Qubit Studio

Portfolio

Two operators who have run the transformations we now advise on

Strategy and operating model work at McKinsey, investment at ARENA and in private equity, and AI-native businesses we built and run ourselves.

What we do

  1. AI transformation and business building

    Redesigning how firms work around agents, and building AI-native businesses ourselves.

    • Lucas Frollie runs on an agentic operating system he architected; profitable in 90 days
    • Lucas Frollie POS, an open-source point of sale built with a swarm of AI agents in 15 days
    • Nick Helm, an open-source harness that dispatches coding work to cheap worker agents
    • qubit VG, a phone-first review room for decks and papers
    • Nick and Lucas open-source agent skills used daily
    • Lucas building an AI-native health-tech business, in stealth
    • Nick and Lucas Build Your Own Chief of Staff, a workshop where leaders build a working agent on their own workload

    Case: Running a snack company on agents

  2. Operating model transformation

    Redesigning how large organisations decide, plan and run, from banks to a sovereign wealth fund.

    • Nick operating model transformation for two of the big four banks (McKinsey, 2020 and 2023)
    • Lucas future operating model for a sovereign wealth fund, adopted as its multi-year transformation blueprint (McKinsey, 2021)
    • Lucas bottom-up corporate finance transformation for a global multi-product bank, $120M+ bankable value committed (McKinsey, 2020)
    • Lucas built the HelloFresh ANZ strategy function; SLT planning capability transformed in under six months

    Case: A future operating model for a sovereign wealth fund

  3. Investment strategy, due diligence and fund strategy

    Investment cases, diligence and fund design that put public and private capital to work.

    • Nick led the IC paper and negotiations behind ARENA's $30M commitment to VSPC's cathode powder plant
    • Nick led the deals behind ARENA funding for Relectrify ($25M) and Li-S Energy ($7.86M)
    • Nick leads design of ARENA's ~$500M Battery Breakthrough program
    • Nick drafted a 10-year investment strategy for a ~$1.1bn ARENA funding tranche (2021)
    • Nick founded Oxford Syndicate Capital, a pre-seed angel network, and is active with UNSW's founders and entrepreneurship office
    • Lucas PE commercial due diligence in luxury travel, 10x value-creation thesis cleared (2019)
    • Lucas board-level M&A diligence and 100-day integration planning at HelloFresh ANZ
    • Nick buy-side commercial due diligence on EV charging at petrol stations, including synergies valuation

  4. Tech business building

    Building and scaling technology businesses, from growth strategy to running the build office.

    • Lucas five-year growth strategy for a ~$2Bn Singapore B2B SaaS business, 3x enterprise value growth aligned (2022)
    • Lucas SaaS fintech platform strategy linked to an investment thesis, returns thesis underwritten (2023)
    • Nick business build office for a >$1B next-generation digital business (2021)

  5. Climate tech specialist experience

    Investing in, advising on and teaching the technologies that decarbonise the economy.

    • Nick decarbonisation strategy, MACC curve and green iron and steel demand-supply outlook to 2050 for a tier 1 miner (McKinsey, 2023)
    • Nick commercialising and scaling novel battery deep tech at ARENA (VSPC, Relectrify, Li-S Energy)
    • Nick teaches climate tech strategy at AGSM and speaks at industry conferences (AMBC, Australian Battery Society, Energy Storage Australia, All-Energy)

    Case: Commercialising and scaling novel battery deep tech

Spotlight cases

  • Running a snack company on agents

    Lucas · Frollie (co-founder) · 2026-now · FMCG, Jakarta

    Problem

    A bootstrapped snack start-up in Jakarta had to handle the daily reps of FMCG (ordering, kitchen production, packaging, delivery-app depot ops, consignment, payroll and accounting) with one operator.

    What we did

    Lucas architected the whole business as a system of Claude Code deployed agents covering pricing, channel routing, content, customer ops, accounting and demand. The core is Frollie OS, one real-time backend for orders, kitchen production, recipe costing, FIFO inventory, sales-channel sync and double-entry accounting, with Frollie POS running the counter.

    Outcome

    Profitable in 90 days and still bootstrapped, on purpose. Three brands, six channels, one repo; eight integrated systems and 32 features. Both Frollie OS and Frollie POS are open source.

