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Nicholas Rudder: CEO & Founder, Sphere
Overview
Published 28th January, 2026.
Episode #241 features Nicholas Rudder, Founder & CEO of Sphere — which recently raised a US$21M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), to help some of the world’s fastest-growing companies, including Lovable, Linktree and Deel, navigate complex cross-border tax compliance using AI.
Nick shares the defining crucible of his journey: Growing up in Europe and Australia, then moving to the US chasing a dream, losing a co-founder, rebuilding as a solo founder, navigating a high-risk twin pregnancy that forced his family out of the US, and holding conviction when belief and momentum collapsed.
He breaks down how deep CFO discovery led to Sphere’s model of using AI as a junior analyst to interpret global tax rules, the magic behind zero-churn customer retention, motivating engineers and more— offering rare insight into building a durable company in a high-stakes, regulated industry.
Please enjoy exploring your curiosity!
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Show notes
Timestamps
About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most relatable role models in business, tech, finance, government and sport in the US, Australia, India and New Zealand. Launched in 2020, it ranks in the global top ten ranked podcasts, with listeners in 27 countries, 250+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW.
Our guests include: Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more.
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