Welcome back to Neural Notes, a weekly column where I look at how AI is affecting Australia. This week, I speak to Pip Bingemann, co-founder of Springboards.ai, off the back of pitching at SXSW Austin.
Springboards.ai is a Noosa-based startup building AI tools for creative teams in advertising. Founded in 2022 by former agency strategists Pip Bingemann and Amy Tucker, the startup recently landed $5 million in seed funding from Blackbird Ventures.
The platform is currently used by more than 120 agencies globally, including Jellyfish, BMF and Cummins&Partners.
Springboards began as a side project after both co-founders were laid off within weeks of each other.
“We developed the first version of Springboards to solve our own problem — how to make more creative and interesting work for our clients,” Bingemann said to SmartCompany.
“But once we shared what we’d done with the industry, we had people asking: How can I use it? Can I invest? Can I join you?”
The platform now includes nine AI-powered tools that help teams surface insights, generate campaign ideas, test concepts and explore a wider range of creative directions. Bingemann says it is focused on earlier-stage ideation and strategy—rather than automation or final outputs.
“Most other AI companies are focusing on removing humans, giving people the answers and making execution faster and cheaper,” Bingemann said.
“We’re doing the opposite in almost every respect.”
Pitching at SXSW
Earlier this year, Springboards was a finalist in the SXSW pitch competition in Austin.
“Overall it was super positive,” Bingemann said. “The program was really well run and we got exposed to some great coaches.”
But pitching in that environment was a challenge. “It might just be me, but I found the pitch format intimidating. Americans are so good at this, they are like clockwork,” he said.
“Our product is one of those you need to see to believe, so it’s always hard to do it justice with words.”
Still, the team left energised. “We’re building something totally different. It confirmed that the appetite is there—especially from teams looking to make their work more original, not just more efficient.”
Springboards and the creative process
Springboards claims its tools generate 10–30 times more creative diversity than OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini.
Bingemann says the company has focused on variation over precision since the beginning.
“Creativity isn’t about getting one right answer. Culture shifts, ideas age out. When every major AI company is solving for ‘reliability,’ the range of outputs narrows.
“We’re working in the opposite direction—hallucinations are good. One great idea repeated 1000 times is useless.”
While the company has attracted its share of sceptics, Bingemann says it often fades after a conversation.
“The industry is full of sceptics. But once we talk about how we’re building Springboards and our beliefs, it’s much easier for them to come around.”
Growing the business and competing in a noisy market
Scaling hasn’t been without hurdles. “Hiring has been the hardest part — building a fully remote team in a short period of time,” Bingemann said.
“We now have people in New York, Amsterdam, Milan, London, Sydney, Melbourne and Noosa.”
Asked about deepfakes, bias and other concerns, he says the product’s design avoids most of it.
“We put humans in the driving seat and use AI as a spark of inspiration, not an easy button.”
On competition, he says some agencies have talked about replicating the platform — but haven’t.
“It’s not as easy as it looks and it takes constant attention. Agencies are in the business of making great advertising, not great technology,” Bingemann said.
He adds that big tech may not be well-positioned either. “We are creatives that learnt to code, not coders learning about creativity.”
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