  • A future operating model for a sovereign wealth fund

    Lucas · McKinsey & Company · 2021 · Sovereign wealth

    Problem

    A sovereign wealth fund needed a future operating model to guide a multi-year transformation.

    What we did

    Lucas worked on the fund's future operating model as part of his McKinsey engagements in transformation.

    Outcome

    Adopted as the fund's multi-year transformation blueprint. Follow-on work supported the fund's AI strategy and rollout.

  • Commercialising and scaling novel battery deep tech

    Nick · ARENA · 2024-now · Battery technology

    Problem

    Novel battery technologies stall between demonstration and commercial scale. Cathode materials, inverter-free storage systems and lithium-sulfur cells each needed capital and a credible path to market.

    What we did

    Nick led the investment papers, deal teams and negotiations for ARENA's backing of VSPC, Relectrify and Li-S Energy.

    Outcome

    ARENA committed $30M to VSPC's 250 tonne a year cathode demonstration plant (Feb 2025), $25M to deploy up to 100 MWh of Relectrify's AC1 systems (Oct 2025) and $7.86M toward Li-S Energy's path to a 1 GWh cell plant (Nov 2025).

The founders

Nick Pinidiya

Nick Pinidiya

Co-founder, qubit

Investment Manager at ARENA, investing in the commercialisation of new energy technology and shaping investment and operating strategy. Before that, five years at McKinsey on operating model transformation and technology strategy. Oxford MBA, UNSW law and commerce, and teaches climate tech strategy and AI at AGSM.

Lucas Zhu

Lucas Zhu

Co-founder, qubit

Founder of IKIGAI AI Ventures and co-founder of Frollie, a Jakarta snack company he architected as a system of agents and which turned profitable inside 90 days. Before that, Director of Strategy at HelloFresh ANZ and seven years at McKinsey, much of it diligence and value creation for private equity.

Things we've built

  • VG

    Review a deck or paper on your phone: point at what is wrong, press pls fix, and the next version comes back with each note dealt with and the changes marked.

  • Frollie OS

    One real-time backend runs a whole FMCG business: orders, kitchen production, recipe costing, FIFO inventory, sales-channel sync and double-entry accounting.

  • Helm, our software factory

    How qubit builds software. An owner is grilled into a spec, a supervisor agent splits it into tasks, cheap worker models build each one in its own git worktree, and every change passes gates and cross-model review before the owner merges.

  • Frollie POS

    A point of sale that runs Frollie's counter on one Android phone, with QRIS payments, PIN auth and Telegram approvals. Built with a swarm of AI agents in 15 days.

  • Open-source skills (Nick)

    Reusable agent skills in public: a 100-source research engine, session handoffs, Word and PowerPoint feedback handling, the Helm how-to, the qubit ink design system, and the daily climate and energy digest that replaced the archived climatepulse app.

  • Open-source skills (Lucas)

    Nine repos used daily: plan and code review passes, a build-log for co-founders, writing in your own voice, AI search visibility and a Claude Code status line.

Thought leadership and academic

  • Nick · AGSM at UNSW · 2024-now

    AGSM at UNSW

    MBA teaching in climate tech strategy and AI: Financing the Energy Transition (AGSM9166), Decarbonisation and Transition to Clean Energy (AGSM9162), Sustainable Inclusive Business (AGSM9161), Global Network Week intensives and the MBA Climate Bootcamp.

  • Nick · Industry conferences · 2025-2026

    Conference speaking

    Keynotes and talks on climate tech at AMBC 2025 and 2026, the Australian Battery Society 2026, Energy Storage Australia 2026 and All-Energy Australia 2026.

  • Nick and Lucas · qubit · 2026

    Build Your Own Chief of Staff

    A small-group workshop where every participant builds a working chief-of-staff agent on their own workload. First run in July 2026.

  • Lucas · AI Mini-Con and Hackathon, Sydney · 2026

    Force x direction: what AI actually amplifies in strategy work

    AI makes force almost free, so direction becomes the constraint. 10 June 2026.

  • Lucas · AI Mini-Con and Hackathon, Sydney · 2026

    Frollie POS: how a non-technical founder built a real product with AI

    Building a money-taking product with a swarm of AI agents in 15 days. 10 June 2026.

Writing

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