Startmate’s Michael Batko sells his side hustle, Startup Striders, thanks to a LinkedIn call out

Currents, the Gold Coast startup community-building group backed by Torus Ventures, has acquired Michael Batko’s Startup Striders.

The purchase price was undisclosed, and the deal was completed entirely in cash.

Startup Striders began in 2023 as a Saturday morning run and coffee meetup in Sydney. Since then it has become a large community with more than 1,300 members across Australia and New Zealand.

There are now over 30 WhatsApp groups for different ‘Striders’ spanning the likes of Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Newcastle.

Batko, who is also CEO of Startmate, is exiting with no retained equity but will support the transition as an advisor through December.

Batko confirmed the sale came off the back of a public LinkedIn post in which he said he was looking for someone to take over the community.

“Who wants to take over Startup Striders? It started as a habit hack. It became a community. Now it needs a new leader,” Batko wrote in October.

“I’m in a new life stage, I still want to go running (and will absolutely keep joining the strides!), but I don’t have the headspace or energy to give Striders what it deserves.”

From striding to sale

Startup Striders has grown rapidly over the past almost-three years without any revenue model, marketing spend or formal infrastructure.

The community has been coordinated manually by volunteer city leads, each of whom received a portion of the acquisition proceeds and were able to choose how it was allocated. Most opted to have their share donated to charity.

“Startup Striders built friendship among startup operators and founders here in WA. It’s a great way to get some exercise and have weekly insights into everyone’s ongoing journey,” Oliver Tweddel, Perth City lead, said.

Currents, which is currently run by Jason Atkins and Wade Foxx, said Striders’ size, regular weekly format and highly engaged membership made it a logical extension of its own founder-focused events.

“Striders is one of the most authentic founder communities in Australia,” Atkins said.

“The energy, the consistency, and the genuine connections were already there – our goal is simply to maintain the awesomeness of the community.

“We want to take what Batko built – the magic, the momentum – and help it grow, expand it across more cities, maybe more sports, and more ways for founders to connect.”

The sale comes arguably at the height of run club popularity in Australia. The Sydney Run Club has over 40,000 members. Footage of the club went viral earlier this month, depicting an influx of runners taking over the footpath in Bondi as people tried to get around them.

“POV: Every sunrise at Bondi Beach,” the caption read.

This year’s Sydney Marathon also saw 79,000 applications for the 35,000 spots available.

Currents has more than 500 members and says its events grew by more than 100% in 2025, making Striders its largest community acquisition to date.

Currents confirmed that Startmate had no involvement in the transaction and that no approval or commercial rights were required.

What’s next for Startup Striders?

Plans for expansion remain broad at this stage. However, Currents does intend to transform Startup Striders into a multi-sport platform incorporating cycling, pickleball, tennis, golf and other wellness activities.

The group also plans to “modernise” Striders’ fragmented infrastructure. It is working with The Community Collective to develop a unified system for onboarding, event management, and city-lead coordination outside of WhatsApp.

“Jason and Wade are working with The Community Collective to develop systems that can scale the mission and values of Currents and Startup Striders communities. The strategy will be clearer by Xmas,” Batko told SmartCompany.

Operationally, Currents is also primarily volunteer-run, supported by the Torus Ventures team and minor event sponsorships.

The group said it will hire a community manager in early 2026 to help scale operations, but the volunteer city-lead model will remain central to how the community functions.

While there is no external capital funneled into Currents at this time, Batko did say that “Jason and Wade are working with The Community Collective to develop a model that can scale the mission and values of Currents and Startup Striders communities”.

According to Batko, all Startup Strider free activities will remain that way after the handover.

“Event sponsorship, already in operation, is planned to cover costs on some events. Partners, such as startup service providers, platforms and VCs, are welcome supporters and will continue to be important,” Batko said.

“Memberships are possible if the community indicates the need for new elements, but these are not planned.”