Before Bruce Mackenzie flew into a roadshow of eleven venture capitalists, he rehearsed on people who he did not think would invest. It was practice, he has said, for a pitch he had avoided for seventeen years.
Humanforce began in Sydney in 2002. Little public detail exists about where Mackenzie grew up or studied, so the story starts with the work. He built software that helped employers roster staff, track hours and feed payroll. No outside money came in. He has told SmartCompany that the worry never left: could the company cover payroll every fortnight, and what was coming over the horizon? "We never knew what was coming over the horizon," he said.
What almost nobody knew was how that independence looked from outside.
There was little room to fail. The company grew just fast enough, he says, "to keep our heads above water." It went through three major growth phases, each of which drained cash. The switch to a subscription model came about 14 years in, a long wait by software standards, and the business later turned toward gig and flexible workers.
What almost nobody knew was how that independence looked from outside. When venture capitalists finally met him, many asked the same blunt question: why had he not raised money thirteen or fourteen years earlier? Mackenzie's answer is honest, even a little rueful. In hindsight, he said, raising earlier would have been smarter.
In January 2019 Accel-KKR put A$22.5 million into the company, which by then had 114 staff and had grown about 40 per cent a year for five years. The money was earmarked for North America. A second investment followed in May 2022, and then came acquisitions, including intelliHR in 2023, reportedly for more than A$77 million, and the Australian operations of Wagestream.
The company says it now serves about 2,000 customers and more than half a million users, with offices in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. In January 2026 it named Cameron Partridge chief growth officer.
The lesson is double-edged. Going without outside money gave Mackenzie control and a business that paid its own way. It also meant years of fortnight-to-fortnight stress, and he himself says he would do it differently. Do not wear self-reliance as a badge if a good partner could have taken the weight.