when hourly billing was still the norm. National expansion within twelve months. International within eighteen.

2013 — We co-founded VUID, a real-time ERP platform with no category name. Web Summit 2015. Sold in 2016.

2017 — We sold Reddog to our customers — every one of them — because the relationship mattered more than a going-concern sale.

2022 onward — I advise the founders of an international financial infrastructure company. Details remain confidential while the business continues to scale.

Different industries. Same pattern: join early, shape foundational decisions, earn trust that outlasts any single company.

Decision: Sell Reddog to our customers in 2017 — the relationship mattered more than a going-concern sale.
Lesson: Trust outlasts any single company.

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Relationships

2004 — Reddog Technology, built with Jason Rudolph before managed IT was a category.

2013 — VUID at Web Summit. The second company Jason and I built together.

Seventy iPhones purchased by Reddog Technology — Reddog moved early on Apple — seventy iPhones when they were still hard to get.

2022–present Approximately seventy countries

Trusted across borders

Some of the rooms I am able to get myself into are exceptional — not because they are exclusive, but because trust was given when the stakes were real.

Approximately seventy countries in the past three years. Embassies, investor conferences, trade settings, dinners where the relationship is the work.

The location is not the point. Who trusted you, and why, is.

Decision: Invest in the relationship when the room is unremarkable on paper but exceptional in trust.
Lesson: Who trusted you, and why, matters more than where you went.

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Nathan Aherne at the Australian Embassy in London with the trade commissioner — Australian Embassy, London — government trade access when client work required it.

Nathan Aherne at Australia House, London — Australia House — trade and diplomatic settings where introductions carry weight.

Nathan Aherne at the Australian Embassy in Paris — Australian Embassy, Paris — international relationship work at government level.

Nathan Aherne at a business dinner in China — China — dinner where the deal is secondary to whether you will be trusted tomorrow.

Nathan Aherne at the Queensland Exporters Conference — Queensland Exporters — manufacturers and operators building across borders.

Nathan Aherne in Stavanger, Norway, for oil and gas meetings — Stavanger — oil and gas meetings where capital, operations, and relationships all move at industry scale.

Nathan Aherne at London Tech Week — London Tech Week — founders and capital at global scale.

Nathan Aherne at VivaTech in Paris — VivaTech — where new companies meet capital before categories exist.

Nathan Aherne at Startup World Cup in Paris — Startup World Cup — early-stage companies before the market has named them.

Thinking · Track record · Private advisory

I accept a limited number of advisory engagements each year. Most begin through referrals or direct introductions.

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