2001
Carrara Markets
Seven years selling face-to-face as a carny on the Gold Coast.
Simon
Beard
Founder, operator, investor
$600M EXIT
Culture Kings · NYSE listed built with Tahnee from the Gold Coast
$600MCulture Kings exit valuation
$100M+Meta spend from the field
500+One Life Club founders
AI LayerCAO Partners and OpenClaw
Portfolio blocks
The Beard range
The businesses sit together as one operating group: demand creation, capital, founder community, premium experience and AI-native operators.
Demand
Creator Army
Demand creation, content systems and creative that does the targeting.
Capital
Beard Capital & Investment
Portfolio engine, deals and asymmetric operator-backed opportunities.
Founder room
One Life Club
The founder environment for operators building with AI, growth and performance.
Experience
Experience Day
A day inside the machine: house, boardroom, boat, gym, strategy and execution.
Operators
CAO Partners
Chief Agent Officer recruitment for companies that need AI operators, not AI theatre.
Timeline system
From market stall to operating group
The story is not a biography section. It is the proof system behind the current build.
2008
Culture Kings begins
Simon and Tahnee start the brand from the market-stall operating base.
2021
$600M exit valuation
Culture Kings sells into AKA Brands and lists on the NYSE.
2026
AI operating layer
Creator Army, OLC, CAO Partners, OpenClaw and Beard Capital compound into one machine.
Next
Private equity 2.0
Demand, operators, capital and AI wired into one operating system.
News & stories
Social proof wall
Press, exits, founder rooms and operating proof. The grid is proof-led, not a testimonial section.
Forbes Australia
Founder and operator perspective in the Ideas of Change room.
Australian Financial Review
Coverage and proof connected to the Culture Kings chapter.
$6B private exit
Placeholder proof block. Exact wording and source to confirm before this claim goes live.
Rich List photograph
Publication proof and founder credibility from the Culture Kings outcome.
$600M exit valuation
Built with Tahnee from the Gold Coast before the next chapter began.
$100M+ ad spend
Demand creation lessons from capital deployed in the market.
500+ founders
Founder community and operating room for the next chapter.
CAO Partners
AI operator recruitment and agent systems built into execution.
Speaking enquiries
Book Simon to speak
For rooms that want the truth about bootstrapping, demand creation, AI operators, Culture Kings, and what founders need to do before the alpha decays.
Speaker enquiries →